Our Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's House!

Faces all aglow...

Santa's ho ho ho...

Waiting patiently...

Sleeping peacefully...(this is baby Scarlette Jane)

Sweep with hustle and bustle..

Show some muscle...

Sisters with their new gifts...

Abby on her new wheels...

Just relax...

Play hours of "Marble Blast"... (thanks for your patience Jonathan!)

And finally go to sleep...

Christmas Eve Morning

We decided to have our family Christmas on Sunday morning so that we could get an earlier start down south on Christmas Day.

Can we go see now??


Baby!


Marah's dream come true...a Molly doll!

The world through pink colored lenses...or eyelids

Abby's new favorite color is PINK! She has started pointing the color out everywhere. Clothing, toys, food, lips, gums, toes...if its pink, she will notice. The other day we were driving home late in the afternoon and we were sitting at a stoplight. Abby started yelling "Mommy! Pink! Pink!" I turned around to see what she was pointing at but she had her eyes closed. I realized that the sun was shining in her face and when she closed her eyes she could see PINK!

Climbers

We recently discovered that REI has free rock climbing on Saturdays. The first time we went, Marah made it to the top but Ethan did not. The second time both Marah and Ethan climbed to the top where they rang a little bell. Ethan was so proud of himself.

Abby didn't climb any rocks but if the prize is for "injury received while climbing" Abby won hands down. She was playing around in the van after church while everyone else was carrying in armloads of stuff. She was swinging between the two front seats, slipped and hit her eye on something hard. She has a raspberry colored eyelid...it looks like she is wearing funky eyeshadow.

Happy Halloween!

Here we have a black cat, a shadow ninja, and A-bee. Abby loved going trick-or-treating. Guess what she wanted for breakfast this morning...CANDY! Time to find a good hiding spot for that sugary loot!

Happy Birthday Abigail!

Here is our birthday girl! Two years goes by too fast!

Where is Daddy Mike?

After Mike's mom came for a visit, Mike went to visit her and his dad in St. George for a long weekend. Here are some of my favorite photos that he took. The first is Mike and his Dad...cameras in hand, ready for any gorgeous landscape that comes their way!


The third photo is of petroglyphs in a slot canyon in the Snow Canyon area.



Another adventure that Mike had recently is buying a car. A silver Jetta. MommaAshaleea thinks it feels really low to the ground after driving the van, Ethan thinks it is "a little sporty", Mike thinks it is fun to drive, Marah thinks it has a nice interior and Abby just says "ca"!

Bonfante Gardens

On the last Saturday of September we took Grandma C to an amusement park in Gilroy called Bonfante Gardens. We were very impressed by all the beautiful and amazing plants and flowers there.

This is a circus tree. Several sycamore trees were grafted and trained into this specimen. There are several other different trees at the park including an arch, a ladder, and a four legged giant. We thought they were all pretty amazing.

Here is a lovely monarch butterfly that Mike found on some milkweed.

The rides are based on Gilroy's agriculture. Here we are on the "Artichoke Dip"

One of Marah's favorite rides was the "Mushroom Swing"


We all got to drive in "classic cars" as Ethan liked to call them. I got the thrilling ride of driving with Abby. The whole ride she kept smiling and saying "Abby! Abby!" obviously very pleased that she got to drive. I hope she doesn't get any ideas...

The most bizarre event that happened this day was this. We were waiting in a line up of boats on one of the rides, waiting our turn to get out when I overheard the family in front of us talking to their youngest daughter, Marah. I said "Excuse me, I overheard you call your daughter Marah...our daughter is Marah also! It isn't often we hear that name." We chatted a bit and then they asked what our youngest daughter was named. When we said Abigail, they laughed and said "No way! our oldest girl is Abby!" I should have told them if they ever have a son, they'll have to name him, Ethan!

We finished the day with ice cream. Yum! Yum! Thank goodness it wasn't garlic or artichoke flavored!

