Piper couldn’t wait to help Daddy celebrate his birthday.  She wanted to call him as soon as she woke up to wish him a happy birthday.  Later she helped mommy pick out a cake that she carried all the way home by herself.  She also added the candles and extra decorations.  She was very proud of this cake.  Piper also helped wrap presents and put up some decorations.  It’s so sweet to see her get excited for others. 

We celebrated by taking daddy to a new burger place which was right beside Chuck E. Cheese.  Of course we had to stop in for a bit.  Then we had cake and opened presents. 

Staying warm and snug on this wet rainy day.

Tonight we decorated a gingerbread house and made hot chocolate.  Piper had a blast decorating the house.  She spent a lot of time putting on the details. 

Reading to her baby brother before a nap.

The finished product

Santa made a special visit to the Huntington Gardens.  We went to see him but weren’t sure how the kids would react.  Piper was really good and even talked to him.  This is the first year she actually smiled for the photo.  Andrew didn’t cry either.  A success!

After the photo we walked around to see some of the damage from the wind storm.

The Children’s Garden

Our weather lately has been very chilly.  It’s dropped into the low 30’s at night.  Brrr!  Above is a photo of the kids keeping warm in their jammies.

A little update from the wind storm last week.  It appears our neighborhood of Brigden Ranch was one of the harder hit areas.  We lost 80 trees and most of them were between 70 – 110 years old.  The streets are still cluttered with tree debris.  Every house has a huge pile in front making it difficult to travel in a car.  I included a few more photos below.

This is a tree from our park.  I hope to have more park photos to share soon

This is from my friend Emily.  A huge tree fell on top of her neighbor’s Ford Explorer and crushed it.  That is black object underneath the tree.

This is a small glimpse of what the roads look. 

This is a tree that fell in another friends yard.  That is their 4 year old daughter sitting on the tree so you can tell the size.  Luckily it did not hit their house.