Christmas

Every year Santa visits my parent's neighborhood. It is a tradition we have had for about 25 years now, and something we look forward to every year. Santa comes on a fun, different ride each year and brings presents for the kids. This year Santa arrived on a Double-Decker bus with a police and fire escort. After opening a gift from Santa, there are cookies, cider, and Christmas Carols out front for everyone. It is a fun & unique evening.
Devin and I were excited to start this tradition with Kaylie this year & look forward to many more years of visiting with Santa.....Thank you all 4 grandparents, Uncle Brady, and Nicole for coming with us....we had a great time!

Kaylie LOVED Santa, she could not get enough of him & just loved staring up at him. Isn't she precious!!!

Kaylie, Christmas morning, with her new shirt Grandma & Grandpa gave her....maybe she will love to read as much as G-Ma Chris and Uncle Brian do.

Run-In With Rodman!

Kaylie and I went to Fred's in HB with my cousins and a couple of their friends to celebrate my cousin, Mel's, 21st birthday.
Picture This:

A well-known ex-Chicago Bull and rebounding extraordinaire with tattoos and piercings in toe standing next to the bar nonchalantly watching his children. His young daughter, 7 years old at best, was dancing seductively ON TOP of the pool table while his son, maybe 12, was dancing wildly around the whole place. Clearly enjoying more than just life!

While we were waiting for our table, Dennis Rodman came over to us and started to talk to me. He made very little sense. Fred's has a spinner near the entrance that has funny things to either sing, do, or act out. Dennis picked it up, handed it to me and told me to spin it. I spun and it landed between two choices ('Sing The Hokey Pokey' and 'fake an orgasm'......WHY ME?) I quickly said, "Sing The Hokey Pokey". I really didn't want to sing- good thing his children came running over, I quickly took that opportunity to tell his daughter that she should sing the hokey pokey, I saw her dancing on the pool table, I knew she could do it. The kids started to spin the wheel & Dennis patted Kaylie on the head and said that she should do the hokey pokey..... I started to make the hand motions with her right hand putting it out and looking up at our server, my eyes begging for help. The guy understood my message and took us to our table. While we were at the table waiting for the birthday girl to arrive, Dennis continued to wave at me from across the restaurant. I ignored him....but that didn't stop him. He took off his shirt, put it on his daughter, then she took hers off and Dennis put it on. Both kids got inside Dennis' shirt and all three danced/ran around the place..... Finally they decided to leave, but never changed back to their own clothing.

This is a great reason to say no to drugs!

Disneyland!

My cousin, her roommates and I took Kaylie to Disneyland for the first time. She had a great time and so did we!!! Strongest women alive?As a kid, Kaitie's favorite ride was Dumbo so she wanted to take Kaylie on it so Dumbo would become her favorite too!



The Happiest Place on Earth!!!
Kaylie would not let this apple go- She sucked on it for an hour & I have no idea why Kaitie didn't want to eat it when Kaylie was done with it!!!

Small World has been repainted, updated and all decked out for Christmas....I LOVE this ride during Christmas!

By 1:00 she was pooped....good thing grandma offered to pick her up so she could take her nap.

Cookie Party, Part 2

For the record, I had a great time at the cookie party & even won first place with my cookies! (can you believe it?... NO ONE that helped me make them can!!!)

Watch out because you just might be invited to a cookie party hosted by yours truly very soon!!!

Cookie Party

Have you ever been invited to a cookie party? I hadn't until this month. When I got the invite I thought it sounded like fun and I agreeded to go. THEN, I got the rules. These parties are intense and I quickly began to wonder what I was getting myself into....

Let me share a few of my favorite rules with you....
1. All cookies must be homemade, baked and the main ingredient must be flour. No "no-bake" cookies, brownies or bars

2. Bring a total of 6 dozen cookies

3. No chocolate chip cookies allowed

6. If you don't have time to bake, or have ruined your recipe, but still want to attend, you must go to a REAL bakery and buy 6 dozen really yummy cookies.
** Don't tell anyone, but I didn't exactly follow all the rules!!!

....YIKES!!! And to top it all off, my parents invited us to the USC/UCLA game the day before the cookie party, so when would I have time to do all this baking? Devin agreed to help me after the game & my cousins were over watching Kaylie so I tricked them into staying and helping too. Devin's friend Aaron wanted to hang out with Devin so he agreeded to come over and help. It took 5 people & 3 hours to make 90 cookies....

Please shoot me if I ever agree to go to another one of these parties.....

And P.S. if you want a cookie, come on over, I have 6 dozen assorted cookies for sharing!!!

I am pretty happy with how my cookies turned out & am SO thankful for my helpers....here are some of the final products.

Are You Listening?

I was talking to Devin about dropping Kaylie's afternoon nap, when he didn't respond, I looked up to find this:

I guess she isn't ready to drop that nap....I don't think Devin is either!!!! :)

Big Bear!

Isn't she adorable!!!