Christmas 1 and 2

Christmas day went really well.  We opened presents in the morning.  Then we had creamed eggs on toast for breakfast (a Sproul holiday breakfast) and then we got ready for church.  Church was only sacrament meeting and Kevin and I volunteered to sing in their choir.  My sister was awesome and watched Kaylee in the congregation while we sang.  Kaylee LOVES her aunt Claudia so she had a lot of fun.  The program was really good and I think everyone felt the Christmas spirit.  After church my mom hosted Christmas Dinner with her side of the family and the missionaries.  My grandma and grandpa loved seeing Kaylee's little personality as she ate her dinner.  After dinner, my mom had my gandma and grandpa open their Christmas presents.  She made them each a shirt That said "Sweethearts since 195?"  (I don't remember the exact year just that it was in the 50s) Then she ironed on a picture of them in front of the charter plane they got for their wedding.  They absolutely loved the gifts and said they will wear them when they go to Home Town Buffet.  My grandma kept saying how handsome grandpa was and he was embarrassed but it was really funny and cute.  Anyway, here are some pictures of that day.  I think I failed at getting a ton of pictures.  But I will bust it out.

 Good Morning Padre!!

 Claudia with the hat that she got.  :-)

Kaylee got spoiled!!  Here she is showing grandma the new books she just got!  She loves them.

My dad plays the drums which is why he got this animal shirt!

 We got my brother Charlie an awesome Captain America shirt!

 Kaylee also got this Chase me Kitty that she loves to tote around.  It is a really cool toy!

 My sister is AWESOME!  She bought me this amazing jacket.  It is SO warm.  The proof was really in today while I renewed my drivers licence I had to go back and forth through the snow getting things from my car.  Thank goodness Kevin was there watching Kaylee in the car so I didn't have to tote Kaylee along too.  SO warm!  And pretty!  I think it is super cute.

 This is my gift to Kevin.  We had already gotten so many expensive things at Black Friday I figured that covered us for Christmas and my birthday.  But I wanted him to open SOMETHING from me.  So I made this.  I got the idea off Pinterest.  I warned him ahead of time that it is something cheap and slightly corny.  He LOVED it!  He both laughed and cried which was the point.  I was hoping for both. By the way it cost me a total of 97 cents.  Well for a 2 pack of cards.  And we left one of the cards for my parents to have.  So in reality this cost me less than 50 cents.  :-)

 She looked beautiful in the dress we got her for Christmas

 Mom and Kaylee

 playing in her dress

 Daddy gets kisses

So literally this is the only picture I got of the Christmas dinner.  In fact I didn't get ANY pictures of Christmas number 2!!  Which makes me really sad!  I should have remembered my camera more often.  I just get in the moment spending time with family and forget.  :-(

On to Christmas number 2.  AWESOME!  So the first thing that we did was go to the movies with my grandma Melba!  My dad's mom.  We had a great time and it was so nice to see and talk to my grandma.  We went and saw Mission Impossible in IMAX.  There were times where my hands were in the air around my face which had that "eek" look because surely I would be seeing death soon.  I mean that as a good thing.  It was a great movie and we had a wonderful time!  We were done a little early and so we just headed over to my Aunt Claudia's house an hour early.  Thankfully she is amazing and let us sit down and even watch a movie while we waited for the dinner to begin.  We saw IQ which I hadn't seen but LOVED!  So cute!  So as to not confuse you too much, I have a sister named Claudia (Kaylee's Aunt Claudia) and my dad also has a sister named Claudia (MY Aunt Claudia).  So 2 Aunt Claudia's.  It only gets slightly confusing in a fun way.  Anyway we had a great time and it was fun seeing some of my awesome cousins and their kids.  I truely have a wonderful family.  Kaylee had a great time and was spoiled again by my grandma.  We love our gifts Grandma!!  She also got Kevin and I gifts.  She gave me some beautiful jewlery and Kevin some itunes gift cards.  Along with yummy candy!  We were very grateful!

Oh also, for all of you who have little girls or buy things for a little girl, or you like wearing flowers in your hair or whatever, my Aunt Claudia showed me this awesome website that I just have to share.  Haloheaven.com.  The prices are out of this world good.  I got a bunch of stuff and am awaiting the items now.  They had a 50% off sale during the last week of the year and so they are obviously swamped at the moment so the wait is a little long.  But I don't mind waiting.  It will be worth the wait. 

Christmas Eve 1 and 2

 So we had 2 Christmas Eve's this year.  One the day before Christmas Eve, and one ON Christmas eve.  The first night we decorated the gingerbread cookies my mom made and then we went caroling at people's houses.  We did it the night before so we wouldn't overdo actual Christmas eve.  Caroling went REALLY well.  We sang a barber shop version of silent night that sounded AWESOME!  I will post a video at the end of this post.  Above is my sister in her awesome Disney hat.

