Holidays!

I can't believe it's almost Christmas! Every year we go to the local neighborhood where the houses go all out in Christmas decorations.

 

 
The kids decorated their gingerbread houses. Somehow Samuel knew right away that it was candy. I'm surprised that any of it actually made it onto his house.

Elena had a Christmas musical play at preschool. She had a really bad cold this day so she stayed home until it was time for the play. They were so cute.

It was a super cute play, and I was really proud of her. She's always been a shy kid, not wanting to be the center of attention, so it was nice to see her totally comfortable singing and doing the hand movements.

It's been cold outside, so we've actually been able to snuggle up and dress warm. Samuel loves wearing his beanies, and he usually wears them for a long time after coming home.

 
And these two love play dough; it's the perfect activity for these cold days.

And they love each other. Even though they eventually end up finding something to complain about when they play together, they have a lot of fun. When Elena was sick the other day, Samuel started checking her.

They are too precious.

Thanksgiving

I am getting so behind on my posts! Must be the decreased energy.

Anyway, we went to Amy's for Thanksgiving, and I managed to take no pictures. Actually, I took one picture, but I'm sure Amy wouldn't want me to put it here. We had some awesome food and got to visit with family we hadn't seen in a long time, and after dinner we played Taboo, which was a lot of fun. We loved Amy's facial expressions when she was stumped, and that's the one picture I took.

Before Thanksgiving, Elena had a Thanksgiving performance and "feast" at preschool. Here's my little pilgrim.

Here's Samuel on the drive to Amy's.

In the meantime, Elena started a ballet/tumbling class. She loves it. 

And now it's almost time for Christmas!

Random

There were a few days that I had trouble getting off the couch. I had zero energy and felt nauseous all day. The kids played with the easel a lot on those days, and it was a lifesaver for me.

Halloween Celebrations

The kids, especially Elena, had several opportunities to dress up in costumes. First we went to the local senior apartments for the kids to have a little costume parade for the residents. Elena was Snow White and Samuel was a pirate. I didn't even take a picture of Samuel in his costume because he had a long, screaming fit before going in so it was hectic.

Samuel didn't really care about dressing up so he was fine being the same thing every time. Elena, on the other hand, wanted to wear a different costume each time. She said, "I just want to be Snow White for the first day of Halloween, and I'll be something different on the other days." So for her school's fall carnival she was Izzie, from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. This was such an easy costume, I just cut some fabric to make a bandana and I made the pixie dust necklace. I didn't even bother with Samuel's costume because it was a hot day, and I wanted to make things as easy as possible. He's been throwing a lot of tantrums lately, so I pick my battles.

 Here's Elena with her teachers. She loves her school, and I do, too.

Then for our church's Halloween event, Elena was Ariel. Samuel was still a pirate.

And I didn't even take pictures when we went to the pumpkin patch with Elena's class and she was dressed as Rapunzel. Now I'm wondering how many costumes she's going to want to wear next year!

Two Birthdays

Obviously this post is overdue. I'm a little behind, mostly because I haven't been feeling well. I'm 9 weeks pregnant right now and it's been difficult to keep up with two toddlers.

Anyway, Samuel's birthday party was the same day as Sabrina's 18th birthday, so we had two special celebrations.

Here's the birthday girl

And me with my birthday boy. We had put his pajama shirt back on for his nap so he wouldn't get too hot, and when Jorge got him up he didn't change him back . . . so he was mismatched for the rest of the day. But that's okay, he's two years old and doesn't care.

My parents came, as well as my nieces, Amy, Philip, and the kids. Elena and Samuel had so much fun.

 

Samuel really likes Monsters, Inc. so I made some Mike and Sully cupcakes. He liked them.

 

 

We sang happy birthday to both of them at the same time. I made Sabrina her own colorful cake.

Samuel had no problem digging in!

It really was a fun, special day with family and I loved being able to celebrate Sabrina's birthday as well. The kids have so much fun visiting with family.

Kids

I'm so behind on my posts! Here's what's been going on over here.

Elena's still loving preschool. This is a picture of her from Clifford Day.

They pulled the insides out of a pumpkin at preschool and she brought some slimy seeds home. She liked playing with them.

And Elena's eating a lot better now. She used to not like a lot of stuff, but I've cut a lot of processed foods and she's been eating more vegetables. 

 

Samuel throws a lot of fits. It's a regular thing over here. Many times when he's not happy he'll throw his bear on the floor, and then cry because it's on the floor. That's what's going on here.

I think here he just wanted "up." He wants up a lot.

 

And I don't even remember what this one was about. 

 

Or this one.

But he's not always crying or screaming.

 They like to help out around here.

 Samuel likes putting on other people's shoes now. Here he's in Elena's flip flops.

 And in my tennis shoes.

The kids love when Nana comes to visit.

The kids color together now. A lot.

 And Samuel will sit at the table for a long time by himself coloring.

 

Here they're playing with kinetic sand together. That stuff is a lot of fun.