Shayna's Birthday again

So another year went by and with it my little girl got one year older. She has grown up so much and is not the cute little baby she used to be... she is still cute but she is growing into a beautiful big girl. We had a two day celebration since Dan didn't want her to have to wait all day for him to get home from work before opening her presents today. She got a room make over for her birthday, which included new bedding, curtains, a rug, s stool for the desk, accent pillows, a desk lamp and a night lamp. She also got a rock tumbler, since she is very into rock collecting and Dan thought it would be a good thing for her. She got the presents last night and we had cupcakes too, which she decorated all by herself (she loved that part). Tonight we took Shayna to Denny's for our traditional birthday celebration and we all stuffed ourselves. We love Shayna so much and are very grateful for having her in our lives, she fills our home with laughter and she is full of creative ideas. She loves to learn and is very interested in everything that I do. I miss my little baby but I am also happy to see her growing up.

Shayna and her new bedroom stuff. She says is the best room ever!!!


These are Shayna's cupcakes, she had lots of fun making them.


Shayna and her Dad with all her presents


Shayna at Denny's


Shayna at 3 years old with all her curly hair.

All done...

We had a very nice Christmas this year. On Christmas eve we went to Steven's house for a couple of hours to sing songs and have a little get together. It was fun because we got to do something new, we had a chime choir and all the kids were able to be part of it. Afterwards we came home and had a special meal and then the kids did their little program they had prepared for us, their songs were really cute and after that we opened presents. I must say that the kids were very happy with what they got. Shayna's favorite present was her guitar, Victor liked the books and a journal, Tristan liked his V-Smile and specially the Thomas the Train game and Aaron loved his little dog coloring thing. They didn't really get any toys but things that we can do together and play with each other. Santa even got the idea and gave them some good presents. Dan and I are very happy with the presents that we got too, I specially like my sewing table (will post pictures some other time) and have been enjoying it already, Dan scored big time with my new kitchen knives and a new pressure cooker. Dan got a new mp4 player (the Walkman), and a new memory stick with 8 GB of memory. We can't list all of the present but I took a picture of the kids with their presents and their happy faces, except for Aaron who was throwing a fit (who knows why), he just kept throwing all the toys all over the place. We hope that everyone had a wonderful time with their families too.

Christmas Tradition

Being a family with two different cultures allows us to have all kinds of traditions. I grew up doing some things that Dan doesn't do and so did he. So we kind of mixed them up and during this 10 years we have created some new traditions of our own. But one of my favorites ones is going out at night and drive around the neighborhoods to admire the Christmas lights. We have been doing this for years and I love it because back at home you don't see the beautiful lights out in the front of the houses, they would probably get stolen :)
While living in Utah we came up with the idea of finding the best houses and giving them a little prize (usually candy bars). So we drive around until we find the perfect house, no inflatable decorations, just plain lights nicely displayed and then we knock on the door and explain what we are doing there and let them know how much we appreciate their efforts in making their house look so nice and we give them the candy bar with a diploma and sometimes a trophy or a medal.
Last night we ventured out into the night with the kids. We found nice people in Humble last night but the one that I won't forget for years to come was this lady who came to the door and didn't even want to open it, she said she wasn't interested and I understood, I mean who comes to your house at 7:20 at night? I tried to explain what we were doing there but decided to just walk away, when the lady looked out the window she saw Shayna with her Santa hat on and then she called us back and apologized and I could tell she felt really bad. She let us explained the whole thing and said it was really nice of us to do that. She invited us in and offered us cookies and had the nicest conversation while she was finishing baking the cookies. Her granddaughter made a nice drawing for Shayna and the lady kept talking to Shayna the entire time. You should have seen Shayna, she almost cried when the lady didn't open the door, but she made sure Shayna didn't feel bad afterwards. She gave Shayna a slice of pizza and tons of cookies to take with us. Meanwhile Dan is sitting in the car wondering what happened to us, were we dead or what? Their house was just as nicely decorated on the inside as it was on the outside and she just kept telling us what a neat thing we do. So last night I felt the true spirit of Christmas, even if we were rejected at first :) I love making memories with my kids, I think they are the most precious gifts I can give them, because I treasure the happy memories I have growing up with my family. Merry Christmas everybody.

Quiet book.

I have been working on this project for a while. I wish I could take the credit for it, but it was my sister in law Amber who came up with it. I followed her instructions and got together a few times with her to finish it. We started before IKE hit Houston and I just barely finished it this afternoon. The book is to keep Aaron entertained during Sacrament Meeting at church and it is based on The Book of Mormon and the Bible. I think it turned out so cute and I love it. It has been kid tested and mother approved. I made a quiet book about 8 years ago for Shayna and she loved it too, but it is a lot of work.



This is the cover, I got these cute buttons with a beehive and bees and a heart that says "Be Happy"



This is Jesus holding baby Aaron (he is a puppet).



