Addie's Ballet Progress

This week for ballet, Andres and I were able to go watch what Addie does in her class every week (since the class takes place in the teacher's home, there's not room for parents). It was so much fun to watch her and her friends do strut their stuff.

First of all, here is Andres wanting to steal the attention:

Here are a couple pictures of them in action. It's really easy to tell which one Addie is: she's the only one in blue and she's the only one that doesn't have her hair up (surprise, surprise).

They did a dance where they acted out the poem Twas the Night Before Christmas and they did a really good job. I don't know how long she's been doing the hands in the mouth thing, I noticed it first when she started coming into primary a few weeks ago, and again here, and she also did it when we went to visit Santa. Maybe it's a nervous thing? Or a shy thing? Anyway, I think she still looks pretty cute.

Thanksgiving Week

We had a wonderful break. Sadly, I did not get many pictures. We really need to be better at that. Jason only had school on Monday and Tuesday, and we were so excited to get to spend more time with him. I don't even remember what we did on Wednesday except get ready for the big day, but I'm sure it was good.

On Thursday, we continued our tradition (now going strong in it's second year) of being lazy in the morning with a good breakfast, watching the parade on TV, and looking at Black Friday ads. It was perfect! Then we started getting ready for our dinner (what Addie kept calling our feast). We had two families over for the big event and it was just wonderful. Everyone brought a couple of things and we all stuffed ourselves until we couldn't move. And then we ate pie.

So this is the only picture I got all day. The kids were doing 'cheers' with their sippy cups full of juice. It was pretty funny. As soon as I got the camera out, though, most of them stopped to look at me. Oh well.

This is the only other picture I took during our break, and it's because Addie requested it. I'm pretty sure this picture was taken around 2pm on Saturday. Still in thier pajamas. Actually, I'm pretty sure Addie wore that shirt on Friday, then for pajamas and then all day Saturday. That's the kind of weekend we had. It was great. We set up our Christmas tree and decorations and are so excited for the season of Christmas music and treats and all that good stuff.

Cute (and somewhat scary) story

I just wanted to post a little story about our oh-so-proper little princess. This was a few weeks ago when Jason was working on his Ghostbusters pack. He was using goo gone to get the stickers off the containers he was using and he commented how he liked the smell. I questioned his sincerity, because although it does have a citrus-y smell, anything that strong is not pleasant to me. He was being silly and took a big whiff and emphasized how much he liked it. Addie was sitting next to him watching him work and without skipping a beat, she tooted and said "How do you like that smell, Dad?"

Who you gonna call?

Halloween Picture Overload. Ready? Go:

Jason put a lot of effort and time into these costumes. I love it when we find something we can all get into together. I made Addie's jumpsuit, Andres' Slimer costume, and the hat and finishing touches for the Stay Puft costume (the dress is an actual maternity dress worn by my mother-in-law and was too perfect to change). Jason made the very important accesories for his and Addie's costumes. While it may sound like Jason did less, take a look at the pictures below and check out what Jason made. I'm very impressed and think he did an awesome job.

Addie's was based on the proton pack toy that they made back in the day. Do you remember those? Anyway, it looks pretty good for being made mostly out of our recycling and duct tape.

Jason's gun and pack was the one they used for the slime in the second movie (you know, where they sprayed the Statue of Liberty and it comes to life?) and while we couldn't find exactly the right size of containers for the pack, the gun looks pretty close.

And just so that we were all-out Ghostbusters, Jason couldn't resist:

Pumpkin Time!

At the Gonzalez house, we love our pumpkins! Not just at Halloween time, but all year long. So when we finally get to carve them, it's the greatest! Here are some photos from our extravaganza this year:

I love this picture because Andres and I are so enthusiastic about our 'cheese' faces and Addie is much too involved in cleaning out the pumpkin to say cheese.

Jason very intent in his carving.

Making pumpkin soup:

Our finished products: Jason made the Ghostbusters symbol, Addie and I carved a scary face and then tried to make it a cat by carving ears (it only sort-of worked), and Andres and Addie colored a face on the little one.

Please ignore the large pregnant lady in the background - this is about the kids!

October Fun

October has gone by really quickly. Nothing too exciting has happened, just normal everyday busy. We did celebrate my birthday last week and it was wonderful. The best part was that it was on Sunday, so Jason was home and didn't have to study or work on anything. He and Addie made me breakfast in bed and they also made this scrumptious cake:

I got some much needed maternity clothes and Michael Jackson:The Experience for the Wii. We've tried it a couple times already and it is so much fun! Of course, Jason has figured out how to get a higher score than me while sitting down and just moving the remote the right way. But Addie and I love to dance and have a lot of fun with it.

The rest of the pictures are just some random ones of our recent fun.

Andres for some reason wanted to wear these pants of Jason's. Jason, of course, thought it was a much better idea to get both kids in there.

Addie let me straighten her hair on Sunday for church and wanted to take a picture of just us beautiful girls.

