My Big Girl is 3!

Sunday was Elena's actual birthday. We had waffles for dinner (per her request) and enjoyed a nice evening at home with Granny, Granddad, and Aunt BB.
Because Monday was a holiday and that's when my parents were able to come, we had Elena's birthday party on MLK Day. She wanted to have a pajama party, so we invited all of her friends over for a light brunch in the morning.

We ate mini-muffins and orange juice:

Poor Shelley and Kristin had to eat on the kitchen floor.
I guess the front room got pretty crowded.

The kids all played for a while:

Elena and Reese in the foreground.

Ms Humphreys kept Kevin entertained during the party.

I read "The Napping House": Pin a star in the night sky:

Raegan's turn. I just held the blindfold on their faces.
It was easier than tying it.
It didn't stop a couple of them from peeking though. :)

Pinata time:

Dan was brave enough to hold on the end of a stick.
(We looked around for a star/moon pinata, but no luck.)
Some of the kids really got into it. I wish I had a video of Luke!

Elena blew out the candles:

I hope that she made a wish because I forgot to remind her!

Everyone ate the cupcakes:

This is one of only 2 pictures were I was able to get with multiple kids in the picture together.

Time to open presents:

The audience.

And play some more:

Laurel and Elena with her new easel and princess dress.

The party was a lot of fun. I never would have thought that we could host 20 kids at our house at once, but I think it was a success. I'm so grateful that people took the time out of their holiday to come and help us celebrate with Elena!

A couple of days after her birthday, Elena got something special in the mail from Barbie and Kevin (via woot.com). Isn't this little foam house awesome?
She'll be loving it for years. I used to pretend I had a clubhouse by putting a tablecloth over my parents' card table, and now my kids have a little house with a flower garden and a skylight! :) I set it up in about 20 minutes and it's supposed to be very easy to take down too. Although, she's enjoying it too much for me to find out yet. :)

7 Months Today!

Kevin Ezequiel in a nutshell:

• Very, very happy child.
• Loves his sister, mom, and dad.
• 8 teeth!
• Good eater.
• Loves banging things: spoon on table/toy hammer on the floor/small toy on a larger toy. Anything will do.
• Great napper. (I deserved that this time around.)
• Still immobile. He just spins in circles on the floor and rolls a lot.
• Enjoys grabbing noses and trying to pull/twist them off.
• Gives awesome, wet kisses.
• Hates having his nose wiped/face cleaned. This one is unfortunate since he's currently getting over croup and has a fountain pouring out of his nose all day.
• 19 pounds!
  
• Freaks out when a book is being read to him. He loves it.
  
• Almost never cries. Seriously. (Well...except this week when he's been so pitiful and sick.)
• Very loved!!!
  

The Lake

Dan is very busy with school and studying, and on days-off, we generally end up playing games at the home or going to my parents However, we do occasionally get out and do fun things with just the 4 of us. Don't believe me? I have proof!
Dan got a child bike seat for Christmas, so we went on a run/bike ride around a nearby lake. We didn't do the whole 7 miles (hah!), but we had a lot of fun and it was a beautiful day. We even switched for a while I got to ride with Elena while he ran with Kevin. Elena insisted that we switch back though because "Daddy goes faster."

When we asked her what her favorite part of the morning was, she said, "Throwing rocks at the lake." I wasn't surprised since she asked us to stop and let her throw rocks a dozen times. How beautiful is my sweet boy?!

Christmas in California

I finally got all my Christmas pictures downloaded. It's been a busy month with sick kids, sick me and Dan, Elena's birthday (there will be a post about that soon), and reorganizing/rebounding after being out of town. These pics are not in order and only represent a few of the fun things we did while we were there. In fact - most of them are just of us hanging out because that is when I remembered to pull out the camera.
We had a BLAST and loved seeing everyone: Dan's parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, and great nieces and nephews were all there for a grand total of 35 people (plus the Martinezes and the Kuntzmanns on the 26th). I'll try to give everyone a title (ie: niece, brother, etc.) so that those who don't know us won't be totally lost, but frankly: if you don't know us, this post will be pretty boring. :)

Bowling with the Andersons (Dan's sister Barbie's family).

Bowling with the other Disons (Dan's brother's family). Dang! I never got a group picture.

