Day #3 in Cabo

We woke up and went for a walk on the beach then headed to a beach down the coast that has loads of shells. That evening we went for a ride on the quads. The third of MANY fun days.

The first day of the trip

Here's a small slideshow of our first two days in Cabo. Really, this is a travel day and then our first REAL day in Cabo. We actually had over 1500 pictures (NO KIDDING) for the trip since there were five of us with cameras but I've grossly abbreviated the list and this is only the first two of eight days so here goes:

We're OFF!

We leave today for Cabo until January 6th so don't expect updates before then. I'll be sure to post soon after we get back though so maybe you will all want to come with us next time!

Kids' Stories

Thank you to all of you who did a recording of yourselves reading books for the kids. So far we've gotten them from Aunts, Uncles, Great-Aunts, Great-Uncles, Cousins, Great-Grandparents and Friends. There is still time to get a recording done and included in the final copy. If any of the rest of you would like, I can visit with my video recorder and get the copy digitally too. We've still got some promised to be coming from other Aunts, Uncles, Cousins (and HOPEFULLY GRANDPARENTS, ahem) so this should be a great gift for them to keep forever. I will try to post some highlights when I receive the entire set. Thanks again to those of you who've already done it and keep 'em coming!

San Diego Zoo Lights

On Saturday we too the trek down to San Diego in the afternoon to see the lights at the zoo. There were all sorts of neat Christmas light displays and we got to ride the tour bus and skytram, had dinner, saw a bell choir, watched ice sculpting, and saw LOADS of animals. It was neat to be there that time of night because several animals (like the big cats) who are normally docile during the day were up and about in the evening. The tiger in particular was very vocal and the hippos were swimming laps around their pool. We renewed our membership so whenever you all come to visit, be sure to take the trip down there with us. It's a great way to spend the day (or night!).

Christmas with Nana

At some point on Christmas morning we headed over to Nana's house to visit with her, Grandpa, Great-grandma Tanyon, Great-grandpa Tanyon, Uncle Brian, Uncle Dennis, Aunt Nancy, Cousins Kyle, Jessica & Catie. Although I didn't get any shots of gift-opening (those were all taken with Grandpa's camera) here's some highlights of the rest of our day:

Good Morning

We had a fun Christmas Morning and hope you all did as well. Here's some highlights from ours.

Merry Christmas Ya'll

Hope your stockings, hearts, and glasses are full~

Cookies for Santa

We had a very cute experience tonight, leaving cookies and milk for Santa and carrots and water for the reindeer. My sweetheart wrote out a little note for the big guy in red while her brother stood watch over the cookies so that Daddy didn't swoop in and snatch one. Although her letters aren't exactly perfect yet, she did the whole note without Mommy helping one bit (well, except to spell most of the words of course). Both kiddos signed their names, with the little one needing some help, and we left them on the coffee table by the fireplace. This is definitely one for the scrapbook.

Be Careful What You Wish For

The other day I was thinking to myself 'this toy room is a pig sty, I can't wait for the kids to be old enough to clean it themselves'. I wished at the time that the room was clean so that I wouldn't have to deal with it. So you can imagine how surprised I was to find it neat and tidy the following morning after the kids had been playing and I was doing the dishes in the kitchen nearby. I was very happy with them and about to praise them for their job well done when it hit me....something was missing. In fact, a LOT was missing....
They had taken the majority of their toys from the floor of the toy room and put them on the landing in the middle of our upstairs staircase. You see, the staircase has many stairs and they resemble seats to a toddler...much like a bus has many seats. So the kids were "taking the bus" and needed to bring everything with them on their trip. I was speechless. The stairs were impassable without cleaning up the mess as it was somewhere in the vacinity of 3 feet high of toys. If only I could get them the direct this energy toward something productive - I could be a millionaire.

Visiting family

We went up on the train to visit with our family this last Friday and had a very fun time riding with the kids on the train. We didn't have long to visit but enjoy seeing them when we can. The kids really love their Aunt & Uncle and got to open their Christmas presents early which always scores some good points. They got some great books read to them on digital copy and each got an occupational set. Our little girl is now practicing to be a doctor (seen here with her patient, Aunt Goldie) and our little guy has his own contractor tools and belt to hold them like his daddy. They both loved their gifts (as did we) and look forward to getting to see their Aunt & Uncle again soon.

