Lately, Part 2

We've kept pretty busy this past week as well. Brandon and I escaped to Palm Springs for a couple days last weekend. We stayed at a really nice hotel and lounged around the entire time. It was so nice to be together again after such a busy, stressful semester. I feel like I never even saw my husband for over a month at the end there so I loved getting away with just him. We went to dinner at Bing Crosby's which is a super swanky restaurant and piano lounge that describes itself as "golf-course casual by day, Hollywood glam by nightfall." I LOVED it!! The decor was sooo nice inside, I've been inspired about how I want to redecorate my living room (if I ever get money in the budget for it). Lots of greens, tans, dark wood and silver accents. Plus there were awesome black and white pictures of Bing Crosby himself all over the walls. It was a really fun date with my husband, despite getting lost for over an hour trying to find the restaurant. Our mini-getaway was the perfect way to recover from the crazy semester. Here we are at the restaurant:

We took a bike ride down to a shopping center by my Mom's house which was a lot of fun as well. We picked up some stocking stuffers for the boys at Target and enjoyed a leisurely ride back. I love that we were able to do this in t-shirts and shorts in the middle of December, sorry to all my East Coast friends who are stuck in the blizzards ;-)

I really like this picture of Brandon, he's so handsome!!
My Dad took all of us kids bowling the other night. Brandon bowled the best game of his life! Here he is about to bowl his first of 5 strikes in a row!! He ended up with a 205 and was pretty darn proud of it, I was just happy to get my measly 89, ha!

The parents-to-be

Me and the hubs

Brandon and I drove down to Newport the other day during the boys' afternoon nap. It was pretty cold and windy but absolutely STUNNING. I don't think I've ever seen a pretty sunset on the East Coast, I only see the sun setting behind clouds and over buildings in the suburbs. This will have to hold me over for the next 6 months.



We've been going to the park a lot too, the boys LOVE the park!
We took them to the baseball field at the park too and got some really cute pictures. Here's Cullen:

Here he is again on the pitching mound

My boys in the dugout

Daddy teaching Jack how to swing

Home Run!

Rounding the bases with Daddy

Jack has been covering his face with one hand A LOT lately, I think he thinks he's playing peek-a-boo.

Jack with Grandpa

Rachel and I have been busy working on a crafty project to give as gifts, I can't post pictures yet though because I'm giving them to everybody on the O'Malley side. Rachel's pretty darn crafty, and I'm... not. But we had a lot of fun and I think they turned out really well. I'm excited to give them away :-)We also baked Christmas cookies and decorated them last night. We all teased Brandon about his ugly cookies, so he showed us up and made the best one!

And a silly picture of the boys playing with their new toy they got for their birthday.

Lately

Well, we lost our camera cord for a week so I haven't been able to blog, but we found it! What have we been up to this week? Well, last weekend Juli flew down to visit us, we had so much fun!
We made a big batch of tamales (15 dozen to be exact!) to eat on Christmas Eve. Rachel and I went to buy the supplies and we were the only white people in the store and the lady making the masa (who didn't speak any English) gave us the weirdest look when we ordered 20 pounds of it. I kept saying "veinte" but she was talking very quickly and gesturing, but finally a man standing next to us interceded and told her to just give us the 20 pounds. She must have thought we were crazy, since all of the real Mexicans were only ordering half as much as us, but she just shrugged her shoulders and gave us the masa. Rachel and I laughed the whole way home. Then we put on some Christmas music and spent several hours making the tamales. Whatever we're going to do with 15 dozen tamales, I certainly couldn't tell you, but we definitely won't go hungry ;-)
We also took the boys swimming, it was a little colder than it was last summer, but they still loved it!

Cullen just lounged around most of the time

Here's Cullen eating cereal on the kitchen floor.

Jack didn't want to put down his spoon, even while he was drinking his bottle, he had an iron grip on it!

Bathtime! They get soooo many baths at Nana's house.

Playing peekaboo with tupperware

Jack is getting really, really close to standing and walking. He can sometimes stand for a few seconds on his own if you help him to balance initially. And he just LOVES to walk up and down the hallway holding onto somebody's hands. Here are some pictures of him trying out his new skills.

Sometimes he gets so excited that he forgets to balance, starts waving his arms wildly, and throws himself backwards

Here he is standing on his own

Brandon flew in on Thursday night and I am SO GLAD he got out of DC before the snow started falling. Most flights have been canceled and the people stranded there might be stuck until after Christmas. I am just thankful that Brandon made it out in time, it would have been terrible if we had to spend Christmas apart. Thank you Jesus!

Disneyland

We took the boys to Disneyland for a few hours yesterday afternoon between their naps. The whole place was decked out for Christmas! We just walked around and took some pictures, ate some snacks and went on the Carousel.

By the time we got to Mickey, the boys were thoroughly distracted. Jack just wanted to touch the strange creatures standing next to him.

Santa was at Disneyland too so we took another round of pictures. These turned out a little better, they weren't quite as frightened.

Mrs. Clause just adored the boys! She begged us to hold them for a picture!

Cullen wasn't a fan of the carousel until it started moving, then he loved it.

Jack LOVED it! He hung onto the pole and gazed around at the lights and horses.

Santa Pictures!

My Mom's apartment complex had Santa and some carolers in their lobby last night. I had wanted to get some pictures of the boys with Santa but hadn't wanted to pay $30 for them at the mall, so I was excited to get these free ones! However, the boys weren't quite as excited as I was, they cried the whole time!`

I thought that maybe if I held Cullen, he might be in a better mood... nope.

We took a break for a few minutes and bribed the boys with crackers, then ran back over for this picture.

Oh well, I always thought that crying babies with Santa made the cutest pictures, now I have some of my own :-)