christmas 2014

oh, I love Christmas.  Such a wonderful time of year.

We have our usual traditions like neighborhood gift deliveries, santa train, christmas parties, Polar Express with Western Elite, Ethel M Cactus Gardens, the 25 days of Christmas from Grandma & Grandpa G, reading about our Savior, and more.  It was another wonderful holiday season.

For actual Christmas, we decided to ditch our usual traditions {again, like we did for Thanksgiving} and spend our first Christmas at the cabin.  It was a lot of work to get everything loaded and up there but it was so nice once we were there!  We had a White Christmas in the mountains and we were able to have some nice family time without the distractions of home.  The kids loved to play in the snow and were constantly sledding or coming up with things to do in the snow.  I loved watching both boys go sledding but there is something extra cute about little Ryan being so brave. 

A great Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2014 at the beach

We have some favorite Thanksgiving traditions but we threw them all out the window this year and went to the beach!

We stayed at the Newport Marriott Villas & had a great time.  We played in the sand & waves and enjoyed the hotel and had a nice family getaway. 

A few things to remember:

- My dad was all worried about nothing being open on Thanksgiving Day to eat.  I reassured him that something would be open – even if it was the Taco Bell drive-thru.  Turns out he had reason to worry.  Not even a drive-thru was open.  Luckily the hotel Pizza Hut delivered so we ate pizza, pasta and breadsticks outside as our Thanksgiving feast.

- It was Janie’s first trip to the beach.  She’s in love.

- She also ate so much sand she pooped sand for months.

- In the Griffeth condo we played musical furniture so Janie could have her own space to finally sleep.

- Sam and I still went Black Friday shopping to Target.  It was rather uneventful . . . no problem getting a cart & no line to wait in.

- We went to Balboa Pier and let the kids ride a few rides and play some games.  Always fun.  Then a group went to Ruby’s Diner and a group went to Crab Cooker for lunch.

- The kids never get sick of the beach.  It’s always a hit no matter how many days in a row you go.

- I may have booked the wrong weekend for the hotel and we didn’t find out until my parents were already there and the rest of us were well on our way.  Luckily it all worked out.  We even got 3 rooms right next to each other!

- Played a little tennis one night while waiting for dinner to arrive.

- To entertain Janie along the way, we played a tickle game with her.  She’d get so delirious that she would play it with herself and it was pretty funny.

Halloween 2014

I love October.  Even though it’s still a thousand degrees in Las Vegas and doesn’t feel or look like fall yet – I still enjoy all October has to bring.

Pumpkin patches, pumpkin carving, Harvest Festival, classroom parties, trunk-or-treat, Halloween Night and more!

This year I dressed up as Maleficent and Janie was my Sleeping Beauty.  The boys went with a Batman theme as the Joker & Robin and we got Wes to wear a mask for a few seconds to be Batman.

Nate had a fun Halloween party in his classroom and the parade at school.  Ryan had a little parade and class party as well.  It was another great October.