A California Christmas

Our theme song this week has been:

"The sun is shining, the grass is green, the orange and palm trees sway. There's never been such a day, in Beverly Hills, L.A...."

While we are not in Beverly Hills, we are in the L.A. area visiting my dad and step-mom for Christmas. We came in late Saturday night, which was actually Sunday morning. After attending church, later that day we went on a walk to the cactus farm around the corner from my dad's house. The kids thought we were in some tropical paradise and wanted to take pictures of very palm tree we passed and enjoyed seeing the cactus too. 

I never took pictures of palm trees growing up!!

cactus and dinos, right around the corner

Starting the walk with Grandpa.

Monday we went to the beach, I didn't pack bathing suits because the water is cold in the summer, so I thought it would be too cold in December. (Growing up here, we never went to the beach in December to swim). Of course the weather has been super warm and pleasant, but we survived the beach with our clothes on, though Austin was in his undies by the end since he tripped in the water filling up his bucket and Erik fell over toward the end. 

Right before Austin fell over. 

Grandma introduced Erik to Danimals (drinkable yogurt). A BIG hit!

chasing seagulls

Trying to block out the bright sun.

Austin and Victoria ran back and forth about 30 times (Austin in his undies).

What is a trip to Cali without visiting Grandpa's orchard?

Christmas Eve and day were spent enjoying time with family, friends, and fun. (How often do you go to the park on Christmas Eve?)

Our lovely Mary

The kids all got some cute furry friends from Santa.

Go Blue!

Austin sleeps with this every night.

Uncle Kevin spoiled the kids with gifts and giggles.

Joy to the Ward

We were supposed to have our church Christmas party on Saturday the 14. It was going to be a talent show with a cookie and hot chocolate bar. I had worked with Victoria and we made up a dance to Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree and taught it to some of the girls around her age. Karissa and her friends were going to sing All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth. I was going to play the violin with the ward "symphony/orchestra" and do a simple dance with lights with some of my friends. Well.... this is what happened instead.

Erik ran out before I got put all of his gear on. I think he regretted it!

It snowed the whole day and the church wasn't plowed in time. On Sunday after church, we had a "linger longer" so we could enjoy the cookies and hot chocolate that were prepared, as well as the decorations that were put up. They did have the ward "symphony/orchestra" play our songs too. We might have the rest of the talent show in January when everyone is back in town. So, if you see a blog about Christmas music, that would be why!

That Time Again

It's that time of year again. It came pretty quickly and the only reason I have been motivated to put up any decorations or do anything festive is because my kids actually helped this year and did most of it. We made it to our favorite Christmas tradition at the Summit to see the dancers there and participate in the cookie decorating, ornament-making, and other festive activities, though I didn't bring my camera. They had a new train display that was very exciting.

To get rid of Halloween candy, we made the "gingerbread" trains again. Erik enjoyed sitting on the table and eating the licorice left-over from his birthday.

I thought I had more round candy, so I had to draw some wheels with frosting.

Some wheels are square...

Erik likes the Jingle Bell horse

Thank goodness for kids keeping me going!!

BYU vs. Notre Dame

Jason was packing a few days before the game, he was so excited. The main reason for my mom's visit was for us to attend the BYU/ Notre Dame game. We left Friday afternoon to make the 3 hour drive to South Bend so we could attend the BYU fireside the night before. A little dinner out as a couple was a nice addition too!

The Stake Center was almost twice as big as ours, which was good since it was full with all the BYU supporters. It was awesome to hear the musical talents of some of the players as well as the testimonies of Taysom Hill and Bronco Mendenhall in their talks. I think it's a great way to start off game weekend. The best part, was the next day during the game, Jason was telling me which player on the field played his guitar and which one said the prayer... it put everything in a different light.

We were sitting in the right place, so at the end of the fireside we were able to get out into the foyer quickly so we could rub shoulders with most of the players and wish them good luck. It would have gone by more quickly, except for the fact that Rudy (the real Rudy, as people were saying) was there and the football players wanted to get his autograph and shake his hand. I only got a glimpse of Taysom and Bronco as they ran off at the end.