 This is my dad with Kaylee!!  So cute!!  She loved her grandpa very much!!

 Here is my little bro peering over the seat ready to carol.  He just got back from visiting his girlfriend in San Fransisco.

 After caroling Kevin, Dad and I all went to get FroYo.  My dad has this new place that usually charges by the ounce (boo!) but on Fridays from 9-11pm they do all you can fill up for $5.  So we went.  They have AWESOME hot fudge and so I made a yummy chocolate treat for myself. 

 The next day was Christmas Eve and we went to our friend Lori's house.  My mom got her Christmas gift early because she had to help me make it for her....If you can't see it her apron says "The time is now" Which is an inside joke.  If you REALLY want to know, you can check out at my other blog HERE for the details.  It is just a little blog explaining our inside jokes.

 Kevin and Kaylee at Lori's house!

 Aunt Claudia and Kaylee girl!!

 

 Lori let Kaylee open her present early.  She got blocks!!  Kaylee absolutely LOVES them!! By the way Kaylee LOVES her grandma too!  You can see the Joy in my mom's face being able to spend this time with her.

 Lori and Mom playing blocks with Kaylee.  THANK YOU LORI!!  She loves the blocks and it has become a great family activity to do before we start her night time routine! 

Can you guess who ended up playing with the by the end of the night?

Lori's was a lot of fun.  We ate a yummy dinner, and played games and opened some presents.  Unfortunately Kevin had to leave to put Kaylee to bed.  So he missed out of the games.  But it was really fun!



And above is the song we caroled.  We are dang good if you ask me!

Mike, Michael and Manda

I always make sure that I get to see these people while I'm in town if they are in town.  Luckily every time I have come I have been able to see at least Manda since Manda and Michael live there.  Sometimes Michael is deployed because of the Navy.  Unfortunately I haven't been to San Diego for Christmas since Kevin and I have been married.  We got married in San Diego on December 27th, 2008 so it hasn't been since then.  So Mike and I keep missing each other in San Diego.  So when I found out we were going to be able to go to San Diego for Christmas I immediately let him know and we planned a get together.  First we went to Mama Rosa's over by Greenfield across the street from that huge 99 cent store.  I think it is Main st.  (For any of you El Cajoners out there)  My mom knows the owners daughter so we tried it out.  It was AMAZING!   I even loved their lasagna which is huge since I usually get disappointed with other lasagnas at restaurants.  (Kevin and I make amazing Lasagna) So I do recommend it.  Anyway it was nice catching up.  Not pictured below but my sister got to come with us too!!  Which was awesome because I always love it when she is around!

(From left to Right) Michael, Manda, Mike, Cindy and Kevin!!  Claudia was taking the picture so that is why she isn't in it.

After dinner, we all went back to my house and played the game of Things which none of them had played before and it was really fun.  I don't think I have ever really played board games with them ever.  Usually dinner, talking, etc.  So this was a fun new thing we got to do.  There aren't a ton of people from high school I hang out with still.  But I'm glad that they are some of them that I do get to see!  :-) 

Before we left

 Since I am going out of order already, I realized that I forgot to post about my own birthday and stuff so here we go.

 

First off, the Sunday before we left we did our ward Christmas program at church and Kevin's parents came since they were already here to watch Kaylee the night before.  After church we all had lunch and I had Kaylee playing while I ate my lunch (she already had hers)  Well, I could tell she was getting tired but it was like 10 minutes until her naptime so I decided that I would finish my food real fast and then put her to bed.  Apparently I was not fast enough and we soon found her asleep in her play area.  We were watching Polar Express and it must have been relaxing!

 Second, during the week before we left Kevin and I needed to use eggs.  So he called his mom and had her email me one of his favorite recipes which they call, "Egg Monster" which I find a lot funnier than "German Pancakes" which is what I knew it as.  So her is my first Egg Monster.  :-)

 Lastly, this is what Kevin did for my Birthday!!  It really was sweet because we weren't going to do anything real big for my birthday because we were doing a combined birthday anniversary out in San Diego.  So it was sweet that he put this together for me.  He printed out a collage of flowers and shaped it into a bouquet, and grabbed me some chocolates!  Made me happy!

Until April I will be an age older than Kevin.  I can't believe that I'm in my late 20s now.  27!  I'm still young.  Pretty sure I always will be.  Even when I'm 100.  :-)

We interupt these messages

I have been posting a lot about our travels and holidays, and I just can't wait, so I am interupting my trip report to tell you the good news!  So a few days after we arrives home for our trip we had our next appointment at our doctors office for our anatomy scan.  This is an ultrasound done to check the baby's organs and health and what most people are most anxious for, the gender of the baby!!  The ultrasound tech put the stick on my belly and said, "well, what do you think?"

