la jolla

la jolla...ahhhh. just writing the words makes me happy. i love it there. we went out to lunch with tommy and lenore and then for a walk at the cove. eli had fun chasing seagulls...and daddy. lyla did not do so well. she as yet another ear infection. that has made the trip a little difficult. she is on antibiotics and hopefully on the mend.

we also went out to dinner with our good friends corrie and mike. during dinner corrie asked me, "did you guys really leave? it feels like you never left." yes, we did, almost five years ago. that's what's great about good friends, you pick up where you left off. it was great seeing all of you!

boys

eli - boys are cool
me - yeah? why is that?
eli - because they have coolness

on our way

eli...
- in nampa, 45 minutes into our 17 hour drive..."is this it? are we in california?"
- in caldwell, 55 minutes into our 17 hour drive..."we've traveled a looooong way from our home."

lyla stayed in her car seat for the whole time...straight through. we stopped 4 times, but i don't think we ever even turned off the car. the kids were pretty amazing, a bit of fussing from lyla, but other than that it was smooth sailing.

we had a really, really great Christmas. presents and breakfast at adam's dad's, presents and dinner at my grandma/pa hobb's.

we are staying with adam's dad and step mom. it has been nice to spend more time with them. eli has been so cute with grandpa scott. this morning we went to this awesome breakfast place in pacific beach called konos. we were walking on the boardwalk to the restaurant and eli kept reaching up and holding scott's hand, it was so sweet.

eli is having the time of his life with his cousins. lyla is a bit overwhelmed by them. on Christmas Eve she would cry every time a new person came in. but it was a fun night for us.

it's been a great trip so far...and we still have a lot more to go, wahoo!

Merry Christmas!

bring it on!

we had a snowball fight today with some boys from the hood. we threw until all the snow in our front yard was gone. eli was in heaven, he loves playing the the big kids. it was super fun.

spying out the enemy territory

play

eli got a new playmobil gladiator set with two fighters and a tiger. we were fighting with them when lyla wanted to join in. eli said she should be the tiger. so everyone had their fighting figure...ready to go. eli and i started waring, slashing each others guy with our respective weapons, then lyla put the tiger up to my guy and said, "kiss." she's not so good at waring, but she's really good at being sweet.

snugging with her favorite baby...

i love our kitchen. it's my favorite room of the house...especially when it snows. the field and foothills look beautiful covered in white. this morning a few hundred geese landed in the field. they were flying around above and eating grass below. it was a cool site. the kids thought so, too.

about 4 feet

the kids were wrestling on the bed when adam heard lyla say, "again!" he looked up as eli grabbed her by the waist and threw her about four feet across the bed...she laughed. adam did not. good thing we have a king bed.

happenings

eli took his first communion today. then he told the little boy next to him why we take communion. he talked about "forgive in Jesus" and how He died on the cross for our sins. i'm so thankful to God for his tinder heart. i'm sure a lot of his desire to take communion stemmed from curiosity...wondering what it would taste like ("it was foamy"). but what really matters to me is that he knows why we do it, to remember Christs sacrifice on the cross. praise God!

it has been a fun day with him. a few things i loved about today...

i love that he said, "mom, you're the best cooker in the world," after i made him french toast.
i love that he called me, "the bomb."
i love that he still calls "california" "costa rica."
i love that when i asked him what he thought of a friends new baby he said, "she's sooo beautiful," in his sweetest voice.
i love that he is still thanking us (two days later) for his early Christmas presents.
i love that he loves making lyla laugh.

it was a good day.

little miss independent

i have a (pretty strong) feeling that lyla is going to be an "i do it" kid. she wants to dress herself...though she is unable to, but gets really mad when i take over to do the job. this morning she ate a whole yogurt...by herself. i'm not surprised at the quantity, because she is a massive consumer of food products. i'm surprised because she physically spooned it into her own mouth without making an enormous mess, getting about 90 percent of it to it's proper destination. yay lyla!

ice cream anyone?

eli and lyla were wrestling on the bed tonight, which is pretty much a nighttime ritual, when eli said, "lyla, don't get me! don't give me a sherbet!" (zerbert).

happy birthday eli

eli turns the big 0-4 today. we celebrated a few days ago with a bowling party. it was a lot lot of fun and the kids had a blast.

at times i thought i should have rented a wrestling ring instead of a bowling ally. that's the birthday boy on the bottom of the pile.

eli's fantastic friends...and eli in the middle of "i don't want to take a picture!"

the bowling ally gave him a pin to have his friends sign. he says it's his trophy for "getting points."

we love you so much eli! happy birthday!

the adventures of lyla and Jesus

as i wrote last week, i had to take lyla out of the service during worship because she was singing "winkle winkle" too loud. this week we managed to stay for the whole worship time...but not without some input from lyla. after every song she would say (quite loudly) AMEN!!! with impeccable timing.

she has big things in store for her. her and Jesus are already good friends. she takes Him for rides in her stroller, puts necklaces on Him, and here she is feeding Him some for her cheese...

taking Him and the necklace for a ride in her stroller...

i pray they remain good friends.

zoo

it was a little cold, but we still a good time. this is lyla's new favorite place. my shoulders are not good enough, it has to be daddy.

on the left, the monkey exhibit. on the right, lyla wearing the hat i made her. instead of a flower like i would normally do, i gave her a fish...because of her love for them. the owie on the her nose is from a shovel accident in the sandbox. but she's healing nicely.

lyla only knows two songs...