And below is a picture of Andres after church. I'm not sure how he lost his shirt but kept the tie, but he looks pretty cute.

At the beginning of the month Addie started ballet classes. They're once a week for an hour and she really enjoys it. Doesn't she look cute in her dance outfit?

Addie also started preschool with a few other families from our church. We take turns having it at each other's houses and I actually had it at our house this week. We had a lot of fun. We learned about the letter C and about colors. We did an art project with all the colors of the rainbow and they got to use glue (which is what they were excited about and they did really well with it). And we played some color games with our Twister game. All in all, a success. Now I don't have to teach until Halloween.

Andres enjoyed having all those boys at our house and having more people who felt the same way about his toy tractors and cars. Addie and he will play together with different things, but she just doesn't seem to get how cool 'things that go' are. He's still a very happy guy, but has been expressing himself a lot more when things don't go the right way. He has quite a fun personality and Addie and I sometimes have a good laugh about the things that he does and says. Here's just a random picture post popsicle:

I just had to get a picture of this. It's pretty typical. Andres had been carrying around the flower and Pooh and wearing the hat for quite some time all while very enthusiastically pushing what we call the vacuum and making a car noise. I asked him to say cheese for a picture, and instead of continuing the enthusiasm, he stood absolutely still and would not smile. And Addie had to join in with all of her little ponies.
I really am sorry if it seems like my children are always missing some vital clothing. They usually are. They're not usually quite as bad as Andres always seems to be in pictures . . . maybe I just need to stop taking pictures when they're half clothed.

I just loved this picture! We don't get to see Jason very much these days. The studying has died down a bit, but he has to spend a lot of time in the clinic and in the lab. This picture simply is Sunday mornings at our house:

And since there seems to be plenty of room left on Jason's lap, we thought we'd add another to the crazy bunch. Here's an ultrasound picture of the latest edition, due February 3. We've decided to wait until then to find out whether it's a boy or girl. And we're hoping that the baby doesn't arrive any earlier than the 3rd because that just happens to be the last day of Jason's busy, crazy semester (technically a semester because there are two of them in the year, but who ever heard of a semester that lasts from August-February?). Anyway, I have names already picked out even though Jason isn't too excited about them (too bad he's not going to have any time to come up with something different) but from past experience I'm not going to share my thoughts publicly until we decide (which will probably be when the baby is born).
So, this picture is one of the only good ones we got. The tech tried poking around for about 10 minutes to get us a profile, but there was absolutely no cooperation. Which is sad because we have good profiles of both Addie and Andres. But, oh well. This kid obviously fits in with our very individual and strong personality family. Anyway, the big circle is the head, and the arrow is pointing to a finger and the tech had written "I'm Number One!".

ANOTHER visit to THAT state

We found an amazing deal to fly into Provo. Yes, Provo has an airport although they don't really have everything all figured out yet (like everyone stands outside to wait for the carts to bring their luggage which is dumped onto the ground and everyone just picks through until they find it - I'm pretty sure this is temporary but they figure it out soon cause I don't think that'll work in the winter). Anyway, my mom and Paige were down there dropping Taylor off at school. Yes, my little sister is starting college! Crazy. Anyway, we stayed down there one night and Kevin was even able to meet us in the morning and came swimming with us. The kids were a little afraid of him at first, but then realized it was just their crazy Uncle Kevin.

We then spent a couple days in Providence with Uncle Allen. Here they all are on the love sac. I said it was time for bed, so they were pretending to be asleep:

Then we headed to Bear Lake which both of the kids loved.  As a matter of fact, we had the chance to join Great Grandma Dexter for her birthday lunch in Brigham City and when we stopped at the house in Providence to drop something off, Addie was very upset and said "Not here!  Bear Lake!".  My parents have a beautiful house up there and the 'grandkids room' was the funnest place Addie had ever seen.

Plus, we set this up on their deck so that we could get some projects done.  We didn't really get any done, but we enjoyed the nice weather and the view.  It was a nice little break.

Grandma also has some pretty fun dress-ups which occupied a lot of our time.

These crazy kids

These two little people have got some pretty fun personalities and are getting more fun all the time. Here's just a little picture update of two of the goofiest kids.

Here, I was trying to get a picture of Addie in her new dress that I made for her. This is pretty typical of both of them; Addie trying to show something off and look like a beautiful princess while Andres tries to bug her or make fun of her.

Addie getting dressed up. She went in her room and came out with this outfit (complete with shoes on the wrong feet). You may wonder why this is blog worthy. I mean, there is nothing exciting or seemingly unusual about this outfit, besides the fact that this cute and matching (notice the necklace that is mostly hidden and even the socks) outfit was chosen and put on entirely by a 3 year old. What is unusual is that she wanted to wear ALL of this as a choice. Usually when she gets dressed it is just a shirt. She won't put on shorts or a skirt unless we're leaving the house or someone is coming over. When we come home from anywhere, the first thing to come off is the skirt or shorts - even before shoes (which makes it a bit difficult to take off the shorts or skirt) and if she does happen to leave her bottoms on for awhile, then at the first potty break they just don't come back on. So this whole complete outfit was a miracle and definitely picture worthy. Last Sunday she even asked me to put her hair up for her! There may be hope!

