Snot Kiss

Snot kiss-  it's when your little one has a runny nose and they go in for a kiss.  You can't deny the kiss.  You love their kisses, so you suck it up and you get a snot kiss.  I get a lot of these kisses from Griff.

Vegas Baby

     Best Birthday Surprise Ever! 

     My sister and I have birthdays two days apart, and I don't think we have celebrated them together since we were 9 and 11.  My mom surprised us and took us to Medieval Times, which was awesome!

Well this year we got another joint surprise when our husbands whisked us away to Las Vegas for the weekend.

     Aaron came home early on Friday, and while I was out for 20 minutes, he packed our bags and had my dad come over to watch the kids.  I walked in the door and he said we were leaving on a trip in 5 minutes!  Ahhh.  I had no idea he had a trip planned and was panicking about the kids but apparently he had EVERYTHING planned out.  So we go in the car, picked up my sister and Maurice, and headed to Vegas.  It wasn't until we got to the Mirage when they told us that our big surprise was that we were going to see "Love" the Beatles Cirque du Soleil show.  Ahhhh.

Our room at the Mirage

There was an awesome Christmas tree outside the Venetian that was made up of these lights in plastic bubbles.  We had to have a photo shoot in front of it.

The show wasn't until the next night but we kept finding ourselves hanging out at the "Love" lobby because it was so cool.

The next morning we got lost in the giant sized Forever 21 for hours.  We barely made it our alive, but we got lots of cute outfits.

Maurice ordered us a little birthday treat of chocolate covered fruit.  So sweet.

For the kids.

Show time! Ahhh.  We were so excited.

The show was amazing.  Amazing doesn't cover it.  It was so much better than I expected. It was fun, beautiful, and emotional.  Someone said it best when they said it was a "display of rock and roll poetry." There was so much to look at every second that I'm sure that I didn't even catch it all.  The minute it ended I immidiately wanted to see it again.  I HAVE to see it again.  If you have not seen it... see it.

Checking out the Bellagio water show the nex day.

Outside the Revolution club.  The night before there were dancers in these letters and I think we were pretending to be them.

Thank you to all the sweet husbands who were responsible for this sister-birthday weekend!

Shop-a-holic

Albertsons started providing these tiny shopping carts for kids and Kali is obsessed.  Grocery shopping is actually fun now because I just point out what I want, and she puts it in her cart.  Love it.

Winter Beaching

Before Christmas break was over we got in some beautiful beach time.  I love the beach in the winter because no one is there and it's so clean and open.  We basically have the beach to ourselves.

We tried to get a shot of me jumping over Kali, and came out with this one her cowering in fear for her life.

Aquarium

Over Christmas break we took the kids to the Long Beach Aquarium which was awesome!

Seen here are my children being attacked by an eel.  Where else can you get that?

Aquarium choke hold

My personal favorite tank was the jelly fish tank

Portraits

I took the kids to the mall for some Christmas portraits. This time it was Griff who was in a bad mood; therefore, no single shots of him.

Christmas Morning

 

Best Christmas morning ever!  This was the first Christmas that Kali really understood the whole Santa situation.  She was sooo excited for Christmas morning, and when she came out and saw the toys she about had a heart attack.  It was really sweet.  She kept hugging everything really tight. The picture above shows the enthusiasm perfectly.  That went on for hours.

Griff was excited too but on a more low key about it.  He quietly hoarded all his new cars and got to work driving them around.

This is Aaron and his new best friend

Later that morning we went back to Kai's for more gifts and food. I had to try out the gift I got Kai in the backyard.

Best gift award goes to Krin for the gift he got Maurice.  A big box filled with papers and old crackers that said "You got Nada from Santa."  There may have been a gift card taped to the bottom.

Christmas Eve

 Christmas Eve at my grandma's house was fabulous as always.  She makes delicious food and puts together a nice little program about the birth of the Savior.  She always makes sure the little kids are involved, and this year they were each assigned nativity figures to place on the mantel.  I love these pictures KC took of Kali placing the figures ever so gently.

And of Aaron singing a solo of "O Holy Night"

Christmas Choke Hold

Later that night we went to Kai's house for some hot chocolate and to let the kids open one gift together.

Kali and Tasha 

Kai read "The Night Before Christmas" to them