The Noriega Family

We have been having tons of fun counting down to Christmas.  Each day we have been doing a fun Christmas activity and Natalia has really been getting into it.  Most of the things we have been doing are small, but that is perfect for her.  Natalia went to her friends house for a little kid Christmas party, we went to our neighborhood Christmas party, we have done some more crafts, Natalia made a gingerbread house and a Santa house with grandpa, and we delivered cookies to our neighbors.  Natalia really got into that.  She was so excited to go to each house.  She would hand the people a box of cookies, say Merry Christmas and then exclaim, "do another one, do another one."  Hector and I went one night and cooked food at the Ronald McDonald house.  We left the girls at Hector's parents' house.  Natalia was so tired when we went to pick her up.  She had a snack in both hands, but fell right to sleep as soon as the car started rolling. 

Natalia made and wrapped presents for everyone we will see on Christmas.  She was so excited about that and every morning she finds those presents under the tree and wants to play with them.  When she is done, she hides them, for protection from Sienna, under a larger present.  Last night we went and bought little presents to fill stockings for some girls in our ward who will be joining us for Christmas.  Natalia carried the stocking around the store and anytime she saw something small, she would exclaim, "this would fit mommy, can I put it in the sock?"  She had tons of fun filling up the stockings and she seemed to really get that we were purchasing presents for someone else.  She kept saying, "they would really like this; we don't want them to be sad on Christmas."  What a cute little girl I have. 

We also had our Ugly Sweater Christmas party.  Ben and Diana definitely won the contest for ugliest sweaters. Hector picked me up some great sweaters at the good will, but I forgot to get a picture of us.  It was really fun to have some friends over to help us celebrate Christmas.  I only wish that we had a little bigger house so that we could have invited more people.  We have so many great friends in this area.  Next year we will just have to pack in more people.  We did a white elephant gift exchange...and there were really some gems that got unwrapped. 

We also had a Family Home Evening with some friends and did a little Nativity.  We all dressed up and we all decided that Hector looked like a rather legitimate citizen of Bethlehem.  The kids were pretty tired and silly by the time we started, so I am not sure the skit would win any acting awards, but we all had fun dressing up and it is always fun to watch the kids play together.   We tried to swaddle Sienna and have her be baby Jesus, but she was not in the mood to sit still. 

Sienna is nine months old as of Friday.  She is at such a fun stage.  She is crawling around everywhere, mostly she just follows Natalia around.  She is super smiley and very pleasant most of the time.  She does HATE to have a poopy diaper and she is not quiet about that, but we totally understand how that could be a less than pleasing experience.  She is getting so big...stats to come soon.  We have started putting her hair in pony tails.  It is really thin, but her hair is long and hangs in her eyes, so I have to do something with it.  She looks really cute.  The other day she discovered that she could open the cupboards in the kitchen.  She had so much fun opening and closing them.  Occasionally she would look back at me with an inquisitive smile like she was checking to make sure it was still okay for her to be playing with the cupboards.  She made herself giggle each time she would open it.  She is really easy to get laughing.  She is ridiculously ticklish and will laugh whenever Natalia laughs.  She is social and likes to play with other kids.  She is usually okay with getting pushed around a bit.  She loves music.  We have been listening to lots of Christmas music lately and yesterday she was in her chair eating and an upbeat song came on.  She started bobbing up and down to the beat.  I wish I could have video taped it, the girl has rhythm. 

My mom was in town all last week and she left really early Tuesday morning.  We had so much fun having her here.  We stayed busy and packed in several fun activities.  I love having my mother come to visit.  I do not feel like I have to work to entertain her.  I love just kicking back and talking; it seems we never run out of things to discuss.  Even though we love sitting around talking and watching the girls play, we still found time for great Christmas activities.  We walked around Occoquan the first day she was here.  We had fun looking at the little shops.  Natalia and Grandma had a blast at the Christmas shop; more ornaments to look at than one could ever imagine. 

My mom has the same love affair with frozen custard that we do, so while she was here we dropped by the frozen custard place three times, plus we also had cold stone one day too.  We even let Sienna have some and let me tell you; that girl was a fan from her first lick.  She would get so frustrated if she had to wait to long between licks.  Needless to say, it was rather cute.  We got Natalia her own cone and she thought that was pretty awesome too. 

