Mom's Birthday Party

Surprise!!!!! My sisters and I (with the help of Dad, of course) surprised my Mom with a 70th Birthday Party. Her actual birthday isn't until Christmas Eve, but we really wanted to throw her off!! Haha! She thought we were just taking her out to a nice restaurant, so she was a little surprised to see her brother & sisters, family and friends all waiting for her at Becky's house. We had Pappasito's fajitas and a beautiful cake from Estelle. Gabe and I made a slideshow of my Mom's life. It turned out pretty good for a couple of amateurs. :)
I think Mom really enjoyed herself. It was a great party!!
The Birthday Girl!!!!

The table of Sisters.

Danni & Tyler getting the slideshow ready.

Mom & Dad watching the slideshow (not a great pic of them, but check out the funny son-in-laws in the background)! Lol.

Sophie loves her Papa!

Sophie getting Cole's sugars! :)

Mom had plenty of help opening her gifts.

The yummy cake.

Someone just likes the icing, not the cake. He didn't get that from me!!

The Queen speaks! Haha, just kidding Mom.

Is someone hot?

More icing.

Good to the last drop! Don't worry, it was already empty. :)

Cole & Zach with Grandma.

Christmas at Cypress Top

The county hosted a Christmas party at the dance hall in Cypress Top Park (otherwise known as Downtown Cypress). They had music, snacks, tours of the property (so I got to see my old room/house decorated for Christmas), and ornament making. It was really neat and they had a good turn out.
Here are some pictures of the kiddos making some ornaments for the tree.

Zach putting his ornament on the tree.

The star at the top of the tree. If you look real close, you can see a picture of my parents in the middle of the star!! :)

22 Months!

Little Miss Diva turned 22 months already!! Hard to believe!!! She is such a little person now. She repeats everything you say (so watch out)! And she likes to sing, dance, chase brother around the house, wrestle, scream, read books... the list goes on and on.

My favorite thing that she says now is: "luv u!" Melts my heart everytime! :)

Happy 22 Months Baby Girl!!

I Love Lamp!

Okay, so to understand the title of this post, you have to have seen one of our favorite movies, "Anchor Man." It's one of those silly movies that Gabe loves and I learn to love because he laughs at it so hard. It is contagious. :)

We are just relaxing in the living room when the two crazies walk in....

Guess it's time for a new lamp shade!! I knew the shade on my bedroom lamp was loose, but I guess it was on its last leg. Or it definitely had some help in being on its last leg!! Lol.

Who is that under there??

There she is!! It's Sophie!!

She thought that was so funny. So of course, we had to do it a couple more times. :)

The Weather Outside Was Frightful

December 4, 2009... another day that it snowed in Houston, Texas!!!!! Unfortunately, Tomball didn't get too much of it though. And what little we did get, it didn't "stick" around! Haha... :)

Once Daddy got home from work, we just HAD to go out and take a walk. Gabe loves it when it snows. He is practically a little kid, it makes me laugh. I guess we'll have to go see 'real' snow someday.
It was pretty cold and wet, I might add. The kids don't have heavy jackets, so I layered them to death!! Undershirt, sweater, hoodie... they didn't seem to mind once we were outside. :)

Aww, so precious together!

My little snow angel. :)

Oh What A Day!!!

The time came... Zach's four year check-up. I have been putting it off and putting it off, but I had to take him in. He's been having nose bleeds (occasionly) and two "24 hour bugs" in the past few weeks, so I needed to get him checked out. And Sophie needed a few shots to get caught up too. So I made the appointment and the nice lady tells me that I might need to have a few drinks before I bring them in, that the 4 year check-up is a killer. Especially if I have two children with appointments by myself!! Hearing that, I immediately call Gabe to make sure he can go with me. I definitely would need help. Sophie cries while the nurse is only weighing her! Sheesh!! :)
Zach's appointment: Went really well considering ALL that he went through.

Weight: 40 lbs (90 percentile)
Height: 40 3/4 in (75 percentile)

They then took him in to a special room to check his hearing. He had to raise his hand once he heard the beep. Only thing, he wouldn't raise his hand, he would just look at me when he heard the beep. I don't think this was considered "passing" but she didn't mark that he "failed" either. Then it was time for his vision screening. He did very well and passed with flying colors!
He had his blood pressure taken, he had to do a few tricks for Dr. Patel (like touch his toes, stand on one foot, etc.), and got all his vitals taken. Then it was time for him to give a urine sample. This was easy. Luckily he already had to go to the bathroom.

Sophie's appointment: Also went really well. She just gets upset so easily with strangers touching her. She doesn't appreciate it too much.

