Clark demboski Pearce Christmas

A few days before Christmas, we celebrated at the Pearce's home. We had a yummy dinner and of course opened up gifts. The kids played so hard and had so much fun. Christian, Rebekah, Fletcher and Paige were such good cousins and shared their toys nicely and Andrew and Allison were so excited to play with all of their cousins. My kids were obsessed with Paige, they both wanted to hold her and give her kisses. It just makes me that much more excited about having Ashley. My parents were in Heaven having all of their "bugs" in one room for them to photograph non-stop. I think about 300 pictures were taken that day.
As most people know, each of the cousins have a bug name. They are as follows...

Christian is Bug-a-boo

Andrew is doodlebug

Rebekah is lady bug
Allison is love bug

Fletcher is Snuggle bug

Paige is lightning bug

Ashley is jitter bug

demboski Family Christmas Party

These are some photos from the annual demboski Christmas party. It was a smaller crowd this year, which made it extra fun I thought. There was delicious food, Santa and the wacky gift exchange. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins, and the adults had fun in conversation. After the party ended, the family went around in a circle and said what some of our happiest moments in life were or our most frightening moments. It sparked up a lot of laughter an great memories. Thanks Katie for the wonderful idea!



The above pictures are the many faces of my Allison Nichoal. She is a goofball, sweet heart, rebel, angel and so much fun!

36 weeks pregnant!!!!

The day after the big party, we went back over to Paul's parent's house to do our big gift exchange. We draw names every year to avoid having to buy 12 gifts each, plus the cousins, I think we would all have to take out a second mortgage on our home to pay for that. We all opened gifts and had a yummy breakfast. It is safe to say that Andrew's favorite gift was the pirate ship aka "pirates of the care-a-bean ship" that Uncle dude and Aunt Becky got him and Allison's favorite was her coffee pot, mixer, and toaster that Aunt Buny and Uncle Doug got her.

I received a blender for my gift and Paul got a board game (go figure).

After some play time, we busted out our ginger bread houses that we brought over. It seems to be an unofficial tradition for Paul and I to host a gingerbread house party each Christmas. This year we thought we would bring it on over to the after party. Everyone did a great job and got into it. It was a little unfair though because some of the houses were prebuilt and the others had to be constructed. We gave the prebuilt ones to families with little kids and to Grandma and Papa (we thought we would take it easy on them :) ).

It seems that we have the most fun when we all let our hair down and hang out in our jammies and just play together as a family.

All I want for Christmas is a FAT lip :(

Poor Allison nearly knocked out her two front teeth today! She was running (go figure) downstairs towards the fireplace where Paul was sitting when she fell and missed the edge of the fireplace but slid her mouth along the fireplace wall made of brick. Paul instantly picked her up and yelled for some ice. There was so much blood that I thought we would have to go to the ER. Thankfully it just swelled like crazy. Allison cried so hard on daddy's shoulder that she fell asleep. I can't believe how big her poor little lip got! She slept for over an hour, Paul managed to play some video games with Andrew while she slept and I worked on my blog. It was a relaxing and restful day.

It's Begining to look a lot like Christmas

I was so excited to decorate our Christmas tree tonight. The kids also had a blast. They got a kick out of looking at all of the ornaments that belongs to them.They both already have quite a collection, beginning with their Binky from when they were a baby. My mom saved our Binky and each year we would put it on the tree, but only after we put it in our mouth to take a picture. And of course I wouldn't have it any other way with my babies.

After decorating the tree, Paul read some Christmas stories by the fire and then we put them to bed, only to find them both in Allison's bed later on. They have been doing this lately. Sometimes it works out great (like tonight) and other nights it is a disaster and they fight and scream and tell each other "your not my best friend anymore!". I am amazed how quickly the fighting has started. I thought that kids started fighting at ages 6 or 7, but my 2 year old and 4 year old tend to go at it! Thankfully it isn't that often, and tonight was a sweet night of sibling love. How can you not get into the Christmas spirit when you see these two cuddling in bed wearing their Christmas PJs and a Santa hat? I love it!

Cute Things I don't want to forget

Allison says "Whobody". The other day we had an extra chair at the kitchen table and she asked us "whobody will sit over there?"

Andrew says that pirates are from the "care-a-bean"

I just put the kids to bed when Andrew came out of his room and crawled up on the couch to cuddle me. I told him he was laying on the charm to stay up later. After a few minutes of cuddle time, I told him it was time to go back to bed and he said "but I am not done laying on the charm".

I asked Allison the other day whose birthday we celebrate at Christmas time she replied "Baby Jesus, he is a boy and Jesus has a penis."

Belmont Shore Christmas Parade...Starring US!

Andrew and his teacher Ms. Cori

In our 13 years of living in Long Beach, we have never gone to the famous Belmont Shore Christmas parade, and now I know why...it is Maddness! This year not only did we attend, but we were in it! Andrew's preschool received a sponsor and we pulled it off. We all contributed home made decorations and put it all together the morning of the parade. We gathered for a pre-parade party at one of the parent's houses that lives near 2nd street. The kids all wore their tye-dye shirts and Santa hats. Andrew and I were on the float while Paul pulled Allison in the wagon behind us. It was a great plan until the parade started and Allison became afraid of all the hundreds of people staring and saying hello to her. So poor Paul ended up carrying her most of the way. We had a band on the float and the kids had home made maracas, needless to say it was not a quiet float.

Amongst the crowd was the crazy grandparents, both sets! Lucky them got to sit in the cold for hours waiting for us to pass by for about 2 seconds. They managed to snap some pictures of us as we whizzed on by. We made it down the first half of second street at a comfortable walking pace, but once we turned the corner, for some reason our driver decided to pick up the pace and we were distancing our float from the walking parents behind us, including Paul and Allison. They managed to catch up and Paul sent Allison up on the float to sit with me, then he hopped on and dragged the wagon behind the float. We flew through the second half of the parade. It was comical for us sitting on the float, but I felt bad for the parents who were running to keep up with us.

Overall we had a fabulous time. After the parade the 4 of us got ice cream and all the grandparents came back to our house. We played and put the kids to bed and we all chatted and laughed for hours until it was after midnight. I will definately be at the parade next year, as long as I am in a float and not one of the many people freezing on the street :)