Chirstmas at 80 degrees...

For us it's off to Hawaii for Christmas this year. We managed to get decent airfare (albeit a rather strange routing from Sacramento to San Francisco and on to Honolulu). We arrived last Tuesday and promptly traded our cold weather clothes for shorts t-shirts and rubber slippers. We have stayed very busy visiting with friends and family over the last few days. Lots of good company and good food.

Goofing around at the Children's Discovery Center with cousins Allison & Sydney

Christmas day at Aunty Kay and Uncle Calvin's with all the Iida family

Smiley Sydney

Allison getting a present from "Santa"

Cousin's, prior to gift opening extravaganza

Grandma Flo and Grandpa Ed with grand daughters

Everyone looking at the camera with eyes open, it's a Christmas miracle. :)

Sydney resting up on her new animal pillow

Noelle enjoyed opening her gifts (and others also)

A Christmas tornado came though here.

had a great day at the beach with cousin Allison

"Yuck! don't like that water!"

Checking out Christmas lights with cousins

two month update....

We have been pretty busy around her lately so here is a whirlwind update for the past two months since halloween.

noelle enjoying the first big rain of the season

noelle dismantling the nicely raked leaves

helping to decorate grandma and grandpa's christmas tree with a few good tips from grandpa

grandma/mom/mayor lighting the city of Stockton christmas tree

swimming in the leaf pile

christmas pageant at noelle's preschool

early stockton christmas with the johnston family

Halloween!

We started out the day carving pumpkins. Noelle helped with cleaning out the seeds and did a great job making sure we got them all.

It's squishy in there!

Are there any more seeds left?

We were determined to get Noelle into her bumble bee costume for Halloween. Since she was not happy when we tried, we had our neighbors Lawrence and Maria come over and put the costume on her. She wasn't too happy about it, but at least she wasn't screaming. As soon as we put her in the car to go to our friends Halloween party then the screaming began. But as soon as we got to the party she forgot all about her costume and had fun running around and playing. She even wore the antenna all evening!

Unhappy bumble bee

Happy bumble bee ready to party!

Woohoo!

Getting ready to trick or treat with her friends

Trick or treat!

Halloween Parade

Last week Noelle's day care had a Halloween parade for all the kids. The teachers in her class made witch costumes for all the kids.

Noelle and her teacher Miss Margaret

Noelle looked pretty scared and hung close to Miss Margaret.

Noelle's class of witches

Our little witch

The second loop around on the parade, Noelle saw us in the crowd of people and started crying. So Laurie got to join the parade too!

BOO at the Zoo

A couple weeks ago we took Noelle to Boo at the Zoo in Oakland. Basically all the kids show up at the zoo dressed in their Halloween costumes. We tried to get Noelle into her bumble bee costume but she screamed "OFF BUMBLEBEE, OFF BUMBLEBEE". So we gave up and managed to get her into her UCLA cheerleader outfit from last year.

OFF BUMBLEBEE!!!

Our little Bruin

Watching the giraffes

Pumpkins!

This one is just my size

Can I have this one? "No help"

3 years of pumpkin patches!

Monterey

We headed to Monterey for the 3 day weekend. Yes, Noelle gets Columbus Day off. Noelle was excited that Grandma Ann and Grandpa Cliff joined us for the weekend.

2!

Noelle turned 2 on August 27th - wow the year flew by! Thinking back on the year it's hard to believe how many milestones and changes we went through...walking, talking, running, teeth, teeth and more teeth, weaning, singing, growing....

We had a birthday party for Noelle at our house and had close family and friends over.

Noelle woke up on her birthday party morning to a surprise! A brand new tricycle from Grandma & Grandpa Iida and Mom and Dad. She loves getting pushed around the neighborhood and collects leaves, pinecones and sticks in her trunk.

Waiting patiently as Mom & Dad get ready for the party

Wow, why are those stars on fire?

I'm trying my best to blow these things out!

Buddies!

Noelle loved opening her presents