Catch Up!!

Life has kept us busy and a re-occurring word in my life when talking about time seems to be "struggle." I continue to struggle to find time to do all the things I want to do, I need to do and should do. So I am going to play a little bit of catch up today. Amalia is napping, Ansel is playing downstairs with trains and Jeremy is watching football so all is quiet. Well, never mind that, Ansel just came up wanting to type on the computer. More later.
Alright, after playing with Ansel in the backyard (actually, we swept up leaves) we are both in the house and he is occupied while I try to blog. Amalia will probably wake up in ten minutes so we'll see how far I get.
SEPTEMBER:
I went back to work with my parents watching the kids. Amalia started solid foods.


We went on a two night camping trip with a few other families at Lake Kidd. Lake Kidd is north west of Lake Tahoe. Although we had two tents we ultimately ended up in one. The kids did well and enjoyed the lake, the walks and the other children.





OCTOBER:
Amalia started sitting up. She turned 6 months old and started to crawl by flopping along like a seal or caterpillar.
Aunt Diana and Uncle Barry came from England and met Amalia for the first time
We had fun Halloween adventures including a trip to a farm/pumpkin patch. (See October blog post for pictures).
We went to Geyserville for the weekend to stay at a friend's house. We had beautiful weather and enjoyed the pool and garden.

The kids started to stay home with a babysitter one day a week to give my parents a break and our first apple crop was ready. They were delicious.


NOVEMBER:
Ansel finished soccer class and we decided to take a break from it for a while.


Allison and I took the kids to the California train museum in Sacramento. We took an Amtrak train from Davis to Sacramento. The boys were in heaven.


Ansel and Amalia got even cuter.



Amalia found a new friend.


We finally got a family photo taken.


DECEMBER:
We started December off by lighting the Menorah. Then a couple of weeks later Ansel helped me decorate the Christmas tree.



Amalia loves dogs and had a visitor.


The kids got EVEN cuter and Ansel made his first gingerbread house.



The house was ready for Santa. Grandma Liz, Uncle Jared and Aunt Tess came to stay for Christmas. Unfortunately, Amalia was ill over Christmas with Roseola (which Ansel had at 1.5 years of age!)




Union Square with Grandma.









We ended the year with a trip to the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park, SF for the model train exhibit.



JANUARY:
We started off the year with a nice family hike last weekend to the top of the Sea View Trail in Tilden Park and Amalia has her first tooth popping through!


PHEW! 1.5 hours later, everyone is awake and dinner needs to be made but I did it!