California Trip

We have had a busy busy 10 days visiting family in California. Joseph did a great job traveling on the plane and the drive to Bakersfield. Shortly after our arrival Matt was put to work doing some manual labor assembling a play structure for his neice and nephew. Joseph had lots of fun playing with his cousins and reading with grandparents. We had some family pictures taken. We don't have them back yet, but I'll post them when we do. We did some geocaching, played games, and ate WAY to much junk food (that is what the holidays are for right??) We head home tomorrow and we are very excited to sleep in our own beds!!
Took tons of pictures. Here are just a few of them.

 

I think we will show this to Joseph's first girlfriend :)



Love Uncle Matthew



TRAINS!!!



Dr. Joseph Divelbiss



Daddy passed his exam with flying colors



Already driving :(



Chloe and Hudson



Reading with Papa



Christmas Morning- Opening Stockings

JJ and Daddy with our new Mickey



Christmas Disaster!



Reading the paper with Papa

Don't have the professional pictures back yet but here are some we took.

Awwww

Feeding a bunch of very aggressive ducks and geese

 


This is Grammy's dancing duck. "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands"

"If you're happy and you know it stomp your feet"



"If you're happy and you know shout horray!"

Fun Times :)

Finals are a stressful time, but we can still have fun! Here is a video of Matt on a break from studying.

Joseph and I have had lots of fun baking this year. I already posted about our Peppermint Bark. Here are some more baking pictures :)

Oreo Truffles.
I didn't get pictures of the creation process, but Joseph loves "smooshing" the Oreos!

Making Cookies- eventually they will be Peppermint Sugar Cookies!

Ready to bake!

Joseph doesn't like to get his hands "dirty" so frosting wasn't for him.
Sprinkling the candy canes was ok though!

Holiday Traditions

One of our favorite holiday traditions is dipping chocolate. We are breaking it up over several nights this year (instead of one massive dipping night). Tonight we made Peppermint Bark. JJ helped me smash the candy canes. He was really excited! Our later dipping adventures are going to include something new... Oreo Truffles :) We will also probably dip pretzels and homemade thin mints :)

Smashing candy canes. For a toy hammer it works really well :)

The final product!

A few have requested the recipe. Its ridiculously easy :)

Ingredients:

-1 1/2 packages of Bakers Milk Chocolate

-2 packages of Bakers White Chocolate

-7 Candy Canes (less if you want a more subtle peppermint)

Directions:

Place wax on a cookie sheet. Melt milk chocolate via double boiler. Pour over wax paper. Don't worry about covering the entire cookie sheet. Put in freezer. Melt white chocolate via double boiler. Put in candy cane pieces. Smashing them with a hammer while they are still in the wrapper is the easiest. I put about 5 candy canes in the chocolate. Pour the white chocolate over the milk chocolate. Spread it to cover all of the milk chocolate as best as you can. Sprinkle more candy cane pieces on top (I do about 2 more candy canes). Put back in the freezer. Once completely solid brake it into pieces and ENJOY!

Decorating our Tree

We were supposed to decorate our tree on Black Friday but we have been suffering from the flu and Joseph ended up getting pneumonia on top of it. After a hard couple of days we are finally well enough to decorate our tree. Joseph had a lot of fun. In fact when we finished Joseph wanted to "do it again!"

Each year Joseph gets a new ornament. This year was a Thomas ornament :)

Putting on an ornament

Putting on our Mickey Mouse ornament. Joseph gets a new ornament every year- this was last years.

Admiring the tree

Joseph had a ball corner

The final product!

So cute!! Had we not already made our Christmas cards, I might have used this picture instead.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving with my parents. It was a wonderful 68 degrees, so JJ spent some of it outside. Joseph also helped Grandma in the kitchen. We took our family picture for our Christmas Cards, and of course we ate TURKEY! Here are lots of pictures :)

Playing basketball with Grandpa

Playing Golf

Aww aren't we cute!

Helping Grandma Cook

Our Family Picture

Playing after dinner- He likes to make circles around his mouth.
Whatya gonna do? I suppose there are worse things.

Watching Tangled

Changes over the past year

I was looking through my pictures and realized that Joseph and I took a picture that was almost identical to another one we had taken about a year ago. Its fun to see the change in Joseph. Don't pay attention to the fact that my son is in desperate need of a haircut (he is getting one on Tuesday)

Halloween

It has been a fun Halloween. We went over to my parents for Trick or Treating. Joseph was an adorable fireman. He went to about 10 or so houses before he was done. However once went back to my parent's house he liked handing out the candy more. He would get so excited every time the doorbell rang, run over, and give each person a piece of candy. It was so cute.

I love how his costume is reflective :)

SOO CUTE!

Looking at my mom's pumpkin candles

Playing the Piano with daddy while we wait for more trick or treaters

JJ's Clubhouse

We built Joseph his first fort and called it JJ's Clubhouse. He loved it! He brought in all his toys and watched Mickey's clubhouse.

Pumpkin Farm

Joseph had a fun day with Grandma and Grandpa at the Pumpkin Farm! He got to ride a pony and pick out his own pumpkin. The pictures are too cute not to share!

Sitting on the pumpkins

BIG PUMPKIN!

JJ and Grandpa

Riding on the Pony

Isn't he cute?!?!?!

Hugging the Pony Goodbye

This is the pumpkin he picked out. There was no talking him into a bigger one :)