Merry Christmas!

We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas! Here are some photos from the past few days:

Christmas Eve at my sister Devona's house

Grandpa Jim and Benji

Grandma Lana and Benji. Benji passes out on my mom whenever she holds him. He looks like he is sliding off of her but he seemed quite comfy by the way he was snoozing!All of the kids together for a shot: my sister Devona's kids, my sister Angie's kids, and my brother-in-law Freddie's nieces and nephews.

The kids opening up their presents from Santa! Santa knocked on the garage door after they cracked open the pinata and said "ho, ho, ho!". He dropped off all of the toys in big bags on the front porch for all of the children. Santa was in a hurry and had to dash but most of the kids said they spotted him in the sky with his reindeer =).

The best puzzle ever according to Anna since she and Dora are together in it!

Christmas Day at my parents house. Ben had fun playing in a box while the kids opened their presents!

The day after Christmas back at my sister Devona's house. Maddie and Ben cruising around on a cool new toy Santa brought to their house.

Anna's turn! Notice, she has her party dress back on!

Santa, Santa, Santa!!!

Anna had a lot of fun last week at holiday parties. First, Anna and I went to a holiday party for UC Davis that had a Hawaiian theme (Ben was sick so Jason stayed home with him). Anna wore her pretty tropical dress full of bright flowers and sequins. Now she calls that dress her "party dress" and thinks if she puts it on she'll go back to that party ... how cute.

The biggest excitement of Anna's week was when Santa went to her school on Friday. This is the first year that she has been excited about Christmas and Santa. When we were standing in line to see him she peeked through to see him and the expression on her face was priceless! She was shy when it was her turn to sit on his lap but she's been talking about him ever since! Ben was intrigued by his beard I think =).


While I was working yesterday Mary took some great shots of Anna out in the rain. Ben was cozy taking a nap inside.

Benji's 9 Month Appointment

Today was Benji's 9 month well baby visit. When we arrived there was another little boy in the same outfit as Benjamin and his name was Benjamin as well =). Guess what Benjamin #2's sister's name is .... Hannah!

Benji is now 21 1/2 pounds and 28 1/2 inches. He remains in the 50th percentile and we consider him perfect =).

Nice legs!

I was able to get a great shot of the "Ben stare". Ben likes to look people straight in the eye and check them out =).

Anna wanted to pick out her clothes for the first time today. I decided that whatever she wanted to wear to preschool would be fine as long as it was safe =). She chose her hot pink Dora dress with grey sweatpants instead of tights, her rain slicker and Hello Kitty rain boots. It was actually raining today which was very helpful =). I tried taking a photo of her but she wouldn't stop running around so all of the shots came out blurry except for one but you can barely see her. Santa is making a stop at Anna's school on Friday so I'll make sure to get some shots of that!

Hello!

For the past few days Anna has been waking up at 5 or 5:30 AM! We've already watched Dora's Christmas, Diego's Christmas and now she's vacuuming the house with her pretend vacuum. I wish I had energy like she does!! Anna definitely seems more aware of Christmas this year. Jason took her for a walk yesterday evening and she was in awe of the Christmas lights. She also recognizes Santa now, from watching Dora and Diego in the wee hours of the morning I'm sure =).


Benji is pulling himself up all around the house and he is so proud! He crawls over to me, pulls himself up on my leg, lets go and gives me the proudest grin! He is fascinated with our washing machine. As soon as I started loading it yesterday he crawled over and got ready. He stood there for about 20 minutes watching the clothes while I made dinner. It's a great babysitter =).

My mom and I were surprised at how busy our little Etsy shop got over the past couple of weeks. We had no idea that traffic would pick up so fast during the holidays since this is our first year doing it. I don't have a lot in the shop right now because Anna and Ben have been keeping me on my toes but my mom sold a ton of children's aprons. She completely sold out of the fabric she bought which had to have been close to 30 yards! My ladybug clippies paired with one of her aprons were popular -- who would have known! I had no idea I'd enjoy crafty stuff so much but it really is fun =).

I think the aprons sold so well because of the terrific model =).

