Happy Birthday Andres!

This cute little guy turned 2 yesterday! Here's a bit about Andres at this age:

He loves to play, especially with cars, trains, trucks, balls, etc.

He still loves books and loves to be read to.

He has started to be insistent about certain movies and has been very loudly expressing his frustration that mom and dad won't let him watch movies all day every day. His favorites right now are Bolt, Monsters Inc., Rio, and Megamind.

He sleeps really well through the night and still takes a nap during the day and if I had the patience or the energy to deal with the sleepless transition, he would be out of his crib. As it is, he might not leave his crib until he has his own room (and that might not be for several years, haha!).

He is just a wonderful little guy and we are so glad he's in our family.

We celebrated on Sunday so that Jason could be involved. We made some super yummy cupcakes that Andres loved! He's a definite chocolate guy and he loves candy of any sort. So I put crushed Reese's Pieces in the frosting and then topped with peanut butter M&Ms.

For some reason, Andres didn't want to hold the cupcake after he blew out his candles. He picked off the M&M's and then ate the frosting and then the cupcake.

We then cleaned him up and he opened his present from Mom and Dad: a basketball hoop. Both Addie and Andres have had a lot of fun with it already.

and this is the banner that I made for his birthday

The rest of our festivities

Sorry this post has so many pictures, but there are some good ones of the rest of our very wonderful time in Virginia. Most of them are just ones that I really liked, like this one of Andres and me just hanging out. I am so glad that everybody got to see the silly side of our kids (as if they could hide it) and get to know them better.

Kim, Addie, Kevin and Caitlin made a candy train and then attempted to make a gingerbread house from a kit. The train turned out great, but I think the house was more for fun than anything else. And some people, who shall remain nameless, were doing more snacking on the decorations than actual decorating.

One of the best parts of our trip was that Jason was not stressed with school and was able to have fun with all of us. He might have been sucked into a few too many Dr. Mario games and we might have watched a few too many movies, but he was also able to have fun with the kids and they LOVED it:

Christmas morning: I love the look on Andres' face as they are looking through their stockings; you can tell he's about to ask very nicely for some of those M&M's even though it's only 8 oclock in the morning.

New Years Eve was a lot of fun. We celebrated by dancing to Michael Jackson on the Wii and then we rang in the new year at 8pm and then the kids went to bed (followed shortly by me who went to bed way too late most of the nights we were there).

One of the funnest nights we had, but did not get pictures of was when some of our favorite people, the Fields and the Palmers, came over and we played games. It was a blast not only to see everybody again, but to have fun and laugh with people who've known you for so long. We love being able to visit with family and it's such a bonus when good friends are part of the package! Can't wait until we can go back.

Christmas Eve

So we were able to spend our Christmas break (one absolutely lovely thing about still living the 'student life') in Virginia with the whole Gonzalez clan. It was wonderful and a much needed break for all of us. Both Addie and Andres love all of their Uncles and Aunts, and had lots of fun being entertained by them.

Christmas Eve is one of my favorite days of the whole year. Luckily, most of the things that I loved about Christmas Eve growing up were not only the same as the traditions the Gonzalez family had, but we usually did them together. It was so much fun to see everybody dress up and act out the story of the Nativity. Kevin and Caitlin as Mary and Joseph and Andres the wise man giving them a gift:

I'm not really sure who was a shepherd and who was a wise man, but regardless, are these not two of the cutest shepherd/wisemen you ever saw?

I'm pretty sure that Jason was supposed to be a wise man, but that doesn't even really explain the headpiece.

After our nativity, we each got to open one present: pajamas. This part of the tradition wasn't a Gonzalez one, but it's a pretty fun one that everyone got into. It helped a lot that Caitlin's family had the same tradition. Andres wanted to help everyone with their presents.

Aren't we a good looking bunch? Jason and I had fun picking out pajamas for everyone and thought we all looked pretty good. Addie and Andres particularly liked thier new pajamas and I'd like to say that it was just them that wore them several times in the next few days, but everyone was sporting their pajamas a lot (like the all day long kind of a lot).

Kevin Got Married

Uncle Kevin got married! to Caitlin (one of Addie's new favorite people). Jason was able to fly to LA for the wedding and got some pictures of everybody at the temple. I love the picture with the family. I don't know what Jason and John are laughing at; one can only guess.

The kids and I were sad that we weren't able to go to the wedding, but we all met up in Virginia to spend Christmas together and there was of course an open house there as well. It was really nice to be able to see so many people and Addie was so excited to get all dressed up.

The whole family: I'm not really sure why they wanted the huge pregnant lady next to the beautiful bride, but c'est la vie.

And here's our cute little family. These pictures were just taken with a family picture, so I'm hopeful that the more professional ones will turn out even better.

We're so glad that Caitlin has joined the family and hopefully a Christmas with all of us so soon wasn't enough to scare her away.