Merry Christmas

Christmas was just so fun this year.

Miles loved all the Christmas lights, the tree, the music, Santa, hot chocolate and of course....PRESENTS.

 Chrismas Eve was spent at our friends house for a yummy dinner.

Romney had to work so we played with our buddies and came home to a little present addressed to Miles.

 

...inside the box were SANTA JAMMIES and new SLIPPERS that he could wear that night...

...we put cookies out for Santa... 

and went to bed!

On Christmas morning Miles came in to my room as usual where we hung out...

...and cuddled until Daddy came home from work.

Once daddy finally made it home we went out to the living room to discover that Santa had come and our stockings were full of surprises!

Miles was LOVING the orange slime Romney is holding and all the "toot" noises it can make.

He thought that was HILARIOUS!

Every present Miles opened, he'd say

"what's it gonna be?"

then he would gasp in a little air with excitement.

...he'd take a little time to play with each gift...

After an very full morning we all took a good nap together...

...and woke up to play with the new toys all over again!!!

This was our favorite Christmas to date!

We watched our son enjoy the morning!

We were not in any rush to be at anyones house at any specific time.

We all got naps in (thats a win win)

Romney and I surprised each other with awesome gifts.

We are truly blessed to have had a wonderful Christmas.

We had a warm home to be comfortable in, full bellies from a yummy breakfast, a messy living room from opened gifts, ears that could hear beautiful music playing, love that was shared in our family and knowledge that Jesus is the Christ.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 ...even if it's a month late...

Counting down for Christmas

Life is finally settling down from the holidays and I can sit here and blog.
(however our tree may or may not still be up)

So be aware the next couple posts will be Christmas!

You've been warned.

The countdown for Christmas was very fun this year.

We have a darling wooden house as our advent calendar with the cutest little doors and knobs.

Every day Miles would go to the "Christmas house" and we would count to whatever door needed to be opened.

 

Behind each door was a piece of paper that Miles would unfold and "read" what it said.

It was something fun that we got to do that day.

 Some of the activities we did were just going to the local Christmas Parade and eat candy...

Or have friends over for a Christmas craft...

Or a fun Disneyland day with friends...

and make brownies...

We learned how to use scissors and made the sweetest....

...snowman...

We went to the Christmas festival and sled on a tiny hill that you could hear Miles giggling all the way down...

and one of the count down days was to just wrap daddys presents.

(there is no turning back now that he knows how to use scissors)

It was so fun.

Miles loved it.

We loved it.

We got Hot Coco and drove around to look at lights, we cuddled and watched movies, we took goodies out to people, we played with play dough. 

It was so fun for our family.

Such a fun way to count down to Christmas!

Disneyland with Daddy

Last week we finally made it to Disneyland with Daddy.

It's been so busy and usually Miles and I go with our friends while Romney is at work.

Miles always asks if Daddy can come too and finally Daddy said YES he was coming.

He was so happy.

It was thee perfect day.

We drove right in and got parking.

We walked right on the tram.

Where was everyone?

I don't know, but it was such a great day to be there.

We saw Donald Duck dressed up cozy warm for winter.

We went on the all time favorite ride at the moment:
Small World.

Miles literally screamed "LOOK" the whole 15 minute ride.

It makes the all the chaos of getting there worth it.

We went and checked out the winter wonderland

where Miles played some "reindeer games"

 

We found Peter Pan.

(Probably the best peter pan ever. 

He totally worked with Miles shy personality and talked all about TickToc Croc which made Miles SUPER happy)

We went over to California Adventures to walk through Cars Land and there was no line for the 

tire ride. Miles was tall enough and we had a blast on that live size hoovering air hockey ride.

While we were eatting ice cream we saw Mickey Mouse and needed to go say Hello.

We also saw Santa where Miles said he wanted a present.

Just a present.

(that'll be easy)

We had such a great day.

It really is the Happiest Place on Earth.

Christmas Tree on Black Friday

Thanksgiving morning was filled with football and putting up the tree before we left for dinner. 

I wanted this part done so it would be ready for decorating on Black Friday. 

Miles was pretty excited to see the tree come to life. 

He wanted to be in the action and help with anything and everything.

Miles is really into helping with EVERYTHING right now.

Or....he demands "I can do it myself!"

But any excuse to be on a ladder with daddy...he'll take it!

The next day (black friday) Miles and I started to haul out Thanksgiving decorations and brought in Christmas.

He loved putting up the ornaments!

He even said to himself

"I'm really good at this" as he was hanging them up!

It was crackin me up.

As we were decorating our tree, we got a phone call from daddy saying that he was stationed for the day at a big Downtown Lighting Ceremony where he works and wanted us to come out for it.

So Miles and I quickly cleaned up and drove out to see our dad.

It only took us 40 minutes to get off the freeway exit and 45 minutes to find parking.

So we missed the firework show....

Thats okay though, Romney had to be on roof and we wouldn't have been able to see him anyway.

 After the fireworks the city turns on the millions of Christmas lights and the night begins.

It was crazy, there were so many people.

Miles and I made our way looking at the lights and found our dad!

It really was a unexpected fun night.

 

 Miles asked so many questions, pointed at so many things, and begged for dinner.

So we said bye to daddy, bought a cheesy light up toy (that broke in the car), and grabbed some dinner.

That was a fun Black Friday....and I didn't even go out shopping!

The Windy City

Before I start this post, I need to say that my heart is so heavy.

My phone took a nice dip in the toilet and it pains me to know of all the pictures that may not be recoverable.

My phone is still in rice....and NO, I didn't have my phone set up on the icloud. 
I know, I know.
 

So the following pictures are the ones that I texted to Romney and my parents throughout our 11 day stay in Chicago.

I am so glad that I have at least these from our trip.

But, I am enjoying my new phone!

The day after Halloween, Miles and I flew to Chicago to visit my sister and her girls while her husband was away for a week.

The girls were so sweet to Miles the entire time!

Avrie shared her Halloween candy with Miles with zero hesitation.

He missed his cousins while they were are school.

As soon as we picked up the girls, I wouldn't see him the rest of the day.

He even wanted to do homework with them.

Cutie Addy girl made a little worksheet for him too.

The second we walked in the door they would play with him.

He got to do things that he can't do in California.....

...like play in a pile of leaves and throw them....

While the girls were in school he stayed home with baby Althea.

He wasnt totally sold on the whole baby Althea thing. 

He was 50/50.

Sometimes he was sweet and would share and sometimes he tolerated her and sometimes he wasn't having it!!

He really does need a sibling...like, NOW.

But when he decided she wasn't so bad.... 

 

 .... they were cute together.

He got to play "run away horsey" every night.

He played down in the basement each and every day,

and picked up some guitar playing skills while down there too.

We went back to the awesome Field Museum where we saw lots of fun animals.

The kids were over the moon excited when their dad/uncle came back from Barcelona. 

They all lined up super hyper awaiting their presents he brought back.

The day before we left, I was sitting on the couch talking to my sister and could see the kids out of the window. 

My heart just melted.

These two love each other!

Their age gap is big, but I hope as Avrie gets older she remembers their little friendship and she'll still take him under her wing.

  (we later found out Avrie had snails in her hand, and they were talking about them...hahahaha)

And without fail, he was knocked out every night!

I wish we lived closer sister!

I wish our kids could play all the time.

I wish my phone didn't drop in your toilet.

I wish time could stand still sometimes.

I love you, thanks for having us.

xoxo