Catching up, AGAIN!

From christmas, new years and beyond

Christmas and New Year's came and went. Sadie scored some really cool gifts.
We made a big feast on Christmas eve with my parents. Our opinion of Tofurkey has changed. I think we'll be featuring it at every holiday meal from now on!
Peter, Sadie and I spent the evening at home stuffing our faces with wine and cheese on New Year's Eve and went to bed just after 2009 arrived.

The next day we hopped in the car and drove down to Goleta (Santa Barbara) to meet up with Stephen, Suzy, Chloe, Adeline, Roc, Jess, Bobby, Shaun and Amy.
Adeline and Sadie are fairly close in age which was fun to see how they interacted with each other.
We ate and drank and cruised Santa Barbara.
On Saturday, Stephen and Suzy had everyone over to watch the Chargers game.
What a scene!
That morning, we left the house to go walk around. Stephen and Suzy stayed behind to "get ready for the game."
Little did we know that when we came back the house would be decorated with Charger paraphernalia and everyone would be wearing football jerseys.
Stephen sat in Chargers lawn chair all night with his beer right beside him.
Every time they scored a goal, Suzy would play the Chargers theme song over the stereo.
I still can't get that damn song out of my head!
It was good times.

From christmas, new years and beyond

From christmas, new years and beyond

From christmas, new years and beyond

From christmas, new years and beyond

From christmas, new years and beyond

From christmas, new years and beyond

Sadie slept most of the time on the drive down and back up. She played nicely with the other kids. Poor baby though, she came home with a cold and we haven't been able to kick it yet.

On the way down to Goleta and on the way back we stopped at
Pea Soup Andersens for some soup and cheesy onion bread.
That place rocks. When we lived in LA every time either one of us had to drive up north we made sure to stop there. The soup is so delicious and vegetarian! It tastes like there is ham or bacon grease in it's so wonderful but it's guilt free!
Highway 101 is really beautiful once you get past all the boring parts. The ocean and the sun reflecting on it is so calming. Every time I drive that route I am reminded how much I love beach towns.
I'd love to live in a beach town. The funny thing is when I think of living in a beach town, I don't think of a Southern California town, but the Jersey Shore!!!
This is funny because I've actually only been to the shore in Jers maybe a handful of times. Enough to love it though!

While at Stephen and Suzy's house I found out that my grandmother had passed away.
She was 84.
We flew to Tucson on Thursday, buried her on Friday and came home on Sunday.
My granny was buried on Elvis' would-be 74Th birthday.

The weather was perfect the day we buried her. She is buried next to my grandpa.
Something I think that is interesting: My grandpa died when he was 48, grandma died when she was 84.......

On Saturday, we went over to Grandma's house to take a look at what she left behind.
It's amazing the amount of stuff you accumulate throughout your life.
It was comforting to me to be able to go through the house and take what was most important to me. As strange it seemed at times when I really thought about it, I'm glad I was able to do it.

I always get nervous when traveling with Sadie. I worry that she might cry on the plane or just be a pain to travel with.
Of course, she was pretty close to perfect the entire time. In fact, having her there with is lightened up the mood. It made dealing with grandma's death a little easier.

Sadie is teething again. She's got two more teeth coming on top and I think the bottom ones are about to poke through too.
Her facial expressions are getting really funny. She's definitely starting to understand when we say 'no.'
She sort of looks at us like "yeah, so?" with this funny squint on her face.

Sadie is giving hugs now, which of course is just the cutest thing ever. She does it the most random times too. Like when I'm trying to get her dressed or if she's on the floor and I'm putting on my makeup, she'll hug my leg.
Sometimes, she puts her arms around my shoulders and pats the side of my arm which is really funny.

Watching Sadie in the bathtub gets more interesting every time.
Not only is sitting on her potty and going before almost every bath, but she has discovered her comb and cup that I use to wash her hair with.
She brushes her hair with the comb and tries to drink the bath water out her cup. The drinking of the bath water is a little gross so I try to stop that as soon as I can.
We've also starting giving her a tooth brush to chew on.
She usually ends up chewing on the wrong end, but doesn't object when I turn it around and start brushing with the right end.

My mom suggested I give Sadie a drawer or cupboard to play in while I am in the kitchen. That way I can make dinner or do other things and not have to worry that she's into something she shouldn't be.

I decided to show Sadie the cupboard that has the Tupperware in it.
This worked out really well for a while until she realized that this was also the place I keep the snacks.
A couple of times I have started cooking and sort of zoned out only to realize Sadie has torn open her crackers and is eating them all over the floor!

In addition to the cupboard, Sadie appointed a drawer to herself. She prefers the bottom drawer next to her cupboard that has all the dish towels, oven mitts and bibs.
She likes to spread them out along with the Tupperware and throw them all over the floor in the kitchen.
She enjoys this so much that from time to time she'll go in there even when I'm not in there and play with them.

Miss Chicken is still not sleeping in her bed. I had planned to get her back in there after the first of the year, but we went off to AZ and I didn't do it.
Now we're back and since she's teething and still isn't feeling well, we thought maybe we should wait.
I hope we don't wake up one day and find a two-year old sleeping beside us!

I promise to have some recipes for you soon!

enjoy!
xoxo

christmas, new years and beyond