New Camera

Here are a few silly pictures I took using some of the different features on our new camera.  I've had fun playing around with it!

Santa Monica

Earlier this month we made it out to Santa Monica.  It was our first trip to the beach since moving here, surprisingly, since it was only about a half-hour or so from our house.  We got there pretty early and it was SO foggy (and pretty chilly), but by 10:30 AM or so it was sunny and beautiful.  We wished we had planned to stay longer (but I didn't want Isaac to miss his coveted naptime).  Isaac had such a great time in the sand and I had a great time playing around with our new camera.  We are excited to hopefully make it back soon!

Travel Town Museum

LA has a cool outdoor train museum called Travel Town.  You can climb up into the engines and into some of the cars.  They also have a little train that goes around the park (like at Hogle Zoo).  Isaac has been in a train phase lately, so he thought it was great!  It was a great FREE place to spend a Saturday morning!

Christmas 2011

We had a nice quiet Christmas this year (although we missed not being with our family for the first time!).  Isaac knew exactly what to do with the wrapped presents (and even had himself a little practice run a few days before...naughty).  We had all day to let him enjoy his new toys.  I was so excited to get him his little Radio Flyer ride-on toy, but when he came down the stairs he was most excited about the Cookie Crisp...the simple pleasures!


We had fun decorating our own gingerbread house.  One of our friends gave us the kit.  My family always makes gingerbread houses every year, so it was fun to make our own.  I think it turned out pretty good, although Isaac wanted to put all of the candies in his mouth before he put them on ;)

Winter Wonderland

We woke up to a fresh layer of snow in the morning when we were in Utah before moving.  We probably had 4 inches or so.  The neighbors were out playing in it, so I suited Isaac up and ventured out.  He is in a phase where he needs to be held most of the time, but he finally warmed up and started to play in the snow a little.  Last time it snowed he refused to even touch it.  The neighbors have a very miniature hill that we went sledding down.  I think it was a little too scary for Isaac, but he didn't want me to go down without him.  We had a fun day in the snow!

Change of Scenery

In November we went from this...

To this...

We've enjoyed our time in California (especially the weather).  It was fun to take Isaac to the L.A. Temple grounds.  We were glad they already had their Christmas lights up.  Who doesn't like palm trees with Christmas ornaments?!

Time for an update!!

This was by far my longest hiatus from blogging; it has definitely been a busy 2+ months!  Since my last post, Lance drove out to Los Angeles with whatever earthly belongings we had with us in Utah and had the sole task of finding housing for us within a 3 to 4 day time period and unloading everything from our PODS (pretty much everything survived its 4 months in Compton baking in the storage unit).  He found us a great little place in Alhambra which is absolutely perfect for us.  I'm glad it was him who had the responsibility of choosing and not me.  He did an awesome job! 

Meanwhile, Isaac and I stayed back in Utah alone at my mom's house (who left for Switzerland the same day Lance left for Los Angeles).  I started a new job a few days before because I thought we weren't moving until the end of December, so I had to round up all sorts of babysitters while I did my training (thank you everyone who bailed me out on short notice).  We flew out a met Lance a week after her left and actually had a place to come home to (and not a hotel thankfully!) 

Basically from that time until the end of the year I worked from home every pretty much every day, mostly in the mornings before Isaac woke up or during nap time, but also had to have a babysitter a few days a week.  There was no time for blogging or really ANYTHING I normally did while at home.  I think both Lance and I both appreciate having at least somebody in charge of running the house full-time after this short stint of us both working.  We eventually got out of all of our boxes although there is still one closet that was the depository for everything I didn't know what to do with in an attempt to be rid of the sea of cardboard boxes.

I have cut back my hours and hope to have more time to do all of the OTHER things that I love to do, including exercise, blogging, and having a somewhat clean house.  I have a greater respect for all of you working moms out there!!!  Hopefully I'll be back to having somewhat regular posts because I love taking the time to reflect on all of the fun things going on in life right now with a darling and energetic almost-2-year-old!!