Lauren's first snow

Lauren was so excited to play in the snow she jumped out of the car and right into the foot of snow at grandma and grandpa's before we even got snow pants on her! Once we got her into the proper clothes she played outside for almost an hour while we had Christmas eve dinner! It must be her Scandanavian blood.
-Ben

White Christmas in Minnesota

We made a Christmas day snowman at my parents house. The snow was wet and perfect for construction1
-Ben

program

-Ben

Lauren's xmas program at school

all 3 and 4 yr olds. it is so cute!
-Ben

Angels breakfast

Some of Lauren's artwork

from Noah's place at church and from preschool.

Rice krispie bars!

Let's make some rice krispie bars, Mom!

Thanksgiving weekend in LA

Shopping around town on Friday, and enjoying some excellent noodle soup at Fu Fu Tei restaurant. Mmmm!
-Ben

Thank you!

Thank you Auntie Nancy & Uncle Geoff for my birthday gifts! I'm going to wear all the barrets at the same time!
-Lauren

Birthday cake hat! Cool!

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Evening stroll

My beautiful wife out for a family stroll.

Ranch 99 shopping w/ Sophie and Nicole

Yes - they do sell fresh bullheads at Ranch 99. Mmmm...

Megan's bday party

mmm!

Johnson farm 3

Lauren forces a cheese while playing on the tractor with a new friend. We had a great time feeding the animals, going on a hay ride, choosing some pumpkins and decorative corn from the field, and meeting some of the families there who are part of a local home schooling group. Good times!
We may go back in the winter for a Christmas tree - the main business for the farm is Christmas trees that you cut down yourself.

Johnson farm 2

I wasn't fast enough to catch Sophie panting to do the sign for dog. She had a huge smile on her face as she petted this big farm dog. You can see she has no fear even though he is about 3 times her size!

Johnson farm

Sophie dismantles the tip of a corn cob she found while gleaning in the field at Johnson's farm in Boulder Creek (not too far north of Santa Cruz).

Yee haw!

Sophie rides the horse in the dentist's waiting room.
-Ben

Cutting paper

Lauren is saying cheese while cutting some paper before bedtime.

New phone

I just picked up a new phone with a full keyboard on it and a 3Mpixel camera. Much better for posting to the blog! It isn't an official "smart phone" because I didn't want to start paying an extra $30/month for a required data plan. Still, it is a lot smarter than my old phone and the keyboard makes typing a message like this possible. The model I got is the Lg enV3. So far so good... hopefully I can avoid soaking my new phone like Nicole did to her enV2 (partly my fault for the bad choice of sippy bottle I put in the diaper bag that day)- at least hers still works but her display blinks all the time now. :(
-Ben

Mmmm!

"Kay-kay" - Sophie's word for cake. We were grocery shopping at ranch99 this evening.
-Ben

Hammer time

If you listen carefully, you can hear Hammer saying in a muffled voice, "save... me!.... Can't.... breathe!"

Hammer

Here is our hamster "Hammer" (as Sophie has named him). As you can see, he can really move!

Ice cream anyone?

The girls are taking turns playing "ice cream stand" - something they do almost every day! Yum!

Name?

Sophie's latest development is to point to people or characters in a book and say, "name"? It sure is cute!

Fireman's Pancake Breakfast

We headed down the block to the local firehouse for the annual pancake fundraiser a few weeks ago on a beautiful Saturday morning. The pancakes were excellent. We heard the chef was none other than the infamous chef of the Facebook cafe, who apparently used to work at the Google cafe. Unfortunately, pancakes were about all they had left by the time we got there, as the sausages and fruit were popular among the early birds. Sophie and Lauren were quite happy to find they still had plenty of syrup.





The kids learned to stop, drop, and roll, as well as watch a live demo of some fire fighters rescuing someone from a smoking building. They also had box car races and a couple fire engines for the kids to climb around in.







Sophie was getting extra friendly with this kid she never met before (she almost kissed her), and this little girl is concerned!

gilroy gardens

sophie loves to figure out the buckles even though we are at an amusement park!

Visiting Iowa

We haven't taken the time to put some pictures of our vacation to MN, IA, and WI on the blog. It's about time (3 months later)!

Here we are checking out the park behind Grandma and Grandpa's house in Waterloo, Iowa. It was so neat to be back there to visit with Aunt Cindy, Grandma and Grandpa, and show our kids some of my favorite places when I was their age.








We also attended the Holmstrom family reunion in Maynard, IA which is about 30 minutes from Waterloo. I didn't know I had so many relatives! The reunion went back as far as my Great Grandfather Edward Holmstrom and his siblings level and down. He had 5 brothers and sisters, and my grandpa had 6 siblings so it can get big fast! Here we are with the Edward Holmstrom clan.

Captain Sophie

Captain Sophie shows Uncle Geoff how to steer the pontoon boat safely. This was during our trip to Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin in July.

Cheese!

Sophie is ready to water ski!

A short sunday afternoon hike

Methusala redwood tree in santa cruz mtns - 1800 years old!

Easter Flashback

What's up, doc?

bonfante gardens!

quack quack

Lets Play!

Half moon bay

Finding treasures in the sand

Strawberry ride! Wee!

Rides at great america