Christmas Photo Shoot and Letter!

The Quinones Family - 2009 in Review!

It was a more relaxed year in 2009, thank God! :) Ayden turned four on the first day of the year and we celebrated a little later in the month wit a robot birthday party with friends! We enjoyed playing in the snow a couple of times during the winter with all the neighbors right in our own front yard! This sure is one of the perks of living on the east coast!

We celebrated Gabriel's big first birthday in April with the help of Grandma Gayle and all the neighbors and friends! Ayden started playing in his first big boy soccer league in the Spring, which he continued on in the Fall with his Dad as assistant coach!

The Summer brought an awesome trip with Granny and Papi down to Florida to visit NASA's Kennedy Space Center and then a relaxing week out at Hilton Head Island off the coast of South Carolina! Ayden's love of all things outer space prompted the visit. He loved every minute of it!

Later in the Summer, Gabriel learned how to practice American Sign Language. He took to it right away with fun video demonstrations and help from Momma and Daddy. This was a big deal and sort of took the limelight over verbal first words since he didn't have much of an interest in speaking. At the end of the year now, his verbal vocabulary is probably less than 15 words, but his sign vocabulary is probably more than 50 words!

In late Summer time, we went out to visit the family in CA and celebrated Gabriel's baptism. He was 16 months old, the same exact age that Ayden was when he was baptized! And so he of course had to wear the same outfit! :) We waited to arrange both of their baptisms since we have lived far away from all the family we wanted to celebrate with. Cindy stayed busy towards the end of the Summer planning and preparing for Fall baby showers, event planning still seems to be her thing!

In the Fall, we began hosting a church life group at our home with six families, including nine children under the age of five every Sunday afternoon! Julio took on leadership of the group, guiding us through bible study and such. Gabriel started his first two classes this Fall, Art Beginnings and Stretch and Grow. He loves them both! Ayden surprised us by wanting to try out his bike with no training wheels! He had it in about an hour. Don't know why I was surprised by this! This is Ayden were talking about! :)

Julio has progressed well in his job at DaVita with ten clinics now in his region and two hospital programs. He seems to enjoy his work and coworkers and he definitely stays busy!

We spent a bit of the late Fall at home with illness, but had a great Christmas time this month getting ready for the big visit from Santa that we will be sharing with the family out in CA! We couldn't stay away from all of the new babies that were born into the family this year!!

Merry Christmas and best wishes for a blessed New Year in 2010!

Just Goofing Around on a Snowy Day!

We had the neighbors over yesterday for some indoor play time since it was so cold that a bit of snow fell from the sky in the afternoon!
All the goof balls goofing around!

Signs of Christmas!

We got the advent candle ring out last year (it was a gift last year and new to us), but admittedly didn't participate probably because dinner was too crazy each night to actually sit down all at the same time, light the candles and say a prayer. We have been better this year and have it all set for each night. This advent candle ring came from Granny and Papi, they bought it for us on a trip to either Peru or Costa Rica, Julio can't remember.
I finally got back into the habit of forcing some paperwhite bulbs this year. Cheryl, you would be proud of me! I think Gabriel was too much of a handful last year! We have enjoyed watching them grow throughout the month of December! They smell so wonderful!
The countdown to Christmas advent calendar that is hanging in the playroom.
Wrapped up cornmeal pecan biscuits all ready for the neighborhood ladies group annual Christmas cookie exchange! I came home with more than 50 cookies in exchange! Yikes, don't really want to look at another baked good for a while. :) Fun stuff though!

Gingerbread House Play Date!

Here is what Ayden and I came up with when it was all done. :) Ya, I helped...couldn't help it, the thing wasn't that simple to assemble and it is so much fun to put gummy trees in the gingerbread yard! :)
Our friends Tyler and Valerie came over to decorate houses with us! :)
The silly shot of the two of them! :)

At school last week...

Ayden brought this home from school last week. I thought it was so cute and appropriate for the time of year! He has been so curious about Angels. He always wants to know if the angels are outside of his window, watching over him. He read in a book that the twinkling lights from the stars tell you that the angels are watching over you and so now, he believes that. :) I love it!
This is a drawing of the Angel, Gabriel. No, not Ayden's brother, but the one who came to Joseph in a dream to tell him that Mary was going to have the baby Jesus.

A Visit With Santa!

