Christmas Parade '09

Last Friday was the annual Seal Beach Christmas Parade. It's a funny marker for us because it feels like we JUST went to this, but I guess it was a year ago. They advertised it as the largest parade they'd put on yet, and it was looooooong (but didn't feel as long as last year's, which must have had at least 10,000 Boy and Girl Scouts).
We've been kind of sick at our house, no Swine Flu or anything like that, but Ryan stayed home from work that day because they poisoned him the night before with their "dinner;" and Gwen's had a cold, and gave herself a little black eye on our ottoman. (I'm trying to explain why my family looks a little off in these pictures, haha.)

The parade was complete with elves playing baritones, the Volunteer Clowns of Orange County, Kazoo Marching Band, firetrucks, Navy boats, dog walkers, dogs who read, the Sunset Assisted Living Community short-bus...you name it, we saw it and clapped for them.

And I wanted to note that this is the first time that I've ever gone out early in the day to set out chairs and claim a spot - people mocked me, but nobody was complaining when we had AWESOME seats for EVERYONE thanks to me (and Gwen who helped move them out of the garage, into the wagon, and drop them off that morning).

Need a Shower

Jen and Alex threw me a sweet, sweet baby shower to get us geared up. Thanks Bizzles - you're fo' rizzle:)
Too bad we didn't take any pics together...

More Montana Thanksgiving

Lots of playing in the snow. Tubing with Grandma Jill and Grandpa Max.
I decided it was okay to risk the baby and also did a few runs. This is me and "Aunt Buckey."



Ryan and Max's snow bear attacking a human on the golf course.

Eating snow. "mmmmmmm" (a Gweener quote).

Four-wheeling.
Walks to the big house.
Air hockey.

First Sledding

We spent Thanksgiving in Montana with Ryan's family. We took Gwen out tubing on at a nearby ski resort that hadn't opened yet for the winter. There was still lots of snow, but we had the mountain to ourselves which was pretty nice, as you can probably imagine.
So, Ryan took her down in a tube and the first picture is of the snowball that you could see coming down the mountain (I think he put his feet down in an effort to slow them down so she wouldn't be scared?). The next two pics are at the bottom. It was HI-larious. She got over it pretty quick and had fun on the rest of her runs (which started out much lower on the hill).

Free Pic

Me and Gwen were at Babies R' Us for like 2 hours yesterday trying to figure out which double stroller we're going to graduate to (still haven't decided - I neeeed a big basket for groceries, but all those strollers are HUGE). During that time Gwen got a free glamor shot (they were giving away a 5x7), good thing she decided to accessorize that day. Since I'm too cheap to buy anything, I'm just scanning it into my computer and will print it at my leisure. Screw the man, mwaaa-hahahahahahaha (evil laugh).

*Oh, and don't worry, I've had a double jogger for months (Ryan found an awesome deal at a garage sale, of course) in anticipation of the burn that's going to occur after this baby comes. I'm sweating just thinking about it, but I sweat pretty easily.

Halloweenie

Gwen was a flower for Halloween. I was having a really hard time getting her to wear her costume. Every time I put it on she would pull off the hat and then tug at the outfit saying "off." So, a week before official Halloween, we had an activity at our church where the kids could wear their costumes, play games and trunk-or-treat from people's cars in the parking lot. I think when she saw the other kids in their costumes she became more cooperative, and theeeen, when people started putting candy in her bucket she was stoooooooked.

Then, on Halloween day, the shops in Seal Beach were giving out candy to trick-or-treators all afternoon. Some more good practice because we've been trying to teach Gwen to say "Trick or Treat" for like a month (but it was hard because at the time those words had no meaning for her).


Then, Halloween night turned into one of the highlights of her short life. It was us with 2 other couples without kids (so 6 adults and 1 child).

Here's the loot (now hidden from her greedy hands).
So, she figured out trick-or-treat and then on Sunday had a little meltdown because she wanted to go again. So she trick or treated our house a couple times and then we took her out for a walk in the wagon, during which she kept saying "trick or treat" randomly and getting sad because we weren't stopping anywhere.

Thanks

Liz Block made and sent these to Gwen and her little brother for no apparent reason. A couple of my girlfriends noticed them on Gwen's wall and spent like 10 minutes complimenting them - super cute. We thank you in this month of thanks :)