Twenty-nine!

 This year Jon and I both turn 29...hard to believe this is our last year in our 20's. We're getting old! :) Jon's birthday was January 31, but we spread the celebrating out over several days.

The kids got Jon a dart board and just COULDN'T WAIT to give it to him, so he got it a week early. It was killing Matthew to not tell, and we had several conversations like this in the 5 minutes after Jon got home the day we bought it-

Matthew: Dad, we got you a bow... 

Emma cutting in: Shhh Buddy, don't tell him!  

Matthew: We got you a bow and arrow game and it's really cool and it lights up!  

Emma cutting in again: Buddy, you're not supposed to tell him!

So, I finally told him they could give it to him early. They ran and wrapped it in a blanket and brought it out to him. They were SO excited. And we've had a lot of fun with it since then.  :)

 Jon requested a pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting (and the kids requested festive sprinkles). We ended up having the cake the night before his birthday (family night treat!) and it was tasty! We didn't have 29 candles so I did 2 and 9...hey, it works.  :)

How many people does it take to blow out 11 candles???

On Jon's birthday, he took the day off of work. Emma's class was learning about community helpers (jobs in the community) and Jon had volunteered (or been volunteered :) ) to talk about his job. Made Emma's day!

The kids all thought his movie posters and Megamind cape were cool and had a lot of random comments and stories. It was a fun little presentation.

 

 

 It also just happened to be Emma's special day so we got to stay and watch her present her "All About Me" poster.

We raced home from the school and got ready to leave again. Jon's mom was kind enough to come out and watch the kids for the day (THANK YOU!!!) so Jon and I could go out for a birthday date. We were able to go to the temple, grab some lunch, and do a little shopping. Such a fun afternoon!

Sadly, this picture was the ONLY picture we got. But the food was really good.  :)

 

Happy birthday Jon!

And She's Off!

We've got a busy little girl on our hands! I can't keep up with her! She started rolling a couple of weeks ago and ever since she has been rolling, pulling herself up to stuff, scooting....really just trying to move any way she can. Today I just happened to look over at her and she was crawling! It's still a work in progress, as you'll see in the video, but she's gotten a lot better just in the couple hours since she first tried. Hooray Ellie!

And for the record, she is now officially our earliest crawler.  :)

Ladybug

Jon found a lady bug in our backyard today. When Matthew ran out to see it, Emma told him, "Hold on Buddy. Don't touch it. I'm lady bug trained".  She is definitely Jon's child.  :)

The Rest of Christmas Vacation

Every year, Jon gets the week after Christmas off. We look forward to this extra week of vacation and try to soak up every minute of it. This year was BUSY and the week went by way too fast! School and work started back up on Tuesday and it was kind of a rough week....kids sleeping in till it's time to leave for school, homework didn't get done all week, it feels like we've all been moving in slow motion this week. Hopefully this next week is better!

So, here is a little recap of how we spent our week. Tuesday, Dec 27 we met up with Jon's family at one of our favorite places, Baker Beach. It was a GORGEOUS day. The kids jumped right into the sand and the water and we all wore ourselves out.

Are those not the coolest clouds ever?

 

Thursday and Friday Jon went camping with his brothers at Point Reyes while the kids and I spent time hanging out with his family. Fun times! We really love living close enough to see them often. 

This is the second year Jon has gone camping over Christmas break (last year he went snow camping with his brother Matt). It's been such a mild winter so far that there wasn't any snow in the mountains. So, last minute they changed their plans and chose Point Reyes as their camping destination.

They explored a canyon

and the tide pools

played on the beach

and jumped into holes in the rocks to see if they could get in and out before the tide filled it up. A guys camping trip wouldn't be complete without something crazy like that.  :)

Beautiful!

We stayed one more day with his family so we could squeeze in one last outing before siblings went back to school and everyone else went back to work. On Saturday afternoon, we headed to Lake Chabot to do some boating....row boat style!

These three couldn't wait to climb on the boat

Boat #1- Jason, Lindsay, Jenny, and Fij

Boat #2- Our happy little family...Matthew was trying to run get on the boat

Boat #3- Matt, Nicki, Owen, and Michelle

And Grandma and Grandpa were kind enough to stay on shore with Ellie. They walked on the trail around the lake, checking in with us every once in awhile. The kids thought it was so fun to look for them.

 

We had a couple pieces of bread that the kids fed to the  ducks

 

Emma and Matthew each tried their hand at rowing

It's a lot harder than it looks! 

 Gorgeous New Year's Eve day

We hurried home from the lake to get ready to go to TWO New Year's Eve parties. We usually spend New Year's Eve quietly at home, watch the ball drop at 9 pm (the perks of living on the west coast!), and go to bed by 10 pm. So yes, we were feeling pretty popular this year.  :)  We had a lot of fun, but had to sneak out early and get kids (and ourselves) in bed.

Monday, Jon's family came out to our house for a Chopped championship. We love the show and thought it would be a fun thing to do with everyone together....and it was. Completely crazy and exhausting, but so much fun! Pictures and a blog post to come as soon as I have pictures!