Merry Christmas!

Dear Friends and Family,

This year has been extremely simple for us and I cannot tell you how happy that has made me!  After the last couple of years, I finally feel like we have started to settle and I have enjoyed living the simple life this last year.  

This annual update is not as exciting as some recent years.  We have been busy, but only with the things that keep everyone busy.  We have made new friends, and renewed old friendships with friends we have not seen in years.  We played outside in the mild and sunny weather all summer enjoying the grass and the beach.  We ran 4 races including 1 half marathon.  We took our annual CA trip in February and loved it, as always.  Kai bought a practice and is extremely happy with his decision.  We have enjoyed adding little touches to the office and watching it grow.  Kai has been blessed, yet again, with a great staff and great patients.  He still works 2 days at the health clinic serving the underserved local population and finds it very rewarding.  Our home is constantly filled with the noises of our boisterous children--laughing, talking, singing, and yes, even screaming.  It’s also regularly filled with the laughter of friends and family.  We still have school loans and a house mortgage, but we are so happy to be experiencing the richness of a simple life. 

We hope that your year has been just as wonderful whether in the simplicity or in the fullness of life.  Merry Christmas!  

Free Treat Cards!

Have you ever wanted to give a card and wished that you could make it more personalized but if you're like me, you're far from professional when in comes to making homemade cards?  Well, your holiday checklist just got shorter!  Create and send a totally personalized greeting card from Treat for FREE. Whether saying thanks for Thanksgiving, wishing a best friend a holiday birthday, or simply sharing the holiday cheer with a just because card, Treat lets you create a one-of-a-kind card that is sure to impress.  

Take a peek at www.treat.com to see some of the great options.  AND, treat.com is offering my blog readers a special...  Use this code:  TREATBLOGR for ONE FREE treat card good for today and tomorrow (11/19 and 11/20) only!  Enjoy!  

Aren't these awesome!?  I can't decide which ones I'm going to pick!  Have fun with it and enjoy!  Happy Thanksgiving!  

And the Winner Is...

I used random.org to choose the lucky winner!

Jamie@Thrifty Veggie Mama!  Congratulations!  Please contact me @ kaiandkristi@yahoo.com with the email you would like your $50 gift certificate sent to!  Hope you enjoy your cards this year!

Tiny Prints Christmas Cards Giveaway

I am so excited to order my Christmas Cards from Tiny Prints this year!  Last year, one of the cutest Christmas cards I received in the mail was from Tiny Prints!  The paper quality was great and the colors were perfect!  I made a mental note and now that Christmas is fast approaching, I started browsing the site to see what the options were this year.    I love the contemporary and trendy designs and also that the back of the card has just as much detail as the front!  Here are some of my favorites...

Don't you just LOVE them!??  So, currently, I am narrowing down my picture options and will find the best card to fit the picture/s I choose.  I may share the finished product with you when I get them.

If you are like me, you send out enough Christmas cards every year to almost break the bank, so Tiny Prints has offered to do a giveaway to one of my lucky blog readers for $50 gift certificate code!  In order to receive an entry, leave a comment telling me how fabulous you think Tiny Prints Cards are as well as how much you LOVE reading my blog.  If you would like to receive another entry (for a total of 2 entries), start following my blog on my sidebar and leave a comment letting me know that you are now a follower.    The ending date will be Nov. 12 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.  I will choose one lucky winner through Random.org on Nov. 13 and will announce the lucky winner that day on my blog.  Best of luck!

Also, if you're looking for more great offers from Tiny Prints, be sure to check our their special offers to help you save a bundle on your Christmas cards this year:  http://www.tinyprints.com/promo/tiny-prints-coupon-codes-promotions.htm

Thank you, Tiny Prints for sponsoring this post!

Happy Halloween!

This year, I attempted something I had never done before.  

It all started with the idea that I wanted this year's costumes to be dental themed since this is probably one of the last year's that I would be able to convince the boys to play along.  So I brainstormed ideas and decided to make the boys "Tooth 1" and "Tooth 2" (thinking along the lines of "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" from Dr. Seuss).  Then the idea evolved a little more and I thought of making Kai as himself and myself the tooth fairy.  I searched everywhere online for teeth costumes, but was unsuccessful, so I decided that I would try to sew them on my own!!  If you know me, then you know that this is not something I do often.  I have only made a baby blanket, which you can see here, in my adult life and I knew this was going to be much tougher.  

