San Diego Zoo

We spent New Years Eve day at the San Diego Zoo with Tom and the kids.  It was a blast and the kids had so much fun.

Jacob was a doll - he was so excited about all the different animals.... until nap time, that is. 

Adjoa loves spending time with her cousins, especially Brandon.  Over Thanksgiving, they had a love/hate relationship that can only happen between a 4 year old and a 5 year old.  She was, of course, thrilled that she would get to see Brandon again.

Here's some shots at the zoo.  I took them with my blackberry, so the quality isn't the best.

Oh well.

 Riding a hippo with Jacob and Madison.  Brave kids!

 Getting a seal's eye view of the tourists.  Maddie, Tom, Seal, Adjoa, Jacob, Robert.

 Caterpillar and Butterfly.  Pretty accurate, don't you think?

The petting zoo was a big hit.  Adjoa is determined to have a goat.

 Practicing her animal husbandry skills.  The goat seems to be faring quite well.

 Adjoa, Jacob, and Maddie feeding the goat. 

I love this picture! Jacob got a kick out the how the goats eat.  He thought it was sooooo funny.

Family Pictures, Depot Style

We had our family pictures taken a couple weeks ago, but I had to keep it on the down-low because they were presents for family.

I went with a retro-train station theme.  Not intentionally or anything.  It just turned out that I liked the location and our outfits had a retro twist.  Not so much with Robert.  I probably couldn't get him to wear a hat or a skinny tie if I had even bothered to ask.  But hey, gray and white is timeless enough to blend.  Plus, you don't want it too styled or you start to become one of THOSE families.  And I'm crazy enough.

Here's a few of the pics.  Adjoa was, of course, simply adorable to totally photogenic.

Thanks Cathy!

Early Christmas

We are doing Christmas early this year, since we will be in San Diego until after New Years.  I was not about to load up a bunch of presents so Santa could come on Christmas Day.  I explained to Adjoa that we would be gone for Christmas.

A: "Oh NO! How will Santa know where we are?"
M: "Well.  Mommy is really smart.  I told Santa we would be gone, and do you know what? He's just going to come early to our house!"

We had some friends who were very concerned about Christmas coming early.  Well, the mother was concerned.  She didn't want Adjoa to tell her kids that Santa already came and have her kids freak out.  So I told Adjoa that this was a special arrangement and that Santa was coming early.  Adjoa's too young to really understand that it's not Christmas day, so the explanation was more for the benefit of other people.  And in case Adjoa said she already had Christmas, I didn't want any problems with other kids or their parents.

Anyway, we planned on having Christmas a couple days before we have to leave for San Diego so she has some time to play with her awesome haul.

It's sort of a Barbie Christmas this year.  Which was fun for me.  I must admit, I've missed Barbie.  Chambra and I used to play Barbies for hours, I swear.  It's pretty much the main thing I remember about childhood.  So maybe Adjoa's Christmas is a way for me to share something I loved when I was a kid, or maybe it's an excuse for me to play with Barbies again.  Probably, it's a little of both.

 Adjoa's Christmas pile.  I totally love the dollhouse.  It was from my dad and it's the bee's knees.  It's wooden, has great colors, and is perfect for super-cool Barbie.  Adjoa is in love with it and wanted to take it to San Diego.  Sorry, girl.  That's exactly why we are doing Christmas early.

 Perfect picture to capture the early morning excitement of Christmas.  You KNOW you should still be in bed, and you're uber tired, but IT'S CHRISTMAS!

Get ready for the cheese.  This is the best Christmas present I could ask for.  Adjoa's smile melts me every time.  She is beautiful, sweet, kind, and always tries her best.  She's totally awesome. And I feel perfectly fine bragging about her because I was not at all responsible for any of it!  She's just a doll and it had nothing to do with me.  My job is to try to help her stay that way!

Merry Christmas!

