Harlingen Christmas

Kenny, Cassie, Hunter, Erin, Jeff, Cade, Carey, Larry, Geney (aka Grammy), Hunter, Emma Grace, Madeline, Chelsea, Wilbron (aka Papa)

My parents were so excited to give this twin doll to Chelsea

Uncle Jeff, in his own words on Facebook, is popular with the kids, especially if he has food!

He also seems pretty popular when he has a motorcycle! Cade screams when he sees motorcycles now, just like his uncle!

Hopefully you can see Chelsea's face behind the helmet. She is grinning from ear to ear. Mama finally agreed to let her go for a little ride, but she couldn't leave the neighborhood.

Here's one without the face shield down. Good times!

Not to be left out, Cade also took a ride. The motorcycle just didn't go anywhere, but he still had fun!

We had a great trip to the Valley. We were so thankful that everyone was able to be together!

Christmas!

Better late than never, Christmas pictures! We had a fabulous Christmas in Houston and beyond. My kids are super blessed and had 8 Christmases! How fun is that? We started off having Christmas with my grandparents and aunt/uncle in Florida when we went to Disney. We came back to Houston and enjoyed Christmas visits with both of our kids birth parents and birth grandparents, and even Cade's great grandparents! What a blessing! We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my family in Houston, and then we traveled to Harlingen to see Larry's family and have our final celebration. Thankfully we came to Houston with 4 empty suitcases. We went back to Budapest with 8 suitcases, all expertly packed and weighed by my great husband. Amazingly, we made it back to Budapest with all the loot.

Here are a few pics -







Christmas morning, we led Cade over to see what Santa left him. He saw a lollipop sticking out of his stocking, grabbed it, and walked away happy.

The girls had a blast doing shows for us. Papa is very kind to let them use the pool table for a stage. It is perfect for their dance moves!

First Haircut!

After we returned to Houston from the Disney trip, I gave in and finally took Cade to get a haircut. I got Chelsea's cut once in Budapest with bad results, so I opted to let his wait until we were back in the good ole USA. I was expecting some tears, but he did great!


He looks like such a big boy now!

More Disney

I have my camera back! Yay! Here are a few more Disney pics.

The parks were all decorated for Christmas. It was beautiful. The castle lights were especially pretty.

Chelsea loved meeting the fairies, except Tinkerbell couldn't fly. "Mom," she said, "they aren't the real fairies. They are just people dressed up with the same hair." Oh.

Cade was not impressed with the fairies.

Seems like we have a lot of pictures like this. Poor little tired baby. Papa was a good place to take a nap.

Cade loved the parades, especially when he spotted Mickey.

Chelsea (black shirt) hopped right up when the Disney Rock girls invited kids to come dance.

It was so much fun to be at Disney with Nana, Papa, Laura, Scott, Macy, Haylee, and Zac! Chelsea loves her cousins!

Fun with Daddy on the Teacups. Mommy doesn't do Teacups!

She likes to keep us on track.


Cade was afraid to approach all of the characters, except for Mickey. He loved Mickey.

Disney Pics!

The blog has been silent. So sorry. We are soaking up all of our time in the States, spending time with family and shopping until our suitcases explode. It has been sooooo good. On Thursday we head back to Budapest, and then there will be plenty of blogging.
People around that speak English = no blogging. No one to talk to = lots of blogging!

We are in Harlingen now and I left my camera in Houston. The majority of the Disney pics and all the Christmas pics are on my camera. For a while I thought I lost it, and I was so thankful when my dad called and said they found it. Here are some Disney pics from Larry's camera.




Chelsea's first roller coaster - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad!

Look very closely and you can see us in the first row.

She loved it! We rode several times.

Breakfast in the castle with the princesses - so fun!

Ariel

Sleeping Beauty
Snow White
Belle -Chelsea was bummed she was not in her "bonnie" dress

The princesses gave Chelsea a wand and Cade a sword. He knew just what to do with it!

Chelsea and cousin Haylee. They were inseparable.

Cade liked the characters from a distance.

To infinity and beyond!

Aladdin and Jasmine

More to come once I have my camera back! For now, we will enjoy our last two days in the States and try to figure out how to get everything back to Budapest without going over the luggage limit.

Whirlwind

What a fun week this has been! Last Saturday, we left Budapest and had a 20 hour journey back to Houston. The kids did well and the flight was pretty easy. We were so happy to be back in the good ole USA!! We all woke up at 3:30 am Sunday morning, so we decided to go to Walmart and get some things checked off our list. So, next time you see small children at Walmart in the middle of the night, don't judge! We headed to IHOP after that - yummy American pancakes! After our breakfast we went back to our Houston home, my parent's house, and got ready for church. We were so thrilled to go back to Second and worship with our sweet friends there. What a blessing that was!
Monday and Tuesday the kids slept a little later - at least until 4:30 or 5 am. We enjoyed seeing friends and family and just hanging out. Chelsea had a special play date with lots of her friends on Tuesday afternoon - it was so sweet to hear them say how they have missed her and to see how happy they were all playing together again.
Wednesday morning we headed back to the airport and got on a plane to Orlando - Disney, here we come! It has been so much fun. We spent a few hours Wednesday afternoon at Magic Kingdom. Thursday morning we headed back to Magic Kingdom and met up with my sis and her family and my parents. Chelsea LOVES her cousins and was so happy to be with them. We got her to ride Big Thunder Mountain railroad - she loved it and it was so fun to ride with her and watch her try to hold up her little arms for the whole ride!
Friday morning we visited Hollywood Studios, then went to visit my grandparents for the afternoon. Today, we had breakfast with the princesses at the castle - all of the princesses were there and Chelsea was thrilled. After breakfast, we met up with everyone at Animal Kingdom. Tomorrow, we are off to Epcot.
It is hard to believe we have only been back for a week - it feels like longer, which is a great feeling. It is weird talking about Budapest - like it is a whole different life! In many ways, it is. The last few months have been so chaotic preparing for the move, moving, and trying to figure out day to day life in Hungary. I am so thankful we have had this time to just have fun together. There are so many cute pics for these few days - maybe I will upload some tomorrow.

Chelsea's First Performance

Okay, so it is hard to top the snot vacuum post, but blogging must go on. In case you are wondering, the vacuum is still being used and Cade doesn't mind it now. I only have to use it once or twice a day and it keeps him snot free. He doesn't cry, as compared to when I try to wipe his nose with a kleenex he fights me like crazy. So, the vacuum will continue!

Anyway, Chelsea had her first music class performance at school a couple of weeks ago. They performed two songs - one with the xylophone and the other a color song. She was orange. She was supposed to wear as much orange as possible. Thank you, Tesco, for having cheap orange clothes.

Waving to her fans

She was so cute and did so well. Cade loved watching her. He kept pointing at her and saying, "sissy."


This pic is my favorite....anytime she is in a new or unfamiliar situation, we have a little thing we do. If she is okay with what is going on, she will give me a thumbs up and make the "I love you" sign. I will do it back, and that means everything is good. It was so sweet to see her do that here.....
She concentrated hard to play her instrument...

And she loved doing her orange dance!

We can't wait for the next performance!