Step Ladder

We had the step ladder out the other morning and Wes was very intrigued. As soon as Kurt stepped down Wes jumped in to start inspecting and, of course, climbing. He quickly got to the top all on his own, Kurt and I standing by in case he fell.

Christmas Break, Part 6

The week after Christmas was a blast.We were able to spend a lot of time together as a family: relaxing, going on walks, dining at Dinks, watching movies, etc. A few of the highlights were going snowboarding with our friends Jon and Dawn and going to California Adventures. Kurt had never been to that part of Disney so we found some sitters to watch Wes and ventured over there. We actually had tickets that his parents gave us for Disneyland five years ago! We had a great time together and discovered the wonderful "single riders" line, which allowed us to jump to the front of the line so long as we didn't mind not actually sitting together on the ride. We bypassed a lot of waiting doing it that way on some of the rides. Kurt's favorite ride was Soaring Over California and mine was Tower of Terror. We also both loved the Toy Story ride (the picture with the 3D glasses on).

Christmas Break, Part 5

Finally.... Christmas! Christmas morning was fun, we gave Wes his first present from us and he had fun opening it. After our own Christmas we headed off to Kurt's grandparents' house to have a wonderful breakfast with his extended family and more presents, including some fun toys and clothes for Wes and dinner, a movie and free babysitting for us. One of Wes' favorite parts of the morning was watching a mini helicopter fly around the room all morning (one of Chris' presents). That night we went down to Northridge tovisit the rest of Kurt's family for some more yummy food and fun games. We were even able to sneak home in between all the festivities for a good nap. It was a great Christmas.

Christmas Break, Part 4

On the night of Christmas Eve we went over to my parents and then off to Nana's to celebrate with my extended family. We enjoyed our tradition of homemade lasagna and zucchini patties then off to presents we went.

Christmas Break, Part 3

On Christmas Eve Wes and I went over to Nana's for lunch and to help assemble our traditional homemade lasagna for dinner with my family later that night. While there Wes also got to open one present early.

Christmas Break, Part 2

On the eve of Christmas eve we went over to Kurt's parents to participate in a Newman family tradition, an inside dinner picnic on the floor, even Wes participated.

After dinner we opened presents. It was especially fun watching Wes open up some toys. He doesn't fully understand the concept of opening presents, yet, but he does understand new toys so he had a lot of fun.

After opening up his lawn mower he didn't want to put it aside to open the other presents, so we took it away and this is what happened...

So we gave it back, and then he was able to move on :).

I think this will be a night Wes will look forward to for years to follow.

Christmas Break, Part 1

Kurt got two weeks vacation from work for the Christmas season, what a blessing! We filled it up with fun memories of which I will be posting pictures over the next few days. First we went up to the family cabin with our good friends Kenny and Katherine Johnson, their son Ethan (3 months older than Wes) and their boxer Addie. The cabin was baby-proofed as best as possible. For the first time since I've ever gone to the cabin, we planned meals ahead of time and brought up everything we needed to prepare them, it was fun and something I plan to do in the future. We made salsa chicken tacos, roast beef and potatoes, and philly cheese steak sandwiches.

The boys are just starting to play with each other, here they are sitting in a laundry basket.

Over the weekend one of the boys would come to one of us and the other would seem to get a little jealous and also come over to that person, wanting equal attention.

The girls, worn out.

One of the mornings we went to our favorite restaurant in town for breakfast.

Its a tradition we complete every trip up to the cabin.

A cute picture of Ethan at the table waiting for food. Before the food came the boys played with little coffee creamers, that is until one of them exploded on Wes.

Since it was a weekday morning the restaurant was pretty quiet, so the boys got to walk around the place after we were done eating.

Wes also really enjoyed walking around the balcony outside.

One of my favorite pictures ever, Wes cuddling up with Kurt while watching TV. Wes has become a bit more cuddly lately (more than not at all, basically).

The morning we planned to leave it snowed. Very pretty, but also a challenge since we didn't bring chains. This was Wes' first snow. (Can you tell Kurt was up all night with the stomach flu? At least we got it over with before Christmas)

More to come about Kurt's break :)