Christmas Pics!

We had a wonderful Christmas! We are so fortunate to have both sides of our family close and to get to have them all in the same place for Christmas! We celebrated Christmas Eve at my family's house and then Christmas day, everyone came to our house! The pictures are out of order, but oh well! Here are some pictures of our day!

Here's everyone ready for dinner!

Grandma and Grandpa Daisy got Hope a tricycle for Christmas.

GreatGrandma got Hope a Little People house. Hope loves it!

Hope loves her Uncle Aaron! He was a good sport and climbed into Hope's playhouse to play!

Christmas morning...just the 3 of us!

Seeing her new playhouse for the 1st time...

Hope made Daddy a Star Wars Build-A-Bear...

Discovering presents when she woke up.

A Duplo Toy Story train from Great Grandma and Grandpa in Canada. She loves the figures!

Grandma has a Little People nativity at her house and Hope loves it!

Building trains with Grandpa on Christmas Eve.

We had so much fun!

Love The Moment

My little brother (he's not that little really, he's 2 weeks shy of 18) got me a really pretty necklace for Christmas that simply says "love the moment". I love that! How often do we get caught up in the big picture of life and focus on the future or what comes next and completely miss out on the moment at hand?! How often do I miss out on the moment b/c I am wasting time sitting in front of my computer? How often do I let the moment pass me by b/c I am too lazy to get up and take advantage of the free time I've been given? I think this may be my goal of 2011...to "love the moment"...for me this means being fully present and being a good steward of the moments I've been given...to make the most of each day and the time I have.

For me, this means:
-crawling into Hope's playhouse and being present and engaging with her in play.
-encouraging Hope to be creative, even if it means a big mess and getting dirty.
-taking advantage of sunny skies to go for a bike ride or a walk.
-turning off my computer and getting down on Hope's level to play.
-being grateful each day at work for the career that I have and the blessing it is to love what I do.
-stopping to pick up leaves with Hope.
-joining my hubby in playing games every now and then.
-putting the dishes in the dishwasher so we can enjoy a clean kitchen.
-learning to enjoy cooking and trying new recipes so my poor hubby has some variety.
-being willing to get in the car and drive to see friends so we can create fun moments with them.

I am the queen of procrastination and if I'm truly honest, I tend to be quiet lazy too. I think I often miss moments b/c I am too lazy to get up and create them or enjoy them. I really do want to be about loving each moment that I have been given...I want to soak it up and truly engage whole heartedly in whatever it is we are doing.

Christmas!

The closer we got to Christmas this year, the more excited I got! Jaye had the week of Christmas off so he and Hope got to play together every day! On Wednesday the went to Disneyland together and Jaye says it was pretty great! He took her on Peter Pan, Pirates, Haunted Mansion Holiday, Small World and she even got to go on Dumbo and the Carousel TWICE!!! I love that they had special time together, just the 2 of them! On Thursday we went to Sea World together and it was great! Hope loved the penguins, just like her Daddy! We all went to see Santa together and Hope could have cared less...she wanted a candy cane and wanted to play! We had a great day being outside and enjoying all the great animals God made!!

Christmas Eve we went to church for the family service @ 4:30 and Hope managed to sit through the whole thing, thanks to lots of toys and Daddy's iPod. After church we had coffee with our friends and Hope enjoyed running around Starbucks and hiding from her friends. We spent the evening at my folk's house for our traditional Fruit Soup and Lefse. I think I've had that meal every Christmas Eve since I was old enough to eat. I love it. I don't even think its the taste I love as much as it is the tradition and the specialness of it! We let Hope open her gifts from her Great Aunt & Uncle and from her Great Grandparents and she was happy as could be! Both involved train toys and she loved them! Once we got her new Christmas PJs on we headed home so Jaye and I could get things ready for morning. Once we got things set up we finally made it to bed at midnight.

Christmas morning I woke up @ 4:30 and then again @ 7:30...excited for what the day would hold. Hope slept til 8:30 and then the fun began! She noticed her presents on the fireplace first. She started the morning trying to open the paper with her teeth but by the end she had it down. She'd open her gifts part way, then peek inside to see what was waiting for her. She was so excited about each one. Finally, after we opened all her gifts and she gave Daddy his gift, we convinced her to go to the playroom. As she turned the corner her eyes got big and all she could say was "HOUSE" as she ran to her new playhouse. We spent a good chunk of our morning in her playhouse and at one point all 3 of us were in there playing! It was definitely worth the drive back in October when we picked it up!!!

Christmas afternoon both of our families came over and we enjoyed the rest of the day with them. I love that Hope gets both sets of Grandparents at once and that we don't have to split the day up. She loved having everyone's attention and loved playing with everyone! She absolutely LOVED every gift she was given and played and played all day long! It was definitely an amazing day and I am so grateful for the time we spent together as family!

Pictures coming soon....

Hope's 1st Birthday Shutterfly Book!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Skubic Wedding

Jaye's cousin, James, got married on December 4th. Jaye grew up next door to James and his sister, Gail, so this was a very special day! Jaye was the best man so he was busy doing wedding stuff all day. I managed to get Hope down for a quick nap after running errands and she was quite the grouch when I woke her up to get her dressed...hence the bink in the picture below...I was willing to do anything in order to keep her happy!