I just thought this was really funny of Andres. The picture doesn't show it very well, but he is completely stuck and cannot move at all. The chair is pushed completely under the table (so they can't climb up to the counter that is behind him). He was not upset while I took the picture. Who knows, maybe it was comfortable? But crawling or climbing into spots that are way too small or tight seems to be one of his favorite things to do right now.

Cow Appreciation Day 2011

Of course we participated in this wonderful and lesser known holiday for the second year in a row. We are the Gonzalez family and we love free food. We are proud of our efforts. Once again we all got dressed up as cows, and once again we each got a free meal at Chick-fil-a. People looked at us like we were crazy (our Chick-fil-a is in the mall), but really I think they're crazy for paying for their lunch.

This was one cute cow I must say. And this picture below I thought was just perfect and cow-y with his mouth all full of chicken nuggets.

And, yes, I brought out the udder once again:

Addie, for some reason, did not want to cooperate and get her picture taken but here's the whole gang with the real Eat Mor Chikin cow. Andres is patiently waiting for his high five.

Andres is Eighteen Months!

Our little man is not so little anymore. Well, he hasn't really been little for a long time, but now he's starting to act like a big kid too instead of just a giant baby. It amazes me how fast they learn things at this point - at least something everyday. Just for an example, here is the conversation in the back of the car on the way to church today (and I just listened and smiled):

Andres: Da (dog - pointing to the stuffed animal Addie was holding)

Addie: No, Andres, this is not a dog. It's a PUPPY.

Andres: Da

Addie: No, Andres, PUPPY. Can you say puppy? PUPPY.

Andres: Puppy.

Addie: Yes, Andres, very good, puppy!

Andres (pointing out the window): wah-da?

Addie: That's a TREE, Andres. Can you say tree?

Andres: Tee.

Addie: Good job, Andres, tree!

2 minutes later he was asleep, but it was adorable while it lasted.

When we got home I took some pictures and caught some pretty good Andres faces. In each one of these I'm telling him to say cheese for the picture and this is what I got.

Here's a little more info on our Andres at 18 months:

• He loves to read books, both by himself and to be read to.
• He loves cars, and will make car noises all over the house with his cars or his little firetruck.
• He loves balls and will point them out everywhere.
• He also will point out any flowers that he sees; he loves them.
• He likes to throw things (we've been working on this and have made progress in that he at least doesn't throw things AT people as often).
• He likes to eat most things, and he still loves milk in his sippy cup.
• He sleeps well at night, but his napping is somewhat sporadic.
• He loves his sister Addie (one of his favorite words); to play with her, and to tease her.
• He is somewhat of a Mama's boy and is a really good cuddler.
• He always wants to call Grandpa on the phone. He'll pick up any phone he sees and says "a-yo! Papa!".
• He will sing along with Addie sometimes and his favorites are popcorn popping and the ants go marching.
  

Nauvoo

I've been waiting for a great desire to say something wonderful about the pictures that I have had uploaded for this post for quite some time. So I'm sorry if my ramblings aren't very enthusiastic. I wanted to just say "We went to Nauvoo, here are some pictures", but I know I'll be mad at myself when it comes time to publish the blog again and I have to remember what happened. It really was a wonderful trip that we had with Grandma and Grandpa Gonzalez. It was a very hot day, but the kids did great. The first order of business was the temple. First Jason and I were able to go, and then we switched off with the kids and they went. So, we decided that while we waited for them to get out, we would start exploring.

We had to walk down the hill and pretty far (the whole time wishing there were more trees to provide some much needed shade) and didn't make it to our desired destination, but we did find a very cool place set up for kids to play pioneer games and dress up. And there were picnic tables in the shade for us to sit at. The picture below shows Jason's reaction when we realized that someone would have to walk all the way back up to the temple because we had the only keys to the rental car.

Andres had fallen asleep in the stroller during our journey, so we parked him under a tree and Addie and I explored while Dad very generously offered to walk back up the hill.

Is this a cute little pioneer girl, or what?

She watched the older kids with these and wanted to try to carry the water too. We didn't have much water in there, but this second that it took to take the picture was about all she could handle.

These little cabins they had set up were her favorite, though. One was set up like a schoolhouse and the other like cabin complete with little cradles and dolls. Addie had SOOO much fun.

When Andres woke up he joined in the fun as well. He mostly just liked the little chairs that were his perfect size.

I'm not really sure what the sheep were all about, but Andres thought they were fun.

Grandpa and Andres:

Grandma dancing with Andres and Jason dancing with Addie.

Some of the games set up at the Pagaent:

The temple as seen from our seats at the pageant. It was really good, but both of the kids were so tired that I was thinking it was too long more than I was thinking it was entertaining or uplifting. But I sure am glad that we had a chance to see it while we are here.