December... Where did 2008 go?

Ahhh...December...love this month! Today is December 31th - the last day of the year 2008! It seems unbelievable! It went by so fast. As I look at these pics of my girls, I must say, it's a little bittersweet. The year went by so quickly. Did I say that already? And, at times, I find myself wishing the world would just slow down a little so that I can have a few extra moments to enjoy my little ones, while they are still little and so precious. The Lord is bringing us another little one in the new year of 2009, just 5 1/2 weeks away. And that is very exciting - but at the same time, it is just another reminder of how quickly the ones I already have are growing. But, I have to say that I have had a great year. And, this December was especially special. I love Christmas time and watching my kids during this time of year - Kyla was absolutely excited to wait for Santa to come on Christmas Eve. She could barely sleep and kept waking up to see if he had come yet or not. And Emery, on Christmas morning, just followed along with anything that "Sissy" did. So, she was just as excited. And, Kyla just turned 5 on the 19th! So much happens during this month. Here are a few snap shots from the month of December. Such a great time of year!





Hey Mauro, where did my head go? Needless to say, this pic did not make it onto the Christmas card.



Kyla and Auntie Holly at the park near Auntie Holly's new San Fran apt. Michela and the kids were there too to make Christmas cookies.




The HUGE buzzard that landed in my back yard - and no, it is not a Hawk - it's a turkey vulture - or as we call them, "Buzzards".




Kyla and her birthday gift. Her my Twinn Doll, "Lyla". Get it - Kyla and Lyla! Ha - I'm so clever!




Yay, SANTA!!! But notice how Emery was not too excited about seeing him??? I'd be careful if I was her. Doesn't he see you when you are pouting, and naughty and nice and such... Oh wait... He was right there, of course he saw her...




My mom made me a pair of pajamas for Christmas...Something doesn't feel quite right??? Do these make me look fat?




Emery opening her Diego doll on Christmas Morning - it even says her name! And it tells her when it is time to wake up, eat, take a nap, and go to bed. So cool! She is totally in love with Diego. Can't blame her - he's a hot latino - she is her mother's daughter, after all!

Christmas Time!

We love Christmas here at the Cortes Casa. I love to decorate the house and plan what the girls will get from "Santa". I attempted to take our Christmas card pics this year. They are not as good as when my friend Nicky does them - actually, no where near as good. But it was a challenge and I was up for it. We even got my sister Holly to do a Christmas Picture as well. She recently got her hair cut and she decided to get a makeover just for the picture. We had a lot of fun!






Auntie Holly's makeover. Compliments of Kyla! Kyla had a lot of fun doing this. So did we. We did not even plan to get pics until after the makeover was done. I told her to put on that huge, red, maternity sweater (it's even huge on me) and to stand in front of the tree. I was laughing so hard I peed my pants a little. No joking - remember I am pregnant and have a baby pressing down on my bladder! Sneezing, caughing, eye blinking, any amount of added pressure - VERY DANGEROUS!

Autumn!

It has been quite awhile since I have blogged. So, finally, here are some updated pics of the girls. We have had a lot of fun these last few months with the Autumn season and all the activities that come with it, pumpkin patches and birthday parties...

Emery and her "Boon" at cousin Tori's Birthday party. She was a butterfly or a "f-i-ee-" as she calls it.










Kyla as Minnie Mouse at the Harvest Party.










Pumpkin patch at the Rail Way Museum.


Emery being cute at the pumpkin patch


Kyla on the hay bail fort.


The Sanfran skyline at sunset from the Bay Bridge - I took this pic on the way to Michela's birthday celebration. Of course I had to do a lot of cropping to get the blurred bridge cables out of the pic.


Sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge - view from the Bay Bridge.

Autumn!

It has been quite awhile since I have blogged. So, finally, here are some updated pics of the girls. We have had a lot of fun these last few months with the Autumn season and all the activities that come with it, pumpkin patches and birthday parties...

Emery and her "Boon" at cousin Tori's Birthday party. She was a butterfly or a "f-i-ee-" as she calls it.










Kyla as Minnie Mouse at the Harvest Party.










Pumpkin patch at the Rail Way Museum.


Emery being cute at the pumpkin patch


Kyla on the hay bail fort.


The Sanfran skyline at sunset from the Bay Bridge - I took this pic on the way to Michela's birthday celebration. Of course I had to do a lot of cropping to get the blurred bridge cables out of the pic.


Sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge - view from the Bay Bridge.

Hats and Glasses

I'm not sure why, but Emery loves to wear hats and glasses.





And, I just noticed that in one of these pictures she has food on her face - even when she is not eating... Well, it's no secret that she loves her "ummies"... and another she has a runny nose. It's like I don't keep my kids clean or something.

News! What Is It???

