amazing weather

We've been trying to spend alot of time outside with this great weather. As much as I would like to have a big snow, I'm sure I'll regret it when it's freezing outside.


Joaquin got a t-ball set for Christmas, but was ready for the real pitch after about two swings.

the first gift of Christmas!

Besides Jesus, which although is drilled into their heads before Christmas...is somewhat overlooked the morning of... at our house. Yes, that's my own fault, but each year I vow to do better. This year, I pulled out the video camera more than the regular camera. We had fun the other night looking at old family videos...at one point, while watching how patient I was with them as babies I said jokingly, " I was such a good mom!" and Joaquin replied, "And now you're a bad one." I could only laugh. Juan Pablo said, "Don't worry, he did the same thing to me. While we were building the manger the other day, Joaquin said, 'look Dad, everyone is having fun except for us."


Isabela's favorite gift was her puppet theater. Santa surprised the kids by leaving those two huge items in our living room while we were at grandma's house.


Juan Pablo's favorite gift was a remote control helicopter....and mine was a new leather bound Bible!


Jon and Joaquin had fun playing with marble track blocks, but his favorite gift was his basketball hoop.


Nancy loved her princess pez dispensers!

stockings

The surprise of a full stocking is one of the best parts of Christmas! Of course, throughout the month of December, idle threats of stockings filled with coal were occasionally thrown out....for some silly reason Juan Pablo and I brought our stockings to grandma's, which remained empty on Christmas. Isabela said it was because we were naughty.


There's nothing like a new stuffed animal to cuddle! The puppy was named Lucy, of course, and I'm not sure the dragon was named yet, although we all sang the Puff song to Joaquin.

shepherds and angels

Christmas Eve is always so exciting! Ours was filled with visions of shepherds and angels....I thought Joaquin's headwrap was so creative....when he walked out on stage it looked like Dumbo ears flying in the wind. My aunt said that must have been some tough tissue paper as many times as it fell off and was put back on!

Isabela chose not to go on stage at church, but sure put on a show at Great Grandma's house! Those are her new slippers which were opened that night. I love Old Navy!

away in a manger

Today was the manger build with Noble Warriors! It was just for dads and their kids.

Poor JP has a blood blister on his thumb from a couple of misses with the hammer!

The finished product is pretty strong...maybe the new baby can sleep there!

They included a great list of ideas for the week to do around your new manger, including reading the Christmas story from Luke, talking about the three gifts Jesus received and comparing that to your own Christmas gifts, placing a baby doll wrapped in rags in the manger, and placing pictures of donations your family made to charities in the manager on Christmas. This will definitely be a new holiday tradition!

checkers

We went to Cracker Barrel the other day...I really don't like their food at all, but I do like their rocking chairs!

ice skating!

Saturday was another first for our family...we went ice skating at Stony Point. The kids and Juan Pablo had never been and they had a blast! At first they were just shuffling around the rink...but then three young hockey players got there and showed them how it's really done. Now I have three who want to be hockey players...but I'm thinking figure skating for Isabela.
They skated for an hour and then at 7pm, the fake snow started to fall so it was quite a magical night!

Joaquin's preschool show

Joaquin's show was last night. He did great and really enjoys singing, even though he doesn't want us to know it. My four year old class did great too, but I was able to sit and watch because of my big belly. I didn't want to steal the show by falling over with all the stand ups and sit downs!

the elf is back!

The elf has been busy flying to the north pole each night to report on the kids. He has really found some creative hiding places this year, and the kids...especially Isabela...wake up eager to search the house for him. One day, Joaquin and I were talking about him and he said that "it's just a stuffed elf. I'll take him in my room and sleep with him." So I thought the whole game was up...but he went on to explain how the elf gets back and forth to the North Pole. Kids have great imaginations!

a fancy dinner!

The other night, the kids and I had a fancy dinner of eggs, waffles, and yogurt....but the best part was the sparkling grape juice in wine glasses. We even did cheers. I love that bubbly grape juice!! I could drink it all the time. And, yes, Joaquin usually eats dinner in his underwear.

indoor hockey!

Did I ever mention we love our new house? We don't even have to pay to play ice hockey!

it's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas!!! The first snow of the year...putting up the tree...Christmas is coming! When I woke up this morning, I said, "Look! It snowed!" But really I was thinking it was just a lot of frost. Isabela quickly got dressed to go out and play...mainly eat whatever snow she could find.


