The Kaweah Oak Preserve

This weekend we decided we were due for a little adventure, so we headed out to the Kaweah Oak Preserve. It is always neat to see the valley in, what may seem like, its natural state. The Yokut Tribes were once the largest tribe in North America. Tulare Lake was a large factor in that it made the surrounding area fertile. The lake once reached from as far east as Kettleman City, to as far west as Lemoore. This made it the largest freshwater lake in the United States. Eventually the damming and destruction of the lake and the Yokut people changed the landscapre dramatically. The Preserve we visited has attempted to recreate a similar landscape, and minus the abundance of water, have done a pretty fair job. In whatever season we visit the preserve, it is always beautiful.

Giving Emery a lesson about oak galls.

Emery loves cows and was very excited to discover these guys.

Not so sure about the oak galls.

Emery was a great little hiker and loved walking along the trails.

17 Months

Emery is 17 months now! She seems to think she is quite the big girl these days. Her new words that we wrote down (I feel like there are more but can't remember them) for this month are: Grandpa, yee-haw, ready, apple, hey-o, potty, ta-da, purple, and blue. She recognizes when we get to places she's familar with (Grandpa and Grandma's house, the cousin's house, etc) and she gets so excited in her carseat, kicking her legs, exclaiming, and pointing.

 

This pictures are from a couple afternoons at the Nickell cousin's house playing outside.

She and Natalie were so cute playing together in Natalie's little tent. I love that she's old enough now to do things like this without any prompting.

Emery decided she was big enough to try out one of their scooters. No one told her what to do she just watched the cousins and then did it herself.

Christmas Day

We started Christmas morning bright and early by going to our church's Christmas morning service at 7:00am. Jonah and I led the carols along with Pastor Bruce. (Once again sorry for any blurry pictures but my lense is probably going to be broken for a while)

 

Evan got to light the last Advent Candle and Pastor Bruce read the kids a book and when Emery saw her cousins up on stage she wanted to be up there as well so her daddy took her up.

 

The Nickell kids played and sang Little Drummer Boy  together. They did a great job and everyone enjoyed the performance.

Cousins in Christmas pjs.

Back at our house we hosted Christmas for Jonah's family so we waited for his siblings to arrive between 9:00-10:00am.  There were TONS of presents.

All the Trevino cousins.

Getting ready to open gifts.

 

 There was wrapping paper and presents everywhere!



Everyone had to leave around 2:00pm so we cleaned up a bit real quick and then headed out to my parent's house for round 2. 

All the Chandler cousins.



Being the youngest Emery got to open the first gift, her cousins were happy to help her.

We decided to do Secret Santa this for gifts and it seemed to work out really well. Jonah got Evan and gave him Squigz. Evan had requested these and was quite pleased.

Playing with the Squigz.

Daddy reading Emery and new book from Pastor Bruce.

Emery got new pj pants to match her cousins.

 

All in all it was a very blessed and happy Christmas celebrating together with the people who are dear to us.

Christmas Eve

We decided to celebrate Christmas as just our little family on Christmas Eve since we were going to be busy on Christmas day. It was cozy, quiet, and not rushed.

 

We had a hard time getting this picture so please excuse the blank wall and our carbon monoxide alarm that joined our family for the picture.

 Emery with the first gift of the night.

My regular camera lense has decided to stop auto focusing so I have to focus it myself which is something I am out of practice. Its also especially hard to focus when your subjects move and the lighting is dim so please forgive the blurry pictures.

We got Emery a guitar and she loved it. Here Jonah is tightening the strings and she can't wait for him to give it to her.

Finally getting to play.

I loved our Christmas Eve and think it might have to be our tradition.

The Grinch House

On our way home from the progressive dinner (see post below) we stopped by the Grinch House to watch the show. I was hoping Emery would be a little more excited about it than she was but she was pretty tired so she sat quietly in her carseat and watched the lights.

3 Part Dinner

My dad has been sick so instead of the usual family dinner at my parent's we did a progressive dinner. Our house was first for pizza.

 

We went to the Nickell's next for dessert and a show provided by the kids on their tin whistles. 

And the last stop for hot drinks was at the Kerr's apartment.

16 Months

Emery turning 16 months was on our christmas tree hunt day so those pictures are posted below. I didn't have any other pictures from that day so I just pulled some pictures off my phone of her recently (sorry for the low quality on some of the photos). Her new words this month are: please, thank you, peek-a-boo, love you, poop, baby, choo-choo, and sticker. I feel like she suddenly actually "plays" with toys and stuffed animals now and it's really fun to play with her. One of her favorite things right now is to wrap a baby up in a blanket and carry it around.

 

She picked out this Rudolph while we Christmas shopped.

 

Playing peek-a-boo on our way to get the mail.

She has fun putting clothes over her head and walking around blindly trying to find me.