Thanksgiving Day

Our Thanksgiving meal was small but full of love and yummy food! The church where I work gave each preschool employee a smoked turkey. A friend gave us a Thanksgiving meal in a basket so we used a few things in it, along with the sides that I made. 

The girls may have started a new Thanksgiving tradition. While waiting for dinner to be ready, they made cards for each family member. When we sat down to eat, we read our love notes that showed how thankful we are for one another. 

Christmas Morning

A few weeks before Christmas, Makena told me she wanted to give Kyle a gift for Christmas. We have a secret stash of Matchbox cars in our bedroom (Daddy couldn't resist the 10 for $10 deal!). I let Makena choose a car from our stash. She wrapped it and told Kyle it was under the tree. Our little boy is a smart cookie and he could tell right away what was inside the wrapping. So every day, for weeks, he told he wanted it to be Christmas and begged me to open his gift. I was so close to just letting him open the little gift just so he would leave me alone! Needless to say, there was a lot of anticipation for Christmas morning.  

On the top of Makena's wish list this year was Beanie Boo's -- little stuffed animals with big sparkly eyes. Santa brought her two of them!

Karis wanted lots and lots of Shopkins -- and that's what she got!

 

Kyle got cars, trucks and trains (no surprise!).

   

Their favorite gifts were the Vtech Kiddie Zoom watches from Mom and Dad. They saw a commercial for them a long time and have been asking for them. The watch takes pictures and videos, has a couple of games, a timer and a clock. 

  

They spent lots of time with them during the Christmas break!

I wanted a picture of Makena with her new scooter she was going to try for the first time. But she just wanted me to take a picture of her with her new watch!

Thank you to all our family who sent gifts for our kids. Even though they may not have made it into the pictures, the kids loved every one of them!!

Christmas Festivities

When we returned from our vacation, we were quick to get ready for Christmas. There was less than tree weeks left! The kids were excited to put up the Christmas tree. 

This was the first year that Kyle wanted to help. He found the perfect spot to put ALL the balls!

Every morning afterwards, the first thing Kyle did in the morning was turn on the tree lights. 

After school one day, I took the kids to the mall. They all wanted to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas. Karis wanted Shopkins, Makena wanted a Beanie Boo and Kyle wanted a choo-choo. We only had to wait a short time, but in that time Kyle decided he didn't want to go near Santa. Maybe next year...

The kids ate candy...I mean, decorated gingerbread houses. 

The finished products

We went to our usual spots to see Christmas lights and even checked out the drive-thru lights in Farmers Branch. 

Christmas vacation was perfect for naps on the couch.

Makena and Kyle made a cake together for Jesus. 

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Back to Arizona and Then Back Home

We drove back to Arizona to spend a couple more days with family before we flew back home. We had spent a lot of time in the car during this trip. The kids did great but at this point, we were all ready to be home. The kids missed the dog, the van, their beds, school, etc. 

 On Friday, the kids spent the morning on a special project for Nana's birthday. Then Derek and I got to hang out together while the kids spent the afternoon at Nana's house. 

On Saturday morning, we threw a surprise party for Nana!

Nana opened her presents -- a stepping stone from each child for her yard.

Happy Birthday Nana!

After the party, we spent some time at the park before we had to get ready for the airport.

Travel was much lighter when we left, but we still didn't get home until past midnight.

The kids were so excited the next morning when I picked up Ryder and brought him home.

California Cousins

With all the people we saw and things we did in California, the kids' favorite thing to do was to hang out with their cousins. 

They helped feed the rabbit they were watching. 

Kyle loved spending time with big boys. 

We went on a hike with Uncle Marzano, Jacob and Jessi. 

Kyle loved hanging out with Jacob. 

The girls played with Jessi all day. 

We were planning to leave on Wednesday morning so we took a picture with the kids before school. Kyle still wasn't completely over his stomach bug so we decided to stay another day. We loved having an extra day!

Disneyland

I took the girls to Disneyland on Tuesday. It was a beautiful day and it wasn't too crowded. 

The girls didn't remember going to Disneyland for Makena's 1st birthday. They didn't realize how much fun they were about to have!

We were going to go as a family, but Kyle caught a stomach bug and was throwing up the night before. He and Daddy stayed home and did this most of the day...

Our first ride was Dumbo!

And then to the tea cups!

 At this point, I couldn't tell if the girls were having any fun at all...

We rode a few more rides. The girls wanted to go on every ride they saw. They picked the smaller rides so the lines were pretty short. 

And then Julie Emo joined us and that made everything even more fun!

More rides...

Snow White's castle 

Karis loved it so much she went through it again with Julie Emo. It was a little too scary for Makena. 

A sweet treat to keep our energy up!

She insisted on going on the merry-go-around. 

We met Fawna and Tinkerbell.

We saw a hilarious Frozen show.

And then we went to It's a Small World -- my childhood favorite!

I was pretty tired that day since I was up most of the night with Kyle being sick. Thankfully Julie was there to push us to night fall because that was a lot longer than I had planned to stay. We all had a great time. Thanks to my cousin for hooking us up with tickets!