Sean gets photo taken with Santa

It's been a little while since my last post.  Busy with Holiday planning and work.  Now Mommy has 2 weeks off and is looking forward to spending time with family, friends and especially Sean and Daddy.

Sean went to get his first photo taken with Santa at the Westgate Mall Saturday morning.  Sean didn't seem very interested in Santa or taking a photo with him.

When it was Sean's turn to sit on Santa's lap, Sean wanted nothing to do with Santa!  He cried out for "Mommy...Mommy...Mommy."

It was still fun for Mommy and Daddy.  We are glad we got Sean's first photo with Santa....
As Sean was pulling away from Santa....Santa said...."He's strong".  We are so proud of our boy and his strength!

Preparing for Christmas 2013

It's Sunday night.  Wow!  how this weekend flew by!  We had a wonderful weekend with Sean.

On Friday evening, we meet Grandma Harriet and Grandpa Richard in Los Gatos for Lutefisk dinner.  It was a lot of fun and the dinner was delicious!  Lutefisk, cole slaw, potatoes and meat balls.  Yummy!
Sean was excited to see Cousin Stephanie, Uncle Stan and Aunt Linda!

Saturday, we went to Family Art Day at the Triton Museum in Santa Clara.  We enjoyed the art and the short display of the upcoming Nutcracker Ballet that will be held next weekend at the Convention center.

That afternoon, we bought our Christmas tree!  Sean has been very excited about all the Christmas lights this season.  We are introducing him to Christmas time and he loves it!

In the evening, we did a little Christmas shopping at the Oakridge Mall.  Fun for all of us to get out and to the mall.  Surprisingly, we didn't have to wait in any long lines.

Sunday - we make a trip to the grocery store together.  We hung out at home most of the day (very nice to be home).  In the evening we decorated our Christmas tree.

Very nice weekend....went by much too fast as usual...

Thanksgiving Holiday 2013

We enjoyed our time home last week with Sean.   Sean went on a few different adventures during the Thanksgiving Holiday.

On Wednesday (day before Thanksgiving), Mommy took the day off of work and took Sean to the Children's Discovery Museum.  Sean enjoyed himself.  He loves walking/running around and discovering new things.
Sean is very social and says "Hi" to children and adults.  Mommy and Sean had lunch at the Museum and then headed home for an afternoon nap.

On Thanksgiving morning, Mommy, Daddy and Sean took a walk at the Carmelite Monastery in Santa Clara.  It is a beautiful place to visit.  We took it easy the rest of the morning.  In the late afternoon, we headed to Avô and Avo's house for Thanksgiving dinner.  Mae, Pai, Tia Maria, Paixao, Tia Valeria, Tio Steve, Derek and Bryce were all there.  Sean enjoyed dinner and spending time with family.  

Later that evening, we went to Uncle Stan's for dessert.  Sean enjoyed pumpkin pie with Grandma Harriet, Grandpa Richard, Uncle Stan, Aunt Linda and Stephanie.  Yummy!   Sean loves playing with Casey (Uncle Stan's doggy).  

On Friday morning, we took Sean to Barnes and Noble for story time.  This time it was in Spanish!  The lady who read was a great reader and very entertaining.   The rest of the weekend, we relaxed and did some Christmas Shopping at the Gilroy Outlets.  

What a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday!  We enjoyed having the time away from work to spend time relaxing and enjoying the holiday as a family.  

Sean goes to Santa Cruz for Turkey Trot Race

Sean, Daddy and Mommy headed to Santa Cruz early this morning.  Mommy registered to run in her first race since her last in April 2010 (before the birth of Sean).

8AM start time.  Race distance 5K (3.2 miles).
Mommy was back after 29 minutes.  It was a beautiful race.  Sean hung out with Daddy waiting for Mommy to cross the finish.

After the race, we took a walk to Natural Bridges State Beach to see the Monarch Butterflies.  We took a brief walk down to the beach.  After our walk, we drove to Companion Bake Shop for coffee, cinnamon roll and pumpkin cake!   Excellent coffee and delicious cinnamon roll and pumpkin cake!