Weight: 28 lbs 9.5 oz (75-90 percentile)
Height: 34 1/2 in (90-97 percentile) Yes, she is a TALL GIRL!! :)

Sophie went first with the shots. She got four total! Poor baby. I feel so bad for her, I know she is so scared. :(

Then Zach's turn. I was holding Sophie trying to calm her down and Gabe helped the nurse hold Zach down (doesn't that sound awful). First shot...nothing. Second shot...nothing. I had to look to make sure she had actually started the process. Third shot... "Ow!" Fourth shot...all hell breaks loose! He screamed and cried bloody murder. He didn't even want the nurse touching him to put the band-aids on! And then Sophie started crying again because he was.

Next, it was time to go to the lab to get blood taken. I took Sophie first while Gabe stayed behind in the room to calm Zach. I don't think I need to tell you how this went. She basically cried and screamed the whole time. I think I needed MY hearing checked afterwards.

Now Zach's turn. His went pretty much the same way, but without the high pitch screaming. :)

For his nosebleeds, Dr. Patel said it is very common. Usually caused by scratching/rubbing the nose too hard or allergies. Knock on wood though, we haven't had a nosebleed in quite a while.
For his tummy aches, it was most likely just a "bug." He said that if Zach keeps complaining about his tummy hurting after he eats, then we could try Prevacid for a few weeks to help. Again, luckily he hasn't complained the last couple of days. So I think he is all better!

Every well visit the nurse will hand you a packet of papers. The first one will always have your childs' stats (like the height, weight, etc). And it will also include the shot information if they recieved any on that visit. It will also include some information that might be helpful like car seats, potty training, behavior control, etc. Well, look what I found in Zach's packet this time....

I couldn't believe it!! Oh my gosh, do I have to worry about this already?? I thought for sure I had at least 8-10 years before I had to worry about this!! :)

After the tramautic-filled afternoon, we treated the kids to some McDonald's. We thought they definitely deserved it for being so brave and strong!!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that Zach thought his legs were broken afterwards. He was acting like an old, crippled man walking into McDonald's. He wanted to be carried because of his "poor, old" legs. Ha!

And...their test results came back good! I am so thankful for my two healthy babies (oh wait, Zach told me that I couldn't call him a baby anymore)!!!! :)

Thanksgiving 2009

Okay, I'm a little behind (again), but at least I am good about catching up!! Lol! For Thanksgiving this year, we went to Corpus to spend it with our family there. It had been 3 years since we had been there for Thanksgiving!! So we were definitely overdue!!! We decided to leave early Thanksgiving morning so that the kids could get a decent night's rest the night before. We were on the road by 7:30am. Not too bad if I do say so myself! :) The drive was pretty good, traffic wasn't bad at all.
We arrived at Papo's & Grandma Bebe's at 11am- just in time to eat!!! :) We spent the whole day eating, visiting with family, watching football, and playing with the kids.

On Friday, we visited with Cousin Lauren at her house, went to have some awesome enchilada's at Kiko's, and then went to the playground for a little while. Here are some pictures of Papo & Zach in the tree. Sidenote: Zach usually never gets to take naps when we are in Corpus, which means he gets pretty grumpy at times, which then leads to him not wanting me to take pictures of him. :)

On Friday night we went back to Cousin Lauren's house to enjoy some fried shrimp and fried fish for dinner. Thanks Uncle Jesse!! The kids loved it... they got to play outside and have fun!!

On Saturday, we headed out to the ranch to visit Great Grandpa & Grandma Gonzalez. Gabe was craving some of her famous Menudo. Well, all morning (after breakfast) Zach was complaining about his tummy hurting. And he is usually pretty good about telling you when he doesn't feel well. And if it is really hurting/upset, he won't let it go. He will whine and moan. This is when I know he is really not feeling well. He didn't have a fever, nothing else hurt, just an upset tummy. The drive out to the ranch is a good 45 minute drive and he complained almost the whole way there. We even pulled over once to see if he was all right. I told him to lay his head down and see if he could get some rest to make it better. He woke up as soon as we pulled into the driveway and he wanted me to carry him in. Well, as soon as we walked onto the side porch, he vomited everywhere!! Poor baby. It was all over him, me, the floor and even on Sophie. Good thing was, we had our suitcase in the car, so we had a change of clothes. Wow- not fun. But he seemed to feel better afterwards. He slowly drank some Sprite and went and joined the rest of the kids outside.

Oh, and we got to meet Baby Emily- the fifth great grandchild in the family!!

