December 5-11, 2010

On Sunday, Laurel had a craft show. (If you'd like, you can read about that here.) After that, we did some decorating for Christmas. Grandma Diane gave us this giant inflatable penguin a couple years ago. Will loves him.


He named him Irving.

Lorne put the lights on the tree. Will helped*.



*followed Lorne and grabbed at his legs and sort of got in the way



Evie found this all very amusing.



On Monday, we took Will down to the little cookie decorating party our apartment complex put on. Will thought this was the best kind of party.


Sorry for the terrible picture.

He did have some help from Lorne, but I think he did a pretty good job! The squeezy tubes of frosting made it a lot easier for him, I think. We might do something like this when we make sugar cookies this year.



Also on Monday: Evie put up with Will's hugs.



And rolled a few more times, but I again failed to get it on camera, just the aftermath.


I don't know what's going on on the right there. Apparently I let the baby roll around in wires?

On Tuesday, we went on a walk in the evening because Mommy needed at least two shots of espresso to stay awake until bedtime.


Seriously Mom, we go on walks ALL THE TIME. Why must you document them all for posterity?

Will collected these sticks along the way. I asked him why he wanted to carry sticks, and he said he had to give them to Grandma Gail. I asked what he thought Grandma Gail would do with a bunch of sticks and he said, "She's going to sniff them."



Not pictured: Will adorably ordering a hot chocolate at Starbucks and telling the barista his name ("I'm Will! I'm Will [lastname redacted]!"), then putting $1 in the tip jar.

When did Evie stop looking like a little infant? How is she 4.5 months already?



STOP MAKING ME WEAR THIS HAT AND HAVE TUMMY TIME. IT'S TOO MUCH!



Also: Will took Evie's tummy time blanket and put it on his head.



I said, "Aw, you're a little babushka!"



Will responded, ‎"I'm just cozy. Cozy and NOT a babushka Mom."

On Wednesday, we decorated the Christmas tree.









Will told us he was eating the star because it was pretty. (???)




Maybe he has pica?

Will and Evie also sat and chatted for awhile.







Then Will left.



On Thursday, Grandma Gail arrived! Due to some fog in the San Diego airport she was sent to Ontario, and then rode down here with someone from her flight and arrived at like, 2 AM. We were glad she made it, and the kids enjoyed reading stories with her.



On Friday, Grandma Gail took Will & Evie to Grandma Jo's house. Lorne and Laurel drove to San Francisco. Here is the sunset over Malibu:



On Saturday, Lorne & Laurel did the first day of Bazaar Bizarre.



We also saw Giants closer Brian Wilson jogging when we went to get dinner on our break. He was wearing sunglasses and a headband and looked a lot like Luke Wilson's character (Richie) from The Royal Tenenbaums. We then used our handy dandy phones to look up where Brian Wilson lives, and surprise, it's in the marina district of SF, which is where we saw him. As baseball nerds, we thought it was kind of neat.

November 28 - December 4, 2010

On Sunday, we spent most of the day in the car, driving home from Northern California after the UW/Cal game. We were shocked to find out that lots of people drive from Northern California to Southern California at the end of a holiday weekend. SHOCKED. No pictures, but the drive was pretty okay.

On Monday, everyone was tired from our long drive and busy week last week. I was too tired to find the good camera, so you'll have to make do with this crappy phone picture of the kids being tired.



On Tuesday, we took a lot of pictures. Some might say we took a plethora of pictures.



This hat is actually not Evie's hat. It's a hat my friend asked me to make for her baby, but I wanted to take a picture of it for her before I dropped it in the mail. And I just conveniently have a baby that I could use to model the hat.



Evie spent most of the time I took pictures of her attempting to remove the hat from her head. Which is too bad for her, because I like how it looks so much that I'm making one for her in red and white.

I also took a bunch of pictures of new PenguinBot bags (shameless self promotion) while the kids napped, but Will woke up before I finished. He watched me take the last couple pictures, then asked if I could take a picture of him. When I said yes, he then struck this pose:



Then he sat on the backdrop I was using for the bags.



I was going to take more pictures, but he shifted and the heavy things I was using to hold the backdrop up fell off the partial wall they were sitting on and while they didn't fall on Will, they fell very close to him. He was then no longer interested in being the subject of my photography.

When Evie woke up I took a couple more pictures of her, because she was smiley.




That's Lorne's manhand. I don't have manhands.

On Wednesday, we rode across the desert on a horse with no name. It felt good to get out of the rain.

On Thursday, I took some blurry pictures of tummy time.



On Friday, someone tried to charge almost $4,000 worth of pizza to my credit card.



I had a similar reaction to Evie's.

Also, the children were adorable.



That's Will's new "I'm smiling for the camera!" face.



On Saturday, we got our Christmas tree. It's pretty big. (The half wall behind the tree there is 6.5 or 7 feet tall.)



Also on Saturday, we watched the Huskies beat the Cougars in the Apple Cup. Woo! Evie was subsequently tackled by her stuffed husky.



Also also on Saturday, Evie made these faces:



And Will made all these faces:

November 21-27, 2010

On Sunday, we took a walk. Will and Zayley held hands most of the time.



We also went to Station and Will and Zayley played in the gravel play area while we ate, which was good times. And we went to Target! And played games after the kids went to bed!

On Monday, Grandma Gail and Grandpa Bill came down from Fallbrook to hang out with the kids while we went with Nate and Miranda to see Harry Potter and eat cheese & chocolate at the Melting Pot.

On Tuesday, Nate, Miranda, and Zayley headed up to Fallbrook. Ian came over and played Madden with Lorne, and when he got a touchdown Will shouted, "Boo Ian! BOOOOO!" I suspect he's learned how to watch football with his mom.

On Wednesday, we drove up to Fallbrook.



Lorne made 1,000,000 sweet potatoes.





Miranda and Laurel started baking the best cake ever.



Here is a terrible picture of the kids in their new pajamas from Grandma Gail.

On Thursday, it was Thanksgiving. We ate a lot. The kids played in Aunt Diana's bouncy house.





Jenny had some fun crafts for the kids to do. Everyone made turkey hats and a turkey hand (which we didn't get a picture of, but it's super cute and going on our fridge).


Will in his turkey hat.


Me in Will's turkey hat.


Miranda with Jake.

Between dinner and dessert, Lorne got Evie to giggle. It was pretty cute.





Oh, and that cake I mentioned on Wednesday? It was awesome. It's the Aunt Sassy Cake from Baked Explorations. The cake was perfect, the frosting was light and flavorful, and it was just delicious. Yeah, I'm totally raving over the cake we baked. What.



Miranda decorated it perfectly, didn't she? (I frosted the innards - aren't they the prettiest innards you've ever seen?)



I think we need to open a bakery together.

On Friday, everyone drove up to Livermore, CA. Haven't you been to Livermore? It's a magical place, with elves and fairies and chocolate rivers, and everyone should go there at least once. Or maybe it's just where we stayed so we could go see the Huskies play Cal on Saturday.



When everyone arrived, Will and Zayley watched Toy Story on Zayley's DVD player while the rest of us watched the poor Boise State kicker choke. Twice.

On Saturday, we went to Berkeley.



Riding the BART.


Watching the band play at the Husky Warmup (AKA, The Football Party, as the kids called it)

I didn't take any pictures during the game because 1) we didn't bring the good camera with and 2) my cell phone camera doesn't do too well with the rain. And it rained. A lot. All over us. And then it hailed.



But the Huskies won, so it was all worth it.


Evie dries out after the game.


Will and Lorne watch Bee Movie on the hotel teevee after the game.