Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Christmas Day

After a long night of partying, Jon of course was the first one up. He saw the gifts under the tree and the first thing he said was, "Huh, the same wrapping paper we have..." I know! I know! Santa had the same wrapping paper we had! (I made sure I bought a bunch of new wrapping paper the day after Christmas!) He waited and waited for his sibling to wake. Marisa finally woke up and she was very excited to see all of her presents from the night before (she was in bed by the time the kids opened presents.) and from Santa! Poor Jon wanted to wake up Nicholas SO bad so they could all open up presents. We told him if he is not up by 7:30am you can go wake him up. Well 7:30 came and Nicholas didn't come running down the stairs so Jon got to wake up his brother. They came down and were SO excited. They all took turns opening up presents. Jon and Nicholas both got their own MP3 players, Jon received the new Sponge Bob game for Wii, Nicholas received De Blob for Wii too. Than they each got a new game for their Nintendo DS games too. Nick got the new Sponge Bob game (same as the Wii one) and Jon got a Pokeman game. Jon received his Telescope from Santa that came with a microscope too and Nicholas got Moon Sand. Marisa received a new Tea outfit (one of my favorite brands of kids clothing! My friend Danielle sells this brand in her store!) from Lorenzo, a new toy from Lolo and Lola, and a new bath toy set from Santa.

A couple hours later Papa and Grandma came over to celebrate Christmas Day with us. They brought more presents for the kids. Nicholas got a huge box of Lincoln Logs, Jon got his Bagukan Battle Arena and 2 big Bagukan balls, Marisa got the Baby Tad, and than the boys each got a game in a tin. We had such a great Christmas! Hope you all did as well! Enjoy the pics! I thought I took more, but I didn't....


Jon organizing the gifts.


Marisa looking at all her presents.


She really wanted to open them!


Jon helping Marisa open presents.


Nicholas opening his Lincoln Logs.


Jon open his game in a tin from Papa and Grandma


Nicholas wasn't too sure about his game but he liked it. They played it with Grandma. It was I Spy Bingo.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Ramos Christmas Eve Party

The Ramos Christmas Eve Party was celebrated at our house again. The boys were so excited that everyone was coming over for the big party! It was a PACKED house! My de los Reyes cousins even came to join us this year! It was so great to celebrate with them! People started to arrive shortly after 5pm. Once the food was warm we all got to eat! Check out the pictures of the spread! There was lots of yummy Filipino Food that my Tita Li made, I made Green Bean Casserole, and everyone else brought appetizers, salad or dessert! It was all SO very yummy! Nothing that would help me win our Biggest Loser contest we are having! After everyone had eaten we started our festivities! Lola always has her games she likes to play. She has the annual money pot where everyone gets to guess how much money is in the jar and whoever is closest without going over wins all the money. She has one for the adults and the kids. This year, Maria Ramos won it for the kids! I believe there was $51 in it and she guessed $50. My cousin Olivia's husband Andy won the adult one. There was $97 and I think he guessed $96? Not sure on that one. She also likes to play the newest game on Television so this year it was Password. Only the adults played and once again the Wagner's won the most. They were able to get all 5 words in 30 seconds. So, since they got all 5 words they won $150! For everyone else it was $10 for each word they got right. Lolo made a game up for the kids to play too. It was Tic Tac Toe. He had the boards made up already and he had a row covered with tape with a X already in a spot. So the kids had to draw 2 more X's to see if they got Tic Tac Toe. I'm not sure how many kids won on that one, I was busy doing something else! It's tough being the Hostess! :-) They kids enjoyed that one.

After that the kids had their Talent Show. This has been a tradition since I was little. I remember singing and dancing when I was their age. You got $10 for singing and if you danced you got another $10! All the Grand kids this year participated with the exception of a couple shy ones. They all did great! I hope to try to post some video, but you can take a look at my cousin's blog to see videos. She has some on hers. After that the kids were getting SO impatient about not being able to open gifts yet we decided to play Mean Santa. That way the kids got to open something! After that we played the dice game because Lola had so much extra money left over. The kids played and than the adults played. Nicholas ended up winning a $30 gift card to Target and Mike and I didn't win anything AGAIN! Oh well, last year we were the big winners. I had won the adult money pot and Jon won the kids one. After all the games we FINALLY passed out gifts! This year the kids picked names instead of getting everyone a Christmas gift. It was getting way too hard to buy for each kid. This year was great! I think everyone enjoyed their gift and had a really fun time! Sorry so long but it was a LONG night! I hope you enjoy the pics! Thanks to Auntie Missy for taking most of the pictures! Stay tuned for Christmas Day pictures!


Taking pictures of the kids before everyone arrived


Marisa in her first Christmas dress. The things on her legs are from my friends kids store on Martha's Vineyard. They are called Baby Legs. They are SO cute!


Lolo and Lola with the Koehn Grand kids.


The annual Ramos family picture with the 2 newest additions on the end!


Don't they look cute?!


Bella and her brother Lorenzo


Auntie Missy gathered all the girls downstairs to take a picture.


The spread!


The Wagner family - Andy, Olivia, Owen (6) & Aiden (4)


The Dehne family - Matt, Missy, Noah (7) & Gen (5)


Our family - Mike, Myra, Jon (6), Nicholas (4) & Marisa (7 Months)


The Ramos family - Paul, Tesa, Maria (7), Bella (4) & Lorenzo (8 Months)


de los Reyes family - Nelson, Meg, Nina (4) & Michael (3)


The Cardenas family - Tom, Marie, TJ (12) & Anthony (5)


The Koch family - Jon, Melina, Evie (5), Eddie (4), Mena (1)


Maria played her little piano for her talent. She later sang a song


Anthony sang Jingle Bells


Nina was a little shy at first....


Than Anthony helped her sin Jingle Bells


Jon sang Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. He practiced dancing and singing but decided to not dance in front of the big crowd. He lost $10 for not dancing!


Gen sang Rudolph as well!


Can you guess what Nicholas is doing?


He sang We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Break Danced! Watch the video on my cousin blog!


TJ played his Trumpet. 2 songs! He was VERY good! I was impressed!


Noah sand Jingle Bells. He didn't sing last year


I can't remember what Bella sang....


The 3 Ramos sisters

Friday, December 19, 2008

Family Pictures Taken By Olivia Wagner Photography

Now that I have mailed out our Christmas Cards I can finally post pictures that we had taken by my cousin Olivia Wagner. She has her own studio out in New Prague. We had the pictures taken right before Thanksgiving. I had a hard time picking which pictures to put up here because there was so many good ones! Thanks again Olivia for the wonderful pictures! I will be placing an order after the Holidays!


Our 2008 Christmas card picture


Marisa was such a good sport even though she did not nap that good that day.


You got a sneak peek of her already in this skirt. I love it!


Another family picture that almost made it for our Christmas card.


Olivia told everyone to tickle Jon. I love this shot! Marisa is like what are you guys doing?!


Another close one for the Christmas card.


I love this one of my Hubby and boys.


They were having fun!


The girls turn!


My Precious and me!


Me and all 3 kids


I love Nicholas' smile in this one!


The 3 siblings


The brothers


A close up of Jon


Love Marisa's face!