Christmas Eve

I am going backwards in time so I am going to start with our wonderful weekend. Alex had to work on Saturday but got off early enough so we had an awesome Christmas Eve dinner with friends. Before this though, we got some carolers who were our Secret Santas for the 12 days of Christmas (we had gotten gifts at our door every night for 12 nights, ranging from art gifts to homemade bread and jam but we had no idea who it could be). It was nice to see who it was. After this we went off to our friend's house. Cordelia, Jaime, and Manny had a wonderful time..roughly all the children were or around Cordelia or Manny and Jaime's age so they enjoyed themselves immensely! Dinner and dessert were very good and I have some new recipes that I need to get plus I know where to get tamales in Charlotte. After we got home we set our plate for Santa..we left him some wonderful cookies from Alex's relatives and a sticky bun brought from our Secret Santa family and a glass of milk. Then off to bed while we waited for Santa. Rock (our Christmas Elf) was going back with Santa so off Rock went too.

A couple of more days left in 2011

I haven't posted in forever so I needed to at least put up some photos..We just celebrated Christmas, however most of my pictures are on my phone since the camera doesn't have batteries and we kept forgetting to get more. The last few days have been very busy! We all enjoyed Christmas together as a family and Manny actually  stayed still in Sacrament and started drinking the Sacrament water, which is very hard sometimes! We only had it for a hour since it was Christmas but I enjoyed the songs very much and explained Cordelia what was going on..I need to get some books or cards or something so they can look at while we get sacrament so they can understand why we take the bread and water. The kids enjoyed their presents very much and I am very happy that they are still playing with them! We saw Santa on Wed at Concord Mills and was very happy that even though there was ten million cars in the parking lot we only had 4-5 families in front of us. Cordelia made a card for Santa in which he read and put it in his red mailbox next to him. Jaime was extremely shy and didn't want to talk or sit anywhere near Santa and Manny was great in line but didn't like the idea of sitting on a "stranger's lap."  So I ended up in the photo too since I didn't want Jaime to regret not at least getting a photo with Santa later on. And I still need to mail our Christmas,now New Year eve cards..

Okay now I need to make some breakfast :) Will write more later

Busy couple of months!

Not doing that great with blogging but we had a couple of busy months! After Christmas was New Years then Alex's birthday then Cordelia's birthday and in between all of this lots and lots of snow!

Jaime and I ended up being sick for New Years so we didn't end up doing anything but resting for that day. We did though make little hats and decorated little cookies...none of the kids made it to midnight, I ended up falling asleep a couple of times too!

Happy New Years!

Alex helping Manny put the icing on.

Jaime: Skipping the middleman and going straight for the sprinkles

They turned out great!

Merry Christmas!

This year we had a very quiet Christmas. Due to the risk of snow and Alex not feeling well, we stayed in this weekend. The kids and I made rings to countdown to Christmas earlier this month..they were very happy when there was only one ring left (with a picture of Santa.) We were also receiving little gifts from a Secret Santa so they enjoyed getting little gifts each day. The last day someone had given us little reindeer hats and reindeer food so the kids enjoyed going out in the yard and sprinkling the food out! Thank you Secret Santa!





Then it was time to put out food for Santa..we did it a little different this year. Instead of cookies, on our plate was a cinnamon roll and a banana nut muffin with a glass of milk. Rock (our Christmas Elf) was going to be picked up by Santa that night too so he got to sit out to wait. Cordelia was sad to see him go but she knows he will be back for Thanksgiving to watch the kids and report back to Santa every night till Christmas Eve. Maybe next year he will find his lost hat!



After we read about the First Christmas and checking NORAD on where Santa was, it was off to bed. Santa arrived with lots of presents from the elves as well as presents from family and friends,ate some food and left a cute note. The reindeer promptly ate all the reindeer food on the grass and went on their way to our neighbors.



Jaime, our early riser, was the first one to wake up. He came in our room, which I thought was interesting, since he totally passed the tree. But he quickly realized what day it was and then everyone else woke up as well. They liked the note Santa left, but since Santa didn't finish his muffin, Cordelia thought he didn't like it. I guess no more muffins for him then! The kids loved their presents and we spent the rest of the day playing with their toys, playing with each others presents, eating food,cleaning, eating snacks and making our little gingerbread houses
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We used graham crackers this year but they loved decorating them! I loved their ideas!

Gingerbread Lane

And that was our holiday weekend. Alex is feeling better today and we are thankful that we have a restful weekend and that we got to spend it with each other. We hope everyone had a great weekend too. Merry Christmas!

Going to post soon about the last year..hopefully will post about Christmas tonite :)

Snow snow snow!

So.. we haven't posted in a very long time so I finally decided that instead of trying to post a millions pictures on Facebook, I should really start up the blog again. The snow started last night and I was very happy that it kept snowing and wasn't melted like the other times. I wasn't sure when it was going to actually snow, there seems to be a bubble around the Charlotte area where the winter fronts start at the mountains and jumps over the RDU area. This morning it was still snowing and so pretty outside! We learned that church was cancelled and later that day we went out to enjoy the snow.

The kids loved the snow, it was perfect snowman packing snow. The year before it was just powdered snow with a layer of ice so this was great. Cordelia was all about it, she starting to throw snowballs and walk around in the snow, Jaime followed quickly behind her but I had to quickly remind them to not throw the snowballs in each others faces. Manny was kind of wary at first..the snow was deep and he didn't like that the snow kept covering up his feet but he then loved making footprints in the snow and waving to the cars driving by. Alex got some baskets out and they all started filling up the buckets with snow to make a snowman which then became a snow monster. After making some snow angels, it was time to go in for some hot chocolate and marshmallows.




Look at the snow!










Cordelia watching the snow fall.










Jaime starting on the snowballs.




Manny shaking the snow everywhere.


Cordelia starting the snowman.



Manny looking around.



Jaime looking around as well.


Manny running and helping Cordelia with the snowman.


















Jaime joins in to help.


















LOOK AT THE CAR!














Cordelia giving Jaime some snow to help.


Snow angels and showing Daddy how happy we are!









Our view...


And a picture of our family.



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Going to add new posts soon.

I haven't posted anything in forever but I should because so much as happened in a year! Going to post more soon.