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.