Merry Christmas

Yesterday was great. We spent Christmas Eve with the in-laws. It was different this year, NO gifts. Not that it mattered, but it made it seem like we had more time in our hands. I am sure the kids did miss the presents, but hopefully it helped them understand the true meaning of this magical holiday. Instead, we prayed the rosary and sang some songs. We also watched some old home videos, and I mean really old ! They took way back to 1991...it was awesome.


Angel and his little brother Saul


Aracely and Paulina under a table listening to music :)

This morning Aracely and Carlos woke up to a open a couple of gifts.








Then we went to my sisters house, and we opened more gifts, ate and took some pictures...







Then we went over to the in-laws and they opened even more gifts....we truly are blessed.









Dear Santa,

look how pretty the pictures come out with my new camera. thank you very much :)

I am in love =) and yes....I still BELIEVE.

Santa Claus is coming....

to town !

The Eve of Christmas Eve...

we spent making tamales. They are so much work, but so much worth it. Every year my in-laws get together to make tamales and I happily join them. We always end up laughing so hard it hurts. I love it ! and I am so grateful for all of them. I wish I had some pictures to share, but we get right down to the dirty work and only get a little break. And we always enjoy it with a cup of coffee and some sweet mexican bread. or we warm up some tortillas and steal some of the meat we use to put in the tamales. Oh so YUMMMM....

I hope that all this hard work pays off one day and that I can get the recipe down to the smallest little detail so that one day I can do my own tamales. Although, I doubt that it will ever happen, they are seriously a ton of work.

p.s. Dear Job,

I am so glad that we are taking some time off. We really need it. I know you are as tired of me as I am of you, so ENJOY !!! I know I will =) See you monday...

Texas Roadhouse on a Friday?

NO...thank u !

I was really excited when Tino called this afternoon to tell me that his sister invited us to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. We had been there once before (courtesy of a gift card that same sister gave to us) and the food was good. This time was no exception, but the wait was ri-di-cu-lous ! Seriously. And to top it all of, we had our two super-active toodlers. At one point, I was ready to call it a quits. I really appreciate the thought and the invitation, but I've made a clear note to self: FIND A BABYSITTER NEXT TIME WE WANT TO HAVE DINNER AT A NICE PLACE !


this is Aracely a little before she decided to act up. I seriously considered taking her to the car !

the best ninety-nine cents I've ever spent...

so far was on this cute/funny Christmas song. It has now become Aracely and Carlitos' favorite. I have even caught myself singing it a couple times as well. At some point it even made me cry. I don't know why....maybe the tears weren't related to the song at all (hormones) or maybe they were.

I looked for the CD at Wal-Mart, but had no luck. So I went to iTunes and bought it. I really must love, love, love a song to purchase it from iTunes and this one was well worth the .99 cents. It has created priceless memories.

I downloaded the song to a CD with just that song. It plays over and over in my car everyday on our way to and from the baby-sitter. I love hearing Aracely and Carlos sing a long !



p.S. Dear Gloria (sis-in-law), sending bunch of birthday hugs and wishes your way. Hope this day is all you wished for and some....

Carlos is finally...

POTTY TRAINED !!!

It was easier and faster than I thought. Exactly a week ago, he decided he didn't want to wear diapers anymore. I (happily) supported his decision and that same night we went to the store to buy him some underwear. I think the fact that we bought him Spiderman, Spongebob and Cars underwear made the transition easier. He was excited to be wearing his superheroes. He may have had a couple of accidents here and there, but now he knows. The amazing part to me is that he skipped the pull-ups stage and has not wet the bed(knock on wood). And he also has not used those small porta pottys. Instead, he has a little stool which he uses to climb on to the big toilet. He is such a smart little guy.

Christmas Cards

This year I was planning on sending out the regular Christmas Cards. I thought about dressing up Aracely and Carlos with red tops and taking a picture in front of our tree to include with our card.

I took like 20 pictures to decide on the perfect one. It was between these three...







I decided to go with the last one. and as I was downloading it to my computer, I thought about making my own Christmas cards and I did. I placed my order in Wal-Marts website. It seriously took less than 20 minutes to get it done. I am loving them!

I once heard that....

it's good to take a picture with your kids atleast once a month. And they don't have to be proffesional pictures either. Other times I will just ask Carlos and Aracely to stand next to me, I'll stretch my arm out and take the picture. But this time Aracely took this one...



and Carlos took this one...



I love these two monkeys so very much. They are my EVERYTHING ! They may make me mad sometimes, but I think that's just part of life.



P.S. Dear Emily (my niece), I hope this Birthday is full of wonders. HAPPY BIRTHDAY !

Happy Birthday...

Lupe. My oldest brother is a year wiser today =)

Tree

This tree sits on our front lawn. I think it would look really good if we decorated it with christmas lights for once. I probably would if it wasn't because you can't even get near that tree without it stinging you. And it really hurts too. So I guess the snow with have to do. It looks so pretty !

pizza + gifts + ice skating =

Company Christmas Party !

We went to a pizza buffet.

(dear pizza buffet: being that you are a buffet that specializes in pizza, you didn't meat my expectations ! )

We played the gift game. We were supposed to take a good gift and/or a gag gift. I decided to take one of each. My gag gift was the first one to be opened. I was so embarrased. Someone at work suggested I buy hemorroid cream and I did. HA HA....it was too funny.

We went ice skating after that. My first time....



During the time we were there, I managed to "skate" around the ring twice ! The first time I held on to the wall =) and the second one I dragged my feet and hoped really hard that I would not fall. I didn't !



I think Monicas scary face is the only one that was not intentional. She was truly scared to fall. She spent most of the time just watching.



Needless to say, I had a great time. And I think it may have been a little better if my other half had joined me. Maybe next time...

25 days of Christmas...day 4

I am done !

I really thought I would be able to keep up with this project, but I guess I was wrong. Atleast I gave it a try =) I'll go back to my irregular blogging days.

Aracely is way excited about Christmas. Carlos, not so much. I don't think he gets it yet until he sees some gifts under the tree. I really look forward to soon teaching them both the true meaning of Christmas. I am sure they will both be thrilled. Maybe we can even buy a Nativity so they get a better picture of it :)

25 days of Christmas...day 3

soup


soup

I love to eat chicken noodle soup when the weather is cold, rainy or snowy. I had it for lunch today with some bread sticks and a coke = perfection

25 days of Christmas...day 2

Stockings

I thought about making some stockings. But then I thought I was better off buying them already made. I think I made the right decision because lately it seems I have no extra time to play. I bought these cute little stockings, but I think I just noticed they may be a little too small. I may take them back and buy some bigger ones. For now, I like how they look hanging on our chimney.

p.s. I think there is a new tradition in our little family. I like the idea of the stockings :)

25 days of Christmas...day 1

Our Christmas Tree

We bought this huge Christmas tree in the 2007 after Christmas sales. I had to wait an entire year (or eleven months) to put it up. This is the second year we put it up and I am loving it. We've decorated it red these last couple of years, maybe next year we'll give another color a try. I am thinking hot pink or tourquoise. MMMM....we'll see what I find in the after Christmas sales this year =) (just don't tell tino)

Dear December,

I still was not ready for you. but you came anyway ! I'll make the most of you =)