Wednesday, December 31, 2008

More Christmas photos

Here are some pics from my mom's camera...

Amanda offering me a cracker on Christmas Eve:

And my grandmother and sister standing next to my parent's Christmas tree... there were so many presents around it, you could barely walk past!

Christmas morning. My sister brought their stuff from Santa for my nephew, so that was the only thing ready in the morning (I left ours at home), so here they are discovering the car Andrew got.


And of course Amanda had to try it out:


Opening presents:



Christmas day we headed over to a friend's house for dinner. Us "kids" hung out in this room watching the various basketball games on tv... it looks like the Lakers vs. Celtics was still on when this photo was taken :)


Mike & I

Andrew & Amanda saying goodbye at the end of the night:

And... just for comparison sake, anyone who doesn't think I lost a lot of weight this year... take a look at this Christmas photo from 2005. My face alone looks about double the size it is now!!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Merry Late Christmas!

Sorry this is so late... it's been a busy week! I (stupidly) forgot my camera on both Christmas Eve AND Christmas day, so I will have to post the pictures my mom took in the next post.

But first... Amanda has figured out how to pick things up with her feet in the last week, so I took some pics of her doing that



These are from this weekend, Amanda found my Santa hats and we started playing with them




And this was last night, we went for a walk in her new wagon (compliments of Mimi). She LOVES this thing, she always asks for "RIDE!" when she sees it. Mike was home with her yesterday while I worked, and he said they went on at least 3 walks and she never seemed to tire of sitting in it!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Yes, we visited Santa...

We got all dolled up, pigtails and all...and no, Amanda didn't take too well to him. She wouldn't let go of her sippy cup, and she didn't want to go anywhere near Santa. At least we went first thing in the morning, so there was no line, and we weren't holding anyone else up...




But yes, I did buy the photos because one day we'll think this is cute, right? RIGHT?...

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

All decorated!

Finally got the Christmas tree decorated this weekend, so here ya go:

All lit up:


And with the flash:



Monday, December 8, 2008

Christmas Tree!

Yesterday was our annual Christmas tree outing. This is a tradition we've been doing since we were kids. My parents have been good friends with two families since they were all in high school together, and we've always gone to cut down our Christmas tree with them the first weekend in December. We used to go out to Moorpark to a place called Holiday Forest that was HUGE, but they stopped carrying the monterey pine a few years back, so now we go to a tree farm up in Santa Clarita that's not as big, but has fairly good trees.

My mom with Amanda before we went in.

Amanda looking at all the trees, unsure if she should follow into them.

Amongst all the trees, trying to figure out how to find the voices she hears.

And helping Mommy carry the tree out of the farm.

This was later in the evening, during dinner afterwards. Her and Andrew laid down on the ground and started rolling around screaming. It was hilarious.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

The Holidays are here!

Sorry I don't have any pics of Thanksgiving. It was pretty non-eventful. And I was sick. So through my fog, I forgot to take any pictures. Oh well, such is life.

Friday (or Saturday?) I took out some of the Christmas decorations and Amanda had to help. Here she is carrying the flag so we can go put it up in front of the house.






And these are from the bathtub last night. I bought her those Crayola bathtub markers and for a long time she couldn't seem to figure out how to use them, but last night she figured it out! She had so much fun drawing on the bathtub walls, and the greatest thing was that I could wipe it off and she could start again!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

New friends and a lazy Sunday

Sorry it took me a while to post this... this week has been HECTIC. I got called for Jury Duty last Friday and was picked to be on a jury on Monday, so I've been racing to work in the morning, then leaving to go to court by 10am in downtown LA, then racing home to grab Amanda before daycare closes.

Anyway, on Saturday we had 3 of my old friends from KFI, their spouses and their kids over. We haven't seen them in over two years now, so we went from one kid last time to FIVE this time, with another due in December! Wow! Amazing how fast families grow. Anyway, there were 5 kids all 4 and under in the house. They all had a blast! It was so much fun to see how they all interacted and played.. their favorite was Amanda's ball hopper that spits balls into the air, then they fall back down a spiral only to blown back up again. Ironic since it's recommended for kids 9 months & up, and no one was interested in it until they were older!

Anyway, here's a pic of when the three girls were playing with it in the hallway, with one of the boy's head at the bottom, approaching them:



Eventually everyone else cleared out and just Amanda & Sammy were left playing with it. They're very close in age (Sammy was born just a few days after Andrew, so they're about 6 months apart) and seemed to get along wonderfully. Amanda was asking about Sammy all the next day :)



The next morning, I got some shots of Amanda lounging on the couch:





Thursday, November 13, 2008

...the favorite of girls and boys!

Can you guess what line the title is from? That's right, SLINKY! (It took me a lot longer than I thought to google these lyrics!)

Who walks the stair without a care
It shoots so high in the sky.
Bounce up and down just like a clown.
Everyone knows its Slinky.

The best present yet to give or get
The kids will all want to try.
The hit of the day when you're ready to play
Everyone knows it's Slinky.

It's Slinky, It’s Slinky
for fun it's the best of the toys
It's Slinky, It’s Slinky
the favorite of girls and boys.

Why do I bring this up? Because I found my original metal slinky this weekend while cleaning up the attic! And who do you think decided to play with it?








This next series shows how Amanda still thinks Sophie is her best friend. First, tormenting the sleeping kitty...


Climbing up on the couch with a book to read to Sophie.

"Reading" to Sophie.



Friday, November 7, 2008

First sentence!

Amanda made huge progress this week in talking. She said her first two sentences:
Saturday she said "Where did Daddy go?" and Monday night she said "Look Mommy, Moon!"
I couldn't be prouder :)

And of course, here are some new pics...
First, remember my "costume" on Halloween? Well, Amanda got ahold of the glass frames I used (they were reading glasses I popped the lenses out of), and insisted on wearing them during her bath:






And these are from last night. I ran in to put away her school bag and came out to find she had figured out how to climb into the stroller! They grow up so fast....

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Like father, like daughter




Yes, that's Amanda.
Sitting on the toilet.
Reading a comic book.
Anyone who knows Mike, knows he will sit for a full hour on the toilet reading his comic books. Apparently Amanda's picked up on that...

Happy Halloween!

Carving pumpkins Thursday night. Amanda dug right in!












Our front porch. That's "Ben B. Headed"



My pumpkin. I went a little different and carved a ghost instead of a face.

Mike's pumpkin. It's supposed to be looking confused-edly at the dart in it's forehead.



My "costume" for work. We were told we had to be "serious" this Halloween, we think in case the media got ahold of us having "fun", so I went as Sarah Palin. I don't see a costume, do you? I had a MUCH bigger reaction that I thought I would. I spent all morning being marched around the floor so everyone could see. All but 3 people figured out who I was trying to be.


Friday night, getting ready for trick-or-treating. Amanda did surprisingly well with the wings!

Getting her pumpkin to go out with.

Getting candy from the neighbor.


Amanda couldn't believe we were allowing her to take candy from our neighbor, it took her several minutes and several glances at us to make sure it was "ok". Then when she finally took it, she wouldn't let it go. She carried that lollipop in her hand as we went to 4 more houses. I finally had to pry it from her fingers before putting her to bed. I let her eat it the next day, and she LOVED it!