We started off the day of the game with a huge breakfast at our hotel, knowing we would need to consume many calories to help keep us warm throughout our visit to campus and at the game. It was snowy, windy, and cold!!

Here's some of the things we saw:

"Touchdown Jesus"

Gold helmets

The cathedral

Inside the dome

Outside the dome

Inside the cathedral

 In the dome we listened to the bagpipes, saw the trumpets play, and followed the band out to walk to the stadium. At Notre Dame, it's all about tradition and the band.

We ate a huge lunch with the BYU Alumni and I was the first to run into Cosmo! The cheerleaders led us in a few cheers.

The original stadium.

Our very cold seats at the game. (You can see "Touchdown Jesus and the dome in the background.)

I have to rank this day as one of our top cold activity days. Up there with the ski jump in a blizzard at the Salt Lake Olympics, the ice hockey game at Michigan in December, and walking around Quebec at Christmastime. With a wind chill factor of 9, we felt quite cold. I was very glad I ate a big breakfast and lunch, b/c I was too cold to eat at the game! Even though we lost, it was a memorable game for sure!

Two-Year-Old in the House

Stand back! We have another 2-year-old! Erik has grown so much and is definitely a full-blown toddler now, except for the fact that he prefers not to eat too much. He was doing pretty good eating noodles for most of his meals, but I knew he would get tired of them. So, he's taking a break from them now. He does still like the slushies at some point during the day. He will usually eat popcorn too. We're working on the eating, again.

He has been talking more and it's so cute to hear him repeat everything everybody says. Whenever we're out and about, he calls any man (or teenager) "Dada" and any woman (or teenager) "Mama". He also likes to growl at people, especially little kids. Sometimes they think it's funny, sometimes they are scared. When he gets in their face to growl, they're usually more scared. When he was in his noodle-eating phase, he called them "Nu-nus" with his nose wrinkled up, very nasal-like. In fact, if a word can be nasal-like, he will make it that way. He calls Karissa "Sa", Victoria and Yoda "Ya-ya", Austin "Au-tin", himself "Wher-wik" and Thomas the train "Momis". He loves to make very big messes and very loud noises by throwing down big metal lids, the stool, and anything else that could make the most possible noise.

He enjoys "reading" and will do that after he crawls out of his crib during nap time. He likes anything with wheels, Lego's, and is getting into little character toys. Thomas books are his favorite and every character in the books is "Momis".

He likes to dance, especially to Gangnum style.

Lately he likes to help more by putting things away when I ask him, especially trash, so maybe there is hope!

We celebrated a week before his birthday by going to the IMAX and watching the "Rocky Mountain Express". Instead of enjoying the huge trains, he was scared and closed his eyes the whole time. The rest of us liked it though.

At the museum after the IMAX show

The airplane exibit

The cider mill after the museum

On his birthday, Grandma Pat was here to play with all day, since Jason and I were at the BYU/Notre Dame game (more on that later). So we had cake and ice cream on Sunday for the final celebration. Since he has no preference for food, I just made what I felt like, though I did make him french fries, which he usually eats, but not that day. He didn't eat any of his cake, but went hog wild over the licorice on it. He liked the vanilla ice cream too, which I thought he would.

His present from Grandma

Enjoying the licorice before I put it on the cake

He liked looking at his cake, but not eating it

Loves his presents

His "growly" face

He's coming into his own character and I love him so much! Happy Birthday Erik!!

Windy Night

We had quite the windy rain storm on Sunday night while we were doing Family Home Evening. It was raining pretty good, which is not too unusual around here. Suddenly the wind picked up like crazy and we all ran to the window to watch. I have to say that at one point I thought our window might break, it was rippling so much, and it was set back under the porch! The really high winds (about 70 miles/hr I think?) didn't last more than 20 minutes I would say, but this is what they did.

Our trampoline was blown over and is now lopsided.

Our neighbor's tree is gone.

Down the street

Fences everywhere blew over

Around the corner (a favorite tree of ours)

More blown-down fences...