Pismo Beach, California

So we've been home from CA officially a week, and I figured I may just do these posts in parts because I took a LOT of pictures! Somewhere around 300! Yeah, I know, crazy. But it's easy to do in a new place and on vacation. I posted some on FB and some were duplicates so I promise I won't post all of them on here, even if in parts, but I will post let's say the highlight's or the best ones.

We left on the 22nd and flew from here to LA where we had a small 2 hour layover and then caught a much smaller plane to San Louis Obispo (the kids crashed before we even took off and caught a short 45 min nap) where we all rented cars and made the short drive to Pismo Beach....on a back road, through some vineyards...very pretty. We made the trip with my mom's family, in part to celebrate my my grandfather's 85th birthday. The kids did really well on the flight over.  For the most part, they sat still and we had no crying or screaming incidents. Thank goodness I was not THE person you dread having on a plane with cranky kids. It probably helped it was an early flight and not later in the day for a 3 hour flight into LAX. I always wonder when people see kids get on a plane if they are thinking to themselves, " Oh great, small kids! This should be fun." We were spared the anguish of having to deal with that. The kids each brought their own small backpacks, which they wheeled and carried themsleves, packed with fun stuff for the plane and they were for the most part entertained. Cole didn't really understand why you need to stay buckled when the seat belt sign is on or why we couldn't always have the tray table down, but sometimes you just can't reason with a 2 yr old to make them understand. LOL.

Pismo Beach is a very small town on the Pacific Coast Highway about 3 hours north of LA. Gorgeous!! Great weather, great views, and great food. We ate LOTS of seafood during the week. This was our view everyday from our hotel balcony! In the mornings, the tide would be so high you couldn't really walk down there and the water was inside the "cave" but I was just waiting to find a time to get the kids down there.

We followed that white fence to what I will refer to as the "stairs from Hell". Sorry for my speech, but they were AWFUL. Not so bad going down....easy peasy...but I was sucking air on the way back up. Go ahead and laugh because I can NOW, but then, I didn't think they would end. I should've taken a picture. Let's just say I burned some fat off of my legs that day.

But once we got down, this was the other side of that "cave"...we walked around and let the kids explore and check it out...

and run down the beach...

                            We found sand dollars and crabs and wrote our names in the sand...

and we made it about half way down to the Pismo beach pier....

and then turned around let the kids race daddy back to the stairs and burn some more energy...can you tell mommy walked behind them and just snapped pictures!? Good thing I did, I had no idea how awful those stairs were going to be going back up.

Oh, Christmas tree....

This year I wanted to do something different to our tree...red, greens, silvers, and maybe some golds... red is my all time favorite color and I love the burst of color it brings to a room, which is why I have it throughout my house. However, I just didn't get around to it and I stuck with what we had...not that it's bad, I just wanted change. I am a person who likes to change things up and and kind of get bored with the same thing year after year.

But...I decided one more year (maybe) until we change things up. After all, all of these ornaments I LOVE and did spend a small fortune on a few years ago (because I had nothing). I've always preferred the "themed" trees I guess you could say. I covered our tree with rich, glittery browns, golds, and silvers, and threw in some mercury and glass round ornaments too...the only thing I am still missing year after year is a tree skirt. Ha! It's still on my list.

Yesterday at church all of the kids in Sunday school made something special for their Christmas tree...this is Riley's angel, made from her foot and two hands.

and Cole's peppermint handprints...

These were the extra additions to our tree this year, and I love them. So, so cute. I plan to keep hold of these for years to come.

Every year I also try to do something a little different to our mantel and around the house- next year, I guess it will be that Ryann will get the last stocking to complete our family! I am already so excited about the sheer joy (and possible chaos) it will be to have 3 kids ripping open gifts on Christmas day!! We thank God for them every day, knowing what a blessing they are.

 I always put garland up...

and Santa made it on the mantle this year too...

We also added a much bigger lighted wreath outside...

