The Teddy Bear Tea

Savannah & I had a very special weekend! We left Saturday morning to go to the Teddy Bear Tea at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco and spent the night. We have been hearing about the tea for years & I have been dying to take Savannah. It was adorable and so well done-- I think we will definitely make it an annual tradition. Next year we might even let Daddy & Dylan crash our party!

Here is Savannah on the ferry ride into the city

All dressed and ready for the tea party. I know I am a little bias-- but she looked adorable!

Savannah & her new friend-- Stafford the teddy (compliments of the Ritz Carlton)

Sipping her "tea". It was really hot cocoa with A LOT of marshmallows-- marshmallows with a little bit of hot cocoa is probably a more accurate description.

Savannah with Teddy & Binky the Elf

Listening to The Night Before Christmas

One last picture with Teddy-- my favorite!

After the tea party, we went back to the hotel to change and then explored San Francisco a bit. We stayed right down on the wharf so there was lots to do!  On the way home from dinner we walked by the wax museum and Savannah insisted we take a picture with MJ...

Her other request was that we watch a movie in our bed at the hotel & have breakfast in bed--- we did both :) Here she is all snuggled up and ready for bed... with her new favorite teddy of course!

Then in was time to go back home. Until next year...

Happy Holidays

Our Christmas pooch-- I couldn't resist. Yvette wasn't a fan...

We decorated the tree over the weekend-- I LOVE CHRISTMAS!

Thanksgiving in Nipomo

We spent Thanksgiving in Nipomo with the Pommy, Papa, Granpapa & Oody. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we enjoyed a wonderful holiday and all that we are thankful for!

Dylan reading a story with Granpapa. The kids never had a special name for Grandad until this last weekend when Dylan started calling him Granpapa!

Dylan & Pommy taking a nap

Yvette is even spoiled and Pommy & Papa's house!

Savannah & Granpapa

Dylan & Poppy looking at the Christmas tree

Yvette is HOME!

We got an very welcome surprise last week & were able to bring Yvette home early in time for Thanksgiving. Her puppies are all being shipped off to their puppy raisers for Canine Companions this week & she is home with us getting readjusted to life. We are so happy to have her home!

Yvette & CJ are quickly becoming friends!

Revenue

Rory

Raisin & Rhone

Savannah & Yvette on our way home!

Elf Yourself...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The Music Man

Dylan is getting so big & his vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. His preferred method of communication is singing... he sings all day long-- and dances too! We are constantly laughing at the things that come out of his mouth. Here are his renditions of two popular songs you might recognize...

"All the Single Ladies"

"Low" (Applebottom Jeans)

Halloween Fun!

Halloween was a week long celebration this year for us! It started the Sunday prior to Halloween with pumpkin carving. This is the first year that Savannah would actually put her hand inside her pumpkin to clean out the "guts"!

Dylan on the other hand had no problem sticking his hands right in & pulling out the goo. He also enjoyed throwing the pumpkin guts all over the back yard-- thankfully it was warm enough to carve pumpkins outside this year!

On Thursday Savannah had her Halloween party at preschool & got to dress up in her costume...

She was a pretty darn cute Dorothy if you ask me!

This is Savannah's preschool class

During their parade throughout the school, they also get to go trick-or-treating in the parish offices

On Friday night we had a Halloween party to go to. Dylan was anti-costume at this point, so we just put him in his Superman pajamas. Savannah was so upset that they no longer matched (he was supposed to be the cowardly lion) so she went and put on her Wonder Woman costume in her dress up box...

On the day of Halloween we had some friends over for pizza & then everyone went trick-or-treating together. Here are some pictures from the night...

Dylan ended up HAPPILY dressing up as James. His friend Matteo was Thomas at the Halloween party the night before & I had bought this costume as a back up just in case he wouldn't wear his lion costume (which he wouldn't). He would not wear this costume until he saw Matteo, at which point he demanded his James costume!

Another picture of our cute little Dorothy!

The only picture of my two kiddos together I managed to get all night!

Savannah & her buddy Holden

Dylan got the hang of trick-or-treating VERY quickly!

Dylan was on the lookout for zombies all night-- not kidding! He kept telling us "Zombies are coming" and he thought this ghost was a zombie

James & Thomas-- AKA Dylan & Matteo

Savannah & Joey heading out trick-or-treating

Puppy Update...

Poor Yvette has a had a rough go at it as a first time mother. She whelped 8 puppies on October 8, but unfortunately 4 of them died :( They think she actually whelped a few days early-- the puppies were really little and just not strong enough to survive. The 4 that are left are almost 3 weeks old and doing great-- so is Yvette! Their eyes just opened and they are starting to run around & play with each other a bit. They have all been named-- CCI assigns a letter to each litter and Yvette's litter was an "R" litter. So the names are Raisen, Rory, Revenue & Rhone. They really are adorable-- it is a good thing that we don't have the option to keep any of them!

Yvette & her pups (L to R: Rory, Revenue, Raisen & Rhone)

Little Raisen

Revenue

Rory

Rhone

Rory & Revenue playing

Fleet Week 2009

Savannah and Dad went to the City for Fleet Week 2009 to see the Blue Angels. We were all supposed to go, but unfortunately Dylan was up all night the night before with an ear infection. So... Mommy & Dylan stayed home and went to the doctor & slept, while Savannah & Daddy got to spend a special day together.

Fall is Here...

This weekend the weather really cooled down.... Fall is finally here! We took a trip to the pumpkin patch -- one of my very favorite Fall activities! We always get some great pictures & the kids have a blast running around. This year was no different...

Going for a wheelbarrow ride

Daddy & Dylan in the corn

I have no idea what is up with the face, but for some reason she thought it was really cool, because I have at least 3 pictures of with the exact look?!

Playing on the tractor

Playing hide-n-seek in the corn