Dickens on Maine

We were in El Paso for Thanksgiving, but we came back a little early to meet up with Matt's Dad here in San Antonio.  We were able to go with the Herrera's to the Dickens on Maine.  We hadn't gone in several years.  They have a lot more activities offered.  It was a chilly day in the 40's.  Some children were better bundled up better than others. The hit was going in the petting "zoo".  Asher was running after the animals squealing.   Some of the kids rode a sled down a man-made snow hill. We watched the Dickens on Maine one man play while eating kettle corn and drinking really hot chocolate water. They had fake snow falling in different spots in the streets.  The kids tried to catch them in their mouth, that is when they realized it was made out of soap.  We saw an old fashion looking Santa walking down the street.  He gave candy canes to all the kids.  

El Paso Thanksgiving

We went to El Paso to spend Thanksgiving.  We left at the beginning of the week and stayed at my parents house.  My parents have a few of Carlos' old toys that Asher enjoyed playing with.  He especially enjoyed riding the horse, dragging around a stuffed dog, and pulling around a suitcase.  The night before Thanksgiving we went to Robert's house for dinner and to help out with Thanksgiving preparations.  Kylee and Julia helped out with pie making.  The morning of Thanksgiving some of the group went on a hike, while the others worked on the food.  

We left early from El Paso, so we could catch Matt's Dad staying in San Antonio before he left.  We drove back on Friday and got to see him that night.  

Did we get pictures taken from Eric for our Christmas photos?

Brayden's 13th Birthday

Brayden's birthday this year landed on Thanksgiving.  Since we were in El Paso we were able to spend it with more family.  Brayden didn't appreciate that the Thanksgiving holiday is overshadowed by Christmas.  He says they always have a lot of Christmas stuff out before it is even Thanksgiving. So, to tease him we wrapped all his presents in Christmas wrapping paper.  

We celebrated his birthday with cake after the Thanksgiving meal. 

We came home and did another birthday cake with the Herrera's at Sunday dinner.  Matt made a cake with an arrow on it representing the show Arrow he likes to watch on TV.

My favorite outside activity....running
My favorite inside activity...reading
My favorite food...cheeseburgers
My least favorite food...zuchinni
My best friend is...Matthew
My favorite thing about school is...everything, except for the first 3 periods
My favorite color is...burnt orange
My favorite book is...False Prince Series
My favorite toy is...Legos
My favorite memory is...When I was 9 and we were watching the Olympics, it was running, and I said I wanted to be in the Olympics and I was putting chairs for hurdles and and practicing. (He thought they weren't that fast)
My favorite animal is...kiwi
When I grow up I want to be...Olympic Runner, Computer Software Engineer that works at Money Desktop
My favorite song is...Immortals (Big Hero 6)
My favorite show is...Arrow and Flash
If one wish could come true it would be...to be an Olymbpic runner
If I could have someone do one of my chores it would be...Cleaning the bathroom

Attic shelves

Matt decided to build some shelves in our attic so we could have better storage.  He did the project right at the beginning of the Thanksgiving break and he had Asher as his helper.  Asher likes to put on his tool belt and pretend to fix things.  Matt and Asher did a great job and storage in the attic is great now.

Asher is on a kick of putting on his tool belt and going around the house "fixing" things.

Fall Volleyball

Natalia and Julia stayed with their same volleyball team from the summer.  It is coached by the mother of one of Julia's friends from school.  They are pretty patient with the girls.  The coach also  buys volleyball socks and hair bows to go with their team shirt color.  Julia is doing better with her volleyball skills.  She is not as afraid to try and hit the ball and she is doing great on her serves.

Doctor Who Halloween

The kids came up with their idea to do a doctor who themed Halloween a few months before Halloween.  Julia figured out that she wanted to be a weeping angel pretty early.  Matt spent a lot of time putting together her wings.  Brayden's costume came together  in the last couple of days because he kept changing his mind of what he wanted to be.  He settled on a headless monk because it was relatively easy to do last minute.  We had a headless monk, weeping angel, River song, Cyberman, Dalek.  We got a lot of compliments on our costumes.  Of course there was only people who have watched the show that knew who we were.  

 Matt and I went to a Halloween costume party where we dressed up as Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein.  We won the award of best couple costume.

 Kylee was not into doing the family theme and decided to go out on her own and be Sally from The nightmare before Christmas.  She made her own costume and I helped with the wig.  It thought she did a great job.