Belt of Green

Once again, karate belt testing arrived and this time, Zack went for his green belt. This is a pretty big step, because once you have a green belt, you can only test every 6 months instead of every 3 months. Green belt puts you at a much higher level in expectations and in skill level. Zack was so excited! He did very well during the testing. I find it kind of funny that Zack actually does better under pressure than he does in everyday class!

During testing (Zack is on the far left)

Zack getting his green belt from Sensei Jusee

Yay for Zack (and all the rest of the students!), we are super proud of you, Buddy!

The Natty

What is the Natty, you ask? Well it's the nickname given by some to the BCS National Championship football game, that the Oregon Ducks happened to play in a few weeks ago. The game was in Arizona against the Auburn Tigers, and this game was HUGE! Poor Tony was stuck in LA at a K-9 conference, but his sweet cousin Brooke came and picked him up and took him to a place to watch the game. The kids and I had our own little Natty party at home and it was fun! I think their favorite part was eating dinner in the living room! Sadly, the Ducks lost, but they played an amazing game and we are super proud of our team!

Chessman

Zack participated in his very first chess tournament recently! He is in his school's chess club and just loves it. The tournament was organized by grade, so Zack was in the 1st/2nd grade group. Each kid played 5 games, which made for a loooong day! Zack had three losses and two stalemates, and each game went very long. I don't know much about chess, but I think he was pretty well matched each game (4 of his games he played against a second-grader). Even though he would have liked to have won at least once, Zack had a blast and can't wait to do it again!

One of his games. As you can see, they were one of the last teams playing!

Bastinelli Christmas

Christmas was really spread out this year, our last one was January 2nd! It was nice, though, the let down came slower for us that way! :) We drove down to Eugene and celebrated with Tony's dad, step-mom and sibs. Alyssa and Derek both got married this past summer so it was an extra special first Christmas with their spouses as well!

Everyone is (im)patiently waiting for Uncle Derek and Auntie Rachel. Even the doggies!

And let the gift opening commence!

Uh, sorry Derek...and Casey...

I think I said it already, but wow, we are so blessed with such great loving families. People who don't focus on money or trivial things in life, but people who truly love us and our kids for who we are. So awesome. :)

Hellooooo 2011!

On New Year's Eve we had a few friends over for a little kid-friendly party. We celebrated with the East Coast so that our kids didn't have to stay up til midnight and it worked out just great! The kids had a blast, especially with their noisemakers. :) Though I wouldn't recommend giving them to children with 5 minutes to go. Maybe 5 seconds would be better...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Zoolights!

A few days after we Christmas we finally made it to Zoolights. Too bad it was about 30 degrees outside. We always seem to pick the coldest day in December to go. We are going to have to change that... Our friends Erin and Mark and their sweet daughter, Madison, met us there, and we had a great time, besides being popsicles!

Isn't this pic cool? I took it while we were in line for the train right after one had left. I guess the flash hit the smoke just right.

Christmas 2010 - Part 2

Once we were all dressed and ready, we headed over to Marie and David's house. There we exchanged gifts with them and Chrissie and Aaron and had a delicious dinner.

Sadie, Aaron and Chrissie

David and Marie

Tony, Tim and my mom, Betsey

David wrestled at U of O. MacArthur Court, which is where all of the wrestling matches were, is being torn down as we speak. Tony, Chrissie and Aaron went to one of the last U of O basketball games there and took a ton of pictures of Mac Court. Then Chrissie made an amazing canvas collage of the pictures she had taken, as well as one of David and his wrestling team. It had trouble arriving on time, so we printed out a picture so that David could see what it was going to look like. I think he liked it. :)

For Marie, we had (ok, CHRISSIE had) taken a picture of the 7 of us and put it in an awesome frame. I will show those pictures at another time. I'm still on Christmas, give me a break!

Drew and Uncle Aaron having some snuggle time. :)

Zack got his fist Harry Potter Lego set from who else but his Harry Potter lovin' auntie and uncle!

Pillow Pets!
They LOVE them and sleep with them every night.

Momma and my Drewby

Mmmmm, dinner!

And Dessert!

What a great Christmas. We were so blessed to have been able to spend it with two of our families in one, something that has never happened before. I love Christmas!