Blake reading

Brayden has really taken off reading this past year, probably in large part due to the incentive of earning a penny for each page that he reads.  Even so, we have been very impressed with his determination.  Recently, on TV, he saw a commercial for a program involving flash cards that helps babies to learn to read early.  He noticed that we have flash cards and had a great idea.  He excitedly told me that Blake could start to earn his own money by learning to read, and then started to quiz Blake on the letters.

procrastinating the to do list

Before Matt left he had a long to do list.  On that list was to fix our house alarm.  Early one morning, soon after we moved back to San Antonio, we awoke to a chirping sound that at first  we thought was a missed page on Matt's pager, than maybe a dead fire alarm battery, but finally figured out it was coming from the house security alarm.  It wasn't obvious to Matt how to turn it off, so we went back to sleep.  The first several days the incessant double beep every ten seconds drove me crazy.  Matt tried to figure out the keypad, looked for the instruction book, checked online for directions, and took the faceplate off to see if there was a battery that could be removed (of course it was hard wired).  It really irritated me and I didn't think I wasn't going to be able to deal with it for very long.  Because the alarm has been unmonitored we didn't have a maintenance company, so we planned to find someone to come out and fix it.  However, after putting it off a few weeks the beeps became less and less noticeable, except when visitors, unaccustomed to tuning out the beeps, would mention it.  It ended up getting put on the back burner, and Matt's departure came and went without resolution of the beeps.  With my mother-in-law coming for the Holiday's, I felt the pressure to do something about it.  One day I had some friends show up to pick up their son at my house.  They stepped in and the father heard the beautiful chirping coming from the pantry area.  He asked if I had a door open causing the alarm to beep.  After I answered no he asked if I wanted him to fix the constant beeping.  Ummmmm.....YES.  He opened the alarm panel door and pressed the chime button down for 5 seconds and it stopped.  I laughed so hard it was that simple and we let it go on for almost four months.  When the kids came home from school I asked if they noticed a difference.  Of course they didn't even remember there was a constant beeping because they had tuned it out months before.

El Paso Christmas

 Warning:  This post contains lots of pictures.

Put in especially for Matt.

Christmas Eve activities

gingerbread house

hot chocolate

program at Mamaquel's and Grandpa Whetten's

Uncle Carlos read Luke 2

the grandkids sang songs

Christmas Eve pajamas

they were especially excited about the underwear

Favorites for the kids were:

creating with her bendaroos

building legos he got 5 different sets

playing with her princess figurines while wearing dress up and a princess towel

riding her princess scooter

                           

riding around Gramindy's kitchen in his new car

with my brother Carlos and  my parents

sister Cynthia and her family with our parents

with GraMindy at church

The kids enjoyed having Uncle Ryan come and visit.

They were all craving attention from him.  I think he reminded them of their Dad.

They had fun playing solitaire, watching Star Wars, and wrestling.

A few days after Christmas, while staying with Grandma Mindy in El Paso, we were reorganizing the sleeping arrangements to help our sleep challenged Blake sleep through the night.  That meant putting him in his own room and kicking the other 3 children out to the living room.  We were discussing who was going to sleep on the couch and the floor, and scooted Julia's mattress close to the fireplace to make room for Brayden.  This upset Julia and she said, "I don't want Santa to come down the chimney and say (now in a gruff Santa voice), 'Hey that looks like a good place to sit.'"  She was worried that Santa would come and sit on her if she slept close to the chimney.  We had to break the news that Santa was not going to visit again this season.

Other Christmas quotes for Julia this year are "A leaf Navidad" (Feliz Navidad) and "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Ear"

work in the war

The night we got to El Paso Brayden was checking out Gramindy's house and saw a picture of Matt on the wall with 2 of his brothers.  He was telling Gramindy about his Dad (her son) and letting her know what he does, "My Dad works at the war and he works on eyes.  Do they (pointing to Matt's brothers) work at the war?"

Matt sent these shirts to the boys for Christmas.  It says "My Dad is over there" with a picture of Afghanistan.

Sea World Christmas

I was lucky to have my mother-in-law fly to San Antonio to help me drive to El Paso.  (I am a wimp about traveling by myself).  We spent a few days in San Antonio before we headed out.  With perfect weaather we decided to enjoy the Christmas shows at Sea World.

Waiting for the Sesame Street show

Getting ready for the 4-D Polar Express movie

Gramindy was convinced by the kids to go on the Texas Splashdown twice

Sea World was a fun way to start the Christmas vacation.

creative toys

Blake enjoying some non traditional toys.  He found a new way to play with the salad bowl.  He sat on it and scooted around the kitchen.

He also enjoyed this box we picked up for a package to Matt.  It has provided many hours of entertainment.

There was a cute video of Blake scooting around on the salad bowl, but I couldn't get it to load and my computer guy is currently out of the country.

Julia's bday

Julia's 4th birthday landed on a Saturday.  With Matt gone we had a low key birthday.  She started her celebration the day before by taking cupcakes to her dance class to share with her friends.  On Saturday morning we had our traditional cinnamon roll breakfast.  Julia decided to go to Chick-fil-a for dinner.  Then we came home to have a tasty store bought cake with some of her princess's on top for decoration (our cake decorator was in Afghanistan).

Julia is dressed up in her new dance outfit from Mamaquel.

Julia lives in a magical musical world of princesses, mermaids, and fairies.  She loves to dress up, which she does every day, usually multiple outfits a day.  She loves to sing and makes up the words as she goes.  Julia enjoys going to preschool and her dance class.  She happily helps around the house.
In stark contrast to the other kids, Julia enjoys to go shopping and try on clothes. She is actually upset if she doesn't have anything to try on and the others do.