Hands Down, Best Christmas Ever part 2

So after the Disneyland trip we headed Down to San Diego to stay with my family. Matt had to work the whole week, but he didn't mind. He knows how much it means to me to be able to spend time with my family. I'm not gonna lie though, during the summer it's hard for him to sit and work while we're all at the beach playing. The night we got there we opened presents, and we got my parents a web-cam, so now they can see the kids whenever they like. Most of my time was spent out shopping with my mom and sister and eating of course...Mexican food and sushi...When I still lived at home I'd always go to the movies with my dad. So of course we had to go see a movie. We saw Tron. It was good, kinda nerdy, but Matt loved it ;)...On New Years eve we watched movies, I went to bed at like 10:30, and Matt stayed up with my dad. And on New Years day we got up early and went to Miramar Lake, so Matt and I could run. My parents walked with the kids. Jacob fed the ducks, and I don't think "ducks" is even the right word...because there had to be at least 100 ducks, it was a little overwhelming. And we could hear the geese in background, and my mom was paranoid the whole time that we were going to get attacked...but we survived...We also did something we had never done before, we rented bikes and rode down by mission beach. It was so much fun, I can't wait to go back and do it again! If your planning on going to San Diego, it's a must do! (it was only like 12 dollars a bike for 4 hours)

My parents have a lot of animals, 1 bird (usually 2 but for some reason the #2 bird always dies), 1 dog, 3 cats, ton of fish, 2 kids still living at home, and a rabbit. Jacob loves it, I'm sure he'd love to have a pet, but no thank you...

"Beach Grandma"

"Beach Grandpa"
Jacob really calls them beach grandma and grandpa

Even though it was hard being away from our home for almost two weeks, it was a much needed break for me. And thank you Matt for being so awesome and willing to sit at my parents kitchen table for hours and work, so I could be out having fun with my fam!

Hands Down, Best Christmas Ever! Part 1

We had so much fun on our three day trip to Disneyland and California Adventures! We spent a lot of time and energy, but I think it was well worth the tired feet and aching back. We spent Christmas Eve in Disneyland. We were able to get in an hour early and rode quite a few rides. Shannon and I packed PBJs for lunch to save some money, knowing that Jacob would actually eat that. We left the park early and headed to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, which was right across the street from our hotel. It was a great ending to the day.

The second day we spent at California Adventures. Jacob got some pictures with Mater and Lightning McQueen. We were able to use the combination of Fast Pass and Rider Swap to hit all of the main attractions. My favorite was California Screamin'. Shannon really liked the Soarin' over California ride. Jacob really liked the Golden Zephyr ride. I think Lilly just liked all the attention and people watching. We also got a Fast Pass for the World of Color for the evening, which is an amazing water and light display. Unfortunately, shortly after it started they had some technical issues. It was raining pretty good, but we decided to go back over to Disneyland. On our way into the park, we bought ponchos for Jacob and the stroller. Shannon took Jacob on Autotopia. Jacob really liked it, but at the end they weren't able to get out of the car since nobody was getting on the ride and they were completely soaked afterwards. I then took Jacob on the Matterhorn, which is a lot of fun in the rain. Afterwards, we decided that it was time to head back to the hotel. We were both soaked to the bone and worn out, ready for bed.

(the fist two paragraphs are by Matt, and I'm just finishing up)

On day three we all went and did our own thing. It was nice to be able to good do all the kiddy stuff again with Jacob and Lilly. That night we went to see the World of Color, and it was amazing! I've never seen anything like it. We had so much fun!

Nap time.. when he woke up, we lost that binky, the one and only one he will take...but no worries he's doing great without it. Evey now and then he'll ask if we can go to Disneyland and get his binky, I just say yes we'll go back someday....

Entrance of the Disneyland

Jacob loves his uncle, he's always talking about him, and want to be a big boy like Brigham...

so cute

Jacobs first ride, the "rocket ship ride" he loved it!

So cute! I love that hair flipping out the sides...

Lilly looked like this most of the time, we were nervous but the kids did so good!

All the grand kids.

Another favorite ride of Jacobs

Merry Christmas to us!

Thanks to James and Denine! We love you!

Christmas #2

Santa came to our house early {ha!}

Christmas morning

{how could Santa say no to a "cars" xbox game....}

I love her.

She's overwhelmed by all the pink....

Now that I have kids to share Christmas with, the excitement is totally different. I remember Christmas mornings growing up and my mom and dad would just sit there. They were never in a hurry to open their presents. It's just to much fun watching your kids and seeing their faces light up...

{MERRY CHRISTMAS!!}

Chritsmas #1

{Christmas fun at grandma and grandpa Downs}

At first Jacob was a little unsure of Santa, but he warmed up {once he realized Santa had a gift for him}

Lilly loved Santa...{but really I think she was super excited about chewing on paper}

Jacob got a set of "Cars" cars from grandma and grandpa...{but I'm not sure if he liked them...so cute!}

Matt's grandma made hats for all the kids, and Lilly's by far was the cutest!

Jacob loves Frosty

I think it all started when we went out to San Diego for Thanksgiving. When we stay with the Davis family, we usually sleep in Shannon's old room (a room carved out of the garage space). It is cozy and separated from the rest of the house. This made it easy for us to put Jacob somewhere without having to worry about him getting into things. We have found that if we put on a movie, he does pretty well.

This time he wanted to watch Frosty the Snowman. It wasn't even Thanksgiving yet, but we figured as long as he was quiet and out of trouble he could watch whatever he wanted. Jacob quickly fell in love with Frosty.

A few weeks later, Shannon was out with the kids during the day. Jacob loves to roam around the store, finding new and exciting things to play with. On one occasion he found one of those CD sampler boards. You know, the ones where you push the button and a demo of the CD comes on. Well this particular sampler board happened to have Frosty the Snowman. Jacob pushed the button and to our surprise started singing along with the words (he had apparently learned the song quite well). Now every time we are in the car listening to music, he asks for the Frosty song. So cute!

run run repeat....

For journaling proposes... On Dec. 3rd I set out for my first 10 mile run, up until this point the most I'd had ever run was 8.7 miles. I thought "well I almost did 9 so I'll just jump to 10 no problem"... And it really was no problem, I did have to walk a little around mile 7...bad side ache = no fun...but once it was gone I felt good and felt like I finished it out strong. So the plan is every week increase my long run by 1 mile. On Dec. 11th I went for 11 miles! Annd yeah I finished, but it was hard! And I think it was more of a mental thing. My body was fine (and by fine I mean my legs were still working after almost two hours of running) but my mind was not right. I read somewhere, that your mind will give up before your body...and it's so true, my legs would keep running as long as I told them to...but around mile 9 my ipod died (never will I let this happen again) so I couldn't help but think about something...most of the time i'm running with a friend and we talk the whole time, but I was by myself after mile 6...So all I thought about was, how much longer, can I do this, just keep running, how can I run a marathon if I can't even run half....so when I finished instead of being excited I was really disappointed...and it didn't matter what I told myself...but I need to learn to celebrate the small victories, and not be so concerned with the ultimate goal. (i mean i just started running in October) but anyways now we're updated...and I think this Friday I'll only do 9 or 10 and be happy and think back to when I could barely do a mile :)

Frosty the Snowmans girlfriend...

I made these for my Activity Day girls and they turned out so cute! I had to share, they were so easy! I think I might be making more...It's a full sized "crunch" candy bar, just in case your wondering...