Christmas 2013

In many ways it's been nice to be back in the states for Christmas.  It's a little easier to feel the Christmas spirit with a chill in the air and it seems easier to fulfil our own Christmas traditions here.  Craig has been home for the whole month which has been a major bonus.  Our build-up for the holiday included attending MS orchestra concert, HS choir concert, school play, community concert, and temple lights.  Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Larsen, one of our Christmas traditions is the set up of our Lego Christmas Village.  Each year they add a new set to our festive display.  This year we had to remake the whole thing due to breakage during the move.  Many hours were spent by all on the living room floor finding pieces and working together.

The kids had the chance to sit on Santa's lap at the ward Christmas breakfast and let him know what they desired.  For Bryant: Bobo Fett costume and rainbow loom.  Alexa: American Girl horse and rainbow loom.  Dallin's answer (yes, he sat on his lap too) - a Lamborghini Aventador, matte black (Santa made sure another color would be ok if matte black wasn't available :).  

 Bryant was priviledged to be a wiseman at the ward Christmas celebration (the one in the red vest with gold crown).

 Our traditional Mary and Joseph hike on Christmas Eve is something we have done without fail, in multiple states and countries, for as many years as can be remembered.  We have fun reminiscing every year, remembering all the places we have hiked over the years.  This year we stayed close to home and hiked in the hills right around us.  A beautiful day and incredible 360 degree views.

The joys of Christmas morning!  

At this time of year we are forever grateful for the opportunity to celebrate Christ and spend precious time together as a family.

December Birthdays

December is an unusually busy celebration month at the Bruschke's - 3 birthdays and Christmas.  We start the month celebrating Ashlyn and Dallin.  They were both born December 1st but we usually give them their own day and celebrate one the day after (it's hard to eat that much cake).  December 1st fell on a Sunday this year so a bit uneventful (and we returned the night before from Thanksgiving in Southern Cal).  We celebrated Ashlyn on Sunday by inviting some friends over for cake (her choice: lemon).  Gifts for a 17 year old - new basketball shoes and much wanted Northface jacket.

 Dallin took a Monday night celebration, the next day.  His cake choice - carrot.  Gifts for a 15 year old - bus ticket to Idaho to spend a week with Singapore friends and money.

Bryant's birthday is three days after Christmas - a week of gifts for this poor kid.  We actually celebrated the 26th cause dad, Breann and Dallin were all leaving.  His cake choice - chocolate.  Gifts for a 7 year old - Lego Wii game, Lego book, and a 'hoody'.

A temple day

The day after Halloween the kids had a random free day (teacher prep or something).  We headed with a few other families to the temple for the teenagers to do baptisms.  Such a neat experience for both Craig and I to be in the temple with our kids - usually it's one or the other.  Also a bonus to be there with such a great group of friends on an incredibly beautiful day.

Halloween

I was going to be so much better keeping up with the blogging but I'm not off to a good start.  It's a bit late but here are some pics from our Halloween fun this year.  Alexa dressed as a zombie bride and Bryant was a pirate.  Breann dressed up as a cowgirl - I think that has become her signature costume.  Ashlyn dressed up at one point as a greek goddess (for a dance) and then went to school as a hawaiian tourist.  Dallin, well he happened to wear tan pants with a red shirt on Halloween day so by default became a Target employee.

 The kids had fun at school with a parade then treats and games in the classrooms.

 I'd say treat-or-treating was a success - way too much candy in this house.

Helping hands

I'm so grateful lately for my older children and how helpful they can be with their siblings.  With Craig gone more than he is here (right now he is in Singapore 6 weeks and then home for 2), the older kids have steps up a ton and it's much appreciated.  We set up the basketball stand in the backyard and Breann has been teaching Bryant to shoot.  Now Bryant is out there almost daily practicing.

 Dallin has taken responsibility for the backyard/yard work when Craig is gone.  One Saturday he taught Bryant how to mow the lawn and clean up backyard.  So cute!

 Alexa decided she wanted to run for Treasurer at school.  It was a crazy week (as usual) and I wasn't able to help her much with her poster but Ashlyn stepped up to the task and helped her create a super cute poster.

 I'm grateful that we can work together as a family to make sure that all needs are being met.  It's not easy having dad gone so much but it's definitely encouraging the kids to work together and help out more which is a blessing.

