Thanksgiving 2011

It was Carmen's first Thanksgiving and she did wonderfully as she sat at the table with us eating her squash (she's a great eater and prefers veggies over fruit!). We ate outside. The weather was beautiful!

We had a great Thanksgiving day at my sister's house with her family, inlaws, and my parents. I got some great pictures of my parents and the kids, but forgot to capture myself!

Aren't these the best turkey bibs? The girls loved them...

It's impossible to get a great picture with 2 kids and 2 babies, but I sure tried!! Here are the cousins minus Noah...

and my little ones!

David was actually at the Cowboy's Thanksgiving game but we met up with him later in the evening to watch the UT/A&M game, which I actually missed the last quarter of because I went black Friday shopping! I couldn't help it!

It was a great day all in all!

Vince - just shy of 4

Vince my prince has grown up so much! He's a clown and a genius, all rolled into one. He doesn't stop moving or talking, EVER! lol.

His vocabulary is limitless. If he doesn't understand a word, he asks about it. He sings songs and interchanges words to make it his own song. He dances around and makes silly noises to entertain his sister constantly.

He says the funniest things... he tells us we live on Mulberry road because that's where Hucko, from Busytown Mysteries lives. He watches him on his (mommies) ipad. He loves watching Netflix on there! Some of his favorite shows are Diego, Chuggington, Little Einsteins & Backyardigans. He can navigate the ipad very easily, sometimes showing us or my parents stuff we don't know. It's loaded with books and games for him of Thomas and Toy Story. He loves playing angry birds, and recently started using a link from there to go to Youtube to find more cartoons. We have to watch him closely when he does that ;).

He's probably in the minority of three year olds that have a computer in his room. We recently hooked up my old college computer and he plays games on it, mostly "Putt Putt". A game he navigates a little car around to get gas and save animals. And he of course has Netflix on there.

He loves drawing. He draws me monsters and trains all the time. The monsters usually have a ton of feet! and the trains have a lot of tracks!

He still plays with his trains a ton (I vowed this year not to buy him any because after all, he has over 60 trackmaster trains!). I almost succeeded until the Thomas franchise put out a new movie with new trains - Day of Diesels. We just bought him one and have a couple in tow for Christmas.

He loves going to Grandma's house and would rather be there than at our house anytime. Grandma and Grandpa love playing with him and pick him up everyday from his "school" at 2:30.

He is so observative like his daddy. We went to a Ranger's game a couple months ago. About a month later, we were going down the same road, Industrial/Collins, and he asked if we were going back to the baseball game. We asked him why, he said, we passed that golfball place last time we went! He also memorizes things easily. He learned a prayer at school on for their Thanksgiving feast and recited it to us after school on Tuesday. At the dinner table on Thanksgiving, I asked him to say grace and he did it flawlessly. It wasn't short either and I couldn't recite back immediately.

He doesn't always listen or sit at the table when we want him to eat, or share toys for that matter, but he is still our prince. We love him so much and glad he is the big brother to our little girl.

Here are some pictures from the last couple months...

at his pumpkin patch at school...

at my work for Halloween with Carmen...

and at home, when he decided to make every puzzel that he owned, many couldn't fit in the picture...

We let his hair grow long so he could be Diego for Halloween. Everyone loves it but us, so we'll see if we continue to let it grow or not!

Carmen - 8 months

Our baby Carmen is 8 months old. Her face and personality are changing so much. She started to crawl at 7.5 months and still does not crawl a lot. She is very slow when she does too!

She is a huge mama's girl right now, which means, if she's with anyone and she sees mom, she starts whining until she gets to her mommy. She still has a great, laid back personality and does not fuss much unless it's warrented with hunger or tiredness. However, don't take anything she has in her hands away from her because she'll get mad!

She loves her big brother so much and laughs at all the silly stuff he does. Brother returns the love and always wants to hug her. He calls her his baby and will only let me refer to him as big brother around her.

