Christmas in Utah

We waited in line to see the Christus statue in the Visitor's center. Julianna especially liked it.

The lights at Temple Square. It was so cold! The lights were beautiful.

Will and Blake in their cool (and very warm) Spiderman masks/gloves from Grandma on the train to Salt Lake. We decided to take the train from Sandy to Salt Lake to make it more fun for the kids. They loved it.

Grandpa with Will and our kids on Christmas morning.

Santa's cookies, made by Julianna, Blake, Will, and Lily.

One more day until Christmas!

Best buddies, Will and Blake.

All the cousins/grandkids on Christmas Eve (except August who was asleep) in their new pajamas.

The big cousins making their cookies for Santa.

Playing in the snow in the backyard.


We had such a fun trip to Utah for Christmas. It was great to be with the whole family at my parent's new house, and to see Rhonda and Jordan, and Shannon and Mike and their baby, Luke for a day. Our new nieces and nephew are so adorable! It was fun to see the babies play, and the older cousins entertained themselves pretty much the whole time. We all just had a good time hanging out, playing Rockband, ping pong, watching movies, eating good food, having guys time/girls time, and relaxing. Hope you all had a nice Christmas!

Happy New Year!

Julianna's 7th Birthday

Julianna singing in the school Christmas program with the regular 1st grade class. She's in the second row, middle, in a blue shirt right below the boy with his head turned.

Blowing out her candles. She really liked doing this and did not hesitate at all.

Her presents that she requested: "Lots of Strawberry Shortcakes." Well, we got her 3--there just wasn't enough variety at Walmart!

Holding up her 7 fingers. It was cute--she looked at her fingers to count to make sure she got 7. I guess she hadn't thought about it yet!

At the SD Zoo on Dec. 4th, at the polar bear exhibit. This picture was one she requested--she said, "You should take my picture here!" So she stood there and made sure I did it.


Well, Julianna is now 7 years old! She was so excited for her birthday this year. Once it gets close to Blake's birthday in November, we start telling them the order of things: First, Blake's birthday, then Thanksgiving, then Julianna's birthday, then Christmas. Well, Julianna's birthday couldn't come soon enough. Since we went to the zoo before her birthday, she was upset that we didn't have cake and presents for her when we got home. Luckily she had gotten a package from Grandma Maxwell with a gift that she got to open that night--a fun laptop that she really likes. Another funny thing on our zoo day--when we got to Temecula on the way there, I had to stop for the bathroom (yes, I'm lame). We happened to drive by a Bob's Big Boy restaurant with the big statue out front. She was so intrigued by this and said, "I want to touch that boy!" I didn't want to stop--I just wanted to get to the zoo. But Joel reminded me this was her birthday thing, so we turned around and let her and Blake get out to touch the Bob's Big Boy statue. And on the rest of the drive, she kept asking about Bob's Big boy. So we told her that after the zoo, we would eat there for dinner, and we did. I'm always going to remember that. Then the next day, Sunday, she knew the kids were going to sing to her in Primary, and again she thought she'd be coming home to cake and presents since people were singing her a birthday song. So we made it to her birthday, finally! I got to bring treats into her school class, which was fun. Then we did her presents first, which Blake had to put under the Christmas tree. After she opened them, she told us she didn't want to take the toys out of the package. It wasn't until yesterday after school that she was holding the boxes and said, "Okay, I want to take the toys out now." Blake was so excited to play with the Strawberry Shortcake toys! Much more than Julianna was. Anyway, I think she had a fun birthday. This morning she asked, "Am I done being 6?" She is getting so big and smart! Her red hair certainly attracts a lot of attention. Especially at zoos and amusement parks. She got stopped so many times at the zoo that she asked, "Why does everyone like my hair?" It was cute. We love Julianna!

The Thanksgiving Post

Our Thanksgiving at Nana's began with a surprise birthday celebration for Blake and Julianna. They were spoiled with nice gifts that they LOVE.

They always have to play shuffleboard when we're at Nana's house.

I decided to get some shots of the kids in the backyard. Julianna's cute pose!

Blake looking pretty handsome.

Love those faces.

Briana's turkey. No really, that is the actual turkey. It was AMAZING--marinated in apple cider, whole allspice, whole bay leaves, and kosher salt. I decorated the plate with leftover herbs. Briana decided to do everything homemade for her first time and it was SO GOOD! I still need to get that sweet potato recipe!

Our family in Nana's backyard.

Joel's family. What a great picture!

Joel got to carve the turkey. Blake had to watch him.

Eating at their own special table.


We had such a fun Thanksgiving in Santa Ana at Joel's grandma's (Nana's) house. Briana (Joel's sister) and I ran the 10K Turkey Trot in Dana Point at 7 am. There were 5000 people running it! I had a lot of fun running with her for the second time now, and I've decided I really like running that distance. The view of the ocean while running was so great! The funniest part was when we went to get my goodie bag for registering and when we got back I discovered I ended up getting a child's size medium shirt by mistake! I guess I'll just make Julianna wear it sometimes!

