Our visit with Santa

On Sunday the 14th, we visited Sunshine Gardens in Encinitas to see a very special Santa Claus!  The kids were pretty excited.  That is, until we got there.  Luckily there was no line so we got to visit with Santa as long as we wanted to!  

Samuel loved every minute with Santa and chatted with him for a while!  

Kendall, now 11 months old, is fully into the separation-anxiety and "stranger-danger" stage, so, this was as happy as she was going to get.  

Micah, stayed as far away as he could possibly get, which, my guess, was about 50 feet or so.  And there was just no coaxing him to get any closer without putting up a fight.  He was hiding behind huge poinsettia plants and peeking around every few moments to keep an eye on Santa.  After all was said and done, Micah said that Santa "was too scary."   (Mrs. Claus wisely informed Santa that it would be another 2 years or so before he would get a visit from Micah.  And if Kendall could walk, I'm sure she would have kept hidden right next to Micah behind those poinsettias!)

So here is our precious Santa photo for 2014

At home last Saturday, we enjoyed a nice, leisurely PJ-morning and made gingerbread houses.  :)  The kids loved it!

At school last Friday, the little ones and I braved the rain and came to Samuel's kindergarten flag salute and awards ceremony.  Samuel was honored with 2 awards!  He received a math award and a "7 Habits" Award - of which he was honored for thinking "win-win" at school.  The principal read aloud what his teacher wrote about him: "Samuel, you're as good as it gets.  You are hard-working, a thinker and incredibly thoughtful and kind.  Amazing!"  :)  We are oh-so proud of him!  

This morning at school was a very special Holiday performance put on by Samuel's class.  All the kids were so adorable and had been practicing their lines and songs and motions for a couple weeks now.  They sang lots of Christmas songs and each had practice speaking lines in front of the audience.  Samuel did great!  What a fun way to get into the spirit of Christmas!  

Deck the Halls

Last Saturday, we headed out to Home Depot to pick out our Christmas tree.  Surprisingly, Samuel was very particular about which tree would be the right one or not.  After holding up about a half dozen or so different options that mom & dad thought would be good, he approved this one.  :)  

Our little helper Samuel jumped right in to help mommy decorate the tree.  

He did a great job placing most of the ornaments on the tree - and made sure they were high enough to be out of Kendall's reach!  

 The tree is all finished - with one last important piece - the star on top!  Samuel usually has the honor of placing the star each year, but wanted to give Micah a turn this year.  When the time came, Micah declined, so Samuel got to have a turn again this year!  

Andrew had lots of fun covering our new house with Christmas lights this year.   He was up there all weekend putting the lights in just the right spots.  

And here is our awesome gingerbread house!  I snapped this picture before Andrew climbed down.  You can see him in the middle.  :)  

 Inside Micah had fun helping Mommy decorate our felt tree.  The kids love putting up and taking down the felt ornaments and presents.  :)  

On Thursday, December 4, Micah had his Christmas performance at preschool.  He was dressed very handsome, don't you think so?  We rushed through dinner and made it there right before the performance.  But, when it came down to it, Micah decided he was too scared to go up on stage with the rest of the three-year-olds from his class.  (I don't blame him - there were a lot of parents in the audience!)  So, Micah just sat next to us in the audience.  He still enjoyed watching his class perform and loves singing the songs at home to us.  And there's always next year, right?  ;)  

We sure are enjoying this Christmas season so far and hope you all are too!  

Our November & Happy Thanksgiving!

A few weeks ago, we finally graduated Micah from his little toddler bed into this twin!  Here is his big-boy room.  :)  Love that I was able to use the same bed spread as Samuel's old room from our old house.  What a cute little boys room.  

 And here he is, so proud of his big, soft, comfy new bed!  

 One day after unloading some groceries, I thought it would be fun make a little robot-type suit for Micah with an empty bag.  Let me tell you, that turned out to be hours of fun!  I had to make a bag for big brother too!  

The funniest part was after I made it, I realized how much it reminded me of that part of the Despicable Me movie where young Gru is dressed up like an astronaut.  See?  The boys are soooo into the Despicable Me movies right now.  

 We enjoyed a special day visit from Andrew's parents and grandma!  The kids were so excited to see Gigi!  

 We were also lent this awesomely PINK bike from my sis-in-law.  Can I just tell you, Kendall loves it.  And so does Samuel... but he just loves pushing her.  He asks almost daily to give her a ride in it.  

 More Micah fun - rocking out with a guitar & Dancing with his Teddy.  In the photo on the right, you can kind of catch a glimpse of the JOY that this bear brings to my boy.  

The little princess up from her nap.  :)  

 At school, Samuel was given an assignment to disguise a turkey, so the turkey would make it past Thanksgiving.  The first picture is what we had to hide... then we worked together and made a cute minion disguise!  Isn't it great?!   

 On Thanksgiving day, we celebrated with the White family.  Here is my Dad carving the turkey.

