Palsma's and the Getty

It's been awhile...sorry for all of those who faithfully check our blog. As you can tell, we've been in a sort of blogger funk. Hopefully that has ended. It was mostly due to the fact that on my birthday, our camera broke while Laura was taking pictures of me opening presents. We've been camera-less for quite awhile as we've looked for a new one. We're still kinda looking, but have some pictures to post.

For those of you who don't know, Tricia is here visiting. On Monday, Laura, Tricia, and the kids went to the Palsma's house to celebrate Jude's 5th birthday. I stayed home and worked...that was my way of celebrating MLK. Laura made a birthday cake that looked like an Angel's hat but with Jude's initial.









On Tuesday, we went to the Getty Center. We looked at one art gallery that had some Claude Monet paintings, but mostly stayed outside while looking at the gardens. We also checked out the Family Room that was supposed to be interactive for kids, but it was kind of disappointing. Despite that, we had a fun time.









Tonight we went out to eat at Souplantation. Yum! Natalie's been practicing her cheesy smile...I think she's almost perfected it :)

Christmas Pictures...Finally

We stayed in California this year to be with Dave's family. We had a relaxing time together and got to see lots of family. Christmas Eve morning, we opened stockings at our house before packing up the car and heading to Nana and Papa's. Once there, we got to spend time with Uncle Sammy (or Uncle Hammy as Elijah calls him). Christmas Eve night we went to Aunt Belinda's for the annual Gutierrez-side Christmas. It was fun seeing family and the kids got some fun gifts from their great-aunties and uncles. Of course we had to dress Natalie up in her Christmas dress one more time!

Christmas day was busy with present opening in the morning before our turkey lunch. Dave's grandparents (his mom's parents) joined us for the meal too. It was rainy almost all day, so perfect for staying inside by the fire and playing with new Christmas toys!

A few days after Christmas we spent time with Dave's mom's side of the family. It had been a while since some of the cousins had seen each other but even better than that it was great being all together with Grandpa and Grandma. That was probably the best Christmas gift for them!!!

The rest of our time in Rancho was spent hanging out, taking walks, playing at the school playground, shopping, celebrating our anniversary of 7 years, me losing to Sam...loads of fun!

Okay, without further ado, here are some photos from our Christmas.

(If you're a friend on Facebook, these will all be repeats, sorry.)