Happy Holidays!

We wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas!

Great holiday weekend!

I had a very nice holiday weekend. Friday night was our Cootie Christmas party. For those of you that don't know, Cootie is a dice game that I started playing with my Mom and her friends while I was pregnant. It is a LOT of fun and these ladies are a great group of gals! We do drinks and appetizers, a lovely dinner, play Cootie and then do a pirate gift exchange. We also were lucky enough to get a visit from Santa!

Cootie Gals XMas 2008

Mom and I

CHEERS!

On Saturday we celebrated my birthday! My gift from Ryan was getting my hair done at Lauthr in Petaluma. Heidi is great and I really like how it turned out. Then we went out with a few of my best girls to Equus Lounge at the Fountaingrove Inn. We had a great night...thanks ladies!

Ryan and I enjoying dinner and dessert

Emily and Jackie who I have known for over a decade now!

I love you girls!

The best part of all...I got to sleep in on my birthday!!! Then Ryan took me out for an early dinner before we picked up Shane. It was a very nice and mellow birthday this year. Oh and after we picked up Shane we took him to look at Christmas lights. If anyone is looking to see a great Christmas light display, check out Walnut Court in Santa Rosa. The whole court is decorated and one of the houses does an awesome light show to music at the top of every hour starting at 6pm. It goes through 3 or 4 songs and then foamy "snow" shoots out from the rooftop and Snoopy even made a guest appearance. Shane was in HEAVEN and the big crowd of people thought he was just adorable yelling "lights, lights, LIGHTS" and getting very concerned when the lights went off before the show. What a fun night! I just love the holidays...

Our early Christmas

Merry (early) Christmas!

We did an early Christmas with Ryan's family this year since his sister is going to England to spend the holidays with her husband's family. Tammy and Peter cooked us a wonderful brunch and then we opened presents. Shane got books, clothes, some cute things from his Grandparent's trip to Disneyland the week before and his favorite was the bath tub toys from Aunt Tammy and Uncle Peter! Ryan got gift cards to the Cutlery store and is very excited to go out and buy his new Emmerson knife today. My favorite gift was the gorillapod that I used to take the group portrait above. It's such a neat gift and I know I will use it constantly! Thank you Sandi, Warren, Tammy and Peter for such a wonderful (early) Christmas!

Grandma Sandi was giving Angel a closer look

Shane is always fascinated by Angel's loud squawking

Tammy and Peter got some good hiking supplies

Shane was trying to be festive, but refused to smile!

Shane really liked his new bath toys!

Shane loves his Aunt Tammy
(I love Uncle Peter's thumbs up in the background!)

Ryan torturing his Mother

Everyone looks great in the hats I made for them!

Shane could not wait to get home and play in the bath

He is soo cute, I couldn't decide on just one of these smiles to share!

Birthday fun

We went to our friend Kobe's 4th birthday party last weekend. It was cold, but we had a good time. Shane got first hit at the Spiderman pinata, but lost interest quickly. He did get a prize though...as the other kids scrambled for candy, Shane went straight for the bouncy balls! It was very cute. It was fun and Shane loooved the cake with strawberries in it! Aren't the pictures of him with the balloon just the cutest?!? I just LOVE my cute kid!

Good job Shane!

Happy 4th birthday, Kobe!

Mmmm, cake!

Savannah and Shane munching away!

OH...and we took Shane to feed the ducks in Rohnert Park for the first time. He loved it! "Quack, quack, quack" he said over and over. He wasn't even scared of the giant geese, but I was totally paranoid about them eating his little fingers!

Catching up

Okay, I finally got the other pictures from Thanksgiving. I just wanted to show off my pretty table, how handsome Shane was in his sweater (before he spilled all over it!) and our awesome turkey! It may look a little dark, but it was perfect! I definitely recommend the brining process...super moist and cooked in half the time! You want the recipe, just let me know! Enjoy the pictures :D

Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree!

Our tree is up! Actually, it's been up since the day after Thanksgiving, but I didn't get a chance to take any pictures until now. Shane was a such a good helper! Before we even got out the decorations, he was putting his toys in the tree. I'm not sure where he got that idea, but he was on the right track! My original plan was not to have any ornaments near the bottom of the tree since Shane likes to grab everything in sight, but he is doing surprisingly well! He likes to hear what each ornament is called and he will grab them, but we say "no touch, isn't that a pretty snowflake?" and he let's go and smiles. It's adorable. He loves all the lights and will point and say "lights, lights, LIGHTS!" He also thinks a penguin is a duck and says "quack, quack, quack" whenever he sees it. It's so cute that I don't bother correcting him. On that note, you can now ask Shane was noise a duck, cat, snake or bumble bee makes and he will respond with the appropriate sound. Daddy was so impressed when we showed him! We asked him what a dog sounds like and he just blew like he was blowing bubbles. We need to work on that one still!

This is Shane's favorite spot by the tree

Shane and Daddy

Shane helping put up the XMas lights

Thinking about what he isn't going to touch next!

"Quack, quack, quack" says the penguin! Haha!

What a beautiful sight!

Thanksgiving Vacation

"Don't touch my banana!!"

Yep, that is Shane eating a banana like a big boy. He is really into doing things himself these days.

Well, I had a lovely 9 DAYS OFF WORK last week, but of course it was jam packed with things to do every day. Ryan and I took Shane to the Harvest Festival in Sacramento and got some lovely Christmas gifts. This is an event we go to every year and it's such a great way to get into the Holiday Spirit!

The next day Mom and I took Shane to Redding to visit with my Mom's cousin (Niki), my 2nd cousin (Monika) and Shane's 3rd cousin (Cooper). Cooper and Shane are 6 weeks apart and we couldn't wait for them to finally meet! The very first afternoon we were there the boys got to see deer in Niki's front yard! They were very excited and of course scared the deer away with their excited screeching pretty quickly. The next day we took them to Turtle Bay Exploration Park in Redding and they had a great time exploring the river and looking at the big fishies!

"WHOA! Did you see that BIG fish, Mama?!?"

Grandmas love to spoil their Grandsons

Shane exploring the river with his sticks

Cooper and Shane (still with his sticks!)

Cooper is so silly!

Shane loved playing with all of Cooper's toys

Cousins

Shane LOVED playing in all of the leaves

Shane and Cooper in the hats I made for them

They were both DONE with pictures

Shane's expression cracks me up

Then Ryan and I hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year. We got a Willie Bird Turkey and I brined it for the first time. This is when you soak the turkey in a brine for 24 hours and it is supposed to be twice as moist and cook in half the time. Everyone was a bit skeptical of this process since none of us had tried it before, but I am proud to say it turned out PERFECT! (I will post a pic later since it was on our neighbor's camera.) We have many things to be thankful for this year and it was so great to be able to host this special event with our new friends and family.

Tony and Ryan wrestling the turkey

The whole gang before dinner

Shane says "Gobble Gobble!"

The best part was that my brother came out from Las Vegas for Thanksgiving and stayed through the weekend. It was great to get to see him since he won't make it out for Christmas this year. He is expecting a baby girl (Carah) just two weeks after Christmas!! Good luck Cory and Janice!

Shane loves his Uncle Cory :D

Cory and I enjoying VIP at Suite 181 in San Francisco

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!