Happy Birthday Kenzie!!!

Our little princess turns 2 years old today.  We are thankful that this sweet spirit chose us to share her life with.  We have been blessed to have her in our lives and watch her grow and learn all the wonderful things there is about life.  She is beautiful and a energetic.  She is one of the 3 reasons it has been a blessing being a parent.  We thank Heavenly Father each day for bringing to us such a beautiful child.  We love you Kenzie with all of our hearts, Happy Birthday!

Love,

Daddy and Mommy

Merry Christmas!

Where A Kid Can Be A Kid

This past Saturday we shared some time with the Sander's family to celebrate Aubrey's birthday. Where do you think we went? But of course, one of our favorite hang outs: Chuck E. Cheese. As always, the kids loved playing games and most of all collecting all those tickets to get a cool prize. Thank you Aubrey for inviting us to hang out with you!

La Duena del Swing

We have a little dancer in the family and she loves El Swing...

Building New Traditions

Both Courtney and I come from families that have yearly traditions. We have kept many of them and continue to share them with our family. However, there's always room to start something new that hopefully our children will continue or inspire them to create new traditions to share with their future families.

Back in May, many of you may remember our posting from our Anniversary. Courtney and I took a romantic gondola ride through Naples, Long Beach. We found out at the end of the ride that all the houses are decorated for the holidays in the peninsula and we could take a ride on a 14 person gondola. So, we made our reservations in July and sure enough the night did not disappoint. 9 of us were all bundled for that cool evening. We had a beautiful clear sky, crisp air and the biggest full moon we have seen in ages. We have decided that this is one tradition we will definitely do every year and hope to share it with those who missed out.

We are big fans of hunting for new houses with cool Christmas setups. Every year Courtney takes nightly trips with the kids and when I am able to join in, we go on long excursions or they show me the new spectacles that they have found. A year ago, Josh Lang who is our home teacher, introduced us to a neighborhood in Yorba Linda. We had such a blast walking around and taking in the Christmas spirit and lights that we decided we needed to go back again. And guess what? After tonight's visit, we will be visiting again.

Dia de las Velitas

Tonight we celebrated Dia de las Velitas with my aunts. It is a traditional holiday celebration in Colombia and we had fun learning and participating in this activity. It seems that there is always something new to learn about Colombian tradition and it is great to have family living here in the states to help pass it on to my children. I looked up the meaning behind this event and have posted it for all to enjoy:  (pics coming soon)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Día de las Velitas (English: Day of the Candles) is one of the most observed traditional holidays of Colombia. It is celebrated on December 7, on the eve of the Immaculate Conception, which is a public holiday in Colombia. This day is the unofficial start of the Christmas season in the country.

On this day, people place candles and paper lanterns on their windows, balconies, porches, sidewalks, streets, parks and squares, in short, everywhere they can be seen, in honor of the Virgin Mary and her immaculate conception.

BACKGROUND

The celebration of the Day of the Candles dates to 1854. On December 8, Pope Pius IX solemnly defined as dogma the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, published in his constitution Ineffabilis Deus. In anticipation of this decision, people lighted candles and paper lanterns to show their support and belief in this idea, a long-held tradition among them.
In Colombia, as in many places all over the world, this announcement was observed by lighting candles. The Catholic Church of Colombia kept alive the celebration and made an annual tradition of lighting candles the night of December 7.

TRADITIONS

El Día de las Velitas is celebrated in all Colombia, but traditions vary in each region and city.
In the municipality of Quimbaya, in the Department of Quindío the most important cultural event is the Candles and Lanterns Festival (full name in Spanish: Fiesta Nacional del Concurso de Alumbrados con Velas y Faroles), which began in 1982 and is held each year on the 7th and 8th of December. Each of the barrios in the township competes to produce the most spectacular lighting arrangements, and many visitors come from throughout Colombia to admire the displays.
In Bogotá, the Christmas decorations reach their peak on this day; the city, fully decorated, plans late activities for the whole family since most Colombians would be out and about admiring the shows, many streets close to traffic and allow pedestrians to walk freely and stop to admire the light arrangements. Malls, museums, stores, and other public places have extended hours of operation. There are many shows that take place on this night, live nativity scenes, caroling events, among others.
In the Caribbean Region of Colombia, the lighting of candles and lanterns takes place on the early hours of December 8, before sunrise, instead of the night before.

Light display along a river in Medellín

The Merriest Place on Earth

We love Disneyland during the holidays, but we especially love it during Christmas.  The Merriest Place on Earth deserves the name because they definitely go all out to make it a Christmas wonderland.  There were huge decorations, snow on the castle, the Christmas parade and fireworks and to top it off... falling snow.  We shared our day with family and had lots of great shots to share.  The kids favorites would have to be definitely the parade and snow.  If you haven't gone yet, you shouldn't miss Disneyland during this time.

Merry Christmas!

Here's a little bit from our finale to our evening