Birdhouse

I was out one Sunday afternoon and when I got home I found Eric and Josie building a bird house. I love her church/work outfit. Josie loves working in the shop with her dad.

 

 

 

Tahoe Weekend

We went to Tahoe with our friends Justin, Brigit, and Kaira and stayed in their cabin near Tahoe City. We arrived late Thursday night Jan. 17. The guys skied/boarded on Friday while the ladies/girls hung out at the cabin and relaxed and played in the snow. Saturday we took the kids sleding. Sunday we hung out at the cabin and the dads and kids made an igloo, we all took a walk to the lake, and the kids sledded outside the cabin. The three of us drove back Sunday afternoon after watching the Niners win. The weather was so sunny and warm.

Josie get all her snow gear on. We borrowed clothes from Tia's kids.

Josie sitting on the sled we brought. View from the cabin deck.

Brigit was the only one who didn't take a turn b/c she's carrying little sister in her tummy.

 

Lake Tahoe

On our way home

2 years 11 months and 1 day

Whew, I hopefully made up for a long silence by blogging a months worth of pictures in a day (a very long day). Grab your coffee or tea and sit back and enjoy all the pics in the 12 posts! You might want to skip down to San Carlos Holiday Lights if you want to read the posts in order.

One more month until Josie turns 3. Now that my birthday has past she's waiting for her birthday which she thinks should be any day. She's cute as a button and knows how to push our buttons that little stinker. She had her 3 year visit early. She's 29.3 lbs and 36.25 inches. I think that puts her in the 40-50th percentile. She got a clean bill of health. No shots but did get the flu shot as a nasal injection. No after effects. As we were walking through the waiting area to go home we passed an elderly woman with a cane and Josie asked if that was her pogo stick. The lady didn't hear her but others around thought that was pretty funny. She's curious about everything.

Entertains us with her singing and dancing.

I was at Aunt Gaylynne's to help with Christmas Eve preparations and Josie came along to help if she was interested. Gaylynne had this bead project and at first I thought she'd throw the whole thing out of frustration b/c the beads are so stinking small and every time your finger bumps one it falls off. What do you know - she stuck with it for about an hour and completed it. I was so impressed and proud of her for being so patient. There were definitely beads that had fallen but she persevered. She helped iron it with parchment paper on top so it's melted together enough to seal it's form. She can't wait to go back and do the next shape.

I've beenused to seeing Josie's drawings lately of dots and more dots and patches of color. Then one day she's drawing and I wasn't paying attention and she handed me her paper with a family. I just about fell off my chair. I couldn't believe she had not only made a face for the first time but bodies too. I took a picture immediately b/c all her other art work I was saving she crumpled up for daddy to use in the wood burning stove (grrrr!). She does a really good job at staying in the lines too and she'll spend quite a bit of time working on it. Of course we don't tell her to stay in the lines but I guess at some point kids figure out that's what they're supposed to do.

 The first video is her going down the big slide by herself with out hitting an curve and getting twisted around and making her mom nervous. The second video is of her and Kaira jumping off a platform at My Gym. The third video is her sweet voice singing a song. I'm never got quick enough to get the whole thing.

We are totally in love with our little cutie pie!

Train ride home

Josie did great on the long train ride home. We got on about 1:00 and got off around 9:15. We had great seats. We spent the first couple hours in the vista dome enjoying the view. What a gorgeous sunny day. The coast line was spectacular of course. The other side was rolling hills with occasional cows popping up. We went back to our seats to take naps but mom was the only one who dozed off. Josie was "not tired" and was glued to her iPad. Later we went to the club car and sat at the table so Josie could color. Then back to our seats for more iPad fun. At 8:10 she turned off her iPad and put her head on my lap with a pillow and her eyes were closed as she put her head down. She slept the next hour and then on the way home and then went right back to sleep at home. She was so happy to be in her warm bed. Sad to say goodbye and leave Santa Barbara but we'll be back real soon. 

Happy New Year - Go Stanford!

What a great way to spend the new year cheering for Stanford at the Rose Bowl. My parents, Luke and I made the drive Tuesday morning and were there by about 11:00. The parking lot was on a huge golf course. Our spot was about a mile away from the stadium. We couldn't even see the stadium. We hooked up with my sis- and bro-in-law and kids. Ate a hot dog and then went into the stadium about 90 minutes early. It was fun to just watch what was going on in the stands with all the goofy things the fans wear and fun watching the warm-ups on the field. It was a little cloudy but the sun kept things at a nice temp. As the sun went down the temp dropped quite a bit and we kept putting on my layers. I was well prepared with Uggs and a hat from Karen and a down jacket from Linda and then of course all my layers underneath. 

John & Jody; Allison & Kirsten; and my parents with Matt

 My brother-in-laws: Luke and John

Cannons went off.....

Stealth bomber overhead.... Now the games can begin.

Team huddle and Stanford band being crazy on the field.

Stanford running on the field; mom filing her nails (why wouldn't she); looking all decked out with their cardinal red. 

The sun is going down and the clouds are coming in. Attendance: 93,359.

Luke trying to talk on the phone but it's too noisy. The stadium is full of the color red since Wisconsin is also red but a little lighter in color.

 

 After the interception with about 4 minutes left Stanford had sealed the deal.

 

Wahoo! Let the celebrations begin!!!

New Year's Eve

We took a beautiful drive through the mountains to visit the Santa Ynez Mission and then walked through the streets of Solvang which was walking distance from the Mission.

Josie kept asking who died on all the little crosses and why was the ground so bumpy? Were we walking on top of people? Why are people buried under there?

 

Danish town of Solvang.

 Picnic in the park: Cardamon bread with cheese & salami; apple & cheese; taffy apple; Danish split pea and ham soup. I bought the soup at the bakery and only Josie and Katie tried it and we all loved it. Some got Subway sandwiches.

We got back to Grams for a little rest and then to Karen & Luke's for dinner and our friends Pablo and Linda joined us. First course artichokes dipped in butter and then tamales for the main course. Yummy. We toasted the new year at 9pm. Gram & Papa dancing in the new year.