Christmas '09

Christmas Eve.  My mom has started a tradition of making prime rib, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, and broccoli casserole for dinner Christmas eve.  We usually dress up for the occasion.  Unfortunately, I do not have any photos of the delicious feast, but I have a ton of photos of us posing with Lyla: 
Baaba and Lyla.
Aunt Trisha and Lyla.  Lyla can now say "Trisha", though it comes out sounding more like "Tiza".
Grandpa and Lyla

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CHRISTMAS MORNING:

The morning after a fitfull night's sleep.  She's not used to sharing her sleeping area, and all three of us attempted to fit on a full-sized bed.  She was not a happy camper.  I ended up on the couch for half the night/morning so the princess could get some rest.
For some reason, Lyla kept throwing her hands up in the air every time we said "Merry Christmas".  Who knows where she got this idea.  It was pretty cute though.
Presents!  



Lyla's reaction to seeing the slide my mom and dad got her.

Loving the slide!

We sincerely hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!  We had a blessed weekend filled with family, friends, food, and fun.  See you all in 2010!

to see if they really do have more fun

I decided that I was sick of growing out my hair.  It is very thin and stringy and I was over it, so I told Trav that I wanted to cut it all off.  I've always wanted to try blonde, so I thought, what the heck?  Might as well damage the heck out of my hair while it's super short.  It took two rounds of bleaching to bust through my dark hair...and it stings!  If you've never bleached your hair,  I will warn you now that it feels like a horrible sunburn on your scalp!  I am not sure what I think about being a blonde so far.  It's weird when my close friends don't recognize me.  I look so completely different and that takes some getting used to.  I'm going to stick with it for a while and see how it goes.  In the meantime, you can call me blondie.

The most wonderful time of the year

How do you keep a 15 month old out of trouble?  Get a mini Christmas tree and put it on the dining table waaaaaay out of her reach.  I couldn't even fit all my ornaments on this little guy.  It reminded us of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree.  We were totally giggling when we bought it.

This is the wreath my mom made for us several years ago.  Isn't she crafty?

Here is our 15 month old staying well out of the vicinity of the delicate ornaments.  This is my idea of a peaceful holiday season.

Happy 1st Birthday, Samantha Vasseur!

Samantha.  She turned one on December 11th.  She loves to stop and smile for the camera.  Lyla, on the other hand, couldn't care less when I have the camera out.  
Getting acquainted.  They pointed and called eachother "baby" about 50 times in a row.  Notice that although Lyla is nearly 3 months older, she is smaller than Samantha.   She does have a lot more hair, though.
Now it's time to play!

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

we have christmas lights on the patio and a wreath on the wall.  christmas cards are trickling in through the mail.  we have a sparse scattering of christmas decorations around the apartment.  almost all of our outgoing christmas cards have departed with the mail man.  There's even a wintry chill to this normally sunny san diego weather.  now all we need is a christmas tree and to start my christmas shopping and the season will be in full swing!  weeeee!

1100 garden view road #132

Our beautiful new apartment.  I like to think of these as the "before" pictures because I have a lot of plans for this place.

Living room with freshly painted green walls.  Really, really green.  
Lyla's room.  We had these walls done in a color called "Lilac Rose".  Love it!
I still have a lot of work to do here.  We need a bookshelf for her books and a nice big art piece for the big wall.  

Lyla visits Shamu

Yesterday Lyla was fortunate enough to spend the entire day with her grandparents at Sea World.  She did a lot of walking around and was pooped at the end of the night.  Apparently my mom was taking all the pictures because she wasn't in any of them.  Here's my dad no doubt giving her 101 facts about sea animals.
Here he is probably telling her about how the starfish has five arms.
SHAMU!
Lyla woke up from her nap just in time to see the Shamu show.
My mom told me that she got a kiss on the forehead from a boy in the kiddie play area.  Every time he came back around, she was ready for another kiss...lips puckered and everything.  Here she is playing Sleeping Beauty to lure in the boy.  She said "ne-ne" before she laid down which means sleepy-time in Japanese.

We're back!

Our internet is up and running!  It has been a rough couple of weeks taking a vacation from the world wide web.  We have a lot of catching up to do.  November has been a busy month for us.  First, there was moving.  That was no bueno but well worth the effort as we moved into our lovely new apartment.  Then, there was Sam Larson and Kelli Murray's wedding in El Cajon.  It was a gorgeous wedding.   Here are a few pics from the festivities:

Then, the 19th rolled around and we took advantage of Disneyland's offer to get in free on my birthday.  Here are a few pics from that magical day:

Thanksgiving was fantastic this year.  For the first time, the Haworth family (minus two) traveled to Running Springs to celebrate the day with the Mitchells.  Michael was not able to make it out from Japan and Trisha was not able to make the drive down from SF due to car trouble.  She made it 2 hours into the trip and had to turn back around!  Even though we were short a few family members, we made the best of it.  We are so fortunate that our in-laws get along so amazingly.  My parents love Trav's parents and vice versa.  We are blessed.  Here are some pics from our turkey day:

Lyla's lovely cousins.  Emilia on the left is 10 months old and Nia is 3 years old.

Lyla causing trouble.