early morning at the mall

we hit the mall at the perfect time to enjoy all the holiday activities without all the mad holiday shoppers. glamma held a place in line to see santa and then we went on the carousel, had a yummy croissant, watched carolers, rode a train & did a craft......... again all before the madness began.

another visit with santa!

high-five

rode the raindeer

with glamma

milo said, "whoa that tree is really tall"

little pose on the bridge

train ride!

craft time...... but the markers didn't work well...... so we went home and.........

GLITTERED!!!!!!!

camp snoopy

we had a fun and exhausting day at knotts with cousins and friends. standing in long lines with 3 toddlers is GOOD TIMES. if you want to sleep good i highly recommend this activity. but we really did have a good time. the rides are cute and made for little people.

riri!

the crew

we just got here and already looking road

these 2 screamed and laughed with such delight as this ride turned. if we could bottle that enjoyment the world would be a magical place!

brothers!

H.I.L.A.R.I.O.U.S

watching the riley, julian and milo pump their little arms to try

and make it around the track was awesome!!!! of course blake hauled booty!

the last one coming around the corner but you should

have seen him go when we all started cheering for him.

such fun!

we are very grateful.

a visit with santa

look at the difference from last year!!!! but he still holds his hands the same.

this is such a sweet and special community event...... they've been doing it for 43 years

it's going to be a part of our Christmas every year. the family that puts it on says they consider it a

birthday party for jesus!

2009

2008

but but WHY

milo has enter a new phase. pretty much every time he asks me something, when i answer he says.....,"but but why." i try to explain WHY but sometimes it's really hard to make it understandable for little people.

me-"milo go back to sleep"

milo- "but but why"

me- "because the sun is not up yet and we need our sleep"

that one was easy. but trying explain dangerous ones like why he can't play with and hold the hand sanitizer. because it's dangerous, not for kids, not a toy. when he sees me thinking about an answer for him or does not like the answer he fills in for me with, "because"......... and i say, "yes, because."

it's funny how fast a new phase comes on. i have a feeling we've got ALOT of explaining to do.

we love

this

little

person

so much........

still sorta sicky!

i took him to the ocean for some fresh healing salty air. i love that we live 2 miles from the beach. especially this time of year when you can have the whole thing to yourself. this is perfect for milo because he can just roam and pick up shells, chase seagulls or drag seaweed. he's at his best when he's outdoors. hoping this cold gets beat today! his fever has gone away and he's eating & drinking well.

loves the tire tracks on the sand.

you can see his eye is healing nicely.

say cheese!

popping seaweed. i love his face!

collecting seashells for dad & putting them in his pockets.

here's a little string of lights we made for milo's room out of felt and yarn.

fun project for our indoor weekend.

our little hanukkah.

i suddenly had the urge to cook. yummy eggplant parmesan.

kind of exciting considering i've been on a cooking strike for weeks now

but we're all sick of take out. this was nice! also kind of exciting that we may be retiring the clunky old high chair for this new big boy chair.

loves his new blinking nose!

uh oh. milo suddenly has a fever tonight. i knew something was wrong when i was cooking dinner and he was peacefully laying on the couch. sure enough 102 fever. we just put him to bed and his fever is 100 now. praying that he does not get worse during the night and that he can sleep it off.

also last night he was having strong growing pain. poor little thing.

holiday parties!

heading across the street for the hearnes annual holiday party.

silly sweaters are a must!

moppa came over to watch woobie. she brought a gingerbread house kit!

sadly the kit came with so many broken pieces that this is how it turned out.

still a precious moment.

shiner update.....

we took milo to see the DR just to make sure he was really OK. his DR was startled by his poor little face. she checked him out and he was in a really good happy little mood. she even pressed around firmly on his bruises and he didn't seem to mind. the DR decided to be extra safe and order xrays of his face to check for cracks. so milo had his 1st xrays. he did really good squishing his little face up against the xray thingy. the good news is that the xrays show what we thought they would....... milo is 100% FINE!!!! he's just gonna look a little beat up for awhile. other than that he's totally his normal wild self. thank God!

bed head & a black eye! great combo!

poor guy! he hit his face on auntie tia's fireplace.

he's ok but he looks like this and i'm sure

this doesn't feel very nice.

ho ho ho!

let the holidays begin!

thankful...

i'm so thankful for my family.

today i was reminded of all i have to be thankful for.

my little guy waking me up before the sun is up to try and

convince me that the sun is actually up.... so it's cool that he's up to.

lorin taking milo to the beach to watch the waves and pick up donuts.

bringing home some donuts for me!

my best friend coming over early to have a cup of coffee and chat.

moppa taking milo to the park and

out for a few hours. so lo and i can run some errands.

watching a jack johnson concert on tv while we ate our lunch.

snuggling when he played our song..... with a little tear

in both of our eyes.

dashing off to toys 'r' us with coupons and gift cards i've

been collecting for months. looking at all the crap in that store knowing that

our boy usually loves outdoor play and random made up toys more than any

over packaged and commercialized "toy" out there. but buying him some anyways

cause that's just what you do.

falling asleep on the car ride to pick up milo. picking up a happy, funny, crazy boy who couldn't stop doing 'cool tricks' and saying, "look at me." as if we could look anywhere

else.

milo falling asleep on the way home.

sleeping now.

lorin painting his new surfboards. bling bling prancing around.

looking forward to dinner and movies at home tonight.

looking forward to seeing all of our family this week.

xoxo

where have we been?

our hard drive crashed a couple of weeks ago and we lost the last 3 months of our family photos. so i've been a little traumatized. most of our photos are backed-up on an external hard drive and luckily all of lorin's work stuff. but i for got to throw sept, oct and nov into the back up warehouse and BOOM...... sure enough we lost them. :( luckily there is still hope that we will retrieve the photos so i'm holding onto to that hope. when you take over 800 pics a month it really hurts too lose them. so lately i've just been enjoying milo 'in real life' minus the camera. he's happy. here are some photos from the beginning of this month fortunately they were still on the camera memory stick...... or they would be gone too.

don't sneeze! just watching him tumble in the leaves made my allergies twitch!

this is what kids do!

stomp stomp CRUNCH!

cute huh?

playing at the park!

"higher.....HIGHER"

pure joy!

say CHEEEEESE!

the wagon we played with when we were little. milo's getting tons of use out of it!

PRAYING MANTIS

pop is sorta the 'mantis whisperer', he showed milo how to hold one.

milo was fascinated!

delightful. right?

a bugs life in 3D!

fun @ CA adventure w/ em & evy

dland with his cousins!