I have not been very good at blogging lately. I used to blog during naptime, but now that naptimes are getting shorter that leaves less time for blogging. So December is just going to get one big post. One fun thing we did in December was go to Temple Square to see the lights. We didn't make it last year and Tucker loves Christmas lights. It was really crowded since it was a Friday night, but we still had a lot of fun. Halle eventually fell asleep all bundled up in her stroller.
Sheldon's family always has big Christmas parties. We were too sick to make it to Mills family party but we made to the Stevens (Sheldon's Mom's family) party. There was lots of good food and Tucker founds lots of new friends to run around with. Tucker also played the longest white elephant gift exchange ever! He was a good sport and was happy with the yo-yo he ended up with.
And of course we had an excellent time in California for Christmas. We were down there for a week and a half and loved every minute of the beautiful, sunny warm weather. California always has great weather, but it was unusually warm for this time of year. On the way down to California we drove it all in one day for the first time and it went surprisingly well. We left in the afternoon and only had to stop two times and then the kids slept for the last couple of hours and we got there before midnight. We spent a lot of time with extended family, played outside, played games, and in general just enjoyed relaxing with good people and good food.
I didn't get too many good pictures opening presents, my brother took some good ones that I will post later. I was too busy trying to keep Tucker from opening up every present in less than 10 minutes and making sure that Halle didn't eat all the wrapping paper. It was fun opening presents with Tucker, because he would get so excited for every single present. He would always gasp and say, "What is it?" Apologies to my family since Tucker opened up everybody's presents.
We took a few Olsen family pictures while in California. I will post the awesome pictures my brother took later, but here are a few of my behind-the-scenes pics.
What cute baby legs!
We made it to the beach and the weather was absolutely perfect. I have been to the beach in June/July where the weather was not as good as this. Sheldon and I always get a little too excited when we get to the beach and head straight down to the waves, but we always forget that the ocean can be a little intimidating for little kids. So Tucker and Halle both started crying when we got to the water and we had to backtrack all the way back to the cement. They both had fun playing in the sand, but Tucker sadly never wanted to get in the water and Halle would just cry if we took her too close to the waves. Someday we will live closer to the beach and my kids will love to play in the water.
