Christmas at the Zauggs

I can't believe it is over already! We had a very busy Christmas season and Christmas really flew by for me this year. We had fun going to work parties, neighborhood parties, church parties, family parties and parties with friends. We enjoyed going to California and spending time with family. We had a great time shopping frantically at the end, and an even better time opening our presents! We loved seeing everyone, but we really missed those of you who we didn't get a chance to be with this holiday season. Here are a few pictures from our Christmas.

First, here is Arden trying to get away from Santa at the Haun family party:

Next, here is Arden opening some presents with Grandma's and B.J.'s help on Christmas morning!Here is Arden helping me open one of my presents. She was much more into opening presents this year compared to last year. She was getting pretty good at it by the end of the morning and wanted to help everyone open their presents.

Finally, here is Arden with her Grandma Zaugg! We are so happy to have Preston's parents finally home from their mission. Arden is still trying to figure out that she has two Grandmas and two Grandpa's but I am sure she will catch on soon!

Hope you all had wonderful Christmases, and we wish you a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!

California at Christmas

We visited Southern California last week with my whole family. All of my brothers and sisters came, and Dan brought his family from St. Louis (wife Lori, and kids Kohl, Brynn and Chase), and Amanda brought her new husband Matt. It was great to have everyone together for the vacation, and we were especially glad B.J. could get off work to come with us. We spent a few days at Disneyland, a day at Sea World, and a day at Knott's Berry Farm.

It was Arden's first visit to Disneyland. The park was all decorated for Christmas, and it was beautiful. Arden especially liked the Dumbo ride, the carousel, Small World, Jungle Cruise, and, of course, meeting Mickey Mouse. She even sat on Mickey's lap, and once her turn was over she pointed back at him and said "More mouse peez?" She liked the outside rides, but didn't really like the dark, loud rides like Pirates of the Caribbean. She didn't even like the Fantasyland rides like Snow White or Pinocchio (the whale in that ride really scared her!). She was glad her grandma and grandpa were there to take her on the "horsies" (carousel) over and over and over while Preston and me followed the other adults and older kids on Indiana Jones, Space Mountain, the Tower of Terror, etc. etc. (thanks Mom and Dad!!!). We also enjoyed the tortilla factory in California Adventure, where you can get FREE tortillas while they are still hot!

Here is Arden, Grandpa and me on the carousel.


We rode on the new Finding Nemo submarines, which had the longest line in the park, and no fastpasses! It was a cool ride though, all the kids especially liked it. I remember going on the submarines when I was a kid and totally believing that I was deep, deep under water instead of just a few feet down. Did anyone else fall for those bubbles when they were kids?

It was fun taking Matt on all of the rides, since he hadn't been to Disneyland since he was a kid. Matt was also the resident photographer, and we are all looking forward to getting a CD of all the pictures he took (thanks Matt!!!). Unfortunately, with Matt taking so many pictures, I got a little lazy about taking them, but I will post a few for you.

Here is Arden in her pirate hat inside the Blue Bayou Restaurant, which is the restaurant inside of Pirates of the Carribbean. My dad treated us all to lunch there (thanks Dad!!).

Here is Arden, Brynn and Grandpa on the Dumbo Ride.

It was fun to hang out with Dan and his family, we wish we got to see them more often. Arden loved to hang out with her cousins, and one of her favorite things was to ride on the back of their 2-kid stroller (our stroller mostly got used as a bag-holder). Kohl especially liked to go on the rides that get you wet, and could usually talk Dan and Preston into going with him, even at night (temps at night were in the 40s). Brynn and Kohl loved riding on Preston and Matt's shoulders whenever they could.

Everyone had a good time at Sea World. The kids (and the adults) liked to pet the dolphins and the sting rays. Brynn is so cute, she was chosen to be in the dolphin show and got to go up on stage and pet a dolphin. I always wished that I would get picked for something like that when I was a kid!!! Kohl was chosen to shake a sea lion's fin in the sea lion show too! Such lucky kids!

Here is Val, Preston and Arden playing with a starfish at the tide pool area:

I hadn't been to Knott's Berry Farm since I was a kid, so it was kind of fun to do something new. They have some serious roller coasters there. I liked the "Silver Bullet," it is one of those where the track is above you and your feet are hanging down. We also rode the old "Ghost Rider" coaster, which is one of those really old wooden coasters. It was the bumpiest ride I have ever been on!! We all needed to get back adjustments from Dan the chiropractor after that ride. There was also a lot of little kids rides there. Arden especially liked the one that looked like a school bus (of course), and the one where she got to pretend to drive a truck. Grandpa took her on that one about 6 times in a row while we waited for the rest of the family to gather.

Here is Arden, me and Val on the bus ride:


We had a great time, but Arden was running on a big sleep deficit by the end and was glad to get back to her own bed! We all had a great time, but now Christmas has snuck up on me so I better run and wrap some more presents! Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Card Outtakes

Last year we had soooo many cute Christmas pictures of Arden, it was really hard for us to choose just one to put on our Christmas card. This year was another story. Arden just was NOT in the mood to cooperate. I thought I would share with you some of her best worst moments:



Here is my favorite:

Preston liked this one:

Does anyone else ever have problems like this????

Beach to Blizzard

This week Preston had a "management retreat" at a beach hotel in St. Pete Beach, Florida. He has been out of town so much that Arden and I decided to tag along on this trip. We had a great time swimming in the pool, playing in the sand, and soaking up the sunshine. Preston got to spend the second half of Thursday and most of Friday with us on the beach, so he got a little mini-vacation too!

