It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

Here's a few of the latest happenings going on with the Smarts.

Santa came down our street a few weeks ago. Kylie was excited to see him but still didn't want to sit on his lap.

Baking cookies! Lady fingers and sugar cookies- yum! Ky's cute apron was a great after Christmas deal we found last year.

Watching the MB fireworks with friends- love this tradition!

Driving around the Seaside Christmas lights- so much fun to see and hear Kylie's reaction this year.

Playing with snowflake winter clings

Attempting to get a sister pic in front of the tree

Santa's little helper 

Walking through Journey to Bethlehem with the Holmes and Fasts. They announced at church this morning that over 13,000 people walked through it this year!!

 Here's a video of Kylie explaining to Evie about the angel Gabriel. Before I shot the video, I was impressed that she knew he said 'Do not be afraid.' I asked her who told her that and she said 'my teachers.' When I asked her who the angel Gabriel said that to, she again responded 'my teachers.' too cute!

 We've also gotten to celebrate with the Harts this month...Abby's second birthday!

And Krista's 30th with a fun party at her parents. I realized as we were driving to the party, it's very rare these days for Matt and I to have a date night but a night with our friends and no kids- even rarer!

As I write this post and think about the fun we've had this month, my heart is heavy for those in Newtown, Connecticut. As a mom and teacher, I can't imagine what it must have been like to be at that school. I'm so deeply saddened and pray for everyone who was affected by this horrible tragedy.

Thanksgiving in JT

We spent a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with Matt's family.  The feast was enjoyed in Banning at Matt's Uncle Rick's house with lots of extended family. I don't have any pics from that day but I do have some from the next 3 days spent in Joshua Tree with Matt's parents, John, his girlfriend Julia, and her son, Sebastian. Photo credits go to Matt's Dad.

We enjoyed hiking/ rock climbing in the National Park on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, hot tubbing, park trips, yummy vegetarian food (chef Julia is a veg) and just overall relaxing. 

The gangs all here.

The weather was extremely warm and Kylie got petered out pretty quickly which is no easy task for our little runner.

Kylie had an absolute blast playing with Sebastian.

Matt and Ky climbing the rocks...

while Evie and I stayed down below to watch

Grandma stayed with us too

Fam shot

We also enjoyed 2 visits to a nearby park.

Wheeee!

Thanks for the wonderful time everyone!!

Big Sur 1/2

Matt convinced me last Spring to run the Big Sur 1/2 marathon this year. We ran it in 2008, the year before Kylie was born and had such great memories of the race- fun weekend with friends, beautiful course, fast times (for us), great post race food. Note: The race title is deceiving as it's not in Big Sur but really in Monterey- down Cannary Row and along the coast. It was difficult to train with 2 kiddos, and this was definitely the least trained I've been for a 1/2. My parents love to stay at their friend's rental house in Pacific Grove this time of year so we took advantage of that and took over their adorable house (awesome location- 1 block from the water), had my dad shuttle us to the race, and my mom watch the girls during the race. Huge thank you to them!! (My dad was actually a bandit runner and joined us for part of the race). Unfortunately, I don't have any pics from the race. The forecast said it was supposed to rain but instead we had gorgeous, sunny weather...perfect for running. My lack of training took it's toll though...the last few miles were pretty painful but we finished and I definitely don't have any desire to run a full marathon. I was thankful that Matt stayed with me the entire race and we finished together.

Here's Grandpa and Kylie making us a cheering poster at the Race Expo while we picked up our bib numbers

A few hours after the race, we walked (slowly) to the Monterey Bay Aquarium- the rental comes with 2 free passes. I was preoccupied getting my phone ready for a pic that I didn't notice Kylie actually lifted the starfish out of the water...woops! At least it made for a good pic

This penguin and Evie had a staring contest for a solid 2 minutes

Best Family Pic Attempt

That night we enjoyed a delicious dinner at The FishWife in Pacific Grove- highly recommend it!

And Matt and I went out for a drink after the girls were down at a fun place in Monterey

Grandpa pointing out the seals to Kylie, it's kind of hard to see, but there are probably about 200 of them...they are so funny to watch, I love how they flop/ move

Matt gets the week of Thanksgiving off from work so Monday morning he surfed with his college buddy Heath and then we left Pacific Grove and drove down the 1 to stay the night in Avila Beach. Matt was jealous of my stay there a few months ago with college friends so he wanted to stay the night at the same great hotel, Avila Lighthouse Suites. Nice hotel, great for kids...we walked to dinner at The Custom House (where I hosted and bussed tables in college),  got the girls down and took turns enjoying the hot tub.

