Kicks and punches

Ali started Karate last week. She is so girly when she does her karate that I try not to laugh the whole time. Plus you can see she is doing exactly what the teacher is telling her.

Look at those pointed toes! Maybe Ballet would have been a better choice. Nick wanted her in Karate to help counter all the girlish activities. Do you think it is helping?

Mid- January, Upper 70s

I love Boston. We lived there for only 4 years, but for some reason I just love it. I miss it like crazy for most of the year. This week was an exception. Even the best and most outlandish weather in the forecast would have been temps in the 40s. This week it hit the 80s. Multiple days. This is Kat at a nearby park on Friday, Jan 21st.

I know some of you are thinking, "Come on, no more plants, I don't care about your plants!" But too bad. This is my blog too and the girls cannot monopolize it. Since it has been so warm, a couple of dormant seeds popped up and in my empty pot of soil I now have a tomato plant, I think it helped that I have not watered or touched it. :)

This is the plant I am most proud of! My tree is HUGE!!! In reality it is only huge in the fact that it is growing. For those who follow my blog, I started this a while ago. For how long it has taken to germinate, it is growing fast. In just this one week of warmth, it got 3 new leaves.
Okay, okay, now for the part of my blog that people really care about. WE WENT TO DISNEYLAND!!!!!
The Pulham's got us season tickets for Christmas this year, and yesterday was the perfect day to start our season.

Ali wore her Tinkerbell outfit, and flew through the park most of the time.

Our traditional first ride, the jungle tour was lots of fun. Kat was worried about the fake animals eating us, and Ali was trying to reassure herself and Kat that they were in fact, fake.

Lots of time was spent in the princess area, where there was a live interactive princess show. The girls got to dance with Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Cinderella. But do we get pictures of that? No, we get a picture of Kat running from a Mickey Mouse piano... go figure. She still looks great in her mermaid outfit that she insisted on wearing once she saw Ali in Tinkerbell's.

Right on time

Christmas was great this year, (or last year actually). It started out about a week early when Ali got a present from our good friend Jim. Ali wouldn't put these stuffed animals down for most of Christmas break.

They sat next to her while she opened each present. (The squirrel at her feet is one of about 5 that are on her lap)

Christmas Eve the whole fam headed out to Olvera Street in Downtown LA, for Las Posadas.

Abuelita got the girls and Dez some adorable outfits. I am glad these little ones love each other so much!

Christmas morning the whole gang headed over to our house for some presents. There were so many it made our tree look tiny!

Kat really cleaned up this year, her pile of presents was HUGE! And this year she was old enough to really enjoy the whole thing.

And Ali of course, loved this whole time of year. When she opened this particular gift she said, "This is EXACTLY what I wanted for Christmas!" It was pretty funny. Now she is always "Tangled" even though we constantly tell her that the name is actually Rapunzel, to which she responds, "Yeah I already know that." All in all, I would say that this is the best Christmas we've had, but I think that it is because the girls are getting older and can really enjoy it. We put out cookies this year and Ali was excited in the morning when they were gone. She loved decorating the tree and putting up lights. If this year was the best because of how much the girls loved it I can look forward to next year when both girls will be older and even more into the season. I can hardly wait for next year!

New camera

Nick's Birthday this year was awesome because his whole family was able to get together. His parents got him a great camera as a present, which I was not allowed to touch for a week. This was the day after his birthday when we got together and the battery was charged. Nick had fun messing with the camera, and the girls had fun posing.
Ali even stopped reading her book for a picture.
Kat was less sure about posing at first.

But later she showed some of her winking skills.

Abuelito had a huge fan base!

Then we all headed out to a nearby fountain where the girls and Dez had a great time splashing and jumping in the water.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Six reasons it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas:

#1. We had to wait all night in order to see a Santa on a sleigh
#2 Ali told Santa all the presents that she wanted (girl guitar and Tangled dress) and Kat of course, screamed.