...so no matter what song is being sang, she chimes in with a little "winkle...winkle...star...
e-i-e-i-o...donald...winkle...e-i-o...winkle...donald..." last Sunday at church i had to take her out during worship because she was singing "winkle winkle" with all her little heart. i've tried teaching her Jesus loves me, but to no avail. she does sing along with me though, "winkle, winkle..."

our Christmas tree

this weekend we went up to robie creek to cut down our Christmas tree. it was a really, really fun family day. we cut down the tree, did a little sledding and had a picnic on the snow. the kids sat on the sled and we sat on trader joe's bags...it was such a good time. a beautiful, sunny day also helped.

love these ones of the kiddos...

ummmm...

sledding...

on the left, us in front of our tree. on the right, adam and eli cutting it down.

strong men...

cheese!

tying it on and going home.

what a good day.

the movies and the potty

adam and i went to see "the blind side" tonight. we loved it. besides having a great story, it was touching, inspiring and clean. see it!

my parents watched the kids while we had our date night (thank you!). i'm trying not to get too excited, but lyla used the "potty" for the first time, well, three times. i'm kinda sad i missed it. and it's kinda sad that i'm kinda sad that i missed it.

this picture has nothing to do with either of the two things above, i just like it.

good ideas

me: what are you going to get your dad for Christmas?
adam: um...
eli: a gun? rifle? sword? bow and arrow?...a tiger?

scouting

adam and eli went Christmas tree scouting last weekend. they found a good one and will go back to get it soon. the two most exciting parts for eli were some bear tracks they found in the snow and walking across this log over the river. he could not say enough about either.

baby Jesus and the lady bug

i've been wanting a nativity set that the kids could touch and play with. when i saw this one by playmobil, i was beyond excited. the kids love it. lyla has a special affinity for baby Jesus. today she was trying to put her barrette in His hair. when that failed, she decided that He should sleep with it. i love that girl.

singin'

eli learned Joy to the World in Sunday school and has been singing..."letters receive her King..."

ice ice baby

adam had a lot of time with the kids while i was sick. he was looking for fun things to entertain them and thought of dry ice. they went and got some...eli loved it. he was especially fond of the "rocket" they made out of a water bottle. yay for fun daddy!!!

the list

whenever eli asks for a toy in a store i say, "we'll put it on your Christmas/birthday list."  This is a great tactic that i learned from my mom.  it diverts attention away from impulse buying without saying "no" all the time.

with Christmas around the corner, toys are everywhere in every store in mass amounts.  so there's been a lot of, "we'll put it on the list" flying around.  today at costco he saw something he wanted and asked to put it on the list.  i said, "i donno eli, your list is getting pretty full."  his reply, "can you get a new piece of paper or something?" right, why didn't i think of that?

you know you go to target too much when..

.... you're walking up and your one year old says, "pacorn!!! yay!!!"

lyla loves to pray

as soon as we are all seated for dinner, lyla reaches for our hands and says, "pay?" and she always try's to beat adam to the amen.

i normally don't pray with her before bed. we always pray with eli before bed, but i haven't thought to do it with her. i just always pray for her silently while i'm waiting for her to go to sleep.
but tonight i thought, "what am i doing? why should i not include her in this?" so i sat her on my lap facing me, held her incredibly small hands and told her we were going to pray. after i finished, she smiled and hugged me. spontaneously. hugs are usually either asked for or a product of elation after a separation of some amount of time. but this was a hug for praying. she loves to pray.

it's been awhile

no, i haven't been on vacation. i'm am, however, feeling better. after a week of a crazy flu, i'm finally on the upswing. honestly, i've never been that sick. the doctor said it was most likely H1N1. i've heard people say it feels like the normal seasonal flu...they are soooo lucky, because for me, it was definitely not normal.

lyla has croup again and an ear infection. and we think eli also had croup. adam is the last man standing with no symptoms of anything...which is amazing.

i thank God for a great husband and parents who are close and so willing to help.

that being said...life goes on. this is a picture i took last week. lyla loves being pushed around in her doll stroller, as you can see by the expression on her face.

ahhhhh....it feels good to be conscious again...

huh?

while eli was eating a kit kat from trick or treating..."this tastes so good i can't even eat it." he then proceeded to eat it.

trick or treat

the long awaited pumpkin carve finally took place yesterday. eli was sooooo excited, until he realized there was "icky" stuff inside. after that, he wouldn't touch it and wanted his hands wiped...kooky. he did, however, cut part of the mouth, which was enough for him. lyla kept saying "try?" she wanted to try to cut the top...here they are in their pumpkin cutting splendor.

i love, love, love these. eli the ninja turtle and lyla the hula girl. i just realized it's kinda fitting since we saw lots of turtles in hawaii...hummm...subconsciously reliving the trip much?

fierce...

we went trick or treating with our friends, the hills. here's the group...lyla fell asleep before we got started, but when she woke up it didn't take her long to get in the groove.

it's crazy how much kids can change in one year. looking back at pictures of last year...they were so little!

take a look at eli's pumpkin, the big one. he wanted ears on it, which later he called "pinchers." he cracks me up.