I couldn't find a pattern online, or even a good idea, so I brainstormed some more.  I drew a very simple sketch on a sticky note and went to the fabric store to pick out fabrics similar to what I had envisioned.  I had several whites and silvers in my cart.  I pushed my cart up to the cutting desk and sought advice from the girl working there.  I explained that I was a beginner and shared what I wanted to do.  She told me that while the satin fabric would look great, it would be very tough to work with because it would slip so much.  I debated, but in the end decided on the satin fabric because I wanted it to look great and liked a challenge.  The silver fabric was a non-fraying kind that made my job with cutting out the letters much easier.  I took everything home and got started right away.  

The whole project only took a couple of days of on and off working.  I worked mainly while the boys slept, but was also able to work on it for an hour or so while they were awake and they loved "helping".  In fact, while I stuffed the teeth, they took the extra batting and scattered it on my craft room floor and pretended they were having a huge bubble bath.  They are so much fun!  I was surprised at how much easier the job was than I imagined it to be.  They certainly are not perfect and if you are great at sewing, please don't look too closely, but I was really happy with how they turned out!  

Trick or treating was SO much fun!  People loved our theme and kept asking where I had found the costumes.  We had quite a few people come up and ask to take our picture, which was completely unexpected.  I had only hoped that everyone would be able to guess the theme of our costumes without me having to try and explain what we were.  Both of the boys loved getting candy.  Kelton stayed behind at every house to "talk" with everyone he met.  He made tons of new friends.  The costumes also proved to be extremely warm and also cushioned a few would-be nasty falls from each of the boys in their eager attempts to get to the next door and get more candy.    

I'm not sure if I'll make our costumes again next year.  I haven't even started thinking about it yet, but at least I know that it's possible!  

Kasen was scared that if he smiled, his "filling" would crack ;-) 

Welcome Fall

Fall has arrived.  Colorful.  Crisp.  Fresh.  Beautiful.  Sunday I ran a half marathon with a great group of girls from my church group and the weather was perfect.  The race was so beautiful!!  I think it has been the most scenic race I've run so far (not counting the gorgeous Pacific Coast Triathlon since that was a triathlon).  The Color Run we did back in July was probably the most fun of all the races I've done, but this was amazing for a half marathon.  Definitely planning to do both again next year!  So after my body recovered and after hobbling around like an old lady on Monday, I packed the boys up on Tuesday and we went out to grab a few pictures in the beauty of Fall.  Here are a few. 

The Happiest 5K On the Planet

Today was our first ever Color Run! It was AWESOME!!!! We had such a fun time. Basically every kilometer of a 5K you get covered with a different color of powder and at the end it's a shower of colors. I ran with my sister, Stephanie, and a group from her church. It was a sea of people and colors and was unlike any race I've done before. There was no competition as it was all about the fun of it. We laughed and screamed and danced our way through the race. I'm definitely planning on doing it again next year!

We have another fun race coming up next week, but I will wait to tell about it until afterwards :-)











- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Aunt Stephanie's Accessory

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Watering the flowe...brother???

A purely accidental shot that I got while trying to get a picture of Kasen watering the plants. I LOVE it! Poor Kelton! Thankfully he came directly up to me after, gave me an extremely wet hug, and was consoled rather quickly. Boys are great!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Backyard Times

I've been playing around with my camera lately, and these are some pictures I took in our backyard last night.  The boys were really good about it even though Kelton broke down for a few minutes near the end (you can see in the following pictures). 

Both boys love (and always have) to swing.  We bought our play set a couple of weeks ago off Craigslist.  My dad and I went and disassembled it (I was impressed that we were able to get it by ourselves--the thing is pretty large), and Kai and I reassembled it at our house.  I had been looking at several new sets for weeks, but the ones we wanted were very expensive and I just couldn't rationalize that much money for something they would only use for a few years, so I started looking for used ones.  

I came across what ended up being "the one" and was so thankful I emailed about it so quickly and said we would take it.  The woman we bought it from had over 50 people after us all wanting to buy it.  It needed work to make it look new again (power washing, sanding, and re-staining), but it looks nice now and the boys spend hours every day on it!  It has 2 slides (one is a 360 covered), 3 swings, 4 rock climbing walls, monkey bar rings, 2 towers, a bridge/walkway, 2 sandbox areas, and a few accessories.  We feel so grateful to have found it because the boys are entertained for hours now!