Santa's Wonderland

We found this neat place in College Station called Santa's Wonderland. It's pretty much the North Pole done Texas style - complete with western-music Christmas carols sung by a cowboy on stage, and barrels of hay in the main square of an old western-type village. Like Santa's Ranch in Texas. It was a fun little place, and we had a really great time.

We went on a hayride to see the lights and then spent some time in the village where they had a petting zoo, several little shops, and the highlight of course: fake snow falling from the rooftops. Poor Elaina now thinks snow is white stuff that shoots out of a box every 2 minutes, and doesn't realize it's supposed to be cold and stay on the ground so you can make a snowman...I'm warping the mind of my half-Canadian daughter! And of course we had to visit or good friend, Santa, while were were there as well.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...?!?

Nana & Grandpa

We were so lucky this year and got to spend Christmas break with both sides of our family. My parents came to visit us the week before Christmas and then we went to Mike's parents the week of Christmas. Here are some pictures of my parents while they were here.

Helping Nana with her suitcase at the airport

As you can see, we put our guests to work :)

Christmas wasn't Christmas as my house growing up unless my Dad was sitting in the living room all season with a bowl full of nuts and a nutcracker. He would eat them till he got a stomach-ache. So, I picked some up at the grocery store before he arrived, and sure enough, some things never change :) Even Elaina got addicted, but then again, Elaina just eats whenever she gets the chance!

New outfit - notice the matching purple shoes :)

Nana M's Visit

I haven't blogged in a while because December was kind-of a whirlwind this year. We either had company visiting us or we were visiting family in California. We loved every minute of it though. My Nana came to visit from Calgary for a week at the beginning of December. She is Elaina and Erin's great-grandma and we had so much fun with her here. The kids call her Nana M because my Mom's a Nana now too :) So this is Nana M's visit.

This is a game she used to always play with all of us grandkids when we were little...and the tradition continues :) It's called the Tu-Ta-Lama - it's a song she sings while we play the "piano" on the table. Elaina loved it and still does it on her own now that Nana M is gone. It's not quite the same though.


As you can see, Elaina is such a good helper - here she's helping Nana M do the ironing. Thank goodness she likes it, cuz I hate it! :) Now I know I can put her to work, ironing all our clothes.


Nana bought us an artificial tree this year for an early Christmas gift, but since we have hardly any ornaments, she also got some foam angels that she and Elaina made. They had such a fun time making them and Elaina was so excited to see them on the tree all season long. Thanks for the tree Nana! :)

I was tagged...

Since I'm kinda new to blogging, this is the first time I've been tagged. My friend Heather tagged me - a really long time ago, but I'm just now finally getting around to it. Anyways, here are the rules:

Once you've been tagged, you have to write a blog w/ 10 weird random, things, facts, habits or goals about yourself. At the end, you choose 10 people to be tagged, listing their names & why you chose them. Don't forget to leave them a comment or message saying "You're It!" and telling them to read your blog. You can't tag the person who tagged you. Since you can't tag me back, let me know when you've posted your blog so I can see your answers.

So, here are 10 random things about me:
1. I had belly button surgery when I was 7 - I had a pretty big outtie as a little girl and the boys made fun of me when my tummy showed on the monkey bars. So I got the surgery and now it's an innie.
2. I talk in my sleep - except if you're an old roomate you would know that
3. When I was 12 I swam across Shuswap Lake in Canada - we swam a mile and a half with a boat beside us for safety but didn't stop at all until we reached the other side. Here's a picture of us at the end (me, my Mom & sisters)
4. I hate it when people touch the tops of my ears

5. I fed a full-grown tiger milk out of the palms of my hand (when I was visiting my parents in Argentina with Mike. Here's a picture to prove it :)

