Seal Beach Lights

On the 29th we went to the lights at these canals in Long Beach, near Seal Beach. The Barnes family has gone there once before. It is neat because you get to see all these houses with their yards decorated. Here is the place.

Katelynn posing it up.


Family shot.


The Williams Family. Sorry Nichole, this was the best of the family. I will find a way to make it up to you.


Okay, found a way. 


Here is an example of what to expect when you go there. It was a lot of fun. Kate was tired of it and was ready for bed toward the end.

Cute Cousins

Kate and Anna are such cute cousins. They just sit, and if they could have a true conversation they would. This is a rare moment that one or both are not running around like crazy children.


And then there is this picture. Like where do they learn to be so cute. Kate always says "Anna?" as if to be asking if Anna is coming over to play. She is always sad when the answer is no. How sad that they live so far away.

Wicked

On Thursday, we sent and saw "Wicked" with the whole family. It was a stressful day. Nichole watched Katelynn so that we could go. A neighbor kept Nichole from getting to the Barnes house as early as she wanted to and we were running behind. So then we got to my parents 12:20 PM and the show started at 2 PM. Then my dad took the 5 which was really crowded, as it usually is. Well, this picture proves my dad does go 80 MPH occasionally. My dad claims that he NEVER goes over 10 MPH over the limit. I am pretty sure there aren't any 70 MPH roads in LA.

Well we got there right on time, with my dad and Ben getting in just a little bit after the lights went out. We really enjoyed it. If you have not yet seen "Wicked" I highly recommend it. One thing Jen and I liked was that there wasn't a real dichotomy of Good and Evil but that all the characters seemed to have good and bad motivations. This seemed to relate more to real life where we all have good and bad sides to us. Anyways great show, must see.



Unfortunately, we did not get a picture together there. You have no idea how sad we are about that.

Balboa Pier

The day after Christmas the Barnes family, minus Greg, went to the Balboa Pier. It was fun. We first played on the play ground. Katelynn is a little adventurous. Look at this, I mean I hate those things and I can climb up in two steps.


Katelynn began sliding on her own. On this set she would climb up, slide down, try to climb up another slide, then go to the steps, climb up and go down this slide again. It is nice when your kids can do repetitive things on their own and you just have to have an eye on them. It can be very dull following and actively doing the exact activity over and over again.




This is the slide she tried to climb up several times.


Here is video proof of Katelynn going down on her own. I know that the slide is small, but baby steps folks. We move in baby steps.

Mike and Ethan. 


I love my wife.


"Wanna fight?"


This may be more revealing of me but I was impressed that Ethan went up this web thing. I never would have thought about it at his age. 


Whoa Dan, watch out for that mob of girls.


Dan did get attacked by some girls but I think he liked these better than any mob.


We own this pier.


Now Kate has been to the beach but has not really observed the water from this point of view. She was enthralled with the ocean. 


I wanted to show how truly mesmerized she was by the ocean but I don't think I could. You just have to be there. There were some dolphins out in the water but they were too far away to get a good picture. They were having fun it seemed. They were jumping every once in a while.

We were all hungry so we got some fries and some chili fries. Hence, there are no more pictures as my fingers were busy the rest of the trip.

Christmas Day

Christmas morning Katelynn came down to see Santa's presents.


She decided that she wanted to go back upstairs to get her Santa books.


Jen helped her carry the books down.


She was almost there to her presents.



And decided she didn't want to really come down after all and decided to cry.


When she finally got to her presents, she was excited and started playing with them right away. I think she may have been still waking up and was in the grumpy mode that one gets in while waking up.


I vote for the "still waking up" theory.


Here are all her presents. She got a car, keys, phone, and book. Just look at how tired she is.

We then went over to my parents house. My family all opens their gifts at the same time so I was only able to get a few photos before I had to get to my presents. As it was, I was way behind and the last to be opening presents. Katelynn got a box full of books. She seemed to like them. 


Katelynn got a blow-up chair. Katelynn has begun to make silly faces now. Here is one of them. 


Anyone that has been around Katelynn surely knows that she loves phones, or "ello-ello," and got one for Christmas.


The day or two before I came down to California, Katelynn began growing up again. She started bantering, like gibberish but cut off like words, and she seemed to know what she was saying. I couldn't decide if it was gibberish though, or just words we couldn't understand or she didn't really know how to say yet. She also has increased her vocabulary so much, it really is amazing.

Barnes Christmas Eve

While the rest of my family went to the Masters on Christmas Eve, Jen and I were with the Barnes for Christmas Eve. Here are my two angels. We were only able to get one picture with the hood.


Katelynn loves to sing along. It sounds more like yelling but she keeps a tone pretty good and it sounds a little better than yelling. She is very cute when she does it.


Katelynn wanted that angel costume off and dance. And dancing she did.


Annalise even joined in.


We all decided that we should open a few presents on Christmas Eve because Christmas day was going to be crazy busy. So all the kids and their families opened each others presents. Katelynn opened Ethan and Annalise's present to her. I think this was by far her favorite present of the holiday. Don't get me wrong, she really liked all her presents, but this plastic food was almost too good to be true. Look at how enthralled she is with it. (Jen was excited too)



She couldn't wait for us to open it up for her. The rest of the night she was playing with her food and passing it out to people and eating it herself.


Here she is asking Jen if she wants some food. She is a cutie, don't you think?


Mike and Jen, who's blog we read often, had Jen and me (as we take turn and give to just one cuople) and gave us this cute sign. There is red writing that says "Established 2004" as you can't read it well from this picture.


Mike and Jen with Grandma and Grandpa Goldthorpe. I am not sure why we don't have a picture with me and Jen with Grandma and Grandpa Goldthorpe. For more coverage of the Christmas Eve with the Barnes, Mike and Jen have a little better coverage.


My favorite thing about the holidays is being together with family, but my favorite activity is Christmas Eve programs and remembering the birth of our Savior. Being able to do it with both my family and Jen's was a special treat this year. How blessed we are!

Wilbur Christmas Eve

Because of the complex nature of the schedule of my family, we met on Sunday the 23rd for a Christmas Eve dinner. It was fun. My uncle Steve was there with his family, as well as Scott Barnes (not related to Jen's family). We had a little program and a friend of my Uncle Steve's family came and joined in. My dad wrote about it too.



We then went to a neighborhood to see the lights. Here is where it is on a map.

There were homes that were nice, some elegant, some festive, and some, like this home below, party atmosphere. There were was also a home that had a live nativity with a sheep. Also one that the whole home changed from red to blue to green and perhaps other colors, I don't remember any other colors. It was pretty cool.

As I was taking the video above and backed into a Santa. Everyone said it look freaky and they took a picture of me.


Santa patted Josh on the head.


This was a nice home. I liked it.


This home let people come into the house. None of us went in as there was a long line and we all thought it was a little weird to let hundreds of strangers come into your home.

Wilbur Family Photo

When I got home, the next Sunday my parents wanted a family picture. Being the perfect child I am, I complied. The Chistensens came and took the pictures for us. We took dozens of pictures and I think this is the best one. We look pretty good if I do say so myself.


We then took couples pictures. My parents.


Josh and Hayley


To keep Katelynn calm and still, two things rarely seen together with her, requires the use of her "night night" and finger sucking.


My beautiful wife and me.