Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Merry Christmas!

The holiday festivities have been in full force around the Jennings house. Christmas activities included shopping, advent calendars, listening and singing christmas songs, reading lots of christmas stories (favorite this year - the Grinch), admiring christmas cards from family and friends, decorating, partying,and, of course, baking!

We made sevaral attempts (and by several I mean over 20) to get the perfect family picture for our card. We abandoned the effort and just went with these silly self timed pics we took in front of the tree one night. How do you people get your wiggly toddlers to smile so sweetly in a photo? Would love to know your secret!



The baking tradition - 20+ years strong! My mom came over to spend a day baking. She created these cute little houses for the boys to decorate. Theo did pretty good getting frosting on the house, but was especially good at eating it. Every so often I'm reminded how "boy" my life is, Brock describing his house decorations was one of those moments. There were, "poof shooters" and "hoses for shooting water" and "a moat"- no picket fence, cute windows, or chimney...just all boy! Other recent reminders...the jar of worms on my kitchen bar, the hornets nest on my spice rack and the piles of boy colored laundry. No girly stuff around here!





We got a tiny bit of snow before Christmas so the boys got to catch a few snowflakes in their mouths. Credit to Cory for the stellar snow outfits once again!


My brother (uncle Arthur) came up for Christmas. On Christmas Eve day we took Brock ice skating and out to lunch. Brock rocked ice skating! He slipped, slided and fell, but he loved it. Each lap I thought he would want to stop, but after a short rest we would go again, and again, and again. It worked perfect to have him between us...and the big people managed to stay on their feet, phew! The day was beautiful - we got bundled up, but after a lap we were down to just our shirts.





On Christmas Eve Santa made a special stop at our house! Brock has come to expect this tradition and you should see his eyes pop when he hears santa at the door. Theo loved Santa too! He spent a few minutes at the front door when Santa left saying "Santa...bye bye". He really wanted him to come back - didn't care one bit about the present Santa brought. Brock got a lego plane set and said in amazement, "this is what I have always wanted" - how did Santa know?








Of course the bubble wrap was a huge hit!


I love my Mama!

Friday, December 10, 2010

Thanksgiving at the Beach

So much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving! We are especially thankful for our annual beach trip this time of year. We stopped in Fresno for a couple days to visit my best friend from High School and her sweet twins. Then we headed to the beach for a week of fun!

Sadly, this was the best group shot we could get...mine were stinkers.






We spent lots and lots of time at the beach.







An AWESOME day sailing on the Coulston boat - The Free Spirit! Brock loves sailing and must have asked a million questions about the boat. On our trip we saw herons, sea lions, otters, dolphins and lots of jelly fish.




Sunday, December 5, 2010

Birthday Fun

Brock has had a super fun birthday; gift opening and cupcakes on the actual day, birthday mail arriving all week, party at school, a party on Friday, and the most ridiculous four year old gift from mom and dad!


Yes, we know - this is an obnoxious present - dangerous, expensive, etc. But against all reason I let Cory talk me into it - A REAL dirt bike! What was I thinking? No suprise, Brock loves it and spends every spare second riding it and is doing really good. It is an electric bike called an OSET, based in Colorado, and has speed settings so we can somewhat be in control.http://osetbikes.com/

Brock's class! I made these cute little bee hives - used soy instead of peanut butter and they were good for everyone - even the poor kiddos with nut and gluten allergies. Don't tell them they are somewhat healthy too!


Making pizza! They actually turned out really good!



Little chefs hats!

Adorable aprons made with love by my mom (a.k.a mama) Thank you mom!