Happy Birthday to Louise

Louise is 1

This is at Christmas. The girls in their aprons.

At Disneyland-

At 9 month Dr Apt.

Louise is such a funny baby, she is always making funny faces and is very expressive. She makes an angry monkey face at people she doesn't like, yup she has people she does not like. She also has people she really loves and snuggles with. She loves to hold on to our hands to walk. She will also scold you by yelling if she doesn't like something. Most of the time she is a very chill baby, always observing. She is still a thumb sucker, when she is tired. My favorite thing about Lulu are the big bear hugs she gives, along with not complaining about the Ruby hand me downs. She is such a good sport.

Happenings

Jessica in Town: Jessica, Taylor, and Alison flew in a week before Thanksgiving and it was so good to see Ruby and Lulu play with her Hill cousins. She and Taylor and Alison had a blast, playing in the bounce house, going on an adventure in the ditch behind my parents house, and hanging out in the hot tub. The last time they played Ruby and Taylor were too young to play well together. Taylor has turned into the sweetest little guy. He is a big boy, but so gentle and sweet. He loves to cuddles and please. It was so neat to get to know Alison's personality. She warmed up to me really quick. She always want to be included in what Ruby and Taylor were up to, she is quite the flirt to get what she wants, and is very strong willed when she wants something. Jessica and I got along better than ever before. (We fought a lot as kids and never fully recovered from those days... until now)
Thanksgiving with the Schultzes:Thursday November 26 (Harry and Harrison's Birthday) While Harrison and Heather were in Germany visiting Brian and Christy, we celebrated Harry's birth and Ate A LOT of food with great company. We kicked off the day with some flag football. I was prepared this year with line marker spray and flags. The bummer of the day was Matt breaking his finger. The MVP of the day was Charles Lamb (seemed to be on the ground diving for the pass constantly)My favorite part of the game was afterwards when the women played powderpuff. I plan to have an official powderpuff game next year. Then we went home and Ben made his famous mashed potatoes (so good). We watched some football and went to the Schultz House for the yummy food. We shared what we were thankful for and Nancy told the story of the first thanksgiving with the 3 pieces of corn. I think we went and saw movies, I can't remember that long ago.
Thanksgiving with the Hills: Cody and Berkeley flew in Thursday night so we ate our Hill thanksgiving meal on Friday. I planned another Flag-football game with the help of my good buddy from Mission Viejo, Scott Moody. It was fun, lots of Injuries though. The food was amazing. I made some really good yams, best recipe EVER. The only bummer about the feast was having to eat in separate areas. Cody, Berkeley, Mom, Dad, Mike, Aunt Nina and Uncle Lee inside, and my family and Jessica's family outside with the missionaries. Next year we will have a kid table and ONE table for all the adults. It was so fun having the whole family together, it's weird to think about how special and rare this is to what all your siblings together, when growing up you can't wait till they move out... or was this just me. Mike, Cody, Berkeley and me had a rip roaring game of Lord of the Rings RISK... don't Judge. It was fun.
Ruby turns 3: December 4 was Ruby's birthday to celebrate we made cupcakes, Ben made some mickey mouse pancakes, we went to Chuckee Cheese with Jessica, Taylor, Alison and Gee Gay (Gail) and Papa (Jim). We ate cardboard pizza and cupcakes. We then went home for naps. Ben came home from work early and then we headed off to Disneyland where Ben got caught with a pocket knife going into the park and had to return it to his car (oh brother) where he got followed by a secret service guy who told him they were watching him and he could take it back to his car or go home. He choose option A, considering my mom and I were waiting in the park for him. Ruby and Gee Gay got season passes. When Ben finally showed up we went to the Tikki Room and Ruby and Lulu were so into it.
Ruby's Birthday Party: Ben made and amazing Fish shaped cake (hidden talent of his- cake decorating. It poured really hard the day of the party and so we relocated to the Schultz House (Harry and Nancy's) We played "hide and go seek" (finding Nemo), "Don't eat Nemo" (Don't eat Pete), Decorate fish bowls, and Go Fish. All the kids got a gold fish to take home and keep in their decorated fish bowl. Her favorite present was from Uncle Mike, a little pink computer. Her favorite memory was setting Nemo free with Dad and Papa, They let a fish go down the gutter to the sewer drain. All the kids came back soaking wet. Max was really worried that the gold fish wouldn't find his way to the ocean or that he wouldn't have enough food to get there. I love that boy!!!
