Christmas

Christmas 2011

Don't you just love my tree by the fireplace with the stockings hung above it? I do! It was so cozy looking I just had to take a picture. This Christmas was wonderful! We were so lucky to be so blessed this year and Christmas was simply the cherry on top! Here is a photo re-cap of our Christmas....

About a week before we had a get together with my Dad and Magdalena at my house. It was nice, especially for my Dad who might not be with us much longer.

The Tues. before we had our annual pre-school Christmas party. It was a ton of fun! I just love all these kids and their wonderful mothers! (and one grandmother)

Christmas Stories

Three wise men (Dillon, Benji, & Zachary)

Samantha the Star

Three little Angels (Sophia, Abby, & Isabella)

Joseph and Mary (Sarianna & Aaron)

Most everyone at the end of the Nativity en-actment

Playing some Christmas games

Decorating some Christmas cookies

Me and Isabel

Looking so cute in her "First Christmas" Onsie

Wen. the kids sent a letter to Santa

Christmas Eve we made it to Grandma's house, here are the kids decorating cookies for Santa

Of course they ate a few first

Christmas morning, here's what Santa brought Benji

Here's what he brought Abby

The kids also had a blast seeing what Santa put in their Stockings

Me with the kids (yes, my glasses need to be fixed)

Isabel in her Christmas P.J.'s

Benji got a Buzz from Mom & Dad

Abby got a Minnie Shopping cart from Mom & Dad

Lindy was super excited when she opened her Minnie Mouse plush form her Daddy! Santa also got her an awesome gift, but I forgot to take a picture

Benji trying out his new crossing gate and train

It lights up and makes sounds, he LOVED it!

Isabel fell asleep

Then we all went to church. Here they are in the Christmas Sunday Best!

After church, the girls played Tea Party

And the girls pushed their Minnie's all around the house!

And we took a picture of Mom and Gary with my Mom's 5 Grandkids!

Below are some video of the Kids opening gifts on Christmas morning. There are a few more of Abby because her reaction was just so funny! Enjoy! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Card & Letter

I just love taking the Christmas card picture. (Extreme sarcasm) But because a lot of people we send it to don't see us very much I feel obligated to do it. And I like having a yearly pic of the family. Next year we are due for some new family photos, so most likely those will be on the card. Anyway, I think it is even worse when you are taking it with a timer and you have to quickly try to convince you toddlers to look at the camera before it goes off. So here are our attemps...

First attempt

Second attempt ended up being the best (saving that for the end)

Attempt 3

Attempt 4

Attemp 5 (Baby crying... and we are done!)

The winner (good enough I guess)

And here is our annual letter

Dear Friends & Family, December 2011

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! We hope this letter finds you all happy and in good health! Despite the bad economy and the struggles many people close to us have had, the Lord continues to bless our little family. I don't know why we are so blessed, but we truly are. It's true we work hard and try our best to do what is right, but we know that everything good in our life is because the Lord sees fit to bless us with it and we feel so grateful and humbled by every blessing that we have. And this year we have had quite a few blessings.

At the start of the new year, we decided we wanted another baby and in February we found out we were pregnant! We were thrilled! We also decided that we wanted to capitalize on the low housing market so we started looking for another home. It took a very long time but we finally were able to move into our new home at the end of August. We were also fortunate to find incredible renters for our first home! Besides the many hours we spent house hunting, life went on as normal for us. After moving into our new home, we bought a mini-van to accommodate our growing family and then we had an amazing opportunity to go to Disneyland! And the best part was that is was practically free! My husband was attending a conference for his work at the Convention center in the Disneyland Hotel and so the kids, myself, and my mother-in-law joined him for the business trip! And despite my being 8 months pregnant, it was so much fun! It was Benjamin & Abby's first time to Disneyland and they were in heaven! We were there for 5 days, which I thought would be too long, but it ended up being perfect! Upon returning home we tried to finish un-packing in time before our baby was born.

