For those of you who have ever wondered why Matt was never the lead singer in any of his bands, here is your answer:
(This was Christmas Day and Matt had been helping in the kitchen. Don't you think the gingerbread man apron puts it over the top? Btw, we've dubbed those dance moves by Matt "The Special Ed" and it's really quite difficult to do. If you don't believe me, try it!)
Christmas is the busiest season of the year. Maybe when we're not traveling to Utah (if ever), it will help calm things down a bit for us. But this year before we left Long Beach we had two must-do activities remaining.
The first was the Long Beach Aquarium. I had won some passes to the aquarium earlier in the year and they would expire before we got back home. It was nice since we hadn't been there in a while.
The boys loved this little tank with about 20 tiny rays and Seth even dared to put his hand in a few times. Isaac has become quite interested in rays. I couldn't help but laugh when he asked the attendant what their names were.
We also couldn't miss our traditional trip to Naples with Grampa Lee and Pam. We went to CPK and then walked around Naples to see the lights. We noticed that on one whole side of the canal nobody was home and NO Christmas lights were up or on. We were so surprised, since usually there are lights as far as the eye can see. Then our suspicions were confirmed when we saw this:
The dual bucket arial lift made Isaac's night! It was pretty amazing to watch that massive thing move from the other side of the canal.
Thanks grandpa and Pam for a great time! 
The season partying started with a small fondue party at the Field's house. Even though we are still in the "experimenting" stage, it was delicious and we resolved to do it sooner than next Christmas!
The boys loved it!
Isacc won't stop creating! (And making a mess in the process).
This is what happens when mom is gone and dad is at the computer:
The boys decided to try jumping off the bunk bed without adult supervision (as are the rules).
Fortunately, the impact only squished the bone in Seth's foot together (I forget what it's called), so as soon as he was able, he was allowed to bear weight on it. We found that riding his bike was the best way he could play until he could run around! Even though he could weight-bear after two days, he wore the brace for 10 days and he passed inspection just in time for our trip to Utah!
We went to Heritage Park for play group today. It has been 3 years since the last time we were there when Seth was about one month old! It is a huge, beautiful park with cannons and other "old and fashioned" things that Isaac loves.
Matt came with me the second time I saw Twilight. Instead of a bunch of screaming teenagers, the audience consisted of bunches of couples. I don't know how much this altered my experience from the previous viewing, but it was MUCH better the second time while I tried to watch it from a "never read it before" point of view. (It also helped to be holding Matt's hand throughout!) Matt's response to my very hesitant inquiry as to how he liked it was, "Interesting..." (Woo hoo!) Then he kept asking questions (of course, all about the vampire aspect). The next morning you can imagine my jaw dropping when he told me he was considering reading it!
Back when I was reading it and he was mocking me, I told him he could learn a lot from Edward. Well, today I found out how correct that statement was. After his refusal to finish bathing the boys because of my criticisms, I attempted to block his way out of the bathroom. After a quick little struggle he stopped (while I kept "pushing" him) and looked down at me and said, "Do you know how easy it would be for me to move you? I'm a lot stronger than you." The meadow scene immediately flashed through my mind. Unfortunately, he wasn't hypothetically threatening my life, otherwise I could have responded appropriately and kissed him. Instead I gave a disappointed look and said, "That wasn't what you were supposed to learn from Edward!"
A group of us gals (young and old) went to see twilight on opening night. I'm waiting to see how I feel after I see it again without the screaming teens (though that was pretty entertaining in and of itself!) But for now, I wasn't thrilled...
I know, I'm horrible. I've been wanting to do this for over a week, but I've been exercising self control...until now. I just can't wait for Christmas and since it was getting cold and cloudy here today, I finally gave in and winterized my layout.
Today is Isaac's fifth birthday and I wish I had something fun to report, but we're having his party next week, so for now we'll post about one of his best friend's party, who happens to have been born two days before Isaac.
Prince and Isaac became close friends last year in preschool. Prince is now in kindergarten and misses Isaac so much that one day his dad took him late to kindergarten just so he could stop by the preschool and see Isaac (they had lost our phone number).
While I was taking pictures of Isaac and Prince, Matt pointed out that Seth had joined up with a family we shared our lunch table with. Seth is pontificating on the facts of the new plastic snake he got in the pinata.
You can tell it had been 5 months since these friends had seen each other!
Why walk on the sidewalk when there's piles of snow to walk through? This was Isaac's usual everywhere he walked.
