Merry Christmas!

In case you didn't get our Christmas card this year (sorry) - here it is!

This Sunday Jeff took Andre to our ward's baptism (Jeff is a ward mission leader), upon their return Andre told me - "Mom, I want to take a bath-ties".

One night Andre heard Harper talking after he was put to bed. Andre told Jeff: "Papa, I think Harper is talking, so I need to pause the TV to hear what he's saying" (that's right, the kid knows how to use the DVR). When it was all quiet Andre heard Harper saying "Ee-ore" repeatedly. A then told Jeff - "Papa, I need to go give Harper his Eeyore". So he went into the room, gave Harper his stuffed toy and then said "Okay Harper, blow me kisses" which they did for a while and then said "Harper, lay down and close your eyes." To which Harper did not listen, so Andre repeatedly told him "Ok, Harper, it's time to go to sleep" and after a few of those left the room. What a sweet big brother!

Little family reunion

The boys had a blast with their uncle Ryan. He was nice to play and occupy them when I had chores to do.

Малые очень хорошо провели время с дядей Раяном. Ryan and Harper built this block tower. It's pretty obvious Harper is impressed with Ryan's building skills.

Раян и Харпер построили эту пирамиду. Как видно, Харперу очень нравится.

Rick and Misty also happened to be in town. Andre and Harper loved playing with their cousin Piper. We also got to meet their new cousin Simon, who is such a cute and well-natured baby. Somehow I didn't get any pictures of him besides in the baby bjorn, but trust my words - he is cute!

Рик (старший брат Джеффа) с его женой и детьми тоже приехали в Калифорнию ко дню благодарения (родители Мисти живут не далеко от Лос Анжелеса). У нас получилось пару раз с нтми встретиться. Андрею и Харперу очень понравилось играть с двоюродной сестричкой Пайпер. Мы также наконей познакомились с новым членом их семьи - Саймоном, которому 3 месяца.

Misty, Simon and Piper dancing to the live band music on the Santa Monica Promenade

Мисти, Самон и Пайпер танцуют под живую музыку на Променаде в Санта Монике.

Andre and Piper - still dancing
Андрей и Пайпер все еще танцуют.

And where do I fit?

А мне куда притулиться?

Thanksgiving

Since Ryan, kids and I spent the whole day before Thanksgiving at Disneyland, I did not have time to prepare some of the food for the feast a.k.a. pieы. I did happen to wake up around 5 am and got to working on everything. I don't think I ever left the kitchen until the actual time we sat down to eat.

Ryan came to devour our Thanksgiving feast with us. My friends from Ukraine who were going to come unfortunately got sick and couldn't make it, so the last minute we invited our friend from church, Sam.

Поскольку за день благодарения мы провели в Диснейленде, у меня абсолютно не было не времени ни энергии заранне приготовит пироги. Весь пир пришлось готовить с раннего утра, точнее 5 часов. Я провела весь день на кухне, и только присела за стол в районе 5-и вечера.
Джефа брат Раян прияхал из Юты к нам на пиршество. Мои друзья из Украины, которые собирались приехать, к сожалению заболели и не смогли приехать. В последнюю минуту мы пригласили друга из церкви - Сэма.

Unfortunately, or luckily Andre zonked out right before the food was ready.

К сожалению, или к счастью, Андрей заснул перед тем как мы сели за стол.

We had the traditional stuff: turkey, homemade stuffing, rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans. It all turned out really good.

Еда была традиционная: индюшка, хлебная заправка, булочки, картофельное пюре, подливка, и зеленая фасоль. Все удалось и было очень вкусно. I made 3 pies - pecan (which somehow didn't set, but still tasted good), banana cream and my favorite was key lime.

Я приготовила 3 пирога - ореховый, банановый с заварным кремом и самым вкусным получился ки лайм (как лимонный).

Two super eventfull days took their toll on me and I think I was out around 7:30.

