A Whirlwind Thanksgiving

Once again, Luis and I found ourselves far from family for Thanksgiving, but thanks to wonderful friends and special visitors, we had a beautiful weekend.

On Thanksgiving, Luis signed us up to go with a group of Western Students to put together meals for needy families.  I admit that the idea sounded great, but I kind of thought I would rather stay in my bed.  However, knowing this would be the last year for a long time that we would be able to do this sort of thing helped me roll out of bed.  We showed up at 6 and began our arduous task of bagging rolls. (I guess they could tell we couldn't handle anything much more than that.)  We only stayed for a few hours, but it was very satisfying to participate in some service.

Next, we bought our copy of the Black Friday ads, turned on the parade, and relaxed for an hour or two before beginning our meal preparations.

Since we were getting together with 3 other young families in our ward, we gathered up our food items and headed off.  Cute Jen did an amazing job creating a beautiful Thanksgiving table that felt very "Better Homes & Garden."

Our feast was delicious and we had such a fun time being together for the holiday.

But of course my favorite part was watching my darling Luis entertain the kids.  It makes me smile to think of him playing with our own kids and I know they will just adore him!

Although we bought the ads and looked through them for hours, we ended up NOT shopping at all on Black Friday.  Lame.  I know.  However, we did get to sleep in, which is a rarity these days.  Luis was thrilled to learn that I planned for him to help me put up the Christmas decorations:)  We also had our family pictures taken, which I will post soon, and went out to a local taco joint with a Hispanic family in our ward.  We walked away from that experience with an authentic Mexican cookbook and brand new tortilla maker bestowed upon us by Gigi, the very generous mother of the family.  You better watch out because I'm turning more Hispanic by the day!

On Saturday we picked up my sister, Charisse, and her husband, Jason, who were in town for a cruise.  Since we got them all day, we decided to have our own Thanksgiving feast at our home.

By the way, here was this month's bulletin board.  So the head is a bit too small and the wings are a bit low down.  I thought I did a great job at free-handing my huge turkey.

Yet Another Girl's Night Out

One more birthday means one more girls' night out.  This time, we got to celebrate Jen's birthday.

This time, instead of going out, we chose to stay IN and make flowers.  Yay for crafting!

Here are 3 of my creations, and I can't wait to make more for baby!

She'll be so stylin'.

Happy Birthday to Jen!

Thankful Turkey

Once again, it was time to make our annual Thankful Turkey.  This year, Luis had the sweet idea to have an all-pink baby theme.

I think we'll call her Miss Pinkie.

Pumpkins, Needles, and Mexicans

OcToBeR FuN

First, 

Luis and I went to a pumpkin patch.

Despite careful planning, we got there too late at night and weren't able to pick our own pumpkin...lame.  So we had to content ourselves by pretending to pick our own pumpkin instead.  Yes, there were people walking by wondering what we were doing squatting in the middle of the picnic area.

Later, we carved our dear pumpkin.  Have you noticed Luis often gets this manic look in his eyes?  I have.  It's creepy!

Second,

Question:  What do you do when your final is over and you have an entire day off school?

Answer:  Go to your wife's 2 hour pregnancy glucose testing for moral support!

Yes, this appointment was scheduled to last 2 hours, and yes, I did convince Luis to come with me.  We actually had a TON of fun thanks to some smart planning by yours truly.  We started off with several rounds of Battleship (which we brought from home), much to the curious glances of the entire waiting room.  Next, we raced each other with some Halloween word searches and crosswords.

Then, we tried our hands at creating mazes for each other.  The difference between our creations was quite comical   Surprisingly, mine is the one on the right.  Luis's attempts are on the left.  I had to remind him that I'm not 3.

2 1/2 hours + 4 needles later we finally got to go.  

We ended our "date" with a trip to the not-so-local Cafe Rio.  It was yum yum YUM!

Third,

Speaking of food, check out my random Halloween-themed grub.  Next year, I plan to try even more throughout the month.

Spiderweb Pizza

Candy Corn Cookies

Witch Finger Pizza Sticks

Finally,

this month we had some Halloween parties to attend.

