Christmas 2009

We have had so much fun these past few days. We kicked off the Christmas celebration on Wednesday evening when we took a train ride to the North pole to visit Santa.  We boarded the train in Travel Town and rode into the night where we soon sound Santa's village.

Audrey refused to take her picture with Santa.  But she did enjoy the other activities.

We went with a bunch of Audrey's friends.  Ashley liked playing with the snowman too!

Olivia snuggled up with me to keep warm. It was COLD outside.

 

Audrey had a ton of time to run around while I stood in line to see Santa.  Olivia wanted to get her picture taken even thought here big sis kept insisting that Olivia was not to take a photo either.

Olivia enjoyed her time on Santa's lap.  She even got a candy cane for being such a good girl.  Audrey had not problem eating the candy cane!  We had a great evening with our friends visiting the North Pole.

 

We spent Christmas this year with my parents in Los Angeles.  We loaded up the car Christmas eve and headed over to the Romo's house.  We had a lovely Christmas eve dinner and later set out cookies and milk for Santa. Joe snapped this photo Christmas morning when we were fist waking up.

Here is a photo of our little diva.  She was very good waiting to open all of her presents.

Olivia was posing as Santa!

Audrey was very excited about her new helmet and bicycle that she received from Santa.

Brian and Angela we having fun too!

 

Grandpa and Audrey looked at photos together.

Joe was being himself!

Audrey was still wearing her helmet

 

Olivia has a wonderful first Christmas.   Even through her pacifier you can see her huge smile!  I love my family!

Getting ready for Christmas

Christmas seemed to sneak up on me this year.  I am still recovering from Thanksgiving and pow, it will now be Christmas in 3 days!  I finally mustered up the strength to take some photos of Olivia this morning so I can send out Christmas cards.  I was so busy I was sure that I would not send any out this year, but then I felt guilty.  I don't want the girls to be bummed in 5 years that I did not do a photo card for Olivia's first Christmas because I was too busy running after them. 

 

I knew that snapping Olivia's photo would be pretty simple.  She loves to smile and blow rasberries, unlike her older sister. 

She is also very curious crawling around the house.  I took this picture with my phone a week ago.  Olivia crawled up the steps and went straight for her Christmas gift.  She must have a 6th sense, there were many other gifts under the tree but she picked a good one. After the present incedint I packed up the gifts and send them home with grandma and grandpa.

Joe snapped this photo as few weeks ago.  I went out for the evening and Olivia pulled herself up in the crib all be herself that night.  I honestly think this was about a month ago.  She has mastered the skill now and is up on everything.  But she is wearing her "baby's first Christmas" sleeper here so the photo does fit with the Christmas theme.  Olivia looks so proud of herself.  

 

Last Saturday night we took the girls to Candy Cane Lane in El Segundo with my parents.  Audrey has fun looking at all of the Christmas lights and their cartooned themed displays.

Audrey was so excited to see Lilo & Stitch celebrating Christmas.

This is a rare sight where Audrey is smiling in a picture!  Here we were waiting in line to see Santa. Audrey was super excited to ask him for presents.  But when Joe asked her what type of presents she wanted she was stumped.  I am not sure if she know that presents can be toys!

All of the houses on the street are decorated on Candy Cane Lane.  It is so beautiful!

 

After we waited in line to see Santa, Audrey decided that she may not want to sit on his lap.  Hmmm, I was hoping that she would have changed her mind this year.  I think this photo is rather cute.  Olivia was taken with the jolly man in the white beard.  

Last year at the MOMS club breakfast Audrey was ready to fly out of Santa's arms.

Holiday Program at Celebration Kids

Audrey has her first Christmas concert tonight.  Her preschool Celebration Kids rented out the Rialto Theatre in South Pasadena and put on a fun little show. 

Audrey wore her party dress for the occasion. She was running around in circles, twirling, and having fun with the full skirt of the dress

I tried for ten minuites to get a nice picture of Audrey smiling in front of the Christmas tree.  As you can see here it was unsuccessful.  Audrey still does not like to smile and I also noticed later that she had chocolate smeared on her face.  We had to bribe her to get into her dress and cheer her up.

