Oma's Pumpkin Patch

This year we took a little family trip to Oma's Pumpkin Patch. While the "Pumpkin Patch" was actually a dairy farm (smelly), in the 90's (sweaty), and basically infested with bees (yucky), Landon didn't seem to mind and was the upbeat happy boy we love, while Parker enjoyed the view from the Ergo.

We went to Oma's with Landon's wife, Annabelle. Okay, they aren't really married, but these best friends often act like an old married couple - it's pretty cute:

We milked (fake) cows:

and raced rubber duckies (Look at that face! Pure joy!):

 
We checked out some goats:

and tractors:

Landon loved spending time in the hay maze with dad:

And, of course, we tried our hardest to get a cute pic of our boys:

Just the four of us (at stinky, hot Oma's):

Buona Pasqua!

Easter this year was a little different for us, seeing as how we are in Italy and the usual Easter necessities were hard to find.  Instead of our usual, we decided to go the Italian route. Here, instead of fancy baskets, Italians give presents that are hidden in a big chocolate egg. Also, I wasn't able to find plastic eggs for an egg hunt (I mean the Easter Bunny couldn't find them, of course), so we instead only did the indoor egg hunt with chocolate eggs (in my family you do two: one outdoors with eggs and plastic eggs, and one indoors with little wrapped chocolate eggs hidden all over the house and furniture).

Landon woke up and was excited to see the Easter Bunny had made it to Naples for him:

Once the packaging was off, it took Landon .00001 seconds to dive right in with a big ol' bite of his chocolate egg. How did he register it was a treat so quickly? He hasn't even had that many sweets:

Unfortunately, the forecast called for rain all day (because I had, of course, jinxed our luck in my last blog post):

But there were more breaks in the weather than expected. Which even allowed for a father/son dip in the thermal pool:

This boy loved the bubbles and standing on the step by himself:

He really didn't want to get out. Instead he wanted to chat with the lady next to him and tell her about the bubbles. Here is a little video (nothing too exciting, but it's been awhile):

Later, we had Easter brunch at the restaurant, Esperia, on Monte de Procida that included tons of food and this gorgeous view. It even stopped raining for most of our meal:

Of course, the rain had to come towards the end, but at least it lead to this pretty awesome rainbow:

We hope everyone had a great Easter, as well. Who even knows where we will be next year?!

Christmas Vacation

He woke up unsuspecting that the morning would be different from any other day:

Until his presents caught his eye. One in particular was all this little guy wanted:

You guessed it:

we celebrated Christmas at our house on the 22nd before heading to HB to celebrate with the fam. I'll give you the short, short version on what the rest of vaca looked like.

We played with cousins and second cousins:

Oh, the love:

We opened presents, spent time with family, and even ate some monkey bread (dangerous for any prego, such as myself):

Christmas was wonderful, but what was even better was the almost 3 weeks Nate had off. We got in A LOT of fun activities. Including, but not limited to, our 10 mile bike ride around the bay and up the coast:

We just loove taking long bike rides and stopping off at the park for a little play time. Lando can't get enough :)

Will he ever fit into his pants? Who knows?

We also enjoyed taking hikes with our new hiking backpack. Landon loves it. I think he likes being perched up so high. Here's the whole family on top of Iron Mountain, here in San Diego:

Like I said, that was the short, short version. We always love family time and the only sad day was sending Nate back to work after the New Year. Especially when Landon would wake up from his nap and walk around the house calling, "Da! Dada! Da!" Guess that just means we love Nate a whole lot <3

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

The Votes Were Unanimous!

And of course I listened. Say hello to....
our X-Mas Tree!!

We will see how it goes with Lando, but already I'm so happy we got it. How could I have thought about not getting one? I pretty sure I knew all along I would.

ps - How in the heck do you get a good picture of a X-Mas tree? This one was the best one I took and it doesn't fully do my tree (or my bows) justice!

pps - Nate recently told me that my use of "X-Mas" over "Christmas" bugs him. Therefore, you will be seeing only X-Mas on this blog. I'm so sweet ;)

UPDATE: Upon reading this, Nate said, "You said X-Mas again? Babe, it's a Christmas tree. Say Christmas." I then told him to read further (to the pps), and he said, "I'm never reading your blog again." So now that I've made my point, I will go back to using Christmas again. Love you, Nate!

Meeting the Big Guy

Today marks the day I met the one and only Santa Claus. Here are some pics from this ginormous event in my life.

My moms and I posing for the camera:

Kisses for dad:

I waited very patiently in line.... or as patiently as a one year old can wait, anyways:

"Is that him?!"

"What are you all about?"

My official 1st photo with Santa"


I didn't know what to think of the big guy. I wasn't scared, but I also wasn't too impressed. Maybe I'll like him more after I see what he brings me at Christmas.

Hope you are all enjoying the holidays as much as I am.

-Landon

To Tree or Not to Tree?

This is our first X-Mas with a very mobile, at-times rambunctious, curious little guy, so the question is- can we get a tree? So far he has done alright with the X-Mas decorations I have put out, but how will an 8 foot tree go? He is obsessed with leaves and bushes when we walk the dog so I could see him tampering with the tree. That said, can I really feel like it's X-Mas without one??

I need advice. What do you think- tree or no tree?

Just for fun - Landon, a year ago today exactly :)

Remember when I had a brunette baby? Ha.

Turkey Day 2011

This Thanksgiving we headed to Lehi, Utah to Mark and Kate's to spend the holiday with the Butler side. We were there 5 days and like usual, time went way too fast, we ate too much, and we had a great time hanging with the Butler clan.

Of course, I forgot my camera :( so you will just get the run down via iPhone pics. Here we go...

The flight to Utah was easy and quick. Luckily, our little guys slept almost the whole way there:
When we did arrive, I thought Utah was B-E-A-utiful. I love how close the mountains are:

I made my first Thanksgiving turkey! I brined it over night and was happy with how moist the bird came out. Thank you, Alton Brown for this little gem!

My only pic of the bird when it was finished. She was a beaut:

MMMMMmmm... Lynn's pies. Was it a bit much to have 2 pumpkin pies, 2 apple pies, a pecan/chocolate pie, a coconut cream pie, a chocolate cheesecake, and cupcakes?! (Not to mention, the symphony and special K bars we had for the week) Nah.

It was cold for these Cali folk so we kept bundled up when we were out. Here's Lando during our after Thanksgiving walk:

Never underestimate the power of cousins! Landon loved spending time playing with his Butler cousins. Katie was especially good at keeping him occupied:

Landon also enjoyed playing with his cousin Sammy. He would push Sammy along on this little car:

And give him a good petting when he needed it, too :)

We were lucky to have Grandpa Mark with us for Turkey Day. It was Landon's first time meeting his great grandpa:

A highlight of the trip was going to the CU @ Utah football game. It was the last game of the season, and fortunately they pulled off the W. Landon was perfect at the game. He sat on our laps the whole time (I didn't think that was possible). Although, the freezing cold weather and icy winds probably had something to do with it. A couple of cute CU fans:

Walking to our seats with Grandma:

Pretty awesome stadium, right?!


Cheering on CU!! It was funny because every time the crowd cheered, Landon would smile and clap. That was his was of counter-balancing the Utah cheers, I think ;)
We had a great time, and like I said, it all went by just too fast. Thanks to Mark and Kate for hosting and making us all feel so welcome!