Dave

I'm pretty sure I need an entire post to dedicate to my embarrassing relation, known as my brother, Dave.  From the moment he arrived, we found him desperate for attention.  This continued throughout his stay.  I have no words to describe this person that is my brother.

  

The worst part is that Raquel picked up some of his...whatever you want to call it.

Yikes!

Picture Time!!!

Last week we scheduled Raquel's one year photo shoot.  It was a lot of work keeping that girl happy, but with the help of her monkey, Peanut, and a few balloons, we made it through the session.

First, she was feeling a bit shy, so we had to warm up.

After that she was pretty glamorous.

  

Do you see her holding up the column?

Time for an outfit change.  This is where the balloons came in to play because she was D.O.N.E!  Surprisingly, this is when she gave us her best smiles.

 

 

And this was Raquel 3 minutes into our car ride home.

I'm in love with them all!  

Thanks again, Jen!

My Baby is One!

I have been so excited for my baby to turn one!  What an accomplishment for her to now be a "year-er" instead of a "month-er."  (Though, I guess she is still a little bit of a "month-er" until she is outgrows 12 month, 18 month, and then 24 month clothes.)

A few days before her birthday, she received a package in the mail.  Almost nothing makes us more excited than packages in the mail!  I guess that's one perk of living far far away.  Inside the package we found a chunky puzzle and an outrageously cute petti-skirt.  Thanks Grandma & Grandpa!

Normally, we would have to wait to open birthday packages, but I had a feeling there would be some fun outfit inside that Raquelita would want to wear on her birthday.  (We did check with Daddy to make sure he didn't think the skirt was too wild for church, but luckily he gave his consent.)

Two days later, it was birthday time and Mommy & Daddy's turn to give gifts.  We have been hanging on to some of these toys since pre-birth, so I was super excited to get them out of our hiding spots (not like she's even mobile enough to go looking) and present them to our chulinda.

Not surprisingly, the wrapping paper was a pretty big hit.

Her birthday dinner request was homemade pizza, which she devoured.  Afterwards, cake time!  I put so much thought and effort into her cake last week, that I let Luis come up with her birthday cake this time.  He suggested a piggy face, to keep the farm theme going.  I unofficially put him in charge, which meant I was to bake the cake and he to create the masterpiece.  Unfortunately, life got busy and I ended up throwing it together last minute.  Thank goodness it was a simple idea!  I only wish I would've been smarter about the candle placement.  Tragically, Raquel's sweet and innocent piggy looks like he's smoking a joint.  I'm going to go ahead and blame that on Luis.

 After cake and ice cream, our little woman went off to bed.  I guess we should've let her stay up because Mother Nature suddenly decided to surprise us with one final present for Raquel...
California Snow!


Thanks for all the birthday wishes everyone!  Raquel had a super duper day!

Spooky Ooky

What to wear, what to wear...for Halloween!  When my sister-in-law, Jennie, sent us this cute skirt, I decided instantly that Raquel would be Minnie Mouse for Halloween.  Not very original, but easy to put together and best of all, CHEAP!  It probably cost a total of

$5.  All I had to do is bake the ears, bow, and tail.  Everything else we had.  Nice!!!

Her face paint lasted 27.3 minutes, which was just long enough for us to take pictures, drive to the church, and say a few hello's.  After that, I was in the bathroom scrubbing it off since she had commenced crying and rubbing.  It was a smeary mess. 

My costume?  I was a boring cat, but CHEAP and EASY made me do it.

From now on I think I'm going to force Luis come up with ALL our costumes.  He is outrageously creative and always looks better than me.  Can you guess what he is?  I'll give you a hint...doesn't he look grrr-r-r-r-r-r-r-eat?  He did his whole costume INCLUDING the makeup.  (I think he secretly puts on my make-up when I'm away and that's why he's so good.)

 

On to the party.

 

I don't know what people were thinking, but someone put me in charge of the ward's Halloween decorations.  ME???  Oh yikes. Talk about a s-t-r-e-t-c-h for me!  Thankfully, I have some absolutely fabulous friends who pitched in and pretty much did everything for me:)  Thank goodness.  So here's a few pics of how it turned out.

 

The tables were supposed to be decorated with pumpkins that people carved for the annual pumpkin carving contest.  Yeah, a total of 3 people signed up to bring a pumpkin. 

 

Knowing the party would be pumpkin-lacking, Luis and I decided to copy our friend Jen by having a "pumpkin off," which meant we both carved a pumpkin and had a few siblings vote via phone.  Mine is the mickey pumpkin.  Lu made "chip."  After the votes came in, I decided it was a mistake to ask siblings to vote.  They have no taste.

 

 

Since we took them to the party, they were automatically put into the ward pumpkin carving contest.  Luis and I both won!  (I think I'll leave out the detail about there being 4 pumkins at the event and each of the 4 pumpkins winning a prize.)  In addition to our prize winning pumpkins, my man took home a prize for his hot and spicy chili. The Morenos pretty much stole the night:)