Christmas 2015

Christmas 2015 kicked off with tree shopping at Home Depot. I know, sort of the anti-Christmas thing to buy your tree at a big box store but I promise we listened to Christmas carols on the way over. 

Charlotte joined us on our family Christmas tree outing. 

She's always game for more pictures when my kids are photoed-out. 

The tree we got this year was my favorite we have ever had! It was called a Nordmann Fir. I loved it because the bottom had its own skirt of leaves. It was super fluffy and full. 

Happy Mama doing abstract photography with her new favorite tree. 

Home Depot sure knows how to get into the Christmas spirit! 

That night we had a tree decorating dance party. 

Some serious moves were happening this night. 

Letters to Santa

Sammy thought she'd bribe Santa with gum in her letter. 

It was PJ day at school the Friday before Christmas vacation. 

Kindergarten had their Holiday Sing.

Thatcher's singing looks more like lip synching, then funny faces, then complete boredom and then every once in a while he will do what he is supposed to be doing. 

Holiday feast at school complete with pozole. 

Off to a family holiday party at the Stone's house.

These poses.... 

Holiday party at Leanne's which was fun because we got to catch up with Samantha's former (yes, former....no more flamenco!) flamenco teacher, THE Linda Vega. 

Our Mesa home decor. 

This picture does not do Todd's decorating much justice as the entire yard was lit up and Christmas bulbs were hanging from the trees. 

One night our reindeer blew off the roof and was headed towards the ocean.

Holiday cards flooded our mailbox. December is the only month where I enjoy getting the mail. 

I didn't realize that I had stapled right through heads when arranging our cards. Sorry Nicolas and all the other families I did that to.

 

Christmas artwork began to adorn our fridge. 

We weren't sure if Frisbee would make an appearance this year as the kids waited and waited for him to arrive. About a week prior to Christmas, he appeared! 

We found Frisbee in all sorts of predicaments up until his departure on Christmas Eve. 

Doesn't Santa looked overwhelmed by their Christmas requests? 

He was like, "you want what?! what the....!!!"

Headed to Grandma and Papa Ward's house for Christmas Eve. Thatcher's once a month nap took place on the ride down. 

Grandma's house always brings the fun for the kids. 

English poppers before dinner. 

 Underneath our plates were lotto tickets too! We are hopeful that one of these times we will be able to talk about the big winnings that a family member has won but so far I think the biggest winner has been about $20. Which means the biggest loser has been sweet Papa Ward who has kept up this tradition at all the holiday dinners and purchased the tickets. ;)

Yes, we all ate like Kings and Queens ;)

Present time!

These are for her American Girl Dolls not her. 

We arrived home to our tradition from Auntie Holley.

Jammies! 

Before bed, Samantha dressed her girls in their new clothes. 

The kids said goodbye to Frisbee and sent him off with a bag of treats to take back to the North Pole. 

Very excited kiddos! 

Lollipop woke up and we put on her Christmas headband from Grandma. She LOVES it can't you tell?!

Samantha's dolls were mysteriously moved at some point during the night. We have a feeling that Santa had something to do with it. 

Stockings were emptied. 

Lollipop got a stocking full of treats. 

Santa knew exactly what everyone wanted in their stockings. 

Samantha made a bowl for Thatcher in ceramics. 

How ironic is this photo with how bored she looks holding this gift up?

Santa did a pretty good job getting Samantha everything she wanted on her list. Umbrella, check!

She even got things not on her list! ;)

5-year-olds are awesome because a new package of underwear is THIS exciting! 

Sammy's gift to us that she also made in ceramics. 

My gift to Todd, a magnet that tells when the dishwasher is clean or dirty. How romantic is that?! 

Grandma and Poppy arrived with dinner-in-a-box a la Marie Callender's! 

Gift for Poppy. 

Just a touch too big. (Dad, we exchanged it and have your size now!)

Breakfast with Grandma

Gifts from Grandma and Poppy.

Making sure Sam's pedicure machine works. 

Christmas day walk.

Testing out the kids' new bikes. 

Dinner time!

Alex and Andrew, our neighbors, joined us. The rest of their family had a horrible flu. They had to do a Christmas re-do days later when everyone was healthy. 

Alex's new amp from Santa. 

Lots of Lego-ing. 

Music was flowing in the Fallon household throughout the day.

Dance Party with Poppy 

The party continued late into the evening when the Pirozzi's joined us to close out the evening. 

My friend, Maggie, had an after-holiday celebration to keep the fun going with the neighborhood. I love this tradition she has because really no one wants to go back to reality just yet. 

Hoverboard fun.

Can it get any more dangerous?! ;)

Time to ring in 2016! 

Holiday Piano Recital

It was quite an evening for Samantha's second piano recital. That night, it was one of the first try-outs for the SB Club Soccer team. I polled a few parents in the Club and asked whether or not it would be a big deal if she missed it and all feedback pointed to us making it work to get her out to soccer to be evaluated. So....

This is how she looked 25 minutes before she was supposed to be at Soho ready to play the piano. 

This was my text conversation with her piano teacher reminding him not to put her near the beginning of the program. Anyone who knows Gus knows that he truly did not remember where he put her in the program so I was not banking on walking into Soho and not having Samantha go directly on stage that night. 

A quick change and a quick run through of her song and then we were out the door. 

Gus was thrilled that Samantha arrived without her sportswear ;) 

Ahhhhhh, bumping into our old neighbors. 

The line-up was in our favor because she had some time. Also, Gus rarely calls Samantha anything other than Sam which is totally fine because she goes by Sam as evidanced by the program. ;)

This is the semi-nervous anticipation before hearing your name called on stage. 

And this is what you look like when you are finished and you WOWED the crowd with your performance, not to mention the gigantic temporary tattoo we forgot to remove from her arm.

I mean, check out that ending! 

2015 Family Photos

We've done yearly family photos since the kids were born and this year time just got away from us. The photographer that we have used for the past couple of years had a newborn and no time to fit us in, and frankly, family photos are very stressful to me with how much they can cost, what to wear, where to take them, getting good lighting, getting everyone to cooperate etc. etc. 

When the opportunity arose for Elizabeth Peace, a friend and amazing photographer, came up to photograph us, I jumped at the chance. But, our schedules were such that we had to get it done the very next day. So, really all we could pull off was a photo shoot of the three kids. ;) 

I rushed downtown for some photo-worthy clothes that night. 

I can't tell you how much easier it is to just coordinate two outfits instead of four! (Lollipop keeps showing up in the same outfit each year). 

I didn't have to worry about my hair so we had time to get Sam's hair done. 

There was even time to fuss over Sam's shoe and outfit choices. 

Elizabeth suggested the Botanical Gardens but at the last minute asked us to meet her at El Presidio de Santa Barbara which I was happy to do. Another bonus to this photo shoot was having the photographer select the location and she happened to choose locations we had never shot at before. 

And now for the Professional photos: 

It was windy and FREEZING this particular afternoon. Samantha had goosebumps and chattering teeth but you would never know except for the hair blowing in some of the photos. Elizabeth was awesome directing the kids, directing the dog and I got to stay behind the scenes for the least stressful family photo shoot we've ever had. It took 25 minutes!!!!! I was shocked she was able to capture close to 200 photos that we love. So you know what this tells me, I am the one who adds the stress to our photo shoots......Todd can join next year and they can photoshop me in ;)