A Day on Angel Island

Yesterday we drove to the airport to pick up our Grandma C, who is visiting for a long weekend. As we were driving along Ethan said excitedly, "Abby we are going to go on an airplane and it's going to be my second time!" I felt so bad as I explained that we weren't getting on a plane, we were just driving to the airport to get Grandma because she flew on a plane to see us. He looked so sad in the rear view mirror. All was forgotten though with the excitement of Grandma C in the car. Ethan and Marah love Grandma C because she tells them stories about two brothers named Jasper and Zebby. This trip they are having many adventures involving a dragon, a silver unicorn and their favorite foods: shoefly pie, apple candaddy, corn bread, and lemonade. But I digress. Marah and Ethan also love Grandma C because she always has gum in her purse---a rarity around our house. ( For those of you who don't know, Momma Ashaleea does not chew gum.)

Today we woke up early and took the ferry to Angel Island. It was a gorgeous day- sunny but with a nice breeze. The ferry departs from Tiburon, a peninsula in the north bay and it is just a 10 minute ride to the island. Angel Island is called the Ellis Island of the west coast. Immigrants from Asia and Russia used to be brought here to be checked for disease before going to the mainland. We walked around a bit, ate a snack, fed some seagulls and enjoyed the view. We saw a sea lion swimming, a cormorant catch and swallow a whole fish, and a very fast red, white and blue speed boat. Abby wanted to pick up every rock and stick we walked past and Mike got some beautiful photos of the bay. It was a great day for everyone!

This is an old canon that was found in the Carribean and donated to the island... it provided a lot of fun for the kids!

Here is Ethan, our hiker boy!

There used to be a lighthouse on the island. This is Grandma C demonstrating how the magnifying lens works.

Cutting Originality

Last night the kids asked me if they could each have another slice of chocolate cake. I absent-mindedly said yes and a few minutes later came over to see what Ethan was doing. He was cutting a second slice of cake. "What are you doing?" I asked. He replied, "Cutting Abby a smaller slice of cake!" I thought it very original (or maybe artistic?) to cut a smaller piece of cake out of the middle of a larger piece of cake...

Daddy Goes to Work and Mommy Goes to Ikea!

The title is an actual quote from Marah when she was about two years old. But it has been awhile since we have made the trek to Ikea and since my pantry is in desperate need of new shelves I decided to go today and scope out the options. I told Marah, Ethan and Abby that I needed to check out some shelves and it might be a little bit boring but if they could be on their best behavior we would eat lunch there and play in the kids section for awhile. I also said they could MAYBE get something. Everything went pretty well at first. We entered the Ikea Universe and strolled through the maze admiring all the comfy couches, bookshelves, pulling and shutting all the drawers (Abby especially liked that part) and I looked at the storage shelves that I was interested in. Marah and Ethan and Abby all chose to get stuffed animal bats as their treat (Ikea has weird stuffed animals...) Then we decided it was time for lunch. We stood in line, bought our plates of meatballs, potatoes, gravy and lingonberry sauce, paid, sat and ate. All was well. I checked my phone and saw that I had missed a call from Mike, so I called him back and he was almost there to pick us up. I suggested he park and come meet us in the cafeteria and he could have something to eat. It was then that I made the MISTAKE. I thought to myself, I'll just go order Mike's plate now and it will be ready and waiting for him when he gets here. The table was in eyesight of the food line so I left Abby happily eating and told Marah and Ethan to sit there and play with their bats. I ordered a big plate of meatballs because Mike had said he was starving and Marah had said she wanted more too. As I was paying I glanced over to make sure Abby was still ok and she was standing in the high chair. So I quickly ran over to her, picked her up and went back to pay. I then carried Abby and the tray of food back to the table. If you weren't horrified that Abby stood up in her high chair unattended you may be wondering where is the mistake? Well, as I sat the tray on the table it was overlapping the edge a bit and in one graceful move my purse slipped off my shoulder landed on the tray and catapulted Ikea meat balls, gravy, potatoes and lingon berries all over ME! After a long deep breath I cleaned it all up and I was very proud of myself that I did not cry. I even went and got another plate of meatballs. I think the serving people behind the counter thought I was eating an awful lot of meatballs!
We did finally escape the Ikea Universe and I really think there is a time warp when you go from our universe to Ikea and back because my watch said we had been there for 5 hours....I think I'm going batty!

My Cultured Children

Today during our vocabulary lesson, Marah and I were talking about culture. What is culture? We studied Ancient Egyptian culture last year-- the buildings, the writing, the art, etc. Then I tried to expand upon that definition. To be a cultured person, I explained, someone reads good literature, appreciates fine art, and eats good food....then Ethan pipes up, "Yes! Like macaroni and cheese!"