We headed back over the hill.  It was a cold, but beautiful sunny Fall morning.

Sean visits his friends Clinton and Margaret Ann

Sean went to visit his friends Clinton and Margaret Ann.
He played with them at their house for over an hour and had a lot of fun!

Clinton and Margaret Ann played and shared their toys with Sean.
Sean had a lot of fun!

Sean's Weekend Adventures

It's Sunday afternoon and it's been a great weekend for all of us (Mommy, Daddy & Sean).

Saturday morning started off with a trip to our local library.  We found some interesting books on the Monarch Butteryfly & Lady Bugs and decided to check them out.  Learning along with Sean has been so much fun!   Mommy is learning a lot of what she forgot from her childhood studies.  What fun!...to discover the world through a child's eyes.  

We stayed for Family Story time.  We sang songs, listened to a couple of stories and watched a movie all within 30 minutes.  We learned that Sean loves the song, "itsy bitsy spider".  

Saturday evening, we joined family in celebration of 3 birthday's!  Sean's cousin Derek turned 15!  Sean's Tia Valeria's father-in-law and sister-in-law also celebrated birthdays.  We were invited to Pedro's Mexican Restaurant.  The service and food were awesome!  Sean especially likes their corn tamale, rice and black beans.  Yummy! 

Today, Sunday....we took Sean to The Children's Discovery Museum!   What fun!   Sean is a little older than he was the last time and today we could see that Sean really enjoyed himself.  We ate lunch while we were there.  Their food was good and surprisingly reasonable in price.  Sean is a good eater, he ate a variety of food, but his favorite was the corn dog.  

Train Ride at Vasona

Saturday Morning, we met Uncle Stan, Aunt Linda and cousin Stephanie at Vasona Park.   We played at the park and took the train ride at Vasona.

Sean had a great time riding the train and playing with cousin Stephanie.

Saturday evening, we celebrated Stephanie's 17th birthday by going to dinner with all the above plus Grandma Harriet and Grandpa Richard.  Sean enjoyed himself at dinner celebrating cousin Stephanie's birthday, especially the yummy icecream!

Sean's Halloween Adventure

Daddy painted our pumpkins with ELMO.  So cool!  Sean loved his painted pumpkins.

Halloween night we all went to Avo and Avo's for dinner.   Avo and Avo's neighborhood typically has more trick or treaters than ours, so we thought it would be fun to hang out and hand out candy to the kids.   Sean had a blast handing out candy to the kids in costumes.

After seeing how much fun the other kids were having, he decided to let Mommy put on his Curious George costume and do a little trick or treating himself.

We stopped by Senora Maria's house (Avo and Avo's Portuguese neighbor).  We also stopped by the Japanese neighborhor's house across the street and Daniela's house (another neighbor).  Sean loved it!

We went back to Avo and Avo's and handed out a little more candy.

On our way home, we decided to stop by Tia Valeria's house to see Tia, Tio Steve, Derek & Bryce.  They were all so happy to see Sean especially in his costume!  

What a fun Halloween!  Looking forward to next year's!  Sean should be old enough to choose his own costume by then.  It will be interesting!

Sean visits Deer Hollow Farm

We had a wonderful weekend.  On Saturday morning, we took Sean to Barnes & Noble for Halloween Story Time.  He enjoyed listening to the reader read, Go Away Big Green Monster!  

On Sunday afternoon, we drove to Rancho San Antonio to take a walk to Deer Hollow Farm.  It was a 2 mile walk round trip.  It was a beautiful Fall Day.  Sean enjoyed his time at the Farm.  He saw a cow, a pig, a bunny rabbit, chickens, ducks, sheep and goats.  There were a lot of children.  Sean met one little 2 year old girl.  They played a little.  It was sweet to watch them connect.  Sean said "Hi" and pointed out the flower in her hair.  When she touched his hand, he said, "that tickles".  

Sean not only enjoyed the farm, but our 2 mile walk.  He pointed out the trees, clouds, leaves and rocks.  He said "Hi" to a few people.  He is incredibly friendly.  We love our baby boy!

