"Christmas Morning" in Cali

We gave Santa the message that we would be out of town on Christmas Eve this year, so Santa made a special visit to our home a few days early to deliver our presents. Thank goodness he is as frugal as we are, and does not want us to have to pay extra luggage fees on the airplane!

 Our tree was packed with presents. How do we always seem to go overboard?

 These kids were so cute in their little antlers.

 Lincoln got an awesome bike seat. We are planning on using this a lot down at the beach house!

 Ethan, of course, got a million cars and car-related paraphernalia.

 Lincoln got Ponyo, yeah!

 The presents just didn't seem to end! Next year, we're telling Santa to bring a max of three presents. This was crazy!

 Lincoln had no idea what was going on, but that doesn't mean he wasn't thoroughly enjoying himself!

Ward Christmas Party 2010

Our church, or our congregation has a fabulous Christmas Dinner and Program every year. You can come early and have a visit with Santa, and then the rest of the program focuses on the birth of our Savior. Ethan was well prepped for the job at hand as soon as he saw the man in red.

 You can see he's thinking really hard about all the things that he wants to get this year.

 Lincoln, amazingly, was completely fine being plunked down on some strangers lap. We will have to watch this one very closely!

 The whole cultural hall of the church was decorated beautifully! And the program was even more beautiful. The high school choir came and was amazing! And my favorite was the primary children doing their re-enactment.

 Lincoln was so funny this night and decided it was a great idea to give mama some kisses.

 He is such a funny little guy.

 And how couldn't love that smile? I just want to eat those tiny cheeks!

Crawford Christmas Photos 2010

We attempted to get some good family photos this Christmas season. I guess we try to get photos every year. It was just a little bit more complicated with our little guys.

 That at the wind did not seem to be our friend.

 And the lighting, actually, not an ideal time to get both the family and the beautiful lights.

 Oh, and maybe trying to get photos after 8:30pm at night, when our little ones just want to be asleep in their beds.

 But other, than that, they turned out great, didn't they?

 Well, we had to have a re-do in front of our tree at home. Although we weren't faced with as many environmental/lighting/timing challenges, we took at least three times as many photos and there was exactly one that all of us are looking at the camera and Ethan is not making a crazy face. Any ideas for next year?

Maybe fewer people in the photo might be the way to go.

Thanksgiving at the Beach House

For a few years now my family has been able to go down to the Beach House for Thanksgiving. It's such a treat! We spent a little time down at the tide pools, which I'm sure you remember we have done in the past. This time the boys had a fun time doing something a little different. Can you tell they are SCREAMING their lungs out? What on earth could they be doing?

Why screaming at seagulls, of course.

Isn't that what everyone does when you see a seagull nearby?

Don't you worry we spent lots of time exploring near the water as well.

And just taking it all in. I love this spot!

We found some interesting friends too. Do you think this squirrel might have been fed a few too many times by humans? I'm pretty sure if we had any crackers, this little character would have taken them right out of our palms.

Ethan wanted to spend a little time posing today too. I love this face.

Ethan just loves to explore all over these rocks.

My brother, the perv, taking a photo of his wife's cleavage. Okay. Okay. Maybe it's the baby. But I seriously doubt it.

My sweet little angel boy.

So at the beach house with all the grandkids together, it can get pretty crazy. One afternoon it seemed like everyone was having a breakdown and we decided to throw in a random Japanese movie, produced by Disney, called, "Ponyo." It's basically like a non-romantic version of the little mermaid about a goldfish wanting to become a human. A little on the weird side, in my opinion, but the kids all settled down immediately and were mesmerized. After we got home from the beach house, I added it to my shopping cart on Amazon. What a dream!

We got a few family shots while we were there. It was pretty desperate, as literally, people were climbing in their cars to drive home, but we decided we couldn't lose the opportunity.

Just before we left, we found a friend waiting for us on Cannery Row. Let the Christmas Season begin!

Another first!

Our whole family headed down to the beach house for Thankgiving. Our first night there, we had a first! Our boys had their first bath together!

 Ethan is thrilled. Lincoln looks slightly concerned.

 There were no major crises, so we call that a success!

Tilden Park with the Mitchells

My younger brother and his family got to venture down our way for Thanksgiving this year. We would all eventually end up at the beach house for Thanksgiving, so by coming a little early, they got to break up their never-ending drive a little bit! We got to spend an evening enjoying Tilden Park. First stop was at the animal farm.

 The boys were checking out the huge pigs. I love that they have a little platform to step on for the little guys.

 Most of our time there was spent feeding the cows though.

 Ethan was fascinated by the cows' long tongues.

 The cows were just happy to be getting so many treats. Thank goodness I can never seem to use up all our lettuce or celery when we buy it at Costco, but do you think that keeps me from buying it there? Not a chance! It's still cheaper to buy it there, even if we end up feeding half of it to the cows!

 Here's the crew of us. Looks like I just came from work. Yuck. It was definitely a man that decided that Khaki shirts and black pants was a good idea.

 The boys were so cute running around together.

 Near the parking lot of the little farm is a little playground. Why not hit that up too?

 They had some great rocks to climb.

 Or jump off of.

 Then we stopped at the carousel on the way home.

 The boys loved every minute of it!

 And then a new love began.