Grandma got run over by a reindeer...

Yeah…not sure how it happened but that was Elias' favorite Christmas song this year…ooops. So much for being that great mom who teaches her kid Away in a manger and such. He loves the "grandpa song". 
Anyway, about Christmas…
I love Christmas! Marcos teases me that I start talking about being excited for Christmas in September…but I'm sure I don't start until at least October. ;) 
We got all the grandparent's trees up over Thanksgiving but we still had ours to do when we got home. This was the first time Elias was really interested or involved in the process at all and it was so fun. We just went to Home Depot and picked out a live christmas tree which he loved helping with.

 And then strapped it to the top of my little Kia. E was pretty concerned about the tree being up there but we all made it home without incident. 

E had to help with every bit of the process…

We got this train from my mom as one of E's early Christmas gifts and he absolutely loved it. That thing went around the tree a bajillion times I'm sure and he would just sit there and watch it. 

 And here's our finished product! I think I forgot to take a picture without the tree lights on but it was just pretty basic red and white ornaments that we thought looked good with the train.

Aside from decorating the tree we also did a few other Christmas-y things throughout December. We went to the Myriad Gardens here in OKC too see their Christmas lights/display. And believe it or not, they had a giant train track set up that took up a whole room! Remember, its train year. 

On our "Christmas Eve" (Christmas came early to our house), we drove out to Chickasha to see their light display which was incredible! We'd been once before but it was so much more fun with a little munchkin to enjoy it with us. He fell asleep on the way there so we had to wake him up but it was so worth it. 

He got to pet a camel at the live nativity! There was also a place to ride the camels and he may have partially escaped under the fence to "wake up the camel that's night-night". But daddy caught him. :)

He loved all the lighted tunnels and little houses you could go in and out of. He called them "Christmas houses".  So fun. Oh and yes we took him in his pajamas and snow boots. That's not normal? Oh well. :)

Then the big day was here for the little man! We got him a train set and table and of course put it all together Christmas Eve. 

And then attempted to stage him coming down the hallway so we could get it on camera. He was really confused about the whole process haha. 

But when he saw that train table I was so glad we had it on camera. 

 He loves it!

 I love this instagram pic. It just captures the whole moment for me. The tree all lit up and E and JoJo playing with the new train table. I just love it. 

Then we were off to pack for the weekend in Texas. There was lots more train fun to be had! Like watching the Polar Express with the family (while Elias provided the commentary).

Each family (cousins and all were there) got a lantern just like in the movie (yes, I have the coolest family ever). Elias called his a "lamp-tern" which was adorable of course.  

 Conductor hats…

We spent the weekend with my family and then were able to go back to be with them on Christmas day. So there were more presents to be opened!

 Gotta love him…

Plus I took my first official bump picture on Christmas day! 15 weeks! Time is flying already! More on our pregnancy story and announcement soon!

Christmas is still not technically over for us even though it is after New Year. We will celebrate with Marcos' family this coming weekend at a Souza family reunion since we will get to see his sister and her family there. I can't even imagine E getting more stuff! We are so blessed to have such a great family. And even more blessed to have such a great reason to celebrate this season!

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2013

The "holidays" are officially over. It's hard to believe. It's such a wonderful time of year but all the craziness made it a bit hard to keep up over here in blog-land. We are all recovering from the flu this week (no fun!) so while my boys are sleeping I'm going to catch up a bit on all of our holiday activities!


Thanksgiving seems like ages ago! So lets start there. We got to enjoy both sides of the family for Thanksgiving, making two trips to Texas to see my side of the family and then spending time with M's side during the week and on Thanksgiving day. My side has lots of traditions that we just can't miss out on! This year's "theme" was train so lots of our holiday activities revolved around that. Here we are building "gingerbread" (aka graham cracker) trains. 

And relaxing after eating way too much!

Then back to Okie-C for us where Elias got to spend time with his cousins and help Vovó (Marcos' mom) set up her Christmas decorations. 

Thanksgiving day we ran the OKC Turkey Trot for the first time which was fun (I think?). It was freezing and we took the boys in the bike trailer…what do you mean E looks miserable?

Yes that's the only pic I took…but I promise we did actually run. At 11 weeks the baby bump was definitely feeling that 5K but we finished! Then later we cleaned up and ate way too much again with Marcos' extended family.

Then it was back to Texas for more food and Christmas tree hunting with the Nelson side. We've yet to miss it and it will be a sad year that we do! There is lots to do at the tree farm and we love it!

Whew! And we haven't even talked about Christmas yet! Coming right up!

We have so much to be thankful for and even amidst all of the food, family, and fun, we try to take time to thank the One who has given us so much. Hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving!

Crafty Fall Wreath

Good morning! I just wanted to share a little fall project I did a few weeks back that I have really been enjoying. It was cheap, easy and fun and the end result (I think) is so pretty and festive. So here we go!

