We're thankful for Thanksgiving!!! Laura made some pumpkin cinnamon rolls for breakfast. They were super good :)
Then we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Elijah was really excited about the fact that there was going to be a new balloon added to the parade this year: Buzz Year. He stayed glued to the TV until he saw him...and Santa Claus.
After that, we drove to my parent's house for our Thanksgiving meal. Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Marv joined us. Don't let the pictures fool you, they were actually much happier than what it seems.
Here's a picture of Grandpa talking to Jenn on Skype! He just couldn't get over how neat that was..."in all my life, I never thought I'd see something like that" he kept saying. He's 97 years old.
For dessert, Laura made three pies - pumpkin (a Thanksgiving classic), apple (at my Dad's request), and pecan (Laura's favorite). Yum! After that, we were all stuffed.
On another note, Laura and I joined the other millions of crazy people getting up early for Black Friday deals. I guess it's easier getting up at 4am if you're already awake. Natalie had trouble sleeping last night and since she was in our room...so did we. We were up from 1:30am-4am and Laura finally got her to fall back asleep around 4:15 so we left for Kohls and Target shortly after that. Kohls opened at 4am and we got there around 4:30, and the one thing Laura really wanted to look at was already sold out - pots and pans. Oh well, we got some other things on our list, so it wasn't a complete bust...even though we had to wait at the check out line for an hour!? Tis' the Season.
We've been accused of not updating our blog frequently enough (Michelle) so I'm writing one tonight while I'm watching this horribly bad LIVE Rosie Variety Show. I can't wait to read the reviews on it tomorrow in the paper :)
Some of the things we've been up to:
Making Lightning McQueen, Mater, and Chick Hicks.
Checking out this crazy ring around the sun. Did anyone else see this on Saturday? I wonder what that was all about?
Laura made pumpkin bars!!!
I trimmed our lime tree with Elijah. This season our tree produced over 500 limes...no joke! We gave most of them away.
Today we went to Knott's Berry Farm on my day off. We really wanted to go and my parents got us a super good deal because my Dad is a Veteran. To celebrate Veteran's Day, Knotts gave a free ticket for him and a guest (my mom) plus $15 a ticket for up to 6 tickets. Super sweet deal...for my parents...they paid for us! Thanks Dad and Mom!!!
One of the first rides we went on was the Log Ride. We weren't sure if Elijah would like it because of the long drop at the end, but he ended up loving it! Natalie thought it was just ok. The park was hardly busy at all, so we ended up going again for a 2nd time right after we were done.
Before lunch, we went on a rotating tower where we could see a panoramic view of the entire park. It was neat to see everything from way up high. I think Natalie and Elijah liked looking out the window.
After lunch, we spent most of the afternoon at Camp Snoopy. Elijah was pretty particular about what he wanted to ride. He definitely knew what he was interested in :) Trucks, boats, buses, race cars, airplanes, and giraffes! He's such a boy :)
To top it all off, how about a stage coach ride around the park??? Sure, why not?
And then it was back to the Log Ride for one more round. That was Elijah's favorite ride of all time. Even after everything at Campy Snoopy...
Elijah fell right asleep on the way home...Natalie on the other hand, talked the whole way home. I guess that's the difference between getting a nap in the afternoon and not? It was a fun day :)
On Sunday afternoon, our friend Danielle, alerted us to the fact that there was a group of firefighters "practicing" one street down from our house. Right before naps, Elijah and I walked down to 22nd street to go check it out. Elijah had to bring his firetruck and firechief toy along.
They were practicing spraying their fire hoses!!! We made sure we kept on the sidewalk, but we got as close as we could without interfering. Elijah and I sat on the sidewalk and watched them spray water and practice different manuevers.
After about 5 minutes of watching, one of the firefighters came over and started talking to us about their training and then he asked if we'd like to try spraying the hose ourselves. Sure...so Elijah and I got our own private lesson on being a fireman for a few minutes. It was pretty cool! The pressure of the water coming out of the hose was pretty powerful. We only pulled the lever about 1/2 way.
