Christmas...and the rest of December

Here is a quick recap of our last month. It was a busy one!

We decorated a gingerbread house one night. Emma did a great job carefully putting the candy on.

Matthew enjoyed eating the candy

After we got the roof all decorated we realized the frosting holding the walls together had never dried. It was a mess! We hurried and melted some sugar and put it back together again.

Not professional, but considering Emma did most of the work, I think she did a good job.

The weekend before Christmas we had a Who party with Jon's family. We had a Who feast with roast beast and who pudding, played games, and watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". It was a fun night.

Before leaving Danville we had to go check out this house. It is completely covered in lights and big, tacky inflatables. Every year he adds one more thing to it.

My family came on the 23rd and stayed for almost a week. We had a great visit and I'm so glad they decided to come. Some of the highlights of their trip were

Cuddling with grandma and grandpa

lots of movie watching

Spending Christmas Eve with Jon's family. We ate dinner, had a white elephant gift exchange, and acted out the nativity. Lots of fun!

Christmas morning! We had great plans to have the video camera going so we could see the kids when they came out. However, Emma quietly came out of her room and into the living room. We didn't know she was even awake until we heard her yell "Oh look, it's my bike!" Oh well, maybe next year.

Emma very neatly spread all of her presents out

He would have been happy with just the candy!

We got the kids a potato head silly suitcase that came with several different potato head pieces. This made me laugh.

Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus riding in the airplane. Emma did this all on her own!

Emma LOVES her bike. As soon as we finished opening presents we went out so she could ride it.

The family came over a little later in the morning and opened their presents.

After they were done we went to the park. While there my brother took Matthew down the slide on his lap and Matthew ended up with a sprained ankle (again!) His foot got caught between my brother's leg and the slide and twisted. This exact same thing happened 2 months ago when I took him down the slide. So...poor kid! He's started walking on it again, so hopefully it will be healed soon.
One tired little boy!

The day after Christmas we took my family to see San Francisco. Our first stop was Alamo Square Park to see the Painted Ladies and let the kids play on the playground.

Our next stop was the Cable Car Museum. This really is such a fun little museum (and it's free!)

From the Cable Car Museum we drove down Lombard Street and then went to Pier 39 for some lunch and shopping.

Our family and my mom and brother ate at Bubba Gumps while everyone else went to the Hard Rock Cafe.

They have this fun little display outside Bubba Gumps (the shoes, suitcase, and box of chocolates)

Our next stop was the Golden Gate Bridge, where apparently the whole state of California was. I think we spent more time trying to find a parking spot than we did walking on the bridge! By this time, it was starting to rain so we didn't stay long.

Our last stop was Baker Beach, but because of the rain we only stayed for a few minutes before we headed back home. It was a busy, fun packed day!

Sunday we drove up to the temple to see the lights. There was a lot of traffic and by the time we got there it was late, windy, and COLD, so we ended up staying in the visitors center most of the time.

My family left Monday morning to head down to Disneyland. It was sad to see them go, but we're glad they came for as long as they did.

Daddy daughter bike ride

Monday Jon's parents took the kids overnight so Jon and I could have a little getaway. We took BART into the city and met up with Jon's brother and his wife to go ice skating in Union Square. We haven't been in several years, but it was so fun.

Tuesday morning we signed a lease for this house! We are moving!!! And we can't wait. Jon's commute will be much shorter, it has a large backyard, the garage, fruit trees, and 4 bedrooms. We are excited to make it our own.

Growing Up

Time for a little update...nothing in particular. I've just had several things on my mind that I want to record, more for myself than anything.

Matthew isn't a baby anymore. He's still so cuddly and small (at 18 months he still hasn't hit 20 pounds!), but he is doing big boy things now. And it still catches me off guard a lot. He is talking a lot and I love hearing his squeaky little voice say new words. It makes me smile when I do something for him and he says dantoo (thank you) and then follows with ceckum (you're welcome). Or when he brings me something and says here go mama. He gets so excited when he sees Jon and always greets him in the evening shouting Daddy Daddy, it's Daddy! We get comments all the time about how he is such a happy easygoing boy, and it's usually true. He started nursery a few weeks ago and has been doing great. I stay in there a few minutes while they all get settled and then sneak out and he hasn't had any problems. Matthew is a climber. He climbs on everything and also likes to grab onto the table and bathroom sink and swing from them. He also is a pro at taking his diaper off...and that's been a problem! He and Emma love playing together, though it's usually wrestling or roughhousing of some sort. He has FINALLY gotten the hang of sleeping. He goes to bed really well, sleeps all night, and doesn't wake up until after 7. It has been great! Now if I could just make myself sleep past 6...
We love our sweet little buddy!

