A Fujita/Clark/Parker Christmas!

Well, I guess since Hannah's sleeping, dinner's on the stove, and my back is out, leaving me flat here on the couch, now is a good time to update everyone on our Christmas! We went up to my parents' house in Northern California, where my sister and her family also live. It was a fun time with a 5-year-old, two 19-month-olds, and a 15-month-old! :) We drove up on Wednesday night after James got off work, and it was nice to be able to have all of Christmas Eve Day to just relax and enjoy time with family. That night we went to look at Christmas lights and then came home to have our traditional Christmas Eve ice cream sundaes - YUM! It was also our 3 1/2 year anniversary! Times sure does fly!

Christmas morning, we headed over to my sister's house for our traditional Christmas breakfast (err...I mean lunch), complete with homemade cinnamon rolls (mmmmm!), potatoes o'brien, bacon, and frittata.

After breakfast, we opened presents, which took a long time! When you have three babies, each with a lot of presents, it takes a little bit longer than it normally would, but it was a lot of fun to watch the babies! For dinner (I feel like all I did was eat!), we decided to forgo the standard turkey or ham and went with prime rib. It was delicious, and we had it with homemade garlic mashed potatoes, roasted winter veggies (which is one of my new favorite sides!!!), and rolls.

The rest of our time was just spent hanging out with family and relaxing. James and I even got to go on a date, since there were plenty of babysitters! :) We had a great time, but the vacation fun had to come to an end, and we came home yesterday. So today, it's back to reality with piles of dirty laundry, new toys that need to be put away, meals to make, dishes to clean, work for James, etc., etc. :) We are thankful for the time that we were able to get away and celebrate Jesus's birthday!!!

Some of the presents we had to take up with us. Thankfully I had taken most of ours up at Thanksgiving!

Hannah doesn't get sweets very often...ok...she doesn't get sweets at all at home, but Aunt Sumiko fulfilled her auntie duties by introducing Hannah to Muddy Buddies.

They all played so well together!

Hannah's checking out the t-shirt she got from her Pichura cousins! She doesn't quite understand the significance of this t-shirt, but don't worry, she will! :)

Our little Christmas bunny.

Keanna made her annual trip to the dollar store to do her Christmas shopping. She must know Uncle James well, because she got him two decks of playing cards!

Opening her "big" present from Daddy and Mommy. It's a...

vacuum cleaner!!! Since Hannah is terrified of the real vacuum, we decided to ease her into the world of vacuums with a toy one!

However, her favorite toys were the ones we got at the 99 cent store - kitchen utensils. Here, she's basting my sister's house with her new basting brush!

Robbie's parents brought a piano down for my sister's family, and the babies wasted no time testing it out.

And today Hannah was busy working on her thank you notes!

I guess Hannah wanted to add something, because while I wasn't looking, she wrote this: ]\[
nnnn\\
;;;;;//;;

Free Movie Rentals!

Since it's Christmas and I know a lot of you watch movies during this time, here's a way to get a free movie rental or rentals from Amazon Videos on Demand! I just did this and got my credit - now we have to decide what to watch! Go here to see how to sign up.

Hannah vs. the Croc

Well, this must be a record - posts two days in a row! Just consider this an early Christmas present! This one is just a video of Hannah that I forgot about. This was taken at my parents' house at Thanksgiving. She is one determined little girl! I eventually had to take the croc away, because she got too frustrated that she couldn't get it on. :)

A Brief Update

Oh my word! Life is busy, busy, busy! I promised a family update, so here it is, though brief:

James's job is going great! He is loving it and is feeling much more comfortable there these days, which is a huge praise! He is looking forward to going to my parents' house for Christmas, so he can read and eat at the Mecca. :)

I had a wonderful time this afternoon, catching up with some friends from college whom I hadn't seen for a couple years. They came over for lunch and our entertainment, of course, was Hannah. She is such a ham and she loved having a new audience.

