California Here We Come!!

Two days after Christmas we loaded up the car and headed out to California to spend a week with Jarod's family in Newport Beach, California. Mom and Dad V. swapped their time shares in Hawaii for Newport, so that we could all enjoy a second Christmas at the resort. Many thanks go out to them for hosting such a fun week. It felt like such a whirlwind vacation, and as usual, we felt like we didn't have enough time together.

Our first morning there we made our traditional trip to JCPenny for family portraits. They turned out really well. I'm excited to get them. Then it was over to South Coast Plaza for lunch. After waiting in line at the Rain Forest Cafe for over 30 minutes, we jumped ship and went over to Claim Jumper. Quite delicious. The best part of it all was eating for free...that's right. As luck would have it, we experienced really bad service. So much so, that my brother in law Damon complained, and ended up getting all our money refunded. Woo hoo!!

After lunch, we sent the Wilsteads and Elle home, and walked around the mall for a few minutes until we had to leave to pick up Navarre and Catherine at the Long Beach airport. I was glad we stayed because the kids got to ride the Carousel, and they LOVED it!

Christmas

We had our very first Christmas in our own home. The tradition has been to spend Christmas at my parents' house, but seeing as none of the other siblings would be around for Christmas, we decided to have Mom and Dad come to our house for the festivities, in order to avoid carting our belongings back and forth all week. It was a great time. We had the traditional Christmas program on Christmas eve, and a wonderful dinner. Then my parents enjoyed watching Jarod assemble the gifts from Santa. In our house, the gifts from Santa come unwrapped, and already put together. Who knew the kitchen Santa brought for Carly had so many parts!!! All in all, it was a great Christmas. The kids scored big time, and it was fun to watch them open the gifts.

I think Jarod was more excited at this gift than Josh was. Jarod got Josh big boy pants. Now I get to look forward to potty training Josh. I kept saying I wasn't even going to think about it until after Christmas...well, now I guess I'd better get on it.

Reed's kids picked out great gifts for my parents. They went to some function where the kids went into the "store" picked out gifts, and then had them wrapped and mailed. Dad got a real kick out of his calculator pencil box. We all had a good laugh at that one.

Mom got this pretty necklace from them. Stunning! Good job Emma, Spencer, Parker, Conner, and Quinn! You got great gifts for Grandma and Grandpa Skinner!

Raking the Leaves is Fun To Do, Fun To Do, Fun To Do!

On one of Jarod's days off he had the idea to rake my parents' front yard. The kids had a great time doing it. Carly is such a helper. She loves to help at whatever task is at hand. I couldn't ask for a sweeter daughter. We picked just about the coldest day of the year to do this little surprise service. I was reminded of why we live in Texas and not Alaska. Burr!! The kids got the biggest kick out of smashing the leaves down in the garbage can. I think they got a kick out of seeing Mommy do it, too. Thankfully, we don't have photographic evidence of that.

We had to take an aerial shot so that it wouldn't look like we just let our kids play in trash.

Cute Jumper

I thought Carly looked extra cute in the jumper I made her. It has tiny sequins all over it...I couldn't resist the fabric when I saw it...I just had to have it!! I think it turned out pretty cute.

Funny Face

So, while I was uploading pictures from my camera this morning, I saw a few that I didn't remember taking. Then Carly came in and said she wanted to look at the pictures she took last night before we went to church. I guess she found the camera and took some pictures while I was getting ready in my room. Among them were several shots of the computer screen, walls, desk, and then a couple that she'd taken of herself...including this one...she cracks me up. I'm not really sure what kind of looking she's giving here.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Well, beside going to the performance on Saturday night, I had a great Thanksgiving week. It felt like our Thanksgiving started on Tuesday, because I was busy all that day making my first turkey and a ham for Jarod's Thanksgiving lunch the next day. Then I got to take the food, and spend the afternoon with Jarod at his work the next day. After the work lunch, I busied myself by making three pies for our Thanksgiving dinner with my folks the next day. I was so pleased with how they turned out. The rest of the week was spent with the kids and myself hanging out at Mama and Papa's house. It was a great time. My mom and I spent just about every moment sewing. We got a few pairs of jammies sewn, and a couple other sewing projects worked on. It was quite the busy time. Here are a couple pictures of the kids' new jammies.

Who Knew

Who knew vacuuming couches could be so fun? I decided to do the whole move the furniture, including couches and entertainment center, vacuum job yesterday. Carly was very enthusiastic about helping me clean. I really love it. She always wants to help clean the toilets, and yesterday I could barely hold the vacuum at all before she was telling me it was her turn again. I'm just crossing my fingers that she'll have the same enthusiasm for cleaning when she's a little bit older...wishful thinking, right?