The little things make life interesting

Sani has discovered he can sit in a mixing bowl and spin in circles until he tips over....seriously, why buy toys?

 Last Friday Santa came to Selma to help light the city Christmas Tree.  Cadence's expression at her first glimpse of ol' St. Nick:

 While waiting to see Santa the kids got to take a little ride:

Finally they got their Santa time, though Sani was much more interested in the free candy and cookies:

 This week Eric took Cadence shopping to pick out a Christmas gift for Sani.  She picked a Zhu Zhu pet.  She received one last Christmas, and he loves to play with it, so we figure she thought he needed his own.  Later that day he was again playing with her Zhu Zhu, and all was well until he tried running it across his head....can we say "natural consequences"?  Sadly he repeated this performance with the same result:

Turkey Time!

Thanksgiving week was kicked off with a church potluck with all the fixings.  Then Tuesday evening we hosted Eric's sister and her roommate.  We decided to deviate from the traditional pumpkin pie and serve up an apple crisp.  Normally Eric and I are not real big on kitchen gadgets, but I recently bought an apple peeler/slicer/corer from the Pampered Chef.  It got its first use to make our dessert, in fact Eric barely let me use it because it's just that cool!  Thursday we headed to Fresno for dinner with the Welter family on my mom's side.  Friday was a nice lazy day at home....no crazy shopping for us!  Saturday evening we had a nice dinner with the Pisor side of the fam...a fabulous stuffed pork loin was served by my parents.  We were entertained by a grandpa in high spirits and some interesting family stories.  Finally on Sunday Eric and I got a little break from the kids and saw the newest Harry Potter flick, had lunch out, and did a little Christmas shopping.  So much to be thankful for! 

Almost caught up!

So with life being what it is, I have so neglected this page.  I hope to post Thanksgiving pix soon, but for now enjoy the rest.  For those of you also on Facebook, you may come across some repeats.

More good times

We figure there is nothing wrong with a little creative expression....ok actually we LOVE creative expression!  The great thing is kids come by all sorts of it pretty naturally...art, singing, dancing....it's so pure and wonderful!  Here's what I captured from a painting session:

 Sani's drum set...he gets these out and sets them up like this several times a week, and drums away.  He pretty much can make anything into a drum and drums sticks, and Cadence likes it too:

 And life is just not complete without ice cream:

 Here the kids strike a pose at my Sunday School classroom:

 And just recently we celebrated a birthday with another family pictured below:

 I tried menudo for the first time, and Eric tried this chili which brought tears to his eyes....not an easy feat to do!

For kids nothing says "party" like dirt:

 Grandma Espino checking out the excavation site:

 Enjoying all the new loot:

Halloween!

I got to visit Young Learner's Preschool for their Halloween party.  Cadence picked her own costume which we put together with things we had at home already:

 On  Halloween we met up with our Pumpkin Patch buddies again for a night out on the town:

Pumpkin Patch Pals

With Fall begins a whole string of festivities I think we're all familiar with.  To kick things off we met up with some friends at a local pumpkin patch:

 We even got to enjoy a hayride around the acres of pumpkins:

 That's right, it was still warm enough for a tank top in October!

 Nothing ends a day out like a trip to McDonald's!

Fall Times

Fall brought the beginning of pre-school for Cadence.  She loves it!  It also meant the return to school for myself as well...I have the goal of being finished this coming May!  Here are some pics from our R and R times:

Gotta love the sibling bond:

 Finger + Door = Saturday spent at the ER

More of that sibling bond:

 When is he not moving?

 This pout is posed, I asked for a smile and this is what I got:

 The kids loved lots of park time when daddy had his soccer practices and games:

Daddy is so happy after playing soccer: