A day downtown with auntie kimmy & uncle john...

Downtown had an outdoor temporary ice skating rink this year & we hadn't gone and just realized today that there were only 3 days left to go, so we went. kaia did really good, there were even a few times where kaia didn't have any help...we were very impressed! thanks for spending the day with us kimmy & john, it was fun. oh, and thanks to uncle john, our 3 year old is now a coffee lover!


at the Coffee Bean
you shoulda seen her 2 minutes later...caffiene kicks in really fast in kids!
busted...check out her mocha cholocate chip tooth (no, she didn't fall on the ice & loose a tooth)...

oh yea, don't worry, this IS the first time kaia's ever had coffee :)

Is this a bad thing?

it was one of those nights where none of us feels like eating the same thing so...we didn't, kaia and i had pancakes (don't you LOVE breakfast for dinner?!), derek ate ramen and the other half of his burrito (yes...of course Chipotle) and leia ate smushed up black beans (she's VERY picky!), only like 5 beans & her usual...boob milk. there's really no point to this post, just thought i'd blab.

Christmas Day!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! Let's see, at about 9:30 this morning we woke up...YES, i said 9:30. it was awesome, kaia ACTUALLY slept in AND stayed in her own bed ALL night long...she was obviously very tired from the Christmas Eve events. Kaia's still not TOTALLY sure how the whole Santa thing works, she even fell asleep before we could put milk and cookies out for him. i'm sure next year will be a lot different & i'm sure she'll be up A LOT earlier next year. anyways, as far as this year goes...the girls had fun. kaia had fun opening her gifts and leia had fun watching her, she loved it! a few of kaia's gifts were a Hello Kitty CD player for her room, a doll that she named "dolly doll" (she's not really that into dolls, but i saw one that kinda looked like leia so this year she got one), a stroller for her doll, a wagon with 2 seats & cup holders and a place for snacks (actually, that's for both girls), a my little pony...to name a few. derek and i didn't really get eachother any "real" gifts. we're REALLY bad about surprises and about not giving eachother the gifts we did get on Christmas day...we always give 'em early. so, the only thing we gave eachother today was underware for him and mango slices for me. we went ALL OUT!:) but, we have been looking for a new comforter for our bed, but haven't found one that we like yet. anyways, as far as the weather goes...it's ridicolous! The weather is GREAT...for MAY, it sure doesn't feel very Christmas-ey when you go outside to watch your kid play with her Christmas stuff and you sweat, it sure wasn't "sweater weather"!!! what's that about! okay, i'm done complaining...besides the weather being close to 80*...today was great!




at our house...








at Papa/Nema's house...

Christmas Eve

At Papa and "Ne-ma's" house (derek's parents)




rock star!

leia's getting sleepy yummy hot cocoa!

Yes, we're crazy

So, we went to Victoria Gardens today to go see Santa & most people would say, "no way, i'm not going to the mall on Christmas Eve-eve, you've gotta be crazy"...and that's pretty much what derek said when i told him that i wanted to go. but i like getting out & around people during the holidays, so we FINALLY got out of the house (we're still trying to master getting out of the house with 2 kids before noon). anyways, so, we get there (after a trip to chipotle, of course) and derek thought that parking was gonna be impossible. after only 10 minutes, we had a spot and the best part of derek's day happened. as soon as we parked, we got out the big double stroller & it happened...the open parking spot behind us was getting fought over (literally, kinda). a lady was STANDING in the spot on her cell phone, calling her mom saying, "mama, get yo butt ova here, i got us a spot". meanwhile a guy in a BMW was trying to back in to the same spot about 3 feet from her & she wouldn't budge. to make a long story short, the guy ended up getting the spot with a little help from the bike security guy and after getting called a "M.F.er"...it was quite a ghetto moment & as i said, derek's favorite part of the day. i know i should have whipped out the camcorder, what was i thinking? oh well, so, back to the girls meeting santa. i didn't know how they were gonna react. they loved him, not scared at all...in fact leia pulled his beard, as you will see in one of the pics below. it was great, that's my girl!
oh yea, just a quick question...what do you all think, should a parking spot be yours if you stand in it on your cell phone or not? i don't think so!

leia's 1st santa pic

"here ya go, santa"

"hmmm...nice beard"

"i think i'll give it a tug"

little "lei lei"


thanks for the awesome clothes...kellie, jesse & micah...we LOVE 'em (i know, we were supposed to wait till Christmas morning) oops!

Kaia's Christmas dance open house

kaia's 1st, 2nd and 3rd Christmas'

We're gonna take the girls to get their picture with santa sometime in the next few days & that made me think about Kaia's first picture with santa (2004)...didn't go so well! check back in a few days for the latest...

Here's kaia last year...(2005)
(we didn't get Kaia's pic with santa her first Christmas cuz she was only 1 month old...sorry, baby)

wow...i look tired! (2003)

Gingerbread men, stockings and Christmas trees...kinda

rolling out the dough

we started out good

perfect!!!

here's what they were SUPPOSED to look like :)

good job, kaia

kinda smushed


me and the girls (mainly kaia) made Christmas cookies today & it was a lot of fun, but i shoulda listened to the instructions and placed the cookies 2 inches apart instead of a 1/2 inch apart. see why........ oops! (oh well, they still tasted good)