Santa's not the only one who came for Christmas this year!!

Keeping with my theme of 2008, I'm behind in my Christmas posting too... But, I'm right on time for wishing everyone a Happy New Year!! (that's better =)

My Mom flew out to visit Nick and I for a couple of weeks over Christmas. It was so nice to have her here! It'd been a few years since I'd gotten to be with my family on Christmas.

The night she flew in we wound up going to see the Dancing With the Stars tour. Nick's mom had gotten three free tickets that day and invited Mom and I to go with her...









On Sunday night (the 21st), Nick, Mom and I headed over to Coronado for some pizza, the Parade of Lights (people decorate their boats up in lights and parade them around the bay), and a visit to the Hotel Del Coronado to check out their Christmas tree. On Christmas Day we (Nick, Mom, Hercules & I) got up and each opened the goodies that Santa left us in our stockings! We then, somewhat quickly, opened our presents from each other since Nick had to leave for work around 9:15am. Of course, he didn't quite leave on time because who can really open up their gifts and not play with them a little?!? =) Plus, by then we were watching Scott and family open their gifts from us and it's pretty hard to tear yourself away from the webcam when you can see them having so much fun!... Mom and I enjoyed a relaxing day at home and then, when Nick got home from work, we all headed over to Kay-Marie and Gerardo's house for the big family Christmas dinner and gift exchange. After, we made our way back to our house for some birthday cake, ice cream and presents!

Side note: In the pictures you'll notice our pretty new red walls!! After the St Nicholas Day party we un-decorated, moved everything out (except the tree!) and painted the living room and dining room so it'd be ready for Mom's visit.


OK... I've been trying for almost half an hour to insert the slide show into this posting, but it's not working. Apparently I can only do it in a new post or it has to be inserted before I type or add anything else. What a pain!! So... I'll post those separately. I give up! I'll also include some before, during and after photos of our living room and dining room!

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving!

I finally got around to posting my pictures from Thanksgiving!... Nick and I drove up to his Aunt Jean's house in Idyllwild (two hours from San Diego) on Wednesday night and then drove home Thursday afternoon/evening.

Fall was here!... For a couple hours

Last Sunday, Nick and I got up early and drove to Julian. It's a small, historic gold mining town located about an hour from San Diego in the Cuyamaca mountains. Julian is famous for it's apples and especially it's apple pie!
We got there before the stores opened so we could beat the crowds. As soon as the shops opened, we grabbed two gallons of apple cider (the main goal of our trip =) and some apple butter, pumpkin butter, and cinnamon honey. We then headed across the street to get ourselves an apple pumpkin pie.
Our next stop was Dudley's bakery for some jalapeno cheddar bread before we visited Green Valley Falls. We didn't have a lot of time there because we had to be back in San Diego in time to get cleaned up for Nick's niece Janice's baptism at 2pm. It was beautiful though, and we're planning on going back soon to spend a whole day at the falls.
After the baptism, we went back to Nick's sis Jill's house for family dinner and then the whole gang headed over to Foster's Freeze for some dessert.
Great day! Here are some of the pictures I took...

Grab your popcorn!

As promised, here are some of the videos from our vacation in Florida!! Believe it or not, these are NOT ALL of the videos I took! Grab your popcorn, sit back and enjoy. There are a lot of videos here for your viewing pleasure....

By the way... You may want to scroll down to my previous post and turn off the slide show's music. =)

Allison, Kaylee and Grace had fun dancing along with the music from Zach's jumparoo! I love Allison's cool move at the end!!


It's a choo-choo train! Allison's driving =)


I think I should send this to National Geographic... a little dolphin love... It's kinda funny how the background music is "on the dark side..." This video IS rated R by the way!!


Allison had fun dancing at Seaworld.


Nick, Scott and Dad doing some body surfing... Funny...


More bodysurfing


That Wednesday night we had a huge birthday party for all the June, July,and August birthday boys and girls.




Grandma and Grandpa opening up the present from Dad, Barb, Nick and I


Who knew that the thing that would entertain the kids the most would be a birthday card for Nick from Dad and Barb?!?




I can't tell who enjoyed this more...


Kaylee is showing me how I should dance.


Ring around the rosie...


Teaching Kaylee how to hold her breath! I love her face!


Now it's Allison's turn!! So cute...


On our last night in Daytona, Kaylee and Allison put on a show for us. There were glow sticks and everything! I believe this was Allison's first show ever. This is their big introduction and their first song. I love how Kaylee stops singing to make sure Allison is ok.


After every song Allison would yell "Yay!" or "Ta da!!" It was great!!


And who doesn't like a good PBJ?!


THE END

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

July 19-26, Nick and I along with my Dad, Barb, Scott, Elizabeth, their 4 kids, my three step-siblings, their spouses and one child for each of them - 19 of us in total, went to Daytona Beach, Florida.

Here are some of the pictures I took. I also took lots of video which I will add as soon as I can.

Thanks for the inspiration little brother

My brother Scott recently put a post on his blog entitled "Flashback." It has some pictures from a year ago that he found on his memory card. Well, last night I too looked back at the pictures that I still have on my camera's memory card and came across some videos from when I was in Georgia over Halloween. They are too cute not to share.

PS) And now I take back the comment I made in my first post - I AM posting pictures of the most beautiful children ever (at least, for now they are... just wait... someday mine just might give them a run for their money ;)

Kaylee playing with one of the party blowers that Nick's Gran sent for them



Allison in her butterfly costume.

Too bad Kaylee's camera shy, huh? ;)

Ladies & Gentlemen - Your next American Idol! (sorry it's sideways)