This year we took a break from the annual Bunko party tradition and enjoyed a quiet New Year’s Eve with my parents. We spent the weekend with them again and enjoyed abalone for dinner, Settlers (Seafarers edition!), The Holiday, watching the ball drop, church on Sunday, a beautiful day outside, and the Rose Parade and football on the 2nd.

Early January has been pretty quiet so far, which was just what this little family needed after such a busy December. We’ve had friends over for homemade ice cream (lemon cherry cheesecake swirl!) and football (Go Niners!) and Gigi has enjoyed going back to school.

The community group we host at our house each week has exploded, too, which is exciting! We’ve gone from an intimate group of four to over ten adults and a room full of kids. We are excited to get to know the new friends in our group and really become a community with them.

Our big goal for the year is simplification. We are streamlining and downsizing toys and everything else and working on getting into a good daily rhythm. I wrote a little bit about this on my other blog and plan to write on it more in the future.

We hope 2012 is off to a good start for you, wherever you may be!

We had such a fun Christmas with the family. We feel so blessed to get to spend so much time with our extended family. Our kids don’t know how good they have it being able to spend the holiday with both sets of grandparents and one of their aunts/uncles.

Christmas eve tradition: breakfast at Swami’s and a walk by the beach.

I’m going to post just a few favorite photos here and then post a slideshow of the rest.

We decided to have a formal Christmas dinner, just for fun. Alex took as many photos as our cranky kids would allow.

You can view his photos from Christmas here, and here’s a fun video Alex made of Christmas day.

christmas day ’11 from Alexander T. Pavone on Vimeo.

Now if only I could finish my Christmas cards. They’ve officially become “New Year’s cards” by now I guess…

{Link to Christmas album – in case you couldn’t view slideshow}

We love making gifts whenever possible. Here are some of the fun things we created.

This year David decided to make the kids a climbing wall.

Framing.

It’s 8 feet tall. The kids loved it!

Gift cards in homemade pouches for Gigi’s teachers.

Hoop art for Angelina…

and David’s mom.

A basket full of goodies for my mom.

Spanikopita for my dad.

You’ll probably get a glimpse of a few more homemade gifts when I post about Christmas.

Oh, and this wasn’t a gift, but David successfully installed our new, working, FREE dishwasher. Yay for DIYing!

And to view ALL the December photos, you can click here.

Monday mornings are for Moonlight Beach with friends (local? come join us. we are just starting up this casual playdate time.)

Hallee and friend Hannah are less than 2 weeks apart in age.

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Peanut Butter Balls.

The healthy version.

The not-so-healthy version.
Both are delicious.

Dad at work.

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We went to check out the Botanical Gardens holiday lights. It was less-than-worth-it. But we had a really fun time with friends.

Gigi and friends.

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We found a neighborhood near our house with fantastic lights. We’ll go there again for sure.

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Hallee took a bottle a couple of times this month. David and I even got to go out on a date (!!) to his company Christmas party, which was so fun.

We drove up to Downtown Disney for a fun dinner at ESPN Zone with my parents, Alex, Angelina, Micah, Uncle Joe, Aunt Laurel and my cousins Breanna, Amalia and little Thomas. It was so fun to see everyone.

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We love going to Parade of Lights down in San Diego!

We were joined by both sets of parents and a friend from Elliptigo, Tom and his girlfriend Katie. The kids loved watching the boats go by!

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And look who wore her first hairclip!

For a few minutes anyway.

More holiday festivities to come!

After Thanksgiving, we were excited to get into the holiday spirit!

Gigi did her first embroidery project!

We waited an extra week to get our tree because we had such warm weather the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Signs of the season.

During Thanksgiving week, David took Gigi’s pedals off since she was finally tall enough to use her bike like a balance bike. She started getting so good at it in just a week!

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Impromptu jammie photo shoot!!

uh-oh! Someone’s not happy!

There, there, Hallee Girl. That’s better.

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Brody and “Papa,” who he found all on his own at the Wild Animal Park.

Posing.

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Our tree!

This was one of my 10 on 10 shots for December.

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This month Hallee started eating food! We are doing a method called Baby-Led Weaning, which basically just means we are doing real food instead of purées. It is super fun to watch her pick food up and she is loving it! Her first food was cooked egg yolk, and since then she’s had tons more. Her favorite thing is definitely chicken (and turkey, too).