On these two pages we have Noah's ark and Joseph with his colorful coat.





Here is a shepherd looking for the sheep behind the bushes and the Liahona.




Here is Jesus in the stable and the Wise Men delivering the gifts which come out of a bag and attach to their hands.



Here is a puzzle of a pyramid and Daniel in the lion's den with an angel, they are all finger puppets.

Here is the fishermen and the fish attach to some buttons or you can put them in a bag. The next page you can see Samson and his hair, which you can braid.











La torre de Babel, sorry I don't know how to spell that one out in English and then we have Jonah in the whale's tummy and there are some strings that you can pull out to pretend is water coming out of the hole or pull them out to show a book, a fish or an anchor. You can also find a finger puppet of Jonah in there.



There is baby Moses in the basket and you can slide the basket down the stream. The last one is for Aaron to look for the Book of Mormon that we can hide behind the mountains. The very last page has a pocket for a little journal for him to scribble on and a little compartment for a pencil. And last but not least, Aaron trying out the new book. He liked it as much as the cookie he was eating. Amber is very talented and the drawings came out just perfect, my work doesn't do them justice, hey but a least I finished it right?

My Christmas tree tells a story

I was just sitting on the couch looking at my Christmas tree and the ornaments we have on them. The ornaments are just a collection of memories that sit on my tree. There will be a lot of pictures but each one of them is very special to me and my family. The first has the year 1998 printed on it and it was given to us by my father in law, it was the very first ornament we had, even if we didn't have a tree back then, then we have a Precious Moments ornaments of a couple kissing each other, a dear couple from Virginia gave to us for our first Christmas together. We have a cute ornament that was handmade by my visiting teaching companion, she was a much older lady than me but was a great friend and she baked this fireplace with three stockings (back when it was just Dan, me and Shayna). We have a cardinal ornament which reminds me of Virginia and there is a ginger bread family which somebody gave us when we only Shayna and Victor. When we moved to Utah we got a dog and that didn't turn out great but still she was part of our lives for a year and a half and the kids still talk about her. When Dan worked for UPS he brought all kinds of little ornaments and we kept a couple and since I love snowmen and angels I didn't mind keeping them. We have Victor and Shayna's ornaments they made at school with their pictures in them. One Christmas the primary presidency brought us a very cute angel ornament and they have to idea how much that meant for me, I didn't think anybody liked me in the ward so that little ornament made my day. I forgot to take a picture of a little ginger bread house, but I have it because it remind me of my Mom when she used to make them for Christmas. The last two are from a dear friend from Virginia, she sent them to me in the mail, they have a picture of the Capitol in Washington DC. I like them because I know that place and because she is like a sister to me and I know that I am a important person if she sends those ornaments for me. So there, I can't really add that much more to the tree or it would kind of crazy, but even if I don't have nice and expensive ornaments, to me my tree is priceless.

Funny video for all the moms out there.

Just click on this

Kids with Santa

Yesterday we took Dan to work so we could keep the car and later join him for a Christmas celebration at work. When I get the car we usually go out with the kids and get things done, so we went to Walmart to get the oil change done and while we waited Aaron and I did some Christmas shopping. I got a lot done and Aaron had a wonderful time being out just with me. The kids and I drove to Dan's work and they boys took a nap while Shayna and I had the radio on singing in Spanish, she likes the same music I like and know the words to the song.
Dan kept talking about what a nice building he works at and we finally were able to see it for our selves, it is big and there are lots of trees around it, they have a nice lagoon with a fountain in the back of the building and it makes it look very relaxing.
The Christmas celebration was great, Santa came and talked to the kids, we took a picture of them sitting on Santa's lap and it was great except for this lady who kept making her little girl stand in the picture with my kids... what was she thinking? I had to asked her to let me take a picture of my kids with Santa, twice!!! She finally stood on the side and I had to manage not to get them in the picture. People... It has been hard for me lately to try to be in the Christmas spirit when people around me keep doing annoying things. I am usually a very nice person and hate to make problems with other people, but lately I just can't take it anymore, I know I had to be nicer, but people make it really hard.
We had cookies, and the kids did some crafts and games, they also got their faces painted. It was all in all really fun.
My Christmas cards have been sent and hopefully everybody who reads my blog will get one, I have tried to get every one's address, so hopefully I didn't miss anybody. Here are some pictures, if you click on them you can see it bigger.

It's snowing.

So I have been enjoying the weather out here, cold enough for a jacket, but not freezing cold. This morning when I took the kids to school, the weather seemed a little bit colder than usual. Just a few minutes ago we were playing with Shayna and she noticed that it was snowing outside. I didn't believe her of course since it is my understanding that it doesn't snow here. So I am thinking that we are bringing all this bad weather to Houston, first IKE and now snow. How funny. Here are some pics of the snow outside, it's not that much but the neighbors are excited outside screaming and stuff.