Flag Football + Trophy = Happy Tyler

On a whim we decided to sign Tyler up for flag football to play on his friend Chase's team.  He wasn't sure how he was going to like it or how well he would do, but he ended up enjoying it so much!  The season wasn't too long, but it waas long enough for him to earn a certificate and a trophy.  Add in some snack and that's a successful season!  We're proud of you big man.

 The season was successful for Lucy too.  She made a great friend...Cailyn!

Since it's taking so long for me to post these pictures it is almost time for the next season and Tyler can't wait!

Happy 2nd and 4th Birthday Anna and Joey!

My sister is always so creative when she does her childrens' birthday parties.  We both tend to be creative, but she does it so much simpler, and yet better, than I do.  This year the theme was a fire engine theme.  We were celebrating, as a family, Joey turning 4 and Anna turning 2.  It was just the four kids...if you don't count all those adults that got in on the fun.

The kids played a fun game with balloons and ugly sweaters.  The adults had to stuff as many balloons possible into the ugly sweaters that the kids were drowning in.  It sounds easy, but when you're laughing so hard you can't breathe it can be a hard game to play.

 Anna didn't have an ugly sweater, so she just got her shirt stuffed.  She might not have won for the most balloons in a shirt, but she sure won for cutest!

 Not really sure what Grandma Karla won for...

 Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to Anna and Joey, Happy Birthday to you!  And many more...

We always have lots of fun when we hang out with the Molinari family.  Especially when hats are involved...

Christmas Shopping...Kid Style

The PTA holds an event each year that allows the kids to secretly shop for special people in their lives.  Last year, when Tyler was in kindergarten, we weren't able to attend but this year Tyler made sure we were available.  Last year he heard from a friend that you can buy yourself gifts, so I think that was his actual motivation to go.  He had plans to stuff his own stocking!

Luckily, our school is awesome, and they let Lucy shop as well...even though she wasn't a student at the time.  She was excited!  What girl wouldn't be, though?!  The kids were given a blank check (seriously?!) and escorted into the shopping extravaganza.  The kids were going to buy gifts for each other, Mom, Dad, and Grandpa Gary.  They did a great job and got done in record time...and only spent $18 total!

This event was in early December and Lucy, not known for keeping secrets, did a great job at keeping her mouth shut.  Well, she did tell me what she bought Tyler, but she didn't tell Tyler. 

At the end of the event we toured the Scholastic Book Fair and met Santa Clause!  You can't beat that...

We had heard that the gifts in this "store" could be kind of crappy, but the kids did a really good job of what they chose, for the most part.  Zach received a special screwdriver and a safety light for riding his bike.  Grandpa Gary got a pen that said Best Grandpa (or something like that) and a screwdriver-type tool.  Lucy got Tyler a car and he got her this big stuffed animal that she wanted.  I got a pen that said Mom on it and a little knick knack of a girl.  The choices that the kids made showed that they really put some thought and effort into their gift giving...and that's what we're actually celebrating, right?  Well, that and the fact that they only spent $18!!

Merry Christmas From Us to You

Trimming the Tree

Every year we get our tree on Thanksgiving weekend.  This year we were super busy, but we found the time to get one and get it trimmed!  It might have been at the last minute and very end of vacation, but we kept the tradition of doing it on Thanksgiving weekend.  And that's the part that really matters, right?!  Stress and hectic be damned. 

My favorite part of trimming the tree is remembering where each ornament came from.  We do a pretty good job of remembering, so that  makes for a lot of story telling.  We have TONS of ornaments.  It would probably be a good idea not to buy anymore, but then we wouldn't have new stories to tell the following year.

I'm so behind in my updates (about 6 or 7 months), so it's amazing how different the kids look.  They grow too fast!

Movie Time

This family LOVES movies.  We love to go to the theater and gorge ourselves on popcorn, eat the candy, drink so much that we have to hold it until the movie is over, and spend time with our friends and family that love movies just as much as we do!  Sometimes we even do this at home...not just the theater.

It is our tradition with Grandma Karla to go see a movie every year that is our Christmas movie.  This year we picked Alvin and the Chipmunks:  Chipwrecked.  We planned to see it with our Aunt Michelle and cousins Joey and Anna.  But, before we were all able to get together we went to the theater and saw Happy Feet Two.  The first wasn't so great, but the second one was pretty cute.  Even with a little bit of environmental PSA in there.

 We never did see this Arthur Christmas movie, but it looked cute.  The kids wanted to take their picture with this prop.  I don't know why, but it seems like the boys WANTED to be naughty.  Hmmm...

