Surprise!

On the afternoon of December 6th, Alex, AJ and I headed down the street to our good friends house for a Happy Birthday Jesus party. As we approached their home, I noticed my mom's car parked outside as well as couple others that I didn't expect to be at the party. Sure enough it wasn't a birthday party for Jesus but a baby shower for Miles! I walked in the house and was greated by some of my closest girlfriends and family and handed a invitation to my baby shower. It was such a special afternoon of celebrating our new little guy and everything about the shower was totally me. Ronya had us do a craft (i love crafts!) which was an ornament that had a little tag attached to remind everyone of Miles. We played a couple really fun and unique games, ate a great lunch, and had the most adorable and tasty cake ever which was made by my friend Heather.






The Grandmas



One-handed wrapping game

Holidays

New Years
We spent New Year's Eve at the Davidson's house with our Growth Group. It was a fun night of playing Rock Band, cards, darts, and eating birthday cake for Andrew, Shraddah, and Chrissie. New Years day was beautiful so we headed to the beach and let AJ ride along the boardwalk on his new scooter. He's a natural on that thing!


Christmas
Christmas morning was at the Coulson's. AJ wasn't as excited about opening gifts as I thought he would be...in fact, he was a bit overwhelmed. He would open one, play with it for a bit, and then eventually come back for more. Here are a couple of his favorites:








Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve morning we had Alex's family over to our house for brunch and then we headed up to my parents house. We went to Christmas Eve service at my parents church, looked at Christmas lights, and then spent some time with Alex's aunts, uncles and cousins in Phillips Ranch.







The best time to visit Disneyland has got to be during Christmas. They decorate it so well and the parade is really fun.













Thanksgiving
We hosted Thanksgiving at our house for the first time. I decided to attempt my first turkey and it actually turned out okay. Definitely not as challenging as I anticipated. I spent most of the day cooking while Alex and AJ played outside and got the house ready for dinner. It was a beautiful day in San Diego...hence the picture of AJ in the pool. My parents and Alex's parents came over for a low-key dinner

Some cute videos

Alex and I aren't very good at capturing our little guy on video but when we do I love it. Here are a couple recent video clips that I just adore.

AJ dancing (galloping is more like it)


Gobble Gobble

Treats!

One thing I learned from Halloween this year is that AJ has a big fat sweet tooth. All he wants to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner is candy. Getting him to eat actual food has been so frusterating...and wasteful. He takes 2 bites and says "Nums?" (Nums is his word for anything sweet). I just hope this candy-craze ends soon! Any suggestions?

We decided that AJ should be Bamm-Bamm this year because he loves to hit things. My mom saved a plastic club that I used when I was a cave-girl back in elementary school and I threw together the rest of the outfit. I didn't realize how hard it was to make shorts! Maybe next time I will use a pattern.

Here are some fun pictures from the little Halloween party we had at our house.

Firefighter, Bamm-Bamm, and Ariel


Trick-or-treat!

AJ and his buddy Matthew, the cutest firefighter ever!

Tired Family