We've been thinking for months now about the perfect Halloween costumes, but since we couldn't think of anything, we just decided to be ourselves.

Despite my Hispanic roots, I've never had black hair.  For a more authentic look, we used black hair spray to get me some black hair.  WARNING:  BLACK HAIR SPRAY IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!  I like long, hot showers, but 45 minutes spent in black water is not my idea of a relaxing evening...not to mention having to spend another 15 minutes bleaching our stained tub.  

Pink Pink Pink

September 14 - ultrasound #1

Apparently there IS such a thing as too soon to break out the For the Strength of the Youth pamphlet.  Baby really took the message to heart and was extremely modest at our first ultrasound appointment.  The technician ended up giving us a 51% chance of the baby being a girl.  The best part was telling family members and hearing the "girl congratulations" flow... some family members not comprehending that 51% pretty much meant 50/50.

October 15 - ultrasound #2

Since insurance wouldn't pay for another ultrasound, I made an appointment at a nearby ultrasound school where appointments are free.  I was a bit nervous when we were handed a paper informing us the ultrasound would NOT be supervised by a medical professional; would NOT be verified by a teacher; and may NOT be performed by a student with any experience/knowledge.  However, as soon as 9:00 rolled around, an experienced professional took us back and conducted the ultrasound himself.  He was very kind, but spoke in a mumbled whisper, so I'm hoping the "It's a girl" I heard was in fact that particular phrase and not something else entirely.

I think I was shocked to have an actual gender associated with our baby because I kept repeating "GIRL GIRL GIRL" to myself for the rest of the day.

And already, the pink is flowing in...

Birthday Celebrations!

I am so spoiled!!!

In my childhood, I remember feeling sorry for mom and dad when their birthdays came around.  Their birthdays/gifts seemed so boring compared to my childhood ones.  Plus, they still had to do chores like cleaning, cooking, and going to work.  Blah!  Well, now I'm an adult, and although I did have some chores to do, AND I went to work, I thought my birthday was pretty much fabtastic!

My actual birthday is October 18th, but birthday celebrations began clear back on October 8th.  You see, Luis asked me what I wanted for my birthday as well as the dreaded question, "So what's my $ limit?"  All I really wanted was a rocking chair, and since it's something we were planning on buying anyways, I didn't feel bad asking for such an expensive present.  Luis didn't want to get me one because he said that was a present for baby, not for me.  I then tried convincing him to buy me one that is a little more expensive than the one we had picked out, and it worked!

We headed out to some furniture stores and ended up finding a super comfortable rocker/recliner for only $30 more than the chair we had picked out previously.

We bought it!!!

As soon as we set up my new chair, I turned to Luis and said, "Honey, I know we just spent a lot of money on my birthday present, but would you please get me something little to open up on my actual birthday?" What can I say, I'm greedy.  BUT, as I explained to Luis, we WERE going to buy a rocking chair anyways, and since we only spent $30 more than our original chair, technically, he had only spent $30 on my gift.  I think Luis liked that explanation.

A week later, I got my second birthday surprise when my friends, Brandi & Jen came bearing gifts and kidnapped me for the night.

We enjoyed a yumm-o Pizookie from BJ's restaurant and then played some good old Mini-Golf.  My kidnappers were very protective of me all night and wouldn't let me bend over.  Needless to say, I'm sure their backs were breaking by the end of the night.

 Finally, my actual birthday came around.  I was spoiled by phone calls, texts, online messages, visits from friends, birthday wishes at work, gifts, AND a study-free night from Luis.  Yay!!!

As promised, Luis got me a little surprise to open up...but unlike as promised, he bought me 3 little surprises to open instead of the specified ONE.  (Hey, I'm not complaining!)

After a birthday dinner of...what else...pizza, Luis brought out my adorable "Tangled" cake he planned and created all by himself.  He is sooooo creative!

As you can see, I am now 27 years old.  This is going to throw me off, seeing as how it took me 6 months last year to remember my age of 26.  With baby girl taking all my brain cells, this change is going to be tricky.

Happy birthday to me!