December

We had a wonder December month! The day after celebrating Becca's 4th birthday, Nana and Papa (my parents) came over to celebrate Christmas early with us. It was great fun, as always, to get together with them. The girls each got an 18 inch Doll from them. It is so much fun watching them play together with the dolls. Poor Austin kept trying to steel one of them so he could play too, but is finally was satisfied using a stuffed animal instead. :) He got a really cool block train and remote control airplane that he is starting to enjoy too. After opening the presents, a neighbor of ours came over to let us know that the Fire Dept would be driving by with Santa on the truck. We heard the sirens and ran outside just in time to see the huge fire truck with Santa and his sled on top. Other fire fighters were handing out candy canes to everyone. It was fun to be out there with everyone. The kids were a bit in awe and are still trying to figure out if that was really Santa or just a regular person. I did tell them that it was a fire fighter dressed up, but they weren't sure if they believed me. Aw well :)

(yes, Becca is still wearing her Halloween Bat costume) Becca got this horse as a BDay present, it goes along with the 18 inch dolls.




On the 19h we headed to So Cal to be with Oma and Opa (Marks parents) for Christmas. I took our traditional driving pictures on the way. I have no idea how this became a tradtion, but we take these pix every time we go on a long car ride. Maybe it started as a way to distract the kids but who knows.


So this is were I am the totally lame picture taker. I didn't even take my camera out of the car until I realized it was Christmas Eve and the kids would be opening thier one present. They usually get pj's but we surprized them this year and got each of the girls robes. Austin still got pj's though. Lucky for us the really like them.


After they were all ready, we set out Santas cookies and headed off to bed. Notice Austins favorite hang out? When ever it was quite, I'd find him there lol.


And yet again the lame picture taker returns...this is the only Christmas Day picture I took....well, at least its cute and they are all in it ;)On Monday we went to the La Brea Tar Pit Musuem. Actually we went in the Page Musuem which is the next building.


Austin really got talking when he saw this statue :)
This was Shaynas favorite
Dave and Ariel being silly. I totally wanted them to do the classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off pose but they are young and hand no clue what I was talking about :(
We also got to paint in the Childrens area

Walking to lunch
Beautiful sunset on the drive home
All in all we had a good time :). We played Idiot (a card game) over and over which made the girls happy campers, we ran alound in the back yard with Chip, enjoyed the warm So Cal weather (but could have done without the seasonal wind), and just hung out together :)

And now you can enjoy 2 small clips of our Christmas songs :)