The highlight of the trip had to be the theatre.  I bought my mom tickets to Broadways, The Lion King for a Christmas present.  We went of Wednesday night to Baltimore to see it.  I had seen it before, but it was every bit as good the second time and my mom loved it.  We were so excited about going to the show that when a good deal for another show came up that morning we decided to get tickets to that one as well.  So Wednesday night we went to the Lion King; got home rather late after thoroughly enjoying the show, Thursday morning we went to the Temple and then Thursday evening we went and watched The Sound of Music at the Olney Theatre.  We loved it and had another great night out (got pulled over on the way home, almost put an end to the fun but I got off with a warning, so all was still well).  It was so fun going to the theatre two nights in a row.  The next night my mom babysat for us and Hector and I got to go out on a date.  Saturday night we headed back up to the Temple to enjoy the Temple lights.  It was entirely to crowded to really enjoy it, but I am still glad that we went.   

The girls got new matching jammies from grandma and they had fun being twins.  Natalia has started to like having her picture taken.  Sometimes she is stinker about it, but most of the time that I ask her to smile, she gives me this big goofy grin; the smile is so big that her little eyes end up closed.  Now I have to tell her to smile, but remember to keep your eyes open. 

Grandma also got to be here for part of our Christmas countdown activities.  My sisters have been doing this kind of stuff with their kids for years, so we decided that this would be a good year to start a countdown with our kids.  We are keeping it pretty simple, but we are doing a fun Christmas activity every day until Christmas.  Natalia is really enjoying it, Sienna is pretty impartial, but she is having fun and it is helping Hector and I to make sure we do all the fun things with our kids that we want to do before the season is done and over.  While mom was here we decorated sugar cookies, colored large Christmas pictures to hang as decorations in the house, read Christmas stories, watched a special Christmas movie, went to the Temple lights, went on a special shopping trip to Toys'R'Us and let Natalia just enjoy looking at everything for as long as she wanted, decorated the house, drove around and looked at Christmas lights, and I am sure I am missing a couple other fun things.  It was nice having my mom here for the activities so that she could join in on the fun.  We have really been enjoying the Christmas spirit and it is endearing to see Natalia get into this year.  She loves to talk about Santa, Snowmen, and Reindeer.

Sienna has been so much fun lately.  She has started sucking her two fingers when we try to feed her.  She also does it when she is going to sleep.  When we feed her she opens up for a bite and then as soon as the food is in her little mouth, in go the fingers. 

We went to our ward Christmas party last night and the kids dressed up like they lived in Bethlehem.  I put Natalia's outfit together at the last minute.  Hector kept making fun of me as I was cutting holes in sheets; he did not have much faith in my costume making abilities, but I think it turned out great.  Hector and Natalia thought it was great too.   When Hector saw the finished product, his faith in me returned.  Natalia loved her outfit and we all had fun at the party. 

Saturday night we set up our Christmas tree.  It was so much fun.  To say that Natalia was excited is an understatement.  She could hardly contain herself as we pulled out all the ornaments.  I pulled the ornaments our the boxed, handed them to Natalia, and she and Hector put them on the tree.  We let Natalia put several on all by herself. All of her ornaments ended up clustered on just a couple of branches so naturally after she went to bed Hector moved a few of them.  A couple hours after Natalia had gone to sleep we hear her come down the stairs and she kept saying, "Daddy moved my house (house ornament), Daddy moved my house."  She was rather distraught, so we let her put the ornament back where she wanted it and then she went back to sleep.  Silly girl.

Sienna was crawling around getting into all of the Christmas stuff so we had to move her the jumperoo while we worked on the tree, but we did give her the reindeer antlers so she would be included.  She really likes the tree lights.  She will sit and look at them, but I have been pleasantly surprised that she has not tried to pull at anything.  Since she is crawling I thought this might be a problem, but so far so good. 

Sienna is getting so big.  I got out this music toy that Natalia really liked when she was learning to stand.  Sienna loved it.  She is cute standing all by herself.  She is really wobbly and falls over most of the the time.  Natalia loves music and she loves to pretend to play the piano, so the two have been having fun all week with this toy. 

I wanted to take some pictures of the girls in front of the tree, but Sienna did not want to cooperate.  Natalia, on the other hand, was in quite the silly mood.  When I asked her to make a funny face, this is what she gave me.   I can tell that Natalia is excited about everything Christmas.  I can tell that she remembers some from last year.  She loves the tree and she has been having fun helping Hector and I wrap presents.  She will be a blast this year.  Natalia mostly just referred to Sienna as "the baby" since Sienna joined our lives.  Lately, Natalia has been trying to call her by name.  It is really cute because she pronounces it as, "Senena".  It is cuter if you hear her say it.