Thats right, it's another girl! We have decided on the name Ayelén Joy. Ayelén(pronounced AH-YEH-LEHN)is a Mapuche Indian word - the mapuches are one of the native indians from Chile. It means "to smile", or the word for a smile. So, we thought it would go great with Joy.
She's cute!

Superfluous Pictures

Nothing important. Just superfluous. And, by that I mean completely unnecessary, unnessential, and unneded. Just thought I would share a little bit of my world with all of you - my day to day life. Like...

My addiction to Starbucks. I just had to have it today! A Grande White Chocolate Mocha and a chocolate criossant...


Emery eating baked beans, and posing for a picture for the very first time... (Look closer. It's all over her!)


Kyla just being herself...


My goofball sister. No explanation needed...



I've always wished to be a gifted and talented writer. To have my words shape and pursuade generations. But there is no eloquent way to write about my life, except to just share it as it is. No pretty words or fancy speech...It is what it is...full of sticky hands and faces, bruised knees, temper tantrums, and dirty dishes in the sink. What can I say - but that I love it!

Kindergarten and Reptiles

Well, it's official. Kyla started Kindergarten. Most of you know that we have chosen to home school our kids in order to open up more doors of opportunity for them in the future. I am actually really surprised that Kyla took to it so well. I was expecting more argument, and some displays of her strong will, to not complete her work. But, she seems to be growing out of some of that, and is finally ready to learn. She was so excited to wake up last Tuesday, open up her Hannah Montana Backpack, take out her "ABC" folder and her "Number" folder, and to complete something from each folder. During the week, we played ABC games, worked with colorful manipulatives, and made a project with glitter glue for the letter "Gg", of course. She is excited to show Mauro her "Finished Work" folder each day when he comes home from work. Grammy and Bumpy each got to see it, as well, when they stopped by for a visit. She even wanted to get books about reptiles, this week, on our weekly trip to the library. So, what did Papi bring home for her on Friday that he found at the job site? Yes, you guessed it - a snake - a juvenile gopher snake, to be exact. She was very excited! Yep, so yippee - we have a pet snake. Well, at least for ten days until we release it back to the wild so that it can eat again. Cause, their is no way mommy is going to feed that snake dead mice that I have defrosted from my freezer!!!!! I about died when I read up on that. No way am I going to have dead, frozen mice in my freezer! Since "slivery", as Kyla has named him, is still a baby, and quite small, I am hoping, for know, that crickets will suffice... Yikes! Anyhow, it has been a great week, and I am looking forward to many more.

Mauro's Parents

We had a great visit from Mauro's parents. They left to fly the 12, 000 miles back to Chile on the 30th of August. We spent some great time camping at Putah Creek at Canyon Creek Campground and we took a 3 day trip to Fort Bragg and spent some wonderful time at the beach. Great memories!

One Fat Lip

We had the pleasure of our first Emergency room visit on Thursday night for an accident. (We've been before, but not for blood and such.) Emery fell from her sister's arms after being bounced and tossed in the air. Sissy thought that it would be fun... Emery bit her lip so hard that it was pouring blood and swollen at least 3 times the size it should be. She took the whole incident really well. She only cried from the pain of initial shock of it and during the clean up at he bathroom sink - and then she was done. What a trooper. I thought for sure she would need stitches. And, as it turned out, that although it was deep, it was not quite deep enough for stitches. (You can only see the swelling and the bruising of her lip in this picture. The laceration is on the underside of the lip.) And since it was right below the line of her lip (in the dip between lip and chin) the ER Doc said glue would work just fine. Thank goodness!!! I did not have to sit though the trauma of stitches. I probably would have needed to have taken a sedative for MY nerves. And, as for Kyla, after some necessary "punishment" for breaking the rule of picking up her sister, and numerous lectures from her Papi, she learned a new word - CONSEQUENCES!!! When you do bad things, bad things happen. (A good lesson for us all to remember, by the way.) We always said this would happen, and now it did. Kyla has promised to never pick up her sister again, or throw her, or bounce her, or anything henceforth similar...We'll see how long that lasts...she was pretty upset and scared for her little sister, however. I think the lesson will stick this time. (She also promised that she would never pick up her "baby brother" without our assistance, as well. Yes, she wants a brother. We'll have to wait and see in about 5 1/2 weeks - at or around week 20. But she is convinced it's a brother.)

Day Trip to San Fran

We took a day trip to SanFran with NaNa and TaTa with my sister Holly as the tour guide. We took in the highlights, Baker Beach, Crissy Field, Museum of Fine Arts, and the Japenese Tea Gardens. It was a lot of fun to do the actual touristy type of stuff.



Baker Beach. I thought you could see the Golden Gate bridge from here????? Oh wait..I think I see the bottom of it, right there in the corner??? Typical summer day in Sanfran...


Emery never looks at he camera - so I guess this is the next best thing -potito...


We found this cute little girl on the beach...