Christmas Morning 09

It was the perfect Christmas morning. The kids woke us up early and ran down stairs to see what Santa had brought them. Reuben went down first to turn all the lights and the video camera on. Isaac came running round the corner with Bella not far behind. Their faces were a mix between shock and excitement. Before we knew it paper and bows were everywhere and we had more toys and fun new stuff they we knew what to do with. We cleaned up and had a wonderful day playing with all our new toys.


Isaac is in love with his new train set and remote control car.

Christmas 2009

This year marks our first Christmas at home! We missed seeing family and friends from home but enjoyed not traveling and sleeping in our own beds. Isaac is at the perfect age where he understands enough to get excited but not quite old enough to get the story of Santa. He was extremely spoiled this year. Between us and both his grandparents he has enough new toys and clothes to last him until next year. Christmas is the perfect holiday for Bella! She loves to tear paper and opening presents was a dream come true. Thanks everyone for the wonderful gifts and I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas 2009

Isaac age 3
Bella age 17 months

The night before Christmas

Bella's Big Hands

Bella is my get into everything child!!! No matter what I do she always manages to find something interesting to play with and it is usually in my kitchen. Todays interesting item was the oven mittens. She loved that they went all the way up her arms, and when she clapped they made the funniest noise.

Kids and Christmas

Christmas is almost here and we are getting more excited everyday. To encourage the holiday cheer we have added a few more things to our home. Isaac made the cutest Santa at preschool and decorated what he calls his happy tree and even drew a picture and wrote his wish list to Santa. I tried getting him to mail his list to Santa but all he wanted to do was hang it on his wall. Bella loves all the decorations and it has been a challenge to keep her out of the Christmas tree. When I tell her no dont touch she just smiles and says please and touches anyways. She gets into much more mischief then Isaac ever has. I finally purchased some family stocking. Nothing fancy just good old Target, but I did add a little needed joy to them. I thought they looked great, Reuben thinks they are too girly. Too bad, they are sewn on and staying at least for this year.

Decorating for Christmas

This will be our first Christmas ever at home! We will not be traveling to grandma's this year. Its sad that we wont be spending Christmas with our families yet exciting to decorate our home and have our very own Christmas tree. For FHE on Monday we put up our tree and Isaac helped me put on the ornaments. Now all I have to do is keep Bella from taking them all off. Yesterday I decorated the fireplace mantel and on Wednesday for mutual we made gingerbread houses. All this holiday activities has been lots of fun and I will be sad when its all over. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas season!

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! We were so spoiled to have lots of family come and visit for Thanksgiving. Turkey day we traveled to my Aunt Debbi's house were we met up with my parents, younger brother, sister and her family. Next we headed to my cousin Heathers for Thanksgiving dinner. Lots of yummy food and great company. My family was able to stay a few more days. On Saturday we headed to the city. First up the Children's Museum then a walk around the city and the Space Needle. To end the night it was dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. I hope everyone had fun. We loved having family come and visit. Thanks for a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Bella's Backpack

Bella can be quite the girly girl when she wants to. She loves to play dress up, meaning putting on Isaac's clothes, my belts and jewelry, changing her shoes a billion times a day. She has also developed a bag fetish. I have to keep the mud room door closed at all times to prevent her from emptying out my purses and bags so she can carry them around the house. A wonderful friend gave us this cute backpack that Bella absolutely loves. She insists on wearing it all the time.

No Nap on Sunday

We have church at 1:00 pm which is right when the kids take their nap for the day. So church can be a little hard for them and me. After church is over I usually put the kids down for a short nap for my sanity. The down side to this is that they dont want to wake up at 5:30 and eat dinner and they really dont want to go to bed a few hours later. So I decided to give up a little bit more of my sanity and have no naps on Sunday. The first time I tried this everything went fine and the kids went to bed early which is a bonus. The second Sunday with no naps didnt go quite as planned. Isaac couldnt make it all day without a nap and ended up crashing on the couch. Its a good thing our church time changes to 9:oo am in January.

Hanging out at home

The kids and I all have a bit of a cold so for the last few days we have been home in our pj's. Its been fun to have some down time and stay at home for a few days. We havent had to get up and get ready for preschool or my workout group. So its been quiet and relaxing and silly. I think we are all a little nutty from so many days at home and cant wait for the weekend. Reuben will be gone all weekend so I have been trying to think of something fun the kids and I can do. Reuben got us free tickets to the Childrens Museum so that is at the top of our list. As of right now we are up for anything that will get us out of the house.

showing of his new pj's


Happy face and sad face

what a handsom boy

wearing Isaac's jacket

Happy Halloween 09

Our Halloween weekend started off with a fun girls night out. Dinner at El Charro (wonderful Mexican food) Then it was off to a Haunted Funeral Home. We stood in line for an hour in the rain and had a blast. It was well worth the wait. Let just say my whole body was sore the next morning from being so tense while going thorough the haunted house. Saturday was spent with trunk or treating at the church house and taking the kids around the neighborhood. Isaac loved being a cowboy and really enjoyed his horse, gun and hat. My personal favorite was his belt and buckle that his grandpa Ortega gave him. Bella suprised us all by leaving her costum on all night. She was such a cute Elephant. She loved all the candy and it was so cute to hear her tell everyone thank you after every piece of candy. Over all one of the best holidays ever. Cute kids that I get to dress up and lots of free candy for me to eat.

Cars and More Cars

Isaac loves to play with his cars. Even more then that he loves to line everything up and count all his cars. He was so proud of his row and I was very proud to hear that he could correctly count all of them. Oh and he is at the table because Bella was messing up his line of cars. So he had to move to higher ground for protection.



Isaac took the bottom two pictures all by himself. He is becoming quite the photographer

Love Hate Relationship

Bella and I have developed a love hate relationship over her new toy. She has become obsessed with the toilet bowl brush!!! If the bathroom door is left open she is in their as fast as her chubby little legs can go and then she usually goes and hides because she knows that she is not suppose to have the brush. Even though I hate her new toy. I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures of her in her diaper running around as happy as can be.

Inquiring Minds

I just wanted to let everyone know that yes, Reuben did buy me my couch! I am super excited and cant wait until it is delivered. I am lucky to have such a wonderful husband who lets me have the things I want and puts up with my crazy decorating ideas. Thanks hon, I love you so much!