Thanks and a Whole Lot More!

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving Day with food and family in proportion to your tastes. This year my family of five joined most of the Aguilar family at my uncle Frank's house to enjoy THREE turkeys (one oven-baked, one BBQed, and one deep fried!) There was SO much food even we couldn't finish it all. Best of all, we had a great time with family. Here are some photos of the day. I'm SO bummed that my group photos came out blurry (don't blame me!) but it's the memory that really matters so, no big deal! Aurelia and Mikey being cats. Meow!

Gramma Sama and Oligator.

Mima's little turkey (hat) and Aurelia.

Yummy fingers, Ezra.

Jason and Frankie - cathcing up after two years!!



The guys.

The kids.

The ladies!

I love Christmas Time!

Now, I know we haven't had Thanksgiving day, yet, but we've been "celebrating" Thanksgiving all this month making signs and posters and drawings of what we're thankful for and turkeys - so many tukeys (Ezra even gobbled his way to bed today) . . . we've even eaten turkey with all the yummy sides at Aunty Kitty's (I love being a guinea pig!)

So - we're ready for Christmas - or at least, Ezra is!

We went to the grocery store to get "last minute" turkey day food needs and I bought some marshamllows (for Rocky Road), and now that it's finally winter weather (sort of) Aurelia decided that we needed some chocolate caliente con marshmallows with lunch. While we waited for the water to heat up, Ezra began singing "I love Christmas! I love Christmas!"

I love Christmas too! Bring on the holiday music! It's "Christmas" time!

New Skillz

Oliver's been busy! This week he worked on his crawling skills and finally perfected them! He's now using opposite hands and knees to crawl along (that means he'll be a good reader, right, Beca?) and then, since we spent so much time praising his new skill, he figured he might as well wow us and show us how he can clap and say "yay!" too! He now claps for himself, saving me the trouble (just kidding! He's so cute that I gotta cheer too!) Isn't it amazing how it's still so cute even though he's the third one? I think so!

So - here he is crawling (good thing I just swept!)

And here he is clapping! YAY!

I guess the real trouble now is keeping things off the floor (he does like to try new foods!) and keeping a third eye out for where he's going (oh wait! I don't have one of those!! what will I do? Looks like it's time to send Aurelia to school!)

In other news: Aurelia is hard at work practicing her reading skills and is almost ready to read a book to you online, and we're working on long vowels and *gasp!* four-letter words (not THOSE kinds! sheesh!). Ezra has learned two fun new phrases 1. "You're being RUDE!" and 2. "Don't do that ever again!" The first he used when he didn't want to pick up his toys, and the second was after I had spanked him (yes, we do use corporal punishment in this house - take it up with the management if you don't like it) for getting out of bed (for the seventh time!!). I had a good laugh (but not in his presence) and, matter of fact, am laughing now. Good times; good times.

So - we're looking forward to a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with family we call friends, and hope that you are too! God bless and keep smiling!

All Aboard!

Thanks, Gramps Herzog, for the very cool train table and train set! We sure are enjoying it!!

Great Gramps, learning that Ezra is *obsessed* with trains -- and being a train lover himself -- so sweetly made Ezra a train table (that folds up and rolls away! double bonus!) and supplied it with a tunnel, a station and a four car train! So you know Ezra was so excited! The first morning it kept him enthralled for a full hour -- and then mommy called a "train-break" for breakfast and then half an hour later, the train was back on -- it's been that way ever since - it's not off long before it's back on again! What a neat gift!Aurelia thinks it's pretty cool too!

And here's Oliver! Check out his new 'do! Yup - we cut his hairs down and he looks as slick as a snail, now! Woo-Woo!

Oliver's Got the Groove!

He's not "crawling" yet, but he's certainly moved past the rocking and rolling stage -- he's onto scooting if he's got the right kind of motivation. Weighing in at just under 22 lbs, this kid isn't all muscle, but he's on his way!

Did your vote count?

Aurelia and Ezra had a lot of fun placing their votes into the ballot box last Tuesday - Aurelia voted 5 or 6 times!

"Whoops! Can I take that one back??"

Even Oliver was feeling patriotic!