We also celebrated Christmas early with Brian's family because of our trip to CA in part to celebrate  my grandfathers 85th birthday!! We sat outside, yes in the cold!, around the firepit on the patio and had some laughs....

and last but not least,  we ventured to the mall tonight for pictures with Santa...

The kids did so good considering we waited in line for almost 2 hours! I guess that's what I get for procrastinating and going last minute, but they waited patiently and laughed at all those babies who cried and could not wait to get to sit on Santa's lap themselves. They were ready, climbed on up, and then Riley yanked on Santa's beard! I would have expected that from Cole but not her. She said she was just trying to see if it was real. Smart kid, but an embarrassing moment for us.
This year we have been very blessed to say the least. We are all healthy (this time last year we were trying to enjoy every minute knowing it was my dad's last Christmas with us), we have good jobs and a solid roof over our heads, we have 2 beautiful children who make us smile everyday and a 3rd on the way who will make our hearts grow even bigger, food on our table, and family to celebrate with. That is all that really matters. Sure, it's nice to get gifts but it's more rewarding to give back and bless others.

Brian and I sponsored 2 families this Christmas who so desperately needed it. It is then you realize what you have that others don't. I always remember my mom saying to me, " There will always be people who have more than you and there will always be people who have less than you." To this day I can hear her voice reminding me of that. Thank you mom for that because it was such a joy shopping for them. We give thanks that we are able to provide them with some essentials and a few fun toys because we haven't always been able to in years past.

We hope all of our family, friends (and fellow blog stalkers) have a very Merry Christmas.

"Always give thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Ephesians 5:20

Our December...so far...

A day of sugar cookie fun at their Nee Nee's house...

                                                           
                                                           and Brian's 32nd Birthday!

This month is sure to stay busy- last weekend we previewed the African Forest exhibit at the zoo before celebrating Brian's birthday and we got some great pics of the kids....

We've managed somewhere in between work to get the lights up on the house this week and get a Christmas tree up and decorated- I'm a little behind this year because we've been so busy. I'm usually  trying to get it done right after Thanksgiving.  Seems like this fall/winter all we've done is go, go, go.

And we're off again soon enough for a week to California!

This month I will also hit the 3rd trimester and dr. appointments every 2 weeks. We get back just in time to start those. I even got a special letter from the doc to carry with me that says, "No, I may not go through your body scanner so you can look at every inch of my preggo self", but since I can't...that means they better keep hands off of this momma! All I gotta say is those TSA people better keep it to a minimum on the body check. 

 I tell ya, I seriously don't know what happened to the last 5 months!

Thanksgiving rewind

Holy cow... I can't believe it is ALREADY December! Christmas is in 2 weeks and most of the shopping is done...well, almost. I have no idea where this year has gone and here I sit trying to catch up, yet again, on some things we've been up to. There's been plenty to post about I guess and tons of pictures so let's rewind to Thanksgiving...

This year after the "official day" we headed to Danbury to meet the rest of Brian's fam and spent the day with them...

 This boy loves, loves, loves to fish! So does his sister but this boy comes running when there is a fish on the line. Talk about making daddy's heart smile.

 This is Brian's side of the fam- Aunts, uncles, cousins, spouses, and then kiddos ( minus Andy and Candice). This is just from Gram and Papa and their 3 girls...I can only hope that one day God might bless Brian and I with a family as big as this from our 3 children. ( I know it's hard to see everyone in the pic, but with a fam this big, we all look like shrimps in the picture!)

 Let's see their 3 daughters had 8 kids total...those 8 kids (the grandchildren) had each had on average about 2 kids each- give or take!  If you kept count that is 14.5 great grandkids (the half coming from Ryann! Ha!) So....by March 2011, there will be 15 great grandkids!! What a tremendous blessing, all from two people who fell in love.

 The kids made "turkey cookies" out of Keebler Fudge stripes ( some of my fav's) and candy...

and lest, I forget, the newlyweds! Love this picture of them.

These kids were POOPED when we left by dinner- they were out before we made it down the road and out of the gate!