Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

Big day around here...lots to do!

We just wanted to share a few pics from this morning, but then we're off to Buffalo.

Merry Christmas to all!

See you soon, East coast family!!!

Love,
J

Party Time

We had a party last night! It was so much fun.

Including me and Ry, there were 12 kids here. And there were way more adults than kids, so our house was pretty full. I got to see my favorite friends and we all played together.

Mom, of course, did not take any pictures during the party. She meant to.

Here are a few from after, though...

Mom said I was a huge helper. I cleaned up the whole living room by myself while Mom and Dad did the kitchen. I am such a good helper.

And here's Ryan this morning. The poor little guy was so tired he didn't even get up til after 9:30! Now he's just hanging out on the couch watching me play Wii.

Happy Wednesday!

Love,
J

Santa and the Doctor

Mom lied. She did take a picture of me the other night at the Christmas show. She also failed to mention the most important part of the night.

I. MET. SANTA.

He was there. He talked to me. He wished me a Merry Christmas. I told him about Stinky the Garbage Truck, too. It was awesome.

He even gave me a reindeer!

Today was a little less fun. Ryan had an appointment with the doctor this morning. Just his one year checkup, nothing's wrong.

He is 30" tall and weighs 20 pounds.

And he looks very, very funny in the doctor's office outfit. I took these pictures myself with mom's phone!

That poor guy got 4 shots. He was really brave for the first two, then he screamed. Really loud. I'm glad I didn't have to get any shots.

(Mom told me there is a shot that they give little boys who whine too much. Can anyone confirm this?)

Have a great weekend!

Love,
J

We Know, We Know

We were wondering when we would get the complaint call.

It happened today.

"I'm mad at you. It's been sooo long since you posted anything to the blog page. I know you have things to do, but......."

Mom actually feels a little bit bad about it this time, too. We have been really busy lately. Mom has spent a few mornings in Jake's class at school, we've gone to the preschool Christmas show, we've played with friends...and not taken a single picture.

We won't get into the reasons for having no pictures of the Christmas show. It's a bit of a sore subject around here.

We promise, we'll put some more pictures up soon.

For now, here are some pics Mom asked Dad to snap of us tonight.

 Doesn't Jake look like a huge monster? He just keeps growing!

She wasn't really choking us. Promise.

Love,
R

Lucky Ducks

We're pretty lucky! Because of the nasty weather on the East coast, we got to have Carleigh and Lindsay for an extra day!

We'll be headed back to the airport soon...maybe they'll get on a plane. Then again, maybe they won't! We've had so much fun with them here that we won't be too sad if there are more flight delays. Uncle Brian might not like it, though.

Love,
R

What a Week!

We have had the BEST week. It was kinda magical, actually...

Of course, we have 9 million photos to share.

Let's start out with our SeaWorld advenure. On Thursday Mom picked me up from school. We met up with Lindsay and Carleigh and headed out to see some whales.

First we met up with an adorable sea otter. Carleigh kinda loved him.

We had a little lunch and headed over to our favorite exhibit: The Arctic Expedition. That's where the polar bears, walruses and beluga whales live.

So, we watched some trainers feeding the whales for a few minutes and headed on over to the polar bears. They came right up to the glass where we were sitting.

 

So we're just sitting there, checking out the bears, watching them tear up their rawhide bones, when this trainer comes up and starts chatting with Mom and Lindsay. He was really nice. He was telling us about the polar bears. I asked him their names. Pretty cool. Then he asked us if we had a few minutes...which we definitely did.

And then we went through the AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY door. And then we walked down a hallway. And then Greg, the nice trainer, grabbed a bucket of fish and took us in to meet Ferdinand.

He's 40 years old. He likes to eat fish. And he talks. I know this because I learned how to make him talk...and he did it!

We got to fee him, rub his belly, hear him make noise, watch him jump up and touch our hands, pet his tail...pretty much the coolest thing ever. Mom and Lindsay were kinda squealing. I think they might have been even more excited than Carleigh and I were.

If you click on Ferdinand's picture above, you can see tons more pics of our time with him.

And then, Friday we went to a really neat place in Escondido. Somehow, we've never been there before, but we sure are glad we finally went. I don't really know what "sculpture park" means, but I know I liked this one!

Again, we've got TONS of pictures of this place, and Mom hasn't had time to edit them all. So if you click the picture of that cool thing right above you can see a whole bunch more pics of this place (which, if you're wondering, is Queen Califia's Magic Circle Garden at Kit Carson Park in Escondido.)

And that's all we have time to share today. We're going to enjoy our last night with Lindsay and Carleigh!

Love,
J

Wait...HOW Old Are They?

Yesterday we went to the park after we picked Jake up from school...

Mom thought it was funny to see people looking at the three of us kids and trying to figure out just how she did it. One brave lady asked how old we all were, and when Mom said, "Almost four, almost two, and one," she was laughing...she had to tell the lady that Carleigh wasn't really ours.

Today is bound to be another fun day of play!

Love,
R

The Noisiest House on the Block

For sure we win that honor today. Pretty sure we won it yesterday, too.

But we are having SO much fun. Look who's here!

Poor Aunt Lindsay had to go to work this morning. We're home playing with Carleigh. We're pretty lucky, I think!

Happy Monday!

Love,
J

OMG. It's Santa.

And he has a message for me. Click on him. You'll see it, too.

How does that guy KNOW this stuff?!?

I better be good.

Love,
J

Here is a video of me, watching the video...

NOT Our Christmas Card Pictures

But they are kinda funny.

Mom loves each of these pictures for a different reason.

Like because in this one, you can see me trying to decorate Ryan.

Me trying to hold him in my lap.

Whoops.

I'll just give him a little pinch. (Not really, but it sure does look like I'm going to.)

Mom, my hat!

C'mon over here brother.

I'll just give you a big hug around your neck.

Ok, he didn't like the choking. Maybe a little tickling...

Dad says we look like we just saw a bigfoot walk through the room.

ENOUGH already, Mom.

Here. How about this face?

Ryan kept crawling away.

I did not want to get closer. Maybe you can tell...?

Ryan's face. Priceless.

This is a picture of cooperation.

We have hundreds more. A few of them are nice and we are saving them for our Christmas cards. Or maybe not. Maybe we'll just use some of these since they are a more accurate depiction of life in our house.

Happy holidays!

Love,
J

(Did you know that people used to have to actually develop photos? And, like, pay to develop them? How in the world did anyone ever get a good picture without spending a ton of money? Mom literally took 241 shots and ended up with a handful of good ones. We love digital cameras.)