Merry Christmas!!!!!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas. We definitely are having a great time with our families. If only it wasn't so cold........oh well! Have a great Christmas and I'll post some pictures later!

Santa arrives on a......EC-130?????

Well, maybe you didn't know this but instead of reindeer, Santa uses an airplane. At least he did for us this weekend! For the kids' Christmas party for Aaron's squadron, they brought Santa in on the plane that he flies. It was pretty cool, he came down the runway waving out the top of the plane and when they stopped right out in front of us, they brought Santa into the party. They had all kinds of games and crafts and of course snacks and Brady had a great time!

They took turns and all the kids got to sit on Santa's lap and get a present (we brought it into work the week before to get it into Santa's bag!).

Brady acutally did really well sitting on Santa's lap. I was afraid he was going to freak out like he did with the Easter Bunny this last year! If you can see in his hands, he's still holding the ear plugs they gave us to wear outside because it was so noisy! The kids had a great time and I think it was even more fun than the adult party they had at Aaron's work on Friday night!

Christmas Parties

This past weekend we had several Christmas parties to go to. Our neighborhood had a little party at our park and they rented the coolest little thing for the kids to ride on. It's called the Farm Choo Choo and Brady loved it!

We had to pry Brady off of it to give other kids a turn and he was not happy about it at all. I tried to distract him with some fun crafts but as you can see, he's trying to look over his shoulder to see the train and get back on it.

So of course, he got back on it next time it came back around!

Christmas Decorating

So last week, I finally got my tree up. Brady decided to help me decorate instead of taking a nap. How thoughtful of him! He didn't want to miss out on the action I guess. So as soon as I got the tree up, he was laying under it having a great time.

Then, when the tree was all up and decorated, I found him one morning giving his tiger a lick of an icicle. Aren't his little Christmas pajamas appropriate for this picture?

He's actually spent more time trying to take things off than he did helping me put them on but I guess that's what they all do right?

So yesterday I went to Walmart to pick up a few things and I needed a storage box to put some of my bigger Thanksgiving/Halloween decorations in to finally get those put away. So I found this box and put it standing up (just like it is below) in the back of the cart. Brady immediately wants to sit in the basket of the cart rather than sit up in the front where he should. So being the shopper that I am, and wanting to buy myself some more time in the store, I put him back there. He gets right into the box and shuts the doors. The box part is clear so I could see him just fine. He was laughing and knocking on the side of the box. I was getting some very strange looks from people wondering what I was doing with a toddler shut up in a box in my cart, but my plan worked. Brady played in that box for another 1/2 hour and I got all my shopping done that I needed. And since I did not have my camera with me at Walmart, I took a picture of him playing in it once we got home. And I must also mention, it kept him busy for most of the day closing himself in and popping out!

Weekend in San Diego

This weekend we traveled to San Diego after Thanksgiving for my cousin Kyle's wedding. Kyle and Ann got married in Balboa Park. There are all these buildings there that are restored old mission-style buildings from around the 1900's. They had the wedding in a little courtyard outside and then had their reception inside one of the buildings. It was really beautiful and so was the weather. It was a nice weekend trip and fun to see some of my family that I haven't seen in a couple years.

Isn't that cake pretty? It tasted so good too!

Brady danced the entire reception (sometimes with ladies he didn't even know) and had so much fun with my cousin's little girls and son. My cousin Heather and I are only a month apart and we grew up living near them so until I was 7 we were together a lot.
My cousin got a really cute picture on her camera of Brady giving a giant diamond ring, they used as napkin holders, to her youngest daughter Kennedi sitting next to Brady. So I'll post that once she sends it to me. It was too funny! We really had a great time this weekend.

Congrats to the new Mr. and Mrs. Hill!

Seal Beach in San Diego

While we were in San Diego we of course had to go to the seal beach in La Jolla Cove. The whole cove is beautiful itself, but these cute seals are wild harbor seals and they just congregate on the beach here because of the rocks and the little walkway sticking out to give them a little break from the harder waves.

Like Brady's sweaty hair? He fell asleep in the car on the sunny side!

Here are some pictures I took a couple years ago when just Aaron and I were there. We were out on the walkway. We couldn't go out on the walkway on this recent trip because the water was splashing up over it and it was blocked off. And all they were doing this year is laying on the beach and sleeping. Aren't these little guys so cute?

This is seriously how close we were to the seals. I am not zoomed in!

It is amazing to watch these cute little things try to get up on the rocks. Their bodies are more like fish and they have to wait for the water to carry them and hoist themselves up. I could stay there all day and watch them play and lay on the beach.