Pictures of pictures of Felipe when he was about Goo's age. He is so cute!!

Thanksgiving in California

Here are some highlights from our trip to California.

Our hotel in St. George.
The kids get so excited about staying at hotels so we decided to divide the trip in half for them. We also went to the St. George Temple and to the Visitor's Center with them.

Here are some pictures at their abuelo's house. They made tunnels in the couches with Tía Ivy and Otavio and played with prima Gracie.

Felipe and Tía Gracie playing a duet on the piano.

Thanksgiving at my sister Barbara's house. It was also my mom's 75th birthday.

Las tocayas: Tía Carolyn and Carolina.

Cousins Cassandra and Sarah.

My mom turns 75.

My mom's birthday party on Saturday.

With 7 of her 16 grandchildren.

With 4 of her 6 children.

On November 25th Tío Sam and Tía Jean had their beautiful baby boy, Samuel James.
Los abuelos with all of their nietos.

Our adorable new nephew.

The List

This is what happens when Felipe's and Nancy's personalities meet in the context of packing for a trip.

"Let's make a master list of everything we need to bring when we go on a trip. That way we can just print it up every time."

"The List" ends up being about 5 pages with categories: Large Items, Small Items, Clothing Amounts with sub-lists for each person in the family. The List is 3 columns with three categories: Name of Item, Item Ready (to be checked when the item is near the door), Item Packed (to be checked when item is in the van). Then The List includes "Things To Do Before We Go" with three columns. One to write what needs to be done, one to write who is going to do it and one to check off when the thing has been done. Then the List includes things to make sure to do while we are the location we are going to - whether it is to buy a certain thing or not to forget to bring a certain thing home or not to forget to give a certain thing to a certain person, etc.

When The List is complete, with extra space to write in any forgotten thing, it then needs to be emailed, reviewed, and corrected. Then it needs to be printed. Then it needs to find a suitable place to reside where it will be accessible, not get damaged, not get lost, and be easy to write on.

I guess we aren't the most spontaneous family, but we hardly ever forget anything at any house.

Well, we are still working on our list...

Friday Night Thoughts

I am sitting here with little Carolina on my lap just about asleep because I think she is too young to watch "Peter Pan" with the Dada and the big kids.

I have been in a sewing, cooking, baking type of mood lately. I think I feel like this when the weather cools down. Goo woke me up this morning to show me the thin layer of snow that fell last night and more is coming tomorrow.

I have been reading a few sewing blogs and I wish that my sewing projects would turn out as beautiful as some of the projects I saw on the blogs. The problem is that I sew and cook by looking at the directions and then doing things my own way.

Well, I am back to piano practicing again too. I am teaching the kids the basics and I am working at the hymns and primary songs. I actually played all of "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam" the other day and I can play a few more hymns as long as nobody sings along :)

I guess tonight I wish I could sew and play the piano without mistakes. I have to admit that I do like the way I cook and bake. I made salsa, potato and broccoli soup, rolls, and brownies this week and thoroughly enjoyed them. Tomorrow if we have nothing to do I think making some sugar cookies with cookie cutters would be fun.

Peter Pan is over so it is time to put Carolina to bed and go back to my sewing project that has a few mistakes.

Primary Program

Today was the primary program. Wow, I can't believe that I have two kids in primary. Felipe and I are also in primary. We are the teachers of the Goo's class and soon we will have Cassandra's class. Primary is the best calling and we think that our class did an excellent job. Here are some pictures of the kids ready for the program and some videos of them saying their parts.

Halloween and El Dia de los Muertos

For Halloween we went to the park for awhile and then went trick-or-treating at night. Felipe and Cassandra were Thomas the Tank Engine and Cinderella for the third year in a row. Carolina was a Honey Pot with Bees and Samantha wore the little pink Winnie the Pooh warm mameluco - Do we have a name for those in English - like pajamas with feet?

For Day of the Dead Felipe drove us to the cemetery after church. We visited some of my ancestor's graves.

Patience

I am back to saving money. I seem to go through a spending and saving cycle and it seems that around the beginning of every season is when I start saving and at the end I forget and spend too much.

So after realizing that we were spending about $100 a month (or more) on diapers and wipes I decided to start back using the all-in-one cloth diapers I bought last year and using wash cloths or homemade wipes. Carolina doesn't like the cloth diapers and so we have been working on potty-training. Some days she wants to and some days she doesn't. Some days I want to and some days I don't. So it will be nice when we both can handle it everyday.

Felipe will have his Ph.D. in less than a year!!! When I was walking through Costco and looking at all of the beautiful little girl winter dresses for $18 I had to tell myself that and then I stuck to my shopping list. (I still probably won't spend $18 dollars on a baby dress though.)

We just need a little potty-training and money spending patience right now.

Here is the homemade wipes "recipe" that I found online for anyone interested. I calculated that they are quite a bit cheaper than store bought - even from Costco.

• One roll of paper towels
• 2-1/4 cups water
• 2 Tbsp. baby shampoo or baby bath
• 1 Tbsp. baby oil

Cut the roll of paper towels in half, removing the cardboard tube from the center. Mix the water, shampoo or baby bath, and oil in a plastic container (if you have an old baby wipe container, that would be ideal, but you can also use an airtight Tupperware-type container). Place half a roll of the paper towels into the container, put the lid on, and turn the container upside-down to soak the towels thoroughly. When you’re ready to change Baby, pull the towels from the center of the roll.

Gourmet Cooking

I have been trying to learn to cook new foods. Here are some pictures of the egg rolls and sweet and sour sauce I amde. With the left over egg roll wraps I made a fried apple pie and last are the pictures of the tamales I made for Mexico's Independence Day. Today Cassandra and I are going to make a chocolate cake.