The Holidays

We were able to spend Christmas this year with my family in Michigan. We went from sunny California weather to the bitter cold. The night we arrived in Michigan, it snowed 10 inches and another 5 or 6 inches in the days to come. I don't think we left my parents house at all the next day. It also didn't help that our airline lost both of our bags for the first 2 days of our trip.  Little Paul loved the snow but being a California boy, he never wanted to wear his coat, hat, mittens or boots. We could not keep him out of the snow but as soon as we got him outside he started stripping his clothes. I don't think he liked the restriction of movement that came with warm clothes. Being the only grandchild on the Park side of the family, Paul was spoiled rotten with attention as well as gifts. This Christmas was all about him and I think he immensely enjoyed every minute of it. We weren't able to spend a ton of time outdoors due to the cold weather but we still managed to find some fun things to do with Little Paul. We were able to visit the Detroit Zoo, the Henry Ford Museum and story time at the local library. The rest of the time was spent visiting with family and friends. We had a really fun 10 days in Michigan but it was really hard to say goodbye when our time was up. 

Here is Paul getting ready to face the cold weather. 

Paul and his dad in the butterfly room at the zoo. 

Paul and mom with the polar bears at the zoo.

Happy Paul on Christmas morning. 

New front loader. 

New vacuum. 

New jack hammer. Looks like he is getting ready to do some damage with that thing.

Paul loved the new trains he got from Grandma and Grandpa.

Karaoke on Christmas Day (a Park Family Tradition). 

Dad showing off his mad singing skills.

Playing with the toys at the library.

Dad playing with the puppets. 

The holiday trains at the Ford Museum.

Paul with mom at the Ford Museum.

Paul with dad at the Ford Museum.

Family photo in front of Paul's favorite train.

Paul with his Grandma and Grandpa.

When we got back to California it was in the 80's and Little Paul went right back to playing outside all day long. Paul had 3 weeks off of work so we were able to continue our vacation at home. We received annual passes to Disneyland for Christmas so we renewed our passes on New Year's Day. It was a lot of fun to spend the day there. We also did some hiking as well as visiting all the nearby parks. It was really sad when dad had to go back to work. It was especially hard on Little Paul who was starting to get use to having his dad around all the time. We miss him but still enjoy the time we get to spend with him on the weekends. 

Paul with dad on the carousel. 

Paul on It's a Small World (it finally opened again).

Paul with mom on the train.

Playing in a field of rocks while hiking.

Paul's "special" face.

Here is a video of my brother and Paul singing Karaoke on Christmas Day. Hopefully, most of you will be able to see this video before either one of them finds out I posted it and makes me take it off.  I think it's funny but they might think differently about it.

Thanksgiving

We got to spend a week in St. George with the Proctor Family for the Thanksgiving holiday. We kicked off the week with a day trip to the Sand Dunes in Snow Canyon. Little Paul absolutely loved it and it was painful trying to get him to leave. We took turns running down the Sand Dunes with Little Paul. He would have done it all day if we let him. 

Paul had such a great time with all of his cousins. He was so busy having fun that he only took two naps the entire week and to make up for the lack of sleep, he has been taking extra long naps every day this week. 

To give all the ladies a break, the guys took all the kids to a nearby park and after to a pond where they got to feed ducks and swans. 

Thanksgiving Day was very busy trying to prepare all of the food. I am still hurting from all of the food we ate that day.

The Proctor's have a family tradition of making gingerbread houses for Thanksgiving. This year was no exception. Here are some pictures of the decorating. 

Before everyone left, we had a mini Christmas celebration since we will not be together for Christmas this year. 

Family photos:

Thank you Proctors for a wonderful week! Miss you all already!

Happy Halloween

This year we all dressed up as Chelsea Soccer Players (Paul's favorite team) for Halloween. It was fun to all be part of the same team. We got to dress up on three different occasions: a trunk-or-treat, Amy's Playground and trick-or-treating on Halloween night. We had a lot of fun and Paul really enjoyed getting candy dropped in his pumpkin basket from so many different strangers. He quickly figured out that the easiest wrapper to chew through was the Crunch bar. When we got home from both nights of treating, we found chunks missing from various Crunch bars. Most of the other candy also had bite marks in them or were wet from his saliva. Mom and dad are enjoying the rest of his uneaten candy :)

Paul with his pumpkin basket getting ready for a night of trick-or-treating.

Paul trunk-or-treating with Minnie Mouse.

Paul sitting with his little friends. (Soccer Player, Minnie Mouse, Little Red Riding Hood, Mickey Mouse)


With Mom at Amy's Playground.

Melania trying to tickle Paul at Amy's Playground.

Paul with his dad.

Paul with his mom.

Paul with his uncle and friend (The White Team).

Paul taking a break from trick-or-treating.

Paul with his mom.

Trick-Or-Treat!

Tired after a long night of trick-or-treating.

Potty Trouble

The day started off great.....



And then this happened.


We had a friend come over with her little potty seat. Paul got a hold of the seat and was putting it on his head like it was a hat. I still don't know how he did it but he managed to get his head through the potty and it got stuck. I could not get it off his head and had to call in for reinforcement. My husband came home to help me and we pretty much had to tear the thing apart in order to get it off his head. Below is the the end result of the potty. 

Pretty Boy

We have always thought Paul was a "pretty boy".  Every once in a while he still gets mistaken for a girl, even though he is dressed like a boy. Here he is with a clip in his hair. Maybe if we had had a girl she would have looked like this. 

We are happy we have a boy!

Month 18

Paul and Chong both had Columbus Day off (one of the perks of working at a bank) so we took a trip to Disneyland.  It was really fun and decorated really cute for Halloween. 

Waiting in line for the Rockets. 

Sugar coma from his Jamba Juice.

Happy Halloween at Disneyland.

Waiting in line for Toy Story.

Waiting in line for the new Toy Story Ride in Adventure. It is worth the wait if you haven't tried it yet. 

We also went to our second to last Galaxy Game of the season this past weekend. Little Paul got to come with us to this game because it was a little earlier. It was really fun to have him there with us since he is usually at home sleeping. 

Posing with Beckham. 

Little Paul is now 18-months-old and is starting to say more words. We are excited for him to start talking in sentences. I think he will have some interesting things to say. Here is the list of Paul's current words:

Mom/mommy

Dad

I do

Please

Thank you

Baby

Eye/I

Ball 

Duck 

No

Don't 

Pee

More

Wa for Water

Boat

Rock

Bubble

Apple

Hi

Bye

Night Night

Cheese

Bath

That 

Wow

Hot 

Mine

Two

Three

Uh Oh

Here is also a short video of some of Paul's words. He has such a cute little voice.