5 amigos

These guys have so much fun together. Borja is the ring leader and the other four love him. The language is sometimes English, sometimes Spanish, and sometimes imitating Borja's accent.

Puppy love

Not quite big enough

Siblings were included at Borja's last soccer practice, but someone wasn't quite big enough.

Space Needle party

Becka invited us to a party at the Space Needle for her work and even arranged for us to travel in style. A limo showed up at our house, complete with my parents inside, and we spent the evening dancing and taking pictures. :)

in the limo

it was a little windy on the Space Needle deck

and a little chilly

It cost me $20 to have Kenzie sing "Call Me Maybe" on karaoke, but it was worth it.

The dinner was nice - Mason went to the kitchen and asked them for ketchup.

Yes, we did opt for the cheesy pictures with the fake backdrop

Christmas relaxation

Making cookies and playing with friends.

Christmas 2012

The Christmas season was quite lovely this year. We spent a lot of time with family and friends, didn't travel anywhere, and enjoyed a quiet season...well as quiet as it can get with three kids and a dog. We started early with two family Christmas parties on the 15th, the Bolams for breakfast and the Averills for dinner.

We decided to make a Spanish feast for dinner, with gazpacho and paella. Kenzie and I doubled the batch of gazpacho, which ended up being about 10 times too much. But the paella was a hit, even with the critical Spanish judge.

 

We had good friends over for Christmas Eve and revived the favored Christmas tradition of crank caroling. Casey brought her guitar and we sang until we ran out of contacts in our phones.




Christmas day itself was so nice. Grammy and Grampy came up for the traditional eggs benedict and prolonged present opening ceremony. Borja was certainly the most excited of all. This year each present was labeled as either "Snowflake," "Elf" or "Reindeer" and the kids had their theories about which was whose. Unfortunately for them we are still a step ahead and none of their guesses proved correct. Once he figured it out, all we heard was "is there another present Snowflake can open?"

 

Pretty soon Grandma, Grandpa and AJ made the trek from next door to see some of the unwrapping.

 

There was one gift that got a particular "gasp" - we are going to Disneyland in February. The gasp came when Kenzie read that we are going with our new but dear friends, Wil and Gabi, and their family. We are very excited.

 

 

Dear Santa 2012

This year the only one who fully believes in Santa is Borja. Kenzie is pretty convinced he doesn't exist and Mason has been towing the same line. Until tonight when we told him that Santa only delivers presents to those who write him a letter. He disappeared and came down with an insurance policy.

(Oh we also told him of five years ago when Santa showed up the day after Christmas to let us take pictures, so he included that. You can also see that since Mason shot me in the face with a Nerf gun and then the Newton, CT, shootings happened we have reverted to the no-guns policy. He's not happy and thinks Santa can help.)

It says (in the corrected version): I hope you give me a new Nerf gun. But my moms don't want me to have one. :( She took them away. I want a picture with you and I want to see the penguins in the North Pole. Next, are you real? I have never got to see you. Love, Mason. I have been a good boy!

A clown and his baby

A lift

Kenzie thinks her brother can't pick her up. She doesn't consider the full situation.

Beiber hat 2.0

For Felix

Double dollars

Not to be outdone by her brother, Kenzie plucked out two teeth today (that I don't think were loose this morning). Then she documented it. :)

She denied that she is trying to raise extra money for Christmas presents. Hmmmm

Pagaent 2012

Once again Cindy co-authored and directed the Christmas pageant at church. It was a hit, even though they never were able to do a full run-through prior to the show. This one was called "the Littlest Angels." Both sets of Grandparents, AJ, and our dear neighbor Sandy all came to watch.

Buds

Lauren shared her hair gel with Mason today. If we pull out one of her lower teeth and pierce his ears they'll be twins.