6. I once made a goal to visit Mecca after learning about it in my Hmanities of Islam class - (I have a long list of all the places I want to go and things I want to do in my lifetime, so I added it to the list) - the next semester I took an Islamic Art History class and learned that going to Mecca and not being Muslim is grounds for being killed. I had to go home and cross it off my list - it was one of the saddest things I've ever done :( So no Mecca for me!
7. I once swam in a lake filled with piranhas and alligators. We also went fishing for piranhas and ate them for dinner (it was in Ecuador). It tasted pretty good surprisingly
8. I'm scared of the dark...kindof :)
9. When I was starting to walk as a baby I was really badly pigeon-toed. At bedtime I had to wear braces on my legs all night long. I think I wore them for over a year - I still walk with my toes pointing in a bit but nowhere near what it would be like if that hadn't been corrected.
10. I played the lead role of Cinder-rappa (a Cinderella meets MC Hammer story) in the school musical when I was in grade 4.

And I tag everyone who has a blog because I want to hear random things about all of you! :)

Erin in the Swing

Culinary Traditions

Elaina was given a kitchen set for her birthday from Grandparents and Great-Grandparents, and she totally loves it! We have a tea party almost every day and when Mom and Dad aren't around to play, we come in to find her stuffed animals sitting around the table with her. She's such a gracious hostess and always makes sure everyone's cups are filled with water or milk and she's always checking to make sure they like their food - she'll say "like it puppy?" or "mmm, it's yummy, puppy?" She also makes sound effects when she's pouring milk or water into the cups and it's hilarious! And she's so good at spoon feeding her stuffed animals! Even Erin (who can't sit up to the table yet) is included since Elaina will walk over to her and help her eat the food. But best of all are the meals she cooks! Last night we had fried grapes and sometimes we eat banana soup or we find vegetables in our juice cups.

Elaina's also a great help in the real kitchen - she'll always pull up a chair and stand on it to help me cook. She usually hopes we're making cookies, but if not, she's still excited to help. I've never had anyone cheer for me when I crack the eggs, but Elaina always makes sure to say "yay Mommy!" for each egg - yesterday I got lots of cheering when I make a quiche that called for 10 eggs. Sometimes she's a little overanxious and thanks to her willingness to help, she adds extra ingredients that aren't even called for in the recipe.

I thought I'd also write about some of the other funny things she's done in the kitchen - like a few weeks ago when I was in the kitchen finishing up dinner, I turned around to see that Elaina had set the table with every condiment that she could reach out of the fridge. And she was sitting one of her stuffed animals on each of the kitchen chairs. A few days earlier, Mike had walked into the kitchen to find the dishwasher empty and all of the dirty dishes arranged on the kitchen floor and Elaina sitting there saying "look Daddy, a picnic!" She's just such a good little helper and tries so hard, it's just adorable!

Elaina has also been learning to say the prayer at mealtimes all by herself. She never forgets to bless the Halloween candy (which is long gone, but maybe she hopes it will come back?), and we usually bless everything on the table - forks, knives, Mommy's cup, Daddy's spoon....I think it's just her time to ramble on when she knows she has our undivided attention.

Just Hangin Out

We've been having so much fun lately - Elaina says and does the funniest things and she is always cracking us up. The latest thing she's discovered is her sense of smell and so she always goes up to things (usually things without a scent - like artificial flowers and candy) , does an exaggerated sniff, and says "mmm, it smells good!" And she is ALWAYS blowing her nose - just because she knows she can, but she usually unravels half the roll of toilet paper to do it. She likes to be center of attention and when anyone ever comes over they usually have to watch her run in circles around the couch until she makes herself dizzy. Today a couple friends came over and were sitting on the couch and she squished herself between them with a big smile on her face - just so happy to be apart of whatever was going on. Oh, and whenever I'm talking on the phone, she has to say hi too - whether it's a friend or the doctor's office. She's very social though and whenever she sees someone her size, she walks up to them, points to herself and says "Hi! I'm Neena!" (that's the closest she can get to saying her name). And she's very good at saying "please" "thank-you" and the latest, "excuse me." She is so fun to have around it's SO easy to forgive those times when she does irritate me (like shattering a jar of mayonnaise all over the kitchen floor this afternoon). I just love her!