A morning scoot and stroll along the water

And this little one perfected her pulling up and standing skills while on vacay. Lookout world, here comes Miss Evie!

Now time for laundry and repacking...getting excited for Thanksgiving in Joshua Tree!

Evie turns 1

Kylie got her own birthday post so I figured Evie should too. My baby is officially 1 now, hard to believe. This year has gone by very quickly in many ways and yet it also felt like a long year with 2 little ones. We had Evie's 1 year check up on Monday and she's doing great. When the dr said "Let's see how much you've grown"- she opened both arms up wide as if to say "So big"- it was so cute. She weighs 17 lbs 10 oz which puts her at the 25% for weight. She is btwn 25-50% for height and 75% for head size- lots of brains in there! She has 7 teeth with 1 more almost here. She's crawling super fast but I think is still several months away from walking as I've only seen her pull to a stand twice and no cruising yet. She is a great eater, although is also a super fast eater and chokes easily so I'm still cutting her food up small. She's mastered the sippy cup but likes to throw it from her chair. She has two words- mama and hi and can almost wave hello and goodbye- she puts her arm out but doesn't really wave yet. She loves to clap and dance to music. She's finally sleeping better at night and not waking up as early. She is a smiley, happy little girl who loves attention and let's you know with a loud scream if she's not getting what she wants. Here's some pics from her birthday. 

 Pumpkin pancakes with syrup for breakfast, Evie's saying "I can't hear you singing...louder please"

"For Me? Hooray!"

Opening a present later in the day- the balloon was definitely more of a hit with her

Eating at El Indio for dinner

And Menchies frozen yogurt for dessert. "Can I please have some more Dad?"

"Enough pictures already, I'm waiting...."

Happy birthday sweetie!

Bon Anniversarie Kylie and Evie

Since Kylie and Evie's birthdays are only 2 weeks apart we decided to have a joint party for them the weekend in between. We enjoyed an afternoon in Paris right in our own backyard. The weather was perfect and we all had a blast.

Bonjour

The bounce house is ready (and just barely fit!) I didn't take tree heights into consideration when I measured for it:) 

And the Boulangerie is open- we ate croissant sandwiches (we baked the Trader Joe's croissants that morning- so yummy), quiche, cheese and crackers, fruit, and pastries. Thank you to my mom for making my awning vision a reality :)

Merci Beaucoup for the many presents. The girls are loving them!!

The bounce house was a total hit. So glad I got the one with the slide too. So fun for climbing up...

And going down!

And jumping inside, watch out Jadon! (Side note: Ky LOVED this bounce house. She didn't nap the day of her party and literally stayed inside the jumper until they picked it up at 4)

Evie with Grandpa B and Grandma Meg

Evie had some friends there too. Here she is with Ella (13 months) and Ellie (6 months) and mommy's Courtney and Emily. E names must be popular right now!

We attempted to play Pin the Heart on the Eiffel Tower...it was a bit of a flop (Ky cried and wouldn't play because she didn't want the blindfold on)

But a few of the other kids tried. I asked Carter to go first since he was the oldest at 6 and told me he was really good at that game. Turns out he was right because he ended up winning :)

Kylie enjoying a sweet moment with her Daddy

Sebastian's turn

My mom gave a mini (2 minute) French lesson. Here she is telling the kids to plug their nose to help with the French accent.

Next we had cupcakes. Kylie doesn't love being in front of a crowd so after we sang to her she burst into tears. This caused Evie to start crying too so here they were after we sang.

Luckily they cheered up after they tasted their cupcakes

Especially this one (her first real sugar experience)

Why have you been holding out on me mom?!

Jadon, have you tried these yet?? Here, I'll give you some on your face. (He was such a good sport while Evie clobbered his face with her sticky fingers)

Cute cupcakes for everyone

We opened some presents outside but Kylie kept going back in to the jumper so we had to finish the rest later. Friends and family were so generous and the girls got so many wonderful gifts!

Here's Kylie trying out her fun new pony bike from Grandpa Jim and Grandma Meg

And the girls being pulled in their new wagon from Grandma and Grandpa B (given to them the day before)

Thanks to everyone who made it to the party. And thank you to Rachel and Alison for all the awesome pictures! 

Au revoir