What Happened to December???? And January for that matter...

Well...the title says it all. December was crazy, January slowed down a little. Christmas was awesome (my kids are VERY spoiled!). I was thinking I should go back and post the pictures from all the family parties, the kid's birthday party, Christmas, New Year's and everything else-but then I changed my mind!

We got a new computer last week and I am still trying to figure out how to get the pictures organized the way I want! And trying to get pictures off the old laptop (which hates us now and won't stay on for more than and hour at a time) has been a headache. When I have more than an hour to devote to this, I will figure things out and maybe post some pictures from the last 2 months!

Until then, here is what we did this last weekend!

 Road trip!!

 Drove up through Malibu and stopped at a little beach just inside Ventura County-so beautiful!

 Climbing down from the road where we parked.

 Isn't it amazing the beautiful things you can find when you take the time to stop!?!?

 There were giant rocks, little caves, tidepools and a fun little beach! Owen decided to sample some raw abalone that Scott found-he liked it!!

The boys went to explore some caves while us girls stayed behind to watch the waves.

We had a wonderful day together! After exploring the beach, we stopped for lunch in Malibu then went to 3rd Street in Santa Monica on the way home. The kids love the dinosaur fountains and we let them each pick out a toy from the cute toy store there. I took a lot of video this trip and I will upload some of them later. Little interviews with Owen at all our stops. I have decided that these mini trips should happen more often. We had such a fun time together and it didn't involve going to the movies or the "hanging out" at home (like we seem to do so often). After living here in LA for almost 9 years there is still so much I haven't seen!

Another Beautiful November Day

After church today we decided to drive up to Palos Verdes and take some pictures of the kids, especially since we have had such beautiful weather lately. We took some pictures up there at the library when Emme was just a couple of weeks old (to use for her birth announcement) and I thought it would be cute to recreate the same poses---the kids were not so cooperative though! Wiggles, running, asking for candy and Emme making these crazy laughing noises! We did get a couple of cute shots, but I think it will take a few more photo sessions, and maybe borrowing a nicer camera from my F-I-L to get some shots for a Christmas card. (I need a faster shutter speed so I can catch those fleeting moments when both the kids are looking at me!!!)

We had a really hard time getting her to look at us!

One of the crazy faces Emme kept making---

I finally gave up on taking pictures of them both and just took pictures of Owen.

Doppelganger

Emme makes this face that we call "serious face". We all get a huge kick out of it...she does it on command and it is really hilarious when she tries to do it while smiling!

While Scott was reading bedtime stories to Owen the other night he found Emme's doppelganger!

See a similarity?? (By the way, it is really hard to try and catch the exact face she makes on camera-this is as close as it gets!)

HALLOWEEN

We had such a fun Halloween this year (not that they aren't all fun!).

It all started with some pumpkin carving a couple days before Halloween. Owen and Emme loved squishing the pumpkin guts and throwing the seeds all over the floor. Oh, and they loved carving too! Owen made a scary face pumpkin, Emme (with some help) made a butterfly, Scott made a Frankenstein.

Owen had a costume parade at school on Friday that Emme and I went to see. He had fun walking around and showing off his cool army man costume. There were some pretty cute little kids there!

We had trunk-or-treat at church on Saturday night and the kids came home with soooo much candy! Emme was a little confused with what was going on. I was helping her practice saying "trick-or-treat" earlier in the day, but she just wasn't getting it! After the first few cars she took a look in her bag and got the biggest smile on her face!! She started giggling and pulled out a lollipop that immediately went into her mouth. I don't think I saw her without candy in her mouth the rest of the night. (I also found her eating chocolate the next morning in the corner of the front room! After that, the candy bag was placed on top of the pantry!)

Look at my cute cupcake!!

Tough army man!

On Halloween we decided to not take our kids out trick-or-treating but we did invite a couple of friends over to hang out (so the kids wouldn't feel like they missed out on Halloween because it was on a Sunday!).

We had tacos and root beer floats, watched Nightmare Before Christmas, and made our first deep fried Oreos and candy bars (Snickers, Kit-Kats and Reese's). The Oreos and Reese's were amazing!! I think we found a new Halloween tradition...deep frying our kid's Halloween candy! (It may sound gross, but don't knock it until you've tried it! We made fun of deep fried Oreos for years!)

Look how much Jessica and Mike love the deep fried Oreos!

SOCCER

 Owen started soccer this fall--he is loving it! He is not the best player on his team, but he does have fun and is learning how to play as a team. His team is the Green Gators-they are so cute!

Team huddle with Coach.

Walking With Dinosaurs

Months and months ago Owen saw a commercial for the show "Walking With Dinosaurs" and really wanted go. One of the final shows was herein September at Staples Center and since Scott works there...he was an awesome dad and remembered to get tickets for us to see it!
The dinosaurs were AMAZING!! They were so lifelike-it felt like we were sitting in the middle of Jurassic Park. The kids loved the dinosaurs, yes, even Emme. (She kept asking if it was her dinosaur!) Such a great show. Not a very long show, it is geared towards kids, but worth it! So much fun!!

 Emme smiling at the "dinos".

 T-REX!!!

Well...I tried to load a cool video of some raptors fighting a brachiosaurus but Blogger is not letting me. I will have to try again later!

Apple Picking

Ahh..Oak Glen! We come here every year and I always love it! We have great BBQ for lunch, walk around the cute shops, sample lots of yummy foods and pick apples!
This year there were only a few of us: Jamie and Kylie, Kylee, Owen, Emme and Brittany. We had a really fun afternoon and I was so glad the Jamie and Kylie came out with us!

 Nice apple Kylee!

 Owen and Kylie-busy little apple pickers!

Emme had to sample all the apples we were picking...well, actually 

all the apples on the ground under the trees we were picking from!

Kindergarten

So...time to do some quick updating!

Yes, it is almost Halloween and I am posting pictures from Owen's first day of kindergarten! I know I am behind! Owen has, well, a different teacher. We had some issues the first few weeks of school but things are steadily getting better. He is such a big kid now! I remember when he was born so clearly and now he is off in school all day!

Wedding Weekend

This last weekend has been sooo busy!! I was asked to make cupcake favors for our cousin Jessica's wedding (Welcome to the family Clint!) - 220 Jumbo cupcakes, individually boxed and tied with a ribbon. They turned out so cute, and they tasted good of course!

I was also asked to make the wedding cake for my friend Carly - congrats to Carly and Michael! She had a beach themed wedding and everything was so beautiful! I made the chocolate seashells and added graham cracker sand and edible pearls. I was pretty happy with the cake, I hope they were too!

Summer ABC Book

During the first week of summer Owen and I made a Summer ABC Book. The book has a page for every letter of the alphabet; on each page is an actvity that we came up with to do sometime this summer. The idea is, if Owen has a day where he gets bored, we open the book, find a page and do that actvity!! We have had fun doing everything. This might be something we do every summer!!

Yogurt Popsicles: we made these the first week and now make them all the time!

Bubble Art - You blow colored  soap bubble then press them onto paper.

Kool Aid Playdoh--so much fun!! (We made peanut butter playdoh too!)