My parents, in all of their brilliance, got Eden dress-up clothes for Christmas. Of course such a thought never even occurred to me even though she has had multiple play dates wherein the girls who came over were sorely disappointed to find that Eden's only dress up clothes were her Halloween costumes from years past, which at this point included a giraffe suit and a lion suit. Here is Eden trying out her new skateboard in full princess attire then she proceeds to the beach in full dress, we were pretty into it.
There is so much to this picture I hardly know where to start. Bottom line is that we have recently seen the movie Surfs Up for the first time. In the movie the main character {penguin} wipes out {surfing} and hits his foot on a sea urchin. Because of the sea urchin he passes out and essentially is brought back to life. This is Eden's favorite part of the movie, she wants to watch this part over and over again. Then we came across this sea urchin at SanO. She was not quite sure what to make of it, and as you can see from the pics she was a bit worried about it.
It was Nanny's 90th birthday on the day after Christmas so we all rallied and met at a park by Aunt Susan's house in Carlsbad. The kids had a ton of fun at the park and I think Nanny had fun being surrounded by their play.
I had to post this one of Zi climbing. He made it all the way to the top without any of my physical help, just maybe a bit of guidance. I was so proud and impressed. (:
Look at Eden's face. So proud to be sitting next to Nanny.
This is one of my favorite pictures of all time. This really shows Nanny's personality. Right here she is pretending to cry with the baby.
Christmas season was so incredibly fun this year. Eden was super into all the Christmas music so Christmas music was playing in our lives on a continual basis. There was one song in particular that Eden was very taken with. The title goes something like "Santa Bring My Brother a Big Ole Box of Rocks". One afternoon I overheard her singing this song out of the blue to herself in another room. We had only heard it a few times and I couldn't believe she had already memorized the lyrics. At first I was furious. I told her it was a "naughty" song and I didn't want to hear her singing it anymore. Almost immediately I felt ridiculous and right then and there it became both of our favorite songs of the season. It seems so mean but some of the lyrics were so appropriate for Eden and Zion. I mean, he pulls her hair, he steels her doll - she could completely relate to the song. But she didn't really want him to get a box of rocks for Christmas. When I asked her what she really wanted Zion to get for Christmas she said she wanted him to get a dolly like hers - probably so that he wouldn't be tempted to steel hers anymore. Here is the song. It is pretty cute, and it will forever remind me of Eden & Zion.
Christmas in Kauai
Christmas started early for us this year in Kauai! We had so much fun and it was fun to see all of the festive stuff come out while we were there. I don't really remember that from last year, perhaps we didn't stay into december last year.
Christmas Party 2012
Once we got home from Kauai we had 7 days to decorate and get ready for our annual Christmas party. We were kind of a mess with our party this year - sending the evites out from Kauai. We ended up inviting everyone using 10 different email addresses for each person and still most people did not receive the evite. But we ended up having such a great crew turn out. I sincerely love each and every person that came and it made it so much more special that it was mainly our closest friends who showed up. We were also super fortunate this year to have a surprise appearance by Santa! Jon and I didn't even know he was coming, but now we want to make it an annual thing!
Shook has connections with EVERYONE even Santa!!! Thanks Shook!!
Old-school crew
Clay & Sara
Baby Paige was a rock star!! She just chilled out at the party all night! I've never met a baby quite so mellow and sweet as her! Not to mention cute - look at that face!!!
Several of our friends made the trek from San Diego. It is always so good to see and reconnect with friends that we used to see every day and haven't seen now for yrs. This is Jeff and Karen.
These two, Appolina & Ryan Osborn, made the trek from Ventura this year and camped out on our driveway with their kids. It was so amazing to be able to spend some time with them. We had not seen them since two New Yrs Eve's prior. They are the most amazing people and I wish I could see them every single day. We felt so fortunate to have had that stolen moment with them!
This is Holden. Gia is looking through the window. These kids were so much fun!
Christmas at Home & Around Town
Eden & her reindeer
Eden's special tree which she re-decorated almost every night.
Zion was into Santa this year and all thing Christmas
Christmas Cookies
This year Godfather James got the kids some pretty epic gifts which we would have NEVER bought them and which totally stoked them out. He brought the gifts to the party with the intention for them to open them on Christmas but it was just too much for all of us to have them sitting under the tree for more than a day not to mention tow weeks. Therefore they were open quite prematurely to Christmas. Turns out they were some of the best gifts ever and they both continue to get played with by both of the kids every single day. Eden was so thrilled about the gifts that she was inspired to dictate to me her first ever thank you letter which she proceeded to fold and put into an envelope to be mailed to James. It was all pretty cool.
Waiting at the Irvine Regional Park to ride a train to see Santa - that was pretty fun!
The kids with Santa, they did really great this year! Eden even told Santa what she wanted "a ball, a skateboard, and a watch".
Christmas Eve
Jon worked Christmas Eve. After the kids and I went to church (a complete debacle which I learned a great deal from in the end) we headed over to the fire station for a visit. Station visits are always fun but they are extra special on Christmas Eve.
This is Eden's first letter to Santa and the cookies she decorated that were left out for him
All the stocking hung and ready
Christmas Day
Zion on Christmas morning - from the moment he woke up he was filled with the magic of the day!
Eden in true form Christmas morning. It was quite the party over here.
Zion could not believe his good fortune with all the toys he was opening.
Eden getting busy with some new art supplies.
Eden sharing her new toy with Zion
Christmas Morning with Mimmi & Poppi
Nanny was over on Christmas morning at the Wallas and that is always a big hit. It was fun to take a bunch of pictures of Nanny she is a beautiful, wonderful woman whom we all adore and as everyone knows whom Eden especially adores.
Zion had grapefruit for the first time here and was LOVING it!
Kids Table!
Eden and her Very Favorite!
The Whole Crew
Christmas Evening with Grampy & Grammy
I am coming to love our rhythm of Christmas. I am coming to love that it is such a full wonderful day filled with all of the people that we love. Seeing everyone and being with each of these people on Christmas day is what makes the day so special and wonderful. The kids are a little fried by the time we get them out to Grammy and Grampy's, so poor Grammy and Grampy don't really get the best of them, but as you can see they are still full of spirit and thrilled to be celebrating Christmas one last time.
My mom's beautiful stockings, all hand stitched and tailored to each individual person.
