Gourd Farm 12.31.12

We drove down the road about 2 miles to a gourd farm.  It had really pretty oak trees in the grove and we walked around admiring the beautiful scenery.

Gourds galore!

Jeralyn was trying on Aunt Natasha's sunglasses.

On our way back to the car we let Jeralyn walk around.  She found all sorts of fun things to study...

...and eat!

Silly girl!  She had fun!

Dew 12.31.12

I believe Quent woke early to take some pictures.  He took some awesome time-lapse photos that he is planning to turn into a video.  It's super cool!  We'll post about it sometime.

Fallbrook, California 12.30.12

Chad and Mikaela live off of a road that goes up and up to a beautiful home overlooking the valley.  It's gorgeous!  The property has an orange orchard.  We could go out and pick oranges off the trees and eat them right then and there.  What could be better than that?  It was delightful.  On the second day we were there we walked about:

I loved these flowers!  Not sure what they are, but I really think they are beautiful!

These flower petals were more like leaves.  Gorgeous!

And then we came upon a poinsettia tree!  I didn't even realize they grew on a tree...or a bush.  Awesome!

Yes, we are getting our "poinsettias" on!  Ha!

Some more vegetation.

Oranges!  Blood oranges to be exact!

And cactus!

And cute nephews in the arms of beautiful aunties!

Josiah likes to stick his tongue out a lot!

Cousins 12.30.12

On December 29th we traveled to Fallbrook, California to spend time with Quent's family (minus Nate and Annie).  Quent's sister Mikaela, her husband Chad, and their son Josiah, graciously opened up their home for us.  Quent's parents and sister Natasha came from Michigan to spend the time together.  It was really a wonderful time together as a family!

We arrived at their place around 8:00 pm and immediately put Jeralyn to bed.  The next morning when I went to get her out of the pack-n-play, there was dried up vomit all over the crib and even on Shelly.  I'm guessing she threw up before falling asleep the night before, but gave us no indication that it even happened.  I even looked in at her before I went to bed but I saw nothing of the sort.  I'm guessing it was from motion sickness from the very windy and curvy roads up to their place.  Poor girl!  I felt so bad!  So we had to wash everything and give her a bath.  She was feeling great despite all of that!  

Jeralyn is 4 months older than Josiah.  Here they are playing:

She is really into giving affection, hugs, and kisses.  She says, "Awww..." and then leans in and gives a little smooch.  Her lips rarely make impact, but the sound effects say it all.

"Oh!  Let me fix your hair!"

"Awww!"

12.27.12

She's enjoying her Christmas toys!

Play Area 12.26.12

Since we don't have a play room, we decided to get an area rug for her to play on and to (hopefully) encourage her to keep her toys on.  It's a space between our dining area and living room.  She thought it was pretty cool to have this area to herself.  She walked all over the rug and enjoyed her little space. 

Video: Birthday Ski 12.23.12

Video: Little Ski Hill 12.22.12

Video: Before Skiing 12.22.12

Christmas Day 12.25.12

 The night before we set up Jeralyn's gifts around the tree.  We didn't wrap any of them since it would be more fun to have them set up.  I enjoyed it so much!  It brought back sweet memories of Christmas morning when I was a child.  I think it's exciting to wake up Christmas morning and see all of the new toys under the tree!

At 7:30 the next morning I got Jeralyn up while Quent set up his camera to get Jeralyn's reaction when she came out into the livingroom.  Unfortunately, he forgot to turn the mic on, so it's a silent film.  She bypassed all of the toys and walked straight to Quent saying, "Dada!"  And then she turned and saw the kitchen, which she then played with for the next 10 or so minutes.  She didn't see anything else.  Quent went downstairs to get something and when he was gone we both heard her exclaim, "Car!"  She saw the tractor to her Little People barn.  And then she went over and kissed some of the farm animals.  So sweet!

Here she is playing with her kitchen. I think she likes to cook with a messy counter.

I love her expression!  Eyebrows raised!

Here she is kissing the animals!

Quent was opening up his presents from his stocking while Jeralyn played nearby.

My favorite picture of her for the day!

Her little push car came with a "smart phone".  I showed her one time how it is used and then she must have figured out it's like what I use to talk on the phone.  She kept saying, "Hi!" and "Bye-bye!" (which sounds more like "Bah-bah!"  Hilarious!  She walked around with that phone for a long time just chatting away.

For the first part of the day (before her nap) she played and played!  After she woke up our friends came over and we had a wonderful dinner!  I made a whole chicken in a slow-cooker and it turned out so amazing!  Yum!  I also made stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes, Quent made cranberry salad, and our friends brought food, too!

Our friend Mike brought over some wine and they were trying to figure out how to open the wine bottle.  We don't have a cork screw as we don't drink wine.  They figured it out...eventually!

Jeralyn eating her dinner.  She hardly touched the actual dinner food, but did real well with the sweet cranberry "salad" and cookies.  (=

From left to right: Will, Taryn, little Jake, Jason, and Cassie

My friend Jamie and her family. Jake is 10 months, Taryn is 3 years old.

All of us!  We had a great time with them!

Jeralyn started making these grumpy faces, so Quent thought it would be good to kiss the grumps away.

Merry Christmas!!

Birthday Dinner 12.23.12

We made pizza for my birthday dinner.  While Jeralyn's pizza was cooking I gave her a bowl of pureed vegetables/fruit (which is a rarity now since she eats a huge variety of food).  It's fun watching her use a spoon.

When she was eating pizza she got some part of the crust/cheese on her face and it looked like...well...a booger.  It was cracking us up, so Quent took a picture.

I had a very nice birthday!  Quent got me a new camera, a Canon 7D, which you will be seeing pictures from soon.

Little Helper 12.23.12

Jeralyn helped me cut out some of the sugar cookies.  After awhile she just wanted to eat the dough, so it didn't last too long, but she was so cute!  I love doing these kinds of things with her!