Christmas recap

This year was the first we've spent Christmas as just our little family---no traveling to parents' or in-laws' houses. It was very low-key and cozy and really wondeful and magical and unforgettable.

Here are the kids getting into the spirit of the season with their Santa hats and jingle bell bracelets.

Our favorite pasttime--checking out the lights in the neighborhood.
Our favorite house. We have video on the previous post, in case you missed it.
The lights at the LA Temple

Sorry for the blurry shot...but the temple grounds looked amazing.

I loved this red canopy on the tree.

How cute is Avery in my hat and her new jammies?!

In front of the manger scene

Video of Christmas Eve preparations

Video of Christmas morning

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas holiday. We are so grateful for this chance to commemorate the birth and life of our Savior.

Merry Christmas!!

Ski Lift House

This fourth house is a few blocks from our home. We met the owners the day before, and they were very friendly and even pointed us in the direction of the other three. We love the Mickey and Minnie in the present, as well as the awesone ski lift. So original!

Dancing Santa House

Just across the street is house #3. I would have thought this was over-the-top before visiting the previous two. Still, the kids love the dancing and singing.

Crazy House 2

This is the second insanely decorated house we saw, a mere 4 houses down from the first. They also have a website: www.nortonswinterwonderland.com

Crazy House 1

Our latest favorite Christmas tradition involves visiting the insanely decorated houses in our neighborhood. Here is the first of FOUR houses that we saw. This house has a website: www.wintersnowland.com

Thanksgiving and 10K

Now that it's December already...I'd better post about our Thanksgiving adventures.

Alex decided to pump a little iron before our meal. :-)

Avery wanted in on the photo taking as well. Here's her "trusty Steve, Giddyup."
I just love this face. Had to include it.

This year was the first we spent Thanksgiving just with our little family. We didn't travel anywhere, and it was actually really NICE. Here's the spread: Jennie-O turkey (because I was NOT going to cook a whole one for 4 people), homemade mashed potatoes and rolls, stuffing, cranberry sauce and olives, and Martinelli's and egg nog.

Avery's favorite part was the OLIVES

Alex discovered olives too

The next morning PJ made chocolate chip pancakes. Looks like they were a huge hit!

Saturday was my first ever 10K. It was in Santa Monica and the weather was about 58 degrees, PERFECT for running.

The kids were freezing in the stroller, but I felt great.

Here I am on the last stretch. I'm happy to report that I ran the entire way, and though my time may not be very fast (69 min) it was a major accomplishment for me. I've never run that far before.

Avery ran her 1K race right afterwards.

She loved that she got to break the tape at the end of the race, and she got a completion ribbon which she treated like a toy and even named it "Super" for Superman.

The rest of the weekend was filled with cleaning the house and enjoying time together. PJ was a saint and let me spend a lot of time working on my document (like a dissertation) while he entertained the kids. How cute are these boys?

Here is everyone playing Avery's latest favorite game, Duck Duck 1-2-3.

What an amazing weekend. We should have 4-day weekends more often.

San Diego

Last week we tagged along on yet another of daddy's work trips....this time to nearby San Diego. We WERE going to come for the whole conference he attended, from Wednesday through Monday. Then we thought better of cramming all four of us into one hotel room for 6 days, with me trying to come up with things to entertain the kids while still maintaining a regular nap schedule for Alex, and so I brought the kids just for Saturday through Monday.

Here's the view from our hotel room looking toward the water.

The best part about the trip was our hotel. The room was small, but the view was fantastic! It was right off the water, within an EASY walk to the Seaport Village with lots of shops and restaurants and Avery's favorite, THE CAROUSEL!! We took some nice walks through the area, looking at the beautiful ocean, and rode the carousel TWICE. Alex loved it too.

This is the view from our hotel room looking the other direction, toward downtown.

The hotel had an awesome fitness area, complete with basketball court, volleyball court, tennis courts, horseshoes and shuffleboard. The kids loved to run and run, playing with the balls and other sporting equipment. What a blast!

The big touristy thing we did in San Diego was visit the USS Midway. It's a gi-normous aircraft carrier that you can explore. We got to climb in some of the planes and helicopters and see where people ate, slept, commanded the ship, etc. So cool.

I think we may have a pilot or two in our future...

Avery couldn't believe that the planes were ON the boat. Woah.

Recognize that famous kiss?

On the way home, we passed RIGHT BY the San Diego temple. I didn't realize how CLOSE to the freeway it was!! These photos were taken as we drove by.

Such a pretty temple. I'll have to go inside someday.

What a fun trip. I'm glad we went, but I'm also glad that we're done traveling for a while. This is the first year we'll be spending Thanksgiving and Christmas at home---for many reasons, but mostly so I can get some quality work done on my last step for my doctorate: the dreaded document. Wish me luck.

Sunday Posing

As I was getting the kiddos ready for church recently, I thought they both looked particularly adorable, so I got out the camera. What a cute boy in an adorable suit!

Sweet "smiling" girl wearing the flower clips I made. Oh yeah, and Daddy's old broken watch.