#3 Ali helped decorate the tree.

#4 Kat undecorated the tree!

#5 Nick got our yulelog burning.

And last, but not least, we got this wonderful and anonymous (Thanks Jim!!!) gingerbread house in the mail. Since Ali stole Jim's heart 3 years ago we have mysteriously gotten a gingerbread house every year for Christmas, and clearly the girls are over the moon.

Grand Canyon

Nick's 2 week vacation started on Friday, so we took off to the Grand Canyon. Neither Nick nor I had been there since we were much younger, and I think as an adult it is much easier to appreciate the beauty found there. When I was ten my family backpacked across the Grand Canyon, but we did it the easier way and stayed in a hotel.

This is all of us about 2 switchbacks down the South rim, where Ali said her legs hurt so we couldn't make it any further. I think she needs to workout more.

We did make it to this fun tunnel that both girls thought was really cool. Here is Kat in the tunnel.

Ali really thought this tunnel was cool. Even though she was the one compaining about sore legs, she really wanted to get to the bottom of the Canyon. I think she was mad that we weren't already at the bottom after the 1/4 mile we hiked. She does not have much patience.

This picture is to show how cool it was that my hair matched the canyon. This was not expressly on purpose, but after stripping my hair, and dying it 4 times, I had to give it a week break before fixing it again, or it would have all fallen out. Moral of story: don't try to drastically change your hair before a big trip where you know you are going to be taking lots of pictures.

This picture of Kat is cute, but it has a small story.
The only real hiking we could do was along the rim, where we could bring our stroller. So most of the time we were hiking right on the edge of cliffs. I have never been a great fan of heights, but I don't have any phobias either. Well on this trip we discovered that Nick does have a slight phobia. And by slight, I mean a HUGE phobia. The whole time we were hiking Nick would freak out if the girls got too near the edge. (there were rails and such, but that was a moot point in his phobia). When we got to this one really pretty overlook with nice flat rocks I took each of the girls out to the edge where I sat down and took their picture. (This picture to be exact) I kind of wish I had a small video of Nick while I was taking this picture, because if I did you would see what a heart attack looks like.

Ali LOVED the cliff edge, which probably didn't help with how anxious Nick became. She kept trying to get to every edge she could so she could "see the bottom." I admit, sometimes she scared me. This girl has NO fear of heights at all.

This is a cliff where I got Nick to climb out. Apparently his phobia only extends to the girls. In order to take this picture we had to strap both girls in the stroller.

In the Grand Canyon there is a tall tower called the watch tower. Since Ali is obsessed with "Tangled" (despite never having seen the movie) we called it Tangled's tower. I am not sure how it happened but we never got a picture of the outside, so you will have to trust me that it looks like Rapunzel's tower, or you can google it. Don't ask about the bunny, I am not sure why she has it or why she is showing it, but this is a picture of her inside Tangled's tower.

One of the best things about our trip was the chance for the girls to just have fun. Ali loves to climb trees, and the Grand Canyon is FULL of fallen trees to climb.

She would have never seen the canyon if we didn't force her to "get off that tree and keep walking."

Even Kat ventured up a few trees, though this tree is only a foot from the ground.

Seeds and Halloween

It has been almost a year since I last posted about my avocado seed. You can see the post here. I know it hasn't done the best, but at least it isn't dead! :)

In case you cannot tell, it is growing. The root system grew so much that I decided to put it in dirt. Well, it has taken a long while, but look at the wildly growing leaves. That stem is enormous!
I guess it might help if I took the toothpick out, but I didn't want to take any chances, since it hasn't died with them in. Plus the toothpick gives you a good size comparison.

Halloween! I know it is wicked late posting these, but my girls were so cute that I figured people would want to see them even if it is late.

In case there are people out there who have no costume recognizing skills, Kat is Dorothy and Ali is Glenda the good witch from Wizard of Oz. Oh, and I am the Wicked witch of East

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