Christmas Part 2

My parents and brother Brad joined us for a California Christmas this year.  Christmas Eve day we went to the beach and then fixed dinner at our house.  The weather was perfect, at least 70 degrees.  I good change for them.  Christmas morning, we opened gifts at our house and had breakfast and then headed up to the mountains to join Ian's whole family.  It was a great day!

Von and I on our walk to the park.

Addi and Papa.

Addi and her two Papas.

Uncle Brad and Addi are two peas in a pod.  They antagonize each other to no end.

Bubba.

At the park.

Family pic.

The day after Christmas, we went into the Lake Arrowhead Village.  Addi rode some rides and we did some shopping.

Our little fashionista.

So cute.  

Christmas Part 1

The kids at Fashion Island.  We were lame and didn't get around to doing Santa pictures, this is as good as it gets this year.
Christmas morning.  Ian does almost all of the the shopping for the kids for Christmas and their birthdays.  He loves to think of what they (mainly Addi) would want and then the hunt begins.  It makes my shopping easier, so I am appreciative.  
Bubba doesn't quite get the whole present thing, which is to Addi's advantage.  She ends up opening all of his gifts too and then claims that they are hers.  Luckily, Von doesn't know any different for now.  Next year will be a whole different scenario...

Four Years Old!

On the morning of Addi's birthday, we drove to LA to do another shoot for Pediped (bad mom, I know, making her work on her birthday).  It was only a couple of hours and we still managed to make it to Disneyland by one to meet up with one of her new friends from school.  She always has a great time, so I didn't feel too bad.  Pediped is starting a new arm of their company called Kinderbliss, where they will be selling other vendors items.  Some of them were pretty cute.  Addi is pretty cute too.

Light Parade

We went on the Huntington Harbor Light Cruise with Ian's family.  The kids loved it.  Von spent the whole night pointing and squealing at the lights.  It was perfect weather too.  You've got to love 70 degree weather in December.  

Addi's First Christmas Program

Addi had her first preschool Christmas program on the 16th.  She was a ham.  She was the only kid that had to be physically prompted by the principal to settle down.  To view the video of it, click here http://www.youtube.com/user/alisaclawson.  It is pretty funny.  
This pretty much sums up Addi's performance.
Addi and her teacher Ms. Lauri.  The other day I was driving her to school and I asked her if she ever gets in trouble at school.  She said, "no."  I asked her, "So, you listen to your teacher?"  To which she replied, "Of course, Mom.  I love Miss Lauri."  To which I asked, "Do you love me?"  She responded with a 14 year old sounding, "Ma-om," (insert teenage inflection here).

Bubba

We can't go through December without talking about Von. He turned one on the 12th and is still a joy. We took him to his well baby check up last week. He is 25 pounds 4 ounces in the 82nd percentile for weight, and 31.5 inches in the 92nd percentile for height.  He has his two bottom teeth and four top teeth.  When he was a few months old, Ian started calling him Bubba, and it has stuck. I am afraid it is here to stay. Here are some of Von's favorites:

Food:

Hawaiian rolls

pears

(Chelcie even wrapped one up for his birthday, it was his favorite gift)

Things to do:

Play with his sister

Take showers

Person:

Mommy

Possession:

All of his receiving blankets

Words he can say:

Mama

Dada

Bubba

Addi's Favorites

Addi is now four years old.  So like last year, here are her favorite things, this time according to her...

