Monday, January 10, 2011

The Granddaddy of them All!

We went to LA and the Rose Bowl and we had a fabulous time!

We drove up this curvy, basically 1.5 lane road up to the Hollywood sign and the houses hanging off the side of the cliff were pretty cool. I don't know how they live up there- parking for parties would be impossible, driving that road at night would be scary and the mudslides? Can't imagine!

This picture is one of my favorites! We rarely get pictures together but there was a woman from Tennessee with her 2 daughters up there who was happy to oblige and took many pictures for us.

The view to smog city.

We were hiking down this road to go behind the Hollywood sign but I think we went down the wrong road. Oh well. We had plenty of other things that we wanted to do on Friday anyway!

Santa Monica Pier. There was lots of red there.

New Year's Eve dinner at Ago. We met up with 2 other couples there.

Go Bucky!

Keith, Chris and Steve are pumped for the game!

Karen, Keith, Chris, Kristi, me and Steve before the game.


Jumpy, Jumpy!Bucky is pointing at ME at the Alumni Pregame Tailgate Party!

The game. Full of RED!

Still has a smile during 5th quarter after the Badgers lost. It was a good game. We were exhausted!

On Sunday, we went to The Getty Museum of Art which was super cool. Wish it would have been warmer so we could have seen the gardens in bloom. We ate at the best little Italian place- Bravo Cucina in Santa Monica for lunch. I could not get enough of the pomodoro sauce! The food at this place was WAY better than the place we went on NYE!!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

AJ was so excited about Christmas this year. He really is at the perfect age. We let him open his stocking gifts before church but he had to wait until after church for the others.

Hmmmmm... What's in here?

A talkie talkie! That's what Bob the Builder and his crew call walkie talkies.

Look at that big dump truck!! 'All these packages say AJ!'

A bulldozer flashlight... cool.

Christmas Eve

The kids were very anxious to open presents this year! But they came up with some crazy antics to keep them busy until it was time.

Presents! Presents! Presents!



Geoff is looking at the fashion illustrating book that we got for Adreanna



All the kids received fishing poles from Gramma and Poppa this year! They can't wait to use them!!

The three of them are tackling the assembly of one of Parker's toys.

My dad wanted these weird 'golf ball finder glasses'. I don't know how they work exactly but the tree looked pretty cool when you wore them. Kind of like black light...


AJ's Christmas Concert



AJ's Christmas Concert (I am laughing so hard but trying to keep it quiet... ;))

Preparing for Christmas

Hey, look who we ran into while buying our Christmas tree!

Our Christmas photo and 15 inches of snow... We thought it would be fun to take it outside this year while there was a major blizzard going on. I won't spoil our idea for next year's photo...

After AJ's Christmas concert. I will post the video of them singing J-E-S-U-S to Bingo... 3/4 year olds are so funny...


Seeing Santa and telling him what he wants for Christmas.


Making snowflake ornaments for gifts. This was a fun and easy craft for any age.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

St. Nick Day and Knuffle Bunny on stage

AJ put out his shoes for St. Nick and an apple for his horse before he went to bed.



Oh, St. Nick left a Knuffle Bunny, Scrambler, some candy canes and chocolate coins! And his horse ate some of the apple!!



That's Scrambler from Bob the Builder!

Later we went to see Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems at the the Grand Theater. St. Nick must have known something... ;)



It was a darling musical and AJ loved it!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving day was spent up north at my parents' house. The kids were squirrelly! They played dress-up and games and just being kids.

Craig & AJ

Parker & AJ

AJ is wearing a wig my mom made for me one Halloween when I was Raggedy Ann and was just a year or two older then him!



They were trying to 'scare' us!

Adreanna being a nut!

Geoff & Lisa


AJ is telling Uncle Geoff & Aunt Lisa all about Curious George Live.

Cousins...

I couldn't believe she stuffed that whole blob of whipped cream in her mouth!


Mr. Cool Dude


Ms. Sassafrass


Ms. Peacock did it in the parlor with the turkey leg on Thanksgiving day...

The Dietrich Family

The entire Dietrich Family

Thankful!