Backing up

**This post is 3 weeks old...my computer has been giving me trouble uploading the video, so I never posted it...just had to get a few more Christmas pics up before I could move on** 

In the rush to get Christmas documented, I forgot to post some pre-Christmas pictures.  We had so much fun decorating, baking, looking at lights and getting the kids in their "Christmas Best".  Noah loved going downstairs and turning on the Christmas tree lights.  Elliana caught on and within a few days she was running after him saying, "my turn, my turn".  Soon enough they were taking turns turning on the lights.  Noah really wanted all of our lights on all day.  By 7:30am the Christmas tree lights were on, and I was already being asked, "can I turn the village lights on?  What about the fireplace lights?  Outside lights?..."  I'd usually compromise with one or two more sets of inside lights.  We spent several mornings dancing to Christmas music.  Both the kids love Christmas music (like their mommy and daddy) but we have a strict "no listening to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving" rule, and we begin weaning ourselves from it after Christmas so that by the new year it's off until the next Christmas season.  I'm still having to remind Noah that Christmas is over, and that Christmas music will have to wait until next year.  Enjoy a few more Christmas pictures.

Noah (and Elliana too) loved helping me make all the Christmas goodies.  I may have bribed him with those very Christmas goodies in order to get this picture. :)

 We all had so much fun decorating the Christmas tree

I loved coming home so beautifully decorated with Christmas lights

Christmas Part 2

After waking up, opening gifts from Santa and eating breakfast with Oma and Opa, Hylke's brother, sister and their families joined us to open presents.  We stayed until about 10 am and then headed to my parents house for more Christmas fun.

For several years we've enjoyed a Christmas brunch with my family, and every year we ask my dad to make the same thing- Holiday Morning French Toast.  It is sooooo yummy.  We usually arrive, eat and then open gifts, but this year all the kiddos were anxious to open gifts, so we opened some, ate and then opened some more.  Noah was SO excited about each one of his gifts.  It was so fun to watch him...it's the first year he's really enjoyed Christmas.  He got a talking Woody doll, two new Thomas the Train wooden trains (James and Henry), a big set of Jungle Animals, new wooden train tracks, some books, clothes and a new bike!!  He was in heaven.  Elliana had just as much fun opening and playing with her presents.  As has happened with Noah in the past, we brought home one unopened gift...she was too interested in playing with the things she had already opened, and didn't care about opening the last gift.  That's ok, her birthday is less than two months away....she'll never know. :)

The kids are at such a great age.  They loooove being at Grandma and Baca's house and both of them gave my parents some great cuddle time.  Elliana would ask for my dad first thing in the morning and Noah loved the special time reading books with my mom and playing with "Tom the cat" on my moms phone. They also had a great time playing with their cousins.  So fun to watch them make memories.  We really had a great time relaxing, eating, laughing and enjoying time with each otherHere are some pics from our time with my family:

My nieces and Noah were the present hander-outers :)

 

Elliana talking on her new "alphaberry" maybe she'll want to use mommy's blackberry less :)

 

This sweet smile shows the excitement he had after opening each gift 

 

We teased my mom (mercilessly, I'm afraid) about the lack of gift tags on the gifts this year.  She had to peek in the bags to see whose was whose.  She got lots of new gift tags the day after Christmas. :)

Elliana loved her new purse--and all of the goodies that it came with!

 Noah loved his new James train--thank you, Grandma and Baca!

 And his new Woody doll. :)

 

 Elliana loved snuggle time with "baca" 

we found her like this several times over the weekend

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A glimpse of my WHAT?!

I can hardly believe that I've looked at my header as many times as I have and never noticed that it said, "A Glimpse of my WOLRD!"  How many of you have been keeping quiet??  Maybe some of you never picked up on it either--whew.  I'm going to leave it up for a day or so just so you can see it (or just because I don't have the time to sit and fix it right now). :) Thankfully I have a friend who cared enough to tell me. :)  Thanks, Jess.  From now on, please tell me when I'm making a grammatical fool of myself...well, don't tell me every time. ;) haha.

Catching up: Christmas part 1

It's true, the Holidays have come and gone.  We are in 2011 and I've been thinking about some things I'd like to implement in the new year.  I'm not big on resolutions, but a fresh start to a new year seems the perfect time to think about areas for growth and change.  But, I'll have to save that for another post.  First, I have some Christmas catching up to do!

We had a wonderful Christmas.  It was fun and relaxing, full of good food, great company and sweet times with family.  We made some new family traditions and enjoyed watching the kids soak in all that this time of year has to offer.  We never tired of looking at Christmas lights, listening to Christmas music and talking about the Christmas story.  We read lots of great Christmas books and made lots of Christmas treats.

