Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is the big deal for Seth's side of the family. So, we had his parents and siblings over for tamales and merriment. Seth's mom made a delicious meal that anyone would envy, all I had to do was a salad.
After we were all full, we got our snow clothes on and went for a few runs on our makeshift slide straight off our front porch. It was all fun in games until Seth's near death experience. He jumped on the tube, but face planted it. His entire body lifted up and over, minus his head and neck, that was delayed until the end. All kinds of thoughts ran through my head as he rolled off the snow slide. I imagined the rest of our eve spent in the emergency room, I was so scared. Heavenly Father was watching out for us though, because amazingly enough, Seth was able to get up, walk, stretch and is just fine. Or at least he fakes really good so as not to scare me.

Aurora's Impression of Rique...

or Davey Crockett!

Just like her momma, this girl looks great in hats, any hats.

We love her and she makes us smile everyday.

Snow Snow Snow Snow

Yepee! It snowed enough for us to play in it, and it was Seth's day off so we all got to enjoy it.

Seth found our snow clothes in the shed and we all bundled up to play in the snow.


First Seth shoveled our driveway and sidewalk, Rique helped a little bit and then he joined me to make snow angels and throw snowballs.

After Aurora woke up from her nap we all drove down to a nearby park and slid down on our innertubes. FUN FUN FUN

Aurora waited patiently at the top of the hill as we took turns sliding down. Rique is quite the pro now and loves doing it. Rora even got to go down a few times in her Papa's arms.

Christmas here we come

Here's our Christmas present to Rique.

His name is Miles and he is half Golden Retriever and half Black Lab. He is 3months old and is very mild mannered. The owner will keep him until Christmas morning and then we'll surprise Rique with his gift from Santa. (We're not completely decided as to how we're going to do it all, so, if you have any suggestions, please let me know.)

Now the fun part will be to finish enclosing our yard and finding doggy stuff. We need a dog kennel to keep him in at night. If you have any doggy stuff or know of anyone who might, please let me know.

Our Visits with Santa Claus

If anything, Utah is great for focus on family. Albertsons advertised that Santa would be available for pictures Saturday morning, for free! We packed up our two sweet kiddos and braved the winter snow to see Santa.

He's been asking for years now if he could have a puppy, however, its only been until just recently that Rique understood the power of Santa and took his request to the big guy in red.

Rique hopped up on his lap and answered that, yes, he had been a good boy this year and that he would please like a puppy this year for Christmas. (We tried telling him that Santa only brings toys, but in the movie, Fred Claus, Santa brings a puppy.)Santa looked at him doubtful and asked if he was ready for a puppy, "You know they turn into dogs."

Stumped, but still excited for all the Christmas fanfare, Enrique smiled, accepted his candy cane and took this classic picture with his baby sister Aurora.

Later that day, we found ourselves at the grocery store Macy's and found Santa with his wife this time. So we did the whole thing again, but this time Rique was ready. After Rique told him what he wanted, Santa paused and looked up at me, Rique quickly came up with an explanation to Santa as to why he needs a puppy before he could get shot down a second time. Mrs. Claus commented on what a good talker he was.

Rique's explanation to Santa was: I need a puppy to turn into a dog because there are cats that come and poop in my sand box and I need a dog to bark at them so they won't do that anymore.

With that kind of logic, how could Santa say no.

Merry Christmas

Rique and Rora singing, well I guess its just Rique singing and Rora looking adorable, but it works.

Dinosaur Museum with Grandma and Grandpa Sandoval

We love our Dinosaur Museum! Grandma and Grandpa wanted to go out with a bang, so the last morning they were her we packed up and headed for the museum. I think Grandma liked it as much as Rique.

My favorite thing about the museum is all the activities available for children. It makes it so much fun.

Rique and Rora sitting on top of a dinosaur.

Grandma and Rique built their own dino-creation.

Yikes!

Can you believe its been close to a month since my last entry. I'm really slacking, so sorry Mom and Dad.
Here are the pictures from Grandma and Grandpa Sandoval's visit. We loved having them visit and look forward to seeing them again.
My mom made this sweet dress for Aurora, along with two others. I love the stretchy fabric, thanks Agnus.
Great smile Dad, and Mom, your hair looks great too.

Attentive grandparents

This was our first Thanksgiving Feast in our New Home. It was delicious.

I like this picture even better close up.

Will someone get this monkey off my back?

Our Princess Aurora did not want to play nicely by herself as I prepared dinner and did dishes. She wanted to be held. So I strapped her in the pack and had Rique carry her around while I got the dinner ready...just kidding. I carried this monkey on my back for near an hour, she was happy to be part of everything, and I was happy she wasn't fussing. However, my shoulders are feeling it now.
We took this picture with Aurora and Rique just before the two of them tipped over.