Jimbo turns 51: My Dad is getting old, but he is the healthiest he has ever been. He runs, swims, bikes, and does Pilates. Yup he is the only guy in the class. He is such a fun Papa to his grandkids. My dad has always been there for me when I was in a jam and I know he always will be. He also never missed an opportunity to teach me a life lesson, famous Jimbo Quote, "Work hard and Play hard" in reference to ditching school if my grades were good. He loves to wheel and deal, such as my first car (84 Mazda RX-7), our driving lawn mower, and now our amazing playground set. My dad is Mr Prepared. Me has been the Scout Master for the past decade (probably) He has an exit strategy for every scenario and has left traces of this influence on me, for instance when he gave us a 72 hour kit for Christmas, two very large backpacking backpacks full of survival food and items. I insisted on keeping them in our bedroom for easy access, until Ben reasoned with me to put it in the garage. Or when I am driving and at a stop light my dad taught me to always leave room in front of your car, in case someone tries to hijack your car and you need to get away, you will have room to do so. I get a little panicky if I stop to close to the bumper of the car in front of me. The preparedness list goes on. I love my dad and thank him for all his life lessons- Happy Belated Birthday.
Christmas: This year was a Schultz Christmas. My parents went to Idaho to visit my grandparents and Cody and Berkeley are expecting there first little mystery baby, and Jessica just made the long trip out for thanksgiving, so at least Mike had the decency to come home for the holidays. He stayed in our guest room (remodeled garage) and had a schultz Christmas with us. Christmas Eve went over to the Schultz House for a grand meal, with my mom's famous RED velvet cake, which she made special for Mike. After Dinner the kids got to open their presents from grammie and grandpa (pj's) and then we put the kids down, and the Schultz Heritage stories begin. This is something Ben started several years ago, where each person is supposed to right a memory from whenever that has to do with family. They can be funny, or sentimental, or informative, anything is allowed, it is always pretty amazing. After this we went home and put Lulu to bed and Ben and Ruby wrote a letter to Santa. Ruby wanted to Write this "Dear Santa, I want a snake toy and castle. Love, Ruby". Ruby went to bed and did some Christmas morning preparations, like take the crate paper off the windows. Ruby and Lulu checked out there stockings. Mike was filming the mornings happenings. Ruby found her rubber snake toy in her stocking and was so excited about it (don't ask me, I have no idea why she wanted it) that she wanted to show Michael who happened to be standing in front of the back door, filming her. She spotted it and with a lot of enthusiasm exclaimed, "that's my new house! Look Michael, at my new house." We went out to see it and after a cold night the long slide was iced over, Ruby went speeding down it and face planted at the bottom. It looked fun so I wanted to try and also ate it at the bottom. After all the presents were opened we went to the Schultz House for more Christmas presents the Siblings (and in-laws) do a gift exchange and the kids do a gift exchange. After this we took shifts to go to the movies while the spouses stay with the kids. It was so much fun and Mike stayed till Sunday morning, and that was fun having him. Plus he gave Ben the best present a Roku (a mix between apple TV and netflix... we LOVE it).
Louise is 11months: My little baby is growing up so fast. I remember with Ruby reading all the benchmarks that are supposed to happen and waiting impatiently for them to happen. This time around I keep getting surprised when she does new things, like gets her first teeth or says momma, or when she starts cruising. She is such a sweet girl. She loves Gus and is fearless, climbing all over him. She no longer wants me to feed her and prefers to feed herself. She already wants to be just like Ruby, wearing a Bib when she sees Ruby wearing one, and always crawling up on Ruby's bed to lay down. This baby makes the funniest faces, Nancy put it perfectly... she is like that Mayor on A Nightmare Before Christmas, changing from frowning to happy without missing a beat. She loves to clap along to the TV audience. Her favorite thing to do is whatever Ruby is doing. Ruby nicknamed her Lulu Bubs. So Louise has gone from Louise to Lulu and now to Bubs or Bubsy. She will be walking in no time.
New Years: One of the most memorable New Years Eve's I have ever had and probably will ever had. It started off by Ben putting the girls to bed with Nancy and heading off to the Lyons for some ping pong, Wii, Pizza, and good conversation. We watched a rebroadcasting of the ball dropping at midnight, got our smooch on and held back comments about Dick Clark, well some of us did. Then Ben and I made our way to Pasadena where the Rose Parade happens. We met up with Harry, who was catering for all the 700 volunteers for the parade. He took us on a tour of the floats on his golf cart and took us back to his toy hauler where Ben and I took a three hour nap from 3am-7am. We then woke up to find all the Horses and Sheriffs that will be in the parade right outside the toy hauler trailer. We hung out a little bit longer then headed home to get our girls from Nancy. That was so rad of her to watch them for us! We then went home and took turns taking naps.

I am excited to see what this year will bring in way of blessings and family happenings. I know that trials and tribulations lay ahead and know I can get through them. HAPPY NEW YEAR