A week off...

Caleb had last week off. We took a little Southern California trip for a few days. We started at the aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Then took a few days and drove down the pacific coast highway along the Orange County coast. We stopped in Newport, Huntington, and Laguna Beach. We ended in San Juan Capistrano and looked at the old town and mission there. It was really fun and we had perfect 85 degree weather. 

 

 

The aquarium was awesome. It was big with lots of different fish and mammals...the kids loved it.

There was a parrot enclosure.

They had a shark tank with some huge rays and sharks. 

The kids really liked chasing the sea lions.

We had a picnic at Newport beach and let the kids play and dig for a bit. We also played on the swings and slides, and walked out on the pier.

We walked out on the pier at Huntington beach and walked around the town and beach a little. The sun was setting right then so I played around with my camera a little.

  

We ended our little trip at San Juan Capistrano. The mission was really neat and beautiful and the town was quaint with a small original adobe section. 

 We also took two of our days together around the house. We moved around Joshua and Abigail's room to set up the bunk beds. The kids love it. We also did our spring clean up in the yard and laid and turned in fresh mulch. It was a wonderful week all together. Caleb had to go back to work and we already all miss him. We always love having daddy home. 

Big Kids

We got home, cleaned up Christmas and got back into our routine of callings, running, and preschool. It is really nice, I was pretty worn out after all the activities and festivities.  I also decided to give Joshua a big boy haircut. I did it one day while Caleb was at work and he was so sad when he got home and saw his hair all cut off. I think it looks cute and that it is fun to spike. He looks a lot more like his daddy now that his hair is short. He looks so grown up that it did make me a little sad. 

I have been really sad lately because Abigail is finally completely weaned. She has been nursing only to go to sleep at night for a few months now, so hardly at all. It was super easy and was pretty much her decision. The harder part was earlier on when I first started the weaning process, but I kept moving forward slowly.  It is just really sad for me to pas that stage of my life with her. To know she is going into the busy toddler and preschool age and that I am not going to have that special snuggle time everyday. I still sit and snuggle her to put her to bed at night, but it is just never the same. She has grown up so much in the last few weeks since she stopped it is amazing. So now I have two big kids.

New Years

The Day after the Bailey's left I went up to Santa Barbara to visit my family. Unfortunately Caleb had to work through all of New Years so he had to stay home.  The kids and I drove up to Santa Barbara and met my whole family for a be lated Christmas Dinner. It was really fun to be there with all my siblings and all the grandkids. We had not all gotten together since the hawaii cruise in June. Caleb of course was very missed.  I just threw in a bunch of pictures of the dinner and the next days activities.

My mom and 2 oldest brothers,

Abigail adores Elijah and wants to be with him all the time. She calls him TT which is funny since that is what Elizabeth's boys have always called me. 

Passionate Ezra with Joshua. They are a great balance between their personalities. 

Abigail and Levi love each other and play together the whole time, but get into little baby fights sometimes.

All the grand kids with their Great Grandma "Gam". My goal is to be as healthy and self sufficient at 94 as Gam is. She is an amazing woman. 

Grandma and Grandpa with the Grandkids.

The sister in laws, This might be removed once any of them see this up on my blog :).

The next day the people who were still around went done to the beach for a walk and to dig in the sand. 

Mom and Dad and oldest Bro Billy aka BT.

Billy and Holly and Kim and John's girls.

These pictures show their personalities well. Ezra is always out front "we don't think we do!" Joshua is in deep thought about something and saying "um um Ezra I was thinking of doing..." Then there is Braddock so politely watching and most likely saying " Guys are you sure that is a good idea." 

After everyone wen home we went up to my parents house in the Valley for a few days and hung out. I helped my parents with a few projects. We also took a hike at lake Cachuma. Besides that I went running with Elizabeth everyday and the kids played. We had a very low key New Years, basically My parents, Elizabeth's family and us had dinner together and played one game. They went home to put kids down I put my kids down, watched a movie with my parents and went to bed around 11. I know poor sports, oh well.

The boys threw rocks, sticks and mud clots into the lake.

The last day we were there we went down to Santa Barbara and went to the aquatic center on the pier, and went by to see Travis and Susan and have dinner with them. 

Hope you all had a  great New Years.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year. Caleb was working quite a bit around Christmas and was on sick call Christmas day so we could not travel anywhere before or after Christmas to see family. Luckily family came to see us. Caleb's family came and spent Christmas with us. We were excited to be able to share Christmas with family. The kids were especially excited about having them there and loved it.  

Caleb had to work the 1 pm shift on Christmas eve so we had a funny backwards Christmas eve compared to normal. We always read the Christmas story and another Christmas story and open one present before bed and sing some carols. We just did it in the morning instead of before bed, it worked but was a little odd and not quite as exciting since the kids weren't all revved for Santa coming in a few hours and all that. We were very glad the Grandma, Grandpa and Joseph were there or we would have had a very lonely Christmas eve. Instead we made cookies for Santa, and then made a nice Christmas eve dinner, which Caleb's sister from Vegas was able to join us for.  Then we got the kids to bed and played games.

The kids cookies for Santa were very, very, well decorated with lots and lots of icing and sprinkles!

Christmas morning was fun as always. The kids woke up, and I think woke everyone else up but Caleb and I. They were so excited. We had church at 9 so we started with our Santa presents and stockings. Then we had take a break and go to church. Joshua was very nervous and upset about having to stop the present opening. He survived the hour of sacrament meeting and was ready for round two when we got home. 

 You can see Joshua was upset with me of making him take a picture on the steps before we started. 

 Opening their Santa Presents. They both got scooters.

 In the Sunday best. 

Joshua insisted on putting his Pajamas on again after church for present opening.

Every time they opened a present they wanted to open it and set it up right a way.

Opening presents with Grandpa. Grandpa handed out presents with Joshua's help.

Jen opening presents.

Grandma and Joseph opening presents.

They were so excited.

Joseph was a great help with helping Joshua set up all his presents after Christmas morning.

We had a great Christmas and loved being with Grandma and Grandpa Bailey, Joseph and Jen. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.