Christmas

A few shots of the girls enjoying their gifts on Christmas day.

Emilia has learned to carry bags on her arm.  She was pretty happy to have this one.

 Emilia trying out a gallop.

 Mr. Potatohead.

 

 Steve and Vicki stopped by for a while.

 

Christmas Eve

We had Christmas Eve at Cecilia and Celso's house with them and their family, having a great dinner and catching up with everyone.  After dinner everyone enjoyed opening presents.

 

 

 Celso surrounded by his daughter Natalia and his nieces and nephew.

 

Christmas Program

Julia participated in her first Christmas program this year.  The 3 year olds were dressed as Christmas trees for the performance.

 

Picking the Oranges

When we got home from Dallas, we found that someone had helped themselves to some of the oranges from the orange tree in the side yard, so we figured it was time to pick the rest of them.

Julia picked the ones she could reach herself.

 

 Then she helped Daddy with the rest of them.

Hotel Dallas

Neil had a conference in Dallas the week after Thanksgiving in a nice convention hotel, so we told Julia we were taking her and Emilia to "Hotel Dallas".

The girls enjoyed the room.

 We even let them use the comfy chair as a trampoline.

They had a big courtyard area all decorated for Christmas.

 And they had a big ice sculpture display of the the Madagascar movie characters.

Renaissance Fest

We went to the state Renaissance Festival with friends from church in November.

Emilia enjoyed getting to ride around a little higher up.

 They also had more modern entertainment at the festival, and Julia was drawn to the bungee jumping.  I don't know if she really understood the harness she had to get into.  It made it hard to walk and she almost didn't make it up the stairs.

 Once she got on it though, she had a pretty good time.

 She was disappointed when it was time to get off and almost didn't get out of of the bungee enclosure.

Party at the Preschool

Julia's preschool had a fall festival.  Julia had a lot of fun.

She got to ride a pony . . .

. . . Play on toys . . .

. . . and make friends.

Cupcakes

It doesn't take much to make Julia so happy that she's giddy and silly, but cupcakes definitely do the trick.

 

Cooking

The girls are starting to want to be like Mom and cook in the kitchen.

Halloween Fun

A few pics from this year's Halloween.  Raquel found some fun pumpkin facial features that Julia enjoyed playing with. 

  They celebrated Halloween on Tuesday at Julia's preschool program.  She couldn't believe one of her teachers was Buzz Lightyear.

Emilia went as a kitty this year, which worked out well when she attended the Halloween party at our neighbor Vicki's cat boarding business.  Go Catnip Inn!!!

Julia was really excited to go as Snow White this year.

An Aquarium and a Cold Beach

We all went together for one of Neil's business trips to Corpus Christi recently.  The girls like to play in the fountain downtown.  We like it too because its enough water to get wet without being dangerous, and there's a ready place for parents to sit down and watch the action.  

 

 

 We didn't check the weather before leaving Houston, so when Friday dawned cold and windy, we were unprepared and couldn't do much outside.  Fortunately one of Neil's co-workers offered to get us into the State Aquarium on Saturday morning with her membership.  The girls loved it.  Thanks Kim!!!

 Two girls goofing in the viewing dome of one tank.

 Julia loved chasing the dolphins back and forth trying to keep up with them.

 

 We'd promised Julia from early in the week that we were taking her to the beach so despite the cold and wind she wouldn't be satisfied until we'd spent at least a few minutes on the sand.  Her pigtails give you an idea of how hard it was blowing.

Cubbies Uniform

Can you believe Julia is already 3 and attending AWANA ?!

Julia was pretty excited to earn a Cubbies uniform 2 weeks ago. . . 

 So excited, she did a little dance for Mama when she got home from Cubbies showing off the new vest.

 

 

 

Julia is doing well with her verses and earned one additional patch already. Cubbie Bear is by far her favorite amongst Love-E Lamb and Earn-E Elephant.

It is really cool to see her memorizing (and recalling) verses every week. Makes me think about when I did AWANA as a little kid long, long time ago - God is REALLY Good.

Isaiah 55: 8-13

8“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. 9“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. 10 For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, 11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. 12 For you shall go out with joy, And be led out with peace; The mountains and the hills Shall break forth into singing before you, And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; And it shall be to the LORD for a name, For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”