Merry Christmas (Eve-Eve!)

Friday we visited Santa at the library.  We had a wonderful time - except for Micah, it seems!  Micah was just not happy to see Santa this year.  But, the picture is still priceless!  Samuel, on the other hand was very excited and was quick to tell Santa exactly what he wanted for Christmas: ("a T-Rex that roars and a blue dinosaur with lots of pieces that go on it").  :)

Lights, lights & more lights!  Friday night we headed down to "Candy Cane Lane" in Poway for some more Christmas light-viewing with Grandad, my sister & her kids.  What a fun night to be bundled up and look at all the decorated houses!

Back at home, Micah is showing some love to the stuffed snowman: 

first a hug...

 ...and next, a kiss!  

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

On Thursday, December 6th, Samuel performed at his preschool's Christmas pageant.  He sang a very cute song called "Trust in the Lord."  All the children were dressed so nicely and Samuel did a great job singing and doing all the hand motions.  :)  We were very proud of him!  

We've also been looking at a lot of Christmas lights lately.  The boys both love them!

This was the first year we visited "Christmas on Nob Hill."  Just one house, but the lawn was filled to the brim with lights and decorations!  

On Monday of this week, we decided to take a spontaneous family train ride down to Seaport Village in Downtown San Diego.  We rode on the top level of the Coaster, then hopped onto the Trolley for a short ride to Seaport Village.  I have so many fond memories of visiting there as a little girl, so it was really fun to take our boys there.  We looked at all the boats, visited Santa, rode the Carousel and had enough time for a quick lunch before hopping back onto the Trolley and then the Coaster to take us back home.  What a fun day!   

Both boys really enjoyed riding on the train.

Both boys chose which horse they wanted ride on the Carousel.  Samuel loved it!  He even allowed me to let go of him so he could ride it all by himself.  Micah didn't really know what was going on, and was only a little concerned once the ride started moving.  No tears though, so it was a success!  We found out that this particular Carousel was quite historic and was built in 1895!

We've also been busy baking Christmas cookies.  This year we made gingersnaps and sugar cookies shaped like candy canes, stars, wreaths and Christmas trees.  Samuel was a great help at decorating the sugar cookies.

Earlier this week we also built a gingerbread house together during Micah's nap.

Here is Samuel pouring some green sprinkles on the gingerbread tree...

And here is the finished product!  Samuel put all the candies on by himself, and even stuck a lollipop in the roof for the chimney.  :)

Don't you think it looks great?

Every morning, Samuel is super excited to do all of his Christmas countdowns.  There are 4 advents/countdowns that we do each morning.  He starts out every day by tearing off a paper ring from a chain we made to hang in his room, then he runs to the family room to hang a little wooden ornament onto our wooden advent tree, and then he runs to turn the dial on the snowman countdown sign, and lastly runs to the kitchen to glue on another cotton-ball onto Santa's beard.  :)   We've only got 4 days left and Santa's beard is looking pretty full!

In other news, we are just so proud of Samuel with how well he is writing his name!  Way to go buddy!  

And Micah has recently grown to love riding big brother's scooter.  He always insists to wear a helmet, and then he grabs the handle bars and walks around with the scooter right between his legs.  :)  Too cute!  

Here's wishing you all have a very Merry Christmas!  

Decking the Halls!

After driving around town and attempting FOUR different tree lots, we finally found our tree!  (It wasn't that we were picky... its just that two of the lots we visited were all out of Noble Firs, and the third place was closed!  So this year we found our tree at Lowes, and luckily, they were priced much cheaper here than any of the other places we stopped at!  

The boys loved the huge inflatable Santa at the tree lot.

Here's our tree!  Ready to take it home.

The next morning Samuel was super excited to place the star at the top.

He was my best helper all morning as we carefully decorated the tree.

And here's our tree, complete with the kids' geo trax train wrapped around the bottom.  :)  

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I found this cute, inexpensive idea on Pinterest and thought I'd give it a try.  I cut out a Christmas tree from a 3x3 foot square of felt, and then cut out little ornaments & presents to go with it.  The felt sticks fairly well to itself, so the kids can decorate (or undecorate) the tree anyway and anytime they want!  

Although it looks like Micah is decorating the tree... he is actually taking down the ornaments here!  

 (Which is his favorite part about this tree.  He loves to swipe a couple ornaments to the floor every time he walks by).  :)  Until next time!

Blog Catch-up: November!

Get ready for a big post!  

To start things out, here are the promised pre-Thanksgiving photos.  Had a little delay in uploading these ones to our computer, but, I couldn't let a year go by without at least showing you our updated annual cousins-on-a-couch photo!  :)  

Looks like 7 cousins fit the couch perfectly! 

Not only was there amazing food at the White's annual pre-thanksgiving (as evidenced below),

 but there was amazing fun for all (especially the kids) with a super big bouncy house & slide!   

 

 

 We had a great time, but missed Daddy who spent the week in Hawaii for 'work'!  

 Here was Andrew working away on the Mauna Lani golf course...

 ...and hiking among the volcanoes in Hilo!  :)  

............

 On Friday, November 30th, we celebrated Andrew's brother Adam at his graduation from the LAPD Police Academy.  We are very proud of him and all his hard work!  Great job Uncle T!

 

 ............

Also in November, our sweet niece Leia turned 5 years old!  We loved celebrating her with a fun party at "Build-a-Bear" workshop.  This was all of our first times at build-a-bear, and it was a really great experience.  

I just love this picture of two of my cuties.  So handsome!  

 Samuel named his bear "Indiana."  Micah named his "Tank."  Samuel did a great job giving his freshly stuffed bear a bath.  

 All done & dressed!  

 Happy Birthday Leia!  We love you!  

Okay, more to come soon!  

Thanksgiving and more...

Its been a while since our last post... so to start things out, here's a cute video of Micah making a lion sound.  Its his new trick.  :)  

Things have been fun & busy lately...  we sure had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend (& pre-Thanksgiving weekend!) with family. (More pictures of the White's annual pre-thanksgiving to come!)

This photo was taken at Great Grandma June's house, with all the little ones who were there on Thanksgiving day.  I've said it before, but I'll say it again.  It just delights my heart so much to see these little ones playing and having fun together.  

Oh, and I just had to post this picture.  It's Andrew's slice of pumpkin pie, in case you can't tell.  If any of you know Andrew, you know he loves whipped cream on his pumpkin pie!  Ha!  :)  

Then, on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend we enjoyed the warm San Diego weather and had a lovely time at the beach, to meet up with Andrew's parents & Aunt & Uncle from Georgia.  

 On a final note, Samuel has lately been very sweet & loving to his brother.  Just the other day I walked down the hall and discovered this...

...Samuel was reading a book to his brother.  Micah loves to have someone read books to him, and Samuel thought to do this for him all on his own.  And then yesterday I walked up to find this...

...my two little treasures snuggling on the couch.  Samuel was gently rubbing Micah's cheek.  I was really surprised that Micah didn't fight it at all!  Moments like these just have to be caught on camera.