New Year's Eve

We spent New Year's Eve at Legoland, as we have the last few years. We thought about skipping it this year, but the kids wanted to go.We watched the Lego brick fall at 6pm. We didn't get a picture in front of the brick this year.On the way home, we stopped at Friday's for dinner and the kids enjoyed a strawberry shortcake for dessert!

Long-Lost Siblings?

This morning Kailani had an appointment with the ENT specialist at Balboa. Her pediatrician referred her because of the many times she's had strep throat this year. The doctor recommended that Kailani have her tonsils removed...because of the number of strep throat incidences and the fact that the last time she also had scarlet fever. We aren't certain yet, but we're pretty sure we're going to go ahead with the surgery. We've scheduled a date for February 23, but since that's so close to Becky's due date for the baby and Kailani and I would miss so much school, I am going to see if we can do the surgery in April when we're off. Although I don't want her to have to have surgery, I think it's the best option, and I've heard good things from others whose kids have had it done.
We hung out at home all day with the dogs. We want to make sure Holiday is a good fit and that she and Bruno get along. They played together all day; inside and outside. The kids really love Holiday already. They're hoping we decide to keep her. I emailed this picture to the lady at the rescue and she was so excited to see that Holiday is doing so well here. They look like long-lost siblings:) Can you tell who is who?Tonight Kailani had her first tumbling class at the Gonzalez Academy. The class is just for the Broncos cheerleaders. For this first class, the teachers were able to take a look at the skill level of each of the girls. They placed the girls in two different groups. Kailani's group will have class on Wednesdays. Kailani enjoyed tumbling tonight. The tumbling will help her if she decides to continue with cheerleading. As of now, she says she doesn't want to because "it's too much work," but I think she may change her mind.

Holiday

We decided to foster a baby boxer to see if we could handle another dog in our family. Meet Holiday:)
We got her from Second Chance Dog Rescue in San Diego. She's 8 months old. So far it's going okay. She and Bruno get along pretty well. She does growl and she's a little protective of her food, toys, etc. She really loves Jason! Within the first few minutes, she did pee in the house, but since then she's been going potty outside. Hopefully that will continue. She made her way upstairs and ran into Gabby and Rosey. They looked a little startled, but Holiday didn't even bother with them.We'll see how it goes over the next few days...

Merry Christmas

I think we had the best Christmas yet! The kids were so excited that Santa had visited us. They loved all of their gifts.Becky and the girls came over for lunch and dinner, and to exchange gifts.
We went to the park to ride bikes. Zachary got a new bike for Christmas...one without pedals. It's the new thing I guess. He rode it all the way to the park and back!

Christmas Eve

This morning we went to see the new chipmunks movie. The kids both sat very nicely and watched the whole thing. Hopefully when it comes out on DVD, we can get all three movies. The movies were supposed to be free for military, but we didn't realize it was only after 6pm. Oh well:)
We hung out at Becky's for a while and then went to the 3pm church service with her. Zachary slept through most of the service, but enjoyed the music when he woke up. The church services that I've been to around here are very different from the traditional services I am used to back home. Everything is so laid back...the pastors wear jeans and flip flops, the are live bands on stage playing more modern music, and they project the words to the music on big screens. I'm glad we went. I really do need to find a church here for us to go to. Kailani and Zachary have both been interested in the story of Christmas and Baby Jesus and I think they would enjoy learning more. We also still need to have Zachary baptized.
This evening Zachary and Kailani sprinkled "reindeer food" on the yard. Zachary made it at school last week.The kids are so excited for Christmas. We've been tracking Santa online to see where he has delivered presents already. Early to be tonight!

SeaWorld at Christmas Time

We haven't used our free visit to SeaWorld at all this year (military get one free day per year), so we thought what better time that Christmas time!
We made reservations to have breakfast with Shamu and Santa. We ate right next to Shamu's tank and got to see a special whale show while we ate. Afterwards, the kids sat is Santa's sleigh for a picture.We went over to Santa's workshop then for another quick visit with Santa. Zachary wouldn't sit with Santa this time. We explored the new things they've done with the area where the Clydesdales used to be. Since Anheuser-Busch no longer owns SeaWorld, the horses are gone and so is the free beer:( Since it's Christmas time, there were real reindeer.
The kids played at Snow World for a while. Kailani loved sledding! I can't wait to be able to take the kids in real snow one day.

