Christmas

Twas the year of both babes knowing what was up on Christmas! Santa was looked forward to, cookies put out held significance and all was extremely merry. There's just nothing like saying, "Carter! Kota! Did Santa come?" then answered, "Oh yes, he sure did!" So much fun and preciousness :)

Old St. Nick brought Carter an awesome Cars bike and Kota her babies. He also threw in a chalk board for them to share (hopefully), which was nice of him. ;) Once the present opening was underway, everyone had a blast! We now know that Carter gets mad when Kota turns down his "help," and that Kota screams like a crazy woman if someone comes near her presents in order to expedite the opening process. It was pretty hilarious, you know, during the times when I wasn't shouting, "hey, hey, hey! That's a no-no, we don't do that!" 

 ^Carter showing me that he drew a "1." I was actually very impressed!

 ^Going night-nights with her dollies.

 ^This is where I surprised him with a trip to Santa Barbara that we never went on! Don't you love thinking you're being so sneaky only for none of your original plan ever happening? It seems to happen to me a lot!

 ^Her pink high tops that we are all in love with!

 ^Okay, so not the most attractive picture of the two of us, but us trying to do a selfie with my camera was so darn hilarious, this was the best of the bunch! The ones before it were super zoomed in with us making weirdo Zoolander faces at the lens. Aren't we hot??

 ^Oh, you know. Me just inappropriately parading around our complex in my pj's, NBD.

After presents were opened, Grandma Cheryl and Uncle Todd came over to open more gifts. After they took off and the babes went down for a nap and quiet time, we skipped over to my parents' house for Christmas dinner on my favorite dishware of all time.

 ^Sister Sister is PREGNANT with #3!!! 

So all in all, this year's holiday season was seriously jam packed to the max. We had so much fun and I'm so happy we completely ringed the heck out of 2013's Christmas festivities. The following Saturday, we did a 4th celebration at Chad's dad's house with everyone from the Cisneros side (we were there for a dinner with just us on Christmas Eve). It was a blast, but now I'm totally just looking forward to the new year. New year, new fresh things to do! Woohoo!

And it's Kota's official 2nd birthday tomorrow! I'm so happy for her reaching new milestones, it really is wonderful. Sometimes I need to stop being sad about them growing up and just embrace the awesomeness that is them expanding their minds and capabilities. Go Cisneros children!

Disneyland for our babes

 To celebrate our precious babes' birthdays as a family, we took advantage of our last day of the year to not be blacked out at Disneyland!!! We visit the park very often, but today was extra special because we got them each something they've been pining after, AND we stayed longer than the usual three hours Downtown Disney parking allows us. I know - heck yes for birthdays!

Carter has been DYING for a light saber, and after hearing word that you can make your very own at the end of Star Tours, that's what we decided on. Kota has been IN LOVE with anything Minnie related, so little missy got herself a princess plush MEEEMEEE. It almost brought tears to my eyes several times during the day to see how our babies were so unbelievably happy to receive things that are so simple for their birthdays. There wasn't a ton of gifts, just one thing that they each were excited for - thank you Lord for this season and that our little ones can celebrate their big days during it!

 ^This is his "Mom, I'm a super hero and you better take what I say seriously. I'm a good guy and need to go get the bad guys" look! You should hear the voice that goes along with it!

 ^She was SO fussy all day long. I hope she's not getting sick!!!! Boo!

 ^"Hey guys, stand next to each other and smile..."

 Okay, Carter has turned into the world's most competitive human being! It's always, "WE'RE GOING TO BEAT YOU GUYS!" or, "Dad, mommy and Kota never wins, right? WE DO!" ...Can you imagine the build up to the Buzz Lightyear ride?? Intense!

The other day Kota and I beat him up the stairs to go to bed and he legitimately started crying. CRYING! I was semi laughing as I patted the poor chap on the back and said, "Carts, it's fine! Kota can win sometimes too," to which he responsed, "NOOOOO!" ...Okay, okay!

 ^Kota letting me know that she thinks us sitting her on a box for pictures is dumb. 

Woohooo! Happy birthday my babes, until your actual birthdays! :)

2 and 4, our December babes' birthday party

 Today we celebrated our two December babies! They sure are great, I have to say. ;) Since last year I thought my head was going to explode due to over planning (we had Stroller Strides Grand Opening and then two huge birthday parties for 1 and 3 within a very small time span), this year I was determined to keep it simple. For Carter's second birthday I was so humongously pregnant and miserable, so we did a small pancake breakfast with just the family - it turned out to be so gosh darn quaint and enjoyable, this year we repeated the fabulousness here in our new place!

It was literally just our families, a great, huge breakfast prepared by my love with pancakes (of course!) and then lots of merry making. It blows my mind that we have a 4 year old and that our youngest is 2 - how is that possible??!

 ^I should probably develop some pictures for those frames, eh?

 PRESENT TIME!!

 Kota's love of life, Minnie! (MEEEEMEEEE!)

 Super heroes are my boy's jam!

It was such a nice way to ring in 2 and 4! There's nothing quite like going back to basics, it's just the sweetest. :)