2015 Holiday Card

We did a quick photo shoot at the Grand Del Mar Hotel by our house for our holiday cards this year. We woke up bright and early on a Saturday morning with full hair and make-up for everyone and made it there by 8:30am. Overall Caiden was great and Grace was a pain, she wanted nothing to do with the camera and did not want to sit still. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out considering.

Caiden's Christmas Sing-a-long

Today we went to the church on Caiden's preschool campus to watch him sing. All the kids and parents started in the pews and they called each class up one by one to sing a song. He was pretty excited and kept asking when it was his turn to go up. Once he was up there he was a bit distracted by a lady wearing a big green Christmas tree hat so he was staring at her for half the song. Caiden's class sang Jingle Bells and even had little jingle bells to shake. It was great because they saved the first two rows so the parents of the kids that were actually singing at that time could come up close. When they were done singing their song they stepped back so the next class could come up. After each class was done all of the classes sang two more songs together.

This was his first 'on stage' performance and I was so proud. He was happy, excited and even waved to me from the stage :::tear, for my little boy growing up:::

We sat next to our friends, the Buells, while we waited. 

You probably can't see it too well. But Caiden is right in the middle...with his shirt around his neck. 

Grace had a great time. When Caiden was up on stage she wanted so badly to go up and you can hear her scream in the video because I wouldn't let her down.

Thanksgiving 2015

We flew to Virginia for Thanksgiving last week for good food, family, friends and fun! I made sure to have about a dozen different snacks for the day of travelling, a few different movies for Caiden to watch on the iPad and Grace's Benadryl blankie because I desperately wanted her to sleep on the flights. Caiden was so excited to get on an airplane that he didn't mind being woken up at 7am.

This tiny "suitcase" was a hit with both of the kids. It was meant for Caiden to be responsible for but I think Grace took over before we even got on our first flight.

We didn't have headphones for Caiden on this trip (but we learned our lesson and bought them for the next one) so he had to try and keep the earbuds in his ears. He's never used them before and it didn't work too well. He managed for a little bit but would get frustrated and pull them out and just watch the video. He did so, so well on the flights.

Grace on the other hand was a handful. She just did not want to be confined and wanted to own all three of our seats or be running up and down the aisle. She managed to sleep on me for an hour on the second leg of the flight. About half way through when my arm and leg went numb I tried to pass her to Marc but she got pretty pissed and I had to just suck it up and keep holding her.

On Wednesday we drove to Baltimore to visit my cousin Jody and Chris. They have a 3 month old baby boy, Topher, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on him.

 Caiden was jumping around and singing and Topher was totally into it and smiling.

On Thanksgiving Day we went over to Fery's cousin, Siamack's, house. About 50 people, three turkeys and lots of fun. Caiden loved watching all the kids run around and Grace was the youngest one there so she was just passed around from person to person.

Uncle Bob with his niece and nephew.

On Friday we left Grace home with Fery and we took Caiden to DC. The metro has a stop a few blocks from their house so we were able to walk there and take it right to the Smithsonian stop.

First we went to the Natural History museum to show Caiden the dinosaur bones. I don't think we prepared him well enough because I think he was expecting to see real dinosaurs. I don't think he was near as impressed as we though he'd be.

Caiden was fading fast by the time we left the Natural History museum but we decided to make one quick stop at the American History museum on our way to the metro.

On our way home Caiden kept telling us he wasn't tired, but about 10 minutes in -he was out. 

The kids had so much fun "playing" the piano.

Caiden loved drinking tea!

On Saturday morning we went to the National Harbor. It's on the Potomac River on the Maryland side and is a fun place to burn off a few hours. There was a Carousal, Ferris wheel, lots of shops and restaurants and there was even a Holiday performance by a girls dance team. Both of their eyes were glued to the stage the entire time.

On Saturday night we went over to the Rafii's house. We managed to get all the kids to sit long enough to snap a photo -Seven kids under 5! I know I say this every year but I really love these people and wish we lived closer to them!

On Monday Marc had to work so Fery and I took the kids to the mall. We spent about an hour in the Disney store and Caiden came home with some goodies from Mamani.

At the airport on the way home! I think at this point I've blocked out the entire day. I remember Grace napped for two hours on the first leg and Caiden napped for an hour on the second leg. You think that would make everything great...but for reasons I can't recall right now it really wasn't. But we are back and we had a great time! I love that Caiden is getting to the age where we can take him to do fun stuff and there is so much to do and so many people to see there that it makes the trip go so fast. Happy Thanksgiving!

In the airport - fighting over who gets to hold the suitcase.