Which leads me to the main subject of this post - Hannah. :) She is 15-months now and has a great little personality. She LOVES to play games like peek-a-boo and do songs with hand motions, like "The Itsy, Bitsy Spider" and "Pat-a-cake."

Her language development is coming along and she's gradually adding words and signs to her vocabulary. She said her first two-word sentence last week (besides "what's that?"). When James came in the door, she looked at him and said, "Hi, Da-ee!" It was very cute and made James's day!

Last week, she also discovered that there's water in the toilet and that she can splash in it. She's a smart cookie and knows how to open the lid, so I'm afraid our bathroom door is going to have to be kept closed from now on.

And here's the best part of our updates: the pictures and videos. Enjoy!

We went to look at Christmas lights, which Hannah LOVED, but some houses are just a little overkill, don't you think?

Such a little sweetie! Giving her big cousin, Lukas, a hug! :)

Hannah found this box and decided to collect toys in it.

Uncle Paul came to visit all the way from Seattle!

Uncle Andrew came to visit, too!

Who needs Chuck E. Cheese's when you've got your own personal ball pit?!

Playing peek-a-boo with Mommy after church!

Cracker Crazy!

Would you believe that I got all of this stuff for just $1.90?! Actually, I paid $11.90, but will be sending in a $10 rebate form for the crackers. Here's the breakdown:

The crackers are on sale at Safeway stores (I went to Vons) for $1.49 each, if you buy 5. I bought 10, for a total of $14.90. I had a coupon for $1 off 2 Nabisco crackers from yesterday's newspaper (there was also a coupon on Nov. 8, but I had already used that one), and then I got two more printable coupons here. So after the $3 in coupons, the total for the crackers came to $11.90. There's a $10 mail-in rebate if you buy 10 boxes of Nabisco crackers here, bringing the total to $1.90!

The pasta and pasta sauce I got free, using coupons I had received by signing up here. I also had a coupon for free eggs, but they were out of eggs. :( Oh well, these coupons don't expire until March, so I'll still be able to use them, I'm sure! Even if you don't have any of the coupons, but use the rebate, you'll still be able to get 10 boxes of crackers for $4.90, which is still a really good deal! The sale at Safeway and Safeway affiliates ends tomorrow, so there's still a little bit of time to take advantage of this great deal!

On a different note, I've been wanting to update everyone on our lives lately, but haven't been able to get to that. Hopefully soon!

Great Find at Target!

If you have a baby, little kids, know anyone who has a baby or little kids, or is pregnant, or might possibly have a baby, you should check out this deal at Target! Our Target had their blanket sleepers on clearance for 75% off!! I'm not sure if all of the Targets have them on clearance, but it's definitely worth checking! They are Just One Year, which is made by Carter's, so the quality is good. They come in sets of 2, and at 75% off cost only $3.98!!! That's less than $2 per sleeper! They have some really cute designs, too, but they're going FAST, so if this is something you're interested in, you may want to head out soon! I was there a couple of days ago and they had 2 full racks of them at 50% off. Today, they're down to 75% and there was only 1 rack left!

My Dad's Going to Need Another Pumpkin

As I said before, my dad carves a pumpkin of each of his grandkids every year. Next year, he's going to need one more! BUT before you get too excited, it's not us (don't worry, family, I don't think we'd choose to announce a pregnancy over a public blog...or would we???). :P My sister is pregnant with her 4th baby and is due sometime in July!!! We're so excited to have another niecephew on the way. This little blessing brings Hannah's cousin count up to ELEVEN! And I'm guessing that the number will just continue to rise in the coming years. :) Yay! We're praying that God will keep this little one safe until my sister's appointment on the 23rd, when she'll be able to start her blood thinners. We are so excited and can't wait to have another little one in the family! Maybe this one will take on the characteristics of the Fujita side of the family, but judging by the four that are already here, the chances of that are slim to none. :)