Christmas morning

We had a wonderful Christmas morning with plenty of opening presents and eating fruit snacks from stockings. I had planned to have a nice picnic in the living room with chocolate muffins, cinnamon bread, and a delicious plate of fresh fruit for breakfast. However, the girls could not be enticed with chocolate muffins or their favorite fruits in a room full of presents. So breakfast was quickly done away with and the devouring of presents commenced instead.

Sophia loved all of her presents, except the clothes that I had gotten for her. Even very fancy skirts are not acceptable to a girl in the midst of toys, books, and games, apparently. Tessa loved all of the wrapping paper and tried to open as many presents as possible, regardless of who they were for. She also loved cleaning up the wrapping paper and putting it in our giant trash bag. I did have to retrieve a few presents, however.

Here are some pictures and videos from our Christmas.

Starring Sophia (videos from Christmas Eve)

We received a Flip Video camera for Christmas from my Dad and of course had to try it out right away. You don't have to tell Sophia twice that she can perform for the camera. This one is very cool because it takes super clear (HD to you techies), upclose videos. It would be the best camera ever if it also took still pictures, and actually the book says you can take a still picture from a video, which sounds intriguing but I have yet to check out.

So here is Sophia singing her own Christmas song...somehow she found a way to combine Jesus and Santa in one new song. She explained that she whispers some of it because that part is very important.

This video is just Sophia being silly and showing off her stocking and her sister's new stocking that had just arrived from Land's End and hadn't even been hung up yet. Don't worry, we hung it before bedtime.

Christmas lights and preschool party

We went to the River of Lights at the Botanical Garden with some friends. It was beautiful and a lot of fun, as long as you kept moving and drinking hot chocolate to keep warm. We tried to bundle Tessa up in the stroller, but decided that running around was much better for her. It was a cold, cold night! OK, for New Mexico it was cold...I doubt it got below 30F.

Sophia's preschool had a Christmas party and I asked if i could come early to pick her up and watch the kids sing their Christmas songs. It was so cute and I was able to learn a little more of the songs than the few lines Sophia sings over and over. Also, Tessa had so much fun playing in the classroom and all the kids were so friendly and sweet. Some of the boys have nicknamed Tessa "Mohawk" but in a very loving way I'm sure.

There are also a few pictures in here of Tessa playing with our Little People Nativity Scene, Sophia riding the Merry-Go-Round at the mall, and our own lights on our house.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Merry Christmas!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Getting ready for Christmas means visiting Santa, picking out a tree, and decorating the house.

Our other family in Washington

We spent some of our time in Washington at McChord AFB, with my good friend Leslie and her kids Nolan and Mylie. I became friends with her almost 10 years ago when our husbands were coworkers at Eglin AFB, Florida. Her husband was worried about her being alone after she arrived from Guam, since he had leave fairly soon afterwards. I told him not to worry because I would become her good friend right away. I didn't realize at the time that she would still be one of my closest friends 10 years later! Unfortunately, we hardly ever get to see her husband Nelson because he always seems to be deployed when we visit! But maybe someday we will get them to come visit us and we can all have fun together...(hint, hint).

So here are a few photos of our time at their house.

Say cheese girls! (They were born only 1 week apart!)Uncle Toby and Auntie Allie came over on our last night there.

Video stars

Sophia, Payton, and Allissa had fun playing with the record button on Tessa's portable crib. They sang plenty of songs and recorded them back, so I started recording them so they could watch themselves, as well as listen. Plus, Allissa made a video of her singing and playing her guitar. Kids really love watching themselves on video! And so do I...they crack me up.

The first video is from the zoo. Sophia was pretending to be a zoo guide and was telling me all about this snake (actually a statue) and I suddenly realized "I should be taping this!" So I missed most of it, but the end is still quite cute and amusing, to me anyway.

Pacific Science Center

Such a Seattle scene...the Space Needle surrounded by gray, dreary clouds. I really am not complaining though because we had very little rain the entire time we were there.

I mentioned this place in the previous blog, because it is located adjacent to the Seattle Center. It is a sister museum to our NM Museum of Natural History, to which we are also members. Free admission to a science museum? Of course I couldn't resist. This time my brother Toby, his girlfriend Allie, as well as my cousin Denny with his boys Payton and Dylan, and my Uncle Chuck joined us. Cousin Allissa and her Dad were supposed to come also, but unfortunately she was sick that day so we had to go without them.

