Welcoming in the New Year

We love the tradition of going to the Rose Parade.  

It started off a bit cold this year (for us with SoCal blood), but turned into a gorgeous day!  We loved seeing all the floats and bands come by.  Especially the ones we had seen up close a few days before.

We also made a trip to the Getty.

Brielle loved this bed made for a French Princess.

The boys liked rolling down the hill the best.

And, we got to meet up with some of our cousins, which always makes everything more fun.

Family Time/Race Track

All of James' family made it in town by New Year's Day.  We were able to get everyone together, and had some fun during the week.

We went out for an all adult meal (well-almost, the youngest baby came, but he slept through it).  It was fun to be able to talk without kid interruptions.  Thanks to Scott and Hannah for watching our kids!

We finally crushed our gingerbread houses.  Our normal time-New Year's Eve, ended up getting too busy and late, so we put it off for another day. It was still a fun way to welcome in the new year.

Preston has been picking at the houses for the whole month.  He was excited to have them easier to get to.

We went to Santa Anita Race Track for the Sea Biscuit tour and to see the horses.

Preston and Vienna decided to be too noisy for the tour, so we got to hang out at Clocker's corner instead and enjoy breakfast.

Winter Break

Scott, Hannah and Vienna came to visit us for the week after Christmas.  We kept busy showing them around some of our favorite spots, and some new ones we hadn't tried yet.  This picture shows our picnic spot outside of the California Science Center.

We went to see the rose parade floats in process of being decorated.  It is always so interesting to see intricate details of the seeds and flower that make each portion of the float. 

We made the effort to go to the Griffith Observatory, but it with closest parking being a mile down road, we continued on to Travel Town.  We met up with Steve and Mandy's family.  It was cold, with a rain storm threatening, but the boys especially were fond of all of the trains.

New Year's Eve was celebrated with the extended Finlay family.  We continued the tradition of having Chinese food for dinner.

And then we tried to see how many people we could pack into the hot tub.

We had an adventure day taking the metro into downtown LA.  We had to switch trains a couple times to get us to Exhibition Park,

We all had a great time, going to see the Endeavor and exploring all the hands-on science exhibits at the California Science Center.

Christmas Day

Christmas morning at our house was filled with the kids excitement over everything. Ethan insisted on wearing his 'Christmas jammies'.

James set up a scavenger hunt leading the kids to the garage to find their gifts.  Our favorite part is Ethan getting smacked in the face. :)

After finishing opening our stockings and family gifts at home we joined the extended family that was in town for a yummy breakfast.

And that evening had a fabulous dinner (ham, cheesy potatoes  & lots of choices of yummy veggies) with the Crump family, Vov, Yogi and Uncle Ed.

Merry Christmas!

Pre-Christmas Fun

Holiday events kept us busy throughout the month.  Church parties, school parties, santa visits, etc. This picture is from the Brush Christmas party.  All of the California cousins were wearing red (unplanned).  They looked so festive together.

Santa came for a visit and brought all the kid some new pajamas.

We joined the Posada festivities with family and friends walking through the streets of Duarte searching for someone who would take in Mary and Joseph.

Ethan was very excited to be Joseph; he got to ride on the card with the donkey.

We love the tradition of driving through the streets of Hastings Ranch to check out all the houses decorated with lights.  

On Christmas Eve our friend Charlene taught us all how to make tamales.  She had everything ready, so we worked together to assemble over 100 tamales.  Yum.

San Antonio

James had a conference to attend in San Antonio for work in December.  This year, Preston and I were able to tag along.  Preston kept me company as we went out exploring while James was at meetings.  It was my first visit to Texas (as well as Preston's).  We had such a great time! 

Preston has not been the best traveler in the past, but did pretty well this time.  He didn't sleep on the airplane rides, even though he was really tired.  But was old enough to be able to be kept relatively happy with toys and snacks.  He loved being an only child for the week and having all the attention to himself.

Tuesday morning we got settled in and went grocery shopping. Our hotel room had a jacuzzi bath tub.  Preston was a big fan of playing in there.  (And I didn't mind soaking my feet and reading a book while I watched him.) :)

We went to the Witte Museum Tuesday evening (free day!) and found a lot to see and explore there as we learned about Texas culture, history and science.

Preston was a big fan of the toddler area where he got to climb on huge play-ground fruit.

Wednesday we went to the Japanese Sunken Gardens.  It was a beautiful place to walk around and do some geocaching.  Preston just wanted to climb up and down the stairs.

James was able to join for a lunch break.  We packed a picnic and went to the Quadrangle at Ft. Sam Houston.  The have domesticated deer and birds there that will come up and eat right out of your hands.

Preston would hold out his tangerines to feed the deer and then snatch it back to put in his own mouth instead.

We enjoyed a lot of walks a long the river walk.  Santa was there passing out candy-canes to the kids, which Preston was very happy about.

Thursday we tried to wait out the rainstorm, but it wasn't letting up.  So we just went out adventuring in the rain.  It was a day to explore the city, starting with the Alamo.

and also some of the old cathedrals and missions

We went back to San Fernando Cathedral that evening for a laser-light show depicting the history of Texas.  (this is the same church as in the picture above!)

We also stopped by a living nativity.  They were wrapping things up for the night, but we got to pet the camel and the sheep, which Preston was very excited about.

On the way to the airport in Austin we visited Zilker park.  We went to the Nature Center to see all of the animal life they had on display.  Preston especially loved the owls.

And walked along the nature trails and along colorado river.

Look Who's Talking!

Preston is 19 months old!  In keeping with tradition, I wrote down everything he had to say for a 2-hour period on a typical morning at home. (here is Brielle's and Ethan's).  Preston falls in-between the other two as far as how much he is speaking.  Brielle was saying A LOT at this age, Ethan only had a handful of words he used.

Right now he is 'parroting' a lot--repeating anything that he hears.  So, a lot of his talking is copying what I say. (i.e. "do you see the tiger?"--"tiger", "do you want a drink?"--"drink") I only wrote down what he said on his own and not all the words he was repeating. He also signs a lot, but speaks the word as he signs, which makes it easier to understand what he is saying.

snake
food
all done
train
choo choo!
house
bye bye
wheeee!
daddy
that
jump
no
lap
please
shoe
off
yay!
go
seat
again
one more time (all slurred together to make it one word)
popcorn
milk
other side
mouth
yummy
hug
water
outside
book
bike
blanky
stuck
hand
finger
Mommy
push
fast
beep beep!
fork
peek-a-boo
mmm hmmm (his affirmative response to most any question)
all done

There are obviously a lot of other words he knows and says that didn't come up in this 2-hour time period.  (car, truck, Daddy, Ellie, Ethan, treat, dance... ) I'm trying to remember other common words he uses, but this at least tracks a period of time for us to look back at.

Sea World December

We took a family trip to Sea World on December, 26th.  One last use of our Season Pass before the year end. 

A baby killer whale-only about 3 weeks old.

Atlantis-one of the favorite rides.  It was a cool day, so we were happy to not get too wet this time.

The kids went on Manta 5 times in a row, with James and I switching off watching Preston.

He wanted to get on the roller coaster with the big kids, but was pretty happy exploring the fish tanks.

We sat in the front row for the Shamu show and still managed to avoid getting wet.  There were plenty of people sitting close to us that were fully soaked, we just got lucky.

The kids loved the snow world.  It was not quite like the real thing (icy, man-made snow) but they got to sled, throw snowballs and build snowmen.

We have loved having Cafe Rio on our route home from San Diego.  It's about an hour away from us, so we don't get there very often, but it is a perfect meal after a long day at Sea World.