 Yea there was no question.  This baby in my belly is a BOY!  Kaylee is going to be a big sister to a little brother!!  We are so excited and I have so many plans and ideas on how to get ready for this little dude!

 I'm already in love with his little nose!!  I feel so blessed to be able to be a mom and to have one of each gender!!  I'm still terrified but in an excited way.  I really can't wait for April/May to get here.  My due date is still May 8th but she did say that he was measuring a little big like May 5th. 

I can already tell he is going to be just as cute as Kaylee.  The doctor said very positive things about his health, everything looks perfectly healthy.   I have actually gained weight for the first time this pregnancy which was bitter sweet.  I was a little worried that I kept loosing weight, so I guess I'm just catching up.  Still under my starting weight but ya know.  Anyway, our little boy looks fantastic and we are SO happy!!

Beakfast at Konos

My sister found this wonderful place to get a REALLY good breakfast that doesn't burst your wallet and is in a nice little location overlooking the beach.  This place is called Konos.  Claudia had gone there last August when I went and I just HAD to bring Kevin as he goes bonkers for breakfast food.  We got the big breakfast mine with french toast and his with pancakes.  I got hot chocolate which was yummy.  Here is some pictures of our wonderful breakfast together!

 Our Breakfasts.

 Kevin and I after the yummy breakfast

 Claudia and I.  This is the view we had while eating our breakfast.  The ocean!!  It is wonderful!  (ps-19weeks pregnant here)

 This is another picture of Claudia and me.  She is the best sister ever!!!

 Kevin and I by the bird statue!!!  I thought it was an awesome random statue.  We saw it on our walk after breakfast. 

This is another example of why my sister is awesome!!  Look at that pose by the bathroom!!!  There were a bunch of people, just hanging out there.  It was weird.  So are we.  And that is why we are family.  :-)

Ducks!

One of the day we were in San Diego we went to Lindo Lake (I probably spelled that wrong) and saw the ducks.  Kaylee LOVES ducks and this is the first time she really got to see the ducks.  I think she had a wonderful time!  They also had a park there so we took her to go down the slide and swing on swings.  It was fun showing my mom and sister how cute she is playing.  How can you resist this cute girl!

 

 My mom and sister Claudia with us at the lake feeding ducks!!

Some of the ducks that we fed.  You will see more in these videos of us feeding the ducks.



Here is a short video of the geese that followed after they let the little ducks eat their fill:



Here is Kaylee playing at the park with us:

 Kevin and Grandma helping Kaylee down, I'm at the top holding her.

 Kevin bringing her back up for another rider.  This was actually her first time going down a slide.  I had tried before but it really was scary doing it by myself.

I think she might have LOVED it!  It is so fun to make her happy!

Christmas Vacation

So here we go.  So we left for San Diego on the 16th.  The flights went really well.  Kaylee was SO good!  I was nervous because she is off bottles and pacifiers.But she did fantastic.  We gave her milk in the sippy cups at the beginning of the flights and then she slept for awhile on one of us, mainly me, and when she wasn't sleeping or drinking, she was happily playing with her fisher price ipod touch holder which had a nice educational baby app going on it.  Of course we didn't have the sound on, but she enjoyed it just the same. 


I REALLY enjoyed spending time with my family.  Relaxing and playing games, watching movies.  The first Saturday there I had my birthday dinner at Phil's BBQ!!  I love that place.  The hard part is that there was 11 people, they didn't take reservations, and this is one POPULAR place.  They were featured on Man Vs Food and it is yummy!  I got to have my parents, my sister Claudia, my brother Charlie, Kevin, Kaylee and my friends Joey, Heather and her boyfriend Eric and my Aunt Ruth all there with me and it was so fun!  Especially since some of them hadn't been there before!  Oh and talking about the long line and such.  We got there a little after 6:30 and met up with my sister in line and by the time we got seated and finished our food, it was past Kaylee's bedtime (plus she wasn't fully adjusted to California time) and she was slap happy!  The best version of Kaylee past her betime mood!  She did all her cute tricks starting with laughing with the group, making fishy kisses, saying thank you, all her funny noises and more laughing.  Everyone LOVED it! 

This is me and Heather at Phil's!  I am so glad she was able to make it!  She is absolutely amazing!  Go Vanguard!!

It was nice the next few days we got to do some really relaxing things with my family.  We went to church where Kaylee was full of energy walking everywhere in the church, and then stuffing goldfish cracker (AKA Fishes to those who are like me and Kevin) down my mom's shirt and then trying to dig them out (in which my mom just took her out rather than expose everyone there he he) and she also started feeding us the fishes and then licking them and putting them back in her snack bowl.  At that point we didn't have her feed us anymore.  lol  She is so funny.

We went and saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie.  AWESOME!  Here is a trailer:

More to blog later about the trip.  With pictures and all.  :-)