Then they offered to give us a tour of the firetruck - let us sit inside, showed us some of the equipment, etc. They were even nice enough to take our picture :)
Elijah thought the whole experience was the coolest thing ever. I agree.
Tuesday, Laura and I went to the broadway musical, Wicked, at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. My parents graciously came to watch the kids - thanks mom and dad!
We went early with Tammy and Michelle to see if we could win the lottery. Two hours before every show, they pick 13 names out of a lottery barrel and the winners get 2 front row tickets for $25 each. We put our names in and hoped for the best...we won!!! We'll actually, Tammy won, but she gave us the tickets because both her and Michelle had seen it multiple times.
It was super good. We loved every part of it, the songs were awesome! It was neat sitting so close. You could see all the smallest expressions on everyone's faces. Laura wants to get the soundtrack!
Today, spur of the moment (right before dinner), Laura, Tammy, Michelle,and Morgan decided to go back and see if they could win the Wicked lottery again...Laura called me around 6:15pm and they won again!!! Crazy! So they are enjoying Wicked tonight and well, I'm here...writing this blog.
Our little Natalie has really made life interesting lately.
One of the more recent episodes with her, which I wrote about on Facebook, is her pooping in the bathtub. Her actually pooping in the bathtub is not recent! She has been doing that for a long time - yuck! There must be something about the warm water that helps her relax. :) Her and Elijah take separate baths now because she likes it that way but also because then Elijah doesn't have to jump out prematurely! Anyway, last Saturday night, I decided to let her play in the tub a while longer since it was early. My plan was to relax and read a magazine while she was busy playing. After reading just one page, I turned to look at her and she had already pooped! I quickly took her out then continued to take out all the toys and water. (Our drain doesn't work properly; I have to hold down the lever to get all the water out.) So, I'm busy doing that when I smell poop. I first thought, oops, I never flushed the toilet from her poop that came out of the tub, so I did that. Then I checked on Natalie (please know we are both in a small bathroom, she really isn't far from me and she can't really be out of my sight) but again, she had pooped without me knowing! She had stepped in it and smeared it on her hands, legs, both rugs, and anything else that was on the floor. GROSS!!! Into the bath she went again then Dave and Elijah both came up for reinforcements. Ugh! What I thought would just be a relaxing bath time for her to play and me to read turned out quite different! Maybe we should start thinking about having her take showers instead... :)
We just got a new cell phone too, thanks to Natalie. While at Oak Glen a couple weeks ago, Natalie spilled my large glass of ice water all over the table and into my lap, where our cell phone was sitting. Brrrr! The whole motherboard was fried (or maybe drowned in the flood would be more like it!). After many hours on the phone with Sprint, we finally decided to get the new Samsung Rant. We love it!!! So much better than our old phone, Motorola Razr!!! So thanks, Natalie, for destroying our phone :(, but thanks, Natalie for a super-cool new one! :)
Another Natalie story - we brought some of our stuff to 2 different thrift stores last week. It was great to finally get rid of the piles that were in the closet! But Thursday night we were looking for our receiver/sound-system remote...couldn't find it. Uh-oh! Dave looked all over the house, trying to think like a 1 yr old, of where Natalie might put it, but he never found it. We're starting to think she packed it in one of the boxes for the thrift stores. :( I checked at both but haven't come up with it yet. Maybe it's time for ebay...
Two things, not done by Natalie (at least I don't think), over the weekend our laptop stopped picking up our wireless (or anyone else's) and our dryer stopped heating. :( But today they are both fixed!!! Thanks to Doug, Roberto and Terrell!
Here are some fun pictures of Natalie we've taken recently. Her funny morning hair-do, with her necklaces (her new favorite pastime is dressing up with ALL the necklaces!), and lounging in a camping chair while we were working in the garage (she was doing her own work!).
Finally, here's a video. She has started nodding her head but does so in slow-motion almost and with really funny facial expressions. (It's even funnier in person!)
Los Angeles is our playground. We love city life and can't imagine ourselves living anywhere else right now! We love the diversity the city offers and the numerous opportunities it provides for teachable moments with our kids. Thanks for stopping to read about our family adventures.
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