Happy NYE!!!

We've had a wonderful New Year's Eve day today.  Tia Erica came and spent the entire day with us, and at this point, the girls are getting quite attached!  Josh, Jake, Erica and I went to Hiller Aviation Museum to count down to noon, and watch the balloons drop.  Jake is still quite confused about the concept of years, so he basically just thought it was a random party.   We had a wonderful afternoon doing arts and crafts with all of the kids and Tia, and then had our most successful restaurant experience out with the kids yet, to end 2013!!  
It's been quite a year...more to come on our favorite memories.

Tia Erica is Home!!

Tia Erica flew all of the way home from Morocco for a short 6 day visit, so we've tried to see her as much as possible.   The kids are having a blast with her around, and of course, it's always wonderful to have the peace of mind that she is home safe.  

 

Christmas at the Fredrikson's

As my sister Erica came home from Morocco two days after Christmas this year, we had to delay our Christmas gift exchange with my family until the 27th.   Of course, it was quite fun watching the gift unwrapping madness occur for a third time, and the kids had quite the hang of unwrapping.   Poor Jake now keeps asking when Christmas will come again already, as he had so many days in a row of gifts!   Many thanks to my Mom and Dad for the terrific meal and for the terrific presents.

 

 

 

 

 

Family day off in SF

It was nice to take a break from the Christmas festivities and head up to San Francisco for a family day together this week.  It brought back many wonderful memories for Josh and I, as we certainly miss living there.  We headed to the Discovery Museum and then to Crissy Field.   Great day!

 

 

Christmas Eve

My Dad caught some great pictures on Christmas Eve that I have to post- fun times at my folks house:

  

 

Christmas Dinner

Our family was nice enough to come to our house again this year for Christmas day.  At this age, we find that dinner time in general, is quite a stressful time in the day for the kids, so we were really happy and thankful that everyone was up for coming here for dinner.  Jake, Colbie and Addy were all in great moods and very excited to have everyone here.  They were spoiled with gifts yet again too- what a generous family we have!  We all squeezed around our table, and the kids sat quietly at their little table, and we all could enjoy a really relaxing, fun Christmas dinner! We followed dinner with a walk up to the crazy Christmas light street to see it one last time and to get some fresh air after eating too much.   It was a great day and we feel incredibly fortunate to have such a wonderful family (who all get along too!).   We did miss Tia Erica terribly though, but she is on an airplane home at this very moment and we can't WAIT to see her!!!  (thanks to my Dad for capturing all of these great pics!)

  Lee Lee gave Jake, Colbie and Addy their very own Anywhere Chairs, which they loved: