Visit with Santa

Today we went downtown to visit with Santa at his house. The kids brought along their lists to show him all that they wanted. Gini and Nina have added a few last minute items.....I wonder what Santa will bring. He took close notes and kept their lists to take back with him to the North Pole. After our visit we decided to brave the not too cold weather and walk through downtown to look at all the Gingerbread houses. Nina thinks she would like to try and make one next year. Anyone want to volunteer to help her????

Trey wanted to make sure Santa knew he wanted a DS....(aka Leapster Explorer)

Here the girls are showing Santa their lists.....Nina's suprise request a Phone (aka Cell Phone).

Here they are smiling for the camera for our christmas ornament. It turned out soooo cute like always!

Mommy and Me Cooking

Last month the girls went to a Cooking Birthday Party.  Trey was very sad he didn't get to go along.  While we were at home later that night he read to me a paper he found on the floor.  Here is what it said  "Little boys are allowed to take cooking classes too."  I told his Maw Maw what the paper said and she decided to sign him up for a Mommy and Me cooking class.  She and Paw Paw were supposed to come along but instead she got her leg fixed at the hospital.  We took lots and lots of pictures and I am pretty sure this one below sums up his class.  He love....love....LOVED IT!

First he got to make a Pepperoni Pizza Pocket.

Next he made a Sunflower fruit dip.

Don't forget the fruit Kabob...

He even had to cut some of the fruit into smaller bite size pieces. The pineapple never made it to the Kabob...it did make it right into his mouth though.

Yummy delicious...

Here he is making a cherry shake.  It was so good.  Mommies get to sample the food too!

Here Comes Santa Claus....

The Santa Claus Parade has been our Day after Thanksgiving tradition since long before I was born I am sure. This year Seneca was in town and got to see it too! It was a cold day and we all bundled up in our warmest clothes and watched. We even ate some candy too.

Seneca is not quite sure what to think of all this craziness.

The girls sporting their winter gear.

Trey chillin before the parade starts.

Hopefully next time mommy will let Seneca have a sucker.

Halloween

Halloween at our house wouldn't be if you didn't change your costume at least once. Good thing I have a good supply of dress up clothes and creative kids to boot. We had fun creating our costumes this year from things we already had around the house.

Gini (aka...mixed up cat)

Nina (aka Personal Trainer) Gini (aka Cowgirl Princess) Trey (aka Spiderman)

Gini at the school parade.

All Cousins all crazy.  We had a great time trick or treating together....

 

Nina (aka Princess Vampire) with her friend Grace.

Three is Terrific!!

A super big smile from our birthday boy!

Trey and Cousin Madylin (aka Maddy) swinging!

Trey boy sporting his new John Deer Hat. This boy loves tractors....he can spend hours outside on his tractor with PawPaw.

Trey got his very own pillow pet (monkey). He named him Buster.

Smiling Pretty

This weekend I took Gini and Trey out for a mini photo shoot for some Birthday pictures. I had some mishaps due to lighting and camera issues. I decided with all the problems I ran into I would be happy to just get a few good shots. I think I accomplished that and am pleased with the outcome...Yeah Me! 

Check it out...

 

Canary Islands Day 3 & Day 4



Puerto de la Cruz, on the North shore of Tenerife

View from Playa de Las Teresitas near the capital city of Santa Cruz

At the gate of the church meetinghouse in Puerto de la Cruz

Looking up the driveway to the church building

The best view we could get of the meetinghouse

Chapel in La Laguna (the first one built in the Canary Islands)

Another view of the capilla

Sailboat floats, pulled by teams of bulls for a small village festival

Canary Islands Day 2

I have found that Spain has some of the best bread/pastries I have ever eaten in my life.  I am so glad that we have walked as many miles as we have even if my legs and feet hurt so I can eat as much as I want.  Today we woke up and the skies were cloudy and it was a bit rainy.  We decided to eat breakfast and take our chances on hiking Mt. Teide.  As we drove up the windy roads we were a bit skeptical but after we made it through the cloud cover the sun started shining and it was perfect weather.

 This is the cable car we took up to the first lookout point on the mountain.  Byron got us special passes that allowed us to climb the rest of the way up to the peak of the mountain.  I will admit I wasn't all that excited to hike up the rest of the way, there was a little 4 year old boy ahead of us that shared my feelings also.  I decided that if he was doing it I better do it too.  We made it up the rest of the way and although the view is filled with cloud cover down below it was wonderful.

 Byron on the top of Mount Teide

 As we drove up the Mountain in the morning we had to drive through all of these clouds to get up to where you board the Teleferico.  Once we got above them it was a sunny beautiful day and we were so happy to be up so high in the sky and not down below where it was dreary.

Our little buddies dad took a picture of us at the top.

 Here is a picture of a lizard.  We thought the kids would like seeing it.  We saw lots of lizards all over the place all different sizes.  This one was one of the bigger ones we saw.

 Rock formations as the base of the Mountain.

For Nina:  Our first car in Madrid Mini Coupe....if you look closely you will see the screw in the front tire.  We drove it straight to the rental company for a new car. 

Byron got lucky and got an free upgrade to much nicer Audi.

For Nina:  Our car in the Canary Islands.  The cars look just like they do back home.  The only difference is they are all much smaller since parking is limited.

Canary Islands Day 1

We landed on the islands early Monday morning to beautiful blue skys.  We were very tired because our flight out of Madrid left at 6:30 a.m. and we only managed to get 3 1/2 hours of sleep the night before.  We headed up to the hotel around the other side of the island and to drop off our bags.  The picutre above was taken from a walk/hike up to the town where Byron first served on the Island, Santa Ursala.  It is also the same area where our hotel was located.

 This is a picture taken looking out on the ocean and scenery from our balcony.  What an amazing site!

After the only mid day nap of our trip to Spain we ventured down to Candelaria a small town with some small shops, a historical church and an town square with statues of the Guanches.  This is a photo of one of the 9 leaders of the Guanches (the first people to inhabit the islands) before Spain conqueored them.

We continued around the island to see Los Gigantes or the Giant Cliffs.