Christmas!

Okay, I"m only like 1 month late, right? We had a great Christmas - travelled between Ft. Worth and Waco and even go to have some snow. With Stephen from Chile, and Ted and Mama from New Mexico, our family was all together! Nate sure loved opening presents - I think he's getting the hang of it now! And we saw some friend that we hadn't seen since their wedding several years ago!

Here are a few of our favorite photos!

Doing his chores, washing dishes

Christmas day, in the snow!
Nate and Dad
my siblings with Nate
Ribbon boy!
Nate and Dedimama (my grandmother)
pose with Dad
Nana hugs
Dedimama and her boys
us girls, after our makeovers!!
like father, like son
Nate and his uncles
helping Papa
Ry and his college buddies and their kiddos
the entire family!
my absolute favorite photo! Can he get any cuter?

Dawn Elizabeth

You would think this could get easier. But it doesn't. And here I go again, sharing the news that heaven welcomed another beautiful soul. This past week, I miscarried our 5th child. I was early on, but both Ry and I had strong feelings it was a girl. We named her Dawn after my friend who passed away 2 years ago.

At least we know the reason, due to my genetic make-up, my chromosomal abnormality. The doctor and counselor told us that we would have to go through more miscarriages if we desired more children. And we have. But it is still hard.

People look at me. "you only have one child?" they ask. If they only knew. I have a large family in heaven! Only another reason to work harder to get there and be with them some day.

Little Dawn, we will already miss you! At least you are comforted in heaven with your siblings and those miscarried babies of our friends and family.

Philip Gabriel, pray for us.

Mary Isabelle, pray for us.

Lucy Grace, pray for us.

Luke David, pray for us.

Dawn Elizabeth, pray for us.

Marriage Encounter...

3 years ago Ryan and I made a marriage encounter. We went up to Ft. Worth, and spent an entire weekend focusing on us, our marriage, and where we were going. 2007 was quite a year for us already, as I was recovering from my d&c after our 2nd miscarriage in January. So, when my parents offered for us to go as a gift, we readily went in February. It was wonderful. That year had many challenges (friends living with us, our 3rd miscarriage, medical issues, and finally our successful pregnancy with Nate), and I truly believe our time spent that weekend helped prepare us for it.

If you are interested in the program, you can find more about it through the National Marriage Encounter of North Texas. And if you decide to go, maybe we will see you up there...

another blog...

So, I've decided to start another blog to share some of the things we cook at our house. I'll also add some tips and tricks that makes our budget go farther,as well as anything else cooking related I can think of.

So, click here and let me know what you think!

Happy Birthday, dear husband...

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Birthday dear Ryan

Happy Birthday to you!

You are my best friend, my knight in shining armor.

You hold me when I cry, and can always make me laugh.

You are the love of my life, and I can't imagine spending it with anyone else.

Happy Birthday, to all that is to come this year!

I wonder...

When I was single, and then when I got married, I had many chores to do. But, at the end of the day, I seemed to get most things done. Now with a toddler, my life has changed.

I wonder if I will ever have a house

without laundry to do,

dishes to wash,

emails to respond to,

blog posts to write,

photos to get printed,

gifts to wrap,

thank-you notes to write,

clutter to remove,

rooms to pick up,

diapers to change,

clothes to put away,

vacuuming,

sweeping,

dusting,

ugh!

I guess it is one of those days, when it seems like my to-do list keeps getting longer and longer and longer. I thought I was finally getting on top of things, doing only 2 loads of laundry (easy enough to put away right), when I realize that I didn't put away the last load, and then Nate falls and gets a bloody lip and bleeds all over my shirt. More laundry!!

I like following FlyLady but even doing that seems overwhelming at times. For those experienced wives and mommas out there, what do you do to keep yourself sane when the list seems endless?

1.5 years (aka, 18 months)

Well, the teen months are drawing to a close. And with them, many changes to our little one. In the last couple weeks, he has started talking, to the amazement of us all. We counted 10 words he can say so far: mama, dada, teda (for Tessa neni), nana, dog, ball, papa, all done, mo (for more) .... and his first word was football!

He's also signing lots more. He knows more, all done, milk, water, tuto (for his pacifier), cheese, noodle, banana, bye, and touchdown.

We've done lots of stuff - Stephen bacsi visited for a week (hadn't seen Nate since the summer) and my cousin Monica came to visit too! We also celebrated Papa's birthday.

We had lots of fun over Christmas, and Nate loved being the center of attention at both grandparents homes. We found out he likes Hershey kisses, and being held by both grandpas. He goes straight for them.

His hand/eye coordination is improving - stacking legos together, putting people in his cars, climbing on the table! He still loves music - especially songs from the Nutcracker. Another fun thing - putting boxes on our head and walking around!

Here are a few pics, and then I'll post some from Christmas.

Snow, with our neighbors in Austin

at the park with Stephen bacsi
Santa came for a visit
Tessa neni and Stephen bacsi got to meet him too!
nose!
Papa's birthday (see Nate using his spoon)
sporting Stephen bacsi's sunglasses
the cousins
box-walking!
at Tessa neni's work
messy dinner!!

another blogger in the family

My sister Tessa, who is living with us this year, has been working on a blog with her AmeriCorps VISTA postition at UT. You can read more about it here. Happy blogging sister!

Happy New Year!

We are finally home, after almost 2 weeks away. Living out of suitcases, no so fun. Seeing our family, though, made it worthwhile.

I'll post info on my 18 month old son this week, as well as Christmas and all. I'm guessing there are readers out there, even if no one likes to comment... :-(

Happy New Year!!