Gettin' out of the house

This morning, after two meltdowns involving bunny fruit snacks and chocolate milk, we forced our precious children into their car seats and drove to the El Monte airport to watch the planes take off.

O Joy was looking super cute in a new outfit.



While Z was wearing his usual Buzz Lightyear sunglasses and ketchup mustache. Sigh.

We were super classy and ate our fast food lunch on the small deck outside of the airport restaurant.

She loves him. So much.

I was feeling sad that neither one of my kids wanted to take a picture with me.

But, being a Bixby girl, I was totally willing to pose for a picture alone.

We didn't see any planes take off...but Z was super excited to see a guy riding a bike on the runway, exclaiming "Look! That guy brought his Kazam! It has two wheels!"

Happy Christmas

Some pictures from our Christmas celebrations over the past few days. Zeke's Christmas wish came true - "An Ironman! With two arms and two legs!" Olive was in heaven with so many delicious bits of ribbon and paper to stuff in her little mouth. And Jeff and I were pleasantly surprised to find our exhausted children asleep in bed by 7 on Christmas night. It's been a great few days!

Loving time with his cousins on Christmas Eve.

Up and ready to go early on Christmas morning.

The girls...

and the boys on Christmas morning.

The highly anticipated Ironman.

Yummers.

The Bixby women in our Christmas jammies!

The outfit she would have worn on Christmas day, if we hadn't stayed in our pajamas all day. She wore it to church on Sunday, instead. A cardigan! A headband! I LOVE IT!

Feeling sad that Christmas is over...

BUT, enjoying a trip to the beach to cheer ourselves up!

Santa Clause came to our town!!

Tonight we were hanging out in the kitchen and all of the sudden we heard loud sirens. We live near the fire station, so this isn't uncommon in our neighborhood, but it was unusual to look out the window and see a police car moving slowly down the street with tinsel and garland wrapped around it. What?! Then we realized - SANTA! We grabbed Zeke and ran outside.

Kind of hard to see, but there he is, on top of the fire truck, with a giant sleigh riding behind him filled with merry Monrovians.


Zeke was confused and then so excited when he realized people were driving down our street throwing candy canes at us!


I told him he couldn't have any tonight, but that he could look at it. Well, then he opened it, so I told him he could have one lick...so then he quickly took two licks and one tiny bite.


I asked him, "Are you so happy?" And he said "Yeah! I saw Santa!"


Then he thought for a moment, "But, it's a little bit sad. The candy is spicy!"

Back in Action

Sorry it's been so long. We've been busy.

Turning 7 months.


Saving the day.


Starting a small business.

Living in a mess.

Trying to take a Christmas picture.

Finding new ways to get around the house.

Getting ready for Christmas!

Need a gift idea?

I love the idea of handmade gifts for Christmas, especially when you get the kids involved. Unfortunately, my kids are still a little young to make something worth giving…unless you’re into painted rocks and sticks that resemble swords. Something I’ve done for the past couple of years (an idea I stole from Courtney) is to make a calendar on Shutterfly for both sets of grandparents. It’s really fun to use pictures that correspond to the month—Halloween pictures in October, beach pictures in August, etc. That way, the following year you can see how much your little ones have changed. The grandparents always seem to like it, too. Another great and easy Shutterfly idea is to do a photo book of favorite pictures throughout the year. Or how about a small brag book for grandma to carry in her purse and show all her friends? And once you’ve finished creating gifts for your family (and yourself), you can place an order for Christmas cards. They have several new options this year and they are super cute. Check it out!

Something you could do for yourself after the holidays are over is to create a Christmas photo book just for your family. It is an easy way to document this most wonderful time of the year and when your kids are older it will be fun to look through each book and remember all those great Christmas mornings!

She's all grown up!

Baby Olive Joy Peanut has been doing all sorts of amazing things lately. Crawling all over the house, using the furniture to pull herself up into a standing position, eating new and interesting foods, and, most exciting of all, establishing a regular sleeping schedule. It is a really fun stage and she continues to be a happy and super laid back little girl.


She liked the peas and carrots.

She wasn't a big fan of the banana.

And he has suddenly become really interested in eating his meals in the booster seat.

Eureka!

This past weekend was kind of rough. Just a little physically and emotionally exhausting. On Saturday night I was feeling sad and tired and all I wanted for dinner was a cupcake. I, instead, made two dozen cupcakes for breakfast on Sunday morning. The boxed kind...with canned icing...and, you know, partially hydrogenated oil listed as the second ingredient. This may explain why Zeke looked like this by Sunday afternoon...

Anyway, thank goodness for a new week. On Monday I was feeling better and even a little holiday-ish, so I decided to try out a new stuffing recipe to have with dinner. I have been responsible for bringing stuffing (dressing? what is the correct term?) to the Thanksgiving table the past two years. I have gone with the traditional Wallace stuffing recipe, which is delicious and a favorite, but this year I wanted to try something new. I found it! I used the prepackaged corn bread stuffing from Trader Joe's as a base, just to make things a bit easier. It was delicious and I am excited to have it again next week at our Thanksgiving dinner. And, by the way, I am happy to report that Zeker has gone through sugar detox and is looking like a new man.