Christmas San Antonio

The day after Christmas we packed the van up and headed to see the family in San Antonio!! It was so great...they waited for us to get there to open presents, so Ryan was able to get the whole Christmas present opening experience again!! And we were able to have a REAL Christmas dinner, delicious :)

Since we were going to be out of town for over a week, we couldn't make anything that would produce leftovers, so we had spaghetti!! Ryan is old enough now that he loves playing and running around with his cousins so he had a really great time! Then we were off to Grandpa's house to open more presents...Ryan loves the guitar he got....no volume control....just LOUD...thanks Grandpa!! We save that toy for when daddy brings out guitar hero, then and only then does the guitar ever make an appearance!! Then, (sigh) we were busy packing again...getting ready to make the 10 hour car trip to New Mexico to visit Uncle Ernie....more on that trip later!!

Christmas Houston

We had our first family Christmas at home this year. We put out the cookies for Santa, opened up our new Christmas jammies, put them on and put the kiddos to bed. Then Angel and I went to work putting together the big presents!! While we missed our family in San Antonio...it was nice to have a low key morning. We were so anxious to open our gifts, and wouldn't you know it Jaina decided to sleep in until 10:30. When it was finally time to open the presents, Ryan went at it like a pro, he even helped his baby sister by opening hers too!! What a big helper :) Lesson learned though...keep the really "exciting" gifts for last. He would open one gift, then want to play with it. With a little convivincing he continued to the very end! There were three gifts that he really likes, his batman trike, train table, and marble maze. Hopefully these will all keep him occupied until his birthday comes around! Spent most of the day packing for our day after christmas trip to San Antonio and New Mexico....more on that later!

Christmas EVE Jammies

Jaina's 1st Christmas!

"Thanks for the Marble Maze Daddy"

Christmas Breakfast!!

This was a huge hit!

Ryan LOVES his batman bike!!

Ryan opening more presents!

Christmas Train

Went to the Christmas Train in Alvin this year. It was really cool, think it will be a new Christmas tradition. We managed to get both Ryan and Jaina on Santa's lap without screaming. There were no smiles, but no tears either....I'd say it was a pretty successful night! It was a bit on the chilly side, but Ryan sure does love trains and the decorations that were set up along the ride were worth it.

She's rolling!!!!

It was a day of firsts today!!! Jaina rolled over from her back to her tummy!! She just decided that she wanted to roll over and did it!! Also....never in a million years would I have thought she would fall asleep any where but her crib, but she proved me wrong today :) She was laying on the floor playing one minute and the next I looked down and she was fast asleep!!

Christmas Tree

This was this first year that Ryan really got into the Christmas season. He was so excited to put up the tree, he did a great job helping daddy. Mommy and Jaina supervised the boys!! And surprisingly we only lost one ornament! He did take many off of the tree to play with them, but he was always very careful not to break them. One night we heard loud sirens coming up the street, I thought someone was in trouble, but it was Santa passing out candy!! What a combo, Santa and firetrucks, Ryan was in heaven!! :) I couldn't convince him to come outside because the sirens were so loud, luckily they came back around with just the lights on. When we went back in the house, Ryan kept saying..."Santa Claus, fire truck, one more time!!" Then a few days later it snowed...yes in Houston....not long enough to do anything with, but it was cool anyways!!

Snow on Ryan's playground in the backyard!

Helping hang ornaments

Thanksgiving/Sea World

One of the good things about living in Houston is that we're only 3 hours away from San Antonio!! So we were able to go home for Thanksgiving and introduce Jaina to the rest of the family. It was our first long car trip with Jaina and she did great, big brother did really good too....so blessed!! Another good thing about living close to family...is multiple Thanksgivings. We went to Angel's moms side of the family first, than my mom's and then Angel's dads. Lots of driving here and there, but also lots of eating!! :) My birthday was also that weekend and my mom gave us season passes to Sea World so we took full advantage of the free Grandma babysitting service for Jaina, and took Ryan out for his first Sea World experience!! He really loved it. They were all decked out for the holidays. We were able to see Polar Express 4D, very cool!! Ryan loves trains, so we warmed up to the dark theater very quickly, he didn't even freak out when our seats started to shake as the train went by....I got a little startled though! Then we saw the sea lion show, where Ryan got his first taste of a hometown favorite, the churro!!! Yummy cinnamon sugar deliciousness :) Then we let the Jaden and Ryan loose in Shamu's happy harbor, they had a blast, and Ryan found a "pirate" ship, so he was all smiles. Then we took Ryan to feed the dolphins, check out the pic below. The last thing we did was hit the Sesame Street Christmas show....Ryan was drifting in and out of sleepy town, so we decided to hit the road. No, we didn't see Shamu this time...but we can come back all year so not a big deal!! For the next few days every time we would get in the car he would say..."Sea World, dolphins!!" So I think he liked it, can't wait to take him again :)

Ryan with his cousins on the Farias side :)

Raighan, Peyton, and Ryan playing Trouble

Rocking out to Guitar Hero at Grandpa's

Ryan's 1st trip to Sea World

Flamingos walking through the park

Sesame Street YAY!!

Feeding the Dophins

Churros, yummy!!!

Our little helper

Ryan has become quite the little helper around the house!! The other morning I was making pancakes for breakfast and he came over and said, "help mama". So he got up on the counter and whisked away....he had a great time, and I appreciated the help!! He also likes to help with the laundry...putting the clothes from the washer into the dryer, and "folding" the clothes when they are dry!! That part makes extra work for me, but he's so cute doing it that I don't mind :) The most recent things he has starting saying are "excuse me" when he burps...or "oh great!!" when something happens like his legos falling over, and "no thank you mom" when I ask him if he needs a new diapie (even if he really does)!! So funny!! This morning he woke up and decided that he needed deodorant!! Daddy was getting ready for work and somehow he made it to his bedroom without either one of us noticing that he had dadddy's deodorant!! Angel walked out and said, where's Ryan?? He was being very quiet in his room, never a good sign!! Angel walked in and Ryan was lifting his jammie shirt up and rubbing the deodorant all over his tummy, hahaha!!!!
Jaina recently had her 4 month appointment, she's doing great!! 25 1/2 inches (93%), and 12.12 pounds (47%), looks like she's going to be a tall girl...not sure where she gets that from. She talking a laughing up a storm these days, her smile is so beautiful and she smiles A LOT!! We're going to be starting on solids pretty soon. She's been rolling over from to back pretty much since birth....now we're working on back to front!! Time is just going way too fast, can't believe how big both of the kiddos are getting!!

Practicing sitting up in her bumbo

whisk, whisk, whisk!!!