Yellow Winter

Picture post....I just love the vivid YELLOW of this tree on our cul-de-sac in the winter:

Big Girl Booster!!

We are finally car-seat free!!

Kapri got upgraded to a backless booster seat today - and we all could not be happier! She's so tall for her age:  3 ft & 7.5 in. tall -- which is in the 90th percentile...

...so she definitely fits the height/weight requirements, so that was our main concern. At Target I found the Graco Affix Backless Youth Booster Seat with Latch System  - in the 'pierce' tan & black color (latching was a big PLUS for me!)...so I bought one for both James & my cars. According to their description: "It’s designed to help keep kids from 40 lbs. to 100 lbs., from 40 to 57 inches tall and from 4 to 10 years old safe while riding in a vehicle."

At first she was definitely confused...and said it was 'not cozy'...but after a bit she warmed up to it. It's so weird looking back & not seeing her so high up from being in a car-seat....she looks so 'little', but like such a BIG girl at the same time. She still needs a little help getting the buckle on herself, but over time I know she'll get it down. And she knows that she absolutely CAN NOT unbuckle herself until "mommy turns the car all the way off"!

Can't believe how quick my little girl is growing up - it really just blows me away at times.

K's First Bowling Night!

Picture post... at first she was very unsure of this bowling situation, but quickly caught on & loved every moment and kept wanting to take our turns!! Her bowls went veryyyy s-l-o-w-l-y, but eventually hit the pins. Somehow she was even able to help us a few times when we had 1 pin left during our individual turns - SO fun!

Merry Ho Ho HO!

Oh my....cannot believe another Christmas has come & gone...crazy how fast it sneaks up on us...seemed even quicker this year with Thanksgiving being so late in November!

Christmas Eve, Kapri & I made JUMBO cookies for Santa as usual...but this time, we also remember to leave out carrots for his reindeer as well, phew! I had to wear this adorable red sweater with a stripped bow on it, that was given to me by Chloe's mom, Rain...she said the color didn't look good on her & would suit me more - so voila, it's mine now and I love it!! Thanks girl!

Christmas morning was early...with an eager 4 year old, ready to see what Santa brought her. As she told him in the letter she mailed him, she was soooo excited when she opened up her very special musical ballerina jewelry box, and her big fluffy unicorn doll (from the Despicable Me movie)! Also popular this year, was all the My Little Pony goodies she scored...she's obsessed this year.

Later, we had my mom, sisters & Chels' BF Andrew over for our annual brunch... I make a pretty spectacular breakfast casserole that gets devoured every time. Chels brought a 'paleo' friendly cinnamon bread/cake that was delish! And KayLee made a HUGE fruit salad to balance it all off...yum yum!

Among some other things I gifted...I found this awesome body scrub trio at Trader Joe's in late November/early December, and luckily scooped up 6 of them as quick as I could (one for myself of course!) - and never saw them re-stocked again after that day (and I go every week!). Thank goodness I did because they were a huge hit with the ladies in my fam:

After brunch, mimosas, and a quick round of my new fav game, Cards Against Humanity, we went out front to the greenbelt & took some fun fam pics:

Later that night, we went to my Mother-In-Laws for dinner & more presents...and to visit with Kapri's cousins who were in town for the holidays - I love how much they adore each other!

Such a wonderful Christmas...so many memories that I'm grateful to have made with my family!

Bye Buddy!! {Recap of his 2013 sneaky ways}

Til next Christmas season Buddy...always great having you in the house during the month of December! Here's a recap of all his sneakiness for the last 24 days!

And now...I present to you my personal fav of the year:  Buddy's re-enactment of Miley Cyrus' & the Wrecking Ball...hahahahaha...it's just too much!

Annual Holiday Light Walk

Time for the annual walk to see holiday lights!! This time however, a bunch more friends & I decided to try a new place to view the lights, called "Fairway Village"...UNfortunately, the advertisement we all saw online, posted the wrong date for this big neighborhood block party....soooo, we missed that by a day and there really wasn't much to see at all sadly.

But the kids didn't seem to mind...with all the hot chocolate they had in their bellies:

After the quick walk around the first place...a few of us decided to extended the evening and go check out our normal place, Christmas Card Lane - we've gone here since Kapri was a little baby, 4 years ago. It really is awesome...the kids just LOVE all the character boards set up along people yards. And K is starting to remember certain ones too...god her memory is beyond me sometimes.

We got home about 2 hours PAST her bedtime....but in the end, it was all worth it to make her smile and carry on our special tradition!

Playdate: Nutcracker Ballet

Another first for us.... the Nutcracker Ballet - it's honestly amazing the amount of things I have never done or been to before....until having Kapri!  We went with K's best friend from school, Chloe & her mamma Rain....love these two! When we met up with them the girls exchanged gifts - and great minds obviously think alike because they each got each other different style bracelets!

We stopped for a quick bite to eat before going to the Carlsbad Cultural Arts Center - which we've actually been to once before to see Seussical the Musical (so fun!). We made it there just in time and the girls were in awe the entire performance. I can only imagine what they must've been thinking - it all must seem so magical in the eyes of a 4 year old girl...especially ones that have done ballet themselves and in a way, hold a ballerina high on a pedestal with their beauty & grace.

Towards the end of the show, the girls just could not sit still...so we got out of our seats and took them over to the stairs along the side of the auditorium. There they could watch & mimic the moves they saw on stage, without us worrying if they were blocking someone's view from behind us!

It was so adorable - just to see their eyes - focused intently on all those little dancers. Maybe next year we'll take them to see the Nutcracker again, but on a bigger, more elaborate stage... at the San Diego Civic Theater!

Preschool Holiday Party 2013

Ah sickness. 

It got the best of K again tonight....but luckily it didn't hit her too bad until shortly after her adorable school holiday performance - another 'last' at this school.

I remember her first there, when she was only 2.5 years old...little bitty compared to now!!

2011, 2012 & 2013

Since it was her last Holiday party at this school, we invited my mom, sisters and James' mom & her husband - sadly, because she felt really poorly right after performing, we didn't get any other group/fam pics with her other than these :-(

But we did get some good video of her singing & dancing SO well....beyond proud of her for coming out of her shell and overcoming her shyness little by little!