December Festivities

This month has just flown by it seems. Lots of Christmas parties - school, PJ's work, church. We got to go PJ's work party just the two of us, while Mark and Camille kept the kids for us for a couple of hours. It is just so refreshing and nice to go out as a couple and be able to interact with people and not having cater to the kids' needs and constantly watching over them. We had such a good time!

At church, the Christmas party had a Latino flare to it. With a pinata and everything. Just a few weeks ago, our ward got split and the ward boundaries changed, so there are lots of new to us families at church. It was good to meet a few of them at the party. We ate lots of yummy enchiladas and for dessert we had cupcakes. Om the way home from the party Ophelia noted: "I ate my cupcake like Cookie monster....too fast!" :) Made me and PJ crack up!

Texas winters are kind of dry, lots of static here:

Both the kids are struggling with dry skin throughout the winter months. We use lots of hydrocortisone, which Ophelia calls "hydro-quarters".
My friend Natalie shared some Krispy Kreme joy with us. The kids were in heaven:

Ophelia's school put on a big Christmas concert this month. PJ stayed home with Emerson, since it was kind of later in the evening, but me and Grandma and Grandpa got to enjoy it. Ophelia did so amazingly great. She sang loud, she did the actions, and she truly had fun doing it. They sang 3 songs and on the last one (which I didn't get a good video of) Ophelia pretty much dominated the voices. We had friends whose kids were in the concert too comment to us later about how well and loud Ophelia sang!

Lovely Christmas jingle:

Pretty much the first week that PJ was off work, he got the flu. Not just some little flu, he got THE FLU! He was miserable. The first two days he spent in bed with chills, fever, achiness. He slept awfully. It was rough! I did my best to quarantine him from the kids, but I myself got something too. It wasn't the flu according to the flu test at the doctor's office, but I felt sick for a few days, but not nearly as bad as PJ. We were blessed that the kids did not get any of it!

My friend Candace makes the best gingerbread ever! She gave us a house making kit for Christmas, so decorated one as a family. The kids loved the project. Emerson was more interested in tasting all of the candy though, but Ophelia got into sticking colorful candies all over the house.

We had a quiet family Christmas Eve with just us four. It was neat to do our new tradition as of this year of the 25 days of Christmas with a Christ-centered message and a symbolic ornament to go with it each day. Emerson looked forward especially to videos about Jesus and Ophelia loved opening the gift box with a different ornament each night. On Christmas Eve we drove around as a family and delivered goodies to neighbors and friends in the area.

Just in time for Christmas, everyone was finally well enough to spend time with family in Oatmeal. Whatever germs we had, we shared like this:

Cousy love is powerful and there's no way around it! Here's the beautiful tree. I love that Mom always has a live tree for Christmas! I love its smell, because it reminds me of my childhood and our end-of-year festivities. I also love eating mandarins all December long because that's what I did as a kid. One time I ate so many mandarins that I got a rash all over my body!

Grandma playing with Emerson. This Sesame street house is one of the kids' favorite toys at Grandma's house:

Mark and PJ played some lovely Christmas songs for us:

And then Ophelia played some too :)

She's got the guitar hold down. Now we just need to teach her how to make the right notes on it:

The table is set! Looking good:

Grandma got Ophelia and Emerson a little play kitchen for Christmas, which they love! But they also loved playing in the huge box that the kitchen came in. As a bonus, check out Em's huge mouth :)

A few Ophelia-isms that we've heard lately:
* She told PJ one morning: "Papa, you make the best breakfastes!" I giggle at the grammar that she uses, but then I turn around and speak just like her, because we hang out so much together, I talk like her too :)
* As a proper dietitian Mom, I have been talking to Ophelia about candy and junk food, so she is starting to figure out what's good for our bodies to take in and what isn't. One day she told me: "Candy infects moods and makes us act like a baby and a spoiled rat." Petty much...nailed it :)

We had our annual dumpling night in Oatmeal. Auntie Jane was there too and Emerson developed a special love for her:

We made a few attempts to take a good picture of all three cousins. Here are the best two tries:

Someday we won't have that problem any more, of trying to have all three look at the camera and smile and sit still for just 5 seconds!!!! Here they are playing ring around the rosie:

Emerson has a special place in his heart for Grandpa. It is so sweet! Whenever I tell the kids that we're going to Grandma's house, Emerson always adds "Grandpa's house". Also when Grandma stops by on occasion, on her own, while running errands in town, Emerson asks her "Grampa go?", meaning "Where did Grandpa go?" Emerson is always so excited to see Grandpa, to give him a hug and a kiss, or to have Granpda hold him. Here Emerson is singing with Grandpa:

The kids had fun hanging on Aunt Judy:

On one of our visits to Oatmeal, Auntie Cami did some beautiful shots of the kids. Sure makes me want to get a nicer camera!

I just LOVE this one:

This boy is just so incredibly sweet and polite! He even gets excited for his sister. Like when Ophelia shows her artwork to Emerson, he says :"Awesome, Awa!" Too cute! He is starting to pronounce her name correctly most of the time nowadays. He says "Opheya" or "Opheyaya".

Emerson is getting really good with speaking in sentences too! Here are some dinner time Emerson-isms:
* "I like it strawberries." He's learned from Signing Time to says "I like it" and "Don't like it", so he plugs the "it" in his sentences when he talks about his likes and dislikes.
* When calling Ophelia for dinner to the table one evening: "Awa, eat sushi papa make it!" Blew my mind how he put all those words together. Love that boy!

Rocky Mountain High, Colorado!

I've heard this song from PJ so many times during our Colorado vacation I had to ask him to stop! I think it was every time he looked at the mountains that reminded him of that song, and the mountains were surrounding us EVERYWHERE. It was the most beautiful thing, for someone who lives in the hill country. 

We decided to drive overnight this time... We did have some peaceful moments and things that worked well, but for the most part in was a torture! On the way there, for the first two hours of our trip, while the kids were awake, we were confident that we're glad we weren't driving during the day. The bag of travel toys that I prepared for them did not keep their attention for longer than 1 minute per toy, and then each one wanted the other one's toy the whole time. It was a mess! Our only saving grace was the DVD player. At least it kept Ophelia very occupied. Emerson seemed uncomfortable in his carseat the whole trip. He woke up about every 45 minutes to an hour and would wake up Ophelia at times. We made lots of stops, in the middle of the night, both kids awake, full of energy, at 1 am, at 2:30 am, at 5 am. I'm sure the people at gas stations were wondering why in the world we were keeping our kids awake this hour of the night...while I was wondering what in the world is keeping our kids awake? If it was me in the backseat, I'd sleep the whole night and not even care that my head was bobbing all over the place. PJ and I stayed awake the whole night, trying to keep each other awake. And towards the end I was not sure if it was a good idea to drive through the night any more. By morning time though, we did make it to Colorado. When the sun started to rise, we started to see the amazing mountains surrounding us.

Later on our vacation, we made a four hour trip during the day when it was supposed to be nap time. We were all miserable...each child slept for a total of 20 minutes, and at different times of the trip, not together... There was a lot of whining, drama, crying, screaming... So, I would say, the trip was the hardest part of our vacation, and the part that I didn't like the most. I don't know if our kids are high maintenance or what, but they do not travel well, at least Emerson. On the way back, Ophelia slept really well, only woke up once, but Emerson was up and down the whole night again!

Here is the sunrise over Colorado mountains:

Yay, we made it!

We stayed at a place called the Chinook Lodge in South Fork, in a cabin. Mark and Camille and Winstie stayed in another cabin, and Grandma and Grandpa were in their camper. Emerson has started calling Winstie "Tee-tee", so Winston decided to call Emerson "Tee-tee" as well. It was so funny every morning when they saw each other from afar, they'd start running toward each other and both scream "Tee-tee!!", and give big hugs.

Both boys were super early risers the whole time in Colorado. As in 5 am early risers... I think part of it has to do with a little cold, stuffy noses, and drainage they had. Part of it was the one hour time difference with Texas. Part of it was not being at home, in their rooms and cribs. Emerson napped great though! Most days for three hours straight!

The weather was wonderful there! In the 50s at night, sometimes colder, 60s and 70s during the day. It was a nice break from Texas heat!

One of the first days, we went up to Creede, a small mountain touristy town. Mark and PJ are carrying the boys on their backs:

With Grandpa, resting on rocks. Ophelia has a bag of Cheetos in hand, a special treat that Grandma sent along.

This was the kids very first time in Colorado. I think their little bodies adjusted to the altitude pretty quickly, because I did not notice them ever getting out of breath. Emerson wanted to explore everything on foot all the time, but he does not walk or hike in a straight line - he wants to stop, pick up rocks, put rocks in his mouth, putz in the dirt, touch/smell flowers, climb rocks. We did not get far with him on foot, so we would put him on PJ's and my back, for the majority of time.