We are enjoying our time with Sean.  He is so much fun!

A Saturday Afternoon on the Santa Cruz Wharf

Today, Sean, Daddy & Mommy decided to head over the hill (HWY 17) to Santa Cruz.  It was a beautiful Fall day.  79 degrees and sunny!

We arrived at lunchtime.  We drove onto the Santa Cruz Wharf and found parking right away.  It took us some time to get there because some of the roads were blocked off due to 43rd Annual Santa Cruz Band Review:
beachboardwalk.com/bandreview/.

We strolled down the Wharf and decided to have lunch at Woodies Cafe.  woodiescafe.net/
Daddy and Mommy shared the delicious fish & chips.  Their fries are the best!   Delicious and not to greasy!  Just right.... Sean loved the fries and also enjoyed a corn dog!  Yummy!!!

After lunch, we continued walking down the Wharf.  There were quite a few sail boats out on the ocean.  It looked like so much fun!   Maybe on a future trip  to Santa Cruz.  chardonnay.cernesystems.com/index.php

Down the Wharf we went.... Sean loved watching and listening to the sea lions and running after the pigeons! He tried to get the pigeons to stop, so he could pet them, but Mommy had to explain that pigeons will fly away and not allow Sean to pet them.

It was an absolutely beautiful day on the Wharf.  www.cityofsantacruz.com/index.aspx?page=648
There were many people walking, riding their bikes and enjoying the beautiful day.

We spent a couple of hours on The Wharf and before we headed back home over the hill, we stopped by Marianne's ice cream on Ocean St.  Sean had the Vanilla Bean icecream (his favorite!), Mommy had Oreo Cookie ice cream and Daddy had Coconut Fudge!  Marianne's icecream is out of this world!   www.lovemariannes.com/

A beautiful and fun day in Santa Cruz.  We are incredibly blessed to live less than 1 hour from the Pacific ocean!

Family Story Time

This morning we headed to our local library.  We planned to simply go and check out some library books.  We arrived at 10:30 AM.  We were pleasantly surprised to find a room full of children and parents.  "What's going on in there?"  Mommy asked Daddy.

It was Family Story Time.  We quietly entered the room with Sean...trying not to interrupt.  We decided to stay and join the other families for this special time.

We sang songs and heard a few stories.  Sean sang along as best as he could and quietly listened to the stories being read.  Story time ended with a short family movie.

Overall, story time lasted 30 minutes.  We enjoyed it so much, we are looking forward to going again.

After story time, we headed to the children's books section of the library to choose a few books.  We ended up with a few books about the Moon.

Sean enjoys looking up in the sky at the Moon.  One morning, not too long ago, Sean saw the Moon and reached as high as he could with his hand and wanted to touch the Moon.  Mommy let him know the Moon was too far away to touch.

Looking forward to our next adventure with Sean....

Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Patch

Last Sunday, we got up early and headed to Half Moon Bay.  It was a beautiful Fall day.  Traffic wasn't bad, but we ran into some on Hwy 92.  Sean loves taking drives to fun places and stayed awake for the entire ride.  We arrived at 11:30 AM.   It took about 1 hour to get to Half Moon Bay.
We saw horses and pumpkin patches on Hwy 92 on the way to Lemos Farm.

When we arrived we walked all around to see what fun things there was to do.  There was a Hay ride, a train ride and pony ride.  We decided on the train ride.  Sean loves trains!

It was a little while before we could board because Daddy waited in a long line for us while Mommy kept Sean entertained.  Sean and Mommy met a cool 3 year old named Luca.  It was fun chatting with him while we waited for our turn to ride the train.

When we boarded the train, Sean yelled, "All aboard!"

After our train ride, we looked for pumpkins.  Daddy and Sean decided on one big pumpkin and one small pumpkin.  Sean was excited to be able to help Daddy.

We listened to some live music and saw goats and more ponies.

When it was time to go, we headed to our car.  Sean fell asleep on the way home!  He was wiped out from all the fun he had at Lemons Pumpkin Farm.