Holidays 2017

Welllll...Life has been just a tad bit crazy over the past few months to say the least between Sloane's seizures, Hadley's ears and all the holidays that came around that time.  Therefore I have not posted anything (sadly) about Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas from last year.  So, since I have some peace and quiet and don't feel like paying medical bills, I'm deciding to post on these fun holidays and share some photos.

Halloween 2017 Hadley was Elena of Avalor (Disney Junior Princess) who is a Latino Princess in a georgeous red glittery dress.  And Sloaney was a purple bunny.  She had a wild interest in bunnies at the time because our wonderful neighbor had a bunny statue on his front door step who she constantly wanted to visit and pet.  Hadley's dress came from the Disney Store and Sloane's adorable corduroy bunny dress/costume was from Wild Things Kids Play Clothes on Etsy.  We did our typical pumpkin patch visit to Spina Farms and made daddy carry our extra large pumpkin this year.  Hadley did her field trip with school, so our front yard had an abundance of pumpkins this year.  Sloane had her first Halloween parade at school with her little friend Ellie and Hadley continued on the tradition with her buddies on the preschool playground.  

Since we really went from Halloween straight into Christmas in Hadley's little mind, we only got a few photos of our turkey dress and Thanksgiving.  We stayed true to the "not decorate until after Thanksgiving" mindset, but Hadley was beyond excited this year and Sloane was so excited for "Sa Sa" to arrive. 

Now onto Christmas, fast and furious this month was considered.  We went to Patchen Tree Farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains with her neighbors.  We followed the Bay Area flow up the mountain with everyone else to cut down a tree.  We have officially determined that Hadley gets car sick and does not do well on 1. winding roads and 2. road trips.  So after getting up there and looking around we decided on a "Charlie Brown tree" and came on home.  It was a good funny tree to talk about over the month.  Hadley was soooooo excited with decorating and Sloaney had something to say about every.single.ornament we took out the box.  

Hadley's preschool had a Breakfast with the Elves event one Saturday, where the school mascot Henry got dressed up ready for pancakes.  Hadley also decided she wanted to donate a toy to a little girl who "Doesn't have any toys" and her school had the first annual Holiday Show.  I must say, we are in for a adorable dance recital because she was SOOOOO into her holiday show.  Sloane still wants to watch "Hadley dance Hadley dance" videos on our phone.  Sloane clearly wants to be just like her big sister because every time Mariah Carey's song "All I want for Christmas" would come on the radio they would both start doing the dance moves.  

Our Santa visits were endless.  Sloane had no fear of him, although she was hesitant at first.  She kept pointing at him, giving him high fives, looking him up and down and kept saying "Sa Sa" when we would leave.  We visited several different Santa's and she had the same reaction each time...but no smile :) Our favorite Santa I would say would be the free one at Bass Pro Shop.  We did go during the week, where there was no line, but he was so patient with both girls and the fact that he was amazing and FREE was a total plus.  

We continued the tradition of making tamales this year and started a new one with going ice skating.  Sloane was determined to go ice skating, but due to the crowd and Mason's lack of coordination, she got to watch and eat goldfish and cookies.  

Christmas day was magical as expected.  Our kids are truly blessed.  Hadley asked Santa for 3 things, thank goodness the same three things to every Santa we saw.  She got a Barbie castle, American Girl doll, mermaid fin to swim in the pool with, and a Moana necklace.  She got an extra toy from Santa with a little note from the jolly man for her heroic efforts in helping Mason during Sloane's seizures.  Sloane got a matching sleeping bag like her sister has, a Fischer Price barn and a giant giraffe like at their preschool.  The girls were sooooo excited about this giraffe and apparently it's a girl giraffe named Henrietta because "she has eye lashes."  Each year the girls get 3 gifts because baby Jesus got three gifts from the 3 wise men.  Hadley immediately picked up on the fact that she got 4 gifts and then she noticed the little note from Santa about her extra gift.  The girls continued their day with their cousins with donuts and playing with their new toys.  

Our year ended with a bang with little H headed to the emergency room because every.thing.is.closed on the holidays and we needed to see a Pediatric ENT doctor.  All is good and she did an outstanding job as she got to watch endless amounts of You Tube and got a new penguin.  Anyway, I'll gather my next set of photos for Sloane's end of treatment and will probably post again soon. 

Fall 2016

I figured I better get a Fall/Halloween blog and pictures in before this week when Christmas will be in full effect in the Ybarra household.  I've gotta make sure Sloane gets some photos in here so when she looks back at her first Halloween, she will have pictures to remember! 

I started off the fall, in the beginning of October, going to visit my brother in Chicago.  My mom, sister-in-law and I all met in Chicago and had a slumber party at John's apartment in Chi-town!  We hit just about every tourist location and ate at some of the most recommended restaurants.  

Next was mid-October, my best friend from college came to visit San Francisco.  We met up at a Children's Museum/Aquarium where there were...penguins of course.  Yes, we did see all the exhibits, butterflies, saw Nemo and Dory, Earthquake exhibit annnnnnnd the penguins several times.  The first time we saw them, they were just standing there, but the second time had this girl in smiles, giggling and chasing them with her new penguin friend "Pelly the Penguin."  The penguins were swimming, diving, chasing each other and she just sat herself down in the corner and could have watched them for hours.  We had to bring gold fish for the penguins because penguins like to eat fish of course.    

Moving forward to Halloween...our little duck and rainbow witch.  Sloane got to be the same little duck Hadley was for Halloween back in 2013.  It was adorable then and just as cute 3 years later.  Hadley wanted to be a penguin again this year, but then after several visits to the Halloween store, she wanted to be a colorful polka dot and stripe rainbow witch.  This was our first year trick-or-treating in our new neighborhood and with our new friends.  Willow Glen does Halloween like I've never seen before!  We went through hundreds of pieces of candy and Hadley was able to keep up with the big kids for almost a hour and a half.  She had fun handing out candy and she did a great job of asking the big kids "What do you say?" when they didn't tell her "Trick-or-Treat." Sloane on the other hand...she was a angry little duck come bed time, which doesn't come as much of a surprise as she keeps herself on a time clock!  

The last few photos are just a few random ones I love over the past few weeks of the girls and one of Hadley's favorite boyfriends.  We are gearing up for Thanksgiving and Christmas AND getting excited for Sloane's last PDL laser treatment next month!  Lots of exciting things to come in December!!!