Once we got back to Nana's house we started the cooking. Briana had delicious recipes for each dish. It was fun spending time cooking with "Grandma Shaw" (as the kids call her), Nana, Briana, and Soquel (Joel's cousin), and trying to make it work in Nana's oven. In the end, everything came out perfectly! All the food was delicious! We also had fun playing Balderdash with Soquel and her husband Phillip in the late hours. The kids also loved playing with Uncle Christian in the backyard and taking a few walks with Tony around the neighborhood. It will be a Thanksgiving to remember!

Blake's 4th Birthday and Julianna's first lost tooth

In front of the Capitol Building.

In front of the Luxor.

At the play area of Legoland.

Blake's first experience in "driving school." He didn't like it much, but he got his "driver license."

Another cool Lego creation--the Excalibur.

On the boat ride.

The helicopter ride--Julianna loved going up and down. Joel took the picture from his helicopter.

Sunday morning before the primary program--they both had speaking parts and did well!

Singing Happy Birthday to Blake yesterday. He loves telling everyone he's 4 now.

Well, a lot has been going on since I posted Friday. We went to Legoland for the first time on Saturday to celebrate Blake's birthday. That place is SO fun. We loved it! They were big enough to go on almost all the rides, and some of them had a "kid waiting area" where they could play with Duplos. The Miniland with all the creations of different cities/towns in Legos was really cool. I especially liked the Las Vegas one! It was a really fun day with the family.

On Blake's birthday we did a little party at the park with some preschool friends and Sunbeams and it was a lot of fun. Blake was so excited to open his presents! Then that night we sang again to him as a family. Blake is so much fun and is excited to be 4! He kept asking me if he was "old" now, and even thought that he would be 5 the next day. He can't wait to grow up. He still loves all his superheroes and Star Wars and is always dressing up in something. And he can write his name now by himself and loves to draw and write his letters all the time, and knows all the sounds of the alphabet. He still loves collecting his sticks to play with in the backyard, and now our neighbor cat will actually come to our sliding glass door, letting Blake know it's time to play. It's almost like we have a cat! Anyway, I think he had a good birthday.


Julianna's missing tooth smile.

Her little tooth in her hand.

In Julianna news, we had a big surprise tonight. When she was in the bath, I was trying to wash her hair using a cup to pour water on her head like I always do. She started to bite her hands (something she does when she's mad) because I guess she got water on her face (she doesn't like this). I went to take her hand out of her mouth by just pulling it down like I usually do. Well, maybe I did it with too much force? It didn't seem like I did. But from doing this, she ended up losing her first tooth! After I pulled her hand down, she screamed, and I thought she was just mad. Today has been a hard day with her--she's been screaming a lot and bugging Blake and I really was at the end of my rope. So when she let out this scream, I was so done. And I just walked out of the bathroom to calm down. As soon as I walked out, I had the thought, maybe she lost a tooth. So I walked back in after a few seconds and saw the blood trickling down her chest. And sure enough the tooth was gone! I was lucky to find the tooth among all the bath toys and took it out to show her. At first she was a little scared, but then she felt good because she lost a tooth! So we put it in an envelope to give to the tooth fairy. She didn't want it under her pillow, so we put it under a pillow in the loft area. I'm just happy that we didn't have to worry about a wiggly tooth!

More recent pictures

We got to spend a few hours with my sister Karina and her little boy Bradley when she came to pick up Mom to bring her to San Diego for the last part of the trip. Before Julianna got home from school, we did a little photo shoot with Bradley and Blake. Bradley really likes Blake and just wanted to touch him and grab his toys. It was really cute to watch. Won't be long before they will be having fun playing together like little boys! And when Julianna got home from school, we made sure to get a picture with Grandma and the kids. (Blake is wearing his "after-Halloween clearance costumes that I got for him.)

Halloween 2010

Julianna was "Blossom," the pink Powerpuff Girl, Blake was Superman. My mom is here right now for a few days to visit. It's been fun having her here! We had fun at the trunk or treat. I especially liked watching the kids trying to eat their donuts off the string. It was a fun Halloween!

Blake's cuteness

So the other day Blake said probably the cutest thing he's ever said.

We were at the district office, signing papers for me to be a substitute teacher (Julianna's school district--I can actually sub for her class!) So anyway, after the woman gave me the papers and left the room, Blake asked what I was doing. I told him I was signing papers so I could be a substitute teacher.

Blake said, and I quote, "I don't want you to be a teacher. I want you to be a mommy."

Can you believe he even said that? I told him that was so nice of him to say, and that I will only do it once in a while, but when I teach, he can play with his friends all day.

His attitude immediately changed. "Oh, OKAY! Are you going to be a teacher now? When are you going to be a teacher?"

I guess he likes playing with his friends more than his mommy. I understand!

Just had to share this funny conversation.