northern california christmas

our next stop in california was sacramento to see my family! we had such a wonderful time of relaxing and visiting and shopping and eating! we happened to be coming into town the day before my sister's birthday, so she was so excited to spend her birthday with her favorite nephew!

they couldn't even get out of the airport without some pictures! haha!

i love this picture!

the next morning was christmas time with the Belden's

trying out his new jumper from aunt ashley 

all dressed up and ready to go to dinner for aunt ashley's birthday!

sibs!

mimi and malachi

uncle caleb is so silly!

aunt sissy

i took some pictures of ash for her graduation announcement while i was there too, she had to be silly of course! can't believe she's almost done with law school!

we had such a good visit and can't wait to be back (hopefully) in may! thanks for everything and we love you all!

southern california christmas

so our first stop on our "tour de california" was rancho cucamonga to visit jeff's family. it was such a nice time and we were able to see lots of people! that's always the mark of a good trip! :)

this is what i like to see on a long plane ride with a baby - sleep!

finally there! grammy kk was sooooo excited! :)

he's moving a LOT more now than the last time she saw him!

first in-n-out!

jeff is starting him early...

he chewed and slobbered all over a hamburger wrapper while we ate - it kept him content for a little while!

all the boys together!

jonah's new bff - malachi

brotherly love

now this is more like it...

uncle B meeting malachi for the first time

cousins meeting for the first time

grandma gg playing with malachi - she love him! :)

we had such a wonderful time in southern california and cannot wait to go back! we didn't get pictures of everything. like when we went to Archives bookstore and ate Lebanese food with our friends scott and katie newman and their precious son elijiah! and when we had breakfast with our friends moses and joy. such an encouragement to our hearts!

thanks to all our family and friends for everything while we were there - we love you all!

i'm baaaaaaack!

so my little blog "sabbatical" lasted a little longer than i intended, and for that i am sorry! but you know how it is when you get back from a trip, it usually takes about a week to recover from your week away - ugh! but we had a WONDERFUL time and could not have asked for a more loving and generous family, more perfect weather, or a more happy baby on 5 flights in 9 days! we are so blessed!

so because it would be one ridiculously long post, i am going to split up the "christmas" posts into three - our christmas at home, our christmas in southern california and our christmas in northern california.

our christmas at home was pretty low key but wonderful. we actually did our "christmas morning" on christmas eve morning since christmas day fell on a sunday this year. we wanted to be able to enjoy our time as a little family and not feel rushed to get to church on christmas morning. not to mention we were flying out to cali that day after church, so it really was better to have our time the day before. it was so nice. i fixed breakfast and while it was baking we drank coffee and opened presents. malachi was a character as usual opening his present. we got him a Sophie the Giraffe, which is supposed to be great for teething and it really has been wonderful!

here he is getting started, not really sure what to do and why mommy keeps taking pictures!

a little help from daddy

he got the hang of it!

but then he just wanted to eat the wrapping paper! haha!

not really sure about this squeaking giraffe

"now i like it!"

he had a few other gifts to open from my aunts and uncles and my grandma. he thought this little dump truck was pretty funny apparently!

jeff did a fabulous job with my stocking! in my stocking was my name cut out and strung together and for every letter i got a little riddle and gift. super fun idea! :) i loved it!

he figured out Sophie and loved it - so cute!

Jeff's gift from me was a Smokenator 1000 - turning our weber grill into a water smoker. jeff is pumped to try it out soon! :)

we had a wonderful christmas at home. it was low key and just the way we like it. we had our traditional spagetti for dinner on christmas eve and had our pastor and his family over to celebrate with us that evening. the next morning was a fantastic morning of celebrating Jesus' birth with our family at Grace Chapel! then we flew out that afternoon to california. stay tuned tomorrow for the first leg of our trip - southern california with Jeff's family.

love from the mixon house!