Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving day we had dinner with Holly's family this year.  It was really nice.  We all had a really enjoyable time.  We ate and visited, the kids played, the adults visited more.  We stayed for some time, the kids were having so much fun, we waited and came home past bedtime.

Today, we had our Thanksgiving dinner with the "Thal" side at Chuck-a-Rama.  All the kids sat at one table and the adults at another table.  We also celebrated McKenna's 10th birthday there as well.  Afterwards, we went back to Sean's house and hungout for a while until the kids were ready for bed.  It was a nice day.



Yard Clean-up

We cleaned up the yard today.  Before we did the leaves the kids and Papi got to play on the tramp one last time before we took it down. Lili was helping Papi with the tramp and the big girls were helping me do the leaves.  Then we all helped with the tramp once Papi took it all apart.  Next was the leaves, we all helped raking all them.  The kids had fun playing in them.  It was a fun family work morning.

Papi's Car

  Papi was working on his car and the girls wanted to help.  These photos are in the very beginning, I don't have any photos of the completely taken apart inside of car, I videoed it instead.  But he always lets the girls help him.  If it was me, I'd say no way, there are too many small nut and bolts to get lost, but he is better than me that way and he lets them help.  Isabel and Lili helped him a ton actually, over the course of 4-5 days on working on it. 
He replaced the heating core, so he had to take the seats out, the console, the steering wheel, the dashboard and other parts but he had it down to bare bones, it was crazy.  But he fixed it and it is all put back together.  He saved us $800 doing it himself. 

Gabriela

Gaby is doing so well at school this year.  I am so proud of her.  She had to overcome a lot last year and ended the school year not so good.  This year has been a night and day transformation.  It is so wonderful.  I credit it to her teacher, Mrs. Smith.  She is wonderful and truly loves her job and the kids in her class.  She has given Gaby confidence back and she is thriving in school.  I was so nervous about how Gaby would do in second grade but Mrs. Smith has been an answer to my endless prayers.  We just had our parent teacher conference and we are just so proud of how well she is doing.

Lili's 2nd Birthday

We went into Lili's room singing 'Happy Birthday' and woke her up.  She put her arm over her face and started moaning, as if to say..get out!  hahaha 
After a bit more sleep she came out happy.  Later in the day, she got a package in the mail from Ronnie and Angel (Enrique's Aunt & Uncle in Phoenix).  They always send the perfect present, no matter which kid it's for.  Lili is so into babies and playing with tea sets and her kitchen stuff, well my kitchen stuff.  Well, she has her very own now.  She has pots and pans, a baking set, and tea set.  She plays with it so much.  She loves it.
She chose to have a sandwich for dinner (Arby's) which is funny because she doesn't like sandwiches, so I don't know how Enrique got that from her but she got to choose and that's what she chose. 
Her birthday party was delayed a bit but was good.  We got to make it a late night and the kids had a great time.  It was just a small family party, with my brothers and their families but it had been a while since we got together, so the kids thoroughly enjoyed the late night together.

I put her cupcake 'cake' together, we ate dinner and then everyone arrived for the party and the cupcakes all fell sideways.  Oh well, she like eating them.  I made normal size ones and mini ones.  She ate about 4 mini ones.  She blew the candles out all by herself too.

Isabel bought her this baby bottle with her own money and wrapped it all by herself.  It was very sweet!

She absolutely loved this baby at the store the other day and would not put it down.  The face lights up and it plays music.

Grandma got this elephant that blows balls out its nose, well, Lili loves it to say the least, but her big sisters get into trouble fighting over playing with it also.

Isabel & Papi's Date

Papi was off today, Veterans Day.  Isabel had been asking him all morning to play with her but we were trying to register for our health insurance that for some reason took multiple hours.  So Papi took Isabel on a date to make up for it.  He let her pick where ever she wanted to go or do whatever she wanted.  She chose to go to Chuck E. Cheese's.  They had a great time.  I am so happy that Enrique takes the time with each of the girls like he does.  They love spending that one on one time with their Papi and I know he loves it too!

Leaves

I love taking photos of the girls in our neighbor's yard.  They have big trees along the curb all down their street.  It reminds me of Pittsburgh in the fall, I guess that's why I love it so much.  Lili was being her little mischievous self as you'll see in the photos. 
So the battery to our camera has been dead and the cable to charge it broke, so I've been waiting for the new one to come in the mail.  It came today, however, before it came this family was out doing yard work so I stopped and asked if they were going to rake their leaves today.  The dad was telling me all that they were going to do.  Then I said I didn't want to rush him in his yard work, I just wanted to take photos in the leaves and hoped they wouldn't get to it today.  He laughed and they didn't get to them today....yipeee!  I told Enrique what I did and his face was in horrified shock.  It was really funny.

First Snow

Today was the first snow fall.  The kids were out playing in it before 8am.  Lili cried the whole time I was getting her ready but then loved it once she was outside.  It's her first real time playing in the snow, last year she was still too little.  Lili only lasted 10 minutes (her gloves came off so she could eat the snow and her hands were frozen), Isabel lasted 15 minutes and Gaby lasted 45 or more.  It is so pretty when it is still fresh.