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This month we went to the annual Fire Department Kids Christmas Party again; Alex and Micah came down to join us.

Gigi, Brody and Micah were all unsure about Santa this year. The boys screamed on his lap (which gave us all a good laugh) and Gigi had to be told he was just a firefighter before she would go near him. But, all in all it was a fun night.

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Halle and Daddy at church.

We had a fun time at our church’s annual Christmas Under the Stars with both sets of grandparents again.

The candles are always a highlight!

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A girl at my MOPS table owns a really cool art studio in town and we had a playdate there. It was super fun for the kids!

Hallee and her friend Lia (one month younger).

More December fun to come…

We love having our pictures taken down at the beach each year.  This year’s taken by my brother came out great! Thanks, Al-Buddy! Here are a few of my favorites.

You can see a few more shots over on Alex’s blog.

As usual, we had an awesome time camping for the week of Thanksgiving. We arrived at San Elijo– after a long 10 minute commute — in the pouring rain and opted to cram our family of 5 into the motorhome and sleep with Yaya and Papa.

Watching a movie.

The girls snuggling in the morning.

Good morning, boys!

Mom’s thankful tree.

Bonfire with MOPS friends.

Our campsites were right next to the amphitheater and the beach! The kids loved playing around the benches.

We brought along the matchbox cars again and Brody was in hog heaven. Monday afternoon brought a surprise visitor…

Stacey and Charlie!!

David’s sister flew out from Indiana and surprised her parents. It was so fun having her there this week and getting to spend time with our new nephew who we hadn’t met yet.

Checking out the tidepools.

The Yogurt Man!

Charlie and Brody had so much fun playing together.

Simon watching the bubbles. A bunch of friends came down to play one day. The kids had a ball together.

Lunch at Bull Taco in the campground.

The babies.

The weather got pretty warm most days.

A chilly morning walk across the street.

Watching football!

The Bird.

Gigi loved watching White Christmas.

Biking buddies.

Our little friend Lana Ferry.

VG’s and Starbucks!

Alex, Angelina, and this cool guy came down!

The three boys.

The artista at work.

Brody’s first time finger painting.

Gigi and I had a dance show.

Micah’s really into buckles.

View all the photos here.

Every now and then, on the rarest of all occasions,
this happens:

along with this:

When that all happens at once, it’s a true miracle around these parts.

This month, David, Alex and my dad drove up to Palomar Mountain for the Elliptigo World Championships.

It was a bit nippy.

Alex did photography and videography for the event.

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First ever Ice Cream Sunday…

We started a new monthly tradition of having friends over for homemade ice cream on a Sunday night. The first one was a blast and we enjoyed some Pumpkin Spice and Honey Almond Dream ice cream.

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Gigi had her first hot chocolate this month. She enjoyed eating the whip cream with a spoon with her buddies Wyatt & Delaney.

Brody discovered his “scrunchy face.”

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Wild Animal Park with Yaya & Papa.

Brody enjoying some freedom from the stroller.

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Reading with Yaya.

David got to spend a couple of hours at preschool with Gigi for Daddy Day. She loved it! They had special snacks and even a photo booth with costumes during outdoor exploration time.

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Hallee at 5 months…

Here are all the photos from November (not including Thanksgiving).

After clearing our iPhones, I found a few more October photos to share.

David got to go to Brent (his boss) & Livy’s wedding. Unfortunately I missed out because Gigi was sick!

Brent showing off his custom cufflinks.

Brent made this really cool cake stand, and then friends brought cakes.

David, Gigi & Dan met our friend Ryan and his daughter for a TCU/SDSU football game.

Gigi & Madelyn were stoked to meet the cheerleaders!

We’ve become honorary TCU fans thanks to our friends (who are alumni).

Go Frogs! (Here’s SuperFrog!)

Stephanie set the girls up with wigs and tattoos!

Gigi and Daddy headed over the pumpkin patch one day to celebrate our old neighbor Tiago’s 4th birthday.

Tiago, Sofia & Gigi

Halloweenie

We love heading up to Alex and Angelina’s for their annual Halloweenie party which means pumpkin carving and chilli dogs.

My brother made a really cool video of the night, too.

Brody trying to get in on the girls’ pretend play.

My friend Amber and me on a walk in Cardiff.