On our way out of town, we stopped by and visited with Grandma Sally for a little while. She is opening a new Antique store and we stopped in to check it out.
We finally hit the road for home around 5pm. Zach was still complaining about his tummy a little, but nothing too severe. We did stop to get some dinner on the way home and he ate some of that, so I think he felt better.

Needless to say, we all hit the hay once we got home and unpacked. We were all tired from all of the festivities.

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving, as we did!!

Too Cute For Words

So I broke down and bought Sophie these cute, little boots from Target the other day. I usually don't 'splurge' on things like this- knowing that she will grow out of them before I know it, but I just couldn't resist! :) Here she is with her boots, tights, and dress.

Thanksgiving Art

Here are some cute things that Zach made at school!

An Interesting Evening By The Fire

What? A fire already, you ask? :) No, it's not freezing outside yet, but this is what we HAVE to do before we set up our Christmas tree. Still confused?

It's to get rid of these suckers that like to make a home in our chimney every year! Yikes is right. Wasps!!!!! Gabe and I have lived in this house for six years now and we have this job planned out. It took a little while, but we have it. Flashlight- check, fly swatter- check, vacuum- check, matches- check, key for the gas- check, shoes on- check. Ok, we're ready. I'm sure it's hilarious to watch us and I can't believe I didn't think to blog about this last year. It's pretty funny. We get all of our supplies, make sure the kids are safe upstairs, and then we light the fireplace. It takes seconds for the wasps to start falling down. And there's literally 50-75 of them, if not more. And that's only the ones that come down, not the ones that are actually smart and fly up and away. Some burn up right away, some crawl to the back corners and slowly die, and some try to escape. That's when we come into play and have to vacuum them up or swat and kill them. Crazy, I know! Here's an up close picture of the ones in the vacuum.

We then take the canister outside to dump them and step on them to kill them. We have asked an exterminator about them before and he gave us some mumbo jumbo about covering the top of our chimney. Yeah, not sure if that would work. So if anybody has better advice, please let us know! :) Oh, the reason we have to do this before putting our tree up is because if any of the wasps escape past us, they might go into the tree and then we can't find them. This we learned about two years ago! Ha!

The kids were anxious to help Daddy get the tree out!

Zach was Daddy's little helper.

More pictures to come when everything is decorated!

A Visit To Samantha's

Last Monday, I was an awesome sister/aunt and rode with Becky to visit Sam in Sherman (about 45 minutes north of Dallas). She wanted some help decorating her apartment, and of course that's all Becky needed to hear and she was off! Lol! In case you don't know, Becky loves to decorate! We arrived at her apartment around 1pm, went to eat some lunch, did some final shopping, and then dove in to the decorating! We hung pictures, shelves (don't ask how long that took), hung curtains, rearranged the furniture, covered the couch, and made it look oh so cute. By that time, it was 7pm and Becky and I still had to drive back to my Mom's! It was definitely a long day, but well worth it! Hope you enjoy it Sammy Sue!!

Back In Business

My camera lens has made it back safely and most importantly, is working again!! And of course it was still under warranty so all I had to pay was for the shipping. I am rather impressed that it only took about a week and a half to get fixed and back to me. Just in time for the Thanksgiving and upcoming holiday pictures! YEA!! :)

To Grandma's House We Go!

Oh, it was so nice. Last weekend, my Mom was gracious enough to take both of the kids off of our hands for the night. This was the first time that the kids stayed with Grandma with Gabe and I at home. All the other times, it has been for a specific reason (like a trip, etc). They left on Sunday after lunch and I went to pick them up on Monday evening. I was a little nervous about Sophie. I didn't quite know how she would react to me staying and her leaving. She is quite attached to her Momma! But she really surprised me!! When it came time to go, Zach is telling me bye and Sophie walked over, grabbed my leg to give me a hug, and said "Bye Momma." Oh, she sounded so grown up! I couldn't believe it. And then she waved and waved from the car. It was so cute! Looks like she is ready for more trips to Grandma's house! How would you like that Mom???? :) Getting ready to leave.

Someone was obviously not in the mood for pictures.

Such a big girl! :)

This Girl Has Got It!

Did everyone else see Taylor ('our girl') win four CMA's last night?? She took home awards for Album, Music Video, Female Artist, and Entertainer of the Year!! Yea Taylor Swift (as Zach would say)!!!!!!



Zach's tribute :)
He's singing Taylor Swift's "Teardrops On My Guitar." And Sophie was singing and dancing too until she noticed that I had the camera out and she wanted to "see" what I was recording.

