Christmas is almost here!

Our Christmas preparation this year has been fun and exciting! We had the opportunity to continue some previously established traditions and on a couple new and fun traditions.  We started our fun the week before Thanksgiving with our very first trip to the local dinosaur museum.  We had a great time seeing all of the dinosaur bones, but I think Alex was a little disappointed it wasn't as great of an exhibit as the Brookfield Zoo had this past summer.  The day ended with a our first time gold mining.  The girls each brought home a little tiny bag of "gold" from their adventure.  So fun!

The next day we packed our bags and left for a mini vacation to Northern Arizona. We stayed in a little one bedroom condo, so on the drive we explained to the kids that they would be sleeping on the floor in our room.  When we pulled into the parking lot in front of the condo, Alex promptly said "I can't sleep on the floor!  I am NOT A DOG!".  Pat and I couldn't help but to laugh at that one!  As it turned out there was a pull out couch that the girls could share....more on that later.

Our first stop was Jerome, an old mining town near Sedona.  We did all of the standard tourist things and saw the real old ghost town.  It was actually a really fun adventure and we all loved seeing all of the old cars and trucks. 

Peppa, looking for a new practice?

Next we visited Montazuma's Castle and Montazuma's Well.  The Castle was amazing and is a 20 room high-rise apartment, nestled into a towering limestone cliff.  It is amazing to see.  The girls loved running and playing in the leaves and just being outside in the cool air. 

 

The Well was also a great experience and allowed the girls to do a little hiking to get all the way down to the bottom.

 

Later in the evening we made it back to our condo and settled the girls into bed...aren't they cute together?  It didn't last long.  They spent an hour playing and fooling around until we finally had to separate them - Mom slept with one, Dad with the other. 

We decided that we had to take the kids for the very first visit to the Grand Canyon.  They enjoyed it, but really found the trees to be more interesting than the Canyon.   The girls spent a good portion of the afternoon climbing the juniper trees.

Our final destination was a very special trip to the North Pole.  We boarded the Polar Express in Williams, AZ and via a magic tunnel arrive in the North Pole.  While on the train we sang Christmas songs, drank hot chocolate, ate cookies and visited with Santa.  Rory likes to also remind everyone that she got to wear her nightgown on the train. 

Alex and Rory looking at the North Pole on the Polar Express

We arrived back home in time to celebrate Daddy's birthday.  The girls filled the cake with lots of candles!  Good thing they also helped him blow them out.

For the second year in a row we took the kids for a Thanksgiving morning movie.  This years feature film was Planet 51.  We all enjoyed it...and yes Alex and Daddy ate the whole tub of popcorn!

Later in the day we joined Kyle's family for Thanksgiving dinner at his Mom's house.  The food and company was wonderful, but Tricia did make the kids work for their meals!

                                

We celebrated a post-Thanksgiving dinner with Carolee and Bill, Catherine and Kyle, Marion and Bev, and Megan and Joe the day following Thanksgiving.  The poor kids were so tired!  Alex actually slept through dinner.  Rory and Gigi did enjoy a nice little dance together though.

After about a week of rest we finally had the energy to participate in some more fun!  We had a great time at the Chandler Light Parade.  Alex had another change to ride a horse, which you all know she loved.  I think those horseback riding lessons are still on her Christmas list!

We made a pre-Christmas visit to Carolee and Bill's and Alex and Rory had their usually session of dress-up in Gigi's closest.  Check out this outfit Alex put together!  I also have a couple great pictures of Carolee and Bill and the kids that I left on a memory card in Arizona.  I will have to add them later.

As our final Christmas Adventure before leaving for Chicago the girls and I made a visit to see Santa. Alex sat on his lap...yes you read correctly! She really did it and she said it was fun!  The girls and I decided that while we were there we should also take a ride on the little train that runs through the mall.  It was really a fun time!

Well we are now in Chicago and ready for Christmas!  The kids love the snow and being with family.  They are busy counting down the days until Christmas.  It should be a great one this year!  We wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

Much Love,

The Angelo Family

Happy Fall and Halloween

The feastivities leading up to Halloween where so exciting for Alex and Rory this year.  They truely loved everything about Halloween and are still enjoying the candy...and costumes.  Just today I had to bribe Rory out of her costume.  The girls enjoyed nightly walks around our neighborhood to see the decorations, two Halloween parties, two trips to pumpkin farms, decorating our Halloween trees, and of course trick or treating!  Rory also made a trip to a local retirement home to dazzle the residents with her beautiful smile and costume!