Nutcracker

Tonight I took Kailani to see the California Ballet's Nutcracker at the Civic Center. There was a deal for military for 75 cent tickets. We read the book a few nights ago so Kailani knew the story. She really enjoyed the ballet, but it was late, so she was getting tired. It was good that we had read the story before going because she could understand what was going on even though there was no talking:)

Cookies and Mrs. Claus

Today, I hosted a Christmas cookie exchange. Each mom brought 2-3 dozen of their favorite cookies along with printed recipe cards. I had little cookie containers for everyone to fill with a few of each cookie. I also had recipe boxes for everyone to take home their recipes in. The cookies were yummy. I am excited to try out some of the recipes for myself.
While the moms shared recipes, the kids decorated cookies. I had sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies with icing and lots of toppings. They had a blast decorating the cookies.This evening, I took the kids to storytime with Mrs. Claus at the Otay Ranch Town Center. She read a few stories and sang some songs with the kids. Afterwards, she gave each of the kids a stuffed reindeer and a candy cane. We weren't expecting a present, so the kids were excited.After storytime, we headed to Chick-fil-A for kids' night:)

Visit with Santa

On our first official day of winter break, the kids were up at 6:30am! They don't understand that you're supposed to sleep in on vacation...
Today we went to the MCAS Library for story time and a visit with Santa. The kids each got a wooden car from Santa and had some yummy treats.On the way home we stopped by the Sports Arena to get tickets to Toy Story on Ice in January. We'll be 6 rows from the ice:)
We spent all afternoon baking cookies. The kids love to help in the kitchen. I'm hosting a cookie exchange at the house tomorrow. I'm looking forward to getting some new recipes.

Parade of Lights

Tonight we headed to Seaport Village for the Parade of Lights. We sat by the water and watched as lots of boats came by all decorated with lights and holiday decorations. One thing I really love about San Diego is that there are still things we haven't done yet and we've lived here for 8 years. This year was the 40th anniversary of the parade of lights and it was our first time watching it:)

Santa Cow

This morning the kids were able to build the last car in the Lowe's Christmas train. It has a pull-back motor so the train actually moves on its own.
After finishing the train, we headed to Chick-fil-A for breakfast. Unfortunately, we missed breakfast by 5 minutes, so we had an early lunch. The kids had their picture taken with Santa Cow. Zachary wouldn't get in the picture without me:)

Christmas in the West

I took a half day today to go see Kailani's Colors of Winter show at school. Each grade level performed a song about a different culture and how they celebrate a winter holiday. The song the kindergartners sang was "Christmas in the West." She was practicing last night and she kept singing "Bring on the turkey, bring on the yums." I kept telling her that it was probably yams, but she didn't believe me. After today's show, she made sure to tell me..."See, it is yums, not yams!"She did good in the show. I was surprised that she actually sang. At the end of the show, all grade levels sang and signed the "Colors of Winter" song together.
Tonight we did a potluck Christmas party with Daisies. We made mini pigs in a blanket, which were a hit with the kids. The girls decorated cookies and made mouse ornaments. We really enjoy Daisies. The other day Kailani told me she is going to stay in girls scouts until she's a cadet (like Makenzi).

Our Little Christmas Tree

Today we finally got around to decorating our Christmas tree that had been sitting in our living room since Thursday night. We've just been so busy that this is the first chance we've had the time to do it. Kailani and Jason went to pick out the Christmas tree on Thursday and he let her pick out whichever one she wanted. She picked a very little tree and she had good reason for that. She said that she wanted one that both she and Zachary could reach to put the ornaments on. Smart thinking!

Cheer Banquet

This morning we took both kids to Lowe's to make the second car of the Christmas train. Zachary didn't go last week, but they had an extra caboose to give to him. Kailani is getting really good at building these things. Zachary did pretty good too. He put all of the nails in the holes and I hammered them in. There are three cars of the train. The kids will make the last train next week; the engine. There are two sets of stickers with each car; Christmas stickers and general Lowe's stickers. Kailani chose to decorate all of her cars with the Christmas stickers and Zachary used the Lowe's stickers so we can tell the two trains apart:)This afternoon we met up with the rest of the girls from cheerleading for a day at the salon. Each girl got her hair, nails, and makeup done. They had a blast. While the girls got their hair done, Zachary played a giant game of chess outside the salon.The salon day was to prep the girls for their cheer banquet tonight. The banquet was at John's Incredible Pizza Company. We had a birthday party room. The coach did awards and presented gifts. We all ate and the kids played games.We had a very busy day...looking forward to a day at home tomorrow!

Snow Day!

Zachary's daycare was chosen for a snow day to celebrate their new winter camp coming up. He went to school dressed in boots, a winter coat, a hat, and gloves. He was ready to play in the snow! When we got there, he had no idea what to do. The playground was filled with snow. It took a few minutes, but he started walking around and picked up a little bit of it to test it out. I took a few pictures of him exploring. Later on, he was able to go play in the snow with his class.

USO Santa Store

Tonight we had dinner at the USO. The kids got to see Santa and each got a gift. They were supposed to wait until Christmas to open the gift, but they couldn't wait. Kailani got to go shopping for a gift for Jason and I.