Christmas!

We spent Christmas this year with my family in Boise. Parker, Kate and I flew to Idaho on the 14th so we could attend my Grammy's 70th birthday extravaganza the following day.  For several decades it has been her goal to go skiing in Sun Valley on her 70th birthday and ski she did!  I think I can safely say that you've never seen a more stylish grandma in a turquoise ski suit.

Parker loved the snow.  He loved wearing his hat and gloves and making foot "krints" in the snow.  It only snowed one day while we were there and only about an inch, but we took advantage of it as much as we could.  Parker "helped" my dad shovel the snow, he threw snowballs and made a snow house.  I mostly just watched from the window.  

Both Erin, Matt and Jamie were in Boise too this year.  We had a wonderful Christmas and my biggest accomplishment of the season was convincing my dad to buy a real tree.  I looooooove the smell of a real Christmas tree!  Parker got some great gifts.  I think his favorite was a Thomas the Train train set from Grandpa Bob.  Paul and I got him the Cars 2 movie and Santa got him some cars from the movie. We are so on the same wavelength as Santa!  :)  Thank goodness for Grandpa John and Grandma Trudy- the only gift that Kate had on Christmas morning was from then.  (She actually got some other gifts, but they were waiting for us at home in California.)

Some of us got more practical gifts... We gave my dad spoons.  I just couldn't endure my mouth being cut up by one more utensil that has obviously lost many battles with the garbage disposal.  Among other things, Paul gave me an oven mitt and a nose hair trimmer.  (What's he trying to say??) All of us got socks.

And what's Christmas without a day full of game playing?  Kate is quite the card shark.

While we were in Boise we went bowling.  We played two games and Paul won the first game, my dad won the second.  I lost both.  Yes, I lost even to Parker.  Oh the shame.

And then Paul was hungry so we stopped and got him a burger on the way home.

Just kidding.  This bad boy is from the famous Big Judd's and we shared it five ways... and followed it with five heart attacks.

On December 28th it would have been my parents' 30th anniversary.  They ate at a fun Japanese restaurant on their honeymoon, so we followed suit and celebrated at a Japanese steakhouse.

Too Much Fun

We had planned on taking a group sailing lesson while we had visitors for Thanksgiving/Kate's blessing, but because it was raining the morning of our reservation, we didn't get to go.  This was a major let down for Paul, who had been looking forward to strapping himself to the mast and shouting "I SAIL!" a la Bob from What About Bob.  Who would have thought that the weather would be bad?  I mean, ever. But despite not being able to sail, we still had a lot of fun. 

We rode a surrey:

 

Went to the tide pools:

We toured Paul's office and Trudy got a checkup:

 

We hung out at the hotel that Grandpa Norm, Grandma Sue, John and Trudy stayed at on Coronado:

 Parker got a kick out of this duck in the pool.  Can you see the Coronado bridge in the background?

  

 I love these pictures John took of Kate and her Grandma Trudy:

We went and saw the lights at the San Diego temple:

 

Kate's Blessing

Last Sunday we blessed Kate and we were lucky to have many of our loved ones in attendance, although it was brought to my attention that the showing was a good example of second baby syndrome- there were definitely more people at Parker's blessing.  Our next child will be lucky if even Paul and I decide to show up for his/her blessing.  Well, I went through the ol' blog archives to see who was at Parker's blessing and found that I never blogged about it!  Let the record show that he was in fact blessed by Paul on May 15, 2011 and here's a picture to prove it:

When Parker was blessed I was so proud that I was able to time his feeding just before we left for church so that he would be content during his blessing.  And I was feeling pretty good that I had done the same for Kate.  However, we have church at 1:00 and Kate had already been woken up from several naps that day... I can't remember exactly why, but no doubt one of the reasons was Parker's talent at waking the dead through screeching.  If you know Parker then you know what I'm talking about.  She had fallen asleep on the car ride over to the church and after taking her our of her carseat we didn't have enough time to soothe her back to sleep before it was her time in the spotlight.  Anyway, she cried through the whole thing.  I like to think that she was just giving Paul a few suggestions on what she wanted to be blessed with.  A few minutes later she was fast asleep and stayed that way for the rest of the meetings.  We took a few pictures after Sacrament Meeting, but let her stay asleep.  After church we woke her up to take more pictures- we couldn't leave without taking pictures of her beautiful blessing dress.  This dress, lovingly made by Paul's sister, Dakin, was simply stunning.  Honestly, the first time I saw it, it took my breath away.

Words can't properly express how thankful I am that Kate is in our family.  Going from one to two kids is no joke, but I can't imagine her not being here.  Our family would not be complete without her sweet little spirit.

(Front to back, left to right: Grandpa Norm, Parker, John, Trudy, Grandma Sue, baby Kate, me, Paul, Grandma LeAnn, Grandpa Bob)

Parker and Kate were both about three months old when they were blessed.  Here they are with Grandma Trudy on their special days.  I wish we had gotten a better picture of Parker's little outfit.  Trudy made it for him and it was absolutely darling!  I definitely think that Parker and Kate look like siblings, but they each have their own unique look.    

Trains!

It's no secret that Parker loves trains.  While my dad has been visiting, we've been to the model train museum (the largest in the US) and we built a gingerbread train.  Choo choo!!!

Thanksgiving

We had one of the best Thanksgiving dinners on record... sooooo delicious!  We went to Paul's aunt Karen's house where we had dinner with her family, Paul's parents and Grandpa Norm.  Karen made the dinner and Trudy and I supplied the desserts- chocolate pecan pie, Dutch apple pie and a layered toffee pumpkin cheesecake.  Isn't Thanksgiving the best?!  Good food, good company, fun games.  I love it!