Thomas, Tamales, & Snowball

CHRISTMAS MORNING

Basically, Santa brought lots of Thomas stuff. He loved every bit of it.

We spent Christmas morning at Grandma and Grandpa's house where Warren, Selena, & Rick were staying. Santa had already been there and we brought over Vince's Santa presents to add to the mix. He wasn't too interested in opening presents, we would kind of open it a little so he could see what was inside and then he would rip it open.



Of course he got other small gifts, like this sword from Tia Selena... umm, Sele, what were you thinking?? Don't you know he likes to hit things? Oh... it's foam, I guess that's ok. Warren and Noah all got one, so now they can all go have a ninja fight.

I like seeing Vince's expression when he figures out there is a toy inside... here he's saying.. oooohh.

But in the end I should have not bought him any presents and just bought boxes since they are so much fun... but were would i find good boxes without presents in them?

CHRISTMAS EVE - DAY

On Chirstmas Eve we had a wonderful tamale and ham dinner at my mom's with my whole family and some extended family. During the day, we made the tamales... it was our 4th annual tamale making party. It's always a fun social event with my sisters, mom, cousin, aunt, and whoever else wants to come.

We always wear hats and aprons.. the hats usually very from Santa hats, to Elf hats, and this year it was reindeer ears. We also got a special unexpected treat from Jessica... aprons with our names on them!

Here are all the Solis girls... no longer Solis's anymore!!!

While we were making tamales it started snowing. Warren and Jacob were running around outside and Vince desperately wanted to join in. So what does unprepared mommy Tiana do? Found some old baby socks and put them on Vince's hands, grabbed the camera, and went outside to the snow... or as Vince calls it, snowball. He had so much fun out there. Here are some pictures from V's first snow encounter and also of his cousin Warren and Grandpa.

I still have to post pics and write about the Northpole Express... stay tuned...

Gaylord on Ice

David, Vince, and I have been fortunate to spend a lot of time together during the holiday season. So many pictures and stories to post... but I'll start with the first of the first... the Friday David got out of school he went with his student council to the Gaylord to go to the Ice exhibit. We had planned all along for Vince to accompany them, so they got him a sweatshirt so he could fit right in.

The Ice exhibit is one where everything inside is made of ice... it was 9 degrees in there!! So, they give everyone a Parka to wear... it made Vince look like a little penguin!

I was glad I was able to join them on the trip last minute.

After seeing David go down the big ice slide, Vince wanted to do the same... he told us so by saying... "baby weeeeee"... he refers to himself in 3rd person by saying baby :)

We were a little scared of him going down... he went down twice... both times he ended up going down head first!!! And at the end... he said "Addeee" which of course means again.

He also had a wonderful time looking at the decorations and trains that were throughout the building.. I have some pictures from last year at the Gaylord that I will post later to compare then and now.

Warren, the Tree Train, & good/bad Santa photos

Warren came to town this past weekend... Vince loves Warren, his 8 year old cousin. He calls him Awan. Warren will spend 3 weeks here since he is on break from his year round school. Now that Warren is here, I have a hard time getting Vince out of my parents house. He runs away when I get there saying 'no mama'.

Warren, Vince, and my dad spent the better part of the other day putting the train around their tree. As an aside, my dad loves having his two grandsons around, especially since he only had daughters :)

Vince is so fascinated by trains. He loves using the remote to turn the train on and off.

On to Santa.... when Vince sees Santa, he says 'no ho ho'. He does not like it when Santa is around.

Above is our good Santa picture. It was taken a bit after the picture below in which Vince was freakin out. I decided to ask for a retake since this picture shows Vince's slobber running down his crying chin.... not to mention I really didn't like sitting on Santa's lap. So after some time passed, a candy cane, and a toy football, we quickly stood by Santa to snap the good picture. Vince had no idea we were even by Santa. I just leaned in for a second and go the snapshot!

We are taking the Polar Express train this weekend where Vince will see Santa one more time and get to have his first train experience... we are so excited!!

Vince's photo shoot

Before we left for Thanksgiving, we met up with our friend Evan to take some pictures of Vince and the three of us... below are a couple of the shots. The first one is David's favorite. Vince wasn't very cooperative during the shoot so I am just glad we got some good ones. I made the mistake of bringing out some toys half way through the session, not thinking all Vince would want were his toys!!! I also didn't have any real plans on what he was going to wear. Thankfully, I found this sweater last minute before we left and threw it in the bag... it was perfect!