Happy New Years!

Hi! Sorry, I'm a little late, but we had a great Christmas this year, and we are now all down and out with our families traditional christmas break sickies.    I always seem to get it the hardest, with both kids going on a week of coughing and runny noses off and on.  Nothing major, just enough to bug us and keep us from doing anything too fun and crazy.  Caleb got his beloved Leapster and has already run through his batteries twice, we've had to put it away and give it some "rest" time so he's been busy playing with his Diego Dinosaur Rescue Mountain.  Belle is loving being a mama to her new babies, and tells us all to shhhhh when they are sleeping.  If she's not shushing us, she's galloping around the house on her new stuffed horse yelling yee-haw and giddy-up.  We are enjoying having Jared home for this week, and I know the kids will miss Daddy when he goes back to work next week.  Happy New Years to all who are staying up tonight, I will be snug and warm in my bed, which is where I am heading as soon as I am done here.  Yes, I am a party pooper, and proud of it! 

Santa!

We went and saw Santa at the Bass Store last Thursday with Jared's parents.  They moved all the boats outside to make room for a winter wonderland!  There are lots of free crafts you can do (so far we've made candy cane reindeer plus brought home lots of coloring pages) and free activities, like target shooting and other Bass themed things.  Luckily for us, when we went on Thursday, no line!!!  So the kids got to take their time and enjoy seeing Santa without being rushed along.  We were really happy that they got to see him then because when we went back on Saturday with my parents, it was packed, and they were handing out placeholder line cards for people to see Santa!  And the cards they were handing out were for 2 and a half hours from then!  I couldn't believe it!  Almost 3 hours, just to see Santa!  This year is the first time Belle has consented to see Santa without screaming, so we are very happy!  And of course, Caleb couldn't pass up the opportunity to ask for his Diego Dinosaur Rescue Mountain again (ask him what he wants for Christmas, all he asks for is that and a Leapster).  If anyone mentions Christmas and presents, he will tell you that he wants the Diego Dinosaur Rscue Mountain, with Diego and the Dinosaurs.  Seriously, he has his response down pat, it's quite funny to hear.  But anyways, here are their pictures from Bass on Thursday night. (oh yeah, did I mention they gave each child a free 3 x 5 plus a card for a free kids meal at the restaurant attached to the store?)

Adore? or a door?

So I had to record this for posterity.  Today in primary the kids were learning a new song, and the chorister asked the kids what "adore" means.  I am the pianist and am in there to hear all the funny things the kids say, but today my son stole the show.  While other kids are giving their answers, Caleb announces in th middle of a lull, that adore is " like a door, like when people go in and out of the door"  Needless to say, every adult and most of the kids just started laughing.  The best thing is Caleb was totally serious.  He thought very hard about it, and thought he had the correct answer.  I love my Caleb!

My Pet Wolf

So I got a new blanket.  Jared has dubbed it my wolf.  I have to say I agree with him.  To back track a little, Jared's parents decided to give us money for Christmas this year, with each of the adults having one present to open on Christmas it self.  They gave us the money on Thanksgiving, figuring that with all the sales coming up this month we could maybe stretch the money a bit and get more, knowing that most of the adult kids were looking to get new electronic stuff.  Now me, I'm not an electronics gal.  Don't get me wrong, I love my tv, and I love my computer, but I don't have to have the newest and best constantly.  But there was this one thing that was stuck in my mind....  I had seen it at Pottery Barn the week before, and it had been lurking in the back of my mind ever since, but I knew I would never be able to afford it on my own.  Thanks to my early Christmas present, I knew I could!!  And even better, my wonderful father-in-law found me a 20% coupon that I could use to help even more!  So I now own a faux fur throw and seriously, it feels like a mink coat!  It is so soft and warm and cuddly, I love it!!!  Now, as to why it is my wolf... I didn't go for plain white (bad idea with kids in the house)  nor did I go for the charcoal black.  I got the throw that has black, white, gray and brown in it, so it resembles a wolfs fur coat.  It is the best blanket ever!  It gets pretty cold during the night up here compared to Long Beach, so I have been enjoying snuggling under it as the temperature has dipped into the low 40's the last couple nights.  You can see my wonderful blanket here  Mine is the color pattern on top.  I love my wolf!!

Here I am!

Wow, I've been a lazy blogger.  Well we had a fun Thanksgiving.  We spent the day with Jared's family, had yummy food, took new family pictures (which I will post when I get copies), and went to the theater and saw Bolt (Way cute!!).  The next day we had a family reunion with my side of the family and had a great time eating more yummy food.  It was fun to see people that I haven't been able to see in awhile.  The best was how much we would all get confused with which little boy was who from the back, cause there were 5 little boys within a couple years of age and they all had the same blonde heads!  It was a lot of fun, and the kids had a great time playing with all their cousins.  We also have had family come up to enjoy all the fun decorations at Victoria Gardens.  They also do fake snow in the town square area that kids love playing in.

Chaffey Town Square with everything lit up before the snow started.  Yummy CPK is in the background!

Caleb and Belle laughing and playing in the snow.

The pretty Christmas tree all lit up

Belle talking to Santa and getting a lollipop with Grandma.  This is the first year that she will go anywhere near Santa.  She has always been a screamer, so this is a huge improvement that she got even this close!

Oh yeah, and we attempted potty training with Belle.  Here she is showing off her Princess underwear that were supposed to help motivate her.  Yeah right.  Needless to say after 3 days and only 2 successes, she started to scream No! at us when ever we said it was time to sit on the toilet, so we gave up.  But she likes underwear... so I guess one step at a time.  We will try again in the spring, after the craziness of the holidays has past.