Trans-Siberian Orchestra Winter Tour

Todd & Lisa waiting for it to start!

Light Show!

Stage "floating" in the air. So cool!!

Ending performance, Great!!

Todd & Lisa at Chevy's on the River!

Today we joined my brother, sister & spouses and my parents at Arco Arena for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert. It was so good!!! There was such a variety of music and lights and performance. It was quite amazing to see the different things they did and playing their instruments so fast! They had 2 local "Sacramento" people play with them. The show was almost 3 hours long, could have watched longer. I'd love to see them again, maybe bring Ryan with us next time. He'd definitely like to lights, fire and head banging. Thanks Alyson for inviting us. Then we went to Chevy's on the River for dinner. It was so yummy! Thanks for dinner, dad!

Family Pictures!!

My cute kids!! (wow, they are growing up!)

Our Family

Mommy & Girls looking at a "text picture" from my friend Thea. Her girls are wearing the same red dress.


Grandma Hanson & kids

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! We went to Todd's mom & dads to get our family pictures taken before we walked down to his sisters (2 houses down) for dinner. We need to get our Christmas cards out! Mom took some pictures for us, the kids did great, K was a little silly. Then we had to get grandma in there too! It turned out so good! It is a bitter sweet photo, especially since grandma had heart surgery this summer. We are so very thankful she is recovering so well. Love you!

Waiting for the Feast!

B & K kept themselves busy while waiting for the Thanksgiving feast to be ready. They built a house for Grandpas "dog" Cody. They were dressed up (pictures) and couldn't go outside to play, so they found something fun to do inside. Ryan went out to play with his cousins, he brought different clothes. We had dinner at Todd's sister, Wendy's house. It was very yummy, thanks mom H. The company was great and we had a wonderful time. We ended the night watching "Up" snuggled on their couches upstairs. Thanks for a great day!

Leatherby's & Dear Friends!!

The Rancho clan.

All the girls!

Marie, Kathy & Lisa


Tonight I got to see some dear friends of mine. My friend Marie, since I was 8 years old, came to visit this week from Virginia. She wanted to get together with some old friends and have some yummy ice cream at Leatherby's. It was so much fun to see everyone and visit and show off pictures of our kids. Todd was flying in from Phoenix for work and stopped in to say hi. He didn't even order some ice cream, he must have been tired!! I sure hope they can move out this way. I'd love to see her more often than 4 or 5 years. She was a great friend growing up, thanks for so many good memories. Love your family!!

Glasses!!

Well, Today is a very exciting day for Brittney. Her glasses arrived. She has wanted them since Ryan got glasses years ago. She had a lot of fun picking them out. Her cousin just got hers a few weeks ago. They are very cute together! She just needs them to see the white board in the classroom, but loves to wear them all day. She looks so much older with them on. Can't believe she'll be 9 soon. I got my glasses in the 3rd grade also. Congratulations B!!

Ryan's last soccer game!

Ryan's soccer team had a great year. They played very well most games. Some games they looked professional, quite amazing!! They were undefeated. He likes to play mid-field. He can kick the ball very hard and he is a fast runner. They have a great coach and assistants and wonderful boys/families on the team. We've been with this same team for 5 years. Here's to another great year!

New Moon @ Midnight!!!!

I met up with some friends to see Twilight's "New Moon" at the midnight showing, opening day. My friend Dawn got there at 7pm to save seats, thank you!! They were great seats!! Also, my friend Thea came. Then I picked up Subway sandwiches on my way. I didn't get there until 9pm, Todd was out of town all week. I brought Twilight on my portable DVD player and we watched 1/4 of it, then Dawn's friend showed up. We had such a great time visiting and hanging out until the movie started. It was so good! Love it!! Can't wait to go again and take Todd. I was very tired and ready for bed at 3am. As we were leaving, there were people in line for the 3am show, Wow! At least they got a couple hours of sleep first, lucky! It was very hard to get up with the kids for school, I'm not young anymore. I'm ready for a nap.

Soccer Party - Brittney

B with her coaches.

Yummy pizza.