Happy Birfday

Today is Gran-pa's 55th birfday so his little sweetheart wanted to share this with him:

HAPPY BIRFDAY GRANDPA!

Trimming the Tree

We spent the afternoon and evening last night decorating our Christmas tree. The kids were all excited about helping out. Our little ballerina kept dancing around it like she was putting on some kind of arbor serenade. The highlight for her though was getting to put the Jesus star on top. Sharing the tree trimming duties with the kids is one of my favorite traditions. What a wonderful way to celebrate the season.

Snowflake Craft

We have a playdate today to make these fun snowflakes that are easy and pretty when done. All you need is paper, scizzors and a stapler (with staples of course).

1: take your paper and cut it into a square (size is irrelevant). You will ultimately need six of these squares so either do it all up front or as you go.

2: fold the square into half, making a triangle.

3: fold the triangle into half, making a smaller triangle.

4: cut the 5-6 slits into the triangle, starting from the single fold side, stopping the slit about 1" from the double fold side.
5: unfold the triangle and it should look something like this:
6: Take the outermost strips from both sides and fold them over, stapling them together at their outermost points.
7: Take the next outermost points and fold them over on the OTHER SIDE, stapling them together at their outermost points. Repeat alternating with remaining strips, leaving center diamond in tact.

8: Do steps #1-7 five more times then staple them together at the center and outermost strips to make your snowflake!Thanks Nana for the great idea!

December?

You wouldn't believe it was really December by the looks of these pictures, but last weekend we had an amazing trip, canoeing/kayaking down the Colorado river. One of our friends, Brendan, had the idea so he went with us and we had a great time. Thanks for the idea bud~

Wrapping it Up

Daddy gave me some time to finish up a little client work last weekend when he showed the kiddos how to wrap Christmas presents. His little girl helped by getting the boxes and tags, her brother was in charge of bows and tissue,And daddy? Well, he was in charge of making the rest of the mess! So here's my disclaimer folks, Mommy didn't wrap those presents so cut the kids some slack.

Happy Thanksgiving

Some food for thought (since you all will most likely have plenty of the other kind):

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving. ~H.U. Westermayer

Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence. ~Erma Bombeck

Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel. ~Author Unknown

"Some people complain because God put thorns on roses, while others praise Him for putting roses among thorns." ~Author Unknown

Kids Christmas List

It's that time of year again, when I get multiple emails and phone calls asking what the kids (and we) would like for Christmas. It has been an ongoing effort to convince people that we prefer their company and time to presents. I completely understand that for many people, the time is much harder to part with though. So here's my idea for a Christmas gift for the kids that they will enjoy and keep forever:

You've got 30 days before Christmas. This shouldn't take you long at all. Go to your favorite book store, library or thrift shop and find your favorite children's book. Get a tape, CD or DVD and record yourself reading the book to the kids. You could do this with a video camera, tape recorder, computer, or whatever. I can convert any media you get the reading onto so that the kids will be able to have it forever. If you would like, you can include the book with the media as part of the gift but the media itself (audio and/or video) is the truly valuable part of the idea. I would like to make a compilation of as many various friends and family reading stories to them as possible. Ultimately I would like to put them all onto a single disc for the kids to keep. Perhaps someday you'll be reading it to their grandkids!

Thankful

Today I am thankful to God for all of the amazing blessings we have received. Tomorrow we will be spending the day with our family in California and missing our family in Oregon. We are truly blessed to have so many people who care about us. We have a nice house to live in that is located in a beautiful place where few people could make ends meet. We and our kids are healthy and happy. When things go wrong we are able to sort them out and deal with them. We have several good friends to spend fun times with. When people refer to the "good 'ol days", this must be what they are talking about. Thank you Lord, a million times over for our wonderful gifts.

It's a zoo in there

Today I specifically planned to stay home and do NOTHING...well, not nothing, but rather, nothing that wasn't kid oriented. So we started the day by cleaning the toy room and vacuuming so that we could spend the rest of the morning playing with their toys together. We built a lincoln log tower, played with their baby dolls, made some make-believe brunch in their pots & pans, but the highlight of the mornings was building a zoo out of megablocks:
They just soak in the time that I can devote entirely to them and not to running errands or cleaning things or dealing with a client. I love days when all I have to do is be a mom. Being a mom is the BEST.