Visiting Santa

Gingerbread Houses

Almost Six

Matea

She's growing up.

Bella's Letter to Santa

(written with ZERO assistance)

"Deer Satu. I wut Loo Loo the cat and a toy cat and reeol jolree."

Translation: "Dear Santa. I want Lulu the cat and a toy cat and real jewelry."

Let me just say 1. I think she did a great job. 2. I love that her list is really modest in requests. 3. We already got everything on the list and still kept things on budget. :)

I laugh so hard...

I get teary eyed every time I look at this picture. Proof that a tripod, self timer, and beautiful winter background don't guarantee a nice picture.

Snow Day

Bella's been asking us for two years to take her to the snow. So today, we ditched school and work and drove about 2 hours to Frazier Park and took the girls to the snow for the first time. We planned to go this Saturday but with rain heading in tonight, we knew we needed to hit the snow before the snow turned into ice. So, we borrowed snow gear and sleds and made our way up the mountain. We all had a great time and are hoping to go back in the next few weeks. Bella said, "This was the most amazing day of my life!". She was such a little trooper, climbing up the hill by herself over and over again, half the time sliding down on the disc and the other half losing control and just plummeting down on her hiney. So much fun! I wish we didn't have to do the school and work thing tomorrow and could just all stay at home and hang out. It was so nice to have an extra day together. Maybe we'll make ditching school a habit.

Decorating the Tree

It was around 70 degrees today

Definitely snow hat weather.

I am thankful for...

(Bella)
-my mommy
-my sister
-my papa
-my whole family and my friends
-the treats I get from you (mommy) because they're really yummy
-the things you (mommy) let us do and how much fun you let us have
-holidays because there's always something fun you can do


(Matea)
-getting m&m's

So, at least one of them gets it.

Family Day

I had all of last weekend off so we took advantage of it and made a spontaneous road trip on Saturday. First, we drove down to Thousand Oaks and met a friend from Southern California at PF Changs for lunch. Steve was picking up a bike from him so he can start biking to work a few days a week and save us even more money every month. After a nice lunch, we headed back up this way, stopping at Kohl's for some clearance rack shopping and at a convenience store for grape ring pops. Last stop was the Santa Barbara Zoo.

Crazy Hair