Here's our first little hike:

I could go on forever talking about the breathtaking scenery of Colorado. It's just amazing! And indescribably beautiful!

 In between hikes and exploratory trips, we snacked a lot. Ophelia spent a lot of time with Grandma and Grandpa in the camper. It was the smallest dwelling out of all three of our camps, but ultimately we'd all hang out in the camper. It's just cozy in there, plus lots of yummy food :) Ophelia would usually fall asleep in our cabin, and then we'd transfer her to the camper. She loved waking up her Grandparents and spending the early morning in there. She also would wake up around 6 am.

Here's us with our campground behind us. PJ and I got to go on a little date one afternoon, while Mark and Camille took the kids. It was a nice break for sure!

This was a little morning hike that we did, but without Ophelia:

The road was winding up and up pretty steep right to the top of the mountain. We never reached the top, but we got high! Rocky Mountain High :)

The nice pictures with blurry background were taken by Camille. They turned out really cute! Look at my handsome boys :)

The kids had lots of fun playing together, as they always do! They explored the campground all over the place. I can only image that it will be more fun each year the kids grow older!

Just the four of us took a little hike to the river:

Ophelia picked all sorts of flowers for Grandma anywhere we went:

This waterfall is located by the Million Reservoir. It was a lake in the beautiful mountains of Colorado, with green forest surrounding it. We ended up going there twice, once with everyone, once just us four. So pretty!

The kids are checking out an earthworm that popped up after a rain. It did rain pretty much every day while we were there, but usually around the time that we weren't hiking anyway, so it didn't spoil our plans at all.

My favorite family shot:

All the walking around the lake made Emerson super sleepy:

We hiked to the Treasure Falls one morning. We have rented two kid packs, which made the hike heavier, but more enjoyable, because we didn't have to worry about the kids tripping, falling, running away, or touching what they weren't supposed to.

A beautiful smile from Ophelia on this one...

Since the name of this place was "treasure falls", Ophelia kept waiting for a time when we'd see or find some treasures...she was a bit disappointed until we took out a bag of popped corn for a snack, then everyone was happy!

The second hike around the reservoir. The first time we never made it all the way, but this time we did. It took us about 2 hours, but we did stop for a snack, and also to pick wild strawberries, raspberries, and mushrooms! Reminded me of Latvia!!! We also saw lots of chipmunks, Emerson called them "ma-mak".

Ophelia took a picture of us three. It's funny to think that that is her viewpoint from where she is :)

We saw some elk crossing the street on one of our trips:

You always see those signs along the road "Elk crossing", but this was the first time that we actually saw them do it! Gorgeous!

After our stay in South Fork, and on the way to Denver, we stopped for a dip in the Sand Dune Hot springs. It felt like a mini water park/pool, but without the chlorine. The water was so nice and warm. There was one pool with 108 F temp, it was hot, but I did boil myself it there for a while. Auntie Cami got some cute shots of the kids there:

After our loooooongest four hour car trip to Denver, we finally made it to our friends' the Mojicas home. So good to stay and catch up with wonderful old friends. We had a great time with them! Emerson had a blast chasing or dodging the dog around the house, and playing with so many new for him toys.

Ophelia loved playing with the girls. She also slept in their room at night, so it was like a huge two night sleep over, which she enjoyed a lot!

Emerson had the worst fall of all our vacation at the Mojicas new house. He fell off the concrete front steps, face first and scratched up his whole face:

But he quickly got over it! We also took the kids to see the beautiful Denver temple. This is the first time in their lives that our kids have seen a live temple!

The youngest of the Mojica's is a thumb sucker too! Precious!

Two families portrait! It was right before we took off on our trip back, around 8 pm, that's why our kids are wearing pajamas.

Love these guys!

We left around 8 pm and after another all night drive, we finally made it home by noon the next day. Wheew! We all crashed for a nap right away and it was soooo nice! That's when you really learn to appreciate your bed, pillow, and own room!

I'm hoping that we had so many hard times with our kids on this trip because they are still so small. Mainly, it's the sleeping...or NOT sleeping that was hard: both kids having a hard time falling asleep and waking up early. This was the fun part of our trip, singing songs together. Even Emerson learned when to chime in:

We thought it was super funny that he would say "duck" at the appropriate place! But no other animals :) Emerson also loved "Popcorn popping!" church song, we sure sang it a lot on our trip!

The Colorado vacation is in the plans for next summer too. Let's hope the kids will be mature enough to handle a road trip then!