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:)