We went to the library again this year to avoid the mall and the library was very organized and had a great system for keeping the line down. There were waiting groups: A,B,C. We were group D and probably waited about 45 minutes. Ayden took his list that he made at the end of November to show Santa what he wants for Christmas this year. He wrote the words himself (with my assistance for spelling)! See his list below! This particular Santa is so nice and he looks just like the real deal! It was worth the wait, even though the visit lasted less than two minutes! :) The time to visit Santa was from 1:30-4:00 pm. We opted not to keep Gabriel up way past his nap to come visit Santa as well and so I feel bad about that, but we have a photo of him with Santa from Ayden's preschool Christmas event so it all works out! :)
I just thought this was so cute! This year was the first year that he was able to write the words by himself. The list got a little damaged by some water, but you can make out a couple of the items. We'll see what Santa brings him! :)

The Tree Trimming!

After putting the lights on and decorating the gingerbread man, here we are actually decorating the tree!
Ayden was very into this task! He ever got mad at me the next morning because "I finished putting the rest of the ornaments on the tree after he went to bed!" Oh well, at least he had a good time. :)
The finished product!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

On the same night as Astronaut Academy (last Thursday) we had an official "Tree Trimming" party! It was Granny and Papi's last night with us and it seemed suiting to send them off with a fun party! Here are Daddy and Ayden putting the lights on the tree.
To keep Ayden busy while we decorated the tree a bit and sipped egg nog, I bought this cute gigantic gingerbread man for Ayden to decorate! He loved it of course since anything cake is right up his alley! I even made two bags full of red and green frosting with icing tips for him to get creative!
Cheese!
The finished product complete with "new red buttons" instead of the ones he came with and coconut hair!
I think Ayden has my sweet tooth! :)

Astronaut Academy!

With all of these classes that I've been taking Gabriel to lately during the morning time of the week when Ayden is in school, I've felt like Ayden deserves a fun class too! So I found this great class at the Durham Museum of Life and Science called "Astronaut Academy!" It is a three class series and we've been to one so far on December 3rd and have the second class tomorrow. Ayden seemed to enjoy the class since he has a big interest still in all things outer space!
I'm pretty sure his favorite part was making this "rocket" that you launch by blowing air through the straw! :)
Here is the whole class learning about the largest rocket!

Wednesdays!

This is how our Wednesdays start out every week. Gabriel eating an egg sandwich from McDonalds! He never seems to eat enough in the morning at home and so when we go out to one of his classes or out on errands, I am always getting him snacks. :)
Here we are pretending to be snakes at Gabriel's "Stretch and Grow" class through the Town of Cary.
This is Gabriel's favorite part of the class...collecting the balls in his own little basket and then dumping them into the big basket!
The parachute is a close second!
Look Granny (who is taking the photo)!! I've got a stamp of a smiley face on my hand! :) Gabriel and I have had so much fun with Stretch and Grow and the Art Class that we are going to take them again in the Spring!

Christmas Tree Shopping!

Daddy and Gabriel playing "fill the bucket with rocks and then wear the bucket as a hat (without the rocks thank God!"
Running through all the trees trying to find a good one...well I was trying to find a good one! :)
We went to the same farm to get a Christmas tree that we went to for the hay ride, etc. in the Fall. They just looked cute checking out the view of the farm, so I had to snap a photo!
Cheese!
They are getting to be good pals! :)

Hike with Mom!

Posing for me up on a little hill!
Cheese on a quick break from our little hike. It was a pretty spot north of Durham.
My little adventurer!
This is the name of the spot where we were hiking. It was a great afternoon...we need to do this more often on nice days! I just love being outdoors and not just in my front yard! ;)

November Happenings

The kids playing on the street the day we left for our overnight. Looks like they were having a good time. :)
Gabriel at his art class making a turkey
He decided not to make the turkey the way the teacher showed them, but that is alright...his version was a work of art, Gabriel style! :)
Granny's Birthday celebration at our house a few days before Thanksgiving! I made her her favorite cake, chocolate with white frosting.

Henry!

Ayden has always been my little creative child. He just comes up with craft projects off the top of his head that impress me. :) Right before Thanksgiving time, Ayden found an old poster holder, stuck two hockey sticks down it for the arms and then put a paper mache covered balloon that we had made for a Halloween project that we never finished on for the head. He dressed him up in some of his dress up clothes now Henry is his new friend! He has such a vivid imagination and has always loved pretending. So my thought is that Henry is like his imaginary friend, only he isn't quite imaginary. Does that make sense? :)

Just Hanging Out!

These are just random photos from late November before Thanksgiving. Thanks to Granny and Papi, we have tons of pics to choose from. :) Here's a short selection.

My little cleaning helper!
Granny, Gabriel, Ayden and I went on a walk during their 2 week visit and Ayden found a tree that looked like it had a bunch of "wishies" on it. You know, dandelions! :) He said that it was "snowing on him" and he loved it!
Granny, Papi and Ayden got to visit Daddy at work!