Movies:

1.  The Ewoks

2.  Peter Pan

3.  Star Wars

4.  The Sword and the Stone

5.  Kung-Fu Panda

TV Shows:

1.  Yo Gabba Gabba

2.  Penguins of Madagascar

3.  Sesame Street

Food:

1.  Corn

2.  Apples

3.  Peanut Butter

4.  M & M's

Drinks:

1.  Chocolate Milk

2.  Water

3.  Juice

Cartoons:

1.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

2.  Voltron

3.  Care Bears

4.  Transformers

Places to go:

1.  Nama's house

2.  The cabin

3.  The park

4.  Disneyland

5.  The Aquarium

Phrases:

1.  I don't want to go to bed.  

2.  I got a funny joke...

3.  You've got to be joking me.

4.  I'm scared!

5.  I can't walk.

Things to do:

1.  Play with toys.

2.  Go to school.

3.  Watch movies.

Things she's afraid of:

1.  Monsters

2.  Ghosts

3.  Dragons

4.  Coyotes

5.  A scary castle

6.  Aliens

7.  Robots

8.  Sharks

Songs to sing:

1.  "Tonight's Going to be a Good Night" by the Black Eyed Peas

2.  "She Wolf" By Shakira

3.  "You Belong to Me" By Taylor Swift

Daily rituals:

1.  Waking up before 7 am and requesting chocolate milk and a kid show.

2.  Coming out of her room several times a night before actually going to sleep.

3.  Asking us to turn the fan on and pray before going to bed.

It's funny how much a little girl can change in a year.  It has been so fun to see her learn and grow!

Birthdays!!!

We celebrated the kid's birthdays this weekend.  On Saturday, we went to Goat Hill and went on the train and took part in some of their Christmas activities with Ian's family and Addi's friend Jonas.  And then, on Sunday, we had everyone over for some Cafe Rio pork tacos and cake.
Addi on the train with Daddy.
Would you like some cookie with those sprinkles?
The birthday girl.
Bubba was totally into his ball popper.
I attempted to make a train cake to go with the train theme from Saturday.  
Addi will be four on Wednesday.  She is growing up so fast and has so much sass.  She is a handful (or about 8 handfuls) but we love her!
He was a little unsure about the cake.
Still unsure.
Not unsure anymore!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The tree is up, gifts are bought, the Christmas cards are out and the kids birthdays are this week.  It is hard to believe that Von turns one year old this week!  We are ready and excited for the upcoming festivities!  Merry Christmas!!!

Palm Desert Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, we met up with Katie, Cameron and the kids in Palm Desert. It was a great trip. The weather was in to 80s, the food was amazing and the shopping was crazy.
We ate Thanksgiving "dinner" at the JW Marriot. We had reservations at 11 am, so our buffet included everything from the traditional Thanksgiving fixings, to a crepe bar, omelet bar, sushi, crab legs and shrimp, the best ham I have ever had in my life, countless desserts and fondue, and a station where the kids could decorate their own cookies to name a few. It was a great way to spend the morning. And the best part about it-no dishes. We did miss having leftovers, but it was nice to change it up.

At the Marriot, they had exotic birds, flamingos and gondola rides. It was a great way to end our meal.
The whole group. After, we started our Black Friday shopping. Old Navy was open, so we headed over to see the deals. That night, Katie and I went to the outlets, they opened at 10. There were insane amounts of people there, it took us a half an hour just to park. But it was a good time and we did get some good deals. We didn't get home until 2 am, which is better that leaving at 3 am, which is what we usually do when we are together with them for Thanksgiving.
So cute of McKinley.
Trying to get a picture of the three of them all behaving themselves=almost impossible. You have no idea how many pictures I have of them in front of this tree.

Cousins.

Will work for shoes...

Back in October, I submitted a picture of Addi on the Pediped website for a chance to be chosen for their next photo shoot, and to our surprise she was chosen.  We drove down to Malibu for the day and she had a great time.  For those of you that know her, you know she is a bit of a free spirit.  It was shocking to see her follow directions so well.  Seriously.  This girl does not listen to anything we say, but managed to do exactly everything they told her to do.  So strange, but good because they invited us back for another shoot next week.
They tried getting this shot with another girl and it just didn't happen and when they got this shot the owner and photographer kept saying, "we got our shot, we got our shot."  So cute.
Our little Addi Boo.
She was not happy about getting dirty, but once she got in front of the camera, hammed it up.