Sammy anxious to eat!  

I'm surprised I don't have any pictures of this, but my parents rented two bouncies for the back yard - - they certainly kept all of the cousins occupied while the adults were finishing the food preparations! 

  

And here we all are at the dinner table (minus Kendall (napping) and me (taking the picture).  I am just so thankful for this beautiful family that God has given me!  

 And don't forget about Little Miss Rose!  Happy 1st Thanksgiving sweetheart!  

Day out with Thomas

On Saturday, November 16, we surprised the kids with a special trip out to Perris, CA to spend the day with Thomas, Percy, and hundreds of other Thomas the Train fans.  

We took Samuel here when he was 2 years old.  So he was familiar with it all - but it was all new to Micah!  Since both boys still love trains, we knew it would be a fun family adventure.  

We got there bright and early to beat most of the crowds.  We started out the day with a huge train-shaped bouncy house, riding little toy trains, playing with train tables, building thomas-themed legos, watching thomas episodes, and more.  

  Soon it was our turn to hop on board the one of the passenger cars pulled by Thomas the train.  Thomas puffed steam, moved his eyes and even talked to the passengers waiting to board!  

 Kisses on board!  

 So exciting! 

 Not everyone was smiles the whole time though...  ;)  But, I still love this stink face.  :)   

Standing in front of Percy.  Aren't these boys just so adorable?!   

Sir Topham Hatt & Samuel  

  We ended the day with a relaxing ride on an old trolley!  

What special memories we shared!  :)  

Where have we been? The best of September, October & Now...

Welcome back!  

The last time we blogged, I think it was late August and kids were back-to-school.  Where have we been since then?  Well, right here!  But, life has been busy and full of, well, life!  So here is a quick recap of our September, October and November (so far).  Hope you enjoy it!  

Kendall is adorable as ever.  I just love her big brown eyes in this picture and her two little toothy-pegs.  She got her first tooth (her bottom right) on August 24, 2014.  The second one followed about a week or so later!  To date, she still has just these two teeth.  But, I think her top front ones are about to come through any day now!

Kendall has learned to crawl and she is all over the place now!  She started crawling on September 17.  She pulls up onto anything she can reach and cruises along furniture.  Of course this means more bumps and bruises for the baby girl, but she's figuring it out.

Speaking of our little angel, aren't her eyelashes gorgeous!

On October 4th, we had our 8th annual hoike.  Sorry about the lack of photos here, but if I find the time, I'll try to upload a video of one of our dances!  

Kendall is wearing an adorable pa'u that was made by one of my hula sisters.  This little outfit is passed down from keiki to keiki of our class.

 Micah is having so much fun being a "preschooler."  I can't tell you how many times I've heard from him, "Miss Kelly says..." about this or that.  :)  

Here he is dressed and combed oh-so-handsome for his picture day at preschool!  

And here he is giving us one of his "kiss-me" stink-faces.  I tell him whenever he makes a stink face, I'm going to give him a kiss.  That usually ends up putting a laugh and a smile on his face!  

Spidey-Pirate!  

 I can't tell you how much Samuel has blossomed at school.  He is thriving in Kindergarten!  Let me just show you something.  Here is an example of Samuel's growth in writing and numbers in less than one month of school!!!  Simply amazing.  And now, I think he's up to the mid-50's or so.  :)  SO proud!  

And the reading!  He started Kindergarten just baaaaarely being able to read a handful of words.  But now, he is a reading machine!  (His words!)  He literally shocks me when he comes home from school with some of the stuff he can read!  

Okay - last bit of showing off my darling boy...  the other day he asked me to teach him to write his name in cursive.  He focused extra hard and look at what he did!  He was so proud of himself and he couldn't wait to share it with his oldest cousin Stryder.

Awana has also begun and we are in full swing of memory verses, songs, games and crafts there!  

  We took a trip to the local pumpkin patch and got this adorable photo of all three kids.  :)  

Then a few weeks later, dug right into them (or should I say power-tool drilled?)  

 One of our favorite fall activities was our annual White family trip to Julian.  The cousins had so much fun playing together and being outside in the beautiful Julian mountains.  

The whole clan...  :)  Love these guys!  

For Halloween, we had a little wolverine, a flower and a knight in shining armor.  :)  

 And where are wolverine's claws, you ask?

Oh, there they are!  

Samuel is a soccer star!  He has really enjoyed his first season of AYSO and can't wait to play next season.    

He loved receiving his VERY FIRST trophy!!!   

Last weekend we visited Travel Town with Andrew's parents.  The boys loved seeing all of the huge, old trains!!!

Even Kendall had a fun time!

At home, sometimes I find Kendall has gotten herself into a little mischief...  

Or she finds herself in some odd places!  She has even learned to crawl up the stairs which keeps me on my toes!  

 I love my girl!   

She's 10 months old now!!!  Can you believe it?!  

Okay, that's it for now!   Until next time, but hopefully not too long!