 The kids had fun posting with Alvin, Simon (or should we say Simone), and Theodore

 We were also super excited to see the Muppets.  The kids have NO IDEA who the Muppets are, but they thought it looked like a cute movie.  A lot of the stuff was reminiscent of my childhood and it brought back some memories, and made new ones for the kids.  We went with our bestest friends (and especially bestest movie friends) the Mello Family.  The movie was good, and Tyler even cried a tiny bit at the end.  It touched his heart.  Or maybe he REALLY had to go from drinking his whole drink...

The time finally came where we were able to see the Chipwrecked movie with our family.  Grandma Karla, Aunt Michelle, Joey, Anna, Jenn, Tyler, and Lucy crowded into the theater with our snacks and booster seats.  Yes, Grandma even needed one. :)  The movie was really cute and seemed to hold most everyone's attention.  It was a good pick for our family tradition!

The movies are just so much fun!  The winter season had a ton of kids movies and it was a good chance for me to take the kids to so many...and you know, get my fill of popcorn at the same time.  We look forward to the next chance to go to the movies.  Summer maybe?  Since it will be unbearably hot outside...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Guthmiller Family!  We spent Thanksgiving Day with Zach's family and then the following day was spent with Jenn's family.  It worked out nicely and we got to have double the food!  I was thankful that Tyler put up with wearing this adorable argyle sweater.  Zach was thankful that he didn't have to wear elastic pants this Thanksgiving.

 I'm totally biased, but these kids are SUPER cute.

 We got an adorable bow from Pinkadot Tots to celebrate the holiday, so Mom wanted to do something cute with Lucy's hair.  Didn't this double French braid turn out cute?  Cute enough that I did my hair like that.  Not really, but the thought crossed my mind...

 Since we all looked so spiffy it was a good chance to take a family picture.  The kids always want to try their hand at photography, so below is Tyler's picture of Lucy and I.

 Some guy named automatic timer snapped this shot.  He's good.  I would hire him again.

 Like Father, Like Son

We had a nice holiday with wonderful people and even better food!  Of course I would say that...I like people, but I LOVE food!

Happy 12th Anniversary Guthmiller Family

For our 12th anniversary (and the end of soccer season...a free weekend finally!) we decided to spend a night in San Francisco.  The kids had been begging to go to the City, so we packed up and booked a room at a Hilton Hotel.  The kids were armed with electronics and stuffed animals and we were off!

 We didn't get to the City as early as we would have liked, so we checked into the hotel and hit the town.  We had lunch at Subway.  There were pigeons in there eating up scraps and they were SO fat.  They scared Lucy!  After lunch we walked down to Fisherman's Wharf and checked out all the crazy people along the way.  We decided to go to the Aquarium at the Pier and then go on a boat ride around the Bay.  Good choice!  Here are the big mouths in front of a big mouth...

 We had a good time inside the aquarium and snapped all kinds of fun pictures.

 

This was the CRAZIEST thing EVER!  The starfish had dinner stuck in his grip and was on the window.

 Happy Anniversary Babe!  We've been married for 12 years...doesn't that seem impossible?!

 After we finished in the aquarium we rushed back to the room to grab our jackets and then boarded the boat!  The weather was kind of dreary and cold, but the Bay was beautiful.  Maybe not as beautiful as Tyler and Lucy...but pretty close...

 I love my family.

 The boat took us out under the Golden Gate Bridge and then back around Alcatraz.  We were thinking of touring Alcatraz, but after hearing the things they were saying about the place while we were touring it's a good thing we didn't.  Creepy!

 After getting off the boat we toured Fisherman's Wharf and visited the seals.  They barked Happy Anniversary to us.

 After a wonderful dinner we started our walk home and it started to rain.  We stopped at a Starbucks and got everyone a nice warm treat to drink in the room and snuggle in the bed.

 The next morning we woke up with BIG plans, but the rain changed those.  We decided to ride the cable car to the shopping district and site see down there.  That basically turned into a roundtrip on the cable car because of the rain and loooong lines.  Next time we are in town we will head back down that direction.  It was especially beautiful at Christmas because of the decorations and big trees!

We were going to watch the tree lighting ceremony at the Wharf, but the rain put a damper on those plans.  We checked out of the hotel, packed up the car, and headed over the Golden Gate to visit a museum in Sausalito.  It was fun, but probably more enjoyable for the kids than the adults. 

We had a pretty successful weekend and enjoyed our time as a family!  Lucy is already asking for when we're going to go again.