The day before Britton’s birthday he took cupcakes to his class at school. They looked pretty cool, and the kids liked them, even though I don’t think a lot of them knew what they were.

Right afterward we headed up to Steamboat Springs, a cute ski/outdoor town a few hours away. We rented an SUV because my car was in Cali, and to hold our stuff (Mark’s snowboard) and in case there was snow. It turned out to be a good idea. There was snow on our way in and would’ve been a little scary in either of our cars.

The next day was the birthday. He was excited to open his presents.

He kept asking for/talking about a magnifying glass (he saw them on Sid the Science Kid) so he was thrilled to get one of his own.

He’s LOVING this present. It’s a PBS Kids game that teaches skills in a fun way with characters from the shows. I’m pretty picky about video games and this one is really good. It explains it’s curriculum areas, what the kids learn from each game and how it expands their knowledge. He’s doing really well with it too.

Then it was off to “Ski”

All bundled up and ready to go.

On his little skis…had trouble with balance, so  it was pretty slow going. He just went on big snow drifts and little hills, not the chair lift. There was no way Mark could do it being on a snowboard. And, he was too young for anything other than all day childcare with a 1 hour lesson for $229! No happening. Maybe next year. Though, I was getting a little sad and wished I could ski, but Kaia wouldn’t do so well with that.

Anyway, he had lots of fun “skiing”  and told us it was his favorite part of the day.

After lunch he was EXHAUSTED! We went back to the condo and he took a nice, long nap. Later, he showed off his other favorite present:

His backpack! He’s been talking about one forever. He picked this one out and loves to roll it around.

The rest of our trip was fun. We went to the mineral hot springs in town (AKA, the local pool) and it was great. Kaia just lay there kicking and smiling. I thought she fell asleep on my shoulder for a minute. I think she’ll be my swimmer.

It was great to get away and spend time with just our family with nothing else to do but focus on each other. We haven’t had that in a while. The town was really cute, and we’d love to go back and explore more. I look forward to next year when I can ski. It’s been way too long.

Mark’s grandpa Floyd Schwab passed away a few weeks ago. I only met him once, at our wedding reception, but he was a very nice man. We loved getting the birthday and Christmas cards he sent.

Mark was able to go out to the funeral in Michigan and spend time with his family. All 10 of his cousins were there–a first since I’ve known him. They had a good time, despite the sad circumstances.

The cousins…

The sisters…Jackie, Kay, Denise, Lin, Karen

Mark, his mom, Sister Sara, and baby boy (yay!)

We’re sad to have you go Grandpa. We love you!

Kaia met her “friend” Sophia last month. They’re born a few weeks apart. Sophia’s mom was my roommate when I first moved to LA.

Cute little girls!

Best buddy Mav’s birthday. The balloons were a hit!

B and his buddy Max outside the aquarium

AMC friends. So cute, huh?!

We love our friends, and are happy that we can come visit them often!

One Saturday we went to the Butterfly Pavillion…but it is so much more. There were spiders, bees, bugs and fish!

He climbed up all by himself!

It was a lot of fun for Britton, and we liked it too. Definitely some place we can go again.

We’re lucky our kids still like to sleep in. We didn’t get up till almost 8!

We were very blessed this year. Friends and family were very generous and we had a great morning.

“Santa” brought Britton this:

And, though not much of this was from Santa, Kaia got ALL this!

She liked her first dolly from GG Karen

Britton wouldn’t open any other presents…

Mark got snowboard gear, and a couple of other little things

And I got a functional Bluetooth earpiece. Mark decided that it would be good for me to actually drive legally in California…and a little more safely everywhere else. I must say I LOVE it! So handy great to use.

Britton didn’t leave his train table for anything other than meals for 3 days! We spent the day just at home hanging out and enjoying each others company. We definitely had a great Christmas, even though it was just us.

Throughout the month we tried to get Britton to understand what Christmas was all about. We read stories, listened to music and read scriptures about it. Whenever we mentioned Jesus’ birthday, Britton wanted cake. He thought he should have one. But, I think we have a little more work to do, because sometimes he thinks it’s Santa’s.

This year we spent the holidays in our own home for the first time.  I’ve never been without family for Christmas, and I was a little apprehensive about it.