After the Christmas eve service at our church we headed to Hylke's parents house for a nice dinner with his parents and younger brother and family.  We even let Opa open one of his presents early.  This year I made a couple of gifts.  I don't sew...well, I didn't sew...until this year.  As I was browsing through a "homemade Christmas" gift idea book, I came across a great idea for Opa's Christmas present.  Hylke's parents live on a farm and his dad is always bringing in wood for the fire with just his hands.  So, I enlisted the help of a friend and asked her to do nothing more than provide her sewing machine, and guidance if I had any questions and made Opa a log carrier.  It was an easy project, but was so fun to do! It was extra fun because her machine has an embroidery option too.  It was fun to personalize a couple gifts this year!

The kids were very willing to help Opa unwrap his present

We stayed the night at Oma and Opa's house, and Noah could hardly wait to see if Santa brought what he asked for...you know the choo-choo underwear he asked for. :)  Really, he asked Santa to bring "choo-choo underwear".  He made it easy on Santa this year...and since Santa was already doing some online shopping at Gymboree for said choo-choo underwear he went ahead and bought some undies for E too.  They were both THRILLED!  Noah called my parents and said, "Santa brought me SO MUCH (3 pair) underwear!!!!!"  WOW.  Easy to please. :)

 Santa went ahead and threw in some guitar and dinosaur underwear too...he was extra generous this year. ;)

 Although she doesn't look overly excited in this picture, I assure you she was. :)

 Tomorrow....Christmas part 2

Santa and stuff

Up until this year, Noah hasn't been a huge fan of Santa.  We did a Santa picture for his first Christmas, but the past two years we just didn't bother.  We decided to give it a try this year and Noah loved it!  Elliana?  Not so much. :)  We started with just the kiddos and Santa...

 

Hoping to get a little smile from E, we added Mommy and Daddy...

 

Realizing that a smile probably wouldn't happen (no big deal :) ) We took one of just Noah and Santa...

 

Noah and Sydney (one of his best friends)

  

It's been a full month.  Really full.  Like, 8 Christmas parties, 3 weekends of overnight guests, cooking/baking for 25 dinner guests, shopping, wrapping and trying to stay sane in the midst of all of it full. :)  Don't get me wrong, I love it (esp having overnight guests!)!  But it has been full. Even though it was full, we made time for our annual Tom's Farm trip with Hylke's mom and dad, brother, sister and their families.  The kids always look forward to riding the train with Oma and Opa!

 

 

Our last TMOMs of the semester the kids came in and sang for us.  It was the first time either one of my kids had "performed" for me.  It was such a special morning.  Here's a quick glimpse of my cuties.

 

Noah refused to wear his "Christmas Chain". :)  Oh well.

Fall and Dress-up

If you've been around me much in the Fall, you may have heard me complain at how warm California is in the fall.  I am ready for cool, crisp weather on September 1.  If you are familiar with California (esp. Southern California) weather, you know that this makes for a very unhappy girl for about 2-2 1/2 months (it is currently 79 on December 11!).  You may have even heard me complain that though CA is wonderful we fail big time in the "pretty fall leaves" department.

Well, this year has kind of been an exceptional fall.  We have had some cool days (beginning in SEPTEMBER!) a good amount of rain (I LOVE rain) and the trees look beautiful!  If you've been around me this fall, you've certainly heard me comment on how pretty the trees look.  I have enjoyed driving all around beautiful Redlands admiring the fall leaves...some on the trees, and some on the ground.  If you're not familiar with Redlands, it's a very established city, with lots of mature trees.  In fact, I happen to live on a street with lots of mature Liquid Amber trees, and they are GORGEOUS.  Here are a few pictures I took from my front lawn.  Thank you, Lord for such a beautiful Fall!

On to dress-up.  My little girl is such a little girl.  That may seem obvious, but it kind of surprised me.  Let me clarify.  First, she is as rough and tumble as they come.  She LOVES dirt (remember this?), puddle jumping, mud splashing, and she even loves to play with her brother's trucks and trains.  BUT...she also LOVES shoes, clothes, purses, jewelry and make-up.  Now, I'd like to think that it's because she sees how cute and trendy her momma looks each day, or because she sees me faithfully making myself up in the morning, maybe because she knows how much her momma loves shoes and purses.  But alas, that is sadly not it.  You see, I'm kind of a jeans and sweatshirt girl, I do wear make-up (from time to time), and sure I love shoes (I'm desperately in need of new shoes!!!!! and can count on one had the number I actually wear) and purses (the two that I own are awesome!)  So, this little one is naturally a girl...choosing a purse and shoes over tools (most of the time) and more interested in dress up than dinosaurs.  I couldn't resist snapping a few photos of her latest fashion show, I hope you enjoy!