Monday, December 27, 2010

A Very Merry Christmas...

Since the beginning of November we have been planning and anticipating this last week... and boy did it live up to our hopes. Somewhere in the past month our little boy has fallen in love with Christmas and all that comes with it... He has perfected phrases such as "More Santa Please!", "Open Presents?", "Choo Choo movie Please!" He has loved it so much that we have started the "Christmas Phasing Out Process" because I am pretty sure this kid would be devastated if we didn't watch the first 15 minutes of Polar Express at least every couple days... and we still do the Serendipity Santa on nights where bath and bed time are a little more challenging than usual.
So now I sit here in hopes of capturing all of the fabulous memories made this week... and I will start with a late night on the 22nd where we took Bennett out to look at Christmas lights... Bennett definitely liked the lights yelling "pretty!" out the window and got the tired jollies all the way home.
On Christmas Eve we enjoyed the day with Grandma & Grandpa Olsen. They came all the way down south to watch Bennett open presents.... and I think his cute reactions lived up to their hopes. He opened ALL the presents even the ones that were for other people. But his exagerated reaction of screaming excitement and "WOW!" was nearly the same for the train set and mom's Tupperware.... hilarious! It was a great afternoon with Grandpas famous dip, homemade cinnamon rolls and great family. Bennett even fit in an eventful trip to the mall with Dad and Grandpa :)

That evening we started in on some of our little family's Christmas Eve traditions, we made popcorn, watched Polar Express (of course), put out cookies for Santa and read "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" in bed.
Somehow Bennett knew it was Christmas as soon as his eyes opened at a bright and early 6am. I went in there and said "Guess who came?! Santa" and he yelled and screamed and tore into the living room... We had a great morning opening presents, drinking coffee and "chacha ilk" (chocolate milk) and around 9 we packed up for the day at Grandma & Grandpa Jones'.
Upon arriving nearly immediately Bennett jumped right into the present thing once again and was definitely the source of great laughter all morning. We spent the rest of the day in Christmas Pajamas with all the cousins playing with toys and enjoying family. We dined on Grandmas famous prime rib dinner which was wonderful as always! What a great way to spend our Christmas!
Grandpa and Cousin Cash
Helping Dada put together Bennett's new BIKE!
Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Cookies for Christmas...

I am pretty sure this kid would be happy if there were just an unlimited amount of cookies under the tree. Today my guy and I decided to watch his favorite movie, "the Polar Express" or "Choo Choo movie" as he calls it and bake his mom's favorite Christmas cookies, Ginger Cookies!
He was about as helpful making cookies as most would predict... His favorite part was adding the dry ingredients... Lets just say it took two tries and mom did the second round without any help.
He was sure helpful in snacking on them... I think he has had about 15.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Santa is coming to town... whether he likes it or not...

Bennett has been talking about Santa and loving everything about Christmas this year. We were so excited that today Joel and I decided to hit the mall to visit the North Pole of Olympia and get a picture of Bennett with Santa. He was so excited. He waited and pointed and colored pictures in the kids waiting area. I tried telling him all about how we were going to sit with Santa and prepare him as much as possible. But I soon learned that there is no preparing you for your parents shoving you on the lap of a bearded stranger and turning to run and get out of the picture... It wasn't a complete loss, Santa, being his merry old self, presented him with a truce in the form of a candy cane and Bennett accepted.
The official Santa Picture...

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Big Boy Bed...

Another fun event of our Disney vacation was the great escape from his crib. He was in the same room with us and easily learned how to throw that leg over the railing and climb into bed with us. Although it was a good laugh at the time we prayed this was a special vacation only event. Upon our return home we quickly learned it wasn't. We put him down for a nap and he very ungracefully escaped from his crib at home. I was a bit too nervous to be letting him attempt this on a daily basis and injure himself so I thought the only option was to convert his bed into a toddler bed. After the conversion was completed, with a little prayer to the parenting gods, I put him down for a nap in hopes of him staying in bed... and miraculously he has loved it.
He proudly has a nightstand that he puts things like water and binkys (yes we have not attempted that big boy battle yet) and he snuggles up and goes to sleep. I know we will have those nights that he will not stay in bed but for now it seems to be a completely successful transition...
We watch him on the video monitor and after his nap or in the morning, he sleepily grabs his blanket and walks to the door and knocks. He knows how to open doors but for some reason he is using a knock to alert us that he is up.... too cute.
Taking a break from playing trains with the doggie...

