A few cute videos of Kai telling stories

Kai and Cyrus LOVE when their Pappap tell them stories.  Kai likes to retell many of the ones he's heard and maybe make a new one up now and then.  Here are two videos: one of Kai telling Pappap stories, and one of him retelling me a story about a volcano that I'd told him.
-Shirin

 Volcano story:

 With Pappap:

Thanksgiving in FL

Yes!  I finally got my Thanksgiving photos from FL downloaded.  Here are quite a few.  Without further ado...

-Shirin

I'm not sure what Gabriel is telling these guys, but it seems like it's pretty serious.

Watch out for these superheroes!

Morgan is the best "babysitter" for my kids, because they all just play together so well, that I hardly even see them.  (Not to imply they don't have adult supervision...they just don't need much from us when they've got each other!)

 Cute boys!

Most of the gang on the front porch.  

The boys loved the country lifestyle where they got to ride around in the back of Uncle Sam's truck whenever we went different places on his property.

I wish Cyrus didn't have his patch on in this otherwise great picture, but I just can't avoid it sometimes. Honestly, if it's going to fix his left eye, we're just going to view this patch as a good thing.

Brendan videoing the cutest boy in the world (actually, he was filming our Survivor game, but Kai will hopefully make the cut).

Pappap, Janice, Nicole and the boys hitching a ride from Uncle Sam.

There is always lots of lively conversation with this bunch, so we often sit around after eating just to talk.

Breakfast on Thanksgiving!

My boys get to have juice boxes and Capri Suns when there, which seems to be the ultimate treat for them.

It's never too early for Bren to strike a pose.

Is Gabriel snuggling Kai or does he have him trapped?

The last four Survivors.  You'll have to watch the video whenever Brendan edits it to see who the winner was (From left to right: Gabriel, David P, David Pogo, and David R).

The guys were taking a quiz for Survivor.  Meanwhile, Kai snuck in there for a little doodling time (he LOVES to draw).

Take that quiz, baby!

The boys and their Pappap.

Nicole and Janice, working hard in the kitchen.

Mammaw (Rita's mom/Gabriel's grandma) is at least 95 years old.  She's awesome.

Janice sauteing our greenbeans for Thanksgiving dinner.

Thanksgiving Dinner!

Sam getting ready for the feast.

 My sweet little ones with their Thanksgiving dinner.

 Watch out, ya'll!  The baby has a rifle.

Resting in the shade after a game.

The night after Thanksgiving was Mexican-themed.  It was awesome.  We had two casseroles, tacos, salsa/nachos, and all the fixins you see here.

 One evening, Gabriel and the kids and I strolled through the woods to look for animals and enjoy nature.  It's something the kids don't get enough of.

This family definitely lacks enough females to balance out all the guys.  But, since I like guys a lot, I enjoy it anyway.  Brendan has promised us that he'll eventually have female progeny.  I'm waaaaiting......

***"Wait a minute," some of you might say.  Was Shirin even there?  There was not ONE picture of her in any of this myriad photos.  Well, if you ever said that to yourself, perhaps you should initiate a campaign to get Gabriel to OCCASIONALLY snap a photo of me doing something.  Just a thought...

What is love?

A while ago, Melissa asked me to video the kids discussing what love was.  She has just finished her Ph.D in Developmental Psychology, so she had read a study about the different kind of answers (tangible vs more abstract) depending on the ages of the children.  I asked the boys what they thought.  As you will see, they are pretty distractable and much more focused on their activities, but the answers might be interesting anyway.
-Shirin

Cyrus' response:



Kai's response:
 

Christmas in FL

 We are happy to have arrived in FL.  I'm off all week, so we're planning to have a good long relaxing vacation with Gabriel's family.  Here are some pictures of our first day here.

-Shirin

 

This morning in the hotel in Gainesville, GA.  Continental breakfast is such a treat.

Happy boy.

 

This bubsy loves breakfast the best!

 

We arrived this morning!  Pappap and Kai swapping stories while Cyrus listened.

Pappap made his famous dot soup and the kids ate it up. 

 

 

More please!

 

Casey and Janice had a Christmas party this afternoon and we drove over to Tampa to see them.  Brendan came along.

 

 

They even had a bouncy house!

 

Gangsta nephew.

 

 

Three brothers talking...I wonder what Casey said.

 

 

 

We'll see Casey and his family again on Christmas morning.

 

 

Tonight, Pappap let the boys open one present early.

 

 

 

 

Spiderman pajamas!!!

 

 

Watching Star Wars in their pajamas before bedtime.

 

Cute bubsies.

 

 

Grandma Rita reading Kai some new books.



Our Christmas in SC

 Christmas is off to a good start this year.  I celebrated an early Christmas with my family last weekend and even Tita was there.  What a treat.  Here are some pictures. (This is my first post done from my Microsoft Surface, which was my present from Gabriel.  The jury is still out on whether or not I'm going to keep it or return it, so let's see how easy this is).

-Shirin

 

 



Tita reading to Kai.

 

 

 

My dad's awesome eggplant dip (kashk e badejoon).  I ate it for breakfast.

About to open presents.

 

 

My dad is always making progress on his backyard.  He recently put down landscaping cloth, wood chips, and bark.  It looks great.



 

He also expounded on my firepit and made it much bigger and surrounded by benches.

Baba with his boys and the iPad.

Kai with his genetic kindred spirit.

Cyrus excited about presents.



 

 

 

My sweet, silly bubsies. 

 

 

 

 

Cyrus with his Auntie Tita. 

 

 

Cyrus took this picture.  A little off center, but pretty good.

 

 

 

Gabriel opening a present from my mom.

 

 

 

 

Tita got a Kindle Fire for Christmas (from us) and loved it.  We knew she would.

 

 

 

 

Yay!  Lots of books from Nama!

 

 

 

Cyrus reading through one of his new Christmas books.

 

 

On Saturday night, we took a walk through my parents' neighborhood to check out the luminaries and this house!

 

 

 

 

 

Then, we made an awesome bonfire in the fire pit. 

 

 

 

 

 

Hot chocolate!  What a treat for these boys.

 

 

 

 

 

Snuggling with Baba. 

 

 

 

My mom got Cyrus lots of games and we played "Fur and Feathers' a lot.  It's a game where you have to save animals from being eaten (only us, right?).  It was a lot of fun, though.

 

 

 

David P came over on Sunday to watch football and bring us presents.  Merry Christmas, everyone!