Thursday, December 20, 2012

getting ready for the holidays

Right after our relaxing thanksgiving stay in Orlando, Christophe left to Chili for a week, he came back for two days and left to France, Japan, France...and he will be back tonight :) YAY !!! We have really missed him the last few weeks but are looking forward to spending christmas with him.

We feel so lucky to have such a wonderful provider for our family.  Christophe works hard all year long and has spent most of his time on the road this year, and yet we all feel his love, he makes sure he gets cuddle times with the kids and Duffy when he is home.  He is such a thoughtful husband and father!  We love him so much !!

So the kids, duff and I kept busy and we prepared our home for the holidays.  We decorated the christmas tree, cut off all the branches from the trees, raked leaves, baked cookies and delivered them around our neighborhood, and had lots of fun playtime outside since the weather has been so great !

Stella is growing so fast and wants to do everything her big brother does.  She now takes off her shoes and puts them away, she feeds herself and her dolls, wants to drive Adrien's police car :) , she rides her pewi bike and makes the sound of a motorcycle just like Adrien , she can now sign please and thank you, and loves to dance to christmas songs.

Adrien is quite the special helper.  He helped me decorate the tree, raked the leaves and carried all the dead branches onto the curbside (ok I helped with the big ones : ).  He also loves to invent, when he plays outside by himself , he often comes running home excited to show me his latest invention :)  He loves to play with Stella , tickle and wrestle with her.  He is a great driver and has been riding his car every day very responsibly.  He is getting into sounds, and letters now and is starting to read sight words.  He enjoys reading those simple books to us when he comes back from school.  I love his sense of humor and joy for life.  He definitely is my sweet little sunshine ! 

Here are a few pics of the kids together.  


 Chose his outfit by himself :)


 Stella loves going to Little gym every wednesday for an hour, after class she always gets thirsty :)

 playing together - Stella imitates what her brother does


 Our elf LUTTI came back and brought the kids santa hats :)


 the kids enjoy riding together - Adrien on his strider and Stella on her new Pewi bike (thank you Lara - she LOVES it)




 my little chef baking snowmen sugar cookies all by himself



 i love my 2 precious babies :) Adrien wanted to take this picture because he was proud that Stella was wearing her first pair of snickers :)




 the box of homemade cookies we dropped to our friendly neighbors
 playing music with our dancing and singing snowmen
 Stella loves sitting on adrien's lap
we can't wait to have you home Cricri :)

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Happy thanksgiving

 We went to visit my family in Orlando for thanksgiving and had a wonderful time. Adrien had missed Titou and enjoyed spending quality time with him :)
 My mom was awesome "super Ninne" and had so much fun with the kids too !
 Stella was excited to see Ninne and Titou as well !
 Stella liked the grocery carts at Publix

 We went to see a play "Junior Claus" - My sister Lara, Monoi and Hugo invited us to go see it.  Adrien was super excited to go see his first play.

 My friend Juliette  drove up from Miami to spend the weekend with us - Aidan is 4 months older than Adrien.

 the play was awesome and everyone really enjoyed it ! Thank you Lara !!
 Getting autographs from the actors

 Then before the little birthday party for Hugo (14) and Adrien (5) , My mom and the kids prepared a little show for us

 Cake time :) Happy birthday sweet boys !





 Kelly and Charles


 Then on Adrien's actual birthday, we all went to Animal Kingdom together



 the safari tour was so fun and relaxing ! The birthday boys together
 Stella eating her first Mickey ice cream :) MMMH !!
 enjoying the lion king musical show


 the group picture : the LeHelleys & Hanckowiaks : )




 My mom is a dancer and the kids just LOVED dancing with her all over the house-  It was really cute to watch.

 Adrien and Titou would spend time together every morning
 Kelly and I got to work out together in the morning - it was so fun to have a workout buddy :)
 My dad prepared am excellent turkey - Adrien was pretty impressed ;)
 beautiful table
 Fun with daddy

 being with the whole family was just so much fun ! I miss them so much during the year so it was great to be together !

 we all wrote what we were thankful for and put it up on the little tree.
 when we came home Adrien received his birthday gift: a police car
 He loves it and has been driving it EVERY DAY since then :)
Stella loves it as well :)