Futsal

Some of the girls on Allison's club team joined a Saturday night Futsal league.  She has never played before but figured it would be great for her reaction time in the goal and a fun time with her friends.

 Since Allison is the only keeper on both the A and B club teams, she is playing on both Futsal teams.  She made some great saves tonight and loved it!  Once she got comfortable with how the game was played, she was in "beast mode"!

I lost count of all of her saves, but she did an amazing job!  She will be quite sore tomorrow.

Winter Formal

While we were at the game, Taylor and Andrew went to Winter Formal.

Luckily, his mom captured a few pictures before they went to Claire's for pizza and more pictures.

 They looked so cute together!!

 Taylor with her great friends Jacob and Jenner.

All of the girls ready for a fun night.  Taylor said the dance wasn't the greatest, but they all made it fun for each other.  

USA vs. Ireland

After years of watching the USA women play in World Cup and the Olympics, we were excited to see them live at Qualcomm for a "friendly" against Republic of Ireland.

We got there early to bbq, tailgate and play a little street soccer and corn hole.

 Several of Allison's teammates got tickets together, but I had already purchased tickets for our family as a Christmas gift.  Zoey, Darian and Leslie sat with us and we had great seats!

 We were there early enough to watch the team warm up and Allison and I especially loved watching Hope Solo warm up in goal.

 The girls sported some fun new gear

 and chowed down on some cotton candy.

 Fun team bonding!

Team USA dominated Ireland with a 5-0 victory.  Carly Lloyd had a hat trick, Alex Morgan scored 1 in her 100th game and a new 17 year old scored the 5th! Hope Solo didn't have to work too hard, but it was such a cool experience to watch the greatest goalkeeper in the world!

New Year's Day Hike

It was a nice sunny day so we drove up to Palomar Mountain for an afternoon hike.

 We didn't think much about the temperature change we would have in the mountains and were shocked to see snow and ice towards the end of our drive.  It was chilly, but the hike was still pretty through the meadow.

It was a nice big loop…dry on the sunny side

 but lots of snow for the hike back.  It was freezing, but fun anyway!  Shorts probably weren't a good idea :)

Dreams of Iowa

Allison has shown a real interest in playing soccer at the University of Iowa.  Yes it is a few years away, but her coach reminds the girls that it is never too early to get under the coach's radar.  Allison wrote a letter to the college women's coach, had her coach edit it, made the changes and mailed it off today.  Coaches aren't allowed to reach out to players at this age, but it will be good practice for the years to come!  I'm proud of her motivation!

Christmas in Danville

We did a quick trip up to Danville, arriving Wednesday afternoon.  We had chili at the house for dinner and Taylor went with Papa to look at Christmas lights in Diablo and Round Hill.  

 We had a Thursday morning visit from the Mascardo's for bagels and muffins (forgot to take pictures) and a very nice late lunch at Piatti's.

Then a quick trip to Starbucks before 5:00 Christmas Eve mass at St. Isadore's.  

 Christmas morning, my dad and I picked up Starbucks for everyone, the girls opened their stockings and we all ate breakfast together before opening gifts.  

 The only picture I remembered to take was Kaia opening the gift she has been sniffing under our tree for the past few weeks.  We were all spoiled, as usual.  Taylor loved her clothes, CDs, gym membership, gift cards and lots of lotions and perfumes.  Allison got her own FitBit, lots of new Nike gear, shower speaker and tickets to the US Women's soccer game in January.

Mike and Joannie joined us for the afternoon and for Christmas dinner.  Allison was a big help to Grandma in the kitchen the whole time we were there.  She helped make the breakfast egg bake, pumpkin pie, scalloped potatoes and enjoyed her time with Grandma.  Taylor set a very nice table and did a lot to help clean up.  She also really loved looking through all of our family history books put together by my mom's Aunt Darlene.  The detail and stories were amazing!  It was a quick trip, but we packed a lot in and enjoyed the family time!

Photos with Gigi

Gigi asked for an updated photo of the girls as one of her Christmas presents.  We decided it would be better to get some photos with her while she was here.  It was a pretty day today so we headed out to Wilson Creek Winery and Southcoast for a photo shoot.

 We had a nice afternoon touring the wineries and their grounds and getting a few good pics along the way!

We appreciate Gigi coming out to spend the week with us.  We ate lots of good food and did some shopping in Old Town and the mall.  She got to watch Taylor play a little bit of soccer and did some baking with Allison.  Unfortunately Kaia never really warmed up to her, but we sure enjoyed the visit!

White Elephant

 We have been enjoying our week with Gigi and had our early Christmas gift exchange with her today before the White Elephant party since she is leaving before Christmas.  She spoiled us with some nice gifts and a gift card for skiing up at Big Bear!  

 We can't wait to use it!

 All of the families and crazy gifts started arriving for our annual party.

 We had an asian-themed dinner…orange chicken, sweet and sour chicken, pancit, chinese chicken salad, fried rice, edamame, etc…YUM!

 We drew #s 1-26 and got the exchanging started.  We had some good ones, as usual.

 Santa knit cap with beard attachment

 Toilet foot rest (Matt ended up stealing this and we are the proud owners!)

 Arrow headband (Hank stole this from Taylor)

 Dying plant with used gift cards attached (funny money tree)

 Rubber poop on the end of a pencil (#2 pencil) and genital sanitizer…gross!

 Oversized tshirt and bandana

 Chewbacca Snuggie

 Stuffed owls of different sizes

 Hot guys with Kittens book.  There were lots of trades and many other gifts I didn't capture with my camera, but it was a fun night filled with good friends and lots of laughs.

The kids finished the night with a game of Spoons and LCR.