Breakfast With Santa

This year~ Lots of love for Santa

The community we live in had a breakfast with Santa. It was a yummy breakfast and to my HUGE surprise....Ella LOVED Santa! In fact, she ran to him and gave him a big hug! This is from the girl who screamed bloody murder last year after one quick glance at the jolly fellow. This year, she just jumped up on his lap and chatted away. Too cute. All day Ella has been repeating Santa's tag line of "Ho, Ho, Ho!"

Last year~ NO love for Santa

Home For The Holidays

I'm happy to say...That I'm ready for Christmas! (for the most part) Ella got a new winter coat for all that snow in Utah! Brrrr! And today it was raining cats and dogs, so she got to test out her new rain boots, that will be great for playing in the fluffy white stuff. I wonder if Ella is going to like the snow or want to come running back to sunny Cali. It's been cold here the last couple of days (Like low 50's kind of cold) I think we are going to freeze in Utah! We really have adjusted to a warmer climate. Our Christmas shopping is done and I'm almost done wrapping everything. All that is left is to do is: laundry, clean the house, and pack our bags. Oh, and Dan has one more pesky final to take. Hallelujah, after today, he finally will get a nice break. Utah ready or not, here we come, just in time for the holidays!! Yippee!

Arrrrrgh!! Maties!!

My lil' pirate is in love with Christmas as well, so I was really excited to take her to the Parade of Lights! It's a fun tradition here in San Diego, where they decorate a bunch of boats with tons of Christmas lights, Santa's, Reindeer etc. and they have a parade down by the harbor on the water. How cool is that!? Only in San Diego!

Well, I was a dummy and forgot my camera that night. So these pictures are courtesy of Angela, who was nice enough to send me a few. Thanks!

Christmas Card Lane

This neighborhood was the best! They call it Christmas card Lane, and for good reason! My friend Angela, told me how decked out they get. Each house has a different theme. Such a great idea. They had hot coco stations, bonfires, lots of people checking out the houses and one house even had the jolly ol' man himself!! Ella wasn't even scared of Santa, she said "Hi Santa, Hi Snowman" (we will see how much she likes him, when she sits on his lap) To get her to smile in these pictures, I kept asking her to say "Merry Christmas" it was sooo cute, she would say it every time. My friend Tshidi and her kids came along with us and I think they might have spiked the hot coca cuz we were giggling the whole time. I just love the holidays!

Ella is so into all the Christmas lights. (hence the last couple of posts) In our neighborhood, there is a little gazebo that she is in love with and calls it "candy house" We often take little walks up to see it.

look at the excitement in her face!!

A Little Magic

Well I'm sad to say that my Disneyland passes are about to expire! (boo-hoo) I did add that to my Christmas wish list, so we'll see. (hint, hint, Santa) Dan is in the thick of finals right now and studying really hard, so we thought it would be a great idea to get out of his hair and head down to one of our favorite places of all, good ol' Disneyland. (Plus this is our last month of our pass)This magical place is amazing around the holidays, so much fun. I usually go with a group of people but it was just the bean and I. We did everything Ella wanted to do and she was beaming the entire day. Ella is SUPER into Peter Pan and pirates right now. (Where did my girly, girl go?) She wanted to go on pirates and peter pan like 5 times. I still can't get the song outta my head.

We saw Playhouse Disney live on stage and she was ecstatic to see all her morning cartoons come to life.

Learning how to dance from the princesses themselves. Ella was front and center taking it all in.

Santa!! At the end of the Christmas Parade

The whole park lit up at night with thousands of Christmas lights. It was Magical to say the least. After the fireworks it snowed over the entire main street. I got a little emotional seeing Ella light up trying to catch the snowflakes on her nose and eyelashes. I can honestly say, I never get sick of the magic of this place. And I love seeing it through Ella's eyes.

Weesa Visit

Dan's sister, Louisa, was in town This weekend. She is just the cutest lil' sister-in-law a gal could ask for. Such a sweetheart! We had the best time catching up. Along with Dan's brothers, Aaron and Mathew, who live up in Oceanside. We hit the beach, ate lots of yummy food, checked out the Christmas lights and shopped at Seaport village. I just wish she could have stayed a few more days. Love ya Weesa! Come play again soon!

Starting the Holiday Season

We have trimmed the tree and snuggled under it a time or two.

Our lights our hung by the children with care. (Well, almost she "tried" to help)

The halls have been decked throughout our lil' condo. Ella had more fun taking them out of the boxes then actually decorating.