This really doesn't need a whole lot of explanation but here's what I did. I had been wanting to decorate for fall without spending a lot of money and I thought a wreath on the front door would be perfect. So I made a trip to Hobby Lobby and just lucked out and happened to go on a day that all their fall stuff was 40-50% off! Happy day! So I got one of those plain wreaths for $2 and a few other cheapest-things-I-could-find that I thought would look pretty. 

I splurged on that little pumpkin (a whole $4.99 I think) because I thought it was the cutest little punkin' ever. Well except for this little punkin'...

He did a craft project too while mommy worked on hers. Paint in a bag! He thought it was super fun and I thought it was super mess-free! 

His finished work...

Ok, back to the wreath. I also picked up a wooden letter (it was originally white) and a little ring of fake leaves that I disassembled. I already had the burlap at home so my total cost for supplies was about $25 I think. I had a gift card so I only ended up paying $11! Woohoo! Which $25 may seem like a lot to spend on a wreath you have to do yourself but when I looked at the price tag of pre-made ones and saw $79.99 I was pretty happy. 

Once I got everything home I basically just arranged it until I was happy and then stuck it all on using hot glue where necessary. The wooden letter I just stuck on with hot glue and so far it has held up just fine. 

And here is the finished result! 

So that was my crafty little fall project! Hope you are enjoying fall too! 

Oh and speaking of fall cuteness I have been loving our little man's fall outfits! Look at this cutie!

Happy fall! :)

Monkey Chatter

I thought it might be fun to document some of the hilarious and adorable things Elias is saying these days in posts reserved just for that. Hence the name...I'm not sure Elias will ever outgrow being "the little monkey". 

Convo #1: 
(Eating cereal in the morning, E picks up his bowl and drinks the milk out of it and sets it down.) E: Ahhhh, I drinked it mom.

Convo #2:
E: Li Li have a chicken?" (asking for Marcos' onion ring) 
E: (Eating onion rings in his carseat) Uh-oh mommy, uh-oh 
Mommy: what's wrong bud? 
E: (holding just the inside onion part up for me to see) Li Li broke the Chicken

Convo #3
Daddy: Elias David Souza!
E: Not souza...Li Li!

Convo #4
Daddy: Daddy and Mommy went on a date.
E: Daddy and Mommy on date. (Pause...thinking...) Li Li on date!

Convo #5
Mommy: We say "thank you" because that's polite.
E: (pointing at the light fixture over the table) Puh-light?

Convo #6
E: Li Li ki-ding (crying)
Mommy: You're not crying, you're faking silly
E: Mommy crying?
Mommy: No, mommy's not crying
E: Mommy faking!


And these aren't really conversations but some of the words we are currently laughing at are:
tab-pub (bathtub), strawbuhlies (strawberries), nim-nims (M&M's), and just mom (not mommy or momma just mom like he's 12 or something). Seriously, this kid cracks us up!

"Away" in our own town

Marcos and I went on a little one-night "getaway"...except we stayed here in OKC! Friday was Marcos' birthday and Saturday was the anniversary of our engagement so we spent Friday night and Saturday morning celebrating and getting some time to reconnect without Elias. 

Elias stayed with Marcos' mom for the night and he did great. It was only the second time we've left him overnight so it was still a little stressful for me but I tried not to worry too much about him and just enjoyed getting to spend some grown-up time. 

We actually started the birthday celebrations Friday morning with birthday breakfast for Marcos. Elias and I got up before him and blew up some balloons and such just for fun. E was way super excited about all of that which made me excited for his birthday in a couple months! Also (side story of cuteness) we opened the windows because it was such a beautiful day and it was pretty windy outside. Elias is exactly the right height to rest his chin on the windowsill in the living room and look out. He discovered the wind blowing in through the window and stood there for a good 10 minutes just letting it blow on him. He told me he was going to "see the windy". Too cute! When we finally woke Marcos up he was so excited about everything that he said "tum on daddy ruuuuuun!" Haha we were cracking up!

So here's the birthday boy at breakfast (he hadn't had coffee yet ha!)

Then we spent some family time at the park and took naps before we dropped E off in the afternoon. Then on to the vacation! 

We ate dinner at a cajun place called Jazmoz Bourbon St. Cafe. It was excellent! And the waiter might have tried to give my steak to Marcos and his pasta to me...

Then one of my favorite parts was the candy store! It is seriously like the coolest place ever. Soda in old bottles, a bajillion kinds of candy (the scoop kind) and a working pinball machine?! I mean how much better does it get?

We spent the rest of the evening walking around the Myriad Gardens and watching World Cup Qualifier games in the hotel room (isn't that what everyone goes to hotels for?). 

Saturday morning we slept innnnnnnnnn! No baby alarm clock and it was the best! Then Guatemalan food for breakfast...

...and a trip to the art museum!

Can you tell that the blown glass exhibit was my favorite? ;)

Of course we had to read "the book" that evening and reminisce about what we were doing three years ago on that day. It's been a great 3 years!

So that was our fun little spur-of-the-moment getaway! It was so fun to explore our own town. All of the things we did and places we ate were new to us, even though we've lived here for 2 1/2 years! Good times :)