Merry & Bright in LA!

Christmas Day we headed down south to spend several days with family. Santa came to see us down there too, so Pierce got to open lots of presents and definitely knew what to do! Here he is dancing and putting on a show!

Trying to get a shot of him with his cousins was impossible...we didn't even attempt one of all the little cousins!


He grabbed my new purse after I opened it, threw it on his arm and ran for the door!
Us girls also met up one night for dinner. We opted out on our normal get together with all the kids so we could actually talk! Wish we were all together and could do it frequently!
Having fun with his new bathtub crayons!
And, here is Pierce's tree in his room that I forgot about. He LOVED for us to turn the lights on and off every day.

He Came! He Came!

Once again, Jolly Ole St. Nick came to see us! He is always much better to us than we deserve. Pierce was really excited that morning, he still didn't really get that he would wake up and there would be gifts, so we got to sleep until about 7:30! I told M this would be the last Christmas for many years that we would get to sleep that late. Pierce was REALLY excited about all his gifts, even the books in his stocking. He would take each item out and look at it before pulling out the next. He was very excited about his playhouse, since it was so cold outside and it was too big to put in the house, Santa left it in the garage to play with Christmas morning!




We had so much fun seeing the excitement on his little face. I can't wait until next year when he can start to learn the true meaning of Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Tonight we celebrated Christmas with Gigi and Poppa. Poppa made us his famous chalupa for our non-traditional meal, it was yummy! We missed the other half of our family, but it's hard to see them every Christmas.Pierce was really into opening his gift!
He was REALLY loving his "laptop".
Playing with Poppa....
Josh and Jessica are home from school and came over for a visit last night. Pierce had a TON of fun with them and loved being the center of attention! He wouldn't even take his eyes off Josh for this picture.
Playing the air guitar...
Dancing with Josh, Pierce is REALLY into dancing these days! We all did it for about 2 hours!
Come see us again guys, it was great to see you!

LIVE Nativity

Our annual live nativity was at church last night, complete with animals, cookies and hot chocolate. I didn't get a pic of Pierce with the animals, but he did keep pointing to them and making their sound! Here is Pierce and Maggie, he spent all morning with her and was happy to see her. He was saying, "cheese"!
And a few before church on Sunday....

Santa and his "Sleigh"

Every year, Santa makes an appearance in our neighborhood on his "sleigh" (that would be a firetruck, complete with horns, sirens, and lights). I'm not sure why this always happens mid-afternoon while a lot of children are napping. I do think Pierce would have liked it (from a distance), but he was napping. Maybe next year he can stay awake!
This month he has also been bringing home lots of ornaments he made at school and gets really excited about hanging them on the tree!

Christmas Fun with Friends

We had a Christmas playdate with friends this week. We played, did a lot of crafts and ate. Some of the kids decorated foam gingerbread men, painted ornaments and made reindeer cookies. Pierce liked painting the table the most and eating the ingredients for the cookies!


I didn't get many pictures, but we had lots of fun!

First Trip to the Dentist

Thursday was Pierce's first visit to the dentist. I was anticipating a bad visit, but much to my surprise it went pretty well. The were lots of fun toys to play with, fun movies to watch and a fantastic office staff. Below are pics with the dental assistant that we saw. She was showing Pierce his bag of goodies, he was pretty excited about it! Patients get to put their handprint on a ceiling tile too!

Zoolight Safari

M took Pierce last week to meet friends at Zoolight Safari. I heard that all the kids had fun. It was a cold night so everyone was bundled up tight! The night was complete with lots of lights and a train ride.Pierce with friends (Henry, Maury and Carter).

Cookie Ornaments

Over the weekend we made cookie ornaments! Pierce loves "helping" in the kitchen and making shapes out of playdoh so this was perfect. We had fun making a mess!
So far, the only shot I've been able to get standing in front of the tree. You like how there are very few ornaments behind him?! So far, he's been good about not pulling them off but we tried not to tempt him and put most of them out of his reach!

Breakfast with Santa!

Yesterday morning, we went to Breakfast with Santa. It is an event sponsored by HIH for their students and clients. They offered breakfast, carousel rides, pictures with Santa and a special treat. We opted out on pics with Santa after we met him a few days ago! :) However, he was walking around and talking to all the kids during breakfast, Pierce liked him as long as he kept a safe distance!

We also headed out to get our Christmas tree last night...finally. Burrrr, it was cold!!

HO HO HO - Uh Oh!

Pierce and I met some friends to see Santa today. I had already prepared myself that it would not go over well and I was correct! These pictures pretty much sum it up. Pierce wanted NO PART of sitting with Santa! Sorry Santa, we still love you though!

As you can see, Santa and I both found it pretty funny!Clinging to me for dear life!

"Mommy, please get me away from this man!" (I'm sure this is what he was thinking.)

All the kiddos plus me...why am I the only mommy?! Oh yes, all of the other kids were not mortified about the whole situation like my child was. Look at the expression on his face!
On a positive note, Pierce got his 2nd haircut this morning and it went MUCH better than last time. He got a pretty short "trim" so I think we are good for the next 6 months!