November Time

Let's face it: California is not Utah.  It it wonderful in its own way, but one thing it lacks is seasons.  Once November hit, I was desperate for fall weather, but our 90 degree days just weren't cutting it.  So, we headed up to Mt. Baldy to find a bit of fall.  It was perfection.  We went on a hike, played in the leaves, and collected fallen acorns and pinecones for upcoming decoration/craft projects.

Raquel and I made our annual Thankful Turkey.

For the first time in her life, we took Raquel to a parade.  We went to our very own Rancho Cucamonga's Founder's Day Parade.  There were probably only 3 floats in the entire parade, but we still enjoyed it.

 On Thanksgiving Eve, while Luis was at work, Raquel and I made a pilgrim hat (aka I made a pilgrim hat and bribed her to sit at the table with me by giving her snacks).  She did help put on the stickers, which I thought was a nice touch.

Of course, we didn't want Daddy to feel left out, so we made one for him too.  He thought it was a lot less obnoxious to wear than last year's hat.  By the way, have I mentioned that this is my our tradition?  Each year, the kiddos and I are going to make Daddy a special hat to wear on Thanksgiving Day.  Luis is very pleased with this tradition.

On Thanksgiving Day, we cooked (of course), tracked down a newspaper to see the ads, and then enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with our friends the Mohlmans, and Mallary.

By the way, let me tell you about Luis and the fact that he is totally wrapped around the fingers of our little girls (even the unborn one).  I have been in total preparation mode these last few weeks, so by the time Thanksgiving Day came around, I had all of our Christmas shopping done.  We still like looking through the ads though, so as we were rifling through them during Raquel's nap, Luis found a large play set of food that was on sale for $5 at Walgreens all day on Thanksgiving Day.  He like it and knew Raquel would too, so he went out and bought it. 

The one thing we were after on Black Friday was a Christmas tree.  We found a stellar deal at Home Depot, so Luis volunteered to wake up early on Friday and go get it.  As he stood in line, waiting for the doors to open, he was looking through the Home Depot ad to pass the time.  In it, he saw a rocking horse on sale for 50% off and decided our girls needed it.  So, he purchased that too.  It really is adorable and I'm quite delighted that he bought it, though I'm not quite sure where it'll go in our one bedroom apartment;)

I'm Back and I'm starting with October

What?  I'm blogging???  Why yes, yes I am.  I know you missed me, but its been hard to want to sit down and blog for some reason.  But, here I am and I'll try to get caught up.

It's too overwhelming to start where I left off, so I'm going to go ahead and skip to October.

First up, my birthday.  Luis didn't want to leave everything to the last minute, so he got everything while we were in Utah.  I LOVE that he was thinking about it that far in advance.  I felt very loved by all my family and friends who sent me cards, left me messages, called me, and dropped by gifts.

To celebrate, we headed to our favorite pumpkin patch.  Unfortunately, it was a bit of a let-down this year.  I like the good old fashion, feels like you're in the country type of pumpkin patches.  That's what this one has felt like every year.  This year though, it felt more like a carnival, with booths set up selling all sorts of junk and tons of bounce houses and other money-making attractions.  They did have a tractor ride included with the admission (which we've also never had to pay before).  As you can see, Raquel was delighted.

 

We ended up being suckers and paying the $6 fee for Raquel to ride a pony.  She wanted nothing to do with it at first, but once it got going, she loved it.

We ended the celebrations with pizza and a cake made by Luis.  Nothing says "happy birthday" like pizza and cake, in my book.

This year for Halloween, we went country and became cowgirls and a cowboy.  I found Luis's awesome jacket at DI.  When I first showed it to him he refused to wear it.  However, after trying it on and seeing how completely incredible it looked, he changed his mind.  We celebrated Halloween all month long with our ward Halloween party, Bass Pro Shop's fun Halloween festivities, and an all day Halloween party with Raquel and me since Luis had to work from 8am - 11pm.