Emma has also grown up overnight. Her vocabulary is growing like crazy. It is so funny to hear her use big words. Things like, that's just terrible and that's ridiculous. I know there are several others, but my mind is blanking. Recently she has been working on her negotiation skills. If I say no when she asks me something, instead of throwing a fit (usually) she will say "How 'bout we talk about it in a little bit? Does that sound good? Okay, that's a good idea." She's just too little to be talking like that. :) Emma has definitely taken after Jon in so many ways. She is definitely an artist and can draw better than me already! She loves anything outdoors and can spot a bug a mile away. We were outside the other day and all of a sudden she stopped and said, "Look, there's a beetle!" I looked and couldn't see anything so asked her again where it was. She bent down, moved a pebble and some dirt and told me it was there. Sure enough there was a little beetle crawling in the dirt.
The holidays have been so fun this year, since Emma is really starting to understand them. She asks every day if it is Christmas yet and this morning she asked if Santa was going to come to our house and bring us presents in a bag. We were also talking about the tooth fairy today and when I explained how that all works, her eyes got really wide and she responded with, "WOW!!! And after the tooth fairy gives me money then you're going to give me money too, right. That's how it works. That sounds good, huh Mom!" Emma has also started stalling at bed times. She can come up with 1000 different reasons to not go to bed. There is always something she forgot that she has to get and she always wants to sing to us. Drives me crazy but makes me smile. We love our Emma!

We have been keeping busy. We really enjoyed Thanksgiving with Jon's family and are looking forward to having my family here at Christmas. We feel so blessed to be able to spend the holidays with family. And I'm grateful to my family for making the trip out here...two more weeks! I'm really looking forward to it...the visiting, the candy making, the sightseeing, just spending time with my family who I don't get to see often enough. And that alone will make it a merry Christmas.

Fire Station and some Family Time

To start, here are some random pictures that I find hilarious. The kids are wearing the Santa beard from our Mr. Potato Head Santa.

Jon and Emma went to another Lowe's Build and Grow clinic. They do such fun little projects and of course we love that they are free. On Saturday they made parking garages. For anyone who knows of Emma's obsession with parking, you know that this was a dream come true for her. She was excited.

We took a little walk last Sunday. This is usually how our walks start out. Then Emma gets tired of riding and wants to push the stroller that Matthew is pushing. And we end with Emma pushing the stroller, one of us holding Matthew, and one of us holding the bike. Fun times.

We got to tour a fire station with a friends play group last week. I have to admit, I have never been to a fire station (that I can remember) and it really was so cool. I was just as excited as the kids. We had a great time.

Captain Ken getting ready to slide down the pole. This was by far Emma's favorite part of the whole tour.

In the fire engine

Checking out all the gear

Our little junior firefighter

Afterwards we went and played by the fountain outside of the fire station.

Thank you Kristina for letting us tag along!


Yesterday we went on a little family hike. We had gorgeous weather and beautiful scenery. It was a lot of fun.

Jon found a salamander under a log that the kids enjoyed looking at for awhile.

Slide Fun

Little Tykes slide on Craigslist- $5
An hour spent playing on it together- Priceless!

A Gratitude Attitude

I have had this song stuck in my head all day...well, one line from a song. And I can't figure out what song it is or what the rest of the lyrics are. The one line I have in my head is "I'll have a gratitude attitude"...maybe it was from Joyschool?

Either way, I love this time of year when it seems like everyone has the gratitude attitude. It is so contagious! I have not been feeling very grateful lately and instead have been focusing on what we don't have and all the things that are hard right now. Today it just hit me that I really do have so much to be thankful for. I found myself thinking about it a lot today.

When we were at the toy store and the kids were test driving the bikes I realized how blessed I am to have 2 healthy kids who can run and play and ride bikes. Jon and Emma were able to go on a daddy daughter date tonight and hit me how lucky I am to have a husband who wants to spend time with each of his kids and to have kids who totally adore their dad. I had to drop Emma off at Jon's work and take the train back with Matthew and I found myself thinking how lucky we are to have the train so we don't have to have 2 cars. As I caught Matthew doing new and different things throughout the day I felt so lucky to have such a fun, happy little boy who makes me smile.

I could go on and on, because I really do feel so blessed right now. This little change in attitude has made all the difference for me today, and for that I am grateful.

A Few of My Favorites from October

I just realized I have a bunch of pictures I meant to post, but October kind of went by in a blur and I didn't get much up. So, here is a little bit of October.

Popcorn! The kids love popcorn. And I think it's adorable to see them sitting next to each other in their footie pajamas sharing a big bowl. I also love Matthew's cheese smile and Emma's "don't bother me, I'm trying to watch my movie" smile.

A cute preschool moment. I was cleaning up and came out to find Emma reading to her friends. They were really into this book!

We went to a pumpkin patch for a park group. Emma got to ride the train and had a blast.

I'm loving the color of these pumpkins

Emma also got to jump in the big bounce house. Matthew just watched longingly...

Matthew got the biggest kick out of this. It took him awhile to figure out where the noise was coming from.

Matthew does this a lot now, and he thinks he is so funny when he does.

Precious!