Christmas

Since Makenzie came on the 22nd, we got to be back home before Christmas, which was absolutely wonderful!

On Christmas Eve, we ate our tamales, rice, fruit salad, chips & guacamole, cupcakes, blueberry pie, and Trader Joe's ice cream (our new favorite ice cream).  Afterwards, we held our traditional nativity play.

Christmas morning!

If you know me, (which hopefully you do if you're reading this - otherwise, you may need to ask yourself if you are, in fact, creepy), you know that I am a planner.  Actually, I am a bit obsessive about planning and list making.  I have had non-stop lists going regarding Makenzie's birth and Christmas since September.  This is no joke.  Knowing that Makenzie would be arriving sometime around Christmas, was exciting and stressful.  So, just to be prepared, I wrapped our presents super early this year!  I don't know if it is because the wrapped presents were around so long or because of her changing world, but Raquel did not, and I repeat DID NOT, want to open presents.  She sort of tolerated gift #1 when she was allowed to throw away the wrapping paper (she loves the garbage can, strange kid), but after that, she was running away and screaming when we tried to force her to open more.  It was kind of pathetic that Luis and I opened most of the gifts under the tree.

Makenzie, on the other hand, was quite delighted with Christmas morning.

Our spoils

Yep, Raquel unzipped her jammies and ran around the apartment.  What are you going to do?

Our wild animals

December Pre-Baby

This is what December looked like before Makenzie was born

saw the Thoroughbred lights

decorated gingrbread houses (well, Raquel ate the m&m's and Luis and I decorated them)

saw a living nativity

read/sang the Silent Night book 817 times

Luis went to a convention in Florida

enjoyed festivities at the local Bass Pro Shops

saw Santa without trauma

got spoiled at my baby shower

celebrated Grandma's birthday

created Makenzie's stocking (far right)

forced helped Raquel make crafts

made our Christmas Eve tamales

Makenzie Moreno

Well it happened.  Baby Makenzie Moreno has arrived!  Her due date was always December 22nd, and that's the day she came.  And I must say, it was impeccable timing.  Luis was out of town a few weeks before, so I was glad she didn't come then.  My mom didn't get here until the 15th, so I was glad she didn't come before that either.  Luis's parents didn't come until the 17th, so once again, I was glad she waited until she did so that everyone could be here for her debut.

Here are the basics of her story.  I had been feeling pretty good (as good as you can feel being 9 months pregnant) all week long.  And then came Saturday and my body hit a wall.  I felt drained of all my energy.  It was the day we were making our "Christmas Tamales," so I was very glad to have a lot of experts here to help out.  That night, I began feeling contractions and finally went to the hospital around 3:00 Sunday morning.  It was such a blessing having my Mom and Luis's parents here to watch Raquel for us while we were gone.  They were wonderful with her!  

Once we arrived at the hospital, I learned I was dilated to a 5, so they immediately started searching for a room for me.  While we were waiting, I heard them telling the pregnant woman a few curtains over, that since she was already dilated to a 7, it was unlikely she would get an epidural in time.  I didn't think too much of it at the time, but after waiting an hour for a room and a few more hours IN my room, I began thinking I might end up in the same boat as her.  Finally, the anesthesiologist took pity on me and ran up to give me an epidural in between C-sections (apparently there were an unusual amount of C-sections that night).  Like I've said before, epidurals are pure gold.

After that, I pretty much hung around looking gorgeous until they told me I was at a 10 and the baby was ready to come.  Dr. Dhaliwal (my doctor's partner) came in, broke my water, and we commenced pushing at 9:50 am.  At 9:52, Makenzie arrived!  That's right, I had a 2 minute labor.  It was glorious.  Makenzie is already on my good side:)

Right out of the shoot, Makenzie was looking for her first meal, so they tossed her over to me and had me start feeding her before they even took her weight.  Thankfully, she was one of those pro eaters who knew how to eat from the get-go.  When they finally measured her, she was 8 lbs 1 oz and 19 3/4 inches.  The nurse kept chuckling because her belly ended up with a bigger circumference than her head.  The sweetest moment was when she stopped crying and started cuddling with me the moment they handed her to me.  She knew her Mommy!

It was such a beautiful moment to be able to hold her and look at her, knowing where she had just come from.  It was very spiritual.  It was very different from Raquel's birth, since Raquel was whisked away to the NICU right away and I was left all by my lonesome wondering if she would live.  

My delivery nurse, Patricia, kept saying we should be the poster family for birthing experiences.  There were no complications, the labor was fast, and our baby was amazingly calm from the start.  It was a perfect labor and delivery, according to her.  Below is a picture of me with my nurse.  She was a sweetheart!

Later in the day, Makenzie received her first visitors.

Raquel wasn't sure what a Makenzie was, so she kept pushing her away.

What she DIDN'T push away, were her special "big sister treats" the hospital gave her.

Makenzie's other visitors included Abuelo y Abuela Moreno and Grandma Ferguson.

We love our sweet critter Makenzie very much!

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;)