Seth's Baptism

How could I not have written about this sooner? My oldest nephew Seth was baptized last Sunday. It was so special but my camera left her memory card at home! And my mom only took a video which is too long to download to blogger.
Seth moved back here from Boston and we are really enjoying having him here. He is very funny and a very good cousin to Santi, nephew, and grandson. I feel very blessed that we can all be together for the holidays this year.
Today was another great day. In Everything Give Thanks Day at or church was today. The service was mostly songs, scripture readings and a very special communion. Afterwards we all shared a good meal together. Then my sister and her family, the Heida's, and Uncle Joe with Pablo came over. Thanks Joe for the hot chocolate. He now knows the house rule: if you go to It's a Grind, Starbucks, etc. and don't bring home a treat for Laura, don't bother coming over at all.
He put up all our Christmas lights already like he has for my mom for the past 3 years. THis year his goal was to be able to see our house from space! He usually does it after Thanksgiving but he's going to be gone this weekend. The front yard looks really great.
Santi had a great time with all his cousins. They help out so much and really love being with him. He couldn't even take a nap until they all left. He doesn't want to miss a thing.
Now we're ready for bed...at 8pm. yes

Daddy's gone away!

Because beto only gets six months whenever he comes into the US he had to go back to Guatemala for a couple of weeks. He's happy to be able to visit his family but it is really hard without him. He helps a TON and Santi just adores and loves his dada so much. We've talked on the phone three times since he left two days ago and when we put dada on speaker phone, santi just lights up with the biggest smile. tonight when beto said "adios" santi waved good-bye to the phone.
last night santi didn't sleep very well. I think he's teething again and maybe having separation anxiety. hopefully he'll do better tonight.

i am going to try substitute teaching come January but there are a lot of forms to fill out, and unfortunately I let my preliminary credential expire in 2007 so i found out i have to take 30 post-bacc units to get it renewed, plus CPR. I don't know how I'm goin to do that from Honduras when we go back in June. But hopefully I can get a good start here in CA in January.

It's been really fun having Seth, my oldest nephew living with us since Oct. And my mom had the front bathroom remodeled. It looks really nice.

I am bummed Beto won't be here for Thanksgiving but very excited that we can spend Santi's first Christmas here in the States.

Beto's deck, laughter, and Santi's citizenship!

My mom ,aunt, and sister laughing at a really funny story Laura Heida told us. And there's Santi with his American flag he received for becoming OFFICIALLY an American Citizen, with papers and all! Hooray for Santi! In the last picture the lady behind Santi looks like she's playing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." And the pictures with Beto are outside in our backyard where he's building a deck for my mom. We can't wait till it's finished! Sorry the pics are kind of out of order with the text here but there's not as much time now for me as I had in the past. But please enjoy.
P.S. Santi loves reading Runner's World! And then he has to tear it up!

Ashley Beck at In N Out in LA!

Laura Heida , Ashley Beck and I are great old friends from when we were very young. Ashley lives in CO and flew through LA on her way to china with a 6 hour layover. So we went to pick her up and went to In N Out to eat dinner. It was a lot of fun and of course Ashley said Santi is the cutest baby she's ever seen.

Many events

To catch up in fotos they're pretty self explanatory. We went to the pumpkin patch a second time with Aunt Cindy and she graciously paid for us to go into the petting zoo where we spent most of our time and had the most fun! Cindy really has a kind way with animals (and people too of course).

Halloween was fun at our house where Laura Heida came over to hang out. It was lot of fun. Since "the boys", Marcus and Gabe, were there, I asked them to move a heavy piece of furniture for me: a cedar chest. So we opened it up and took out all the very old family heirlooms inside. some older than others. and tried some of them on!

The Harvest Festival at church was a lot of fun where Marcus and Gabe dressed up as Ninja Turtles and the girls as nerds. They all made their own costumes! Very creative!

I didn't wear a costume but i did find a very old sweatshirt from sixth grade...and it still fit! It's from when I was in a sleepover club with a couple of friends.

And you can see I'm trying to enjoy my shake at Ruby's while my aunt Romy intends to scare my son at the lunch table. Simple pleasures.

P.S. The ducks are at a park where we went to feed them. Santi was mesmerized. How did I not get pics of HIM? But aren't the ducks pretty?