Ward Party

(Luis and Raquel are in the back of the costume parade.  He said she kept yelling "yee-haw" the whole time they were up there.)

 Bass Pro Shops Festivities

The all-day party for Raquel and me

The One and Only

Believe it or not, we just had our first, and probably only California beach trip this summer.  We have grown to really like Seal Beach, so that's where we headed.  We all had so much fun, especially Raquel.

We played hard and were tuckered out by the time we went home.

Ouchie

I had my first child/hospital ER experience this month.  It was an ordinary day - Luis was at work and Raquel and I were playing at home and skyping with Mom.  Without warning, Raquel lost her balance and smacked her face into the edge of our wooden bookcase.  Blood was all over and it took a minute to discover the source of her oozing.  Thankfully, Mom was right there (via computer) to keep me calm and help me know what to do, though I must say, my impulses seemed to be right in line with what Mom instructed, so I guess my "Mommy Instincts" are intact.

Once Raquel started to calm down and Mom and I were able to get a look at her cut lip, we decided she might need stitches.  I called Luis and told him to come home so we could have a car to take her to the Instacare.  Unfortunately, as I called around, I found that most Instacare locations wouldn't touch her cut lip because of scarring issues.  They told us to take her to the ER because they would be more skilled at stitching up facial wounds.  We arrived at San Antonio Hospital, checked in, and began our wait.  5 hours and 2 waiting rooms later, she was finally seen, stitched up, and dismissed.  Like has happened so many times in her life, Raquel AMAZED me!  Throughout our wait, she was fairly cheerful and patient, even walking around saying hi to fellow patients.  During the stitching process she did scream and squirm and they held her down, but I honestly expected it to be a lot worse.  Even I found myself calm and non-hysterical as I watched the procedure.  Afterwards, they handed her to me and she fell asleep in my arms within 5 minutes.

I'm still a little worried about her having a scar on her lip, but it seems to be fading a little more each day.

Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush

I guess we're not much of bucket list people.  We have things we want to do, but when it comes to searching for amazing fun places to visit around here, we can't find much that doesn't cost oodles.  However, there was one place we ventured recently that we can cross off our "list of things we want to do."

Riley's Farm

It took us over an hour to get there, but as we got closer, we left "California" behind and seemed to be in some quiet country town.  It was wonderful!  Once we arrived and figured out where to go, we got to go berry picking.  Blackberries and raspberries were in season, so we went for those.

The raspberry bushes were overtaken by bees so we sent the bravest of us all to retrieve those berries.

As we looked around the farm a bit, we found a charming coffin, old buildings, wheelbarrows, and animals.  Also, I didn't get a picture of any of them, but all the workers at the farm were dressed in colonial clothes to give the farm a back-in-time feel.

Though it was blasted hot, we had such fun at Riley's farm and you can bet will be revisiting during the fall.

Independence Day

Do you have words that you ALWAYS have to think about when spelling?  Independence is definitely one of those for me (as is definitely).  You think I'd learn.  Moving along...

Let me paint for you a picture of our Moreno 4th of July.  First, after rising at 5 am to go exercise, shower, and whip up a super healthy breakfast, we spent the morning reading articles and tributes to our forefathers.  

Just kidding.  Here's what really happened.  Raquel let us lazily sleep in until 8 (yahoo!), we overate an incredibly delicious (aka unhealthy) breakfast, we slowly got ready, and then spent the morning shopping.  Yeah, that sounds more like us.  (Though we are extremely grateful for our forefathers.)

After getting our food assignments ready, we popped over to the McGarys to BBQ along with said McGarys, Mohlmans, and Mallary.

We again ate too much, but I'm pretty sure that's what holidays are for, right?  Then we headed over to a grassy spot near some apartments in Upland to watch fireworks.  Can you believe these were the FIRST fireworks I've seen in 4 years?  You read me right.  We haven't gone to see fireworks in our entire California lifetime.  We're so lame.  We weren't incredibly close to the actual firework show, but they were still magical to watch and quiet enough not to frighten my girlie.