Since the day after Thanksgiving, the Jones household is ready for this Christmas Season. Yippee! The very best part about it all, is that our lil' bean is SUPER excited about Christmas!! I thought she had no idea what it was. I was so wrong, she loves everything Christmas. While we were at Costco before Thanksgiving she saw all the Christmas decorations and trees etc. and said "OOOoohh Tismas" and "Tismas tree" I was shocked. She requests Christmas songs before bedtime and LOVES all the lights around the neighborhood. Needless to say...Her holiday cheer spread to Dan and I. So we wanted to set everything up early to enjoy it right along with our lil' holly berry. So with good cheer we say, bring on the Christmas festivities!

Ella has many faces she pulls on cue if you asked her. I was lucky to catch them as we were putting up the Christmas tree. She has a very sparkley personality, that's for sure!

Railroad Museum

You gotta love free Museum Tuesdays at Balboa Park!! We tried the Railroad Museum and Loved it!! I had no idea it would be so cute. It was like a little underground village with tons of different cities and trains going everywhere! So much detail in each exhibit, it was adorable! I went with some of my friends and their kids and had a ball. I really think the moms liked it as much as the kids did. We will be heading back there soon.

"Ella's House" Part 2

Ella has been such a big fan of forts lately and asks Daddy to make her a "house" all the time. Being the clever guy Dan is, he decided to grab one of our moving boxes, cut in a door and a few windows and Voil-la!! You have your very own "Ella House" She was more then thrilled to have a house with a real door she could walk through. Who needs expensive playhouse's when all you need is a cardboard box and a nice daddy to help ya out!

This is after insisting that Daddy needed to go into her house. I think he looks kind of cozy in there. :)

Duck, Duck, Goose

Gobble-Gobble Till You Wobble-Wobble!

Happy Thanksgiving!! We have so much to be thankful for! We are very thankful for wonderful friends and family, like all of you! We had such a YUMMY Thanksgiving with our amazing friends Conner and Bri. They were nice enough to let us join in their splendid meal, along with Conner's Grandma and Aunt. We ate WAY to much, played games until we laughed so hard we cried. We thoroughly enjoyed each others company!! Ella has taken quite a liking to Conner and the two of them had a grand ol' time, along with everyone else. Happy Turkey day. Gobble, gobble! :)

Family Photo Shoot

Our great friends, Corey and Kim Nasfell, took our family pictures last week. They do the most amazing job!! If you are looking for a photographer, these are your guys!! Not only do they take great pictures, but they spend hours shooting with you and do a wonderful job editing them. They have a photoblog going up that I will tag to the right of my blog for more info. Thanks Corey and Kim they look fabulous!

For Ella's 2 year photo's we used the bubble machine on the beach and Ella couldn't have been more excited chasing all the bubbles around. I think it made for a happy photo shoot!! She was a ham and had such a ball getting her pictures taken.

Corey photoshoped this one and amped it up. I think its really fun and artsy. Crazy all the cool things you can do with photoshop.

My Baby's 2???

Wow 2 years have just flown by!! My lil' baby is no longer a baby! She turned 2 on Sunday the 16th. Happy Birthday Ella- Bean! We love you so much!

The last night we tucked in our one year old.

We woke Ella up to balloons and presents from Dan and I. She was super excited and was more then happy to start the terrible two's off with a bang!!

"Fairy" Cute!!

The Fairy Cute Party

We had a Fairy Party for Ella's 2nd Birthday, on Saturday with all her little fairy friends. When they first arrived, I turned each lil one into a fairy for the day. With a sprinkle of fairy dust, tutu, wings, wand and princess crown. It was so cute seeing all the lil' ones in their fairy attire. Once they all became fairies, it was time to "fly" I used a bubble machine and off they all went "flying" through the bubbles. After a little break and eating some yummy pizza, the fairy's were off to search for tiny, hidden fairy's in the "wooded forest." On the fairy hunt, they also found candy necklaces, rings and bracelets as well. I made each little fairy doll (I was feeling crafty:) and I think they turned out pretty cute.

tiny fairy dolls, for the hidden fairy hunt

After they found their treasures, we had cupcakes. Ella was in sugary heaven!! (unlike last year when she wouldn't touch the thing) She ate her whole cupcake! And looked darn cute eating it too!

The fairy cupcake cake.

mmmmmm!!

We ended our fun Pixie Party with tons o' presents. (lucky lil' 2 year old!) After opening her 1st present, it was all over. She was too distracted by her my little pony from Tanner, that she could only focus on playing with her new favorite toy. I think I ended up opening the rest of her presents, while she played with her my little pony.

It was a great time, fun was had by all. Happy Birthday Ella, your the cutest birthday fairy ever! We just adore you!