Holiday Tradition

One of our favorite holiday traditions is our annual trip to Pier 39 to see the Christmas decorations.  We did all of our favorite things like watching the Sea Lions, going on the carousel, eating lunch at Bubba Gumps, watching street performers and then buying some fresh crab to eat at home for dinner.

 Aliyah doesn't like going on the animals on the carousel but she is usually ok sitting on a bench.  Silly mom didn't realize that this fancy bench rocked until we started moving so Aliyah spent the entire ride clutching my shirt with one hand and covering her eyes with the other.  I asked if she wanted to sit on my lap and she said no, she just wanted to ride like that.

 She felt much better once we were on solid ground at Bubba Gumps.

And this is what normally happens when we try to get a picture of all three of our kids looking at the camera...

 ... but then we happened upon Santa at Boudin Bakery and somehow the impossible happened. Must be the magic of Christmas :)

A Day in the Life

We try not to over schedule our weekends but every once in awhile, schedules line up so that we have a lot going on on the same day.  Last Sunday was one of those days.

The day started off with a trip to San Jose where Nick's flag football team was playing in a tournament.

Receiving last minute advice from Coach Dad.

And then end of the season trophies.

After the flag football game it was off to Noah's futsal game.  Futsal is a type of indoor soccer that really helps the kids with developing their footwork.

After futsall it was off to Stockton to go to a minor league hockey game to celebrate Noah's 5th birthday with a few of his friends. 

 

 

Aliyah particularly liked the ice dancing at intermission and was a little upset by the hockey game that was interrupting their performance.  She also did not care for the very loud horns when the home team scored but all in all it was fun, but very tiring, day!

Grandpa Jeff

I really am the worst when it comes to taking pictures. My dad was just in town visiting from the Philippines for a month and I didn't think to take any pictures until the last day he was here at lunch and I had Pete snap a quick picture on his phone.

Despite the lack of photo evidence, we had a great time visiting with Grandpa Jeff. He met Aliyah for the first time and was amazed at how smart she is. We describe her to people but in this case, seeing really is believing that she is just an amazing little girl.

Nick and Noah also loved visiting with granpda and hearing his stories about everything from how to kill a rattle snake to how big crocodiles grow in the Philippines. Grandpa has promised to take Nick hunting once he turns twelve and takes the appropriate gun and hunting safety classes. We had my dad over for dinner twice before Thanksgiving and Noah was a bit shy with him. I encouraged my dad to not wear a shirt with buttons (see previous post on Noah's dislike of buttons for explination) on Thanksgiving and maybe Noah would warm up enough to give him a hug. Grandpa wore a plain shirt and sure enough Noah gave a big, extra long bear hug when it was time to say good-bye.

Grandpa flew back home to the Phillipines last week but he is coming back in the summer. We are planning on going to Lake Almanor together along with my sister and her kids for a week. My dad is already making plans for fishing and catching crawdads, it should be a trip to remember.

Movin and groovin

Having fun on a rainy Sunday at home.

Aliyah's Village

Nick and Noah are on the far left on the couch and Aliyah is next to them between her two buddies.

We are fortunate to live in an area with a large adoption community. We have met a few other families near us with Ethiopian children and the moms and youngest kiddos try to get together for playdates as often as we can. Our last playdate was on Veteran's Day and since all of the schools were closed, we all had all of our older children with us as well for a total of 17 kids. My favorite part about seeing all these kids together is seeing how the older siblings look after all of the Ethiopian children, not just their own brothers and sisters. It is great for our kids to see other families like their own.

Sibling Love

One year ago on November 13, we arrived back in the US from our second trip to Ethiopia and Nick and Noah met Aliyah for the first time. When the boys woke up the next morning, they wanted to have their "baby sister" sit on their laps. I think they were little surprised that she wasn't really that much of a baby!

And now one year later, I would say the sibling bond is pretty strong. Aliyah copies Noah which drives him crazy, just the way that Noah has always copied Nick and driven him crazy. They all play and push each others buttons in only the way that siblings can.

I just asked Noah how he feels about Aliyah. He looked at me funny and said "She's my sister" in a "duh mom" kinda voice. That pretty much sums it up.

Halloween

This was Aliyah's first Halloween and she loved all of it.

Grandma Kathy came over on Halloween night to pass out candy so that both Pete and I could take the kids trick or treating.

Aliyah had thought the costume was pretty cool but then when she found out that you go to houses and they GIVE you candy, well, she took to it like a kid to candy :)

Half the people who saw Nick said "cool, fear the beard!" and the other half said, "Um, a Giants player with a beard?"

And since grandma was with us we got a rare family picture (just wish the lighting was a bit better.)