She walks all over the house in her walker. She loves to visit Vince in the playroom and watch him play. She also loves taking the kitchen towels from the oven, taking magnets from the fridge, and grabbing the trash bag from the trash can. This week she knocked over the trash can and a stool back to back! She's funny the way she controls the walker, she'll go into the laundry room, then look back and reverse as if she's driving a car.

She loves waving at everyone. Maybe not at the correct times. She just waves and waves. After she waves, she puts her hand to her mouth back and forth to make noise in what I call the Indian. After a bit of that, she grabs her other hand and pumps them up and down, doing what I call the hammer. I love the wave, Indian, hammer combo.

She started babbeling as if she is talking to us this week. She especially does it if you put her in front of a mirror.

Unfortunately she is somewhat sickly. For the past month she has been sick non-stop and she's had congestion and coughing problems since birth. Antibiotics couldn't get her healthy recently. It probably stems from allergies. She is actually on steriods right now to try and get her better. She had chest x-rays recently that showed either pre-asthma (Vince has asthma) or a broncial virus, but her dr thinks it's both. I'm learning all about the respiratory system and asthma so we'll get her better soon with all her treatments we do daily!

We are blessed to have this angel with us. She loves and is loved by our whole family. Her 8 month birthday fell one day before Thanksgiving and 2 days before daddy David's 32nd birthday. Happy 8 months Carmey!

Carmen - 6 months

Carmen is 6 months old. At 6 months she is 17 lbs 12 ounces (75%) and is in the 95% for height. She has finally started rolling over a bunch. And at about 5.5 months old she was able to sit up and not fall!

She loves bouncing in her entertainment center, walking all over grandma's in her walker, and is really into grabbing everything she can. Including a plate if your eating. She makes very high pitched screetching sounds when she is excited or mad. She wants to crawl so bad as she watches everything that goes on around her and wants to participate. She's very close to crawling. I'm sure she'll get it down in the next month.

She hasn't fallen into a good sleep pattern during the day and takes cat naps all day long, mostly at grandma's house. She hangs out most days there with her baby cousin where they take turns eating each other's heads, pulling hair, or accidentally hitting one another! She sleeps 12 to 13 hours at night though without food. However, she wakes up plenty needing her pacifier to fall asleep. And lately she's been waking up at 4 and is ready to party. I have to hang out with her for a bit before she goes back to sleep. I'm hoping she can start finding her paci's in her crib by herself soon. She does sometimes now.

Carmen absolutely adores big brother Vince. She watches him and smiles. He goes the extra mile to act goofy so she can laugh, and she always does! He wants to play with her and carry her around all the time and always refers to her as his baby or our baby.

Vince is his own Mr. Personality these days. He's very strong willed and has his own mind, which doesn't always agree with our minds! He's gotten into trouble lately at school for not listening, so we are working on that. However, he is the happiest child and plays and talks non-stop. I think he is the class clown, but he also one of the brightest in the class. He listens to everything we say and repeats it. Me - "Vince, come put on your pj's". Vince (not wanting to stop playing) - "fine mom, fine!".

Carmen has finally started eating baby foods instead of spitting them at me. Well, she still spits them at me, but now she also eats some. My parents give her solid foods to suck on sometimes. So apparently she loves her some bacon! And she also won't put a tortilla down!

I'm so glad the hot weather is gone, but that means allergy season is in full effect for Vince and probably Carmen too. We think she has allergies and asthma like her brother. She has been congested almost since birth and has been sick quite a few times. She has her own steriod inhaler and we do treatments for her as needed. At least we have all the equipment already!

So, although I am not looking forward to allergy/sick season the next few months, I am excited to spend the upcoming holidays with my beautiful family!

Baptism - The after party

We had an after baptism party for Carmen and Max at a local kids place. Over 80+ friends and family joined in the fun!!

There were goodies...lots of people, drinks, & balloons..

and a playplace!


Vince had a blast on this airplane that would go side to side!

our family continues to expand with youngsters!

and here are my lovlies!

and Carmen with best friend & cousin... 3 months apart and Carmen outweighs her... aww.. my big girl!

