Christmas lights!

The neighbors have up their over the top decorations already. That means our nightly walk around the corner to see the lights begins. Callies been waiting for this all year. She loves visiting the neighbors and seeing their lights. We went last night and made friends with another little girl who lives in our neighborhood. Tonight they were all off (they probably weren't home) and the kids were so disappointed. Here's the photos of the craziness from last night. They have so many inflatables you can't even see them all as they are almost on top of each other. They cover the lawn, walkway, steps, even, and roof of the house!

Reading to Ava; Elfie and MiMi show up!

Baby Ava came over to visit today. She's not really baby Ava anymore now that she crawls and stands up! She's growing up so fast. Callie enjoyed showing her tons of toys and even reading her a story. Ava was a good sport and tolerated Callies borage of stories and show and tell. It was tricky to get all three kids to sit together for a photo. I even bribed with gummy bears but then they just can't smile because they are chewing! 

In elf news we now have 2 elves! Diegos elf arrived and we named it MiMi. We deliberated on using this matching elf or the standard elf that comes with the book Nena bought us. We decided she would ask a million questions if they were too different so we went with the similar one. Even being similar she gave us a hard time about the clothes being different and even the color. At one point she said MiMi wasn't real because her ears were different. After examining both she decided they were the same just stuck out less. Phew! She is a stubborn kid that can be hard to persuade. But now that she is satisfied with the new elf we can have some fun. This is where they found Elfie and MiMi today. Even Diego knows to look for Elfie and MiMi and points at them and says MiMi. He's too adorable learning so quickly from his sister.

Oh Christmas Tree

Unfortunately for me the excitement of Christmas started at 4 am when Callie discovered her elf Elfie had reappeared on her shelf. After that getting her to sleep or Diego back to sleep was terrible. Callie was so excited to put up all the Christmas decorations. She is so excited that she keeps asking if Christmas is tomorrow. Oh boy 28 more days of her asking is it tomorrow...

So today we stayed home and put out all the Christmas decorations. We did the lights outside, the tree and stockings. Things take much longer than you imagine when you have the help of a 1 and 3 year old. But we got it all done and it looks good.

The neighbors even got all their inflatable decorations up. We went to visit and they were not finished as they had so many it kept tripping the breaker. Yikes that's a lot of electricity! 

For now here's a photo of our house front and the tree all lit up.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a great day with extended family, tons of delicious food, and lots of laughter. I ate wayyy too much as always. Diego and Ford were the "turkeys" of the bunch making everyone laugh and smile all evening. Diego ate mostly bread and even stole an extra huge piece and walked away with it. Callie and I dressed as twins and so I took the opportunity to get a family photo since its a rare instance when we actually get one. I am so thankful for all I have; my husband, my kids, my family both near and far, my home, my new work, and my life. We are so blessed in so many ways and I need to remember to be more thankful rather than complain about the little things tht frustrate me. Tonight when Callie and I were saying our nighttime prayer, I asked her what she was thankful for. I tried to model for her about dinner and what was my favorite and she got mad and said you took mine, that's what I am thankful for. Hysterical. Ireminded her we can be thankful for the same things. And she chose to be thankful for Ford and Diego. Awww melted my heart.

She went to bed so fast today. She is so excited that Elfie her Elf on a shelf arrives tonight! Woo hoo...let the adventures begin.

