A Party for New Years eve 2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011!

We were invited to our friends the Gustafson's for a fun New Years dinner and party -- in New York time! Maryanne and John Gustafson are the parents of sweet little Gwenyth, who goes to Mostessori Central with Sofia. They also have a son, Eric, who is 6 and goes to Mullan Rd. It was such a good idea...we brought an appetizer and a dessert, and they had fixed an amazing dinner for all of us. Maryanne's Mom and stepdad were visiting from Virginia, so they were there, plus another family from their neighborhood (Eagle Ridge), who had 2 boys that Audriana knew from Mullan Rd, too. All the kids had a great time playing, plus watching Despicable Me, and then watching the ball drop in Times Square at 9pm (thank you CNN). It was a great night and we were home by 10pm.
Kids watching Despicable Me....such a cute movie!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! 2011 IS HERE!

I LOVE my little angel....



I also love this little angel......Happy New Year, babe! May 2011 bring us even closer together! : )

Gwenyth, Sofia, and Audriana

John braved the freezing cold temps to turn on his gas grill and bbq some amazing meat for us. It was marinated and so delicious! Served with white rice, brocoli, and lots of snacks and appetizers....we all left feeling extremely full (but sooooooooo happy)!

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2010!

We decided that Grandma should come home with us and spend the night with us - Aunt Kristi has been doing it for years and it works out good because then they are there for the early morning wake up call when the girls discover that Santa has indeed arrived and left gifts for them. Since Jay was spending the night in Ephrata, she gladly accepted! It was fun for the girls, too! They set out their thank you notes for Santa, as well as a plate of cookies for Santa. Since we didn't have any carrots for the reindeer, Audriana left out some lettuce, then left a note for Santa explaining the situation. She's a stong believer....god, I love her.

Aunt Kristi always sleeps in with the girls and Mom slept on the couch with her heating pad, a bunch of blankets, and pillows. She said she was really comfortable.....I hope so.

Christmas morning in front of the tree............a couple of really good girls who were definitely at the top of Santa's nice list! Yeah!

Santa's gifts.........

Martin and his incredible Nacimiento! The Reason For The Season! Thank you babe for your memories and your Nicaraguan traditions that we have incorporated into our family!

I love this picture....such a happy moment.

Nice new wool stockings! Filled to the brim, too!

Yesssss! Santa really listened to Sofia! She wanted a Hello Kitty clock!

Christmas is a time for relaxing, chatting, computing etc. Mom helped Kristi pick out and buy her new Kindle!

THE BIG NEWS IS THAT SANTA BROUGHT OUR FAMILY THE WII! Audriana has been asking for the Wii for 3 years...so she was quite certain that he would come through with it this year. He even gave us the black one that she wrote about in her letter! We got Wii Fit, some StarWars Wii light sabers, some Wii games, and an extra controller so 2 people can play together!

After dad got it all set up, Audriana got to work on creating all of us (Mii's). She created herself, Sofia, Dad, Mom, Aunt Kristi, Uncle Mike, Grandma, Grandpa, Ryan, Noah and Micah. Thanks Audriana!

LET THE WII PLAYING BEGIN!

It wouldn't be Christmas without Martin making his special Nicaraguan chicken dinner (steamed in plantane leaves). He spends a day just cutting up the vegetables for the stuffing, then a couple of hours preparing the chicken, stuffing it, wrapping it in plantane leaves, and steaming it for 3 hours. He serves it hot with plain white rice, baquette bread and a green salad. yum.

Christmas Eve at Mom's 2010

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE EVERYONE!

It's times like these that I remember and reflect about how incredibly lucky we are to be a part of such a close and loving family. I love the traditions that my mom and dad instilled in us as kids. I love that my mom still makes Christmas happen for all of us -- even though all her kids are in their 40's! THANK YOU MOM! I can't express how grateful I am for you....you make all of us feel special....especially my girls. They got to spend a full 24 hours with grandma and helped her shop, bake, decorate and cook -- they had a lot of things to do to get ready for Christmas Eve at her house! It was such a gift because Martin and I got to spend our 10 year anniversary alone -- nothing too romantic....just shopping, wrapping, and getting our house "Christmas-Ready"! We did get to go out to dinner together, though (PF Changs!). We also got the gift of sleeping in (!) on the 24th, and we took full advantage of that by having coffee in bed watching the news together...relaxing before our big afternoon and evening at mom's.

We got to mom's around 12:30 and marveled at all the things that the girls had done over there -- they especially loved showing us the chocolate peanut butter rice krispies balls that they made! Mom was finishing making her chili, and we had a couple of hours before we had to leave for the 4pm Christmas Eve Mass at St. Mary's, so we all relaxed and chatted and listened to Christmas music. Jay had left for Ephrata earlier, so we were missing him, but knew that he was having a great time with Lisa, Scott, Ryan, Noah and Micah. The girls got dressed (see outfits above) and we left for mass.

