Brayden Arrow of Light

Brayden finally got his Arrow of Light.  The ceremony wasn't until January because of the crazy schedule during the holidays.  It was a little extra special because Matt is the Cub Master for our ward.  There are no other boys in our ward the same age as Brayden, so he is going to be apart of the  Sonoma Ranch 11 year old Scout troop.  Brother Salmon the 11 year old leader in the Sonoma Ranch ward came to welcome him along with his son Jackson. 

Christmas 2013

Christmas Eve we went over to the Herreras to spend time together and let cousins exchange gifts from a name exchange we had done.  Asher got David underwear as a gag gift, which he opened before his real present.  I'm not sure if Matt's humor was appreciated.

Afterward, back at our house, the kids opened their Christmas Eve pajama presents.  

Christmas morning we opened presents.  Of note, Kylee gave Brayden 14 packs of chewing gum which she connected in a chain, and ended up lasting Brayden a week at best.  Then we prepared and ate what has become the requisit Christmas crepe breakfast.  

Grandma Mindy had come for Julia's baptism and stayed for Christmas.  Nathan made it a little bit later in time to spend Christmas with our family, but it was a short visit as we headed out on our drive to El Paso the very next day, unfortunately on his birthday.

Asher 3 months

November 23 - December 22

At three months Asher is hitting at the toys on his bouncer.  He is sucking on his index finger and thumb.  He scoots on his back or lifts his bum up when getting his diaper changed. When falling asleep and waking up, he lifts up his legs together and kicks them down.

Julia's Baptism

Initially Julia's baptism was going to be on Dec 14th, but Grandma Mindy had travel plans to come the next weekend for the Christmas vacation so we decided to push it back to the 21st.  Because it was not on the scheduled ward baptism day she was the only person being baptized and we were able to do the whole program.  The baptism was in the afternoon to accommodate family flying in.  Grandma Mindy, Mamaquel, and Grandpa all stayed at our house.  It was an especially busy schedule for Mamaquel and Grandpa with Julia being one of four grandkid baptisms in four months.

Julia's foot came up during the baptism so she had to be baptized a second time.

After the baptism Matt picked up Bush's chicken for us all to eat back at the house.  On Sunday after church Gabby took pictures of Julia in her baptism dress.

Julia's Birthday

Julia celebrated her 8th birthday with a cinnamon roll breakfast and a family dinner at Red Robin.  

We celebrated with the cousins on Sunday.  Matt made her an ear cake with an earring because she had just gotten her ears pierced.

Mall piano, ear bling, and longhorn headwear

The kids had another opportunity to play Christmas songs at the mall.  They did a great job with memorizing and playing their songs.  They especially liked the bag of candy they got when they were done.  

Julia's 8th birthday was a few days before the recital and she decided that she wanted to get her ears pierced for her birthday.  After their performance we went and got them pierced at Claire's.  She did great and was very excited about it.  

Brayden likes everything Longhorns.  They went looking around while Julia got her ears pierced and he found this Longhorn cap that he decided to buy.  

December Activities

The kids had fun decorating the Christmas tree for the first time in our new house.  

This school year Brayden has been apart of the Cardio Coyotes club at school.  They do Pogo sticks, jumping rope, and rope skipping.  He had a performance at the Helotes Winter Festival where he was a Penguin that did the rope skipping.  

Blake had a Kindergarten Christmas performance.  Each class sung a song. 

Asher was the baby Jesus for the ward Christmas party, though he was quite a bit fussier than the part called for.  Gabi was Mary and Joseph was Chandler Walker, one of the young men from the ward.