Christmas Joy

What a day!  Christmas day was everything I could want and then some.

A couple of the activities that helped prepare us for and get us in the holiday spirit were making Christmas cookies with Grandma  (Jen's) in Temecula.  They also made buckeye drops which are peanut butter cookie doe (I think) dipped in chodolate.  Zoe was especially interested in the dipping in chocolate part.

By the time they were finished she was one tired littler baker.

 Check out all the buckeye balls, sugar cookies and other treats that 
were made.  Good job Grandma and Zoe.

Then there was a Gingerbread house making day with Grandpa and Grammie.

 

 The Gingerbread house was a successd and Zoe was so pleased with it.  She kept telling me that her mommy would LOVE it and be so proud of her.  It's true, she does and she did. Gogo had some lunch and then watched the proceeding and nibbled on cheerios.  As you can tell by his face, he enjoyed it.

Christmas Eve Steve and I headed to Simi Valley for dinner and fun with Barb and the family. 

                                         Grandpa (Larry) looked at on of Grandma's pop-up
                                         books with Abby (Kristy's youngest) and Liam
                                         (Natalies child #3, she has 4).  They are very
                                          special books so the kids have to be supervised
                                          when looking at them.

                                          Jason, Liam and Natalie at the dinner table.  They
                                          are leaving on the 27th  for a new assignment
                                          in Kansas.  Don't know the name of the base but it
                                          doesn't matter as long as they do.

                                          Kayla (Kristies oldest) and Kayleih ( Cheri's daughter)
                                          Cousins and best friends.  Good combination.

                                               Kayleih and Aunt Joan in the kitchen.
 

 Here it is, finally, CHRISTMAS DAY

We loaded up the car with dinner, presents and Gidget and off we went to spend the day with Matt, Jen,  Zoe and Gogo (Des).

Zoe was so excited to show us her Dora play house that Santa brought her.  She told us she asked Santa for it and he brought it.

Then we brought in our gifts for them.  The last one was a new chair for Zoe so we asked her to close her eyes because her present was so big Grammie couldn't wrap it.
 

It wasn't easy but she did it, with a lot of wiggling and giggling.  Then the moment came and we told her to open her eyes .  .  .

THE CHAIR . . . SHE IS SO EXCITED

She is very happy with her new chair and spent quite a bit of time in it looking at her new Peppa Pig book.  But it will take some time to make the emotional move.  No problem.

bye bye old chair.  

There were hugs and kisses for the old, well used, loved, cherished chair and it was going to go bye bye.  Well, to make a long story short, we had to put it behind the couch so she could go to it any time she wanted.  I made this chair for her first birthday and it has been her comfort place ever since.  So we'll let her take her time and cut the cord when she's ready.

 Zoe playing the harmonica that Grandma gave.  We learned today that Grandma plays the harmonica so were excited to hear her play some time soon.

Des loves his turtle (or whatever it is).  You put the little balls in the middle, push and button and they bounce, sometimes right out on the floor, or they roll down the turtles mouth onto the floor.  Took him about 3 times watching Zoe put the button in the middle to make it go and then he did it himself.

See, he can do it all by himself.  He's wearing the sweater that Great Grandma Ruth made him.

After all the presents were opened and we played for a while we ate dinner.  Zoe helped with the turkey and all in all the dinner was really good.  That's always a good thing.

 Last but not least, a couple of three generation pictures.  Des like to get Grandpa's cheek but I think he's really trying to get his hair.

Sorry this is so long but it's the best Christmas we've had for a long time.  Just love our kids so darn much.

Swimming Angels

 Jaquelle and Joe came down for TJ's Baptism and the blessing of baby Zander.  When they went home it was minus 2 of their children.  Jayleih went to Texas with Jordan and Marissa and Chloe stayed here with Grandma and the cousins.

Chloe went with Steve and I to see Zoe and Des.   Chloe is my angel and I'm so glad she went with us and that I got to spend some special time with her.  She really liked holding Des and did a great job.  He's bigger than Zander but she did really well.







      Zoe and Des

Finally . . . it's time to SWIM.  The girls have waited so patiently.

                                   Matt, Steve (Grandpa),  Zoe and Chloe cooling off in the pool

 Zoe wearing her floaties has no fear of the water.  In fact, she has no fear of the water without her foaties.  Chloe doesn't need floaties but she used the noodle and raft.  She kept squirting Matt with the water gun, which she loved, and he enjoyed swimming with her.   

After swimming, getting dry and dressed it was time to play in Grammies car.  Zoe loves to just get in the car and play  Last time we were down she found Steve's razor and pretended to be shaving her face.  It's great how easy it is for little kids to have fun.  

Chloe and Zoe having a good time in the car.

 On the patio Zoe has an easel with paper and paints so she can paint anytime she gets the urge.  The result of today's art is she painted her nose blue.  She calls it her "Toodie" nose.  (Toodie is a character from Yo Gabba Gabba, one of her favorite shows)

Watching everyone swim and play in the car wore Des out, even though
he napped on Grammies knee most of the time.

The last thing i have to say is . . . I'm sorry.  I really suck at blogging.  I definitely need tutoring. 

Des' First Visit to Grammie and Grandpa's.

Matt, Jen, Zoe and Des came to visit us in Palmdale.  What a fun day we had.  I actually remembered to take a family picture of the new Rice-Porter family.

Such a cute family.  It took a couple of minutes to get Zoe to stand still for a family picture.  Isn't it funny how the guys look serious and tired and girls are smiley and bright?  Des is wrapped in Matt's baby blanket from may years ago.

