Cousins

Today, my sister Kelly came to visit with her new baby Shane. This was the first time that Sean had seen his new cousin, and he was just in love with him. He was so gentle holding him. It was absolutely precious to watch him, no longer a baby himself, holding his cousin so lovingly.

Let's go fly a kite!

A couple weeks ago, when Caityn's and Sean's grandparents from Fremont were visiting, we had a kite flying day at the park. It was a beautiful day for taking photos, and once the wind kicked up, the kite was flying in no time!

Can you guess who this is playing peek-a-boo?

Caityn's butterfly kite

Caityn and Ye Ye trying to untangle the string.

Sean wants a turn!

Daddy helps Caityn fly the kite

Christmas Eve

This year Christmas Eve turned out to be something pretty special for the kids. Every year we spend Christmas Eve with my San Diego family, which is the majority of my side of the family. This year we had dinner at my grandmother's house at the beach, which we haven't done since I was a lot younger, so that in itself brought back many happy memories. But something totally unexpected also happened. Santa came to Mission Beach! We were all sitting around finishing dinner, when Santa pulled up next to the house and started getting out his sack full of toys. Apparently, he was scheduled to make an appearance as Santa to a house a few doors down before returning to the party as himself. Well, this man dressed up as Santa, who was a complete stranger to us, promised he would stop by my grandmother's house after delivering his sack full of gifts to the children at another party. And he kept his promise. He didn't just stop by to say hello. He came in and showed off all his bells and tricks in his bag. He was such a great Santa! And he didn't focus his attention too much on the kids, which was good, since Caityn is still a bit Santa shy.

Notice that Caityn is doing a pretty good job of hiding herself from Santa.

This is how she spent most of the time while he was there, until he started pulling stuff out of his bag.

He gave each lady in the house a rather large diamond.

Sean was given a nice little wooden toy car.

Santa shared some pieces of ice from the North Pole.

He showed us his official Naughty and Nice list. Tiger Woods made the naughty list this year.

But this was the moment that melted my heart. Caityn was hiding away the whole time until Aunt Laurie slipped Santa the gifts she was going to give the kids, and this is the smile I got when Santa handed her the gift!

Sean was not so easily convinced.

But he LOVED his little wooden car! He took it to bed with him that night.

I don't know who this man was, but I want to thank him for making Christmas super special for the kids. I think his kind spirit and thoughfulness has helped Caityn to not be so afraid anymore, and that is priceless to me. Santa, of course, didn't go off empty handed. He was given a great big bowl of Christmas goodies to take home to Mrs. Claus!

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas craftiness

Some of the crafts we've been doing at home. Because, apparently, we're not getting enough artwork coming home from school!

Glitter Pinecones

Hand and foot reindeer

Hand Wreath


Hand Santa (this one she did last year at school, but it fit in with the others)

Preschool Pictures

Caityn age 3 1/2

My princess in a sea of boys and tomboys!

Random acts of cuteness

I just uploaded a bunch of pictures and videos from our old camera that I don't use too often. Found stuff on there from all the way back to September, including these fun little video clips. Enjoy!

Number Counting is Fun!

Singing Baby to Sleep

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Well, it wouldn't be Christmas time without a visit with Santa. Tonight Santa was in our neighborhood for the annual tree lighting ceremony, the same Santa we've seen every year since Caityn was born, so of course we had to go visit him again. Now, let me remind you of years past.

2006

2007

2008

Who wants to take bets on what happened this year? I was pretty certain that Sean would not be happy to see the jolly guy, but Caityn seemed genuinely excited about the idea of Santa this year. I think she finally understands who he is and what he does for children. She had two items in mind that she was going to ask for, and she was going to help her little brother to not be scared. Well..........

2009

At least we got a nice family photo by the tree while the kids recovered from the traumatic ordeal with sticky candy canes.