Wedding and early b-day party

We had a lovely time at Dora's (Omar's sister)beautiful wedding this past weekend. The girls were flower girls and Omar walked Dora down the aisle with his mom. The cutest thing happened as the girls headed down the aisle with their baskets. Elena and Erin, the other little flower girl, did just as instructed and dropped their flower petals one by one. Meanwhile Marisa followed right behind them, but she had a different agenda. When she noticed that the girls were dropping their petals she began picking them up one by one right behind them and putting them in her basket. It really was adorable, and I wish I had it on video. Instead I had to intervene otherwise the bride would've never made it down the aisle since Marisa is excellent at "picking up." In hindsight I should not have been surprised since she enjoys picking up after herself and Elena often. Congratulations and best wishes to Dora, Doug, Briana, and Annabelle!!















Later that afternoon we had an early birthday party for Elena. She had been insisting on having a pinata for her birthday and we didn't know how we would have one without invitees here in Austin since we just recently moved so we took advantage and had it in Brownsville with all her cousins present. And her cousin Andy also has a November birthday so we made it a double birthday party. Luckily Elena loves Cars so the theme was liked by both.








Finally, Mark Chesnutt had a concert that we had planned to attend Saturday night. We didn't make it, but he was staying in the same hotel we were and ran into him during check out so of course I asked for a picture with him. Two celebrity sightings in one year, I wonder who I'll run into next? ;)

Fall stuff

Children's Museum

making tortillas
enjoying playing with real looking food

I took the girls to the Austin Children's Museum for the 2nd time expecting to see the same thing but instead, I was surprised to see most of the exhibits changed. This truly motivates me to come back. I especially liked the exhibit In My Family. The exhibit was completely inspired by one of my favorite books, Family pictures. I think this exhibit was the girls' favorite too. There was Tejano music in the background for dancing, instruments and the cutest set ups for making tamales, tortillas, and traditional Mexican food. If you ever make it with your kids to this museum check out this exhibit and experience a little bit of south texan culture--through a child's eyes anyway. It really did have that feeling when I entered it. And as it turns out, it is a permanent exhibit that I missed previously because it was touring other Children's Museums. Oh and I love how not only this exhibit but all the other exhibits in the museum have all the literacy for each exhibit in English and Spanish. It gives me the chance to brush up on my technical Spanish.

Birthday and Remembrance

This past weekend was the one year anniversary of Omar's father death so we headed to Brownsville to be with family and to attend a special mass given in his honor. It was also my birthday and I was pleasantly surprised with real birthday cake and candles. Thank you to Omar's family for making it a special day for me. Pictures of the weekend below.

With Elena and my nieces and nephew after watching Toy Story at the theatre

What a pretty cake!

Birthday kiss
Breakfast after mass








In memory of Clemente Gutierrez
October 11, 2008

Proud grandparents after Marisa's birth 12/2007

It's warm here in October!

This time last year the girls were apple picking in their fall sweaters/coats--equivalent to a spring coat. Ever heard of a spring coat? Anyway, just yesterday it was warm enough to let the girls play in the pool in the backyard. 85 degree weather in October just doesn't seem right does it? It's okay though, as long as it's not in the 100's we don't mind.

Marisa is 21 months old

Marisa is definitely a toddler now. She is very active and always on the go with curious eyes. She prefers not to sit still for long periods of time and hence has started to dislike her stroller or even the shopping cart. She manages to turn herself around in the shopping cart when buckled in tightly, and ride facing away from me on her knees. She prefers being carried in the sling or carrier over the stroller and I can usually keep her there longer. She can however keep up with my walking pace and more and more frequently I find myself walking both my girls with one of their hands in each of mine, and I realize I have two big girls now...so bittersweet.

Marisa enjoys climbing everything and anything. Omar and I are probably her favorite "things" to climb. She has also started shrieking much like Elena did but to my surprise it is louder and will often cause more head turning. This is one of the difficult parts of toddlerhood for me anyway, and I would say I can definitely see her testing our limits.

Marisa is a typical little sister wanting to be like big sister and wanting to be included in all of Elena's activities. Marisa loves stuffed animals and SHOES!! She loves shoes so much that I have given up putting shoes on her when we go out because she removes them the moment we get in the car. She really just enjoys putting them on and taking them off over and over. She has most success with Elena's shoes so she often wears Elena's around the house. She loves my shoes too of course but her rain boots are probably her favorite. She will walk around wearing them saying bota, bota. She is saying a lot of words and phrases these days and catches me by surprise with new vocabulary...most recently she said the word donut and was actually requesting a donut. A lot of her vocabulary is coming more from her sister than from us. Anything Elena says she wants to say. Like today she said raining right after Elena.

Marisa loves to eat and will try to fill every square inch of her mouth with fistfuls of food. We encourage her to use her silverware and she can use them successfuly, but sometimes her impatience gets the best of her. She loves sweets and anything flavorful. She likes broccoli but only with salt and pepper. This is often the case with many foods.

Marisa is such a little helper much like her daddy. If we're heading out the door and I ask the girls to put their shoes on, Marisa immediately goes to find Elena's shoes to bring them to her. If she sees me picking up toys she's right there helping. She seems to really enjoy every opportunity to help with or without praise.

Marisa has been taking two naps up until two weeks ago. She hasn't dropped the morning one completely though and alternates between one and two. I imagine it will be only one fairly soon.

Soon I will have a two year old and a household without babies. It is flying by too quickly.



blurry but typical smile

shrieking