Before we moved we were a little excited because it was my mom’s “year” and since she had moved into the area we’d be able to spend Christmas Eve with family and then have Christmas morning at home, then see family and friends later in the day. Since we’ve been doing so much traveling to LA, we decided we were definitely staying at home.

But, I must report that we had a nice, relaxing time. I’ve never had less “to do.”

The week before my dad came out for a visit and we had a great time. Brit liked playing with him. He even watched the kids for us while we went to Mark’s work party. Thanks dad!

Britton gave me a great present when he decided to help me with the Christmas sugar cookies. Usually he pretends like he will for about 2 seconds, but then leaves. This time he even cut them out with me. Then frosted them!

On Christmas Eve we had a nice dinner and then opened our Christmas pajamas.

Thanks Grandma! We love our jammies.

Then we tried Skyping and Google chatting with my aunt, sister and cousins. It worked some of the time. It was nice being able to “be” with them for a little bit.

We read some Christmas stories and finished our “Christmas Chain” with our nightly scripture, then it was off  to bed  for Britton who was excited for Santa Claus to come and bring him a guitar. Maybe a train.

When we were in LA we went bowling with some of Greg’s friends. Britton loved it! He couldn’t hold the ball of course, so we sat it down and he rolled it (with A LOT of help). He’d get pretty excited and jump up and down.

He did almost as well as me. That’s sad.

Chez and Mom

Picking his ball

Brit and Grandma

This year we went to the aquarium for my birthday. It was pretty cool inside. Each area was decorated/designed with a different theme. Like the rain forest, or a desert with a flash flood.

Britton liked looking at everything, but kept saying “something else” after about 5 seconds. We thought he was bored, but at the end, he said he wanted to keep going and see more. Silly boy!

He liked looking at the fish through the glass. We will definitely have to come back. He and Mark are aquarium lovers.

Then we went home and had left over apple pie from Thanksgiving. It was pretty darn good. Yay birthdays!

So, this was my craft for the year. We have always gone somewhere for Christmas, so we didn’t need stockings. But this year we will be by ourselves in our own home and it was time to get some.
I was about to buy them from some stocking store, but hated the thought of them not coordinating when we have more kids, and I figured I could do it way cheaper anyway.
So after much searching I found these and the decorations to go with them.
I was also excited because it reminded me of the stockings at my grandparents house.
For FHE we each picked our sock and the decorations and had a great time putting them together.

Hello. I’m Kaia. I’m getting so big, and my mommy thinks I’m pretty cute. Sorry these pictures are blurry, but I like to move a lot when I’m happy and so people have a hard time getting a clear picture.  A few things about me: At my 2 month check up I weighed 10 lbs 4 oz, was 22 3/4 inches and had 15 3/8 inch head. That’s almost 2 lbs smaller than my brother at the same age, and almost an inch shorter. Yay!

My reflux has been handled pretty well with my medicine. Now that I don’t hurt so much, I can focus on other things, like rolling over. I did that on November 24th–yep, just over 2 months old– with only a couple of minutes practice on my tummy. I’ve only done it one other day to show my grandma because I really don’t like being on my tummy. I can’t see much from down there.

I am a very friendly girl who always likes to be in the center of everything. I really like it when people smile at me because I LOVE to smile back. Sometimes I even laugh. But, I don’t like it when I can’t see anyone, so I cry till someone comes to play with me…or just keeps themselves in my sight. I like my brother. He is funny; and he is starting to pay more attention to me. He likes to rub my head “softly” and give me a kiss on my head at night.

I am excited to be home for a whole month. I’m spending time with my daddy and it’s lots of fun. I got to meet my Grandma Karen over Thanksgiving, but I wasn’t very nice to her. I cried when she held me. In my defense I had a cold, and I just got my first shots, and I hadn’t met her before. So, I will try to be better next time. The rest of my family had fun with her though.

This is me being really happy!

Here I just wiggled.

I’m a pretty good sitter. I had to hang out in my brother’s dressing room.

Here I am hanging out with my daddy. I am very focused.

Don’t I look really cute in my Christmas dress? I tried to hold still for a picture. It was really hard. I couldn’t smile.

So, that’s what we’ve been up to lately. I’ll try to get my mom to post more often. Though, she thinks she lost her camera and is really sad about it, so it may be a while.

Love Kaia