I love to see the temple...

We had the wonderful opportunity to go to the temple the day after Christmas. The Oakland temple is beautiful, and the marble inside is unreal. It was wonderful to do an endowment session for some ancestors, and as William says, "Save the ancestors!" I agree that you save the ancestors, and you save the world.












The Oakland Temple overlooks the San Fransisco Bay, it was beautiful that morning. We also did some beautiful sealings.
Mom's parent's were sealed, and she to them, and we also had the opportunity to have Tim's oldest son sealed to us by proxy. It was nice that my brother could stand in for little Joshua. It was very special, and wouldn't have been better any other way.

The Infamous City of Livermore

It begins with a baby who thought we were still in Virginia.
For those of you who may be unaware, there is a three hour time difference between VA and CA time. This made our 6:00 a.m. rise and shine actually be a 3:00 a.m. rise and shine. This made my younger brother very happy. Oh, the games we played and the fun we had at 3, and 3:30, at 4:00, and then at 4:30... I think right about then We tried for a nap. OH, a nap....
Then, of course, it was time for introductions... after a decent breakfast of Poached eggs, baked asparagus, and some heavenly sauce. Oh, I miss my father.
So, Mac was introduced to Rafter, who was instantly jealous, and we learned very quickly not to trust him near the baby. Silly growling dog. I think that he was also intimidated. Malcolm being so large in stature and all... Then came the introduction to (Great) Grandma and Grandpa. It gets harder and harder for me to visit them. It seems like they will both live forever. Grandma Jean because she is alive and very well... and Grandad because he's as stubborn as a mule. That man has been dying for 20 years, and not only does he refuse to let go, but Grandma refuses to let him go. It's no wonder that everyone in the family says I am the stubborness of generations combined. But, I must say that I am proud of my Jeans... oh, and my genes too.
So, grandma, is a collector of things. She found a Russian dulcimer. Malcolm loves it. Uncle Will taught him to play... with it...

This was also Malcolm's first time meeting uncle Matt. With uncle Matt comes Charlene. Always quietly in the background, but being cute as a wallflower nonetheless. Matt tried very hard to be the favorite uncle. He even picked out the uncle Christmas present. Way to be cool Matt.

So Christmas! Woot.
Some highlights were...

That Mac loved the bows on the presents.
and leaning on the screen door.


Will loved feeding the baby












(Grand) Mom loves Malcolm...

Malcolm loves the Uncles gift...

Mom loves her cool uncles gift...

Malcolm loves the cats...


All the boys love the little remote control cars that were all on the same frequency which made for much havoc wrought on unsuspecting babies and cats...





Malcolm loves the rocking sheep...

Dad loves Barack Obama...


Matthew does not love to have happy birthday sung to him, when his birthday happens to be in March, thank you very much, but tough luck you're getting your birthday present now...

Oh, and (Grand) Dad LOVES his over under browning shotgun... Bears, birds, deer, and Iranian pomegranate thieves beware...

Yay for a glimpse into our little corner of the world. Alas, I did not get a picture of the duck, turduckin, stuffing, or any of the other rare CA delicacies. Now they are all just memories...

The plane trip there

So, on the way to San Francisco, we arrived to the airport late.

It didn't actually matter because our flight was also delayed. So we sat at starbucks drinking our warm holiday goodness while we waited, and waited, and waited... So, when we finally got airborn, we figured out that we had approxomately 25 minutes to dash across the entirety of Dulles International to get to our connection. I even got a picture of one sleepy baby and his daddy on the shuttle. Thank goodness that our connection was also delayed because our arriving flight arrived so late. It's a good thing that everyone was in such a good mood when we finally touched down in good old San Fran, that it didn't bother us in the least that our baggage would arrive late. Well, to be exact it arrived at 3 a.m. Christmas morning. Thank you Santa. So, we arrived safe and sound. Thank goodness we planned for the airlines to be screwy. But, I will insert my plug that if businesses were run the way the ailines have gotten to be... Well, we'd have a lot more places out of business.

Still playing catch up

So, Christmas before Christmas was fun. I had wanted to open gifts after the trip, but Tim insisted that we do so before hand because he was hoping to get something he could use on the trip. Malcolm has so many toys just from one holiday, I feel like I already need to purge. It's crazy to me that one baby can accumulate so much stuff. But, I think he loves it all, and who can deny that beautiful face? As you can see, he got a bunch of toys and we loved playing. We really enjoyed playing the piano, and the drums, and then making cards for the grandparents...As you can see by the blue hands and feet. We loved the painting. He did footprints and hand prints, and his signature. I really wanted to do a garden stone for my parents so that they could have handprints in their garden through the years. But, you would not believe how difficult it is to keep baby's hand still for a mold. It's a wonder the directions said to do it when baby is sleeping. SO, I like the way the cards turned out.

And here he is looking like an angel. How did I get a blue eyed baby again?But the real excitement was when we went on the trip. There is (of course) more to come. I know that you are waiting with bated breath.

Playing Catch Up

So, from before the holiday, our lives were busy as ever. I suppose I could begin with the church Christmas social. Mac liked Santa for all of 10 seconds. It was just long enough for Tim not to get the cute picture of him right when I handed him over to poor Paul Politi in the Santa suit.












I thought it was incredibly cute that Malcolm was crawling everywhere, and trying to eat what we were eating. He's gotten pretty good at eating solids now, and isn't it silly how I am rambling about what a 9 month old eats? At any rate, he also loves cups and straws, here is the proof.

















Oh, and he is incredibly debonair in a bow tie by the way. I will update more later on how my grandmother had bags of clothes to keep my child dressed until he's driving. Well, not that much, but if we lived there, he would be spoiled rotten. It was so nice to anticipate the holiday. I really think that half of the joy comes from the eagerly awaiting part of the season. Well, and the social gatherings help with the anticipation also. We missed my work social, but went to Tim's. We were amazed that companies still give Christmas bonuses. Especially since he'd only been there a month. The church event was also nice. I love all the good cooking, and baking. I can't believe that I really didn't have to cook much this season. But, I have been so blessed that people have reached out to us. It's nice to feel so blessed and loved.

Swimmers by trade

We love the pool!

It's so exhausting being this cute.