Grandma Elizabeth made trip to Phoenix to visit us just before Halloween and treated the girls to tons of fun!  We kept very busy with a trip to the zoo, railroad park and a full day at school, and again of course trick or treating!  The girls loved having Grandma with them to help carry their candy and be part of the Halloween fun!

November brought a slight Halloween let down, but some new fun quickly took its place.  The girls have both continued to love school and have great friends and teachers to keep them entertained.  They have enjoyed many playdates and a very special birthday party were both girls got to go horseback riding!  I unfortantely missed it, but Daddy got to enjoy the fun.  Alex loved every second of it and would like to take lessons (I would expect lessons to be on her Christmas list this year).  She has been talking about King Arthur, the HUGE horse for weeks now!  Rory didn't have a much fun on her ride, but she did give it a try and we are proud of her for that. 

Oh yes and our crazy girls tried to get one last swim in for the year.  The water was way too cold and neither made it past their waist, but they really gave it a good try.  March will come soon enough and our swimming will resume. 

The next post will feature our mini vacation to Northern Arizona and very special ride on the Polar Express, Thanksgiving and all of our Pre Christmas fun! 

Love,

Caycee, Pat, Alex and Rory

What an awesome month!

We have had a great month, transitioning from summer to fall and finally getting back into the swing of things around here. Both Alex and Rory have amazing teachers at school and the greatest friends any two kids could ask for outside (and inside) of school.

September was a month of play and work around our house. Pat has been busy painting the interior of our home, trying hard to remove the kid finger prints and dog drool that seems to have taken over our house. He has gotten a nice chunk of it completed but there is still plenty to go. What has been completed looks so wonderful. I love the new colors and can't believe how much better it looks already. We are hopeful that the project will be completed soon.

The girls and I have tried hard to have weekly cooking projects, which they love but Mom and Dad's waistline seems to be struggling with. Additionally we have had a number of special Halloween focused art projects that they kids have worked on. I feel like I spend a good part of almost every afternoon setting up and cleaning up whatever project we take on that day...and the art is really starting to pile up! Any takers? Between what they bring home from school and what we make at home I think we could keep all of your refrigerators covered!

Alex had a very special playdate where she invited all of her school girl friends to our house for lunch and a ton of play. The girls had so much fun together and did a great job of including Rory and the other little brothers and sisters in on their play.

Alex's birthday celebration started with her special day at school. She brought in pizza and cookies to share with her class and everyone loved it! Alex loved all of the attention and having Mom and Dad and Rory spend most of the class day with her.

We made a visit to the Children’s Museum with our good friends this month. The kids had a great time putting on a puppet show for the moms and created more art...again any takers? I think their favorite part though was when they went loose in the play areas. Oh what fun they had!

We did manage to get in a little swimming, although I think the swimming days are numbers. I am fairly sure I will not get back in...Too cold for me....although the kids might make an attempt again. I am always surprised that they will get in the pool and spend as much time there as I allow, no matter how cool it gets!

Alex celebrated her birthday multiple times, as you all know the kids in this family have lots of birthday fun! Why limit it to just one day? So in total Alex celebrated at school, celebrated at home on her birthday, celebrated with Gigi and Baba and Aunt Mine and Kyle the day after her birthday and for the grand finale had a huge birthday party with all of her friends in October. For the last birthday party we took her friends to Mother Nature's Farm and had a lot of good outside fun, pumpkin picking and decorating, hayride, bounce house, hay maze and plenty of dirt. She had a great birthday!

Our little baby Rory has grown up right before our eyes. Overnight she has become potty trained and NEVER has accidents. I have even started allowing her to wear underwear outside of the house. We are so proud of her and she is even more proud of herself. She can't wait to tell everyone she sees that she gets to wear underwear now. Rory also moved into a big girl bed this month as her reward for being potty trained. She has made the transition wonderfully and is enjoying her new freedom of getting out of bed when she is ready.

With the cooling of the weather we have had the opportunity to enjoy more outside activities again. The girls love their almost nightly trips to our community park and we made a trip back to the Phoenix Zoo. With all of the outside play you would expect them to be sleeping a little extra right? Oh no, I think they are so excited to wake up every morning and start their days they can't sleep! They have endless energy! Lucky for us we have the next 6 months to enjoy this beautiful weather!