Merry Christmas!

Well, It is bitter sweet! Our tree looks great, thanks to all the girls, but it is the first time ever we have not had a real tree! There is just something missing, along with the evergreen smell and needles everywhere...

Stockings are hung... Oops, looks like we are missing a few.

...and Charley is here causing mischief every night...

Liza's 5th Birthday

Liza is 5! After a long night of high fever and throwing up, Liza woke up ready to party--fever and all. She told me two days after that she loved her birthday and that she felt 6 and that maybe she had skipped a year...

Homemade Biscuits anyone? How about some chest hair with that???

Alice Cross Country Race

Alice competed in her first Cross Country race in Humera with other selected students from San Jose. I was a proud daddy and got a little weepy doing contact work with my oldest daughter...

The Start:

Alice is the blonde in the back bouncing around like a pin ball...

The Finish...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our First Thanksgiving in Spain! The girls went to school like any other day and then we let them stay home after lunch. Katie and the girls spent the day in the kitchen preparing for our Thanksgiving feast!

Check out our beautiful Turkey...I mean Chicken!

Take a look see at what they created!

Tomorrow, it's back to school...

Alice's Poem from School

It cost me a Euro to get her to do it on camera, but I wanted you to see how well Alice is doing with her Spanish...

Liza Learning to read

Liza's teacher and Katie have been helping Liza learn how to read. She is doing an awesome job! Just listen...

You get extra points if you can translate...

Tallulah Telling us about her day...

Every day the girls come home from school for a big lunch. It is our tradition during that time for each girl to tell us about their day so far, what they have done, how they are feeling etc. Today Tallulah got her turn for the first time...We had no idea she would rise to the occasion! Enjoy!

Alice's 9th Birthday Weekend

Alice had such a fun birhtday. The party lasted all weekend long ... starting birhtday morning with a big pancake breakfast and presents, a big birthday lunch with more presents, had a Saturday birthday lunch in the city, and then a party/slumber party on Saturday night. What a blast! And the weekend ended with a fun Halloween festival at ASM.

Modeling some of her new clothes...

Ready for some knitting!

Saturday birthday lunch at Fosters of Hollywood

Saturday night party with the Watts...

Pumpkin Carving

Bobbing for Apples

Warming up afterwards

Smores!

Sunday's Halloween festival at ASM (American School of Madrid)

Chase and Kate Sanders working the hot dog booth...

Super T

Waiting in line for the haunted house...Bad idea, we only lasted around the first corner inside and then had to leave...too scary

Alice's 9th Birthday Video...

Alice Opening her "BIG" gift!

Ear #1

Ear #2

Early Fall

The Girls and their new uniforms...

Having Raquel and Sara over one day after school to play

Trip to San Sebastian (4.5 hour drive North) and the French Basque country

Carousel with a spinner built on it...Brilliant!

The Girls loved playing in the Ocean in France with all the surfers in their wetsuits!

Skyping with Shoo on a Saturday afternoon (morning for her).

Some of Tallulah's favorite things...

Drinking out of the bidet,

Locking herself in the shower...

...and getting rescued.

Look Mom! No hands!

She, and all the girls, love the new playhouse in the back yard.

Fireworks from our upstairs porch (seems like this happens once a month at about 1:30am)

Young Life Madrid Staff and family

WyldLife Kickoff movie night at our house

Leadership dinner (Katie and I were the only ones at the table that did not speak Spanish--it was a long fun night!)

We were sad to see Anna (Intern from Atlanta) return to the States this summer but excited to see what is next for her.