How time flies...

Our little S just turned six months on Monday. I cannot even believe that she is already six months old. She is sitting up and rolling over and has started eating 'real' food, which has been an adventure. What a joy she has been in our lives so far. Happy half birthday baby!!

S loves watching her sister and brother play with their friends. Today, I left her watching her sister play with her friend, and when I returned, this is what I found. When i asked why she was lying back, they said the glasses wouldn't stay on if she was sitting up. What a good sport!

Best Buds

I think one of the best investments I made this winter (or rather my mom did), was buying small snow shovels for my kids. A is always wanting to help shovel the snow, but the shovels we had were too heavy and bulky. Now, he can help his Dad with this tiresome chore. The great thing is that the shovel actually works and so does A. He also uses it to shovel our trampoline, which has become his regular chore. So here are my two favorite boys, spending some great father and son bonding time, hard at work.

Bubbles

Our little S started blowing raspberries a few weeks ago, we thought it was too cute...

Playing with Dad

I cannot begin to describe what a blessing it is to have such a wonderful husband and father to my children. He is not only a good provider and teacher, he is also a good player(with his kids). This morning, as I was sorting laundry (after a day of rest, time to get back to reality), I see Jorge (still in his PJs) coming up the stairs wearing a cape and belt from his Zorro costume, along with a helmet and sword from his knight costume (he had raided the halloween boxes in the basement). He proceeded to have an epic battle with his son who has refused to remove his knight costume from Christmas.

Then he was able to rest after his battle (he was defeated) by having a tea party with his little princess.

What a warrior and a gentleman.

Merry Christmas

We hope that everyone is having a wonderful Christmas. Ours was quiet, which was exactly what we wanted. Christmas Eve begin with a nice dinner and then our tradition of sharing stories, ending with us reading the story of Christ's birth. We have always tried to make Christmas Eve the opportunity to really emphasis the true meaning of Christmas. Every year, as the kids get older it gets easier and easier to share stories and hold their attention. We have a DVD from the church that has a little 5 minute video of the nativity and have found that after reading the story and talking about it, showing them the video seems to help them understand it better. Getting the kids to sleep is always a challenge, because they are so excited, but finally by about 9:30 Jorge and I could begin our work. We have really tried to simplify this year, so fortunately there were not a ton of packages to wrap, and we were able to get to bed by about 11:00. Christmas morning, A got up first at about 7:00, he came into us and asked his papi to put on some cartoons (which is his usual routine, if he wakes early), we asked if he could wait a little while until everyone was awake, he said okay, and then woke up his sister! So they came into us asking for cartoons and breakfast! Jorge and I sort of laughed and then asked if they remembered what day it was. After a few seconds, their eyes lit up and they both said 'Oh Yeah!' and then they immediately wanted to see if Santa had come. They were excited to see that Santa had eaten his cookies, and that his reindeer had enjoyed their carrots. We had a wonderful time openingpresents and then spent the rest of the day playing with them. V was especially excited about her tea set from Santa (we are all water logged from the many tea parties we have been enjoying).

And A was really excited about a dress up knight's costume from his cousins in California.

Even S had fun opening her gift from Santa.

We bought a Wii as the family gift, so A also really enjoyed knocking out on his mom, dad and sister in the boxing game. It is quite a workout! Jorge actually woke up this morning complaining that he was sore from all of the action. We had a quiet, traditional dinner with some friends and then ended the evening playing all sorts of boardgames and of course the Wii.

Crazy Snow Storm

I guess Old Man Winter really must have been having a great week, because this is what he gave us on Monday. There was so much snow in fact that Jorge got stuck in the middle of the street in his little car.

Trying to shovel his way out!

We eventually got the car back in, and he attempted to leave again, this time in our 4 X 4. He made it out of our neighborhood, but couldn't make it out of the city because the streets were just too bad.

Our lonely trampoline... waiting for a thaw.

It took him a good hour and a half to get down into the neighboring city and then back again. But it was okay, the kids were excited to play in the snow and they also got an extra day with their Papi at home.

First Snow

After an unusually warm fall, old man winter finally hit our house Thursday and Friday. And as you can imagine the kids were excited, the parents not so much. Friday was the last day of school until next year, so it was fitting that the kids could play for the whole afternoon in the snow.

They made snow angels and tried to build a snowman(unfortunately the snow was too dry), and V made her own special batch of "Snow cookies."

Afterwards, while warming up with hot cocoa and cookies, V put her feet up on the table, reclined back and said, "There ain't nothing wrong with this, is there mommy? There ain't nothing wrong with this." After laughing for a few moments, I realized she was right, it was just about perfect.