And Erin of course is just a little doll. She rolled over for the first time a couple weeks ago and she actually doesn't mind being on her tummy. As soon as she's put on her back, she flips to her tummy and stays that way for a long time. That's how she sleeps now too - and usually with a thumb in her mouth too. She's cooing all the time and has a huge big smile for anyone that looks at her. And her giggle is so cute! She's getting so talkative - and was so noisy during church today - a good noisy because she was just babbling away (not crying) but still loud enough to be disruptive.

Elaina introduces Erin to Baby Einstein

Elaina and Erin adore each other and they're getting to be so cute together! Elaina is always sharing her stuffed animals with Erin and reading stories - it's so cute! I hope they grow up to be best little buddies!

Erin helping Daddy play scrabble - no wonder he won!

Little cutie pie

Sound asleep ... and never without Puppy and Kitty

Halloweening!

We had a cute little Dorothy and an adorable little princess at our house for Halloween...and we got to do it 2 nights in a row! Last night we had a trunk-or-treat at church and tonight we went door-to-door.

Daddy took Elaina trick-or-treating tonight and they had so much fun together! She went all up and down our block. Except I'm not sure which she liked better: getting the candy in her own pumpkin or handing out candy to all the trick-or-treaters that came to our door after she was done for the night. Both involved candy, so obviously both have to be fun!

Big smile!

Elaina went trunk-or-treating to all the cars with her friend Sienna...

... and Mom and Erin handed out candy

And some other cute pictures:

Hangin' out in the laundry basket

2 cute sisters

Peek-a-boo

Hey there Mom!

Movies

These are some fun videos we've taken recently:

Elaina making Gingersnaps!

The Economics department at school had a barbecue that we went to a couple of weeks ago. Elaina found an 8 year old little girl that she followed around all day and the bounce house was a huge hit! In the video she keeps saying "bouncy bouncy bouncy!"

And of course here's Erin, being cute as usual.

Fun Stuff

These are just some fun pictures we've taken since the summer - mostly of Elaina and some of our family:

Elaina takes Puppy for a car ride

Elaina shakes hands with the RCMP Moose at the Calgary airport this summer

Elaina is a great swimmer and has no fear. She jumps in all by herself and then swims all the way to the other side of the pool, saying "kick, kick, kick!"

I made Elaina a tiger cake for her birthday. Apparently it was a hit since she's still asking for a tiger cake almost 3 months later!

Elaina got a kitchen set from her great-grandma, and her Nana and Grandpa. Almost every day we have a tea party and Elaina cooks!

She also got a car for her birthday from Aunt Heather & Aunt Jen & Uncle Dave

(I can't believe I let her wear this - it's a hand-me-down from an old friend and Mike found it in the back of her closet - I think I hadn't done laundry in a while and her pajamas were all dirty. I guess this is the only thing he could find! How embarrassing.)

Elaina is reading stories to Erin - boring stories apparently, since it looks like one of the church handbooks!

Elaina showing Daddy how to fix his bike

Elaina and her friend Anabelle

Dancing at the Church Ice Cream Social

And Elaina found herself a dancing partner too - this is her friend Matthew. She spent most of the night chasing him around the gym trying to get him to dance with her.

He just looks so good! :)

Learning to ride a bike

Elaina always brings me the camera and says "take a picture" and then she poses. This is one of those pictures from my little supermodel.

Elaina swimming with our friends Steph and Matthew

I put rags in Elaina's hair one night - too bad it turned out all frizzy.
But she looked cute that night and we had fun doing it!

One of Mike's school buddies is from Turkey and he invited us over for Turkish food. We ate on the floor and the food was delicious! And he had about 10 of the most beautiful Persian rugs all over his student apartment. It was a fun night!

We were so excited that Grandma came to visit a couple weeks ago!