We've been trying to decide what to do about a tree...real or fake? Brand new or Craigslist? So we decided to go with a real one this year. And it was so much fun!! Much better than putting up the fake one we'd had the last few years!! We got a beautiful douglas fir at Lowe's for only $25! And it smells wonderful!


Plus, I managed to squirrel away enough ornaments in our suitcases from Bolivia that we didn't have to buy any new ones!


And we finally started our annual tradition of wrapping all our Christmas books and opening one to read (well, one each) before bed every night. You never know which one you get, and once you've read them all, you just rewrap them and start all over!

Christmas Love

This little paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13 was in our MOPS newsletter this month and I just loved it! Here it is for those who haven't read it:

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at
mealtime, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another cook.

If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing.

If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir's cantata but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child.

Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the spouse.

Love is kind, though harried and tired.

Love doesn't envy another's home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.
Love doesn't yell at the kids to get out of the way.

Love doesn't give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can't.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust, but giving the gift of LOVE will endure.

-Author Unknown

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving at Grandma's house. I went up with the kids on Wednesday...sat in a HUGE amount of traffic...Joaquin ended up peeing in a cup in the car while we were stuck! Then we had to make an emergency stop at a Mcdonald's for Isabela. What should have taken an hour and 15 minutes, ended up taking almost three.

We were ready to eat on Thursday around 10am I think, but everyone didn't get there until around noon. Someone remembered the parade was on...so that and the dog show entertained the kids until it was time to eat. Plus, I made them dress like the pilgrims and indians...just for the photo, then they promptly took the costumes off.


Did you know we were related to Colin Farrell?


The girls...minus Isabela.


The boys.


Of course, they wouldn't all get in one picture...who's missing? Plus no one except me wanted to get a picture of the whole family, so that didn't happen either! I did get a funny video of the turkey carving...which gave a sample of all the bickering that usually goes along with Thanksgiving, but it wouldn't post.
We missed all those that couldn't be there, and hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

a great indoor activity

I checked a great book out of the library the other day....it was full of ideas of things to do with the kids when you are stuck inside. So we tried the mini golf idea. We used things around the house to make up the course. That part was probably more fun than the actual playing...but the kids really got into it.

another tree lighting!

Isabela and I went to the Stony Point tree lighting the other night. The boys had stayed home with colds. It was really fun because they have the fake snow that falls...It really looks real until you taste it! We watched some skaters at the ice skating rink and then proceeded to stand in line for an hour for a balloon animal!! Yes, this was the night that it was like 29 degrees! The only reason we stayed was because we were with friends...the kids had fun, and if you stood real still, you almost felt warm!

Christmas crafts

We had an at home weekend this weekend. Isabela was sick on Saturday, so we just watched movies all day. Then yesterday, we played in the yard...raking the thousands of leaves that fell from Saturday; collected pinecones to spray paint, and Juan Pablo built a roaring fire that nearly melted our faces off when we roasted the marshmallows.




We also started some Christmas crafts...I know, I know Thanksgiving hasn't even happened, but I love Christmas and there just isn't enough time to do all the crafts! When I was in college, my mom sent me a care package that had a tiny Christmas tree with tiny ornaments, and I thought that would be a fun activity for the kids to do. That way, they could decorate their tree just how they wanted, and redecorate it whenever they wanted. They loved this! And the trees were only $3.00 at Michaels! I had also bought two different foam kits for the kids to put together....as you can see, one likes to think outside the box, and one likes to go by the directions!

our first treasure!

We found our first buried treasure in our yard this weekend! As I was raking up our path from all the fallen leaves, I came across this bottle! We dug it up and it seems to be a really old Mountain Dew bottle....Juan Pablo found the number 79 on the bottom which could be a date (that's when the house was built). The slogan says, "It'll tickle your innards!"

Christmas magic!

Last night, we braved the rain to go see the first appearance of Santa at Short Pump! There was live Christmas music for about 30 minutes, a parade of Christmas characters, then Santa arrived on the train. He even shook hands with Joaquin! But the joyous night did not end like that....can you believe they said, "I thought we were going to have movie night!" when we got home at 8pm! So instead of, "Thanks for taking us to see Santa", we got crying and screaming about movie night. Although my initial reaction was unbelief that my own children could be ungrateful, I know that I must try to model the right behavior, and perhaps I, myself, have been ungrateful. It is amazing how much our own children can teach us!