2011 Christmas Card

Holy Cow! There’s just so much to tell!
Somehow I’ll condense in a little nutshell.
With so much going on where can I start?
We’re so in love with our three little tarts!
We feel so blessed to have them in our lives.
Doing our best is for what we both strive.

Rylee’s in kinder and doing so well,
She loves all they do even learning to spell.
Still singing and dancing at Proscenium.
Princesses, smiling her spirit blossoms.
She was the star tapper to “Lollipop”.
Polished and detailed she will not stop.
Donning her dress ups are her favorite part.
She looks so sweet that it melts our heart.
Soccer was fun ‘cause we were the coaches,
Yelling “GoShooters” and “tie up your laces”!
It’s all about fun, though sometimes tears,
Elbows, mean faces from those “other” dears.

Brody loves crashing with his little bike,
Into Rylee and Taylee and trash cans alike.
He gallops on fours in the street like a dog.
Barking and panting our silly watchdog.
He still does gym and is getting so strong.
Ask him to flex and he’ll grrrr all night long.
He hoards Disney cars and refuses to share.
Until Taylee scratches or pulls out his hair.
He loves to workout to be just like Dad.
Burpees and sprinting with nothing but glad.
Making us laugh though we want to scream!
He is so thrilled to be a sunbeam!

Taylee loves stealing cars only from him.
She too likes to torment with a sly grin.
Pushing her babies around like a mom,
And feeding them bottles she is the bomb!
She loves saying, “ticka-ticka” repeatedly fast,
When tickling someone with her pink CAST.
We’re three for three and it makes us just laugh.
Around age of two we can chart on a graph.
Taylee can talk and we love it so much.
She can communicate so now no more...Dutch?
Prancing around on her twinkle toes,
Trying to keep up with siblings that go.

Jon loves being “Pumper” on the big Red.
Kids pray every night that he is not dead.
53 Engine keeps them on the go.
But getting no sleep can make them loco.
He works so hard that we can not dispute.
Thankful we are not too long a commute.

Growing they are and too fast for my liking.
Soon they’ll be gone and leave our hearts aching,
For just one more moment to capture in mind.
Sometimes raising children we can be so blind.
I love them all even the one on the way.
Meeting and holding her will make our day.

I love the spirit that comes with the season
Giving and serving is the real reason.
We are so grateful to our Heavenly Father,
Giving us His Son, there is no love greater.
We love you all and miss those we don’t see,
But we hope all is well and you are happy.

Merry Christmas!!

Love, the Rudnickis
Jon, Kimberly, Rylee, Brody, Taylee and Baby Girl

Temple Lights

Tonight the family met at the Oakland LDS Temple to see the lights. This has been a tradition in our family for the past couple of years now and the kids really look forward to it. Everyone but Renee and Brittany's families were in attendance. Uncle Tom even brought his soon-to-be finance Alba. It was great to finally meet her. It was nice that our family got there a little early so we could take in the sunset over the San Francisco Bay and watch all the changing colors. Tonight was fun and definitely not complete without a mishap. First of all Jake pooped through this clothes and did have a change of clothes to replace it. They borrowed a sleeper to replace and put on the snow jacket. Then Jake and Max were shoving each other on one of the bridges that goes over the little river/rock/water bed and Max ended up pushing Jake in the water. The sleeper was now soaked and it was freezing outside. Luckily we had another sleeper that was a little to small for him and he was wrapped in an extra adult coat. Finally we made it through the lights to the top of the Temple. What a wonderful view being able to look over the city lights and see the bridge all lit up. Afterwards we all caravanned to Fenton's Ice Cream Parlor in Oakland. SO YUMMY!!!! Black and Tan!! Just like good old Leatherby's. Thanks for such a great night family!

Christmas at Grammy & Grandpa's House

Our little family traveled to Livermore for some family fun. We arrived and Rylee was so excited to give the presents that she had wrapped for Grammy and Grandpa Nick. She has really been in the giving mood lately and has re-gifted a lot of her toys to her friends. Rylee gave Grammy her mini animals and Grandpa Nick a yo-yo. While there we had a wonderful dinner and went saw lights at a house that had over 343,000 lights. This house is Deacon Dave's a Catholic minister. He starts on Labor Day weekend with a crew of people and has been doing this over 29 years. It was fun to see all his displays and to try to find all the Mickey's hidden around the house. Afterwards we went back for some R&R. The next day Jon cooked a huge breakfast while the kids made snow globes with Grammy and Grandpa Nick. Thanks for a fun time!

Snow Warrior

Jon had made Brody a new bow and arrow AND configured a way to pack it on his back. Lately it has been so freezing that the kids have been wearing snow clothes, though there is no snow. Brody cracks me up! He went out hunting in our backyard today.

Just because...

Jon seems to work a lot around this holiday and we talked about how important it is to let the kids know how much you care about them and how they LOVE getting notes from us. They leave us notes all the time telling us just how much they love us and we need to reciprocate that love. These precious years are going to slip away from us and I know we are going to regret that we didn't spend enough time on the important things in life, like each other. We love you kids so much and this is how much Daddy loves you and I!!!

Yeah Brody!

Congratulations Brody!! We are so proud of you! You have been doing so well in gymnastics that you are now moved up to Rylee's class! You can do a backwards roll and a pull over by yourself! Your muscles are getting so strong! Miss Courtney was your instructor and now it'll be Miss Leah! We love you lots and we LOVE watching you do gymnastics!

My Little Santa Love

These two got these santa hats from Rylee's performance yesterday and they can't get enough of them! These are their new jammies that they LOVE!! Finally warm jammies!

Proscenium Performing Recital and the Live Nativity

My little singing and dancing girl!! She loves to be on the stage and she was the cutest one out there, of course because she is mine. The theme was Christmas Around the World. Her class did the songs Miley Cyrus' Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, "Sister It's Cold Outside" to the tune of Baby It's Cold Outside and Alvin and the Chipmunks "Hang Up Your Stockings". The whole class did such a good job. Thanks to all the family for the support and love to Rylee!From left to right: Max Skubal, Jake Skubal, Emily Bradley, Lily Montes, Brody Rudnicki, Rebekah Bradley, Chloe Leavitt, Rylee Rudnicki, Leah Bradley, Taylee RudnickiAfter Rylee's performance we all went back to our house for some lunch, treats and play. Then we all packed up and went to Elk Grove to see Leah, Rebekah and Emily in the live nativity. Leah was a cow, Rebekah was a donkey and Emily was a sheep. They were so cute and it was wonderful to walk through their church building to see all the creche displays. There were tons! Everything from life size to very tiny, beautiful and elegant to the rubber ducky display. What a wonderful day!

Movie Night

I had recently bought an advent calendar. The kids wake up excited every morning to open the numbered door that corresponds to the day of the month to see what kind of Christmas fun we get to do for the day. Today they read that they will have a christmas movie night with popcorn! The movie was the Polar Express and all three of them loved it! Taylee mostly just loved the popcorn. We love and miss you Jon!

SMFD Christmas Party

Today was so much fun! We went to SMFD Station 29 for food, crafts, a bounce house and a visit from Santa on our fire engine. As you can see, Taylee wasn't too happy about this, but couldn't get enough of the bounce house. The kids love the kind of entrance that Santa made on the huge rig that Jon gets to drive. Engineer Brody, Captain Rylee and fire fighter Taylee to the rescue!!