This past weekend, we went to Abdali Boulevard to see Christmas decorations. It is beautifully decorated during this time of year and felt very festive.
We walked around for a while, but the boys were most interested in going down the snow slide. These are their pretty please faces.
Posing for pictures at the famous I love Jordan wall.
I love this picture of Nathan and his mini-me :). After walking around, we grabbed an early dinner at an Italian restaurant. The waitress accidentally spilled Caleb's drink all over me, and I looked like I peed my pants and my shirt was soaked. But by the time dinner was done, I was mostly dry and smelled pretty good since it was peach tea :).
Benjamin catching some air in Santa's sleigh.
It was a nice afternoon and we were greeted with a beautiful sunset on the way home.
Another day, we made a gingerbread house. It was the first one the boys ever made, and they did a great job.
Earlier this week, Caleb had his Christmas show at school. It was really cute, and Caleb even sang :). He did have a Christmas shirt on when he went to school, but he said he got hot and took the shirt off.
We are enjoying the season and counting down to Christmas Day.
We decorated our house for Christmas on Thanksgiving day. A bit late, but here are some of our decorations. The boys love the counting down to Christmas with our Advent calendar.
This year, we also go them a Lego Advent calendar. Each morning they open a new window and they get to build a mini lego figure, that will fill out the Christmas scene.
Our fireplace.
The tree is up and ornaments are hung.
My parents gave us a new Hawaiian ornament with all of our names on it.
We got a new family picture ornament.
One of my favorites from when we got married and where it all began :).
The stockings for us 5 and Tes are hung...
We got a new Jordanian Christmas decoration. It's a recycled liquor bottle that is decorated with the Jordanian tribal pattern for the tree and the flag in the circle, and it lights up. Kind of tacky, but so Jordanian so I had to get it :).
We also got a new decorative Christmas plate from the Christmas market. It says Eid Milad, which means Merry Christmas in Arabic.
Love these 3 :).
Last weekend, Santa came to the Embassy on a camel. We missed him coming in because it was early and raining, but we made it for pictures with Santa. We got this picture from a friend who saw him.
A big first in this picture...first time in 7 years that Caleb wanted to sit on Santa's lap...and everyone was happy about it.
Benjamin went back for rounds 2, 3, and 4 on Santa's lap when it was free :).
The Marines were collecting toys for orphaned children and taking pictures with the kids. We are very thankful for the strong Marine Guard detachment at the Embassy and for their service to our country.
Afterwards, we went to a Christmas Bazaar at the kids school. I don't have any pictures of the bazaar, but afterwards, Caleb gave us a tour of his library and showed us his favorite isle to check out books - Fantasy and SciFi.
Benjamin took us to his art class, which is his favorite special class.
Yesterday we had Benjamin's kindergarten Christmas show at school, and it was super cute. Here are a couple of pictures and videos.
We have been enjoying the learning about the Christmas season and having fun activities throughout the month!
We have been enjoying cooler temperatures and rain, which means winter is coming soon, and it has been nice to play outdoors (when it's not raining). We've haven't been up to much lately, just enjoying hanging around and living life. Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks. This is our apricot and nectarine tree in the back yard. We get a little bit of fall color change, and we will take every bit we get.
Biggest and littlest :) Caleb is very attentive to Eliza. He likes to help change her clothes and diaper, and reading to her. His voice makes her smile, and we are thankful for the sweet bonds the boys are forming with her.
Nathan takes Benjamin to a drawing class one evening a week. Benjamin loves art and he is excited to go and learn about drawing. Here is his first master piece :).
We get out sometimes :). A couple of weeks ago, we went to a Christmas Market to check out some local crafts and food.
And a Jordanian Santa was there, who only spoke Arabic!
This little girl lights up our day! She is getting very strong, and she is so alert. I think her favorite thing to do these days is watch her brothers.
For about a week, the boys wanted to have a slumber party on their bedroom floor. Why not...other than it's hard tile, but it didn't seem to bother them one bit!
Caleb is reading very well, and he loves bringing home new books from the library. This one was on mythical creatures - the Abominable snowman, Yeti, and Bigfoot...right up his alley!
She is such a happy little girl!
Daddy's mini me :).
And just another day in the neighborhood. Friday morning traffic jam while out on a walk.
This sweet love bug turned 3 months old last week. Eliza is smily, happy, and continues to go with the flow! And she has blessed us with sleeping through the night for 11-12 hours straight. I don't want to jinx it, but she is definitely the best sleeper in the house at this time, and we are very thankful for that. I'm sure there will be lots of waking nights ahead, but we will take the good days!
Her next doctor appointment is at 4 months, so we will know weight and length then. Three month clothes fit tightly, 3-6 month size is mostly what she wears now. She is still in size 1 diapers, just barely (mostly because I am trying to finish up the stack we have), and will move up soon. She eats about 6 times a day, nursing morning, afternoon, and night, and bottles during the day.
This month she found her hands and stares intently at them and likes to suck on them. This girl does not like her pacifier. She started drooling quite a bit, so maybe teething is coming soon, and she started giggling this month too! We all love finding her tickle spots and making her laugh, especially her big brothers :).
Oh how we love this sweet baby girl! Happy 3 months Eliza Rose!
Happy Thanksgiving! We had a nice and quiet holiday, and spent the day together as a family. We started the day at our friend's 5kTurkey Trot. They started this tradition while we were together in Kuwait and this was the fifth year. I don't have any pictures, but we had fun. The boys ran about a mile and a half and we all worked hard for our meal :).
This year we had no turkey, just ham and a few sides. All were new recipes, and they all turned out great. I made a crock pot ham with brown sugar and pineapples, a sweet potato dish with marshmallows...I swear there are sweet potatoes under there, a green bean, cranberry, almond salad, and pumpkin pie. Tes joined us for dinner. We are so thankful for her, and for the great care she has provided our family over the past 5 years.
One of our family traditions is decorating the Christmas tree after Thanksgiving meal. We put our tree up a few days before, and saved the ornament decorating for that day.
We have so much to be thankful for every day, and especially this year, adding sweet Eliza to our family. As you can see, she goes with the flow...poor girl has the boys' knee socks and mittens on, haha!
