A Visit from the Connecticut Cousins...

Back in January, around Dave's 34th Birthday we got to visit with Robert, Holly, Carter and Grant who came to San Diego for a vacation with Holly's parents, Kathy and Paul. We felt bad interrupting their time together but it was really nice to be able to see Kathy and Paul and visit with them a little also...:-) And Dave's non-pushy-ness caused them to pick up our food bills more than once so we really appreciated their thoughtfulness...:-)

January was the month of CRAZY at our household as my morning sickness was at full swing and Dave's coaching was the busiest with 3 games every week thus out sourcing Madison sitting to two of our close families at the Studebaker Church of Christ until I can come get her, etc... So this was a nice half way break for us and we really enjoyed spending some time with them... We wanted to post this story right away but I was pretty sick the month of February and somehow it kept getting pushed back...:-( but just in time this post is out before our BIG Klein Family Reunion coming up at the beginning of April:-)

Anyhow, we drove down to Oceanside, California to visit them and enjoy their heated pool amenity at the resort... This was the very first time for Madison to really interact with her cousins since the last time they saw each other she was only 1 and a half! Crazy!
Wind was a little cold but it didn't seem to matter for the two youngest ones as they ran around in a really cold temperature after the sun had set...

 

To finish off the fun play time all the cousins dipped in the hot tub and defrosted...:-)

 

So that happened one weekend and a week later they were able to drive up and visit us so we showed them the taste of Long Beach, California...:-)

We introduced them to Creme Cafe for delicious breakfast then we showed them where we used to live and was able to give them a tour of the place since our friend John still lives there and was able to get us in... Before that though we walked along the beach and found a HUGE sand mountain thing so all three of them climbed up and the boys had fun jumping off of it!

I believe Carter and Madison were following the count correctly... Grant is just showing off!

 

And of course she fell at one point and was covered with sand right before we were heading to Coco Ichibanya, an authentic Japanese curry place in Torrance!

 On Sunday after worship we headed back home for a light lunch and after that we finally took them to Downtown Disney where the boys got to use our Christmas gifts and custom build a car... It's basically a boy version of build a bear:-) They were having a special that day and the deal was that you can pick any car, any tires, any sticker for $30 so we jumped at the deal and Madison picked a Mater Fire Truck that usually is $38 just for the car!! What a deal! I think Holly was trying to guide the boys into picking most expensive cars but their hearts were set on certain models and they came out great:-)

 

Madison really got into it with Daddy:-)

First we weren't sure how the boys will do with all the cute toys Madison has but no problem! Grant and Madison played with all kinds of toys while Carter joining them occasionally...:-)

Well we had a great time and Madison sure had so much fun with her cousins and aunt and uncle since she kept asking for her cousins after they left and is currently looking forward to the family reunion when 3 more cousins will join the party!

Birthday Parties!

Here are some videos and pictures from some recent birthday parties Madison attended of her Pre-School buddies...the first one was a party for her friend Tessa...rocker-girl themed...

 

They even had a Taylor Swift look-a-like come and teach the girls a dance routine...

 

The other party was for her friend Lucas...it was held at a little amusement park called Adventure City...

 

Lucas' Dad put together a great little video of the event

Christmas Time Revisited

Wow...that was a fast month of January...hard to believe in just ten months it will be Christmas Time all over again :-)...guess it is time to post some of our pics from this holiday season then...

The tree after Santa visited and video of Madison waking up to take it all in...

Madison definitely got the hang of Christmas this year enjoying opening her gifts in her Christmas PJs from Aunt Alyson...

 While it is definitely not the same as being there, it was nice to at least Skype with Gma and Gpa Klein as Madison opened the gifts from them...

 Throughout the Holiday Season Madison and Daddy enjoyed doing various projects including making sugar cookies...

 And creating homemade peppermint playdoh to give to all Madison's Bible buddies...

Then the fun part of playing with your new toys...even if you don't quite know what they are actually supposed to be used for :-)

Looking so grown-up with all her jewelry on...

Bonus pics from Madison's dance show...

Proof of the stage fright to begin with...

 But that didn't last long...

Especially when it was time to dance...

 There was one more thing Anna and I wanted to make sure and get for Madison this Holiday season and that was SNOW!! You may think that snow would be difficult to come by in Southern California, but that is not quite true...

In fact here is a picture of our grass New Year's Eve morning...

 But since that wasn't quite enough to make snow angels on we headed one hour east to Mt. Baldy, the closest place to Los Angeles to find snow...

When we got there we found out the only way to get to the top of the mountain was to pay to take a chair lift...so we decided to play for free in the little bit of snow at the base...Madison sure made the most out of it!!

 So that catches you up through Christmas for the most part...the month of January has been a blur with my basketball games and Anna being sick each night...but the good news is Anna had her first ultrasound and there is definitely something growing inside her belly...in mid-March we will find out exactly what that something is :-)

Madison's Holiday Show

The last Friday before Winter Break, Madison had her Holiday Show at school so both Anna and I took off work to attend...

Madison was dressed and ready for her Winter-Pokey in 70 degree weather :-)

 

Then she spent her Winter-Pokey wondering why she was dressed in all this warm clothes, as her classmates sang and danced around her...she is in the middle front, but mostly blocked by her buddy Aiden with the white shirt and snow hat on, not that it matters as she seemingly just spends the time playing with her mitten...

 

Then the guy who runs their music class each Friday played some songs with the group and Madison started to get into it...unfortunately music guy blocks our view of Madison when he stands up...

  

In this one, Madison is in the middle front...she is the one twirling her hair...

 

Madison also attends a dance class each Monday and those participants put on a show of their own...their first number was an interpretive dance to Lion King...when Madison starts to be blocked by the dancer next to her (always our luck) I try a kamikaze move to the right, but I think the sun glare gets pretty bad...

 

Then came Peanut Butter and Jelly...there was a bit of a technical difficulty, but I just left both versions on here because it was so darn cute...

The show ended with a potluck meal and it was nice to get to put a face with some of the kids Madison talks about at home. 

Now tomorrow is Christmas...Madison is very excited for Santa's visit...Anna just pulled some wicked huge carrots out of our garden which we have been growing for the reindeer and after Madison's nap we shall bake the cookies for Santa...Madison also has a grasp on the whole naughty vs nice thing as she told me Santa wouldn't bring me a gift if I kept biting my nails...we'll see Madison...we'll see :-)

Christmas Build-Up

 Christmas build-up of course officially began a week before Thanksgiving this year and continued until today, Christmas Eve...

The first (and actually hardest task) of the season was to find our real Christmas Tree...unbeknownst to us XMAS trees are expensive...especially if someone else has done the work of opening them for you, so although we didn't really want to we ended up getting our tree from our local Lowe's parking lot :-) It actually turned out to be a very nice tree!! Madison had a lot of fun helping Mommy and Daddy decorate it too.

And what's Xmas without some tropical fruit picking in your front yard...this Satsuma tree was a gift from Anna's Mom and Dad when they visited in August and these two guys were delicious!

Our lemon tree has also exploded and provided very scrumptious fresh lemonade throughout the Holiday Season...

Another activity was the decorating of a ginger bread house...Anna did the initial frosting...

 And then Madison took over...

 The finished product...

 Another trip we made was to a neighborhood in Torrance, CA about twenty minutes from our home that was known for each home having elaborate light displays...

Lastly, last weekend we were fortunate enough to be selected to have a seat to watch the Candlelight Processional at Disneyland where a group of 600 choir singers gather to accompany a celebrity reading of the story of XMAS...our reader was Patricia Heaton, the wife on Everybody Loves Raymond...Anna and I were surprised by how Biblical the retelling was...hope you enjoy this snipit!!

Soon to be posted..Madison's Holiday Show at her Montessori Greenhouse Pre-School!!

Merry Christmas Eve!!