Christmas Lights (Knob Hill, Joyas Court, and Hotel del Coronado)

We went to see a few different Christmas lights this year...and we got Tim to come with us! Yeah!!!

We went to the Hotel del Coronado with his parents to see the wonderful display they put up every year.

Rachel loved to sit in the "Princess Chair".

We went for the second year in a row to a house on Joyas Court in Poway. They put on the most amazing display at this house.

The kids all get to pick out a gift from Santa and Rachel picked out this light up star and LOVED it.

They give a donation to Children's Hospital for every letter written to Santa.

On the same night, Tim's mom and I dropped off the boys and headed to Knob Hill in San Marcos.

We had tried Santa's lap in the mall this year, and she wouldn't sit on his lap. She wouldn't do it here either. She loves the idea of Santa, but isn't comfortable getting too close to him.

To this day, she still asks to see more Christmas lights every time we are out at night. I have tried to explain it to her that they are only out at Christmas, but she still wants to see them.

Potty Training

I spent pretty much my entire Christmas break potty training Rachel.

She had quite a few accidents on the carpet the first week. The first day of the second week, it all clicked and she got it.

She loves to read on the potty. She doesn't care if it is her books or Daddy's books. There are many times when she prefers to read Daddy's books.

Christmas Crafts and Cookies

Rachel and I went to my moms in mid-December to bake Christmas cookies and make ornaments.

About 5 minutes after we left (while we were still in Escondido), Rachel asked if we were getting close to Gramma's house. I told her it was still really far away. She said, "Maybe I could use my binoculars to see it." And then she put on her "binoculars".

Shortly after we got to Gramma's house, she put on her goggle binoculars.

There was quite the crowd there. Rachel and I, Mom and David, Becky and Grant, Tyler and Lacey, Melissa and Aysia, and Jaylin, Kyle, Nathan, and Allison.

The kids started off by making candy hamburgers. They were made with Nilla Wafers for the buns, peppermint patties for the burger, dyed green coconut for the lettuce, and red and yellow icing for the ketchup and mustard.

Allison sure loves her Grandpa.

Rachel and Grant took all of the toys out of their rocketship to fly it.

All of the kids helped decorate the cookies.

Rachel liked eating the sprinkles as much decorating the cookies.

While some kids were decorating cookies, the others were decorating ornaments.

This is what Rachel's hair looks like every time we go to my moms. It is so dry at her place that there is so much static in the air.

Family Pictures

We took family pictures in December for our Christmas card. We had Tim's mom take the pictures for us, and through no fault of her own, we had a lot of outtakes.

She kept putting her hands up, so I had to hold them down, and it didn't help that Tim couldn't stop squinting.

There were at least 50 more outtakes, and so I was happy that we got this last one, which is the one we used for our Christmas card.

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving at my mom's house was a bit different this year. Along with traditional turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc., she made breakfast foods too for those of us who have 2 Thanksgivings that we celebrate.

Rachel really enjoyed the powdered donuts.

Rachel and EJ had a lot of fun wearing their goggles and...

flying in their rocketship.

After my mom's house in Aguanga, we headed back to Escondido and went to Tim's parents for a traditional turkey dinner.

Rachel really enjoyed the turkey, actually, I mean Turkeys. She spent most of the meal playing with the turkey napkin holders.

Tim's Birthday Celebrations

Ok, so yeah, I am a lot behind on blogging. Tim's birthday was in NOVEMBER. I hope to start slowly catching up.

Tim turned the big 3-0 in November. We celebrated on his New Zealand birthday (the day before) and surprised him at Mike's BBQ with all of his friends and family.

Rachel didn't get a nap and was a bit tired. She slept for the first hour of his party.

There were about 20 people there.

These 2 little munchkins had a blast running around, eating mints, chasing each other, and eating the candles off of the cake.

On Tim's actual birthday, Tim, Rachel and I went to BJ's for dinner.

I then surprised him on the weekend with a trip to Vegas with some friends.

We had such a good time. I hope that he had his best birthday ever.