Так как времени у муня оттохнуть не было в предыдущий день ни в день благодарения, я отключилась в районе 7:30 вечера.

Pledge of Allegiance

In preschool Andre gets to say the Pledge of Allegiance and he has it memorized. (pardon the underwear).

В школе Андрея они говорят клятву верности флагу - он ее знает наизусть. Вот что он говорит по-английски: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands: one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." А вот перевод - "Я даю клятву верности флагу Соединенных Штатов Америки и Республике, которую он символизирует: одной нации под Богом, неделимой, со свободой и справедливостью для всех".

My birthday and Disneyland

I had a really fun birthday. My friend Ashleigh threw me a fun birthday part on the 14th, I wish I had pictures from it (maybe I can get some from her). I had a blast hanging out with all of our friends! Thanks Ash!!!

On my actual birthday the boys are I (and uncle Ryan who was visiting us) went to Disneyland. We spent 15 hours there!!! We all had a blast.Needless to say that I was absolutely exhausted the next day. Here are a few pictures of the boys from that day.

Я провела свой день рождения очень весело. Моя подружка Эшли устроила мне вечеринку со всеми нашими друзьями (к сожалению с собой фотоаппарат я не взяла, но если найду фото того дня, обязательно выставлю).

В день моего рождения я с малыми и дядей Раяном (Джеффа братом) поехали в Диснейлэнд. Мы там провели 15 часов!!! На следующее утро у нас было ноль энергии, но зато было очень весело. Вот несколько фото с нашей поездки:

Andre with Pluto (nowadays Andre loves to meet the characters, give them hugs and especially high fives)

Андрей обажает всех диснеевских персонажей, и очень любит их обнимать, а особенно давать пять. На этлй фотографии он с Плуто.

We got to see Santa and take a picture with him, unlike last year, Andre was not at all scared, and Harper followed his brother, and sat calmly on Santa's lap.

Нам удалось увидить Санту. В этом году Андрюша повзрослел и совсем его не боялся, а Харпер вел себя по примеру брата, спокойно сидя на коленке Санты.

Halloween

So here it is - Harper's Captain Hook costume! It was quite a bit more elaborate than Andre's so it took me a little longer to sew it. To our surprise Harper kept his wig and hat on!!! Who would have thought!

I am being attacked by Peter Pan armored with Captain Hook's sword and hook! Oh no!

My cute guys. I really wanted to have our whole family dressed as 'Peter Pan' characters, but I got burned out making the kids costumes - maybe next year (I will have to start early :)
We got to go to two Halloween parties. On Friday the boys and I drove out to Claremont to visit our old friends. Unfortunatelly Jeff had to work and couldn't go with us.

Andre and his friend Crson. Those two were pretty inseparable the whole night. They kept trading their hat and helmet, their swords, and were really cute playing with each other.

Happy captain Hook
(this picture makes me wish I had a better camera)

Andre playing one of the games (notice he got one of the rings onto a pumkin, not too easy of a task if you ask me)

Trunk-or-treating
Checking out the goodies

The joy of candy

Since it was hard to find time during the week to carve our pumpkins, we did it on the morning of Halloween. Here are the boys hard at work.

Jeff and Andre made a little Jack Skellington pumpkin (Andre is totally obsessed with Jack Skellington, and already picked him to be a theme for his birthday party in 8 months!!!)

I carved a dragon, but wasn't able to take a good picture of it lit.

Walking to our ward's Halloween Party

Andre rolling the pumpkin
Bean bag throwing

Real trick-or-treating. Andre love it (as was anticipated) and as soon as he got the candy he would say "Okay, let's go to the next house!". Harper caught on to the whole thing rather quickly and would say "tick-o-tee"

Too bad Jeff's head got in the way, but still a cute picture

The loot

real Peter Pan

Andre requested to wear his Peter Pan costume to Disneyland. He was so proud of it, especially when we were in line for the Peter Pan ride, he made sure everyone we passed would know that he was Peter Pan. He would point to himself and tell them "Look, I am Peter Pan". I am glad we got more than one wear out of the costume.

