Pre-Christmas

We didn't want to take any gifts with us to Utah so we had our Christmas the Saturday before Christmas Day.

It's fun as Jake gets older to see him get excited about Christmas. He really enjoyed opening his gifts. When he opened an outfit from Wesley's parents, he immediately started taking off his shirt so he could try it on. It's nice as you get older and have kids that just watching them is Christmas enough for you, I could care less if I get a present.

We gave Jake his gifts throughout the week before we left so that he could enjoy them before we went to Utah. His big fun gift was a ball pit, we all love it!


Like father, like son - You can see Jake has learned how to eat his cereal from daddy


Does anyone else have play rooms that look like this? Since this last disaster we've been teaching Jake to clean up each thing before he moves on to the next. He can sure mess things up fast!


Enjoying some hot chocolate by the fire

Just like it should be - the men cleaning the house


Sunday afternoon relaxation - jake and cousin Maddie

Thanksgiving San Diego

We decided to take a family trip to Sea World San Diego this year for Thanksgiving. It was so nice to have this time together as a family - we realized that we've never taken a family trip anywhere by ourselves. So this was very different but good for our little family. We went to Sea World, San Diego Zoo and the Wildlife Animal Park. And of course what is San Diego if you don't go to the beach - so most days consisted of at least a little beach time, too cold for swimming in the ocean, but fun to play on the beach. We were also able to stop by the San Diego temple on Sunday after church and it is just one of the most gorgeous buildings you'll ever see! See below:
I was hoping to make this our Christmas card picture, but as you can see, someone isn't looking at the camera!
Here are a few beach pictures I took of Jake and Wesley - Wes rolled up Jake's pants so they could splash in the water and Jake just loved it! One big thing that I'll forever miss about California is the ocean - poor Jake will never experience much of that! All of our dates are out of order in the following posts, but you'll still be able to see what's what. It was a great trip!

Wildlife Animal Park & Old Towne San Diego

We also went to the Wildlife Animal Park, which was pretty cool. You can walk all around and see the different animals and then go on a tram out to see the wildlife in their habitat. You could pay extra (we didn't) to get to see the animals up close, the giraffes come up to your truck, it looked pretty neat. It was a really cool park



In case you didn't notice, on the truck are 2 lions sleeping, random.


We spent the afternoon again at the beach walking around. The beach closest to our hotel had kite surfers and they were fun to watch




That evening we went to Old Towne and that was so neat and the food was wonderful!

Thanksgiving Day

We started our Thanksgiving by going to one of the local bakeries for breakfast and it was sooo yummy! Here's Jake and Wesley doing 'Cheers' with their food


We spent the day at the San Diego Zoo. It rained a couple of the mornings we were in San Diego and we took that time to take advantage of the parks since we knew the parks would be less crowded. Every place we went we had one of the front parking spots and none of the parks were very crowded while we were there so that was nice since I hate crowds! We split the zoo up into 2 days (mornings) since it's so large. Here's some pictures of us our way to the polar bears:
Jake and Wes wrestling the polar bear:


For dinner we tried to eat at a place downtown but they were already booked for Thanksgiving. (Who would of thought that restaurants would be crowded on Thanksgiving?) So we ate the hotel. They had 3 options for dinner and we did the cheaper, more affordable route, a sit down Thanksgiving meal for $30 a plate... our other option wouldn't have worked b/c that restaurant was too fancy for kids and the other was a buffet - it looked great but was $65 dollars for adults and $30 for kids - uh, No Thanks! It was a good Thanksgiving meal we had though and I was thankful we didn't spend such a ridiculous amount of money for a meal - especially $30 for a kid! Here's some pictures outside of the hotel while we were waiting to be seated for our dinner:





We love sparkling cider and once back at the hotel we all had a glass - Jake loves this stuff!

Thanksgiving Trip: Sea World

Our first stop was to Sea World the first day we arrived. The weather was nice and warm the first day so we had to take a frozen lemonade break, which Jake was the most grateful for

This was a picture we took for my mom, Stella!

I normally could care less about the characters around the park, but Cookie Monster was standing around with Bert and Ernie so we thought we'd see how Jake reacted to him. Jake wasn't so fond of him but Wes said Cookie Monster couldn't keep his hands off of me. He was just trying to get Jake to warm up to him but it didn't work.
We also went to see the whale show and the dolphin show, we loved that! Jake loved the Elmo ride.