Between Sophie rocking me in the chair, trying to grab the camera, and it being kind of dark in the room, the video didn't turn out too well- but it's still kind of cute! :)

21 Months!

Sophie turned 21 months last Friday!! No, I didn't forget. She just doesn't make it easy to take pictures of her anymore. She is either in a mood and doesn't want her picture taken, or she wants to see what I'm taking a picture of. So, notice that I don't have any pictures to go along with this post. :)

It is amazing how much her vocabulary has grown in the last month. I can't even keep up with how many different words she is saying. And she tries to imitate a lot of words that she hears Gabe and I say. Especially when we are on the phone. She will go and grab one of her play phones and copy what she hears us say. It is too funny.

One of my favorites is now if she doesn't know an answer to something, she will shrug her shoulders and say "I don't know." I wish I could catch this on video... it is precious!!
Also, when it is a school day for Zach, she will ask me 100 times in one day where Zach and Daddy are. And I will answer her every time! But then I started turning the question around on her. And then she has to answer me. Tricky Mommy. :)

She has all of her teeth in. The last one is almost fully grown- which doesn't matter when she bites. It still hurts. Yes, she bites. She bites only me (usually), but playfully. But she has left a mark or two.

She also now knows how to roll her eyes. I don't know if she knows exactly what she is doing, but it seems to always fit the situation. :)

Happy 21 Month Birthday Sophie!! xo

Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On

I cannot tell you how frustrating it has been trying to find this girl some jeans that fit her!! She's usually not hard to buy for or to fit, but this definitely wasn't the case this time. I started out going to The Children's Place a while back. I chose to go here first because I bought her jeans here last year and didn't have a problem, and they are decently priced. Also, Zach has always fit into their jeans really well.
So, I buy her two pair. Size 24 months. Bring them home, try them on her, and they are huge and long!! I had to cinch the waist as far as they would go- still big. Tried her shoes on with them- still long. Got the advice to wash/shrink them, but I didn't think they would shrink THAT much to where they would actually fit her. But I try it anyway.
In the meantime, I go to Old Navy to try out their selection. First off, they are very picked over. They didn't even have a size 2t. But since the 24 months from the other store were too big, I figured I should try a smaller size- 18 months. I buy her two pair. Bring those home, try them on...they fit just right! But, almost too short. I am afraid to dry them- they will obviously shrink and then be too short! This is when the frustration starts to set in.
Next, I decide to go back to The Children's Place (different mall) and exchange the other pair for the smaller size. Bring those home, try them on...they are too short!! I couldn't believe it!! Oh my gosh! I go to get the original pair that I had washed, put those on her and guess what. They actually fit her now. With her shoes on, they are just perfect. I don't know if she grew and they shrunk that much, or what. But they work now.
So, of course, I have to go back to The Children's Place one more time to exchange the "too short" pair for a "too long" pair and I guess I will just have to shrink those too. You might think that would recognize me by now.
Is anyone tired yet?? :) Oh, and I forgot to mention that I went back to Old Navy again and checked to see if they got any more sizes in (no luck).
But now we are set.... I think. :)


For Zach: I buy him three pair from The Children's Place. He goes to get dressed for school the other day. The pair pictured above are his and they are kind of "worn" in different places on the legs. As he is about to put them on, he notices this and says, "Mommy, my jeans are ripped" totally in this tone, like "why did you buy me these? they are obviously ripped." I cracked up. I told him that they were supposed to be like that, that makes them "cool." He replies, "Oh." :)

These were too good not to blog about. I mean, it only took me like a month (maybe longer) to find my daughter some jeans, and my son is such a funny little man!

Move Over Betty Crocker!!

Check out what I cooked up (or baked up) for my sister's Fall Fiesta...
Chocolate & Vanilla cupcakes with Buttercream Icing (all homemade of course) ... mmmmm, mmmm, good! :)
Let me know if you need cupcakes for a special occasion. I love to bake!!

Nobody Puts "Baby" in the Corner

Look who doesn't sit in her highchair anymore!!!!! Baby Girl is growing up fast.
It was pretty much her idea to sit at the table (go figure). It just happened randomly one day. I guess she figured out that she could sit there just like the rest of us. She is pretty good about staying in her seat until she is done eating. I have had to separate the kids though. Sometimes they like to play/pick on each other when they are supposed to be eating. And if I get up to do something at the sink, stove, or fridge, you can guarantee that she will turn around and look to see what I am doing. It drives me nuts sometimes!! :) But other than that, she is doing really well.
She was trying to escape before I snapped the picture. I don't know why, but she doesn't always like to have her picture taken anymore. :(