Then on October 14, Isabel Naomi was born! The labor went well and she was born healthy and well and I recovered quickly and well. She is now 2 months old and cooing and smiling. She is so fun to have in the house. She is a great baby and I didn't realize how baby hungry I really was until she was born and I was able to snuggle her in my arms. I love motherhood!

Benjamin is becoming quite a grown up little boy! He is doing his Spanish pre-school still and is also doing an English pre-school through a State program called Up Start. It is an on-line pre-school he does from home! It is amazing and he is already starting to read 3 letter words! He also got to be on his first soccer team this past fall. He loved it and was the star of his team! His first game he scored all 7 of his team's points and scored the game winning shot! I never thought it would be so fun to be a Soccer Mom!

Abby is our little princess. She loves everything Disney! Especially princesses! She also started the Spanish pre-school as well and is doing well. She is very rambunctious and wants to help mommy do everything! She also loves her baby sister! We were afraid she would be jealous, but not so, she is actually obsessed, and I have to watch her close or she would literally smother the baby with her hugs and kisses. The biggest accomplishment for Abby this year was in November when she Potty trained! Yea! I only had 2 in diapers for one month! It's so nice to have her potty trained.

Isaac continues to excel at work and I am so happy that he has such a great job and is willing to work hard so that I can do what I love, and that is be home to raise my children. Although it's difficult at times and sometimes I think I am going to go crazy, I love being a mom and there is no where else I would rather be than right here teaching and raising my kids.

Well, that's our year in a nutshell. I am sorry that this is all the correspondence some of you get from us, but I want you to know that if you are reading this, then that means that I think of you and your family often and haven't forgotten you and I hope to hear back from you by mail, e-mail, facebook, or blogging. Feel free to check out our blog at www.thegranadosfamily.blogspot.com for more pictures of our new baby and pictures of our trip to Disneyland. Well, we hope you have a Merry Christmas and remember that without our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, we would not have this beautiful holiday. He is the source of all that is good in the world. And I know we would not be this happy or this blessed if it were not for him. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Love,

Isaac, Liz, Benjamin, Abby, & Isabel

Missionary!

Today Elder Dan Garity entered the MTC. He is the first of the Granados Grandchildren to go! We hope to have many more in the future (considering there are 27 grandkids and counting). My sister-in-law and family came up from OK to drop him off. Last Sunday we had a big family dinner to celebrate and I made this fun cake for him.

Elder Garity matching his cake

Josh and Jeff had to stay home because of school, but here he is with the rest of his family (plus Abby, who kind of looks like she belongs to this family)

It was also Carl and Angelita's birthday, so made this other cake. (Do you like our candle)

Paty and Rosi (my awesome sister-in-laws) with 2 month old Isabel.

And here is Abby with her two favorite cousins Emma and Angelita. I made them all matching Minnie skirts in hopes they will join us at Disneyland this Feb.

It is always fun to see Paty and the kids. We love it when they come to visit! We are so excited for Dan and his 2 year adventure! God be with you till we meet again Elder Garity!

Penguins

Last Friday we were able to experience the Penguin encounter at the Living Planet Aquarium. I won a Penguin encounter and so Allan, Lindy, my mom and Gary all came with. My mom had always wanted to go to the Aquarium so it was a fun little outing for everyone. The first thing we did when we got there was the peguin encounter. We got bundled up and were taken into a room with benches. We sat down and then they opened the door so that the penguins could come in and meet us. It was really neat to be so close to them. We were not allowed to touch them but they got super close, they are really curious birds.

They opened the door and the penguins came marching in

Here are two having an argument about something

One biting someone's foot (it didn't hurt)

Benjamin stood on the bench behind Grandma (he wanted to keep his distance)

Lindy on the other hand... all she wanted to do was jump off her daddy's lap and give one a big hug and kiss.

Allan had a hard time keeping her still. :)

After that we checked out the rest of the Aquarium

I love this fish... if people were fish, this would be my father-in-law

Touching crabs and sea urchents

who's hiding in the coral?

Here's the regular view of the penguins at feeding time

And of course Abby can't resist getting a picture taken in this boat.

Below are a few videos of our penguin encounter. Enjoy!