It was a fun affair! And all for 2 little babies baptisms!!

Carmen's Baptism

Carmen was baptized on September 4th at St. Peters church in Laredo, TX. Also baptized was my cousin's son, Maximilliano Mendez. Carmen wore my baptism dress and was on her best behavior the whole chruch and baptism.

In attendance were countless family members. Here are some pictures that will help us remember this joyous occasion...

Carmen - 5 months old!

My baby girl, Carmen, is 5 months old. At 5 months, she weighs a little over 16 pounds (at 4 months she was 15.5), which is about the same weight as Carmen's cousin Myca that is 3 months older (Carmen's a big girl!) At her 4 month check up, she was in the 98th % for height and 90th for weight.

She is still a very calm baby that loves just hanging out and observing the world around her. She has rolled over only a handful of times, but if put on her belly, she keeps her head very high and has signs of crawling as she tries to move her legs but can't figure out how to move her whole body with her.

She is still nursing but switches very well to the bottle while mommy is at work. I am working part time temporarily and cherishing every moment that I have with Carmen and Vince. Carmen goes to bed around 8pm and sleeps 8 hours until about 4am. That is a hundred times better than Vince, so I'm happy with it, even though it leaves me sleepy to wake up every night.

She laughs at silly faces and noises (daddy makes her laugh the loudest!). Loves her big brother Vince and is always watching him. She definitely prefers me, (who doesn't prefer mommy!), but she knows who her daddy, brother, grandparents, and extended family is... like her best friend, baby Myca. They all spend a great deal of time at grandma's hanging out.

What else... Carmen is a pacifier addict. She has one attached to her at all times. She makes shy faces when she sees someone new. She is a poor napper, but makes up for it at night. She has tried a few baby foods but still has the reaction of spitting it out so she's not ready yet for food, but will be soon!

We love our baby girl and glad she is part of our family with big brother Vince. Here are some recent pics of us!

Vince bounces on his ball while Carmen bounces in the entertainment center...

we almost got Carmen in the pic, she tends to eat whatever is under her during tummy time..

David loves doing this to the kids. But shows off for the camera doing double duty!

and finally, one with mommy!!! next time I'll wear makeup!

Cancun

In July (2011) we took a big week long family vacation to Cancun, Mexico for my cousin's wedding. My whole family went, including sisters & their families, as well as several extended family members. It was a great trip and we stayed at the Cancun Palace, a wonderful all inclusive resort.

View from our room... where we had room service breakfast on the patio almost every morning we were there... Vince got the hang of room service... he would tell us to call the man to bring us food!!

Baby Carmen was a little over 3.5 months old for this trip. She was a trooper and hung out at the pool with us...

(i'm pretty sure we spiked her hair on purpose :)

But her and big brother Vince took their share of naps by the pool!! In the picture below, Vince is asleep with David, Carmen next to them is also asleep, as is my niece Myca in the pink!

We did a fair share of hanging out at the pool... well, at the pool bar...

We did, however, do an excursion to the Mayan ruins in Tulum.

Vince came along but Carmen stayed back at the hotel with Grandma & Grandpa. Vince loved the iguanas, or Anacondas as he called them. He's very into Diego right now, so he was in to the jungle scene.

more pics of the ruins...

it was on a beautiful cliff that overlooked a beach..

Vince and his favorite cousins there...

Vince, aka "Chente!"

The actual wedding and rehearsal dinners were wonderful as well. Unfortunately it rained on the wedding day so it had to be moved indoors.. but that didn't stop the fireworks at the wedding!!!

More pics from the rehearsal/welcome dinner that was on a terrace...

Love how Carmen and Myca are looking at each other!

And some more misc pics...

At the pool bar...

Us at the wedding ceremony..

Selena and I parasailing in a bench with no seatbelt! She kept telling me that if we fell, the impact would kill us. Talk about a relaxing adventure!

and last but not least, Carmen with her Tia and Tio...

Very fun vacation. When we got home, we were ready to go right back. Until next year... Punta Cana??