Feliz Navidad 2011

Santa Claus came to our house last night with a few gifts for our boys. They deserve them. Cash (2.5 years old) is a sweet little boy who is getting fonder of his little brother and starting to become his protector. He loves his Daddy so much and copies everything he does. He is currently obsessed with Spongebob, balls, swords, and cars. Guy (7 months old) is a good baby. He is calm, loving, smiley, and such a little sweetheart. He is also very active these days and keeping us busy. If he isn't pulling the Christmas tree down, he is trying desperately to crawl head first down the stairs. Guy loves his binky, blanket, and Mommy. They are both special boys who are going to do great things when they grow up. I'm so priviledged to have a front row seat to all of their life experiences.

Casey and I were pretty good this year too. Santa gave us each a shopping spree in early December. Generous guy. Casey's volleyball team, Plataneros de Corozal, is currently in the semi finals. He is hoping to repeat and win the championship. He misses beach volleyball and is looking forward to getting back home to train for the summer 2012 season. Our family loves living in Puerto Rico and exploring the island. We miss Huntington Beach, our family, and our friends. But we are having so much fun meeting new people and building our Puerto Rican relationships. We are so blessed to have our two little beautiful boys in our lives. We are grateful to our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave his life for us so that we could have the gift of eternal families. That is the most important gift we will ever receive. God bless us, every one!

Christmas Eve 2011

Our household has been attacked by the winter season sickness. Cash started the whole mess by throwing up in the car on the way home from Casey's game on Monday. (Note to self. If you think you cleaned up all of the throw up, don't be so sure. Always take the car seat out of the car, completely take it apart, and hose the entire thing off. Otherwise it will pool in hidden cracks in the bottom and days later when you emerge into the light for a trip to the store for more medicine, your car will wreak. And when you remove the car seat from the car, the hidden vomit will leak all over you.) Casey got a fever later that night and started feeling the usual sore throat, cough, ear ache, body aches, etc that come with the flu. Then Guy woke up with a fever. My boys were seriously a mess. Somehow I never got sick due to either righteous living, healthy living, or a miracle. Fingers crossed. After a week of being shut in vampires, we started living again.

On Christmas Eve, we made Cash's first ever gingerbread house. And let me tell you. It was a disaster. The icing wouldn't dry because of the humid heat, so we had a less than stable house to work with. Cash kept pushing too hard to put the candy on, so it started cracking. And the icing was a hot mess. It wouldn't come out of the tiny hole at the end of the bag without pushing so hard that the bag kept busting at the seam. I had it all over me. It was definitely an experience. Cash loved it.

Our adopted Puerto Rican family (Morales, Rodriguez, and Lopez families) always get together on Christmas Eve to exchange gifts. Cash's first Christmas present ever was opened at this party in 2009 and here we are again with our new baby Guy in 2011. We are so fortunate to be included in their family fun. They make the holidays so joyful and we don't feel so far away from home when we are partying with them.

Baby Guy's first Christmas

I bought this Santa hat for Guy at the store while he was napping and when I got home I realized that it was clearly too small. I almost like it better that way. You can see his ears and he looks like a little Christmas elf.

Feliz Navidad & Merry Christmas

Puerto Rico 2011

The Patterson Family

A Puerto Rican Wedding

We started off the Christmas weekend with Marivi and Jose's wedding on the beach. Casey had a game the same night, so he couldn't come with me. Cash stayed at home with a baby sitter because I didn't want to be chasing him around the beach during the ceremony. Guy was my date. I'm a lucky girl. It was a beautiful wedding and Guy and I were so honored to be a part of their special day.

The attire was semi-formal with men wearing Guayabera's which are traditional wedding shirts in Puerto Rico. Guy's guayabera is a knock off from Old Navy, but it looked almost exactly like the traditional ones. He's so Puerto Rican.

Christmas in Old San Juan

Our friends, the Butlers aka long lost Mexican cousins, left town to go home for Christmas break and we are missing them dearly. We made a trip to Old San Juan with them before they left. We ate at this little place called Cafe El Punto. We had baked empanadas, chicken stuffed avocados, churrasco mofongo, and fresh mango juice. It was so yummy. Then we walked around downtown to look at the Christmas lights. Here are some pictures from the square.

Cash and Carson have become the best of buds here in PR. People always ask if they are twins. Below shows just how much they love each other.

 

The best part is that they were both laughing really hard the whole time that little devil Cash was putting sweet Carson in a headlock and pushing him to the floor. Boys...

Seven months in the sun

Baby Guy turns 7 months old on Christmas Eve. He started crawling last week. I put Cash's food down on the floor so I could wipe off his hands. The next thing I know, Guy is crawling towards the food as fast as he could. He still scoots after a few crawls, but he is already crawling! I’m happy for his milestone, but sad that he is mobile. This means he is going to be getting into everything and that he's not my little newborn anymore.


Guy recently discovered his tongue. He sticks it out and blows raspberries all day long. And just the other day he went from cooing to talking gibberish and squawking. He is using his voice more and more these days and I love hearing him. I'm happy to report that he is also laughing now. Before it was a lot of grunting and little giggles here and there. But you had to work hard for it. Last night I was tickling him and he was laughing so hard that Casey and I lost it. It was youtube baby laughing funny. Too bad we didn't catch it on video. Guy is a sweet baby that loves to eat, watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, pull Mommy's hair, get stuck under tables/chairs, stare at his brother, laugh at Mommy, and put everything in his mouth. He is just the best thing since sliced cheese. 

This is Guy with his girlfriend Mia Butler. He kept trying to make out with her. It was so funny. She was not having it.

 

 I'm head over heels for the boys in my life. They might drive me crazy on occasion, but no one can make me laugh harder or smile bigger.

Christmasing at church

We attended the annual church sponsored Christmas party with the Metro ward. There was a feast, a Christmas story written by President Monson, caroling, sugar cookie decorating, and me trying to keep two kids happy. Casey had practice, so he only came for the first 20 minutes of the party. The rest of the time I chased Cash around while Guy cried. It was a happy time for all. Guy and I enjoyed the caroling the most and Cash loved frosting the sugar cookies.

Santa Claus came to town

We took the boys to Plaza Las Americas to get their pictures with Santa. It was not as joyous a moment as I had built up in my mind. But real life usually isn't, right? We could not get the boys to smile if our life depended on it. They were both so stoic. And Santa wasn't helping much either. He didn't have any candy to bribe them with, didn't ask Cash what he wanted for Christmas, and wasn't doing much to try to get them to smile. They were all just kind of there. So we took a picture of it.

Plaza is the biggest mall on the island. And it is always crowded. Even more so at Christmas time. They have a lot of Christmas things going on, but one of my favorite is the fake snow fall that happens three times a day. We caught one of the snowings (get it?) after our joyous visit with Santa.

Cash waiting for the snow to fall.

Cash mesmerized by the snow falling.

One of the coolest things they have for Christmas season is a Burger King explore area for kids. It has musical instruments they can play, slides, playhouses, free crowns, and free face painting. We stop by there every time we go to Plaza. Cash loves it. He went from experiencing face painting for the first time to obsessing over it. He always wants both cheeks painted, checks to make sure they are doing a good job, wants to watch, wants to help, and then always grabs the mirror and checks himself out after. He cracks me up. Such a funny little boy.