Happy 85th GGma Margie!

Rounding out our holiday season, we took a quick trip to LA to celebrate Grandma Margie's 85th birthday.  My cousin Kristen and her husband Morgan, graciously had us all over to their house for the festivities.  

Dad and Gpa John.  Kinda like mirror image profiles, minus the beard.  

Milo and Gus duet-ing 

The birthday girl and her cake

Love having older cousins around to entertain the kids! Although, I'm pretty sure the sight of that birthday cake is what has them so attentive.

Arjen helped GGma blow out all those candles

Then he was dishing out the serious bday love!

Going on a Bear Hunt...

And then the sugar kicks in...

It's a barrel o' monkeys!

Wrestlemania

And that's just a dog pile

 No visit to GGma and GGpa's house is complete without picking oranges off the tree in the backyard.  And this visit was even complete with little ladders! Oh boy.

And then of course, you can't be in near 80 deg weather without getting naked and running thru a sprinkler!

Followed by bathing in a metal tub

I wish I could say they actually caught on to the whole bobbing for apples thing, but pretty sure they're just dunking their hair.

Struttin' his SoCal vibe

Boys will be boys?

Over the holidays/past few weeks, we've started to notice the boys starting to really play together better.    Arjen's imagination is also blossoming like I don't know what.  The things he comes up with recently are impressive and hilarious at the same time.  For example, playing "fireplace", a spin on Santa Claus:

First, you rearrange the cushions on the chair to create the fireplace, then you hop into the chimney...

Second, you karate ninja kick the fireplace open...

Then finally, you come out the other end! 

While you don't see Gus in the pics, he was there, and after only a minor parental intervention, the two of them were actually taking turns and playing together really well!

The weather has been so nice lately, that one morning we "released the boys" to the backyard (yes, still dirt).  They had clothes on when they went out there.  I promise.  Neither of us really knows what happened to make them both decide to get into their birthday suits, but they sure had a field day out there…even figured out how to make mud from a bucket of water that had been sitting out, then proceeded to roll around in it.  Totally what I would've done had I thought of it first…

Hi neighbors!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve at Casa Baba and Dave:

Poor Gus, he'll never shake the "always eating" reputation

The gang

Pretty sure this was a conscious effort at "cheese!" but if you look close, he's also using a wine opener on an orange...

Double checking that the cookies for Santa were okay

Santa's elves

 Christmas Morning!  Arjen woke up and without skipping a beat proclaimed "Santa was here!" He managed waiting for everyone else to wake up fairly well, was definitely ready to open more presents.

More presents!!

I am now the proud owner of the ugliest Christmas sweater.  Thanks Chloe.

 Christmas in California moves from Baba and Daves to Kevin and Maggies for Christmas Dinner.  They had quite the decorated yard, perfect for a family photo op:

By the end of the night, Gus was content to open his last present fully lounged and reclined.  

Christmas is coming…

Santa paid us an early visit this year, which was a good thing…that ginormous tree was looking pretty sad without any presents underneath!

Stockings were hung by the fire with care

"Santa came!!!"

The boys had fun opening each gift and playing with each gift as they went

The painting easel was a bigger hit that expected

although Gus mistook his chest for an art canvas

this one made me smile :) 

Sunday Funday

Andrew has been trying to convince me for awhile now, that the hills behind/around our house are great for hiking.  We finally got out to test his theory...

Arjen had his mind set that this would also make for a great biking adventure

Hike got cut short by a monkey on my back who decided he'd had enough. 

…and he was pretty much right.

Return to Rios

The Sunday before Christmas, we took a little detour home from church in Livermore, and decided to visit the winery we were married at.  It had probably been at least 2 years since we had been.  The wine is still delicious, but things there have definitely changed, like a new and improved tasting room.  What changed the most though, was this cute little guy running around on the gazebo where we said "I will!".  (Cute little guy #2 was snoozing in the car.)

Shameless selfie, Arjen in the background

Gone Fishin'

Gus has decided that the doorway of the shed is the best local fishing spot: 

I got the big one!

Yo-Ho-Ho, Merrrry Christmas!

No, it wasn't a pirate Santa. Arjen just thinks Santa says "yo-ho-ho!"  We checked off the box for our holiday parental duty tonight, and took the kids to meet mall Santa.  I gotta say, dinner time the Friday before Christmas turned out to be a reasonable time to go.  Line was short, got in, got out, and got our obligatory crying child photo with Santa…well, one crying child.  And it wasn't even because I tried to recover my iPhone back from him before he sat on Santa's lap (look close and you'll see Gus gripping it tight!).  He pretty much was crying because he had no clue what hit him, figuratively speaking.  Arjen was the one crying in line because the little turkey hit himself on the head by pulling the line separator thing-y down on himself.  But, by the end, Gus had chilled out a little, and was able to say "Hi Santa" before getting off Santa's lap.  And fortunately for Santa, the little coloring book token gift they were handing out had a snowman on the cover, so he got excited about that.  Arjen, on the other hand, had no fear telling Santa that he wants a little ladder, a boat, a big ding ding, and a jackhammer, for Christmas.  Don't ask.  I have no clue where half of those requests came from.  Overall, meeting mall Santa was a much more pleasant experience than I expected, and apparently, Santa asked Arjen for something in return…as we were leaving, I was told we had to make cookies!  Looks like I'll be baking this weekend...

Success!!!

I'm so going to jinx myself for posting this, but I can't help but do a happy dance right now!! The boy fell asleep for nap IN HIS BED!! Sweet. Holy. Moly. Note to self: there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes it's a really, really, long tunnel, other times, shorter than it looks.