Darling siblings.

I'm glad I periodically record these moments, especially on a day like today when the kids have been driving me out of my mind!!! I'm sure most of the insanity has to do with my husband being gone for the last three days. Breathe....in and out.... Repeat this mantra: "I love my children. I love my children. I love my children."

I really do love them. You understand, right?

A KINK-y Weekend

I had the most fun these past three days. I was involved in a choir named Vox Society that was contracted to sing backup for Ray Davies, the lead singer of the 60's band, "The Kinks." You may know them from "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night." Apparently the Kinks have released a new album called the "Kinks Choral Collection" in which they arranged several of their hits for choral accompaniment. They came to the US to to a short tour (San Francisco, LA, NYC and Boston) and we got to be the choir for the 2 California concerts. Thursday morning we all got in a bus in Hollywood and drove 7 hours to San Francisco, stopped at the hotel for an hour, and then spent the rest of the night doing sound check and waiting for our turn to go on during the second half of the concert. Here are several of the 7 sopranos in our choir.

Friday we drove back home to Los Angeles, and then did the concert again on Saturday. Here's the view from the stage looking into the audience at sound check. I think the first picture was in San Francisco, and all the rest are in LA.
This is our amazing choral director, David Temple, who put this project together with Ray Davies, and whose choir recorded the cd they were promoting. He was so awesome---he rode in the bus with us from San Fran back to LA. We loved his typically English dry sense of humor and his adorable accent.
After the concert in LA we had a little "backstage afterparty" with the band and the managers and all that. PJ came to the concert, so he got to meet several choir members, band members, and the man himself, Ray. Here's a TERRIBLE photo of the group all together. You can kind of see Ray in the middle, and the tippy top of my head just to the left of center. This picture is a tiny bit brighter, but still not great. I'll have to steal some pictures from other choir members and post them later. You can see the drummer well in this one---the guy with the white shirt and tie. He was from Australia and was HILARIOUS to chat with backstage.

Here's a promotional picture of Ray, so you can see what he really looks like.

The music was surprisingly beautiful and really fun to sing. It was tricky to hear ourselves on stage, even with 4 monitors, because the band was really overpowering. Still, I think it sounded fantastic, (as our choir director would say) and the audience LOVED it.

The best part is that I am now officially a rock star!

Update: here is a recording of the concert in LA. More can be found on YouTube if you're interested

Halloween 2009

So......I'm finally getting around to posting about our Halloween activities.

Avery and I cut, baked, and decorated sugar cookies. It created a huge mess and I had to struggle hard not to yell from frustration sometimes while guiding a 3-yr-old through this activity, but it was fun regardless.

We went to a Halloween party with our playgroup where we decorated pumpkins with these awesome Mr. Pumpkin Head body pieces. One is a princess and the other a dracula (whose nose is unfortunately missing.)

PJ and Alex at the ward Trunk-or-Treat party: PJ was dressed as a cyclist and Alex as a pumpkin.

Here's a photo of Trick or Treating on Halloween night. We went to a street in our neighborhood with elaborately decorated houses. There was even a house belonging to a set designer that was AMAZING---a movie theater built onto the front of the house that was turned into a haunted house. There was a line stretching at least 6 houses down the street. We didn't try to wait with two tiny kiddos. Maybe some other year.

We found this awesome free Halloween party on the corner. It was thrown by a local church and so we let the kids run around and jump in the bouncy houses and get their faces painted.

The beautiful Princess in her castle

THE HAUL!!

We let the kiddos have some "trick or treats" that night and the next day, and then Avery picked out her 10 favorites and left the rest for the "Candy Fairy" to take away in exchange for a toy. This worked out perfectly!! I highly recommend it.

Wheatland With My FIRST Eternal Companion

After spending time in the Bay Area, I went with the kiddos up north past Sacramento to Wheatland, CA to visit my former mission companion Bethany and her family. We had the BEST time with them. Avery and Abby became bosom friends, and Alex played well with twins Liam and Lily.

Avery's favorite part was visiting Bethany's parents on their farm. Here's their horse.

Here's the playhouse--kid paradise!

Here are Bethany's adorable parents

Here are Bethany and Paul and their three kiddos

We did a little craft to kill time one day: I made these adorable flower clips for Avery's hair. Check out Bethany's craft blog for more details: mypaperpony.blogspot.com

Then I took Avery and Abby to the AWESOME pumpkin farm

Here's the petting zoo in the pumpkin farm---this is the Goatel 6

Brushing the goats

Riding the rocking horses while waiting for our train ride

The train! Blinding sun, apparently

Bestest friends

Back at Bethany's parents' house, riding the horsey swing

We LOVED spending time with Bethany and Paul! This is the first time we've lived in the same state, and yet I wish we lived closer!! If you're curious why I call her my first eternal companion, here's the reason. On the mission in Portugal (where Bethany, Paul and I all served together) Bethany and I were made mission companions not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES. This is virtually unheard of, so we called each other "eternal companions." Our husbands understand that they are seconds....but they're not the jealous types, so it's ok.