My latest project: doll diapers! These are super easy to make and they stay on the dolls unlike the ones you buy in the store with the sticky tabs.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! This was a quiet Thanksgiving for us because we didn't travel anywhere for the first time. For the past few years we've either been in Southern California visiting my sister or visiting Jason's family in Minnesota (we missed them all this year!) . We had fun hosting Thanksgiving at our house. Some of my family came over and we had a small, intimate gathering. Jason was on-call but fortunately he was able to come home for a few hours. Last year Anna and I went to Southern California and Jason stayed in Sacramento because of his work schedule. It was great that we could all be together this year even if it was only for a few hours! It was also Jason's birthday yesterday! Anna and I made him an actual birthday cake and didn't have him blow out candles on the pumpkin pie =). Anna was so incredibly excited to have everyone at our house on Thanksgiving and "daddy's party" but the poor thing fell asleep before we ate! She was out cold for hours and I couldn't wake her up. When she finally woke up everyone was gone except Ben and I and she asked "where did the party go?".

Benji with his cousins Maddie and Olivia

Jason and my dad going for a pre-dinner stroll.

Possible Christmas card picture =).

Anna putting fun toppings on daddy's cake. She picked M&M's and mini chocolate chips to decorate it with.

Here's a pic of Ben on Wed. I can't believe he fell asleep like this!

It's official, Jason matched at UC Davis for fellowship! We are all very excited that we will be living in Sacramento for one for year. Jason will be specializing in minimally invasive/ advanced laparoscopy. The fellowship starts in July after Jason graduates from residency.

A Train Filled Weekend!

Anna has become increasingly fascinated with trains lately. She's interested in transportation in general but her most favorite are definitely "choo - choos". Grandpa Jim came to visit on Saturday morning and we took Anna and Ben to the California Train Museum. The second floor of the museum is dedicated to children and has a great set up of Thomas the Train for the kids to play with. Grandpa Jim bought Anna a Thomas the Train choo-choo from the gift shop that she has had in her hand ever since! She sleeps with it, has it in eyes view during mealtimes and even tried to take a bath with it! Jason went to Target and found a Thomas the Train starter set so now Anna has tracks for train =). Anna likes the tracks because they fit together like puzzle pieces.


Yesterday we took the kids on the city train. It's walking distance to our house so we put the kids in the stroller and checked it out. Anna was thrilled to say the least! We took the train up to Folsom where we got off at the outlet mall. What a perfect stop =). Ben really seemed to like the motion of the train and all of the new faces.

Waiting patiently for the train to arrive.

On our way home ...

Thanksgiving Feast

Today Anna's school had a Thanksgiving Feast. It was potluck style and the kids had the full 9 yards ranging from a big Turkey to pumpkin pie. Somebody else made the turkey but it was my job to carve it. I wouldn't recommend carving a 20 lb turkey using a toddler fork and a big huge chef's knife! Grandma Lana came up to join in on the fun and all of the kids enjoyed having a grandma there =).

Anna insisted on wearing this beanie cap with a big peony clipped on it to school the other day. She put a sock on her baby's head to look like a cap =).

Ben looking snug as a bug after our morning walk.

Jason is on-call today so we decided to something fun and messy since he won't be home until tomorrow =). I borrowed my mom's rhinestone applicator and have been adding "bling" to lots of things =). I'm making these flower hair clips for my nieces and their American Girl dolls for the holidays. Not sure what I'm doing with the poinsettia flower clip yet.

Have a great weekend everybody! Monday is match day for Jason so we'll keep you posted!

Fun at the Fish Hatchery

It was absolutely beautiful here today so I took the kids to the Nimbus Fish Hatchery up by Folsom since it's mostly outdoors. November is a great month to see all of the salmon. For 5 cents they give you a handful of fish food to feed the salmon and Anna had a blast doing that. We both were wet from all of the salmon jumping out of the water! Ben was happy as long as we fed him snacks as well =). There was an elementary school class there on a field trip and Anna followed the "big" kids around. When we were walking back to our car we ran into a man who was taking his lamas for a walk along the American River Trail =).

We're bringing snack to school tomorrow so Anna and I winged it and tried to come up with something entertaining for the kids using stuff we could find in our pantry and refrigerator. We made muffins again b/c the kiddos seem to like those and we tried to make happy faces out of fruit. If anyone has any fun ideas for preschool snacks let us know!

Cute pic of Benji taken yesterday =)