Disney California Adventure

Yesterday Callie went on her first Disney trip! I said forever I wouldn't bring her until she was at least 4, but Eliana convinced me to let her go earlier. Nena and Eliana were dying to take her to all the Frozen themed parts of the park and with the holidays and being off work they thought it was a perfect time. Despite my hesitations I went along with it, I was just there for the ride. Well I was wrong!! She loved every minute of it and didn't need to be any older! The only thing that would have helped if she was older was riding more rides. She isn't 40" tall and was pretty mad at the lady who measured her and said no to a ride. Oops I should have seen the sign before we tried. I knew she wasn't 40". But despite that one set back she was a trooper. We arrived at 8 am and stayed until 7 pm! We did almost everything possible within that one park. First things first we went directly to meet Elsa and Anna which she really liked. Then off to Frozen sing along, which ends in a snow flurry overhead and was quite magical. Then we went to Olaf snow land and went sledding, played in the snow and saw Olaf. We rode Monsters Inc and Little Mermaid rides. We walked the pier, went to every single store in the park.... Rode lady bugs in bugs land. Saw cars land.... Went back to see Frozen sing along a second time! Saw Disney Junior live with Doc McStuffins, Sophia the first and Jake and the Pirates, oh and Mickey Mouse clubhouse. We saw a musical rendition of Alladin (this was the one things she couldn't quite grasp what was going on as she never saw the movie before and was starting to get tired). We saw a sneak peak of Good Dinosaur in 3D, rode a carousel, had face painting done. Then last we saw the Pixar parade. Wow was it a fun filled day. Callie loved it and watching her was pretty spectacular. The Frozen themed stuff seemed to be the hit with her although today she changed her mind and said the parade was the best.

A huge thank you to Nena for making her magical day happen. I'm sure she will remember it for a long time. She even asked to go back tomorrow?! Maybe next year...

Cousins

Callie, Diego and Ford can be a wild bunch. Callie is like the ring leader of two little followers. They copy her and encourage the crazy behavior. It makes it pretty wild at times. Yes this is Callie dragging Ford on the wrecking ball and then sitting on it with him. Two little wrecking balls....

Adventures on a trolley

Randomly Callie asked about the Farmers market today. It's on Thursday in our neighborhood, but I thought maybe we can find another. Turns out Hillcrest has one Sunday's. And to top it off they have free offsite parking and a free trolley that drives you over to the market. I figured that checked off more than one box and we set off on an adventure. The trolley ride was by far the highlight of he entire trip. It's an open air trolley on wheels, so like a bus more but the sides are all open and you sit on regular park benches. Both kids loved this. I only snapped a quick photo before we left because it goes pretty fast and I had to hold on to both kids to keep them from falling off the seats.

Yesterday Nicky came down and visited and played a game of Hello kitty Bingo with Callie. They tied for the win and I lost (again). 

And at night they were nice watching YouTube videos together. Usually it's a fight over what they choose to watch or if they are touching each other. This should go next to the holding hands photo!

Little People village

Today the kids set up a whole Little People village in our living room. We took out lots of houses, barns and fences. They had vehicles galore and a village of people as well as a farm and a jungle full of animals. They played rather separately but within the same "village". I made the fence and it was a great idea as they stayed inside it for a long time :)

Callie was feeling much better today. She slept all night and her wheezing has gone away. She stil is coughing with boogers and tired but this is an improvement and her lungs are the bigger worry. So no difficulty breathing means we can manage a cold for a few days. D now has boogers too and daddy too. So hopefully I can stay well enough to hold down the fort.

Get in line

Callie is sick again. It seems like every respiratory illness hits her way worse than everyone else. She ends up with a terrible cough, wheezing and trouble breathing. Even with her medications and inhalers it's a challenge. I slept in her room last night and she stayed home from school with Grandma today. Luckily I'm off for 11 days now so that's plenty of time for her to get well. And for a few more days I'll sleep with her. I'm thankful we haven't had any trips to the doctor urgently or hospital but it seems so unfair she is the one that suffers when she gets sick.

So the only photo I have for you is from yesterday that Tia Mari took while visiting D. This is pretty typical for him, lining up all his buses and cars on the edge of the couch. He sure loves buses and anything with wheels. I think that's 3 buses I see there. 

Tug o war

Diego is always trying to get Manny to play but he's not usually playful as he's more likely to be lazy and grumpy. Yesterday though they had quite game of tug o war. I had to end it as Diego started harassing Manny by grabbing his back legs. D is usually very gentle and nice to Manny but all that playing had him fired up!

Glow bracelet fun

Callie loves glow stick anything, so since we're going to see Ford after dark she wanted to bring glow bracelets. She does magic shows and just plays in the dark. Her and Ford might as well had their own rave.