Briana's Christmas Party

So Blessed to be on Maternity Leave since 12/14/12 afternoon! Thank you Jesus! Since I've been home, I was able to attend my 3 year old's Christmas Party :) She was so happy to see Mommy, Daddy and Little "Budder".

Christmas Parade

Kicked off the 1st of December with our traditional CHRISTmas Parade in Downtown Dallas! Woke up alittle earlier than normal, made some delicious homemade egg with chorizo burritos, abuelita hot chocolate, and sweet Mexican bread (conchas). Mmmm, while Jared packed the lawn chairs, stroller, and blankets in the back of our suv. The weather was PERFECT! It felt much warmer than it did last year.

Breakfast with Santa

 

Well, it started off as a "surprise" in the advent calendar but it accidently slipped when I told Briana, "you need to go night-night because we are going to eat breakfast with Santa" Whoops! and Denyce heard that. After that, the girls were really excited. It was nice not having to cook breakfast and clean up afterwards :) We all enjoyed the variety in breakfast food items and taking pics with Santa. Later we played games at Amazing Jakes. The highlight was when Jared won a huge bouncy ball for Eli on his first try. We were all rooting for him and even had a small crowd cheering him on. Eli was elated! Daddy is his "hero" :)

Thanksgiving 2012

Here are some sweet pictures of our Thanksgiving Feast: First part at my little sister's with an Arabic spin and next at my mother in laws - very tradtional with a southern spin. Both very very delicious! P.S. I made both my girls "pumpkin" shirts from orange tulle and "turkey" shirt complete with "feathers" on his back for my little butterball :)

Baby Shower- 11/11/12

I'm sitting here thinking about ALL the baby showers I've had in the past....Denyce's baby shower at my mom's house, than I had a surprise one at my college speech and debate class, Briana's shower at Farmer's Market Hall and one hosted by co-wokers at 21st, Elijah's shower at Grand Heritage hosted by my mother in law, another one hosted by my mom at her house and a surprise one hosted by my co-workers at Transamerica. And this last one hosted by my mom, mother in law, grandma and sister at my mom's house on 11/11. That's a total of 8 Showers!!! What a blessing! :)

 

Collage of my last three children's showers....

 These are some highlights of last Sunday...

Dallas Zoo

We spent our Saturday afternoon yesterday strolling around the zoo. It's always a family favorite past time whenever we have beautiful weather. Anytime there's gorgeous weather we are always itching to go anywhere outside. The way we see it - living in Texas, there'll be plenty of super hot or really cold days to stay in. We try to seize every moment. It gives the kids something exciting to look forward to during the weekends, gets all their engery out, and we get plenty of excercise. We try to plan our outings by staying on budget. For example a season's family pass to the zoo is around 100 bucks but we don't pay parking and we always pack a healthy lunch with plenty of kid friendly snacks. So really the only money we spend is gas money. Not bad huh?

Halloween 2012

 

We had a great Halloween this year! I decieded to "test" my craftiness and make our own Halloween costumes. I got the idea from my 3 year old since she realllllly wanted to be a skeleton! Thought it be fun to have mine show a baby boy skeleton, my hubby some food, and the kids candy (of course). It was a little time consuming but I broke the project up during down time. Not to mention super cheap! My total cost was.....<<<drum roll please>>> $11 bucks for all 5 of us!!! Cost break down: $2 for Jared and my black shirt each (walmart), $1 for the girl's shirts (dollar store), Eli already had a shirt, $4 total for the girl's tutu skirts and matching bows, and $1 for white fabric paint (hobby lobby). So proud of myself! I had fun with this project AND stayed well under budget! :)

Briana Isabella's 1st Days in Preschool

Our Briana started Preschool just this 23rd of October and is LOVING every minute! We are so blessed to had found such a great school right around the corner from our house and best of all-tuition free! She wakes up right along big sis with no problems, gets dressed mostly by herself and eats breakfast at school. She only attends for 3 hours - 5 days a week but it's perfect for a girl her age. We love reading her journal her teacher keeps for her daily and seeing all the wonderful artwork!