Squashing those pennies is REALLY hard work.














Uncle Toby, Sophia, Payton, Tessa and I watched a planetarium show perfect for preschoolers.

The museum was very cool, with lots of fun things. They had moving dinosaurs, a special preschool planetarium show, a butterfly house, giant bug puzzles, cones to talk into across the room, a giant guitar, other musical experiments, and lots more. In fact, we had to cut it a little short to go back to the Seattle Center for lunch and then the babies got restless. We (ok I) decided perhaps taking them home early for naptime would be beneficial to all. So Denny, Uncle Chuck, and I took Tessa and Dylan home. Uncle JP met up with us as we were separating so he joined Toby, Allie, Chuckolate, Payton and Sophia as they headed back into the museum.

The butterfly house was very cool...butterflies of all sizes and colors flew around us and we were careful to look but not touch.

There was also an ice rink at the Seattle Center, so Sophia had the wonderful experience of ice skating for the first time. I wasn't too disappointed about missing it because I know Tessa would've been miserable without her nap and, oh yeah, I don't ice skate. At all. So Allie took turns bringing the kids on the ice while the guys watched. Payton liked holding onto the walker/(skater?) and lifting his feet up while Allie gave him a ride, but of course Sophia wanted to skate off on her own (with a walker) once she tried it. Unfortunately I don't have the pictures or videos but maybe Toby or Allie will send them and I can add them later.

Sophia loved playing a guitar from inside of it!

A parasaurolophus comes to life!
Allie and Sophia play piano.

Little Drummer Girl

Allie is the drummer on the far right...she was the only one with her kind of drum that day.

Sophia shook Tessa's elephant rattle to the beat of the music and Tessa clapped along.

My brother's girlfriend, Allie, is a drummer in a Bagpipe Band and we were fortunate enough to watch them play on the day after Thanksgiving. We went to the Seattle Center, a nice place with a stage, foodcourt, and lots of fun things surrounding it (including the Space Needle and the Pacific Science Center-which will be the next blog). We watched them come in playing the bagpipes but I don't think Allie was drumming on her way up to the stage. I couldn't tell you what her drum is called (maybe she'll comment and let us know) but it is a medium sized one that hangs in front of her.

She is definitely the most visually entertaining part of the show because she twirls her drumsticks in between beats. Of course, my girls loved watching that. There were also some dancers that came in, including a girl about Sophia's age, which impressed us all. Sophia may have joined her on stage if we weren't sitting so far back.

Allie let Isaah, Siren and Sophia try out her drum after the performance was over. Then Chuck took the kids over the check out the miniature train that was set up while we tried to figure out where the nearest kaitenzushi (conveyor belt sushi) restaurant was located. We went to Blue C Sushi, which I didn't get any pictures of, but it was excellent. Sophia still talks about wanting to go back to Seattle and eat sushi there!
I should have started this video earlier, but I obviously didn't realize it was the end of the song!

Fun with family

Sophia and her cousin (technically her second cousin, once removed since she is my cousin's daughter, but we stick with "cousin") Allissa did a fun craft project that Auntie Krissy brought over for them.Then they tried out the guitar that we brought for Allissa and they instantly became a hit music duo.

They even had fans...

Tessa and Grandpa Don clap for the show.
Tessa gives Mamaw a cuddle too.
Then Uncle Denny came over with Payton and Dylan, and the kids got even wilder. They had a little trouble getting along when the 5 were together, but overall they had fun.Krissy helps Tessa and Dylan (who is actually 2 months older than her, but she is tall!)

Uncle Toby plays with Sophia and Tessa Uncle Chuck (technically their "great" uncle, but we don't want that to go to his head) plays with Dylan.

Grandpa and his wife Nozomi cuddle with the girls before they head off to bed.

Sophia and Allissa pose for some pictures.

Tessa gets in a few, also.

Allissa (and her Mom, Krissy, and her Grandpa, Chuck) give Sophia her own camera to take pictures with. Soon she will be blogging too! Seriously, she took over 100 pictures in the first half hour!A bunch of us went out to dinner at Red Robin. Despite the pictures, we all did have a good time...not just Dylan!

Silly Allissa still looks quite cute in that wig!

Uncle J.P. and Auntie Azucena get their last goodbye hugs and kisses.

Goodnight mamaw. We love you.