Una Noche en Jerusalen

Tonight our Primary had our Christmas activity. Instead of having the traditional Christmas party with Santa, we decided to celebrate with "Una Noche en Jerusalen", or A Night in Jerusalem. I have nothing against Santa of course (he's all over this house along with snowmen, reindeer & gingerbread men)but this year we wanted the kids to really remember the reason for the season: Christ the Savior's birth.

We had authentic food, learned a celebration dance, wrote our names in Hebrew (couldn't find one in Aramic) and finished off the night with the Nativity film. It was beautiful! We had a great time learning about the culture that surrounded the time of Christ's birth. We asked that everyone come dressed in clothing that reflected our activity and to make it easier for our families, we provided all the material and invited people to come and make their clothes this past Wednesday. I am no seamstress but I loved making the boys their clothes. As you can see, Dan opted not to dress up. He never does! Oh well, he's always there helping and participating. Anyhow, it was a great night! Roman Palacios painted our beautiful background. So many people contributed to making it a very special night. It was a nice way to keep our focus on Christ and get the kids excited about relating to it.

Movin' on up!

Since our guys have been teeny tiny for so long we have had them all share a room. We have had tiny toddler beds all lined up in a row a la Madeline. Now that they are mature little men though we decided that it was time for a big boy bunk bed. It was delivered today and the boys had no idea it was coming. My mom picked them up from school and kept them until the bed was set up. They are sooooo happy! Sam thinks he's sleeping on top with Eric but I'm sure his mind will change closer to bed time. We're still going to keep them in one room since they prefer that anyway. I always tell them whoever misbehaves has to go sleep in the third room alone! They love to snuggle up like puppies.

Btw, do you love their Charlie Brown style Christmas tree? I know it's awful but they love having their own tree in their room. They aren't done decorating it yet and they actually think it's a competition between their tree and our tree. Kids!

Thanksgiving Day fun

It's almost bedtime but I thought I'd blog now that I have the chance. Eric and Peter are spending the night with my aunt, Ben is sleeping over at my parent's house and Sammy is sleeping. Like everyone else we had a busy and fun day. Our afternoon consisted of playing soccer tennis at the park, coming home to play baseball and then going in to watch football and finishing it off with a King's game. Oh and yeah, we ate turkey!


My Dad always chooses a big turkey and this year was a record at 29 lbs. It was so yummy. Peter always wants a leg.



No one else let me take a picture of them, everyone was so wiggly that I eventually gave up until later on when I tried to get a good pic of the brothers. This did not go very well either. Four wiggly, sleepy brothers are a difficult subject. This is what it went like:







The good news is that Dan and I got a couple of pictures together which almost never happens, here we are in a lovey dovey moment- me and my handsome hubby.

Silly thoughts

The pictures I posted as a Halloween slideshow are just random Halloween pics of the boys through the years. I will admit that I am a little nostalgic of the days when they were all teeny tiny. When Sam didn't have any hair and when Ben was a chubby little biscuit that sat still for 25+ minutes while I transformed him into the sweetest little lion I ever did see, when Eric thought I was the ultimate in "cool" (I've faded slightly there). Or when Peter spent his days in a costume regardless of the season. They still are pretty much babies and we have lots of fun but I just remember how much fun they were at about 18 months old and think how cool it would be to have them all that age if only for a moment. (I do realize that that would mean quadruplets and I know I'm not up for that- just a daydream I'm entertaining right now)

By the way, funny story of Sam today:

He brought me a half empty bottle of water and asked me to open it. Of course I thought nothing of it and figured he was thirsty so I opened it and walked away to do some laundry. When I walked back into the living room I noticed he was peeing into the bottle! I guess I shouldn't be such a "convenience oriented" mother and actually walk my kids to the nearest bathroom. With little boys though, an empty water bottle can come in handy sometimes!

Fall School Pictures, Starring My Foxes!

Here are the boys' school pictures. I will be sending out pictures soon but thought I'd post them for all to see. Eric and Peter liked theirs but my lovely Ben was so distraught with his; he thinks he smiled too big. Poor little guy! I think it's a lovely picture of a guy who is excited to be in kindergarten.



I volunteered at school to help with pictures and to my grateful surprise I got 3 free packages valued at over $150.00. Cool deal, huh? Anyhow, the package included c.d.'s with these three different tones for each kid. Aren't they handsome little boys? I think so!

Sunday's Record

This picture was in Sunday's Stockton Record. Peter was interviewed for a reading program with dogs that his school is involved in. It's called Paws to Read and the caption for the picture was "Paws-itive reinforcement."

I have no idea who the lady next to him is, she is a volunteer I've never met. If you want to read the article here's the link http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080921/A_NEWS/809210315&emailAFriend=1

I didn't really care for the article. It painted Peter BroggER (they mispelled his name) as a child lacking confidence who may have suffered some abuse and needs anger management. The real story is that the little girl who was originally intended for the article was absent and they needed someone quickly so they sent Peter. He is an excellent reader and has not a shy bone in his body. Anyhow, Peter looks adorable in the picture.


Totally random: Sid the Science Kid is on in the background while I type this. Is anyone else horrified by his creepy grandma? Her laugh is the scariest.

GOOOOOOAL!!!!!

Yesterday Peter and Ben had their first soccer games of the season. They both looked positively adorable in their little uniforms. In fact, the entire teams of the 3-4 year olds were too cute. Every kid despite what team they were on, followed the ball every where it went. It was a mob that went back and forth throughout the game.

My camera is not working like it should be and it's time for a new one. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to post of my future MLS players this week. I will buy a new one before next week's games but in the mean time I am happy to report that each of the Brogger Boys scored a goal!

My brother Peter is coaching Peter's team and it's really special for him to have his soccer loving uncle as his coach. Needless to say these guys had quite a fan base with a total of 12 people coming out to watch them. We are ardent soccer fans so my family wouldn't miss the games for anything! Lots of fun!

Happy 4th of July!

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Grandma Mari is visiting from Michigan and we have been keeping her busy! Last night we caught a Ports game with fireworks afterwards. Lots of fun! Ports lost but we had a good time.
The boys had a fun time talking to the pitchers at the bull pen. Since this blogspot thing is not letting me type next to each picture to let you know what is happening, this is how it goes and you can figure it out with the given information.The first 5 are of the game followed by Ben's post op visit to Shriners. He got his AFO's- they are camouflaged. Very cute and he doesn't seem to mind them so much, which is a very good thing. That visit to Shriners was lots of fun. It always is fun there, despite all the procedures Shriners continues to be a blast. We are so blessed to have one close by. Ben and Peter were working on Lion hand Puppets. Eric, or shall I say Dan Jr., was reading ESPN of course- what else does an 8 yr old read? Then you see a framed picture- that is the latest of the pictures we have had done of our little men. My scanner is not working lately but I wanted to share how adorable they look so there you go. Followed by that are some Father's Day Dinner at church pictures. My sons thought it was a good idea to put the bread basket on their heads. The last one is of the Veteran's Day Parade. Not a great picture but it shows off their homemade outfits.