Day time at the desert...

Annie, Adam, Jayden and I decided to give the Living Desert a whirl in the daylight as Annie was a year older than last time. The animals still were not the most exciting thing for her, but they had a great play area, and a CAROUSEL! which is Annie's new favorite thing in the world...you can see the joy on her face!

Deck the Halls

The girls did it up Ashley Style at Cathy's house. We hit Homegoods so we could deck Cathy's halls. We got some great stuff to add to her tree, which turned out really beautiful and we set the table for Christmas Day!

I could do this for a living I love decorating trees so much!

Annie geared up to help.

Red cardinals are one of Cathy's favorites b/c JR really loved them.  Kelly and I went and found about 30 of them to put all over her tree.  I think its the perfect touch to make the tree really hers!

Cathy's new reindeer pal.

The Living Desert

The day after TG we went to The Living Desert which is a Zoo here in Palm Desert.  They get the whole place lit up really nicely.  Jayden had a good time, but we decided we wont be rushing back to the event next year, as we think its much better during the day.  We went today and had a great time (those pics to come) with the girls.

The flash really wigged Annie out.

Annie in the tunnel of lights.

This is a close as Annie would get to Santa.

Our Greatest Blessing

Thanksgiving

This has been a really fantastic Thanksgiving.  We spent this year in Palm Desert with Cathy, Todd, Kelly and Jayden.  Everything turned out perfect, and we had a blast moving through the day.  Being away from my family in Fresno is still a relatively new thing, but we are getting our own traditions underhand here and I really enjoyed the day.

We all pitched in cooking, had cocktails out by the fire pit, and the boys watched football on the patio while snuggled up with Annie. 

Every dish that was made turned out wonderful, there is nothing like an amazing homemade meal on Thanksgiving, and the best part?  Leftovers!  I am sure the boys are going to make some pretty impressive sandwiches. 

We are excited to see Darah and Jason and Rachel tomorrow for a play date, and then off to The Living Desert.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and kicked off a fantastic Holiday Season.  We have much to be thankful for, as we went around the table and each named our blessings (Todd's was my Apple cake ;-)), it hit home how lucky we all really are.

I am off to enjoy our fire and watch The Holiday with the family!

Our beautiful table.  Cathy's house is finally all done and we wanted it to blend well with the room, I think it turned out really lovely.  I really loved the pop of turquoise.  Definitely not "traditional" but perfect for a desert Thanksgiving.

Annie's Apple cake.   A new Thanksgiving tradition!

A bit of my traditions making it to our table.  We had to fight the boys off them until 3 pm.

Cathy's beautiful pie!

The boys and Cathy watching football on the patio on the new furniture.

Annie and her Daddy.

Relaxing by the fire...so cozy!

Teddy, Cathy's new puppy.  Annie was smitten.

Our bird!