Warning.... really long overdue post to follow!

Well, it's about time I updated the blog. I guess it shows how our life has changed with the addition of Jackson!


Let's see... October: Jackson was baptized in October at our church - St. Michael's by-the-sea Episcopal Church. All the grandparents came out - it was a really fun weekend. Then, of course, Halloween. Caroline was Sleeping Beauty AND a ladybug (depending on the day and event). Jackson was a pumpkin, although it was so warm and his suit was pretty warm so most of the time he just wore the black & white striped under piece and looked like a prison escapee.
Caroline enjoyed preschool this fall - two mornings a week. She comes home singing new songs with lots of artwork to share and talking non-stop about her classmates. She pretty much talks non-stop about anything these days! Three has definitely been a very chatty age!!

November: Jackson's first two teeth broke through and he started really rolling and playing a lot on the floor. He is such a happy baby and very content to tag along to all of Caroline's playgroup outings or a walk... he pretty much goes with the flow (thank goodness!).




We also discovered a couple of local charms as far as family fun goes - our two new favorite spots are Legoland and the Botanical Gardens, particularly the children's garden with its wonderful tree house. Needless to say, we joined both and will be frequenting them a lot in 2010. As as side note, in measuring Caroline's height to see which rides she can do at Legoland, we realized that she has grown 6" since last December! She's the tallest kid in her class and is all legs and elbows these days. Jackson remains in the top 90% of all growth categories and I just switched his clothes over to all 12 month or 18 month sizes. Caroline only outweighs him by about 9 pounds now.



We had a quiet Thanksgiving at home, just the four of us which was pretty much the calm before a wild frenzy of travel, holiday stuff and hosting family in December.



December: We had to get the Santa visit in pretty early in the month as we headed to Hawaii on Dec. 12th. The Santa visit was awesome though! Caroline has a history of traumatic Santa encounters, but she was totally into it this year and Jackson was fine with being set in the jolly man's lap.



So we headed to Honolulu (Josh had a week-long conference there so we tagged along) and enjoyed the Hilton Hawaiian Village's many pools, cafes, gardens and beach. The kids did great on the long, thankfully direct, flight (close to 7 hours) and we were all up at the crack of dawn the first morning literally waiting for the sun to come up, and more importantly, the Starbucks to open! But we had a great view from our suite and had a wonderful stay there.

My parents joined us at the end of the week and then we all flew to Kauai for a few more days to enjoy its beauty. Christmastime in Hawaii is really special if you ever get the chance (plus it's not too bad spending your days in 80 degree weather either - and we thought we were spoiled in SoCal!!).



We returned home late on the 22nd just in time to make the last preparations for Christmas. Caroline was very into Santa this year and "Jingle-dum," our Elf on the Shelf, even made it to Hawaii and back with us. On Christmas Eve, Caroline sprinkled the lawn with reindeer food that she made at school and we laid out cookies and milk for Santa. Caroline decided that she should probably share the milk with Santa, so she took a few sips for good measure before heading to bed.

The day after Christmas, Josh's mom, sister and her three girls arrived! Lots of cousin fun ensued as you can imagine.


We went to the Oceanside Pier... we went to the Botanical Gardens... we went to Legoland... Pat took the little girls to see Princess & the Frog... I took Haley, Amy and Jackson down to Coronado to see the Hotel Del and lunch at La Jolla Cove on our way back up one day... we went to the beach at sunset... we rang in the new year... it was a packed week!



We had a few extra days with Josh's parents after Amy and the girls left and celebrated Nana's birthday with her before they headed back to the frozen tundra of Indiana on the 5th.

Now we're finally sorting through the pictures and getting back to our normal routine! There is a new video at the top of the page that pretty accurately depicts our daily life with the two kiddos. You'll have to excuse my laughing and shaking the camera, but my kids just really crack me up sometimes!! Jackson has started semi-crawling... he can move a little but is not at full steam yet.