Here we all are with James, just before the wedding started.

We had to get a family picture in as we were all dressed up and even a bit color-coordinated too!

Hope and I sat with Jaye's folks @ the wedding. Hope was happy to see Grandma & Grandpa!

Here's all of the cousins that were in the wedding party: Gail, Jaye, James, and Joe.

Michelle, James' new wife, has a really sweet daughter, Alyssa. Alyssa discovered the disposable cameras on the tables and was quite the litlte paparazzi! I had so much fun watching Alyssa throughout the reception. She crawled under the wedding party's table several times, hiding under the table cloth. She danced and danced with everyone and just had a blast all night!
Towards the end of the reception I got to finally hang out with Jaye and help decorate the getaway car! James helped decorate our car when we got married and thought it was a brilliant idea to put confetti everywhere, even in the vents...we repayed the favor and did the same!

We had a great time celebrating James and Michelle and are so excited for them!!!

Conversations with Hope...the navigator.

I think Hope's future may entail map-making, being a tour guide, or maybe even a navigator. I don't know if "photographic memory" is the right word for it, but I am blown away by her. Here is how our drive home from the hockey game goes:

Hope: (as soon as we are in the car) "Mommy, bink? D? Mickey Mou?"
Me: "Yes Hope, the Disney bank is coming."(there is a Partners credit union across the street that uses the same font as "Disney") "Is that where Mickey keeps his money?"
Hope: "Yeah." "Mommy, caa caa?"
Me: "No Hope, the Castle picture is all gone." (there used to be a Disney billboard next to our on-ramp)
Hope: "Hockey? Hona?"
Me: "Yes Hope, we saw hockey at Honda Center."
Hope: (as we pass Honda Center) "Mommy, monkey?"
Me: "Is the monkey coming? Let's see." (The Honda dealer off the 57 usually has a giant inflatable monkey)
Hope: "Yets shee" (let's see)
Me: "The monkey isn't there today Hope."
Hope: "No-ah. Mommy, Ma Wer?" (as we get on the 91)
Me: "Yes Hope, Small World is coming."
Hope: "Ma Wer coming."
Me: "Here it comes"
Hope: "Yay!!!!!"..."Mommy, caa caa? Yites? Ry?"
Me: " Yes Hope, we'll see the little castle with the lights." (Mini golf course just after the small world banner has a castle with lights)
Hope: (as we pass the castle) "Ry Mommy".
Me: "The Fry's Ride?"
Hope: "Yeah". (She thinks the sign for Fry's Electronics is a ride sign) "Cane?"
Me: "Yes Hope, there's the crane." (they are building a new Kaiser off of the freeway and there is a big crane just after Fry's)
Hope: "Moah?"
Me: "There isn't any more honey."
Hope: (15 minutes later) "Mommy, coss?"
Me: "Yes Hope, there's the cross." (there's a lit up cross up on a hill just pass the 241)
Hope: (5 minutes later) "Mommy, boon?"
Me: "Yes Hope, the balloon is coming." (there's a store with a big hot air balloon on their roof. She knows exactly when it is coming.)
Hope: "Apple? Boon!!!" (we pass the apple sign on one side of the freeway and then the balloon right afterwards.)
Hope: (5 minutes later, just pass the 15) "Gampa house?"
Me: "We aren't going to grampa's house today Hope. Yes, that is where it is."
Hope: (2 exits later) "Mommy, Ry? Choo choo?"
Me: "Yes Hope, look for the rides (Castle Park) and choo choo" (train station).

She has our route memorized and knows just when we are getting to each item. Our ride home was dark tonight and she knew just before each one that it was coming. I am amazed with her memory and sense of direction/knowledge of where we are at.

T-R-O-U-B-L-E

Hope is up to all sorts of mischief and trouble these days!!! She is all about testing Mom and Dad to see what she can get away with. She's also really good at selective hearing and ignoring us when she is being naughty. We love her to death, but sometimes she is sure full of tar!!!

New words are coming daily and she is putting them together to make sentences. We had dinner with my folk's on Sunday and all of the sudden Hope busts out with "Mo Peez Gamma". She also added "calculator" to her vocabulary, thanks to Great Grandma. She now asks for "Sheshee" (spaghetti) and "maca maca" (mac n cheese). She is very selective about her music these days and every time we get in the car she asks for "hot dog", "Cow", or "monkey song". She has learned a bit of Jingle Bells and likes to walk around singing "Jinga Bail" over and over again! She has somehow discovered Toy Story, even though we haven't showed it to her. She really likes Woody. We picked up some fun Christmas socks at Target on Saturday and Hope had to have "Toe Stoy" socks! The last few mornings I've woken up to Hope jabbering away in her crib. I love to lay in bed and listen to her talk away. I wish I knew what she was talking about and thinking! Hope has become quite the little parrot as well lately...she's quick to repeat words and things she hears us say...uh oh!

Anyway, there's a quick update so I don't forget what she is up to.

Oh yeah, we FINALLY found our Flip video camera so hopefully we'll get some new videos of her up soon!