Our hotel was wonderful! We stayed at Loews Coronado Bay Resort, which was so beautiful! Thanks to hotels.com, we got a great deal. HEre's us at the beach right across from the hotel:

You gotta love when they cuddle with you and then fall asleep, my sweet boy

We have to change it up a bit from time to time so we decided to have a pizza party on the blanket, which Jake loved!

Jake just loves the hamper, so I added some blankets and he got a kick out of his fun bed

Mom & Dad Edwards Visit

Wesley's parents came to help Clint and Kara (Wesley's brother) with their remodeling of their kitchen and that was nice b/c we got to enjoy their visit!

Here's just the cutest picture of Ella and Jake hanging out. It's so cute to see her light up when Jake walks in the room!


We went to a really good Mexican Restaurant that Clint and Kara suggested. I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but a few months back, I taught Jake how to 'Cheers', but not only with his drinks but with his food as well. I hate to say that was a mistake but if you could only see how our meals play out everyday. It consists of nearly every bite being 'cheered' to and he just loves it. Granted, sometimes when he doesn't want to eat, we just say Cheers and he'll lighten up and eat for us. Here's Jake and Maddie doing CHEERS at the Mexican Restaurant:

All of us at the restaurant

Halloween

Our little stinker was an actual lil' stinker for Halloween this year. He loved loved loved his skunk costume and hated when we made him take off his hood or take off his costume. He looked so sweet in it. On the back where the heart is it says : Lil' Stinker . Perfectly fitting for our cute boy... who is now SOOOO addicted to chocolate or like he calls it: kawk kawk... he got lots of candy trick or treating just around our neighborhood.


We went with Clint and Kara's family to Boo at the Zoo again this year and the kids got to do a little trick or treating there. Here's Jake, Max, Maddie and Ella together at the zoo.

We decided to paint pumpkins rather than carve them this year. Jake loved painting - and wanted to give the paint a taste - Yuck! He was quite creative with his painting and sadly, I didn't take any pictures of my pumpkin. Wesley never got to his since he was helping with Jake's.

We met up with our friends Becky and Mike to a corn maze/pumpkin patch. We had already bought our pumpkins (at a store) so it was nice to let Jake walk through the pumpkin patch. he really thinks he's so strong b/c he kept trying to pick up the biggest ones there.

They also had some kids rides and Jake went on the inflatable slide. Wesley had to help him get up there but I don't think he minded since he got to ride down as well.

Jake and I on some haystacks. And of course there's Jake and Wesley (with Mike to the side) in the kid's corn maze

Birthday Fun

My birthday was fabulous this year! Wesley and Jake made me breakfast... since I was still feeling sick a lot, he was limited to what he could fix me but he gave me an english muffin and sliced apples shaped in a smiley face - so cute! I was only able to eat 1/2 of the english muffin and that's it but it was nice to have him make me breakfast. The next wonderful thing was that since Wesley works from home, he left his office door open most of the day so Jake could wander back and forth and give me a break - it was GREAT! My friend Becky called and took me to lunch at Olive Garden - unlimited salad and breadsticks! It was so fun! My friend Tracy invited me over to her house and Jake and I hung out for a while. Oh, the day before as part of my present, we had a professional come and clean the house!!!! The best present EVER!
That night we got a sitter and went to a really yummy restaurant called Del Frisco's. Yummy yummy steak! It was a fabulous dinner! Then we headed to the mall and Wesley took me a jewelry store and told me to pick out a necklace or earrings. After looking around, I realized that it might be more practical if I got jewelry at JCPenney or Kohls rather than an expensive piece of jewelry that I might lose. I tend to lose jewelry, or at least earrings fairly easily. So I ended up getting a few necklaces and earrings at the cheaper stores. It was so sweet of him to take me to the other jewelry store though... I would have just felt bad if I got a pretty thing and lost it later. So then we thought about seeing a movie but my poor pregnant self was too tired to keep going so we were home by 9:30! My goodness, that's early! But it was a fabulous, wonderful birthday! So here's birthday cake at Clint and Kara's: Jake enjoyed the birthday cake the most I think:



Jake and Maya (Becky's daughter) at Olive Garden. They've become good friends, always holding hands, it's cute!