Made for Walkin'

Playing with Pants

I'm not sure when we took this video, but it's a good one.  Enjoy!



Leading Up To...

'Twas the night before Christmas...and we went Mexican.

 

So far, we haven't adopted many traditions from Lu's heritage.  Thus, we've decided to dedicate our Christmas Eve dinners to the south of the border.  This year?  Tamales.

 

Making tamales is a lot of work, and as you can see, we were all very busy.

Luis tells me we need a traditional tamal* pot to make the best tamales, but we had to work with what we had.  At one point in the night, Luis suggested we try microwaving the tamales, but Mexican mamas from generations past frowned down upon us and we quickly reverted to the stove.

 

After dinner came our Nativity. 

 

We had our Mary...

Our Joseph...

and our Angel.

 

 

Next, came one of my childhood FaVoRiTe parts of Christmas Eve night - singing carols!

After painfully listening to Dad and Mom sing a few numbers...

 

 

 ...Raquel decided to give Mamacita a lesson.

Then it was off to bed!  And though I do remember leaving out 3 cookies for Santa, something sneaky and underhanded must have occurred for this to have happened...

 

Looks like only 2 of us will be getting Christmas presents!

 

 

*Spanish lesson for today - when said in the singular, it is not tamalEEE it is simply tamal.



Christmas Dress

This is Raquel's first Christmas, which means her first Christmas dress!  Unfortunately there are very few options in the stores these days, so we had to improvise.

 

And guess what???  I buttonholed!

 

 

 

(Too bad I buttonholed on the wrong side and then had to whipstitch it together, sew buttons over the holes, and then re-buttonhole on the other side.)



Once Meses

Yep.  She's 11...months.  Which means, only one month to go until it's birthday time!  For some reason, I pictured a one year old as being much older.  Don't ask me why...I have 12 nieces and nephews so you'd think I would know better by now.  I'm happy that Raquel still seems like a baby in my book.  I'm also loving that she really gets our sense of humor and knows how to tease us back.  Oh, she's so fun... and smart... though she's still not sure why we make her take pictures next to this bear each month...

 

 

Raquel at 11 Months

• She's a little butterfly and likes to flap her wings - especially when she gets excited.  For instance, when she sees us come into the room to pick her out of her crib, she starts flapping...fast!
• She is 15 lbs. 12 oz and 29 inches long
• She owns six teeth.
• You can't tell from the pictures, but her skin is getting a little more brown.
• She can crawl!!!  Backwards only.
• She's also taking her first wobbly steps holding on to mom's or dad's fingers.
• Her favorite book is definately Buenas Noches, Luna (Goodnight Moon).
• She loves bathtime and gets angry when we take her out.
• Sleeping through the night?  No way!
• She likes to make faces.  Currently, she's been enjoying making silly frowny faces.
 
This is the last time we can say, Feliz Cumplemeses, Raquel!

 

Piggies

I have been dreaming about putting Raquel's hair in pigtails since the day she was born.  Oh, I'm SO glad she takes after Lu so I could start fixing her hair up so soon!

 

 

(p.s. Megan, this is the outfit I told you about.)



Fingerpainting Success?

I've been planning to be an awesome mom for weeks now by making homemade non-toxic finger paint for Raquel.  Finally, the day arrived.  I cooked the ingredients, let it cool, changed missy into an ugly onesie, moved her high chair into a tiled area, and then let her loose!

 

She could've cared less about the stuff.

"Mom, can I just have my cups and spoons back?  Thanks."



California Snow

You heard me right...S.N.O.W!  California snow.

 

Since we're staying put for Christmas, I'm longing for my powdery white friend.  I hear song after song on the radio about Christmas snow, yet this year, I will be far from my Utah and far from my snow. 

 

Since I've been homesick for snow and my two little muchachos have been homesick for snow, we decided to take a drive up Mt. Baldy to find some.

 

Success.

 

 

 

Okay okay, Utahns, stop bragging.  I know it doesn't look like much, but we Californians tend to be more humble and grateful for what little we do have:)  In fact, check out the sled marks on the hill behind us...

 

Snow-deprived people (like us) drove all the way up the mountain to enjoy this slight dusting by sledding, creating snowmen, even firing off a few snowballs.  It was comically pathetic to see us all prance around like we were in some sort of winter wonderland, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.

 

Let it snow.

Let it snow.

Let it snow.

 



Thoroughbred Street

We've heard about this Thoroughbred street since our first December here.  It's one of those streets where all the houses are decked out with lights and people come from far and wide to experience.  Well, we didn't go our first year here.  We didn't go our second year here.  BUT, this year, we went. 

 

And let me tell you...

IT.

WAS.

MAGICAL!!!

 

I loved it I LOVED IT I LOVED IT!!!!

 

 

Look at this house!  Not remarkable, you say?  Look again.  We're in California - there's no snow here.  So what's on the lawn?  Batting.

This house had a miniature ferris wheel that rotated as well as a train that drove around the track surrounding the big tree.

This is Mallary, Me, Jen, and Brandi.  We decided to let Brandi in the picture, even though she wasn't wearing yellow:)

 

I thought this was comical so pulled out my camera to photograph, but everyone thought I was being mean.  I just assumed the head got broken in storage, so they improvised by placing a brick in it's place.  You're smirking too, huh?  See, I'm not that mean!  (Unless of course it was vandilized and the culprits placed the brick there, in which case I would be condoning the committing of crimes, which, for the record, I am not.)



What made this night extra amazing was Raquel.  I'm sure she won't remember a thing, and probably didn't get much of a thrill out of the night, but she was ANGELIC!   Even though it was incredibly late for her, she just snuggled into our shoulders and remained perfectly content.  She even stayed awake until the final 10 minutes.  Watching our friends and their young kids, Luis and I realized that from here on out, each year will require greater athleticism and better tracking skills.  All we have is good numchuck skills, so I guess we'll have to trade those in for more practical skills.


If we were to remain Californians, this would definately become a family tradition.  (I said, if mom... calm down.)

Gingerbread Dating

Not that I want to post every time we have a date, but I thought this was creative enough to share.

 

Our Gingerbread Date

 

The first step, is to turn on some Christmas music.  Then, patterning our gingerbread houses after the Ferguson Family "graham cracker houses," we got out all the fixin's for decoration.   (I highly recommend the Cookies and Cream Kisses.  Super yum.  The coconut M&M's are also yum in small quantities.  They get real old, real fast.)

 

Before we could actually start decorating; however, we had to earn points in order to "buy" our candy.

Being that it was MY date, and being that I wanted the MOST candy, and being that I am a FORMER teacher, I found the perfect way for us to earn points.  We each got the exact same worksheet (crossword, word scramble, etc) and had five minutes to finish.  For each correct answer, we earned 1 point.  (In case you're wondering, I earned something like 287 points and Luis earned around 4.)

After earning points and purchasing our candy, we built our houses.

 

Lu's house.

My house.

 

And now for them to sit out for two weeks as we pick off a few pieces here and there until we finally throw the rest out...sound familiar, dear family?

Santa's Eight Reindeer

I was reading the classic, "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," to Raquel when I saw something peculiar.  There, amongst the eight reindeer names, was the name Donder.  What?  All these years I thought it was Donner.  Have I been wrong?  I guess so.

 

Wondering if I was the only one to have made this mistake, I tried an experiment.  I said, "Luis, what are the names of Santa's eight reindeer?"

 

And this is what I got...

 

Dazzer, Chancer, Flatzer, Gimpson,

Comet, Bonnet, Masher, Flasher

 

Maybe next time I'll ask a "normal American."