Thanksgiving at the Beach

Charity lives three blocks from the beach so on Friday we all walked down there. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

Time to catch up

We traveled with my mom to Charity's house (Nick's sister) in Seal Beach for thanksgiving this year. As usual our kids were ecstatic to spend the night at someone else's house and were counting the days till we left.

Here is Aaron enjoying chips and dip

and the girls chopping veggies the night before

Elsie took her first bike ride. I feared for her safety but she loved it

.... and Aaron was introduced to video games. Here he is playing with Nick's cousin Issac. At first he was having a hard time figuring them out and he kept announcing that he did not like them. But he kept wondering back and by the end of day two we were peeling him away from it. I think we might have the potential for a video game addict on our hands.

Elsie however found amusement in the clear plastic plates and spent a good five minutes looking through this one.

Aaron followed Issac up this tree and discovered that he loves climbing trees. He spent as much time in this one as he could. When we were leaving he was sad because he wanted to climb it one more time.

Curly Kids

Elsie's hair is finally getting long enough to see signs of being curly. OK so it's not the best shot but you can tell that it wont be strait like this

Poor Charlotte. Her hair was just so thin and strait as a baby

and to make matters worse the hair on top wouldn't grow which produced a mullet

We are hoping for hair like this for El. I always was sad to cut Aaron's beautiful curls.

More Aaron quotes

Many girls in Aaron's preschool class are in love with him and chase him around all day. I think it is going to his head. Yesterday as we were getting ready to go get dinner he said this. " Mom, if there are any girls at In n Out they are just going to stare at me because I am so cool." I wasn't sure how to respond to that.

Dave and Shalee were watching our kids the other night and Aaron told Dave "My baby could hurt your baby."

The beginning of the mob of birthdays

Tuesday night kicked off our annual two month birthday fest with my brothers 16th and my 26th.

All of the good pics must have ended up on this camera because they sure weren't on mine. I'll do my best to recreate the night with what I've got.

My dad brought over some delicious food from Dave's famous BBQ and everyone ate and enjoyed each others company while my dad Nick(brother) and Uncle Ralph played guitar

The Birthday boy. He didn't get the ipod he was hoping for but he did get a nice amount of cash to start saving with! He also got some new clothes.

My dad and Nick played Rocky Raccoon (and a few others ) for us and Alex got some video of it on her camera but this is the only shot I have.

Charlotte took this picture and it leaves plenty to be desired but it does show my new hair color

Here is a shot of the teeth that were making little El so miserable a couple of weeks ago. Now let's hope she grows into them. (Never mind the formula ALL over her face)

This is the newest addition to my nativity collection (of two). It is made out of Olive wood from Jerusalem. It was a group gift organized by my wonderful mother and I love it. I also got some cash which I have already used for some new clothes!

Last soccer game

So Saturday was Aaron's last soccer game for the season. (Nick and I are secretly glad) It was actually one of the better games so I'm glad that I brought the camera.

But first, here is the outfit that Charlotte was planning to wear to the game.

Notice the church shoes.

These pics did a good job of capturing Aaron's personality out on the field. I would like to mention that he is the youngest member of the team.

Here is a typical game face of his

he did get serious about throwing the ball in

and here is a shot of him actually going after the ball

but he usually just preferred to run along side the crowd

Then later that night my dad called and invited us to get Chinese food with him. (I felt this was worthy of posting because when you have a family of 5 you don't get too many dinner invitations!) Thanks dad!

Zoo

When did we become so boring? My entire family has been asleep since nine! It's Friday night!!

Nick was supposed to be Flying to Arizona tonight (which would have been his longest so far!) but it was cancelled at the last minute. So instead he came home took a shower and went to bed. (I do want to brag about him for a minute though. He has recently earned a few raises and I am so proud of him. He now teaches as well as tests students and soon we are hoping he will be flying charter!! )

So as I sat in a quiet house I decided to post pictures of our day at the zoo.



Aaron got a hold of a map and was our navigator for the day making sure that we saw every animal pictured in his guide. The boy gets cuter by the minute.


The elephants.....our traditional first stop at the zoo. The other little girl is Samantha our neighbor. She and her mom Noelle came with us.


Even though this picture is pretty bad I had to put it in. If you look closely you can see Aaron's facial expression. I'm not sure what he was going for but I think he thought he looked sweet. You can also see the Halloween stickers Charlotte decorated herself with and the outfit she dressed herself in. At least the colors matched.


I really love this picture. I just wish I had a better camera. Christmas anyone??


And then there's my sweet sweet baby. Had to include her. She is so close to walking. She just turned 40 weeks old. Why is it so much harder to be pregnant for 40 weeks?

Tomorrow night...Date Night. I don't even care what we do as long as it is kid free and involves staying up past nine!

Trick or Treat

Here is a full shot of the Pirate costume I made for Nick. I am also going to make a vest to go with it but I ran out of time before Halloween.




The dress that Charlotte is wearing is one that my grandma made for me when I was her age. It was really fun to see her in it and compare her to the picture of me in it.


Aaron wanted to be captain Hook so my mom bought him some accessories and I was inspired to make him a jacket. This is the first costume I made and I am pretty impressed with myself. The only other clothing items I have made were Easter dresses for my girls which were much easier.
Elsie didn't fit into the chick costume that Charlotte wore at her age so we borrowed this Tinkerbell costume from our neighbor. She made a darn cute little pixie.
Marissa and Scott brought their kids over to trick or treat with us. Seattle was a pink punk pirate and Johnny made a hilariously cute chicken.

Here are some pictures out in the neighborhood. Charlotte made to sure to tell everyone "Happy Halloween"
As you can see Aaron is not wearing his wig. He wanted nothing to do with it after I took pictures at home.



We didn't have to go far to get a good amount of candy (of which Nick had already picked through!)

Next year I'm sure that these two will join in the fun but they were content to sit in their strollers.