One costume - DONE!

Actually I am alomost done with both of the costumes, I only have to make shoe covers for Harper's costume. I bought a pattern for the costumes, and hated it, so I had to re-design all of the pieces. , of course some of the seams could have been straighter and neater, but given the time crunch and all I am very happy with the outcome. Here's my Peter Pan:
Я абсолютно дошила и закончила костюм Андрея. В этом году Андрей попросил быть Питером Пэном, и я будучи такой хорошей мамой :) согласилась. Первоначально, я купила выкройку по интернету, но когда она пришла по почте, мне она вообще не понравилась, поэтому мне пришлось, в основном, самой делать дизайн. По-моему получилось очень даже ничего:
Andre loves his costume and asks me to help him put it on multiple times during the day. He is very excited to go trick-or-treating.
Андрею очень нравится его костюм и он по несколько раз в день просит меня помочь ему одеться. Андрей ждет не дождется пойти на добычу конфет.

And here's a little video of Andre singing "You can fly" and demonstrating how he can fight with Captain Hook.

Это видео Андрея поющего песенку из мультфильма "Питер Пэн" и демонстрирующего бой на мечах с капитаном Крюком.

peter pan

Pumpkin Patch

We got to go to a REAL farm pumpkin patch with Andre's preschool. I know, shocking for L.A., where most pumpkin patches are made by simply throwing some hay over the asphalted parking lot of some grocery store. We did however have to drive about 40 miles north to get to the place (Underwood Family Farm in Moorpark, CA). We all loved it there, and though it was a bit too hot, the kids didn't mind it. We got to see farm animals and go on a tractor hay ride (we opted out of the big corn maze), the boys rode ponies, played on fun wooden vehicles, climbed hay bale pyramid, picked out their little pumpkins, and I guess the highlight of it all was that we got to pick our own raspberries and strawberries.

В четверг мы с малыми и Андрея классом поехали на экскурсию на настоящую ферму. Ферма находится в 45 милях к северу от нас. Нам всем там очень понравилось. Мы посмотрели на животных, прокатились в повозке трактора, дети покатались на лошадках, поиграли на детской площадке, лазили на сенную пирамиду, выбрали маленькие тыквы (к Хэллоуину), и гвоздем програмы был сбор малины и клубники.

Andre conquering the pyramid, his choice descent was jumping down

Андрей забирается на пирамиду, а спускались мы прыжками

Harper also enjoyed climbing the pyramid
Харперу тоже очень понравилось забираться на птрамиду

Both boys enjoyed the pony ride
Любители лошадок

Andre is a natural

Прирожденный ездок

Decisions, decisions...

Аж глаза разбежались...

Andre with his pumpkin

Ура, выбрал!

Strong...

Силач

Harper picking out his pumpkin

Харпер выбрал его тыковку

In a wagon with their prized posessions

Cute playground where they had a bunch of John Deer ride-on tractors

Andre was so helpful picking raspberries, and was proud of himself : "Mom, look at these big raspberries. Andre found them HIMSELF!"

Андрей был замечательным помощником. Он очень гордился своим достижением, и часто говорил: "Мама, смотри какую большую малину я САМ нашел!"

Harper reaching for a raspberry, all that he picked went straight into his mouth or onto his shirt (thank goodness for Oxi clean)

Харпер все что рвал, моментально клал к себе в рот :)

Hard at work

Трудятся

Strawberry field with Andre picking some yummy strawberries

Поле клубники с добытчиком Андрюшкой

"Check these out!"

"Смотри что я нашел!"

Harper ready to go home

Устал

Picking out a big pumpkin

Выбираем большую тыкву

"Ok, let's go"

Лошадка махноногая - "Поехали домой!"