Christmas 2009

We had a lovely trip to Nampa, Idaho where we spent time with friends and family for Christmas.

These are all shots of the kids opening their presents when we got back home.

The girls in their Christmas jammies.

Rylan didn't want to get his picture taken.

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Getting their Nails Done

It was beauty salon time at Grandma Far Away's house.

All three of the girls got their nails done.

They discovered it is hard to zip up zippers and do buttons with such long nails!

Playing School

The other day I came into the front room to find my 2 youngest students hard at work at their "desk".

They had many assignments to complete.

Practice makes perfect!

Concentration is the key. Notice the cell phone is close in case he gets any calls.

Taking Pictures with Daddy

I was trying to get a shot of Lila and Rylan together and Daddy noticed the "cheeses" just weren't happening - at least on Rylan's side.

So he joined the photo shoot. As you can see Rylan wasn't budging.

Oh, starting to see a little smirk there, Rylan . . .

Daddy knows how to get his kids to smile!

Gingerbread Houses 2009

These pictures are several weeks old now but I thought I'd post them - better late than never eh? Aunt Tami brought a gingerbread kit with 5 mini houses that the kids made with Garrett (friend from Idaho) on Thanksgiving Day.

You can tell Alaina was snacking as she assembled her work of art.

Rylan got some help from Daddy.

Lila had some help from Mommy.

Masterpieces!

D-Day

Here are some shots of Demolition Day at our house.

Ryan has been wanting to take a wall out at our front door pretty much since we moved in. Actually he never wanted the wall put there, but the builders didn't give us an option. So a couple of weeks ago Ryan started pounding on it with a hammer. The kids were rather intrigued by this occurrence especially when Ryan gave them a hammer. Its not everyday your parents tell you to make holes in the wall!

The demolition crew worked very hard and even did a great job cleaning up the mess.

Happy Birthday Alaina!

Alaina turned 7 on November 1st. Because the whole family was sick at the time, her party was postponed. Here she is blowing out the candles on her birthday donut holes.

She picked those out at the store when we told her we weren't going to have a party with her friends until the next week. She was a very good sport about the whole thing.

This is a shirt she received from Uncle John and Aunt Amy. It says, "I Dance to my own Beat".

And here she is surrounded by friends at her party on Sunday.

Its hard to believe she is already 7! We know the years will continue to fly by as she grows and look forward to watching her dance her way through life. We love you Alaina!

Happy Halloween!

Well, Rylan was the only one of the kids who was healthy enough to go trick-or-treating this year. All 3 of the girls are sick.

Ryan took the little handyman to the couple of houses we go to and he collected goodies for everyone.

After they got home Ryan had them come knock on different doors upstairs and he answered them - as different people - and gave them treats. They thought it was funny to watch their Daddy playacting his parts as different people. Here are two of the sickies in their ballerina costumes. . .

They perked up quite a bit when Daddy told them to put on their costumes and come trick-or-treating upstairs. The last shots are Emily and Lila playing dress-up with stuff from Grandma Far Away's dress-up box earlier this week.

Emily had fun with the wigs.

And Princess Lila . . .

Emily and Julia

The oldest and the youngest cousin . . .

so sweet!

Shopping in H-town

Raquel knows all the good places to shop in Houston. She took the girls (and James) out one day to the area in town where all the imports come in and are sold for cheap. We had fun looking at all the jewelry, purses, and dresses.

The kids all came home with fancy new duds.

Sharp dressers!

Sea World!!

We drove to San Antonio Sunday after church and the next morning got up and headed to Sea World. We had such a great day! There was no waiting in lines (I think mainly because it was a Monday and slightly overcast). The shows were great - we saw one with sea lions,

one with dolphins and beluga whales,

and of course Shamu had a show.We fed the dolphins . . .and the kids loved the poison dart frogs. They are so brightly colored!I didn't realize that Sea World had so many amusement park rides. I also didn't realize that Emily and Alaina would be so excited to ride them!The picture is probably too small to see, but that is Neil, Raquel, Emily and Alaina on the log ride. I think the girls rode it 4 times and would have rode it more if we let them. This next one is the Atlantis which drops a boat very steeply and thus very fast into the water - of course getting everyone in the boat wet.

We rode that one several times and thus got very wet.

Lila was tall enough to ride in the eggshell ride. Rylan was too, but he was too tired and falling asleep in the stroller by that time.

Lunch was at Rudy's - the best BBQ joint in Texas.

Fun times!