Introducing Cash Martin Marquez

Our newest little Nephew was born December 14th at 1:11 pm. He weighed in at a 7 lbs, 13 oz of perfect adorableness. He is proving to be just like his big brother and taking off like a champ. He is fun already and crazily enough it seems like forever since we had a tiny baby in the family. We are going to have so much fun snuggling this little guy over the Holidays. Congrats to Katie, Marty, Maddie & Reece... He is wonderful.
Loving his new cousin! "Baby!"

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

The Happiest Place on Earth!

I guess I will start the moment it began to feel like a true family vacation...
As we neared the boarding gate everyone silently prayed they were not seated next to the screaming toddler running full speed toward the gate, leaning forward to support the weight of his backpack.
He may have yelled "airplane" an uncountable amount of times until someone flagged us down to board because we were obviously traveling with a young child. He settled into his seat still yelling out the window while knocking on it with all his force in hopes of catching the attention of another airplane. He wasn't perfect for the next 2 1/2 hours but he definately wasn't as bad as we had feared...
After retrieving our luggage he jumped up on the largest bag to catch a ride throughout the airport until he immediately fell asleep in the rental car before leAving the parking lot. We spent some time settling in and hitting the hotel pool but decided to jump in the car and drive to Huntington beAch for the sunset...We were exhausted so room service and a bottle of red wine to celebrate our wedding anniversary called our names very early....Can't wait for tomorrow... The happiest place on earth...
After hotel coffee and a little Disney pep talk for us and Bennett, we boarded the shuttle to take us the bloack and a half to Disneyland! Since I am also a first timer I had no idea what to expect or plan for but as we walked past the 100ft+ Disney Christmas Tree and down Disney main street I knew we were in for fun. We spent the first part of the day hitting some rides, Dumbo, Teacups & It’s a small world “Holiday Style”… before we knew it we were starving and Bennett was showing the need for a nap. We grabbed lunch before finishing up the morning on the Disney Choo Choo where Bennett completely hammed it up by waving eagerly at everyone like he was in a parade.
He took a fabulous nap and we headed on back for more Disney.. We were able to hit the Autopia where Bennett barely made the 33 in. height restriction… he was so proud. We went to wait patiently (or not so patiently) for the Holiday parade. It was not that easy to keep a toddler in a 2 square foot piece of concrete for an hour wait… it was a joint effort and took an enormous bucket of popcorn.
Saturday was our buffer day between two big days at Disney... We knew Bennett would want some time to run free so we packed up the rental compact and hit pacific coast highway, our first stop... Laguna beach!
Joel and I decided it was the Kirkland of California, a cute little water front town with lots of dog walkers, difficult parking and great little shops. It was adorable, we parked our little family of three on some hotel towels and played in the sand, it was a bit foggy so after a bit we decided to hit the road again and maybe even let B fit in a quick nap. It was a success and we landed in Huntington Beach for an early afternoon snack in the sun... This beach was our favorite and can't really imagine a better place to spend the afternoon to let B run wild and people watch. Bennett got really good at yelling at the sea gulls and throwing sand. After a beautiful sunset we packed for our temporary home... After a well needed bath and some take out in the hotel we snuggled in and found a Christmas movie on TV... A beautiful day to enable us to recoup for Disney Day Dos tomorrow!!!
The accountant in me was in full effect as we mapped out our big Disney Day… The early morning coffee was brewed and we were on the way to the Disney enterance before 7:30 am. We hit about a dozen rides that morning and enjoyed the 87 degree sun. We had icecream and Bennett zonked out in his stroller in the mid day sun. It was perfect! We had dinner out and headed to Disney California Adventures at dusk. It was not busy at all and we were able to walk on to a last couple rides like the ferris wheel and some rocket thing that Bennett LOVED… we bid farewell to Disney with the Holiday Firework show… it was a great ending to an amazing trip with our little family.
He slept like a dream on the plane ride hom. This weekend was so fun for us to be able to do normal little family stuff... I loved every second!!
Now we are home waiting for Bennett's new cousin!