Our Neighborhood Christmas Party!

All the gals on our street!

Our newest neighbor, Miss Kinsley Alipour! She was born in mid November!

From left to right, Jaden, Layla and Erika! Such cuties!

All the guys chatting in the kitchen! We only planned this party about two weeks out and it was right before school got out and everyone left for the holidays on Dec. 17th. I wasn't the ring leader this time...Julio got out a bunch of good recipes and made some great appetizers, sweet potatoes, ham, pork roast and salad. I just helped! It was a great party! What a fun and busy December!

A Holiday Sushi Party!

All the makings of yummy sushi rolls!

We had the treat of having some yummy home made sushi rolls (that we were given some "how to's" for making) at our neighbors, the Karlson's. Keiko is an excellent cook!

All the ladies!

The kids got to decorate ginger bread men!

It was a fun party!

Gabriel's First Playdate!

Here are Gabriel and his neighbor friend Jake! I am still working on getting Gabriel into a class at a play gym or something so that he can hang out with little ones his age on a regular basis. He really enjoys playing with other babies!

It has been fun revisiting all of Ayden's old baby toys with Gabriel! We didn't have to buy anything, it's great! Well, maybe a Christmas gift or two. :)

Sitting on Santa's Lap!

We thought we would need to go to the good old mall to visit Santa, but Julio and our neighbors, the Kogers went together (while Gabriel was napping!) to the library to visit Santa! Ayden didn't intentionally look all dressed up for Santa. It was a Sunday in early December and so these were his church clothes. It worked out though, he looked cute in the photo!

Lucy and Ayden with Santa!

Our neighbor Jim (Lucy's dad) reading to the kids. They met up with Ayden's other neighbor friend, Erika.

The Life of an 8 Month Old...

Gabriel tried his fist finger foods this month. Some favorites were little bites of pear, avocados, black beans, cheerios and bread and then at 9 months he moved on to grapes, bananas, egg, cheese and some ground or lunch meat. I prayed that I would have a less picky eater with Gabriel (Ayden started off as picky as they come!) and it looks like my prayers were answered! He pretty much eats whatever we put in his mouth, but is (at 9.5 months) starting to spit things out with his tongue. Still, way better eater! I love Ayden, but food pickiness drives me crazy!!

The concertration of the pincer grasp!

I love pulling the socks out of the laundry basket!

And my balance is getting better all the time!

I love to play with my big brother Ayden! We even got matching navy blue winter coats in early December in time for all this crazy weather we've been having! They have come in real handy!

Ayden's Soccer Class

Since Gabriel was born, Ayden and I haven't made it to many organized classes for his entertainment or education. He has been going to preschool all along, but has only been able to participate in play dates, birthday parties, play time with neighbors and Sunday school. We used to go to activities like art class, tumbling class, cooking class and lots of others. I am a stickler for a young baby needing his naps and so we have only been able to make a few tennis and soccer classes at our club down the block. I'll get back in the swing of things here eventually. Now that Gabriel is 9 months, I think I can sacrifice a little more sleep!
Here is Ayden at one of the soccer classes in early December. He had a blast!

Gabriel at 7 1/2 months!

Once he was up and standing at the beginning of 7 months, he kept practicing his balance and could soon get himself up to a stand without the aid of any furniture, etc. He progressively got more and more stable and then started moving along the perimeter of objects like the coffee table. We wondered if we were going to have an early walker on our hands!

Gabriel on the lawn of the lighthouse. My favorite shot of him on the beach trip!

Here are two more photos that didn't make it into the other group of pics from our Thanksgiving trip to the Outer Banks. We drove down to a pretty lighthouse that you can climb up to the top of for a great view of the area. Here are Granny and Papi after the treck back down.

Here's myself and Gabriel after walking back down from the top!

More of Our Time at The Outer Banks at Thanksgiving!

Ayden saw this "shabul"(shovel) and had to have it for digging in the sand!

He didn't do all this by himself. There was a big whole there from some other kids. He just added to it!

Playing with the good old sand toys!

He even made a friend and the enjoyed playing together for quite some time! This little girl had two much older sister, so she was happy to play with Ayden (her age)! It was so cute! Two little blondies. Ayden seems to have more friends who are girls than boys these days! :)

Snoozing to the sound of the waves! I actually think it lulled him to sleep. :)

We all ate an early breakfast at McDonalds after the guys went to the Walmart at 5 am to do after Thanksgiving day shopping for Christmas! There were some awesome sales!

This is a photo of the quaint little pier of stores that we shopped at. Some good Thanksgiving sales too!

A family shot on the balcony of the beach house.

One of my favorite shots of Ayden down at the beach!

Enjoying a pretty sunset!

We celebrated Granny's (Caryl's) birthday at a fun mexican restaurant down the road! Pancho and Caryl are sipping a gigantic margarita!

This is the beach house that we rented for the week! It was more than enough room and only the second row back from the shore!

There were lots of these! So pretty! Papi is a great photographer!

Here's Ayden after playing at the beach all day! He couldn't get enough of it!

Thanksgiving at the Outer Banks!!

The town of Duck...can you see it printed on the water tower?

The weather, with the exception of a couple cloudy, cooler days was sunny and in the 50's!

You can barely see them, but these are two dolphins that we spotted out in the surf!!

Ayden and Papi playing ball the first day out on the beach.

Caryl and Gabriel enjoying the view! :)

Peak-a-boo!!

Gabriel's favorite game last month at 8 months old was peak-a-boo. It was so cute watching him pull a bib or a blanket over his head so that one of us would play the game. During Thanksgiving week, he played it for the first time with Granny. I nearly had to pull the car over to watch, but managed to see it in the rear view mirror. So cute to watch them do these kind of interactions...I loved it!