January 2014

Here's a recap of our major life happenings in January:

After spending Christmas in Morgan Hill, we headed up to the cabin to visit Grandma and Grandpa.  We were hoping for some snow, but were out of luck.  Instead of sledding, we took lots of walks and sat by the wood burning stove.

We did head out to Cover's Apple Ranch.  It's a favorite place of Grandma's and Melissa and the kids hadn't been before.  There's a little barn and corral for the kids to see some farm animals.  They had sheep, pigs, cows, horses, a goat, and some geese.  There was also a small train that you could ride around the ranch on.  That was the funnest part.

My 37th birthday came soon thereafter.  It was a nice day.  I got some books and nice slippers.  Steve bought me a German chocolate cake, my favorite.

Matthew's first birthday was this month, too.  We decided to go with a Hungry Caterpillar theme.  For dinner, we ate many of the things the hungry caterpillar did.  Sausages, fruit salad of all the fruits, lollipops, pickles, cupcakes, ice cream.

Matthew really liked the cake and made a big dent in his cake, plus he ate a cupcake.

He is such a happy, smiley boy.  He love cuddles and tickles.  We love having him as a part of our family.  Happy birthday, Buh-boo!

Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving this year was the complete opposite of last year.  We went up to Jeff and Gina's house in Rocklin for the holiday and a few more days.  I asked Gina what she would like me to bring, and at first she said, "Nothing.  You just moved!"  I couldn't show up empty-handed, though, so I asked if I could bring sweet potato casserole and a chocolate pecan pie.

That's it.  I didn't cook anything else!  I also didn't set the table or clean or organize!  To be honest, it felt a little like I was being lazy.

We headed up to Rocklin on Thanksgiving morning.  We wanted to avoid the mass exodus from the valley the night before.  It worked, and we got there in about 3 hours.  We had a great time talking with Jeff, Gina, their kids, and Gina's parents, Pete and Souki.  Anna had so much fun playing with all the kids there.  In fact, I don't think we really saw her after we got there except for nap time, dinner, and when she spilled the bubbles on her head.  Otherwise, she was running around outside.

Dinner was great!  Scott, Kim, and their kids showed up around 4:30 with a bunch of food.  Pete, Jeff, and Brendon were in charge of the turkeys.  We had 3!  Here's the menu- vegetable platter, a fruit and vegetable slaw, green salad, fruit salad, homemade rolls, sweet potato casserole, and green beans.  I'm sure there was more, I just can't remember.  For dessert, there were little personal sized pies, a cream pie, pumpkin pie, and chocolate pecan pie.  We discovered that Matthew LOVES pomegranate seeds.  He wouldn't stop stuffing them in his mouth until I took them away and hid them.

We stayed in Rocklin until Saturday afternoon.  Mostly, we just talked with everyone and let Anna and Matthew play.  I made it to a Black Friday sale at JoAnne's and Jeff, Gina, Scott, and Kim took us out to a Mongolian grill to celebrate Steve's birthday.  Gina and I also went shopping at the local kids consignment store- it's almost developing into a tradition.

It was a rocky couple of nights with Matthew.  He just doesn't like anything to be different when he sleeps.  It always throws him off.  I was glad to be home, just so we could get him back into his groove.  We had such a good time.

Steve's 34th Birthday

Steve's birthday was a low key affair.  We had it at home and Steve's parents were able to come for his birthday dinner.  He requested Nachitoches meat pies for dinner and a cinnamon streusel coffee cake with peppermint ice cream for dessert.

He got a NorthFace jacket (he picked it out the day before) and a new scarf from me, a Happy Birthday balloon from Anna (she worked so hard to keep it a secret, and she did, even though she was bursting to tell him), a book and a book on CD from his parents, and some money from my parents.

It was a nice evening.  Happy Birthday, Steve!

Time for Some Catching Up!

Well, I'm back with my usual excuse for why I haven't posted anything in a while.  Life is just busy!  The holiday season especially.  So...hopefully...expect a few posts in the next several days.  First up,  Halloween.

We had several activities available for Halloween this year.  The San Jose ward was having a Trunk or Treat and Google was having a family Googleween party, plus there was the day itself.  We decided to skip the ward party and go to the Googleween.  What a crowd!

The kids dressed up and we got to the campus maybe and hour after it started.  There were so many people!  Anna got right in the first game and played that, but the other activities had lines that stretched for miles!  I really didn't want to stand in line for 20-30 minutes so we could shoot darts at inflatable aliens.  Anna did a few activities without lines and then we left about an hour later.  There were just too many people.

Ready to Trick or Treat!

First door

On our way!

The haul

 Anna had fun Halloween night.  Steve took the kids door to door in the neighborhood while I stayed home for the trick or treaters.  I didn't get a single knock during the 45 minutes they were gone.  Steve and I then switched.  He stayed home and I took Anna.  We went down our block, but only 5 houses were available.  Kind of a dud, but Anna had fun.  Steve didn't have any trick or treaters either.  By the end of the night I think we had a total of 2 dozen kids come to the door.