New Year's!

Dear Kate and Riley,

The holiday celebrations continued on through the New Year! We really lucked out and had almost all of the O'Farrell clan come out to CA for Ashton and Braden's baptisms and to celebrate New Year's. We missed Austin, Jill and Jake but were so happy to have all of the other O'Farrell cousins in one place (and love that Uncle Adam can fit us all in his house!). So New Year's Eve we headed down to San Diego, took advantage of our last chance at a dirt cheap hotel room (goodbye Marriott!) and spent some quality time with the O'Farrells.

Zach LOVED being with his cousins and they are all so cute with him. I loved that he is old enough to go off and play and I could just sit and visit with the adults. We had such a good time and it was great for Zach to get to see his cousins be baptized. There are four boys who all got baptized this year and I am grateful that Zach and his brother will have great examples just a few years ahead of them. I know that when Zach is 13 or so and these boys all start going on missions it will be great for our kids to see. I am so thankful for strong, faithful family members who provide my kids (and me) with great examples! We always have so much fun with Dad's family, I can't wait until we can all get together again.

Shooting hoops with the cousins and Papa Frank

Zach and Camryn were best buds, its SO cute!

Feeding the ducks which was apparently one of the most exciting things he'd ever done!

Zach ROCKED Myra's pink scooter. I still wish Santa had brought him a scooter.

Ashton and Braden had a tae kwon do birthday party. It was so much fun and they were so nice to let all the cousins participate! Zach got pretty in to it!

Braden and Ashton got to cut their cake with the ninja sword, pretty cool!

All of the cousins (minus Jake) after the baptism

Uncle Andrew, Dad, Uncle Adam, Uncle Gregor

The sisters in law-- Stacy, Tracy, Amy and me. Aunt Stacy and I are due about 6 weeks apart

Love,
Mom

Grandma and Papa

Dear Kate and Riley,

The Christmas fun did NOT end on the 25th at all. The day after Christmas Grandma Janice and Papa Ross came for a short little visit. It was Christmas all over again! Grandma and Papa really outdid even Santa and now I'm afraid Zach thinks Christmas comes twice a year!

It was really fun to have Grandma and Papa all to ourselves and we had some great weather. We had our own little Christmas and spent the day at the Aquarium of the Pacific. We also got a babysitter and went out on a double date which was a lot of fun. Zach already can't wait for Grandma to come back after baby brother is born.

There was some serious crazed present opening going on this time, this kid got down to business

The giant dump truck was a big hit and it didn't take him long to also learn "DON'T HIT DA WALLS!" (dump truck has now been banished to the patio after Bella the dog suffered a few too many run ins with them)

Papa Ross got some pictures for his office

Grandma Janice got a snuggie! It was a hit.

Aquarium of the Pacific

Thanks Papa and Grandma! We had so much fun!

Love,
Brooke

Christmas!

Dear Kate and Riley,

I really want to catch up before this baby comes, so here's Christmas day. Santa came on Christmas eve and although Zachary may not have understood, MOM was so excited I could barely sleep. Dad and I decided that Zach needed to at least have some milk before diving into the mess of candy and junk that awaited downstairs. I got the video camera ready and we told Zach that Santa had come and it was time to go downstairs. He got really nervous! I think he thought that Santa was actually THERE so he made Dad carry him down the stairs and then didn't want to get set down.

Once he realized Santa was NOT actually downstairs and that there was a mountain of presents just for him, Zachary really got into Christmas. He LOVED every present and wanted to stop and play a little with each one before moving on to the next one. He even wanted to open all of mom and dad's presents. He just kept saying "PRESENTS!" it was so much fun.

We ate a big breakfast and played for a while then headed down to San Diego to Uncle Adam's for the day. Zach had a blast playing with all of his cousins and their new toys and we all got to go "swimming" in the hot tub. For our first Christmas on our own, it was a good one.

Even mom's water bottles were exciting!

McQueen bubble bath-- a true hit

And the cars, oh the cars. So many and each one was exciting, "OH! RED CAR! ANOTHER RED CAR!"

And the biggie-- the hotwheels ramp. Buys me an extra 30 min. of sleep every morning!

Love,

Mom

Christmas Eve

Dear Kate and Riley,

Christmas Eve is when it really start to set in that we were on our own this year! The Hansen family have a lot of Christmas Eve traditions but none of them worked very well with just three people so we did our own thing.

We went to Boomers during the day for some put-put golf and that evening we went to the Massies for dinner, a few presents and some dessert. It was a fun little low-key day.

Love,

Mom

Catch up

Dear Kate and Riley,

How did I get so far behind!? The holidays passed like a whirlwind and my laptop (with all my pictures on it) died. And now I feel so overwhelmed I don't even know where to start. I guess we'll just do one event at a time...

Santa Train

We bought tickets to go on the Santa train in early December. We headed out to Irvine Regional park one night and stopped for dinner where Zachary conveniently vomited all over mom. In a restaurant. It was embarrassing and disgusting. Needless to say we had to turn around and go home without seeing Santa or riding the train.

Thankfully we were able to make it back another weekend and had a great night. Really, it involved Will, a train, Santa and a bounce house, how could we go wrong!?

The dads and boys waiting in line for the train

Riding the train to see Santa

Still a little shy with Santa

Zach and Will, getting them to sit on Santa's lap was not so hard but getting them both to look at us was impossible!

The bounce house-- best part of the night! This time they had to turn off all the lights and practically start deflating the thing to get Zach out!

Love,

Mom