Catch up..

It's been a while, I know. How do these weeks fly by?! We've had, yet another, full couple of weeks. Busy with birthdays, vacation, Christmas shopping, sick days, etc. Poor Luke has been battling a cold that has been passed around to all of us and seems to keep swinging back to him. In addition, I think he's teething. His poor little face has a very red goatee-shaped rash from drool and a runny nose. =( Between the time of year and Kate it's next to impossible to just stay home to let him get better. I've tried to keep things as low key as I can for him, so when we needed an outing last Wednesday, we met Nana and Brooklyn at the park to feed the ducks for a little while. Kate loves to feed the ducks, although when this swan got out of the water, she was done.
Brooklyn Alivia- 6 months old

We spent a few days this last weekend in Palm Desert for John's 29th birthday. John's parents have a very nice condo that we are fortunate enough to be able to use. We've had several fun "weekends" out there and this was Luke's first desert visit. We left Thursday evening, were joined by Curt, Brenna, and Brooklyn Friday-Sunday, and came home Monday afternoon. It was a nice little vacation. Kate loved "driving" the golf cart with Daddy and insisted on several trips around the country club to check out the Christmas decorations. Friday was a laid back family day- we went to lunch and Christmas shopped in the afternoon, made dinner at the condo, and waited for the Vander Molens to arrive. On Saturday the weather was nice enough to do a little swimming (only b/c the pool was heated) so the daddies and kids spent about 1/2 hour in the pool. We made dinner again and watched a movie after the kids went to bed. That is, we attempted to watch a movie- I think John was the only one who actually stayed up long enough to finish it. Sunday was John's birthday and God's gift to him was rain. We made a big breakfast and hung around inside. Fortunately, it cleared up in the evening and we headed out for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Kate loved the gigantic pig statue outside a restaurant called Babe's so we had to take a picture. Curt, Brenna, and Brooklyn left after dinner and headed home in hopes of getting a good night's sleep (Brooklyn is not a fan of sleeping and didn't do well away from home.) We packed up and came home on Monday afternoon where John found his birthday present hanging on the wall in our bedroom. The one thing he really, really wanted...a flat screen TV. He was very pleased. Thanks Dad for hanging it for me. =)

Yesterday, Kate, Luke, mom and I went to Disneyland one last time before Christmas. It looked so nice with all of the decorations. We saw Mrs. Clause, real reindeer, Pluto, Chip & Dale, Goofy, and Ariel. Kate has gotten much more brave since the day she and Rebekah took a picture with Minnie and actually enjoyed seeing the characters rather than freaking out. We even waited in line to take a picture with the Little Mermaid. As excited as she was to see her favorite princess, we couldn't get a smile out of her to save our lives. The combination of wind-blown hair and that goofy look on her face didn't make for the most attractive picture but it's a memory. =)