We had a great hotel room overlooking the beach, and even saw some dolphins swim by one evening at sunset! We got back late on Friday night (Arden did pretty good on the planes), and when we woke up on Saturday morning, there was a foot of snow outside! It was kind of a shock to my system go to from 80 degrees at the beach to 20 degrees and snow. Arden liked to play in the snow, and even "helped" us shovel the driveway. But she still keeps asking to go to the beach about every hour or two. "Beach! Yay, yay, beach!"

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

We have had a pretty busy week, as I am sure most of you have! Monday was the last really warm day of the year here, so Arden, my sister Val and I decided to go to the zoo! We had a really great time looking at the animals and enjoying the great weather! It got up near 70 degrees that day, and today the high was 35. Arden liked the white alligator, the elephants and the bears best. I always liked the giraffes :). We took some pictures of Arden with the turkeys that wander around the Hogle Zoo in honor of Thanksgiving.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my mom's house (Preston's parents are still out of the country on a mission). We were assigned to bring sweet potatoes and a pie. Preston is the best cook out of the two of us, so he was in charge, but I helped. The sweet potatoes we made were great. We decided to make two pies, and it was a good thing because only one turned out to be usable :).

We had lots of fun at my parents' house on Thanksgiving. It was a pretty small affair (just us, my parents, Val, B.J., Amanda and her husband Matt), but it was cozy. We ate lots of food, watched lots of football, took little naps (all except Arden), and played a little pool on the table downstairs. Thanksgiving is an awesome holiday, I wish we could have it more often!

Hope all of you had great Thanksgivings too!

Bus Obsession

My daughter Arden is obsessed with busses. OBSESSED. I do not use the word lightly. It all started when Preston brought her a toy double decker bus home from a business trip to London. She had it for a while without really treating it any differently than any other toy. Then one day she was happily pulling all my books off of a shelf and she ran across a book about London from a trip Preston and I took there a couple of years ago. She pointed to a picture of one of the double decker buses, and then to her nearby toy bus and yelled "BUS!" I hadn't heard her say that word before and thought she was brilliant for noticing that the picture and her toy looked the same, so I told her (as I often do) that not only is she beautiful, but a genius as well. Little did I know what had begun.

As the days went by, she would return again and again to that London book on the shelf. She would pull it down, flip through the pages until she found a bus, and yell "BUS!" It was cute. Then, whenever we were out driving and we were lucky enough to actually see a real live bus, she would get really excited and shriek "BUUUSSSS! BUUUSSSS!" Soon this led to a regular chant of "bus, bus, bus, bus" when we were out driving around even if she couldn't see one, as if by just saying the word over and over (and over), she could make one appear. The London "bus" book became her favorite book, and I have to tell you I have probably flipped through that dang book about 500 times (I wish I was kidding, but I am not). She has the book pretty much memorized and knows the exact locations of every bus in it (there are 35). About every other page has tape on it, but she loves it so much she even took it to bed once, hugging it like a doll. This has gone on for over 2 months now, and I am beginning to hate buses even more than I did before. (I don't like buses because of some past experiences involving a sleeping bus driver and a couple of sick bus buddies, but those are stories for another day.)

Anyway, I am wondering if anyone who has had toddlers before knows how long this will last? I was hoping it was going to be a short phase, but as the days go by her love of buses only grows stronger :) In the picture above she is happily reading her beloved bus book surrounded by some of her bus paraphernalia.

Need your opinion! Please comment!

Hi everyone! About a month ago my awesome sister in law Jessica took some great pictures of our little family, but I am having a hard time deciding which one I like best to hang up in our family picture corner. The ones below are the ones where Arden is actually looking in the general direction of the camera and at least giving an attempt at a smile. I always end up getting hung up on which one I look best in (am I the only one who is that shallow? :) Hope not). Anyway, I need some outside opinions! Let me know which one you like better of 1, 2 or 3 below:

Yuck, I hate pictures of myself! I guess that is why Arden is all by her cute little self in 99% of the pictures we take. Please put a comment below and let me know what you think. Thanks!!!!!!!!

Trick-Or-Treat

At first we were worried that Arden would never wear her costume for trick-or-treat because the first couple of times we had her try it on she immediately ripped the head part off. On Halloween, after visiting Great-Grandma Wilson and Grandma and Grandpa Haun, she realized that if she wore her costume and said "Peez?" (please), she would get CANDY! That made her much more willing to put up with the costume. By the time we hit the neighborhood "Trunk or Treat" she was a pro! Preston even took her old school Trick or Treating on the next street over, so she (and therefore me) got quite a haul of candy! Halloween is so fun, too bad it is only once a year. Arden still wants to put her costume on and try it out, it is hard to explain why it only works on Halloween.

Carving Pumpkins

We carved pumpkins again as we do every year. This year Arden really wanted to help! Luckily, we all survived with no bloodshed. We did a cat for Arden, just a scary face for mine, and Preston wanted to make a "cannibal" pumpkin.

Halloween Party

We hosted a Halloween party this year for the Zaugg family! We ate jack-o-lantern pizza, had candy apples, and even had a pinata shaped like a witch. All the kids loved to whack the pinata. Arden didn't really whack it, she just touched it gently with the bat. Some of her cousins knew what they were doing though. Her cousin Kaden finally hit it hard enough to separate the witches' body from her head, but the candy inside of the body still didn't come out. Uncle Jason to the rescue! The kids had a great time seeing each other's costumes and of course, getting a jump start on eating CANDY!

Halloween

We had a great Halloween! Arden was a black cat this year. We saw her costume online and thought it was so cute that we ordered it. When it came, however, the body suit was a little too short and the head was WAAAY too big! It would fit on my head. There must be some 18-24 month olds out there with HUUUUGE noggins. My mom tried to make the head smaller, but it was still a little big. Oh well. She looked cute anyway!