Apples, Apples, Apples, and more Apples

I've been peeling apples all the live long day. I've made bottles of applesauce and applebutter. And now I'm finally done. There are a few more apples on my tree, but I'm hoping to do carmel apples with them.

Aurora kept busy by playing with and eating mushed carrots. As you might've guessed, Rique took all the pictures. This kid needs his own camera.

Snow Snow Snow

These pictures were taken a little after 8 this morning. Usually I have to coax Enrique into getting dressed. Today, he did it all on his own without delay or suggestion. Our backyard is a winterwonderland for our son.

Snow covered everything. I love looking at it in the morning untouched.

These pictures were all taken from the warmth of my house.

This is Seth as he heads off to work in the snow, I know we're silly, but its exciting for us.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Pumpkin Carving Time

This is our gordita covered in food, I think more got on her than in her. Please don't mistake Enrique's face for a smile. He was not impressed by the gooey stuff inside the pumpkin.

My job was to carve the pumpkin, Seth's job was to take out the stuff I carved and Enrique's job was to scoop out the pumpkin guts. Seth ended up doing both his and Rique's jobs.

I think we bribed him with candy to keep scooping.

I should have taken a picture of the finished product, it turned out great.

halloween

Halloween is fun, trick or treating is great, but Enrique prefers handing out candy to the kids in our neighborhood.

This is our family all dressed up for Halloween at the bank.

Rora's a frog, Rique's the Karate Kid, I'm a Halloween cheerleader with pants, and Seth is a stay at home dad with my cabbage patch kid strapped to the front of him. This was taken before any of the festivities began, as you can tell, we are all full of energy and smiles.

Camera's in the car and I keep forgetting to bring it in

I feel terrible its been so long since I've posted anything (sorry mom).
I have been taking pictures and soon I'll remember my head and bring the diaper bag in from the car and put the pictures on the computer.

The other night, our home teacher came over and was teaching Enrique about President Uchtdorf and the lesson from the Ensign.
It went something like this...
"Enrique, do you know what a pilot is?"
"Yes."
"What does a pilot do?"
"Kill Jesus."
Our sweet son got things a little mixed up, I was amazed at how he put things together.
We quickly straightened things out and had him flying a paper airplane around the room.

Halloween package

Yesterday, the FedEx man ding dong ditched us. I opened the door and lo and behold, it was a package from Grandma and Grandpa Sandoval to Enrique and Aurora.

Inside were two perfect costumes, the Karate Kid and a frog complete with lily pad and flower. If that wasn't enough there were also two special goodie bags made and decorated especially for Rique and Rora with their own treats. This year, we let Enrique choose his costume. His choice was "Daniel Sun" from Karate Kid. My mom did an amazing job on the costumes. For Halloween, I'll have to take a picture of the artwork on the back of his top, its great!

Aurora is our baby, so we get to choose her costume. Knowing that the future will probably hold many princess costumes, we opted for something a little different and very comfy. Aurora is often referred to as our little "sapito" (toad). Grandma ingeniously added a lily pad, complete with flower to our toad to accessorize and show she's a girl. Isn't she so adorable?!

Enrique loves his "sapito." The costumes are perfect.
This is our sapito with Rique's pumpkin puppet fingers in the background.

They wore their costumes for the rest of the day. Rique likes Aurora's costume because it is so soft.

We love getting fun stuff in the mail. Thank you Grandma Sandoval.

As I was blogging, I heard some very sweet songs coming from my bedroom. Enrique was with Aurora singing "I am a child of God."

Rique Dances

As we were getting ready to take off in the car. I noticed Enrique on the sidewalk doing his thing. I asked him what he was doing and he said that he was learning how to dance. I loved that the camera was so available. I think its time we put this kid in dance, whatda think?

Vineyard Pumpkin Patch

Yepee! Seth had Saturday off, so after we slept in, we went to the pumpkin patch. Enrique asked his cousin, Adam, to join us and together they ran through the corn maze to eventually find their way out.
This is them after the corn maze. They ran and ran and ran. As you can see, Rique is wearing sweat pants and warm boots. What you can't see in this picture is how soaked they were with sweat.
This is our most recent family picture. Lucky for us, Ariela showed up at the pumpkin patch with Nicole. Thank you for taking our picture.

The pumpkin patch was right next to train tracks.

We took a similar picture with Enrique on his first trip to the pumpkin patch. I think his looked more magical, not Aurora's fault, I think Rique was three months older at the time.