Adjoa's First Tithing

We had tithing settlement today, and it was Adjoa's first time paying tithing.  She has a little bank and has been saving  her money all year.

She puts her tithing in one bank, her savings in another bank, and spending money in a third bank.

Adjoa was so excited to count out her money.  I helped her fill out her tithing slip and she loaded up the envelope with all her coins.

When we visited with the bishop, he asked if she knew what would happen to her money.  She said, "They will build a temple with my money!"

So cute.

Christmas Program

Adjoa's  Christmas Program was today.  I missed the program last year, so I was super excited for this one.  Of course, it was adorable.  Santa came for a visit, and Adjoa asked for a "fluffy unicorn."  That should be easy enough for Santa.

What do you want for Christmas, little girl?  "Um.  I want a fluffy hunicorn."

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Adjoa drew this picture of Rudolph.  Rudolph is trying to find Santa's lost shoe.  In case you were wondering, Rudolph DID find Santa's lost shoe.  So no worries there.

I Lost My Mommy

Every night I tuck Adjoa into bed, then go about my evening business: folding laundry, doing dishes, checking email, you know.  After I get ready for bed, I usually peek in and tuck her in again and kiss her goodnight.

So the other night I was tucking her in and kissing her goodnight and she sits stright up in bed.  She looks around and says "Mommy! Mommy!"

Me:  I'm right here, Adjoa.
Adjoa: Where's my mommy?
Me:  I'm right here, sweetheart.

Adjoa lifts up her pillow, looks under it, and says, "Oh no!  I lost my mommy!"

At this point I realize she's still totally asleep, even though she's sitting up, moving around, and talking.  She lays back down and I tuck her in, laughing to myself because if I were lost, I'm sure I'd be hidden under Adjoa's pillow.

Adjoa. Self Potrait of a 4 Year Old.

Adjoa has been talking about eating healthy the last month at school.  She has learned about the food groups, and which foods are healthy for your body.

She drew this picture of herself when she eats healthy food.  I love the blonde hair!

Reason #152 Why Kids Should Never Grow Up....

They stop saying all those adorable things!

I think it's so cute that kids say things incorrectly when they are little.  It's one of the things I wish I could freeze.  This is my way of freezing Adjoa for a bit.

Cute things Adjoa used to say:

• "Blubbing"  As in, "Mommy look!  I cut my finger and it's blubbing!  I need a bandaid to stop the blubbing."
• "Solly" instead of Sorry
• "Clazy" instead of Crazy.  We still say this one at home sometimes.  "You are CLaazy!"
• "Junso" instead of pee.  This one comes from Ghana.  "Mommy, I jusnoed the bed."  "Hurry!  Or I will junso my pants!"
• "Honly" instead of Only.
• "Hunicorn" instead of Unicorn.
• "Hand-Foot-Plints."  As in, "Mommy, I traced my hand.  This is my hand-foot-plint."  She will still say thins sometimes instead of "Hand-Print".

Thanksgiving Hike

Robert's family has a tradition of hiking Flat Rock at Thanksgiving.

We met up with some family members that morning and went for a little stroll before gorging ourselves on turkey.  Adjoa was very concerned that we would miss "The Feast".  She never once referred to the holiday as Thanksgiving, it was always, "how long until we have our feast?"

She was stuck like glue to grandpa's side and followed everywhere he went.  After we hiked down to the beach, she followed him on a stroll to look for seashells. 

 Checking out the view with grandpa.  I'm not sure Adjoa can even see over the trees!

 Hiking down to Flat Rock.

Heading off to chase down Grandpa.  He almost got away for a minute!

 Taking a stroll along the beach with Grandpa, keeping an eye out for seashells and cool rocks. 

 The tide was really high, so this is about as close as we could get to Flat Rock.  Right after Robert proposed, we came out to Flat Rock on a hike and Tom took some pictures of us.  We thought we should re-visit the moment.

 Happy Anniversary!  Four years later with our little family.

 Adjoa showing off the seashells she found on her beach walk.

