It's never too early...

For those of you that don't know...I LOVE Christmas! I love everything about it...the music, the colors, the decorations, the snow (which I am SO BUMMED I that it doesn't dump buckets of snow in California...I am very much missing the cold weather right now!) and most importantly why we celebrate it: the birth of Jesus Christ! I can't wait, so we start getting ready very early! Matthew's first Christmas is going to be awesome! Hopefully Connecticut will get dumped on...hey, maybe we'll get stuck there! :)
So here's to an early MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Family Vacation to Catalina Island

Las week, Scott and I decided we needed a break from the craziness of life, so took the ferry over to Catalina Island and spent a couple of days there. Just the three of us...it was awesome! Here are some pictures from our trip...

Behind us is Avaon, the tourist city on Catalina Island.

The Wrigley Monument and Botanical Gardens
So Scott thought it would be more fun to walk to the Wrigley monument, so off we went. He assured me that it wasn't far...check out the picture below...we started at the ocean and ended where I took the picture...about 3 miles round trip. I loved walking, but this was all uphill. Scott got to push the stroller up and I pushed it down! :)

This was the Wrigley monument...for those of you who ever visit Catalina...take our advice...
don't visit the monument!

Obviously Matthew was thrilled about this tour! :)
This was not the botanical gardens I was picturing...gardens are suppose to be green! This was like botanical dirt and brush! Man I miss the East coast green! :(

Scott and Matthew at the Wrigley monument/concrete building!

The Submarine
We went on a boat that had windows and seats on the bottom, so you could look out under the ocean. It was a lot of fun and Matthew really enjoyed it...he made it more fun for all the other people that were on the boat with us because he was squealing and hitting the windows at the fish! He was probably entertaining the fish too! :)

He loved hitting the windows!

Under the sea!

Matthew had a blast on this adventure! Watch the video below...

The "submarine" that we were on is in the background!

Matthew's most favorite part about our vacation was chasing the pigeons!!! Watch the video below!

We had to keep Matthew's blanket over his stroller for most of the trip because it was pretty cold and the wind was blowing, but Matthew thought it was a lot of fun to "hide" from us and was very excited when we would pop in and say "PEEK-A-BOO"!

Boys and their toys!

We go on vacation and guess what we find on TV...the BYU football game!!! What could be better than that?! Matthew watched it with us until he went to bed!
P.S. Dad...they won!!! that's a 7-2 record for the season! Rararara! GO COUGARS! :)

He loves to put things behind his head!

Matthew and Mommy at dinner! (which Matthew actually slept through; he woke up at the end! It was really nice...like dinner alone!:)

Daddy and Matthew on the boat!
Although sitting wasn't as much fun as walking up and down the isles smiling and flirting with anyone that would look at him! :)
(Which was just about everyone...his smile is quite contagious!)

This was the ferry we took out to the island and back!
He doesn't look very excited about our trip, but we had a great time!

Rolling with the BIG boys!!!

Matthew and I went to Sacramento, CA to visit Matthew's Aunt Leslie and Uncle Ben! Matthew had a blast playing with his big cousins, Curtis and Ethan! He also met his new cousin Sara! Curtis loved to help Matthew with everything! Matthew enjoyed having some buddies to scoot around after!

MOHAWKS!!!!

Matthew and I got to go and watch one of Curtis' soccer games!

Ethan and Matthew got balloons at the mall and Matthew was very excited!

Such an awesome big cousin!!! He just loved to help!

Matthew's cousin Curtis was extremely entertaining to Matthew!!!

Matthew just LOVED playing with his cousins!!! He's still trying to catch up on his sleep from playing so hard! Thanks for an awesome trip!

The Pumpkin Patch

We went to a pumpkin patch in Irvine with our friends, David Cassie and their little boy David Jr. It was so much fun! Matthew was fascinated by all the pumpkins, but we did get a couple of pictures of him smiling!

We just could not get a smile out of Matthew with all these pumpkins around!!! He does look quite comfortable though!

Not so tall this fall!Matthew loves to watch David because David can do things that Matthew can't do yet...like climb all over the pumpkins! :)

Matthew picked this pumpkin out all by himself!!! It was the perfect size for him...he held on to it all night!

The boys!!!

Mommy&Me gym class

This is Matthew and his friend Nathan!!! They are one of the few that LOVE to be upsidedown!!!

"This is no problem!"

If you can't tell from the picture...Matthew LOVES the bubbles!!! They are totally fascinating!!

Matthew and his teacher: Miss Mary

Matthew loves the musical instruments! Not because they make cool sounds but because the are awesome to eat!!!

Happy Halloween!!! (a little late)

Our little scarecrow...not so scary, but very cute!!!

Waiting for the trunk or treaters! We were all scarecrows for Halloween if you couldn't tell!I don't know who wanted the lollipop more!!! :)
I think Daddy was more excited about the trunk or treating than Matthew, but Matthew did enjoy grabbing the candy!

Daddy and Matthew playing the Cake Walk...we actually won one too!
(Matthew got his own spot!!!)

Matthew went "fishing"! He was happy to hold the stick! But more excited about the prize that he had in his mouth the rest of the night! :)

Matthew and his friend David (the puppy) at Music Makers on Halloween!