 

It was so special that Holly was in town and I got to show off and introduce Des to my bestest friend.
He wasn't especially impressed but Holly was.

One of Zoe's treats was a little plastic purse with a couple of strings of beads in it.  Zoe wasn't able to get it open so she took it over to Holly and let Holly show her how to get it open.

                                                   Zoe trying different ways to wear her beads.

Rock Star sun glasses were a hit.  She sang and wore her glasses.  Her favorite song right now is  "In the jungle the might jungle, the lion sleeps tonight... a weem a way a weem a way...

I don't know the name of the song but she learned it at preschool and sings it with great enthusiasm.

A visit with Gidget wouldn't be complete with Zoe spending some time in Gidget's bed.  She loves the dog beds. Gidget is very patient with Zoe and is happy to share her bed.

 Now the best part.  Her very own package of mini m&m's.

No treat is as good as candy.










I love the time we have with our grandkids and their mommy and daddy.  Can't seem to get enough of it.  I don't capture the personality of this little girl very well.  She is so lively and entertaining and full of joy and enthusiasm.  She is a delightful little person to be around.

Zoe and Desmond

Here they are together.  Big sister Zoe and little brother Des.  Such a smiley little guy with adorable dimples.

Desmond Time. . .

We've had a new addition to our family.  Matt and Jen have a little boy named Desmond James, born April 12, 2012 and weighed 8 lbs 3 oz.  We are so exited that Zoe has a brother, we have a grandson and Matt and Jen have a son.  

This is Jen (like you can't tell) with one day left until Desmond was scheduled to be born.  Both he and Zoe were C-Section so we knew when he would arrive.  She was the cutest pregnant women I've ever seen I think.  Notice no weight gain anywhere but the bump?  

So Thursday morning at 8:17am Desmond made his grand entrance.  Jen and Matt both came through it like champs, but then we knew they would.

Meet Desmond "Des"

  
There he is.  Our perfect little boy.  You can't tell from this angel but, the little ear that is showing has a ragged edge that looks like it was chewed by a chipmunk.  Even so, he is perfect.

Jen's mom Judy took Zoe to school and then Matt went and got her to come meet her new brother.  First she did some gourmet dining from McDonald's.  The didn't quite have mom and baby in their room so Dad entertained her in the waiting room.

Our little boy has the biggest smile and 2 dimples.  He also has his daddy's hands, wavy hair, beautiful lips and mom's wonderful eyes.

Zoe was tired when she met Des the first day and it upset her that she couldn't sit on Jen's lap so Grandma Judy and Poppa Fred took her home for some dinner and a good nights sleep.

The next day when she got there it was a whole different story.  First thing out of her mouth was "Where's baby GoGo".  She calls him GoGo because one of her favorite Yo Gabba Yabba characters, Muno has a little brother named GoGo.

 

It was love at first sight. She was so excited to hold him and kiss him and just shower him with affection.

The very best . . . time with Mom.   

He's doing what?

Yikes!  I don't believe him and I just can't watch.

Let's look at my feet and the rubber ducks instead.

It turned out to be a VERY good day for everyone.
 

Hey Cowboy, be careful of the babies fingers.

 I spent a couple of days in Simi Valley with my sister Barbara to help her care for Natalie's children why she went to Washington DC to visit her husband.  What a blast we had.  The two older kids spent most of their time with their other grandma but we had the baby and the 2 1/2 year old. 

Liam, the 2 1/2 year is an interesting little person.  He talks just about all the time but his pronunciation isn't very clear yet.  He looks very serious when he talks to you and expects you to respond.  His love this weekend was the rocking horse.  Pajamas and yellow rain boots are the attire of the morning.  We really had to keep a close eye on the baby when Liam was riding the horse because Liam wanted to crawl under the horse.

The baby, Grayson, 10 mons.  is a laid back cuddly baby.  He is also very verbal but just makes noise and really enjoys hearing himself.  He smiles all the time and loves to be talked to.   Doing the army crawl all over the house is what he likes to do. The condo in Simi is small and he can go around and around and around.  He is starting to get up on his hands and knees and rock but hasn't quite mastered the crawling on all fours.

Today was a monumental day for Gray.  He discovered he can climb the stairs.  He's just figuring it out but managed to get up as far as the 3rd step.

Once he got to the 3rd step he would slide back down and turn and give us this big smile.  He knew he had accomplished something.  We sent pictures to his mom and dad and her response was "oh great, I leave for a couple of days and he learns a new trick".  Yup mom, that's what happens, their little life is just constantly learning new things.




Saturday we celebrated Jackson's 7th birthday.  We had dinner then cake and then, the best part for Jack. . .

 PRESENTS

It was really fun for met to spend this time with the kids and my sister.   Barb and I even had a little time to do some shopping.  Yea for us.

Time with these little kids was such a special time.

Christmas It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

This year Christmas was celebrated on Christmas Eve with our kids, Matt. Jen and our delightful little Zoe Luna.

Aunt Honda (Sonja) sent Zoe a large gingerbread man that was to be decorated.  While Jen and I fixed dinner and waited for Matt to get home from work, Grandpa and Zoe decorated the Gingerbread Man.

Putting on her new Gingerbread girl apron was the first task.  She wasn't excited about wearing it.

A cookie with sprinkles on it, that she made earlier with her mom, was on standby in case she needed some nourishment of sprinkles during the decorating process.

Yummmm... some sprinkles to get the process started while Grandpa mushes the icing around in the bag so it's nice and soft.