Papa's Birthday & Fresh Air

Papa's birthday, being January 19th, is the first to kick off the year of birthday celebrations for our family. We spent the day at their house in Murrieta and had a wonderful b'day dinner, followed by cake & present opening, which Kelly eagerly assisted with.

While waiting for dinner, Kelly was outside for quite some time. I finally went out to see what she was up to and came upon this:

She was sort of annoyed at having to explain her whereabouts to me and very sternly told me she was "reading a story to her babies and enjoying the fresh air!". Guess she needed a little "me" time. She's such a mommy!

Extreme Princess Kitchen

Kainoa was over for a playdate and Kelly got all gussied up in her princess attire...I don't think she could decide exactly which one to wear, so she put on almost everything... at the same time!

Then she was trying to get Kainoa to dress up with her, but he saw there was only "girly" dress up clothes and refused. He finally gave in and took the wand as his dress up item which seemed to satifsy Kelly. Then they were playing "kitchen" and it got a little crazy - Kainoa was whacking the kitchen sink with his wand and they were chanting at the the top of their lungs. We now call this game, "Extreme Princess Kitchen" which they enjoy playing often as it seems to satisfy both their needs!

My Little Chargers Fan

Here she is sharing the exciting news of the Chargers win against Denver!

And here she is showing her bitter disappointment and sadness over the defeat by Pittsburgh

But at least she has a cute charger outfit that will fit her for many more Charger seasons to come!

There's always NEXT YEAR!!!

A Wonderful Christmas Time!

We had a very busy, but absolutely wonderful December enjoying and celebrating all the traditions and wonders of Christmas!

Kelly really got into the whole playful spirit of Christmas this year (along with mommy!) - the lights, decorations, giving (and receiving!) presents, cards, shopping, singing carols, spotting Santa, baking, parties, dressing up, the whole sha-bang!

A few days before Christmas we gathered at the Oldhams in Encinitas - Matt, Lynn, Lucas, Conner, Grand-dad and all of Lynn's family were there.

We ate, drank, opened presents and sang Christmas carols - it was loads of fun! Kelly was right at home with her cousins. She and Conner definitely have a special kinship though...

He even got her to play dress-up, BOY style!

The Monday before Christmas, I came down with a wicked 24-hour stomach flu, which put me back a day in terms of preparations. But we managed to still somehow get it all done!

We enjoyed a nice Christmas Eve dinner and gathering at our house with Tim, Susan, Shawn, Grand-dad and the boys.

But right after everyone arrived, Gary turned 3 shades of green and was down for the count with the same stomach flu as I had a few days prior! He was in bed all night and well into Christmas day.

So I got up at the crack of dawn to, well um, make sure Santa had come, and was ready for Kelly when she woke up and came running out to see the tree filled with gifts, especially the big Dora Scooter right in front with the big bow!

We had a nice quiet morning opening gifts together, then I took us all over to Chelsea & Frank's house (the boys' older sister), where we spent Christmas morning (Gary was still in bed at home recovering!). Again, Kelly had a blast opening presents, playing with Kainoa, having a big family breakfast and taking a nice walk with everyone down to the beach and back.

My side of the family was supposed to come down Christmas Day, but due to the rampid sickness in our house, they decided to delay their visit by one day, which turned out to be a good thing for us too. I got a break that evening to re-group and clean-up, and also for Gary to get fully well again! Besides, the weather was terribly rainy & stormy and our power went out for about 3 hours. I felt bad thinking of all the families that were still trying to cook Christmas dinner! It was kind of neat though having only candlelight and no other noises (like TV, radio etc) - very peaceful... as Christmas night should be :-)

So Friday, Nana, Papa, Gee-Gee-Vee (Verna), and cousin Gina came over for a scrumptious Day-After-Christmas dinner and we got to do it all over again! (Uncle Johnny was working over the holidays at the ski resort in Mammoth - we missed him so much!)

By this time, Kelly had become a pro at present opening and seemed to genuinely love & appreciate each and every one - I was very proud of her enthusiasm and polite showing of gratitude!

A few days later, Kelly & I went up to Nana & Papa's for a visit. We drove around looking at lights, in particular, a house in their neighborhood that had over 10,000 lights and was sychronized to music and video - crazy, amazing stuff!

We also went to visit Great Grandma Babcock (Gee-gee-bee) and Kelly dusted off her organ and gave it a work-out!

Kelly stayed with Nana & Papa for New Year's while Gary & I got a night out together for a change! We started the evening in our garage playing pool and listening to some tunes, then walked down to a couple of our local Leucadian haunts to ring in the New Year!

I can honestly say this was one of the best Christmas/holiday seasons ever! Surrounded by family, love, and laughter - very special holiday memories for us all! I hope we can continue these traditions for years to come and that Kelly will feel the same way :-)

Farewell Great Beginnings

The December holiday season kicked off with the annual Christmas recital and party at Kelly's daycare/pre-school. All the kids in her 3-yr-old class were dressed and decorated as "reindeer" and sang "Jingle Bells".

She did pretty good this year and stood "on stage" with her peers, singing and ringing her hand bells, instead of running to mommy in the audience!

The day culminated with a visit from Santa - not only was Kelly NOT at all afraid of him this year, but she was the very first to run right up to him and say "HI SANTA!!!". She was very excited to tell him what she wanted and told him she was a "good girl". Hmmm, already workin' it!!

Sadly though, the event was a little bitter sweet as we were also dealing with the news that her school, Great Beginnings, where she has been for over 2 years, was very possibly closing down on Dec. 31st due to failed negotiations with their landlord to extend their lease for the building they are in.

So New Year's week it was confirmed that they would in fact be closing and all of the parents were scrambling to figure out what to do. Fortunately, the owner's are friends with the owners of the Montessori School of Encinitas and made arrangements with them to take us all in for the same rates we had been paying for a few months while they tried to find a new location to re-open. So about half of the kids decided to move there, as did we. The parents figured that at least the kids would have a lot of familiar faces to help with the transition. We are really missing her old school though (the environment there was so loving and friendly, like a family) and Kelly is still going through some adjustment. We are not sure if the old school will re-open anytime soon, and even if they do, if it will make sense to move her again. So for now, we are trying out Montesori, making the best of it and are hopeful that she will adjust and eventually love it there too.

Here is Kelly on her last day at Great Beginnings with two of her favorite teachers, Miss Raina:

And Miss Jill:

We are thankful for such wonderful people like them and the owners who provided a warm, safe, and loving environment for our little angel for the past 2 years, truly a Great Beginning :-)