pizza pizza

the other night i wanted to surprise brady with dinner. he has been eating hospital cafeteria food every meal and the other night when we had pizza, it wasn't super filling. so i got to his apartment before he came home to make him some homemade pizza. trader joes makes this possible... you buy their $1.50 dough, the sauce, a couple fun cheeses and decorate with all the trimmings. i had to use his doctor gloves!

gluten schmooten.

our christmas together

brady has been very busy with his schedule at the hospital again so our time together for christmas was short but lots of fun! he is always the best with making sure we make the most of our little bits of time.

we first went on a hike to the pacific palisades. we have been wanting to do this hike for a while so we hurried over there before the sun went down. it was a beautiful hike, only four miles total and had the prettiest views of malibu, santa monica and downtown los angeles.

there was this cute old englishman that we asked to take our picture with the scenery in the background but instead he insisted on getting close-up without LA behind us! we couldn't hold in our smiles... it was pretty funny.

after the hike, we worked up a good enough appetite for pizza. pumpkin pizza.

.. it ended up being so small and the soup we ordered i couldn't eat so we just went back to his apartment to eat lots of chocolate and open our christmas gifts to each other.

i did the 12 days of christmas for brady - just full of random gifts but the last gift was this little deck of cards... similar to the one my friend jenn made for her husband.

it took longer than i thought it would but was fun nonetheless to think of 52 things. i love this guy!

a merry christmas

christmas morning was early and exciting. jackson said he heard santa come down the chimney and heard him "ho ho ho!" he saw the plates of cookies and carrots almost finished and said, "see mommy, he loves cookies... he ate them all!" we had a very simple and quiet christmas with having family spread out but it was great! jack received his first real t-ball set and a razor among other gifts. we felt very blessed and fortunate.

we attended church where the choir did a great job portraying the life of the Savior through the beautiful hymns that were sung. jack was a bit restless so i told him to lay his head down on my lap, where he found a nap fit his mood best. i love lap naps... i hope they still continue for a little longer since i don't have another babe to take his nap place during church.

although i'm a stickler about activities on sunday, i figured we could take his new razor out for a spin together. i took his old razor out while he rode his new one. we took it to one of our favorite parks that had a large wall to climb, fun swings and even live chirstmas music. i loved this time i didn't have to share him with anyone and just chat with my little boy about his christmas.

we came back to my parent's home to my grandparents who showered us with gifts and food and lots of love. jackson calls them his great-train-grandparents since their trip from where we live to san diego on the train.

after we played outside with my brother blake and dad with his new t-ball set. my family is obsessed with baseball and so it's fun to see them take jack in as a new player in the family. jack has a mean left arm so they are training him for the big leagues. jack said this christmas day that he wants to be a professional baseball player for the angels. brady taught him how to properly throw, so blake and jack played catch to warm up his arm.

he loves his new mit that fits his right hand.

my grandparents set up their bleachers in their new volkswagon van and watched us play! so cute.

it was a good game.

a new handshake was born this day between poppi and jack.

love good family bonding over baseball.

he set up his new toy outside for tomorrow and put his bat my padres drink cooler. love his creativity.

we celebrated with some gluten-free chocolate cake and chocolate-chip ice cream. it was a memorable and happy christmas!

christmas eve

christmas eve was a lot of me and jack time. i loved every second of it!

we snuggled up in the morning to some good books.

he walked around holding the gift brady gave him, ready to open it. he was so excited to see it since he wouldn't see brady for a week or so.

every year we try to visit fashion island during the holidays to see the christmas tree.

for lunch we went with my family to newport beach's fashion island for some good food at the daily grille. of course jack performed for us the irish jig!

after we treated ourselves with some gluten-free sprinkles cupcakes!

red-velvet is their only flavor we can eat, but it was the best cupcake i've had in a long time.

the drive back was gorgeous. PCH is always beautiful but especially around the holidays.

we played scrabble and nerts with jack. i love how he enjoys spelling out words and the excitement i see on his face when he gets the spelling right.

we baked some sugar cookies and prepared the carrots for the reindeer. he asked to put some of his toys out for santa to give to the children who need toys. he had me label what each plate was for. i told him santa is probably tired of all these cookies, shouldn't we put something more healthy? he said, "no mom, santa only eats cookies and lots of them."

he opened up brady's gift which was cat and the hat book as well as a little funny disposable camera. he was the happiest little guy. so far he has taken 15 pictures in two days with that camera and has read that book 6 times.

he was so excited to go to sleep that he closed his eyes tightly after we read books and covered his little body with his covers. i watched "it's a wonderful life" with my family until each of them slowly tapped out to fall asleep.

it was a great christmas eve.

home is whenever i'm with you

on wednesday i dropped jackson off at the airport to fly by himself to long beach. there was a delay and so we had to wait a little more than expected. a nice family let jack play pacman to help time pass. we said goodbye...

and then friday

i waited back in the same place i did before,

and i picked him up!

just in time for christmas!

so excited to have him home!