Denyce's Birthday Week

My 11 year old had a GREAT B*Day Week! Since she was off on Monday and Tuesday, my mom and sister took her and little sister to the Ft. Worth Zoo on Monday. Than Daddy and I surprised her by taking the whole family to the State Fair. On Wednesday {her actual b*day} she celebrated with her class with cupcakes. On Thursday we prepared her favorite dinner and on Friday her tia surprised her by taking her to dinner, more presents, and to watch a movie only they ditched the movies at the last minute and went shopping! (Those two together are T-R-O-U-B-L-E). To top off her week we had a fun roller skating party with all her friends and as soon as we got home my sister surprised her by taking her to her favorite store, Justice. Last but not least Grandma surprised her by getting back into town and we visited most of Sunday! All in All many many blessings! :)

State Fair 2012

Some of this year's highlights at the fair. We all know the costs can add up! Luckly we planned going on Tuesday and with our Dr.Pepper cans got in for only $10 total! We didn't have to pay for the kids and Denyce had a fair ticket. And to make things better we had 120 tickets left over from 2010 that we could still use. Another nice thing about planning our visit was that all rides were only 5 tickets each vs. their usual 8-10 tickets. So we were able to ride double the rides for the same price! :) The weather was perfect! There were no lines at all, and the kids were very well behaved and were all smiles! We took some great pictures and videos to look back on. All the kids got to ride all their favorite rides and enjoy their favorite treats. Jared always gets his turkey leg, I love the corn dogs, Denyce her funnel cake with strawberry and Bri her cotton candy-of course! Once the tickets were all gone, we knew it was time to head back home.

State Fair Tradition

Living only 5 minutes away from the fair growing up, made it a tradition for my sister and I to go as children. I now am glad to be able to share that tradition with my own. This a cute picture college I made of my kid's 1st time at the fair. (Left-Right: Denyce,Bri,Eli)

My Cravings

It seems like I've had very different "cravings" for each one of my pregnancies. Right now, I've been craving anything citrus-y, tangy, or with a hint of viniger. Mmmmm, making my mouth water just posting this! LOL For example, it seems like we've been having fresh squeezed lemonade with our dinner almost every other night! :) I've never tried salt and vinegar chips until now and I LOVE THEM (even in the early morning). I find any excuse to squirt a little ketchup on the side of almost anything :) But my weakness has definately been coctel de camarones (Mexican-Styled Cocktail Shrimp) You haven't lived until you've had coctel de camarones! So So Good! :) My poor hubby has been eating right along with me - adding those "sympathy" pounds with me :)

Elijah Is Offically Walking!

We started practicing on Tuesday 8/28 in the living room. He's been standing straight and inching his way around the couch and end tables. He is definately my "cautious" child. His laid back personality didn't really produce too much intrest in walking incomparison to my two inquisitive older girls. With an active toddler and a tween-ager, Jared and I were in NO rush to have an extra pair of feet heading towards world domination! LOL :D

Here's the first two videos we took yesterday evening. First he's heading towards Da-Da and than towards his Ma-Ma. We are SO PROUD of him! He was so excited and giggly! (excuse our hotmess selves...we had just finished making dinner, cleaning dishes/kitchen, taking the little ones a bath, pj's, and tucking in Briana all before 7:50pm)

5th Grade Rocks

 

Cannot believe this will be my first born's last year in elementry! Seriously where does the time go? Luckily she still wanted me to take her on her first day and didn't mind the pictures! :) My mom surprised her and spent the night the before the "big" day and joined us for our traditional donuts. Here are some sweet pictures of my sweet girl. She was super excited when she found out she got the "nice/fun" teacher and her bff was in her class.

Pink Vs.Blue Gender Reveal Party

I went in for a regular sono checkup on August 10th Friday and the sonographer told me that she had no problem telling me what I was having IF the baby showed. Since my sono appointment to see the sex of the baby wasn't until a few more weeks- I didn't think she would be able to see so soon so Jared did not accompany me to this appointment. To my surprise, the sonographer was able to see but I stopped her and told her since my husband has ALWAYS been there in all my gender revealing appointments, I didn't want to know simply write the sex in a peice of paper and seal it in an envelope. I knew I had to plan one of these parties asap! The temptation was killing us! We gave the mysterious envelope to Party City with the instructions. All my friends and family were on Team Blue except me lol So glad I was wrong! :)

2+2+2= Family Nest of Six

First I told my husband the great news, then the kids, my immediate family and then I announced it publically to all my extended family and friends! I couldn't wait any longer! First of, I couldn't believe I was pregnant (again) lol since I was still nuring Elijah but like the doctor pointed out since he was starting to eat more solids and less milk....made for a "fertile me" We knew we wanted four little critters but assumed it would be a few more months til that happend. GOD always has it ALL planned out even if we think we have it under control.

Yay! I Offically Have a Family Blog!

What better way to keep in contact with all my family and friends especially when we are all pulled in different directions.


This is one of the first sonograms of my newest baby! I was only 10 weeks at the time. I found out I was pregnant on June 15th Friday and couldn't wait to tell Jared but since Father's Day was that Sunday the 17th; I decided to wait and give him the best Father's Day Gift! :)