Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!
We love all of you!

Jury Duty

At the criminal courthouse today. Glad I can render this kind of public service. Happier now that they have complimentary wireless in the waiting room

Gingerbread man

Grandma Louise got the kids a Gingerbread Man kit...so tonight for Family Home Evening we put him together, and he is very cute! Thank you Grandma Louise!

Let the Holiday's begin! ...Gilbert family dessert Thanksgiving.

Looks like trouble :)

Football boys!

A spider!

Boys on their phones, they much have been bored...

Some of the twins in our family!

CHEESE :)

hugs & trains

Thankfully we have such a BIG, wonderful, beautiful, supportive & loving family!

The Rotisserie

So I bought a new grill with a rotisserie attachment a couple of weeks ago. I had an opportunity to try it out for the first time on Sunday and I was super happy with it. Meat was tender and juicy and the skin was perfectly crisp and smoky. Best whole bbq chicken I've ever had a hand in making!

Halloween Heroes

Halloween

This year Liam wanted to dress up, and Emma wanted to too! It was a lot of fun! Here is just a few pictures of this cute Minnie Mouse, and very muscular Superman...

I got published (online)!

I submitted one of the posts on my blog to www.powerofmoms.com just for kicks one day and today they published it on their site! Powerofmoms.com was started by one of the daughters of the family who started Joy School, it's fun to see how the program really "worked" for them ;) I love this website, it's a fun resource for moms, I've actually started one of their 'learning circles' here in LA and I was thrilled they put up my post. In case you don't know, this summer I started reading tons of parenting books because I was having a struggle with my kids. I got more and more into it, blogging about what I was learning, and recently when someone in my twins group lost her twin sons who were born almost to the day gestationally as Caleb and Julian, I felt motivated to continue trying to improve my parenting and not just quit my project at the end of the year. When Caleb and Julian were enduring all their surgeries, xrays, tests and other horrible things in the NICU and we didn't know if they were going to make it, I tearfully promised them day after day I would be the best mom I could. I realized that while I'd been doing a good job I could continue to be a bit better. So I started a new blog away from our personal Puente blog at www.givingkidsourbest.com just this week with some goals and thoughts and plan to keep this up a bit longer. I was thrilled that powerofmoms published one of my entries, and they encouraged me to submit to their 'best of the blogs' section. I don't know how I find time for this, but somehow learning and sharing and throwing out questions has become a big priority and I feel it's really been helping us here at home to do the important things.

Thanksgiving Morning

I talked to a couple of you about this. Not sure who exactly. Maybe it was a dream. No I'm sure I talked to someone besides myself. Anyway I was thinking it might be fun for a group of us to do this "Run to Feed the Hungry" on Thanksgiving morning. It benefits the Sacramento Food Bank and it looks like it might be a fun thing to do. Doesn't start too early either. Check it out at the following link and let me know who might be interested so we can coordinate rides and stuff.

http://runtofeedthehungry.com/faq

I don't know how to make the link live but you can cut and paste it into the go line and get the info...

Happy Birthday Nik and Leah!

Happy 25th Birthday Nik and Leah! We love you! Hope you have a great birthday!

(sorry these are not the most current pictures, but thought they were cute- Nik is holding Emma in Downtown Disney, and Leah is at the Wiggles concert)

Homecoming and Grace's First Date...

Pretty Grace posing so nicely for a picture.

Grace again. Love those shoes. Hahaha

First date. This is monumental!!!

Emily looking very lovely...

What a cute girl.

Getting ready. Thanks Faith!!!


Well yesterday was the big homecoming dance. Grace and Emily are 16 now so they were both so excited to go to a school dance for the first time. We took a few photos of the girls and all their loveliness. They both looked so pretty and grown up. I never seem to upload pictures in the order I'd like. Maybe I should post more often you think??? The girls are still sleeping. I hope they had a good time...

Haunted Halloween Houses

Grandma Louise bought us a Haunted Halloween House, so Liam asked if we could make it today. We were all so excited, and Caleb decided to head this task up, so I took some pictures!
Thankfully I was able to get one quick picture of the finished product, before it was being devoured. They enjoyed every minute of this, and now have black lips from the black candy.
Thank You Grandma Louise for this fun activity!!!

New Suits

I'm not much of a clothes guy. Melissa has helped me on that front, but I don't much love shopping. I've been needing a good quality suit for a while now, the kids have absolutely decimated the other one I have. A friend suggested a place in the fashion district and so I made a trek downtown. The place is called Roger Stuart and is a suit wholesaler, shipping around the country. They have their suits made in Italy and Spain and sell them for 25-40% of retail. I walked in and was greeted by an old man named Max who sized me up, asked me what I was looking for and proceeded to run me through the store like a whirling dervish. Within 20 minutes I had two amazing new suits, some white shirts and a couple of ties. He then ushered me out the door to a tailor around the corner who fitted my pants in ten minutes. It was one of the best, most painless shopping experiences I've ever had. If anyone wants to come down with me when next in town, let me know. I wish I'd known about this place before Gabe left for his mission.

Liam's First Day of Preschool

We have been talking about school for a few months now, and this boy was so ready to go. He would tell us about his Spiderman backpack, and his lunch pail. He would talk with Emma, about how he and Daddy would be going to school, but she would have to stay with Mom.

The day arrived yesterday, and to my surprise he was totally calm about everything. He woke up, had a nice breakfast, ate well for lunch too, and kept asking us when he would be going. As we loaded up the bike trailer, and got ready, he was so excited! We got there, and he was as happy as could be. He wasnt nervous, didnt have to hold our hands because he was shy, and he started right in with reading books. Of course I was trying to be tough, and waited to have a moment when we left. When we picked him up, he looked exhausted, but had a fantastic time. The teachers explained that he was the big helper, as many of the kids didnt want to help clean up, Liam was right there helping. They also mentioned that he ate quite a bit for snacks- I promise I fed him a lot before we left. On our ride home, he took a short nap, and then told me the many wonderful things he did. I loved it! We are so excited for him, and he is so excited! Here are a couple of pictures from the new adventure...

Marvin's Birthday Party

Sorry it has taken some time, but here are some photos from the 80th birthday party!




We all had a great time, and the food was delicious!