Christmas Party

Our ward put on a nice Christmas party complete with pancakes made by the Bishopric and a hot chocolate station! After we ate pancakes and drank hot chocolate, the Primary put on a short program singing songs and dressing up as the Nativity. We then sang Christmas songs followed by a visit from Santa. A was excited to sit on his lap. She gave him a big hug and told him that she loved him.
B and I helped with some of the setup and cleanup for the activity. What a job! Our activities committee put a lot of work into the activity, and it was a great success!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in LA with B's extended family. We have spent the last couple of Thanksgivings there and have enjoyed spending time with the family. I didn't take a lot of pictures of Thanksgiving and so the ones I took aren't the best, but oh well...

Halloween

Happy Halloween!
Yesterday we celebrated Halloween by going to a couple of parties. In the afternoon we went to a Halloween party at a park. After that we got ready for our ward party. Our activities committee put together an amazing Halloween Extravaganza. The cultural hall was lavishly bedecked. We had a hot dog/chili dinner followed by a carnival complete with a bounce house. The carnival had about ten stations run by each of the ward auxillaries. After the carnival was the trunk or treating in the parking lot. Fun, Fun, Fun for the whole family!!

Underwood Farms

We've had fun in the last few weeks doing some fall activities. The other day we went to the Underwood Farms with some friends. In the fall the farm adds extra activities for the kids to enjoy such as a corn maze, pumpkin patch, tractor rides, etc. We had a great time!

Haircut and Glasses

The other day A cut a small chunk of her hair off to about her shoulders. Instead of cutting all of it off to her shoulders, I decided to layer her hair and leave some of the length. This is what she looks like now.


I took A to the pediatrician and they said that we needed to have her eyes checked because she wasn't focusing right. We took her to the eye doctor and found out that she needs glasses. We let her pick out frames that she liked and she picked out purple frames. :) She looks cute in her new glasses!

Videos

Here are a couple more videos of A riding her bike and swimming across the pool using her arms. She wanted to swim across the pool without taking a breath.

Disneyland

So we went to Disneyland a couple of more times the past few weeks. Our annual passes are about to expire, so we thought that we'd better go a few more times before they ran out. We probably won't get another annual pass for this next year. Not only did they go up in price by quite a bit, but we don't think we'll have as much time this year to take advantage of them. When we went last Thursday, the temperature was around 100 degrees and we were excited to ride Splash Mountain. 5 days later we went again and it was 60 degrees and raining. We were a bit cold. The lines were short, so we rode quite a few rides, but the warmest ride was Pirates. There was a rush of warm air that met us as we walked into the building. It felt really good.
There is a new light, fountain, color show at California Adventure called World of Color. It is quite spectacular! They have dancing fountains and lights that add a visual effect to the music. The fountains create a lot of mist and in the mist they show pictures that go along with the music being played. You have to get a fastpass at in order to get front row seats. We lucked out the first time and someone had passes that they weren't using and gave them to us. We sat in the splash zone at the very front. The other times we arrived at the park a couple of hours after it opened and the fastpasses were already sold out for the day. We watched it from the side but could not see the pictures. We could only see the fountains and lights.

No More Training Wheels!

We took off the training wheels for A's bike a couple of weeks ago. She was a little bit wobbly at first trying to ride her bike, but she's now got it down pretty well. She loves to ride SUPER fast! She was doing well enough stopping, etc. that I let her ride her bike to the park this week. There are a lot of hills in our neighborhood, so I was a bit nervous taking her, but she did a great job and only fell once.

Point Mugu Air Show

We went to an air show at the Navy Base. They haven't done it there for a few years, so I was glad that we were able to go. The air show started at 8:00 in the morning, but we didn't get there until about 1:00. We thought A might get too bored being there all day and we wanted to see the Thunderbirds which were at the end of the show. When we got there we saw a fighter plane do his stunts. Next was an A-10. The pilot did simulated bomb drops and the area they had prepared for that burst into flames. A stunt helicopter then performed amazing twists and flips. Finally, the Thunderbirds performed their show. They did amazing fly bys and formation maneuvers. A thought that they were a little loud, but the rest of us loved watching them!

Pioneer Day Celebration

Our ward activities committee put together a great celebration for Pioneer Day! They set up about 10 booths at a local park and we all dressed in pioneer clothes and attended the activity. The booths consisted of making corn husk dolls, shaking milk into butter, roping, target shooting, stick pull, hammering nails, washing clothes with a washboard, etc. As you went from booth to booth and accomplished the activity, you were given a little prize at the end. The activity was well planned and put together. We have B's mom to thank for helping dress us up properly in pioneer attire.

I love my cousins

MTC

We went to Utah a couple of weeks ago to see my parents before they headed off on their mission to Japan. We stayed at my grandpa's place while we were there and got to see lots of family. It was a lot of fun to see my brother's new baby. They blessed him while we were there and had a nice gathering afterwards at his in-laws place. We also got to see some of my sisters and a couple of B's sisters also. It's always hard to find time to see everyone and get to spend as much time as we would like with everyone, but we're always glad for the time that we do get.




A, a couple of her cousins and I dropped my parents off at the MTC. They are allowed to use their car and leave the MTC at the end of each day, but we were borrowing their car, so we dropped them off the first day. We drove them to their apartment and got to help them carry their stuff inside. We then said goodbye to them and headed off.

That evening we picked them back up and took them to my brother's place where we all met for dinner and then went bowling at BYU. We had a great time.



It was fun watching A bowl. The first couple of times she rolled her ball, but because it was so heavy it rolled really slowly down the lane, but it usually made it to the end. Another time she set the ball down on the ground and then kicked it forward, thinking that might make it go faster, but I don't think it helped much. One time she kicked it and it wasn't going very fast so she ran after it to kick it again and slipped in the lane. It was fun seeing what she would do to try to get her ball to go. I played in the lane with the little kids who had the bumpers up, so I got a little help with my bowling and ended up with one of my better scores. :)

We are excited for my parents to be on their mission and hope that they have a wonderful experience!!