Settling In

Kind of a final 'catch-up' post and then hopefully I can get back to blogging current, day to day events. The blog is kind of our family journal (ha, I know) so I need to be better at keeping it current.  We're all settled into the new home and life back in Danville.  When we drove up to our house to see it for first time, we had a big welcome sign from all the youth in our ward.  It's  been like that ever since we step foot back - a big warm welcome from our friends and ward here.

We love our new little house.  The best part - the view.  Our house is up on the hill so this is what we get to look out at everyday, with Mount Diablo in the background.  The beauty of Northern California is one of the things we love most - so glad to be back.

The kids are integrating well with their old friends and meeting new ones.  All our kids happen to be in age groups with a large amount of kids in our ward.  There are about 21 LDS 7th graders at Breann's middle school - most from our ward.  Breann has one of her best friends from Singapore that also moved here and goes to school with her - lucky girl.  There are also 25 LDS  Freshman at the high school with Dallin.  The kids jumped right back in - riding their bikes downtown and hanging out with tons of friends (Breann's the one in blue helmet).

The kids are all in school - so weird for me (but nice - I'm not lying - no tears for me).  Ashlyn is a Junior and Dallin is a Freshman at San Ramon Valley High School.  Breann is in 7th grade at middle school and then Alexa is in 4th and Bryant in 1st.  They are adjusting back to public school - especially not having the uniforms (which they would prefer).  Mom is adjusting to all the driving.

Ashlyn got her first 'real' job (she actually worked alot in Singapore teaching piano, ref'ing soccer and nannying) - she works at Golden Skate (roller skating rink) just down the street from our house (very convenient).  She has her permit and is eagerly awaiting her license in January (mom's anxious too - another driver will be very nice).

Last Saturday it was raining so we figured it would be a good day to pop in and see her in action - and do some skating.  The kids ordered slurpee's from her at the snack bar .

We're enjoying being in the Bay Area and the sights of San Francisco again.  We love being close to the ocean.

Last, but certainly not least, Alexa celebrated her 9th birthday a few weeks ago.  Instead of a cake she wanted cookie dough, raw.  We compromised on a barely cooked 'cookie cake' with ice cream.  It was 'the best birthday ever' as her dad was here and she got her long awaited, highly anticipated Kindle Fire.

Summer 2013

Now that we're settled in somewhere, I guess it's time to get back to the blog.  Thought I'd give a brief rundown of our summer.  

We left Singapore the day after school got out to rush back for my nieces wedding in Utah.  We flew into LA and were there about 24 hours before Ashlyn, Breann, and I hoped onto another plane to Utah to attend the wedding.  It was so fun to be together with all of my siblings and see their families.  The wedding was beautiful - can't believe we've entered that world of the kids cousins getting married.

We spent the first few weeks of summer at my parents amazing house in southern California.  We spent  alot of time at the beach - enjoys the surf and sand - and often friends or cousins.

You can't go to southern California without cooking hot dogs on the beach.  Even better when your with lots of cousins.

Craig joined us in southern California for a day and then we all headed to Utah to spend a few weeks there.  We hiked in the beautiful American Fork Canyon and enjoyed time with our grandparents and Bruschke cousins.

One week we sent dad to Northern California to work (and see the house we had just bought :) and sent Breann to Soccer Camp at BYU and Ashlyn and Dallin to EFY.  We met up with tons of friends from Singapore who were in the same EFY session as our kids.  So fun to spend time at one of our favourite places - BYU - and see so many of our dear friends from Singapore.

We celebrated an important birthday while in Utah - Breann turned 12.  Hurray!  She was so excited to enter YW and be apart of the 'older' kids.

After our 2 weeks in Utah, we headed to Lake Powell with our Bruschke cousins.  This is one of our favourite places on earth.  We thoroughly enjoyed our 16th summer week at Powell. 

We found an amazing new hike,

did alot of relaxing,

and got a few kids up on ski's and wakeboards - oh, and lots of tubing.  

After Lake Powell we headed back down to Southern Cal, dad went back to Singapore and we hung out and waited for our big move back to Danville.  We closed on our house the 1st of August and headed up to move in.  We had a few weeks to settle and play before school started later that month.  The kids jumped right back into life and friends in Danville.