She really is a cute little girl who knows how to get her way.  I packed the M&M's in my diaper bag on the way to the concert just in case. 

Audrey had been practicing her song for the past few weeks.  Her classroom sang Feliz Navidad.  Audrey will be happy to sing for you if she is not feeling pressured.

I was able to snap a few photos of the performance while also juggling Olivia.

Here is a photo of room #1.  They each had a bracelet with jingle bells on and they were each given a santa hat. Audrey and a few of her friends refused to wear the hat. I guess she did not want to to mess up her hair!

Joe was up to the right of the stage with Audrey; to help the teachers and keep a smile on Audrey's face. She did not do well on stage tonight. As you can see here she froze up and started crying.  When Joe put her to bed tonight she told him that she cried instead of singing with her friends.   I hope she gets over her stage fright. Poor thing...

Dad came to the rescue and picked her up on stage to finish the act!  What a life saver!

I did not take any photos of the other acts.  My daughter was the most important of course. The other rooms had some great acts.   Audrey was restless and we skipped out a bit early. 

Overall it was a very fun and exciting evening for everyone in the family.  Olivia looked like she had fun too!

one year ago...

A year ago today I was announcing my pregnancy.  I also stopped working as Baby Style went out of business. So much has happened this past year...   Looking back at photos I can see how much Audrey has grown.  It is so amazing!

This photo was taken at Lydia's home last year a few days before Thanksgiving .  Audrey is on the left sitting next to Ryan, Lily, Amelie and Ashley.  At the time I thought they looked so grown up!  But lookingback now I can still see their baby-ness.  Wow!

This was our family photo for our Christmas cards last year.

Audrey has grown so much hair in the past year!  She still is the same ...not liking to smile for the camera.  I wonder if that will ever change.

This photo was taken at Disneyland on the Dumbo ride.

Traveling to San Diego

Thanksgiving was a week ago today and I still feel like I cam catching up trying to get back into my regular routine.  Audrey had her first field trip with Celebration Kids this morning.  She usually does not go to school on Thursdays, but we tagged along anyways.  It was fun, Audrey got to ride the gold line "train" with her classmates from the Mission station in South Pasadena to the Del Mar station in Pasadena.  From the Del Mar station we walked across the street to a park where everyone got to run around and play. We also had a picnic lunch.  I am so happy that I am able to participate in Audrey's school.  I feel very blessed that I am able to stay at home and not work! 

Audrey and Olivia have been playing together very nicely lately. Audrey loves her little so much, and if we have a problem it is usually Audrey squeezing the love out of Olivia.

The weekend before Thanksgiving we went to San Diego to visit Grandma Kathie. We made a special trip that weekend to see Joe's older sister Theresa and her family.  We only get to see them about once a year.  Here Audrey is playing in the bed that grandma made for her with Izzy.

There was a house full of family. Audrey is posing here with her older cousin Izzy, Olivia, baby cousin Maggie, Grandma Kathie and Grams.  It was almost impossible to get a good picture of everyone!

Olivia had her first taste of chocolate cake!

We also had a house full of dogs!

Aunt Jen took this photo of the 4 girls before we left Sunday morning.   It is too bad that Izzy and Maggie live so far away.

After we returned from our quick trip to San Diego we were tired!  We decided to munch on some yummy treats and shared a few with olivia.   She sucked the dark chocolate off of the chocolate covered pretzels and loved every taste!  As you can see here she was a happy baby that day!

After eating all of her chocolate Olivia needed a bath.  Joe and I decided that it was time to ditch the big plastic bath that sat in the kitchen sink. Olivia had her first real bubble bath with her big sister Audrey.

Olivia really did enjoy herself.  She now is bathing with her sister all of the time.  It is so cute watching her discover her abilities and limitations in the bath!

But with that said Olivia has to deal with her big sister in the bath.  Audrey was excited to wash Olivia's hair.  She survived!