When we got back from church, we waited for Uncle Mike to get there, and then we ate our chili dinner. We all felt a little rushed, though, because the girls were just a little impatient to get to the gift opening!

Lots of gifts......seriously, my mom, sister and brother always go way overboard for these 2 lucky girls. They are so close and loving to our girls...another reason we are grateful and blessed for our close-knit family. It's a great feeling knowing your children are loved to their core.

In between the girls' gifts, the rest of us got to open a few presents, too! Mom and I gave Kristi some Amazon bucks so she could go online and order herself a Kindle! She was very happy! Mike already has a Kindle, so we got him some Amazon bucks too so he could order some more books. In fact, we got the same thing for mom because Jay was surprising her with a Kindle this year, too! We also got Mike a cool puzzle of a cute picture of him and the girls on it. Mom got Martin some jeans and a sweater, plus we got a Costco gift certificate and a new coffee maker!

At Church and ready to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

This picture was taken early in the evening, before we went to Church....Aunt Kristi wanted the girls to open up 1 special gift from her, and of course they didn't argue! She got them mini Miche purses! So cute! The biggest surprise was how much Audriana LOVED hers! She immediately put one of the shells on and put it on her shoulder. Mom and Kristi got her some lip balm, a note pad, a pen, and a dollar bill to put in her purse. Oh yeah, and some kleenex (thanks mom!). Sofia put the same things in her purse and the girls were so excited to take their purses to church. So very cute! THANKS KRISTI!

Martin got to open a gift from Kristi, too...........see below.....LOL! It's the one thing that he definitely wanted - a Survivor Nicaragua buff!!! HAHAHAHA! Looking good, babe! Oh yah, I was lucky enough to get a big Miche bag from Kristi -- I love it!

Here's Audriana with her purse....

Sofia enjoying some quiet time with Aunt Kristi's Iphone.

Happy 10 year Anniversary!

10 years ago today I married my best friend. It was a day I will never forget - a smalland intimate wedding (maybe 60 people or so) -- my mom and I had so much fun planning this wedding! We were married at St. Joseph's Catholic Church here in Spokane in the early evening. It was snowing outside and everyone was in the Christmas spirit! Deacon Chalo did a wonderful job of incorporating both English and Spanish into the mass. Todd, Pam and the girls flew out from Pennsylvania, Mike walked me down the aisle, Kristi was my maid of honor, along with my friend Rachel Boals, Lily and Brook were my flower girls, and Juan Carlos was our ring bearer. Martin had his brother in law, Bayardo, and his cousin, Martin Reyes as his groomsmen. It was very special for him that his Tio Juan Reyes and Tia Coco Reyes could fly up and be with us, repesenting his mom and dad and his entire Nicaraguan family. Martin's sister Karla and her husband and son were also there. After the wedding, everyone drove up to the Glover Mansion for our reception. My mom had put a little note in the wedding invitations for everyone to bring an ornament for our wedding tree, so it was a lot of fun watching people enter the mansion and place their ornament on the beautiful tree. We still treasure these special ornaments and put them up every year on our special "Wedding Tree".

The last ten years have been full of fun and adventure. Because of our union, we have 2 beautiful and wonderful daughters. We cannot imagine our life without them and know that we were meant to all be together. I thank God for these blessings and look forward to many more years together! Happy Anniversary Babe!

Conservatory Lights and the Live Nativity! Awesome!

We joined the Lund family tonight for a couple of really fun Spokane Christmas traditions -- the first being the Conservatory of Lights up at Manito Park. I don't know how many thousands of lights that they put up, but it is just amazing. It is so cold outside, but once you step inside the Conservatory, you are transformed into a warm and tropical oasis -- all in lights. They do this every year and it is always free for all to walk through and enjoy the beauty of the plants and poinsetta's. This time, they were giving out free banana splits just outside the door -- seems kinda funny, but it was actually pretty good (especially once you got inside and warmed up!).
Here are the kids eating the banana splits....Sofia, Audriana, Everette, Kendra and Addy. They loved walking through the Conservatory and looking at all the lights together.

After the Conservatory, we headed back down Hatch hill to 195 and stopped at the Live Nativity. It was so beautiful and we all enjoyed being there to witness the "reason for the season". A great teachable moment for our girls -- to move out of the circle of Christmas commercialism, and to bring us to the moment of Jesus' birth. Awesome.

The church that put this on, had hot coco and goodies for everyone to enjoy -- so of course we all accepted with gratitude. : )

Sofia helping make Nicaraguan Chicken!

It wouldn't be the Christmas season if we didn't have Martin's Nicaraguan Chicken dinner a few times during the month of December! This time Sofia is watching and helping her dad. Who knows....maybe someday she will be carrying on this tradition. It is Martin's mom's recipe and one that he grew up eating each Christmas Eve at midnight. It's a wonderful ritual and one that I hope lasts forever!

Stuffing the bird with the vegetable stuffing.....then wrapping it up in banana leaves and steaming the whole bird for approximately 3 hours!

Un-tying the banana leaves....

Yum.....cut up and ready to eat! We love it!