Birthday Girl

Back on the 16th, this sassy girl turned six years old.  SIX!!!  I cannot believe it.  Seems like yesterday that I held her in my arms for the first time.  Lillie will always hold a special place in my heart for being my little guinea pig.  I didn't know what I was doing in this new role as a Mom and I am so grateful for the chance that I've had to go on this crazy journey called the past six years with her.  I did not know how deeply someone could love another until she was born.  I still often feel that I don't know what I'm doing as a parent, but I can only hope that all the love that I have for her, shines through my missteps.  There are also many things about her that are surprising to me, such admirable things, like being so brave, so strong and so independent.  She is super friendly and so emotional.  Okay, maybe that last thing is a little like me. Sometimes I see parts of myself in her, and it scares me.  Not that it's a bad thing, but just that it reminds me that every little thing that I do makes an impression on her.  We've had some struggles as of late as she tries to stretch her wings of independence and I realize that this is just the beginning.  Still, I am so proud of the young lady she is becoming.

Birthday Weekend: Blast or Bust?

With the extra time that Eric took off from work and the great weather forecast, we felt like we should go do something for his birthday. It's not everyday that you turn 33, so we decided to go down to Oceanside to the navy base to enjoy their beach cottages, sun and surf. We were so excited to get there, after spending time in heavy Friday traffic and getting lost multiple times on the base. But when we went to check in, Eric was informed that Saturday the electricity would be out from 8 am to 6 pm on half of the base while they upgraded the power grid. So we were totally annoyed because no one told us that when we made the reservation and the one single thing that Eric wanted to do on his birthday was watch the Seahawks game. Seriously, he said I don't care what we do this weekend but I have to watch the game. That was his one request. Well, the game started at 1:30, so clearly he wouldn't be watching it at the beach house. We toyed with the idea of getting another hotel, but the location could not be beat and being offered half price to stay, we decided to tough it out. And I'm so glad we did. The kids had such an amazing time. They spent as much time out on the beach as they could. The main downer to the power outage was the game and that we couldn't cook any food ourselves, but other than that, it didn't dampen our stay as much as I thought it would. The weather was awesome, the kids spent their time pulling each other around on the boogie board, making sand angels, sand castles, collecting shells and hermit crabs, etc. I haven't seen Lillie that happy in a long time. There were other kids to play with on the beach and so when Ian was napping, I spent my time on the patio reading a book and watching the kids play in the sand. It was heavenly. Around lunchtime on Saturday, we headed to the Oceanside Beach Cafe and had some amazing food. Seriously, I cannot wait to go there again. The coffee cake was so delicious. We were able to get a table near a TV playing the Hawks game and so Eric was able to watch most of the first half there and then was able to watch the game on my phone for the second half. So while it wasn't ideal, he was able to watch the game and thankfully they were able to pull off a win. Phew! And after playing all afternoon until the sunlight was gone, we went to dinner at Chili's and were able to use a gift card from Christmas. It started off on a low note when we found out there wouldn't be any power, but it turned out to be an amazing and very memorable trip.

There were lots of beach houses, but we chose one that was in between two jettys so that the water would be calm and therefore, the kids could play in it without us worrying.  Also, the house was a lot closer to the water, so I could watch them from the patio.  So while the view wasn't as great as the other beach cottages, these were ideal for families with little kids.  

Other Pics from the Science Center

After checking out the Endeavour, we walked around looking at all the other cool exhibits. We saw a lot but there was still a lot that we didn't see. This is a huge building full of fun and interesting/educational things to see. The kids loved it... until they got hungry and then started to fall apart and so we left to go get lunch.

Trip to See the Endeavour

Eric took Thursday and Friday off of work since his birthday was on Saturday. We decided to head south to take advantage of the warm temperatures and spend some time in L.A. and Oceanside. The first day we went to the California Science Center to see the Endeavour. It was so. cool. I remember back in 2012, not long after moving here, that we saw the space shuttle fly by on the back of the Boeing airplane, so that made this a little more special. Anyway, it is such an amazing vehicle.

The lady in this picture was an astronaut that is now stationed on Vandenberg AFB with Eric. When she comes into the dental clinic, it's a big deal. Only the boss can work on her, rightfully so. She's the celebrity of the base.

Christmas Morning 2013

The pictures of Christmas morning are pretty sparse. Eric and I traded off taking video and holding the baby, so the pictures came at the end, kind of an after thought. It was so fun seeing the kids get excited about their gifts. I wish I could make them that happy every day. Glad we have video to relive it throughout the year. It was definitely a merry Christmas.

 We love Frozen around these parts.  This girl has been working on memorizing the soundtrack.

 Henry loves to take his gun outside and practice on moving targets like Max or birds, etc.  This has been a well-used present.

 Santa's big gifts this year was new bikes.  Lillie's doesn't have training wheels and doesn't know how to ride it...yet!  We need to keep working on it.

 Glow pets are great gifts for kids afraid of the dark.  It is surprisingly bright.

 Ian is modeling his new bib.  A much needed gift.  He also got some clothes and toys.  Not very exciting for him this year, maybe next year sweetheart.

 Mega Block Barbie house from the grandparents.  Lillie and I had fun this week putting it together.

 Henry wanted superhero stuff this year.  Capt. America dress up was a big hit.

 Monster slippers from the Beus' were not the best bike riding foot wear but he wore them all day!

Eric's big gift from Santa was this Seahawks jacket.  He actually really likes it and didn't know what it was before hand, so that is a successful year for Santa.  Phew.

And that is it for pictures.  I should have taken one of all the mess that opening presents left behind.  It took a couple of days to clear all the trash out and to find places for all our new treasures.  I had to completely reorganize the kids room to fit it all in.  I don't have any pictures of myself unfortunately, but I did get an electric pressure cooker and a fancy watch, so I must have been pretty good this year. 

Christmas Eve

We spent the daytime hours of Christmas Eve in Solvang and while we were there, Lillie started to act strange.  She wouldn't eat any of her brunch, crepes with powdered sugar and syrup, which she loves.  And she was really lagging behind as we walked from shop to shop.  She complained of being really tired so we headed home.  We had stayed up late partying the night before, so I thought that was the reason, but when we got home she laid in bed and napped.  And that girl NEVER naps, unless she's sick, so we knew something was up.  When she woke up 2 1/2 hours later, she had a fever of 101.4, so we called our friends who we were planning on having dinner with and canceled.  Luckily we had gotten a ham and so we had that in addition to the potatoes and rolls that we had already made for that night.  Lillie didn't take a single bite.  She laid on the couch for the rest of the night.  We still managed to squeeze in making cookies for santa, with extras for us to eat with hot cocoa while we watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  We finished off the night acting out Luke 2 with just our little family.  Eric and Henry had to play multiple roles, but it was a success.  It was not the night that we had originally planned, but it was actually really nice to have a low-key night to really focus on our family and the birth of the Savior.

 Snuggling with Dad while watching the Grinch.

 Enjoying warm chocolate chip cookies with hot cocoa, Santa's favorite.

 Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus, at least we had the 3 most important roles covered

Ian played his part so well!

Solvang and Ebelskivers

No Christmas on the central coast is complete without a trip to Solvang. The city was all decked out with Christmas décor which was great since it was mid-70's on Christmas Eve and wouldn't have felt right otherwise. We visited the Christmas store which is amazing, gawked at the prices of the wooden candle fan nativity thingys (not sure what it is really called, but we want one) before heading to another place to purchase our ebelskiver pan. We realized a few months ago that we needed a new pan and took one home this trip. Sooo glad we did too, they are so delicious. It was the perfect activity for Christmas Eve.