Christmas Vacation in CA: Long Beach

This was our last day before we had to drive back and it was so fun! Lana's family went to visit some of her husband's family in San Diego, so we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach with my folks.

  Penny had my dad all to herself that day and it was so cute to watch them together.

Love this pic below!

Goodness gracious! There's a baby in that tank!

Oh, wait. It's just Violet's reflection sitting in her stroller. (She didn't care what we did as long as I kept her supplied with graham crackers.)


After the aquarium we walked around the pier a little bit.

In front of the Queen Mary.

Then we had lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and Paul got to try on Forrest's shoes.

  

Don't look so sad, Forrest. I'll sit with you.

And that was the last of our Christmas vacation pictures. Can't wait to go back in a few months!

Christmas Vacation in CA: The Getty

If you're doing a southern California vacation, you have to squeeze in a trip to The Getty in Los Angeles. It has beautiful art on the inside, beautiful landscaping on the outside, and admission is free! It felt really nostalgic to walk around since this was where Paul and I took our engagement photos over seven years ago and it was our first time back since that day.

*Paul and Penny in our engagement photo spot, December 2012.

*Our engagement photo, May 2005.

For some reason, it was really crowded that day and both girls were really cranky so the trip was short-lived, but I simply love The Getty!

Christmas Vacation in CA: Knott's Berry Farm

This was one of the funnest days! My folks were so nice to give us tickets to Knott's for Christmas, but on the day we went my dad wasn't feeling well so it was just our family and my sister's family. We had such a good time!

*Our first ride of the day, a little train around the park. (Penny was happier than she looks, it was a little bright!)

We literally spent all day at Camp Snoopy and I wasn't bored for one minute. Penny liked the rides better than I thought she would, and it was so fun to watch her and Max race from one ride to the next.

 

*Violet was happy to hang out with me while Paul and Penny went on the balloon ride.

*Me and Penny in the back with our hands up + Penny all by herself on a plane ride.

I had to share this video of Max and Penny on a ride, they were so cute to watch! 

I was a little excited on the video, haha.

   

After we took the kids home and fed them dinner, my folks were nice enough to watch them while the four of us adults came back for a few hours. It was so fun wandering the park just like in high school trying to cram in as many roller coasters as possible. There weren't very many people there and we just walked on all the rides. So fun!

 

*Awesome blurry photo of us right before we came home.

Thanks for a fun day, Mom and Dad!

Christmas Vacation in CA: Christmas Day

We had SUCH a fun time with my folks in California! It was a nice long break, just ten days of hanging out and doing fun things every day. It did rain a bit but overall the weather was nice and warm. I took a bunch of pictures so I'm gonna break it up into a few posts.

Here's some pics from Christmas day...

Elsa checking out all the stockings.

Opening stockings...Violet got oatmeal puffs and a teething ring. Penny got princess nail stickers and Hello Kitty pens.


Violet's first Christmas present! She was definitely into it.
  
Elsa hugging the Barbie we gave her. I love her little face in this pic!

Paul smolders for the camera as he shows off the new Nixon watch I gave him.

Penny got a Hello Kitty purse from Grandma! She knows Penny so well.

My dad's holding some Instagrams of the girls that I had turned into magnets.

Cutie pie Elsa got a new car!
 
Penny trying on her new Disney princess helmet that goes with her new pink scooter from Santa.

It was so fun watching the kids open presents, and afterwards we got to Skype with my little brother Derek on his mission! It was so much better than just talking on the phone, I loved being able to see him while we got to chat. He sounded so grown up!

And then we just hung out and played with our new presents the rest of the day.


We're going back in April for when my little brother Derek gets off his mission (hooray!) and I can't wait. More pics of other stuff we did to to come...

8 months!

  


And then Violet decided she was done posing for pictures...

I’m a little behind on this month, but here’s some things about 8-month old Violet:

- She just started crawling! Hooray! It is so cute to watch and I’m so proud of her!

-  Three more teeth have come in on the top. Needless to say, she’s been a little crabby. (Thank you children’s Ibuprofen).
- Likes to mimic a little bit. She’ll say “ba-ba-ba” if you say it, and will blow raspberries and clap her hands if you do.

- She positively HATES our vacuum. All I do is bring it out, without turning it on yet, and she starts whimpering. And then I turn it on and it’s like I’m actually torturing her. It’s so sad! But I can’t vacuum while she’s asleep because it’ll wake her up, so I just vacuum really fast like a crazy person while she cries the whole time. Sorry baby girl but we gotta keep the floor clean for crawling babies like you!

- Finally sleeping in the same room as big sister (Penny was in our room for a few months) and it is awesome. We’re just in a two-bedroom duplex so having both girls in one room and getting our room back to ourselves is a BIG DEAL.

-  Eats cheerios and little bits of bread now, she’s getting pretty good with her pincer grasp. I can’t wait to see what she weighs at her 9-month apt. I love this chunky monkey!

- Still so sweet and squishy. I can’t believe there’s only 4 months left until her first birthday. It’s so soon!

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Family Pictures 2012

We haven't had family pictures taken in a few years...I'm so glad we did this year! These were taken in October by a family friend and I am so happy to have them!

This is the one we had printed and framed:

And here are some others I really liked, too:

*I love Violet's squinty face in the one above, ha.


Hooray for new family pics!

7 months!

A few things about 7-month old Violet...

- This girl can eat! We've been trying out some new foods this month - sweet potatoes, pears, peas - and she just gobbles everything up like she can't get enough. She has a bucket of rice cereal before bed each night and honestly I don't know how she manages to eat it all. She has two little teeth on the bottom and chews on everything so I think we might start little finger foods soon.

- So squishy and yummy. I mug on her cheeks and arms and tummy all day long.

- Rolls around like an egg on the floor all day, but she did get up and rock on her hands and knees a few times this past week. I can't wait to see her crawl. Crawling babies are the cutest.

- Gives huge smiles and giggles to mama, dada, big sister and grandpa and grandma, but not so much to anyone else. 

- Constantly trying to steal whatever Penny has, usually a book or Penny's lunch. The other day Penny was eating a peanut butter sandwich on the floor and Violet rolled over quick as lightning and grabbed that sandwich so fast. Before I could get over there she had squished it in her little fist and peanut butter was squeezing through her fingers. It was so cute and funny that I didn't even mind cleaning her up. Yep, we're gonna have to do finger foods soon for sure.

- Starting to play with big sister more. She rolls over and tries to climb on Penny and Penny tickles her and nuzzles her head. It's so cute.

- Likes to growl and flap her arms like a cute little angry bird.
- So happy and smiley. I'm loving me some 7-month Violet!