New Years in Yorktown

Mike was able to come home for Christmas but soon had to leave to go back to work.  Raquel still had a week of holiday break so we headed over to Yorktown for New Years and to spend more time with Dad.  Mike showed us around, we visited Langley Air force base and saw where Mike worked. We got to see lots of cool airplanes and eat Chinese food where the girls practiced their Chinese on the waitress.  We explored a couple of beaches and collected sea shells.  It was a bit cold to enjoy it too much.  While Mike was a work the kids and I explored Yorktown looking for good neighborhoods, shopped, and played at the Virginia Living Museum.  It was too cold to spend much time outside and with limited entertainment in Mike's apartment we spent lots of quality family time making up things to do.  We played musical chairs, had a dance party and bounced each other off the air mattress that sprung a leak the first night we were their.  We had lots of fun and are looking forward to visiting again.

Langley Airforce Base

Buckroe Beach

Trying to have fun on a cold day at the beach

Collecting sea shells

Virginia Living Museum

1st haircut

Erik got his first haircut on Christmas.  Mike was suppose to just trim Marcus' hair but instead cut both Marcus and Erik's hair.  It was a bit of a shock to see him and I miss the curly hair but he is one handsome boy with his new hair-do.

 The Before

He went upstairs looking like a little boy and came down looking like a grown-up toddler.  He doesn't have his crazy hair anymore but he is still my wild child.

And After

Christmas 2013

The whole family was able to be together for Christmas.  Mike made it home Christmas Eve and everyone was up bright and early to open presents Christmas Day.  We spent the day playing with our new toys and visiting with friends.

The kids in their Christmas outfits

Raquel & Natalya

Marcus & Erik

Opening presents

Erik & Dad

Natalya & Raquel

Erik

Marcus

Raquel

Natalya

Swim Meet

The girls participated in the last stroke school swim meet of the year. It was Natalya's first swim meet and she did great!  She was a little scared to swim in the big CAC pool but quickly got over it and had lots of fun swimming. Both girls of course loved getting their goodie bags after the meet.

Raquel getting ready

Raquel 

Natalya

Raquel Free-Style

She got 5th place in SS2 with a time of 26.95 sec.

 Natalya Free-Style

She got 15th out of 18 girls in SS1 with a time of 52.24 sec. 

She did a great job considering all the other kids are 1 to 4 years older than her.

Raquel Backstroke

SS2 3rd place girls 10 & under 28.94 sec

   Natalya Backstroke

 SS1 14th place girls 9 & under 45.27 sec

School Holiday Party

Raquel also had her class holiday party at school. The kids and I all joined her in the fun.

Raquel dressed up her class mate Jacob as a snowman.

Holiday Program

Raquel along with the 2nd and 3rd grade classes put on a beautiful Holiday program at school. Raquel had a special part ringing bells. She practiced extra hard and did a great job.

Raquel and the 2nd graders

Marcus was a big boy and helped put away all the chairs after the program.

BCS Year-End Potluck

Raquel finished her Chinese classes for the year.  Our family joined her at the year end pot-luck and enjoyed yummy chinese food. We watched a video of all the students showing what they have learned this year and awards were handed out. Raquel received one for Best Pronunciation.

Getting her Certificate for Best Pronunciation.

She also received an award for best performance. Her video is below

Raquel and Yia-an Laoshi (teacher)

Raquel's teacher said that after watching Raquel's video at the potluck, some other teachers were surprised that Raquel, a girl who just started to learn Chinese this semester, can learn so much and do a great job.  They asked her how she did it.

Santa Breakfast 2013

We all enjoyed another year at the GLE Santa Breakfast, Mike was even able to make if home. The kids enjoyed pancakes and juice, saw Santa and made a fun candy cane reindeer craft.  After breakfast the kids went shopping with dad to pick out a few Christmas gifts.

Eating Breakfast

The kids with Santa.
Erik is missing because he was too afraid to be near him.

Gingerbread Houses

We invited a few friends over to decorate gingerbread houses.  The kids had fun, ate lots of candy and made some cute little houses.  After all the building and decorating was done they played a little dress-up. Nick had a great time dressing Erik up in all sorts of costumes. 

Nick, Luke, Natalya, Marcus, Raquel, Jackson, Gracie and Erik
decorating their houses

Raquel/Natalya's and Marcus/Erik's Houses

Nick, Raquel and our little dressed up Erik

Christmas Tree

Church was cancelled today because of bad weather so the kids and I decided to decorate the Christmas tree. They did a good job making sure all the ornaments weren't all at knee level.  But less than an hour later we lost 13 ornaments, broken and destroyed by our wild animal Erik. I don't know if we will make it to Christmas day with our tree in tacked.  

Primary Christmas Program

Natalya and Raquel participated in the Primary Christmas program last night at our Ward Christmas party.  At the last minute both Raquel and Natalya had to switch parts because of no shows. Raquel stepped in as Mary and Natalya a cute little sheep. They both had fun and did really well. Marcus, Erik and I enjoyed all the yummy food, good company and watching the girls perform.

Practicing for the program

Natalya the sheep

Raquel as Mary