Around the House

The weather here has been mostly cloudy and cold. We have a little sunshine every couple days to help us remain sane. As a result we've been spending a lot of time inside. We haven't been up to a whole lot, but here are a few pictures of everyday life.

Ethan had his friend Eli over a couple weeks ago. I was so impressed when they played a whole game of Candyland all by themselves!

A little train conductor time this morning. I love that Morgan is just chatting on her cell phone in the back of the train.

We decided to add more passengers to the train. This time Ethan was driving from the caboose.

More fun with empty boxes!

Empty Boxes

So we're not even a month away from Christmas and most toys have been forgotten, but these empty boxes have provided hours of entertainment in our house for the last week.

Morgan putting her baby and herself nigh-night.

Ethan playing basketball. Since watching daddy's games he has been completely enamored with the game. He gets his "running" clothes on and plays forever. It is fun to watch his imagination grow.

Merry Christmas!

It is hard to believe Christmas is over already. The decorations will be taken down tomorrow and boxed up until next year. Ethan really seemed to "get" Christmas this year. He could tell the Christmas Story with his Nativity set. He loved to sing Christmas songs, "Away in the Manger" and "Go Tell it on the Mountain" being his favorite. We also got to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus a few times. It was so fun to see Christmas through his eyes.

We had a great week last week with some of our own family traditions and some extended family fun. Here are some pictures.

Our traditional picnic in the family room on Christmas Eve.

We got the kids this cash register. Morgan had to check it out pretty carefully.

Ethan showing off his wallet from Opa and Oma.

Morgan got some new cute shoes from Opa and Oma. We need them now that she's actually walking.

We got Ethan a truck, trailer, and quad from Bass Pro Shop. He LOVED it!

The kids got a pretend kitchen from my parents. Ethan's reaction was a loud "NO!" and this sad face. I think he'll like it once it's set up...I hope!

Ethan was very excited about our present for Annika. He had to help open it...of course.

Morgan loved her "pretties" from Auntie Kara, Uncle Eric and Annika.

The girls had a great time playing with all the paper and their presents.

Christmas pjs on Christmas morning.

Ethan took this picture of Morgan and me. I think it turned out pretty good!

All ready for church Christmas morning. Thanks for making us laugh daddy!

and she's off!

Our wild little girl has finally decided to add walking to her talents! She started taking about 6- 10 steps between people last week and this week she has taken off. She will walk at home about 75% of the time. She is even attempting it at the park. Watch out Ethan because Morgan is NOT to be left behind! Here are a couple videos of her hard work. She has also learned (from watching brother) that she can push the kitchen chairs to the counter and then stand by the counter to get what she wants down. I have to start being careful where I put my knives!

Ethan's favorite thing to do lately is to pile up all the pillows from our couches and run at the pile and jump in. Now that Morgan is walking she is not to be left out of the fun. She would start way back by Ethan and then fall into the pillows. It's pretty cute and funny that she won't start any closer to the pillows than Ethan. You will also notice Ethan's choice of clothing. He loves to wear "running pants"(aka shorts) inside, even though it is winter outside and he likes to pair them with a "running shirt" (aka tank top) or he'll settle for inside out pj shirts. At least he still lets me dress him when we go out in public:)

The Great Blizzard of '09

The last time I remember it snowing in my home town was when I was in 3rd or 4th grade. It didn't stick to the ground then and it didn't this time either. But it was snowing this past Monday! We had heard that there was a chance of snow but I was pretty surprised when I looked out the window early Monday morning and I saw big flakes falling. We Californian's that live in the valley get pretty excited about odd weather because it is usually so mild here. This week has been cold though. Well below freezing most nights. I'm just hoping the new plants I planted will survive and that our orange tree makes it.

Ethan had to call Opa and Oma in the morning to tell them that it was snowing. It took a while to get them to understand him that it was snowing at OUR house! Then he had to go outside with his umbrella and play in the snow. In the top picture you can also see the buck that we added to our outside Christmas decorations this year. We have to keep up with the neighbors!