 This is Adjoa's idea of following Grandpa's advice to be careful. 

 Brandon and Adjoa had fun testing each other's throwing limits.  Jacob soon joined in, but it was pretty easy to out-throw a 2 year old.  I think this was the beginning of the Brandon and Adjoa romance that lasted our entire visit.  Brandon declared his love to Adjoa and insisted she marry him.  When she told him she was going to marry JJ (a boy from school) he sighed, "ok.  But if he says 'no' then you have to come back and marry me."  Later Amber overheard Brandon declare the depth of his love in the way only a 5-year old boy can: "Adjoa, you can punch me and you can make me bleed, but I will still love you!"

 Practicing a princess pose.

This is a Fairy House.  Just in case you were wondering.



Disneyland... Anniversary Style

We took Adjoa to Disneyland for her first visit.  Everyone always says this, but Disneyland with kids is a whole different experience.  She LOVED it.  And she was convinced that everyone was real in Pirates of the Caribbean.  She wanted to go on it again and again and kept saying, "look mommy!  That man is still sitting there!  He should go home."

I encouraged it.  What can I say?  You don't have very many years when you just simply believe.

Of course she was all about getting her autograph book signed.  We did the breakfast at the park one of the mornings, and she got to meet a lot of classic characters then.  Actually, I was a big fan of the breakfast and I think we would do it again next time.

Adjoa's favorite ride was "the train" aka Thunder Mountain, and her favorite character was, of course, Ariel.

On our second day there we ran into my cousin and his family.  We were actually in the same line for the same ride at the same time.  Totally crazy.  You could be in the park for days and never run into someone like that.  We spent the day with them, and Adjoa loved it.  Having two more girls to enjoy the magic with sure made a difference to her.

We also met up with Kevin and Gail and Hayden enjoyed showing Adjoa all his favorite rides.  Those two are so funny together.  Adjoa is looking forward to playing with Hayden again on our next visit.  And of course, Karen met up with us while we were there.  You can't live in LA and miss your niece's first Disneyland experience, after all.  Adjoa even got to have a sleep over at Karen's apartment - something she was looking forward to for weeks.

Thanks to everyone who made our Disneyland trip a fun one!
 

 Ariel Is Adjoa's all time favorite.  The Little Mermaid was the first movie she saw when she came home and she memorized the songs almost immediately!  Adjoa was so busy staring at the princesses, I don't think she every really looked at the camera!

 Adjoa and Karen on It's a Small World.  Our first ride at Disneyland.  Adjoa was mesmerized.  It was so cute.  Around Christmas, they have Small World all decked out for the holidays and each country sings a Christmas song from that area.  It makes the ride more bearable.  You aren't guaranteed to have the song stuck in your head for the rest of the day - more likely it will be a Christmas carol or two mixed with "It's a Small World".  Great.  Now I have that song stuck in my head....

 Adjoa and Hayden in line for Thunder Mountain.  At night, that ride is AWESOME.  It's sooo dark you can't really see anything.  The kids had a blast.

You probably can't read it, but I'm pointing to a Happy Anniversary pin we received at the gate.  In case you didn't know, Robert proposed at Disneyland.  This was our first time back since then!

 Adjoa and Anika with Ariel.  This was Adjoa's second time seeing Ariel, so I was able to get her to look at the camera, but I'm obviously intruding on her big princess hug.

 Disneyland brings out the kid in everyone.  Not that it's terribly hard to bring out the kid in Robert...

 The Princesses taught Adjoa how to pose.  She's practicing.  She'll be practicing for months.

I think this picture of Adjoa and Woody is so funny.  She's trying to mimic his stance.  What cracks me up most is that Woody is soooo huge.  It's like Adjoa is his toy.

  Belle is my favorite princess.  Again, I love the look on Adjoa's face.  Pretty much every princess picture turned out like this.  She couldn't take her eyes off of the princess.  Funny girl.