We went to Wacky Tacky for B's soccer party tonight. The kids had a blast! They were hot, sweaty and tired by the end. They ran around and climbed for an hour. Then we went into the party room for pizza, drinks and cake. It was fun to visit and hang out with everyone. This was a great year! She had wonderful coaches and great families on the team.

Soccer Party

Ryan playing indoor soccer.



Todd & Brittney joining in the fun!

The girls hanging out with their friend.

Ryan's trophy.

Ryan ready for the PIZZA!

Ryan with his coach "Jorge".

Ryan had his soccer party at an indoor soccer arena and had a great time! They had tons of pizza and cake. Their team is undefeated this year. They have played a great year and gained a couple great players. The coach shaved his hair because they never lost. I'm glad the season is over, but it was fun! Now we have our Saturdays back and less running around during the week, yeah!!

Grandma's 80th Birthday Party

Grandma & Grandpa Altop

Grandma with my niece, Claire.

Lisa & Todd

My silly dad eating yummy food!

We celebrated my grandmas 80th birthday tonight! She was so surprised!! It's my sisters birthday today, so she thought we were celebrating that. She is so sweet and a great example to all. She thinks the best of everyone and gives love to all. I am so thankful that I have known her for so long. I know a lot of people that don't have grandparents anymore and I had both sets for most of my life. I even knew my greats too! She is a kid at heart, we used to TRY to keep up with her at Disneyland as she raced to the next ride. She is so talented; sewing, crocheting, baking, decorating cakes, making dolls, painting, etc. I hope to leave a legacy for my children and grandchildren. Love you grandma!! Thanks to my sister for taking the pictures.

Girl Scout Song Fest

K ready to sing.

B nervous to sing!

K cuddling with her teddy bear.

Lisa with her girls!

Our Girl Scout troop went to Song Fest tonight. Every year they put this event on for the girls. They dress up in their PJ's and sing a song in front of all the other girls. I found cute green jammies for them to wear, so they all matched. They got their Christmas pj's early this year. We sang "Six Speckled Frogs" and as a frog jumped into the pond, the girls squatted down on the ground. They did a great job!! There were 23 different songs sung tonight. The girls received these cute pink teddy bears, popcorn, cookies and candy. It was an enjoyable evening!

5th grade Harvest Party

R's 5th grade class had a harvest party today. They learned about different things that come from CA, that go with harvest. Did you know there are over 7,000 different kinds of apples? We were all shocked! They tried pomegrantes and molasses. They played pictonary and won prizes. It was fun!!

Kindergarten Feast

I went into K's kindergarten class today for their Thanksgiving feast. It was a lot of fun! They made turkey hats and colored pictures, ate donuts off strings, played bingo with candy corns and ate a yummy feast. They had turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, cranberry sauce, stuffing and pumpkin pie. The sweet potatoes were very yummy. It all looked so good! Some kids didn't touch the food, it was sad. K did ok. They took a cute class picture.

Cute little frogs!

Our girl scout troop is practicing our song for Songfest this weekend. I made the girls frog hats, they are so cute! We are singing "Six Little Speckled Frogs". They had fun making up some hand movements and what to do that night. We met up at "Big Spoon" and ate some yummy frozen yogurt. It was a relaxing afternoon together. Then we had to leave for B's eye appointment. Stay tuned to see her new "specs". ha ha!

New FHE tradition

kids with their Thankful Turkeys



R cookie "pilgrim hat"

Turkey cookie

Cousins

We started a new tradition tonight with my siblings. We are going to meet once a month for FHE together. My sister Alyson had the first one at her house. We ate pizza for dinner and then the kids made crafts and goodies. They made a thankful turkey and wrote what they are thankful for on the feathers. Then we made turkeys out of Oreo cookies and candy corns. The kids enjoyed that! Then they tried to make the pilgrim hats out of cookies and chocolate covered marshmallows, but they were hard. So my sister-in-law made them for the kids. At the end my sister read a couple of Thanksgiving stories, they were cute!! The kids had a great time, we can't wait for next month.