Steph and Melissa's family left Redding on December 29th, but we were there for about three more weeks during the moving process. Steven was able to stay for a while too, so we partied with what family was left.
Matt's sister Stephanie was in Placerville visiting Kevin's family for Christmas, and she brought her twins up to see us for New Years. You know how much my family loves having extra babies around. It was a real treat!
This is pretty much how our exciting New Years Eve went, except Steven and Buck went out, and the babies went to sleep, so there were no little people or dogs to entertain us. We sat in that room trying not to fall asleep like old people and watched the festivities in Times Square for hours. It was even less eventful than previous years, and that's saying something. Someday we will do this holiday right!
We played with the babies in the sun before Steph took them away from us. These girls are hilarious!
Everyone had turns on the mule, including me and my twin dad.
We made a little burn pile that wasn't very successful because of all the recent rain. But the Christmas tree sure burned quickly! Makes me so scared for a Christmas tree fire in the house!
Before this day, my mom had always refused to ride on my dad's "suicycle", but I got a photo of her very first ride. They just went down the street, but guess what--she didn't even die!
The boys learned to play baseball and immediately loved it! We played almost every day that last week and they're pretty good little batters already.
My dad and Steven have similar methods of entertaining babies -- screens. Steven set up a pretty good barricade on his bed for Adele.
This is how much Grandma Sara loves her grandkids -- she'll sit down and do a puzzle with them. Sara HATES puzzles.
We had a little campfire one night, and once again confirmed that Jude is going to be my fellow pyro. We just love to play with fire! And I like how Adele is guarding that Hersheys bar. I've taught her well!
She looks so fat, happy, and boyish here. I love it.
Julia won best-auntie award for the day when she took Josh bowling. Dream come true for him.
Matt went through my baby book and sent these pictures out to family. I guess my kids do kinda look like me!
Before Matt left to start his new job in Seattle, Josh made him play one last game of Settlers. Matt would stay in our unfurnished rental house until our stuff arrived from Michigan. The rest of us planned to join him then. But that awful story is for later.
Once Matt was gone, my mom started torturing Adele with extra large hats and things he would never allow on his daughter.
She was an almost-crawler at this point, just exploring everything she could reach.
I love how much attention these grandparents give little Adele. She is so loved.
Steven had to leave the next day to get back for school, but not before I got a picture with him and my cool new wildlife shirt. He's so talented at making his face disgusting.
He got that shirt for me for Christmas. Oh, and did I show you my gift to Julia? I'm pretty sure it wins.
Could anyone else's heart explode right now?! This brother-sister love is just too much!
We found a good park for the kids and went there two days in a row. Little baby-jeans love the swing.
Who needs chess pieces when you have bark?
Another day, we were extra nice and took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese. Adele was getting sick, but the boys had a lot of fun getting totally ripped off ticket-wise.
She's working on her George Costanza pose. It'll get better.
I love how they're all playing cards here, but only one of them actually knows what he's doing.
Another day, we tried to take them to the Turtle Bay Museum, but it was closed for maintenance. So we played on the Sundial Bridge instead.
I took the boys on some errands with me, and Jude was just giddy when he realized that this mannequin was his size. We had to get a picture.
I don't get many pictures of Adele when she's upset, so here you go -- just devastated that she can't eat the sidewalk chalk. Someone has a mean mom.
Finally, the last night, my dad came up with this fun game for the boys. Notice how they "take a knee" here and say "yes, coach" as they follow orders. I wish they'd do this for ME!
This was my loving goodbye from Julia. I've dominated her for sixteen years, and now she can finally pin me. I gotta get this mom body back into combat shape!
From there, we made our way to Seattle. That story coming soon!
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