My Familia: January 2013

1/31/13

Happy 2013!

The day after the concert we headed back home to pick up the kiddos and ring in the New Year with a couple close friends.

There was a ton of yummy food.

and of course the bartender served up a few drinks. :)

Miss Elena insisted that she needed to wear her skeleton jammies because they glow in the dark!

Cheers!

Elena and Jack were party animals! But Dominic only made it until about 8:30pm :)

Even though this was a low key night at home, there was still some Pitbull and fist-pumping going on! Ha ha!

We ended the night Skyping with most of Robert's family who were having a little get together at his brother's house. Robert connected it to the TV and it was so awesome. Elena loved seeing eveyone 'life-size'!

Happy 2013, I can't wait to see what the new year will bring!

1/30/13

¡Que No Pare la Fiesta!

in other words, Spanish for "Don't Stop the Party!" :)

Robert and I got to go see Pitbull in concert on New Year's Eve Eve! We were so excited because we love his music and it was also at the WinStar World Casino! Which just happens to be the 2nd largest casino in the world. Yes, bigger than all the casinos in Vegas even! It was huge. We decided to get ready in our room and that was a little rough for me. After I got out of the shower I realized that I didn't bring a brush! Whoops. Then I was waiting for my hair straightener to heat up - and it never did! :( It totally broke! So no brush, no straightener to get ready - it is a good thing I am low maintenance! We hit the casino to watch some of the Cowboys game and gamble a little before the concert.

This is about as close as I got to Pitbull all night! ;)

The concert was amazing! What an entertainer! You can absolutely tell that he loves performing and is passionate about all types of music! Robert and I agree that if he is ever close we will definitely be going to his concert again! We had a blast!

Afterwards we did a little more gambling in this ginormous casino. Each section is decorated like a part of the world, it was very awesome.

We even made some new friends and had some drinks with them at one of the many bars!

It was a wonderful way for us to get away and have some time together!

It was actually my first night away from Dominic! Even though we had a great time, the next morning I was definitely ready to get home to my babies!

1/24/13

6 months.

Well I am almost caught up on December so I am going to jump to the present for today's blog post. Dominic is 6 months old today! 1/2 a year has gone by already?? Not possible!!

Little man is officially sitting up all by himself! It is so fun to see him sit and play with toys.

He adores music - I think I have said that before but this kid goes from happy to just plain giddy when someone sings or we turn music on.

Drool monster - surely there has to be a tooth coming in because the drool is just pouring out of his mouth! So much that he has to have a bib on almost all of the time or his shirt would have to be changed multiple times daily!

Speaking of teething, everything goes straight to the mouth for chewing on, including his fingers!

He is ticklish everywhere! I don't think there is a spot on his body where he doesn't giggle when you touch it!
He (as you can see) has the biggest chubbiest cheeks ever! Every single person always comments about how cute they are or even squeezes them! (He gets lots of kisses on them from us too!)
He sticks his tongue out all the time - it is really adorable though. It makes such a cute, ornery little smile.

He loves books, although most end up in his mouth!
It is so much fun for him to be playing with toys now - he loves discovering new things!
He could be in the worst mood ever but he literally lights up when Mickey Mouse comes on TV!
My mom broke out my old keyboard and he went to town playing it! Like I said earlier, the kid loves music.

He is an absolute joy to be around and I cannot imagine our lives without him. He brings so much love and happiness to our family. Happy 1/2 Birthday Little Man!

1/23/13

Christmas {2012}

Christmas morning finally arrived and Miss Elena was so excited!

She jumped right into checking out her stocking.

Dominic started off his first Christmas with a breathing treatment. :( Poor guy. He had been very congested for the past few days. He was still a happy guy, just a happy and wheezy guy!

Then it was on to presents...

Now Elena had been going on and on about the Barbie dream house and asking Santa for it. Every big package under the tree she would say ''oh, this one is mine'! But I told her to check the tag and she would realize it wasn't hers after all. Sneaky Mom and Dad...:) She opened all her presents and was very happy with them and didn't even ask about the dream house. Then I asked her if she got a present from Santa. She said no and I reminded her that we have another tree downstairs and maybe he left something at that tree instead. I made Robert get down there with the video camera ahead of time so we could capture her surprise - it was great! Excuse the weird color on the video - someone had the night vision setting on! :)

Happiest 4 year old ever!

Then we ate breakfast and played with all the new toys before we got dressed and headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

We got there just in time for lunch and also had an unexpected visitor - Phil! It was great to get to see him again so quickly!

Then it was more present opening - Dominic got the hang of unwrapping quick!

We also have a bit of a dramatic present opener on our hands! Ha ha!

We were so thankful that we got to spend Christmas with my parents here and not in a hospital room.

After all the presents were opened there was more playing with presents and of course nap time. Then we got to Skype with Tio Pete and his family! It was great, the kids loved it!

What a busy day already...but it was not over. We still had plans to meet up with the Flores family for dinner and even more presents for the kiddos! (Can you say spoiled??) We decided to take Caldo (Mexican Beef Soup) with us. Oh man, it is so yummy. We have decided that we are going to start a tradition and make it every Sunday in the winter - it's that good. There is not much measuring with the authentic recipes that we have from Abuela so I am going to try to nail do some measurements and then I will be happy to share the recipe with you! :)