Morgan loves to put hats on her head and lately she has been putting them over her eyes and crawling into the wall and then laughing. It's actually pretty funny:)

Just trying some different things with my camera. I thought this one turned out pretty good of my little sweetheart.

Thanksgiving

We had another awesome visit to the coast. We headed up on Monday after Kevin's meetings The kids were fairly content so we decided to just drive the 2 1/2 hours straight through. We were making good time and actually headed towards getting there in 2 1/4 hours. When we were about 20 minutes away Morgan started to get pretty irritable. I figured she was hungry because it was dinner time. I tried to get her to eat something but she wouldn't. A few minutes later she started puking...all over everything. I felt so bad for her. We pulled over at a gas station and cleaned everything up the best we could. As Kevin said, thankfully we always travel w/ baby wipes. We made it the rest of the way and when we got to the house she was her normal self and chowed on some dinner. Unfortunately I think both kids may have inherited my tendency towards motion sickness. We had a similar incident with Ethan when he was about Morgan's age and again when he was 2. Thankfully car seats are washable. Needless to say we stopped for a nice break on our way home.

We headed down to the beach one night at sunset to get some family pics for our Christmas card. Here are a few of the 40 pictures we took. A 3 year-old and a 15 month old sure complicate things:)

Brother and sister discussing how far Ethan can throw that big rock.

I think both kids reserved their best smiles for the picture with Papa and Nana, either that or Mommy was a little more crazy than Papa.

Such a beautiful evening and a beautiful little girl.

How's that for a pose? The kids were helping us get our Thanksgiving dinner ready. We ate Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday afternoon because my parents headed out early Thursday morning for a family wedding in the Midwest. The meal was fabulous and way too much food for the 6 of us. Ethan ate a bun with butter on it and Morgan just had a few bites of turkey. Someday they'll help us polish off more food.

Working off our Thanksgiving meal with a walk at the beach.

We decided to go to the aquarium on Thanksgiving morning. My parents gave us a membership to the aquarium for Christmas last year so we've been taking advantage of that every time we're at the coast. Each time we go Ethan enjoys something different. This year Morgan really enjoyed it too. As members we can go a 1/2 hour before the doors open to the public so we were there at 9:00 and pretty much had the place to ourselves for a good hour. It was great because the kids actually got to enjoy the interactive kid's areas. Usually those sections are crazy full so it was nice to have some space to enjoy it all. They had a blast.

Morgan trying to catch fish.

Ethan pushing buttons to hear the different sounds whales make.

Touching the sea stars in the touch pools.

Yep, this is the best one we got. For some reason turning 3 means you must give your cheesiest smile any chance you get. And Morgan is copying me making silly noises trying to get them to give real smiles.

After the aquarium we walked around Canery Row for a while They already have their Christmas tree up so we stopped for a picture. It was fun to take the time to enjoy a different part of Monterey. We also had lunch outside at a restaurant and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine. It was a great day!

The kiddos cuddling with daddy after our fun day.

Golfing Pebble Beach (sort of)

For Thanksgiving week we headed over to Monterey. My parents were there with us until Wednesday. We had a great time as usual. This time Ethan got to golf at Pebble Beach, twice. He had a great time and thought he was pretty hot stuff! The first day he went with Nana, Mommy and Morgan while Daddy and Papa golfed another course. The next day Daddy and Papa took him.

Teeing off on number one.

Ethan actually pushed his own clubs over most of the hilly course.

Putting.

Nana tending the flag.

And, picking up the ball like a real golfer.

Morgan was Ethan's number 1 fan. She was a trooper, hanging out in the stroller for an hour.

Finally, a picture in front of the course. It wasn't the "real" Pebble Beach course, just their 9 hole par 3...but it's a start:) I foresee many more rounds of golf on this course.

More pictures from our vacation to come.