Fall Continued/California Trip

After Halloween, we had a few weeks to kind of decompress before Thanksgiving. I continued to get cute Carter snuggles while Aubrey was at school, which I loved.

Hehe...

Awww...

Oh. Ew.

The best moments, however, were when I got snuggles from both kids. Nothing makes me happier!

After the snow had fully melted from Halloween and the weather was slightly warmer, we went out as a family to rake the leaves in the front yard. The kids loved jumping in the leaf piles, of course.

But we did also put them to work! They were good helpers and actually enjoyed it.

Aubrey even asked if she could help sweep.

During this time, I also hosted Book Club. I went all out with a (loosely) Tudor-inspired spread of fruit, cheese, artisan bread, butter, jam, and pound cake that I was quite proud of. Yum!

When I was busy doing things (like making yummy food), Carter found ways to entertain himself (and me, haha). Yes, that is a pad.

For Thanksgiving, we traveled to California to spend the holiday with Grandma and Grandpa. They were going to come to Colorado, but we decided it would be better for them (and for Great-Grandpa) if they could stay home. After all, they had just gotten back from a long trip to Egypt and Israel.

While we were there, we went to Disneyland! It was Carter's first time and Aubrey's second. And for the first time, we went to Pixie Hollow, where Tinker Bell lives. Aubrey got really into the Tinker Bell movies for awhile there, so we thought she'd enjoy it. And she did!

We convinced her that we had all magically shrunk when we entered Pixie Hollow so that we could be the same size as Tinker Bell. So while we waited to meet her, the kids explored.

When it was our turn, Aubrey was a little shy. But Tinker Bell was awesome with her! 

Carter opted not to go up and meet her. I think he was freaked out, haha. He did, however, love the Finding Nemo submarine ride.

And, of course, both kids had fun at Toon Town.

They also got to ride around Disneyland in style.

And since Grandma had broken her ankle and needed a wheelchair, they got to take turns riding on it with her (though we did get told by a few employees that that wasn't allowed).

While we were walking from Frontierland to Fantasyland, we passed by one of the closed-off staging areas, just in time to see Belle and the Beast come out. We tried to get Aubrey to talk to her and take a picture with her, but she clammed up. So Belle and the Beast went on, where they were thronged by all the people, of course. It was then that Aubrey decided she did, in fact, want to meet Belle. So we started following her in hopes of getting another chance. And amazingly, the employee who was walking with the couple as a sort of bodyguard/crowd control person noticed Aubrey and remembered her. She ushered Aubrey over to Belle, and she was so awesome with her! They walked hand-in-hand until Belle got where she was going. It was so sweet!

Anyway, the whole day was very fun. It was nice having it be just our family (no offense to cousins!) so that we could focus on what our kids, who are younger than most of their cousins, wanted to do. And at the end of the day, they were tuckered out!

In fact, Carter was still tired the next day! Haha. Awwww, Carter snuggles.

But tired or not, the pool was just too tempting to be ignored. Well, it was actually the spa. Because even though San Diego weather is always nice, even in November, the pool was not exactly warm.

With December just a week away, we decided to help Grandma and Grandpa decorate their Christmas tree. Because when it comes to holidays, everything is more fun and magical with kids, right?

Aubrey and Carter also decorated this cute gingerbread house with Grandma and Grandpa (while Mommy napped, haha). They loved it and talked about it for weeks after!

While we participated in all these holiday activities, we of course had to have Christmas music playing. And where there's music (and my kids), there's dancing...

Sadly, the week off of school came to an end, and it was back to the grind for a few more weeks before Christmas break. That meant going back to school, where Aubrey's class did their school pictures.

During that time, we also had a visit from a sweet lost cat. It appeared late one night on our deck, meowing pathetically for us to let it in. We didn't (I guess we're cold hearted) and figured it would move on. It didn't. It slept under our grill cover and was still purring for us the next morning. I made flyers and posted on local Facebook pages, and we let him into the garage while we waited to find his owners. We even bought him food! He was super sweet, and the kids were smitten. But alas, his owners did finally come and get him. Apparently his name was Julio.

Anyway, that was it for November! It was another full month, but I guess that time of year always is. Now, onto Christmas!