New Years Fun

For New Years this year we decided to go to San Luis Obispo and spend it once again with our friends Steve, Melissa, Troy and Becky and their kids Kadence, Kassidy, Emma, and Tessa...yep our boys were surrounded by girls.  :)  But they had a great time and being in San Luis Obispo was a ton of fun.  We adults even got to go out on a date night with the help of a baby sitter and Ryan's parents watching our kids.  We really were thankful for their help as we had not all gone out without kids in over 4 years.  So it was great!!!!  Then after New Years we stayed for another few days so that I could celebrate my birthday in the pretty (SLO)  :)  We had such a wonderful time as we spent time with our boys, took them to the Children's Museum, and then the boys hung out with Grandma and Pa again so that we could have a birthday Date Night.  We went shopping at the outlets, went and had dinner at Farmer's Market (extra yummy) and then Ryan took me to Apple Farm for dessert.  It was a great day and I will share some of those fun Children's Museum pics in the next blog.

AJ hanging out with his friend Tessa.  These two are only 4 days apart in age. 

 Jake hanging out with his Uncle Steve and Kassidy

 The guys hanging out at Pismo Beach (missing Troy in this pic)

 Melissa and Becky with Kassidy and Tessa

 The bigger girls (Kadence and Emma) playing on their own

 My boys were of course getting down and dirty in the sand...just how they like things

 Happy little sand monster

 Jake had too much fun with this boat...knocking any sand castles down in his sight

 With a break in the action the boys got to make Gingerbread men with their Grandma and Pa

 Both boys helped put candy on and decorate them

 AJ was very curious about the whole thing

 Everyone studying the box for inspiration

After making a Gingerbread boy (who we were told was Jakey) Jake wanted to make a Gingerbread girl (who Jake decided would be mommy)  :)

Two cute little cookies

Hope you all had a great New Years!!!

Christmas 2012

Christmas this year was so much fun as we really got to spread it out.  We celebrated Christmas at Disneyland with Ryan's family which was a blast and honestly we had the best decorations ever!!!  Then everyone came to our house a few days before Christmas and we had another Christmas complete with our family tradition of an horsedouvre meal.  Then we also had the real Christmas of waking up Christmas morning and having stockings, Monkey Bread, and seeing what Santa left under the tree.  My parents and Grandma ended up having to leave the afternoon of Christmas Day but we had already been able to load a lot of Christmas into our days.  :)  And we got to go out and look at Christmas which is always a big hit for us and our kids...and Aunt Kathy seemed to enjoy being dragged along with us as well.  :)  But it was a great time, filled with wonderful memories and family.  I love this time of year!!!

The Christmas tree is actually in Jake and AJ's playroom and so they spent a lot of time around it, but they were really good around it and amazingly not an ornament was broken.  :)

Jake and AJ checking out the presents that my family brought....Jake decided that he had to wear his firefighter costume that afternoon and would not take it off all day  :)

AJ wondering what is in a couple of big boxes for him

Jake was our firefighter Santa, handing out all of the gifts

AJ opened a small stuffed talking Linus

My mom, Aunt Joanie, and Grandma enjoying watching Jake open some new Cars character cars

AJ loving on his new monkey

AJ got this new train made out of blocks, which both boys enjoyed playing with

Jake and his Pa Gary enjoying some time with a book

AJ having fun with our old Ride on Firetruck...both boys have loved this thing and AJ is in a huge pushing phase right now

My dad and Aunt Kathy bought each boy one of these Christmas Cupcakes...and lets just say they were a GIANT hit.  :)

Jake checking out the frosting

He looks pretty happy

AJ our sweet lover really enjoyed his cupcake

Jake got all spiffed up for the Christmas Eve service at our church.  His favorite part was borrowing his Daddy's Bob the Tomato tie

Christmas Morning Stockings!!!  Jake really loved his small stuffed Spider Man, Santa must have known about his new love

AJ having fun with his new Christmas Little People

Santa brought both boys their own flashlight as they always want to play with ours...they were the biggest hit of the morning

Jake LOVES to build things and so we bought him some Duplos to give him a step up from the Mega Blocks

AJ checking out some new books the he received

Jake got some original Spider Man cartoons (not as scary)...yes we have already watched them many times :)

Santa Brought the boys some really cool cars that play music and drive all around...Jake loves his little yellow sports car

And AJ enjoys his truck...occasionally they race and have a lot of fun

After all the excitement the boys took it easy and just enjoyed some milk by the tree

Daddy enjoying a little reading time with his Squidly

On Christmas morning Aunt Kathy worked with Jake to build a Gingerbread Train

The train is together...now for the decorations

The icing is hard work

A wonderful train made with a lot of love

AJ got this shopping cart as a gift from my parents and he LOVES it...I see many miles going on this thing.  :)

AJ having some fun with Aunt Kathy

Christmas night was also a big night for Jake, we had put a twin mattress on his car bed for my dad to sleep in and we figured that he was ready to start sleeping on it himself.  Jake was SOOOOO excited to sleep on his "big boy bed"

Seems to be sleeping well...has not fallen off yet.  :D  I love my big Race Car Bed sleeping boy.

I hope that you all had wonderful Christmases and made many great memories of your own.  Merry Christmas Belated.  :D

Getting Ready for Christmas

Getting ready for Christmas this year was fun even though it was a little crazy.  We started to get ready and then went to Disneyland, then we were able to finish our Christmas shopping and wrapping and our decorating right before the entire family got sick.  But through it all we had a great time.  The boys love the lights and the Christmas tree, and the holiday cheer all around is just too much fun.  This year was really fun too because Jake was old enough to help out.  He spent 4 hours outside with Ryan getting the Christmas lights up and loved every minute of it.  Then he and AJ helped me decorate the Christmas tree which was a memory I will always cherish.  Jake even helped me to bake a few cookies after we all started feeling better and REALLY enjoyed that.  It was a season of just enjoying our family...and watching the boys take it all in and just have fun.

Jake and AJ helped Daddy put up the Christmas tree...

...luckily Jake knows his colors, so he could help find the color coded branches...

AJ seems very pleased with the result!!!

Jake could hardly wait to get the star up :)

Jake hanging ornaments on the tree

AJ tried to help too

Jake setting up his little nativity...he loves to point out "baby Jesus" this year

AJ had fun checking out the snowmen

Then for some fun pictures...We were taking pictures of this chair as we are going to list it on Craig's list and then AJ saw it and immediately remembered his old chair....so he spent most of the next hour playing in it.  :)

Jake was even so kinda as to bounce him.  :)

After their play the boys got a little tired.

This afternoon was the first time that AJ tried to figure out climbing on a little ride on...takes a lot of concentration....

...hmmm something is not quite right about this... 

Now he gets it...this one was easier to get on

"Clear the Road, I'm 16" (months)

Adorable Driving Buddies

Why play with one horn when there are two?!  :D

AJ enjoying his first McDonald's cheeseburger

One of my Christmas cookies called for broken up candy canes, so Jake was a big helper and broke them all up with his own hammer (his "Pat" the hammer from the Handy Manny set)

My adorable boys, Ryan and I could hardly wait to spend Christmas with these fun guys.  AJ would "get it" this year and Jake was so excited as he knew about Santa, Christmas, Baby Jesus, family coming and really just the whole joy of the season.  We could hardly wait.....