Elena and Jaxon (he is Dan's niece Jenise's son). So cute!

Beckett and Kevin are 8 weeks apart. Beckett is Dan's niece Felisha's son. (My boy can drool!)
Felisha with a very chill Beckett - I love the reindeer outfit!

Aunt Connie and Uncle Joe with Elena.

Dan and niece Emily.

Dan's parents in the middle siblings on the sides. I love this picture except Kathie's eyes are closed. The fancier camera that someone brought took a great picture of them though. Nephew Samuel put the pictures on my computer memory card and as soon as I figure out how to access them, I'll be all set. Someday I'll be tech savvy, right?

Nephews Nathan and Ryan:

Niece Christina with Kevin. I wish I had taken a picture of her with her kids. They are cuties and very sweet.

Sister Barbie, sister-in-law Amy, nephew Jesse, and Mom.

Sister Kathie put Kevin to sleep for me.

Niece Ally and Great nephew Jaxon. How cute is he? Ally was the best "mommy" the whole trip. If any little kid needed anything, she would be right there. I need her to move in with me (you too, Kylie!).

This is the best game! SingStar. It's a karaoke game for Playstation 2. It was so much fun and it had the original music videos in the background which was so fun to see. My favorite discs were the 80s and 90s. We all got very into it. Felisha and Brother-in-law Kevin are really feeling the music. :)

Merry Christmas, Kevin. This Santa hat came on top of Dan's new teeny umbrella.

My very first label maker! I've wanted one since elementary school. It is awesome!

Dan and Elena are working on her Christmas Eve gingerbread house.

Mom (Lydia), Dan, Nieces Rebecca and Caitlin. I guarantee you this picture is of them crowded on the couch during one of our karaoke marathons.

Kevin and Kevin. I love this picture!

Niece Jenise and Kevin. He really hit it off with her immediately.

Caroling with the Astles (Dan's sister Kathie's family).

Elena and our niece Kylie. Elena was saying, "Drag me! Drag me!"

Abuelo y Abuelita con los nietos.

There are so many more photos of the trip, but I've got to stop somewhere. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas too!

Early December

It only took 15 tries, but we got one pretty good picture of us this Christmas. (I LOVE Kevin's pants, and I'm sad that he can't wear them anymore. They were definitely Christmasy.)
This was a very cold night at Busch Gardens. We didn't want to miss out on B.G.'s first ever "Christmastown" though. The decorations and lights were beautiful (although this isn't the best picture to show that) and Elena had a great time. She and Kevin were both enthralled by the Sesame Street Christmas Show that we saw in one of the theaters.

We actually got the kids' picture taken with a mall Santa this year. In the past, I've been too chicken that things wouldn't work out and I would be the mean mommy making her screaming child sit with Santa.

What really happened: Elena wouldn't sit in his lap and was nervous at first, but an offer to sit in a chair in front of Santa instead of on his lap made all the difference. Kevin was very chill as usual.

SNOW DAY!
We got 6" two days before we flew to California. It was perfect timing and perfectly beautiful.

Elena helped me to decorate the tree and she was super careful. She did a great job, but at first she didn't realize that she could put ornaments higher on the tree. Check out all the ones on the bottom branches.

Friends

Over Thanksgiving, I was able to get together with some of my good friends from high school. In this picture is Mary, Justine, and Justine's cute little boy Emerson. It was so great to get caught up with these two! We were friends all 4 years of high school and played field hockey and JV soccer together.

Laurel and Elena were so excited to see each other. It was almost impossible to get a good picture of both of them because they were so hyper to get to play together. We'll have to arrange a longer playdate the next time we are in town.

Caleb and Elena decided to have a camp-out last Thursday. He grabbed toys and books and she ran to her room for "sleeping bags" and pillows. They had so much fun playing in the tent. I love watching their pretend play. They make each other meals, they play house, they play monster and monster-hunter, and lots of other games that they make up as they go along.
When Elena and Kevin got their pictures taken with Santa Claus (the pic is on my mom's camera), we received coupons to Build-a-Bear. Granny and Granddad decided that they couldn't pass up this chance, so Kevin and Elena got to make and bring home 2 new friends: Chocolate Bear and Sugar Plum Green (both were named by E). It is a very cute store; I can see how they stay in business. :)