First Christmas performance

S and R's first Christmas Eve performance.
R finally starts singing toward the end.
S was so excited to be an angel and wear the wings.
Believe it or not their performance exceeded our expectations

December update

So way back from October, here are the kids at S's school Halloween party

P went as a scarecrow--the same costume I made for S for her first Halloween. R was a pilot.

R enjoying a trick or treat sucker

Daddy taking some creative photos of S playing on the back patio

This is one of the most common poses for R--staring up into the sky at a plane passing overhead, often a big transport plane from nearby Travis Air Force Base.

Boo!

Our smiley girl...

which is why we did a smiley face theme for her first birthday, in November.

"I'm ONE!"

Grammy and Grampy were here for the party, from IL. Grammy made the dress P is wearing!

A few weeks later was Thanksgiving, and family from Ohio were here to visit. Our church hosts a "Turkey Bowl" football game early on Thanksgiving Day. P wasn't too thrilled to be there...

R wasn't too thrilled either, but only b/c he was too little to play football with all the big people. So sad.

But S had a ball cheering for Dad.
So, as a reference point, take a good look at S's bangs in this picture of her jumping at the bounce house place, earlier in the week. Now you see 'em...

...now you don't.

That's right, Thanksgiving Day she found the hair-cutting scissors sitting on the bathroom counter, and decided to give her bangs a trim, down to the scalp. Good thing the rest of her hair was in braids!

And finally, here is P with her latest accomplishment, climbing the stairs...hooray P!

Piper One Year Old

Our friend Shannon took some FANTASTIC pictures of Piper--check them out here !

"Poh-kin" Time

Since S is in 2 pre-schools (our neighborhood's Christian pre-school, and our public school district's special-ed pre-school) we got to take 2 field trips to pumpkin (or as R says, "poh-kin") patches this week. They were both SO much fun for different reasons...

The first, Impossible Acres, was highlighted by the half hour the kids got to spend with very docile farm animals--sheep, ponies, goats, chickens, and lots of babies--bunnies, a calf, piglets, pygmy goats, ducklings, and chicks.

The second, Cool Patch Pumpkins, was great because S had been there last year with her class and couldn't wait to go back. And Paul was able to go with us, which was even better. It was about 92 degrees that day, and this bright hot blue sky needs no enhancement.

P on the hayride

For sure the highlight of this patch is the enormous corn bath. Sort of like a giant sandbox filled with corn kernals. The kids all loved rolling, crawling and jumping in the corn. If you've seen this next picture on Paul's facebook/flickr page, you'll notice he photoshopped in some black wings and a sword...guess he couldn't resist her mid-air angel pose.

R's jumping style was more of a side-tuck

S getting tickles from her fabulous teacher

PANDA!!

S is going to be a panda for Halloween. She loves pandas. We saw the hat at a San Francisco Giants game (where player Pablo Sandoval is known as The Panda.) They were charging 20 bucks for the panda hat. I came home and bought one new on ebay for 99 cents, plus $3 shipping from China. HA! Anyway, add black pants, white shirt and black shrug sweater= perfect panda. S was SO excited when I brought it out, jumping up and down, saying "panda shirt! panda pants!" She wanted to put it on right then, and wore it for the next few hours, even though it was 97 degrees outside.

One more encouraging note--she has speech twice a week, for an hour, and her speech therapist has really been working with her on the concept of "where." Lo and behold, the other day I asked S "where is your sippy cup?" And for the first time ever, she actually got down from her chair and went and looked in the living room and in her bedroom for the cup. She's never done that before. I think she's figuring it out-yea!!

California Capital Airshow 2010

Paul and R went to the California Capital Airshow on Saturday. Here are some of the highlights. This is R in the cockpit of an army medical helicopter.

Here's R checking out the cargo bay of a C-5 Galaxy, one of the planes we see daily flying to and from Travis Airforce Base.

One of the main attractions of the show were the P-38 Lightnings. There are only 7 in the world, and 4 of them were at the show. We paid some extra $ to get an up-close view. Here's R in front of Glacier Girl. A P-38 recovered and restored after being buried for 50 years in Greenland under 200 feet of ice.

The other show highlight were the two F-22 Raptors, which flew all the way from Langley Airforce Base in Virginia.

Our 5th generation fighter the most advance fighter plane in the world.

The F-22s were some of the few planes we were not able to go near. They were under armed military guard during the show.

We were surprised to see the B-2 bomber. Only 21 have been built. They are refered to as the deadliest aircraft in the sky.

Did you know that the B-2 flies the longest missions of any US aircraft. Some of their missions last over 40 hours. Imagine being in the air in a plane for almost 2 straight days!

Learning to crawl

This wasn't her maiden voyage, but it was one of the first where she took more than just a few lunges. She's already an expert, chasing her sibs all over now! :)

Yeah, we're still alive

Yes, it's been awhile since the last post...2 months! But we're still alive, and here's what we were up to in July...

P wearing the sailor dress Grammie made for S 4 years ago!

Yum, Mom, look what R got for me!

P chillin in the pool

We also took a trip back to Ohio--here we are with the Woller fam

Paul showing the kids something we don't get to see out here--lightning bugs!

Boating--S loves being on the water!!

While we were in Ohio, we also got to see some of Paul's side of the family--here is P and cousin Grant, (they are about a month apart in age) isn't he cute?

R and Grampy

Trying to take a family photo...

R and cousin Logan are about 2 months apart in age, and Grammie made them both a t-shirt with a trash truck on it since they are both into big trucks.

And now for August--we were fortunate to get reservations at the Harvey West Cabin in the El Dorado National Forest (about an hour and a half from us here in CA.) We spent 3 nights there with my parents, and had a great time.

View from the cabin's deck

S and R loved the dirt and sand, and played in it most of each day...

which meant they had dirt coming out of every crack and crevice...(hey, this picture seemed like it fit the theme for R in this post)

and which is why they took a bath in a box each night before bed!

Fishing

Hiking

and camp craft time--tie dye shirts of course.

And now we're back to school--first day at a new morning preschool, Neighborhood Christian, 3 days a week...

and she is also continuing at the special ed preschool 4 days a week in the afternoon, with speech therapy twice a week. She's a busy girl, but happy. Stay tuned for a video post--we've got a new crawler!