Cute things...

Johnathan's doing so many cute things now that he is saying so many words! This morning, after waking up, I said, "Johnathan, let's go downstairs and feed the kitties". Then I called out "Kittieeees." As he's following me, he usually calls out with me, "Kittieees". But today, he went and picked up his fake cellphone, put it up to his ear, and said, "Kittieees". It was so adorable! He was calling for them to come. : )
When I say, "You want to push the buttons?" on something, he says, "butt!". Now whenever he pushes buttons, he says, "butt!". : ) Again, so cute.
And now he is calling me "Angie" every now and then. Someone taught him that over Thanksgiving. And he thinks it's so funny to call me Angie. I want him to call me Mama. : )
Lastly, my Mom got him to say the word "serious". She said something to him like, "so serious". And he repeated "serious" with this very serious look on his face. So funny....we laughed outloud.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy late Thanksgiving everybody!
We got our Christmas tree the Sunday before thanksgiving and put it up that night. We decided to go for an artificial tree finally because I realized by the time Johnathan's even 5 years old, if we buy a real tree every year, that will amount to around $500. This tree only cost us a little over $200. So we've decided to save money. : ) We REALLY REALLY like it though! It looks so real...you have to be up close to feel the branches to know it's not. Lots of benefits. : )
Johnathan loved putting it up as you can see. We wanted it up early because we're leaving on our Christmas trip on Dec 20th.
My Mom was here for Thanksgiving ( my Mom, Butch, and Emily). They were here more for Butch's family, but it was an added bonus to see us too. They stayed at our house and I hung out with them Weds and Fri. Fun times, more stories to come.

Trip to California!

Johnathan and I took a trip to Orange County, California to go visit my little sister Rachel. I had a free ticket on Frontier and I hadn't been there since Gabe was born 2 and 1/2 years ago. Since then, she bought a condo and got a new dog. So I had a lot to catch up on in her life. : )
My older sister Jen also wanted to come visit her and got a great deal on an airline out of Pasco, WA. So her and the two girls came too! It was great to all be there together. It might be the only time all of us see each other for the holidays this year.
Each night, we all crammed into her condo, but we made it work. We also didn't need to rent a car. We just took two cars wherever we went (two kids in carseats in the back and two adults in the front in each car).
Rachel has a pool at her condo which was nice. The first day I was there, it was 97 degrees! No kidding!

We had a great time every day. The first full day we had, we went to the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, which is free and a great place to take the kids.

Aquarium pics in California

Cute cousins (Johnathan wouldn't sit still by them). Left to right, Laura (5), Gabe (2), Leia (3)

Group picture at the great free aquarium.

(Ahh, the 3 sisters and there kids thus far. Jen and Rachel have little babies in them now too). : )

California cont...

Storytime : )

Laura was playing "hide and seek" with me. I was hiding behind a bush and waiting with the camera for her to pop out and find me. This is that exact moment. She is so adorable. Her face shows pure happiness here. : )

Playing with Johnathan and Laura by the playground on a hill above the ocean. I loved paying with those two.

Well done California. Well done God.

California baby

My neice Laura (5 y.o.), walking on the pretty beach at Dana Point, CA.

This is Johnathan's Uncle Nic (Rachel's husband) and cousin Gabe (2 y.o.).

Cali. cont...

My sisters, Jen (older) and Rachel (younger)

These are the La Brea Tar Pits in the center of L.A.

The boys first fake tattoo. : )

Johnathan home from the trip. hee hee : )

Beach to Snow

Johnathan and I just went on our California trip to go see Rachel. We had a great time (more above). The last day we were there, we went to another beach and enjoyed the sun and waves. So that was Monday, Nov 8th, and we flew home that day. Then the VERY NEXT DAY (Nov 9th), was our first day in Colorado to have snow! Here's a pretty picture below of our fence gathering some snow.