Christmas Fun

The whole fam has had a great Christmas. My mom, Devin and Ronnie came over on Christmas Eve and we had delicious carne con chile that Steve made. The girls got enough gifts from my mom for every child in the county and the noticeable theme was Barbie and Princess. We got the best gift ever...a wii, wii fit and guitar hero and have been having a lot of fun playing all of the different games and exercises. We're already planning to head over to Hollywood Video tomorrow to rent some new games.

One of our traditions is that on Christmas Eve, an elf rings the doorbell at night and leaves a package from Santa with new pj's for the girls. This year, the girls heard jingle bells and Bella was convinced it was the bell on the elf's hat, bouncing as he ran away. I was really cute to see how excited she was to be that close to seeing an elf.

Our gift to the girls was a complete bedroom makeover on Christmas Eve. They slept in our room that night and within three hours we painted, rearranged furniture, brought in new furniture, put out new bedding and decor and new shelves. They love their new room and have been spending lots of time in there.

Dance Recital

The girls had their first dance recital a week ago and the theme was Disney Princesses. Matea had been talking about the recital all week and was really excited about it but then she refused to nap that day so she was extra moody come recital time. Bella had been battling a fever off an on for two days so she wasn't in the best mood either.

Matea did really well for the first two songs but then she slipped and fell and was too embarrassed to continue. Bella went back and forth between doing a great job and furiously scratching her tights and making her best pissed off face.

Thanks to grandma and great grandma for coming all the way over here for the recital and to Auntie Devin and Uncle "Wonnie" for coming too! I have some video that I'll try to upload later this weekend.

First visit with Santa

Today was both of the girls' first real visit with Santa. I think Bella may have seen Santa once or twice as a baby but it was more just throwing her on his lap, taking a quick pic and running off. We went to Santa's House near the mission in SLO and unfortunately for us, we showed up right as church was getting out so we had to wait for freakin ever. Add to that the fact that I misjudged the weather so both girls were freezing and it wasn't a fun wait.

Once we got to Santa, both the girls walked right up and were completely comfortable. Santa asked Bella what she wanted for Christmas and Tate said, "Um, I tink she wants pwesents." Stupid man.

A dream come true

Yesterday, Bella lived out one of her life long dreams...to ride a school bus. Her whole school rode the bus to a Christmas tree farm and Matea and I were able to meet them there. The girls both had a lot of fun at the farm but for Bella, it was all about the bus.

The real reason I had children

So I could have free household servants. Actually, they were fascinated with the new stick vac and asked to use it. Then, they enjoyed it so much, they asked to vacuum their room too. So really, I was doing them a favor.

You can't make this stuff up

This morning, Matea and I had the following conversation:

Me: What did you dream about last night?
Matea: Ummmmm, Grandma Cindy and Grandpa.
Me: Oh? What about them?
Matea: Ummmm, they were finding presents.
Me: Oooooo. What kind of presents?
Matea: Ummmmm, ballerina stuff.
Me: Grandpa was a ballerina?
Matea: No, he was the queen!

All dressed up with no place to go

I went into Matea's room during nap time yesterday to check on her and this is what I found...