Feliz Navidad

This was our first Christmas as toy assembling parents. Miguel is shown here, after an evening of church and dinner at my godparents' house (Miguel's favorite meal of the year thank you Uncle Terry) assembling a wagon. When he said, "I feel like a real dad now." I had to get the camera. This was taken at 1:30 am and it was still assembled perfectly. Great Job Sweetie!!!


Watching Miguel assemble the wagon and me do laundry, get everything prepared for the Senior Picos to come to breakfast made Zorro very tired.
This is how the front room looked at 2:30, when we went to bed to get 4 hours of sleep. We got cheated out of a long winter's nap but I think it was worth it. Again, everyone working really wore the dog out.
Isa was so cute on Christmas morning! Here she is admiring (gently) a snow globe given to her by Grandma Mary and Grandpa John. She loves the lullaby it plays and she also likes to help shake the snow up from the bottom.
Here she is playing with her stocking stuff. I made the soft book of nursery rhymes but the biggest hit was the set of play keys that make noise when you press the keychain.
Here it is! The finished product with the cutest cargo ever! She loved the wagon and practices pushing it all over the back room. Miguel's parents were furiously snapping photos and Miguel got the camera and nailed about 4 of the most darling shots of her I've ever seen. It goes to show you to leave it to the pros when it comes to stuff like pictures.
Our big girl! She is walking so much that sitting still is no longer an option for her. She's so busy that she can hardly sit still for her adoring fans! Miguel got this shot and I think the expression on her face is so naturally her. She has this look a lot and I love it.
In the afternoon we go over to my mom and aunt's house. Here Isa is sitting on Grandma Jill's lap admiring the bracelet given to her by Auntie and Joel. On it are 3 charms, an angel, gingerbread man, and ladybug. All of which stand for important things in her life, her baptism, first real Christmas, and first birthday. She really loves bling.
In addition to bling, Isa got a baby doll. Pictured here is Isa and her baby both with matching tie on collars in princess pink. How lovely! Thanks Grandma Jill!
How did Isa spend Christmas Eve? While mommy cooked, cleaned, got everyone dressed, bathed the dog, scrubbed the bathroom, did laundry, and ran errands, daddy cleaned, did bills, went on an extensive holiday oddessy of commerce, and helped out the neighbor she played with her barnyard (birthday present from Grandma Jill) and lounged in her pretty pink ballerina jammies.


Merry Christmas everyone! We liked having dinner at Uncle Terry's and Aunt Teresa's house. We enjoyed having John, Mary and Diego over for breakfast. We had so much fun playing games and opening presents at Grandma Jill's. We were so relieved to get to Scott and Andi's for some r&r after such a busy day. Thanks to everyone.

Little Miss Merry Christmas

This morning before church I had Isa in the cutest outfit. FBK of course! She loved the fur on the sleeves and she also loved waving at the pastor the entire time. I think church may be one of her favorite places, everyone there loves her and she loves all the new friends she makes every Sunday. (there are candy canes on the tights in case you can't see! Thanks Kathy!!)

Holiday Elfiness

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

First Birthday Outing

Every once in a while people come into your life and touch it in a way that you never expect. I am of course referring to my godparents. Aunt Teresa and Uncle Terry have loved me like any parent would love their own kid my whole life. They have NEVER once missed a birthday, graduation, party, annual college visit, and the list continues. They have seen me at my best and worst, happiest and saddest, most proud and humbled and have stood there holding my hand and offering praise and comfort like nobody besides my mom can do. I'm only their godchild, not related by blood but you'd never guess by the way they love Miguel, Isa and me.

That mushy stuff being said I just spent the most delightful 2 1/2 hours with them at the mall where we got Isa's picture with Santa taken. She was a little scared at first, but then Santa let her sit in his seat and she took a second look at the naughty list to make sure she would still get her wagon in a week. It was so relaxing to have another 2 sets of eyes to watch her while Miguel and I got to eat, and she loved helping them push her stroller and waving at all the people in the stores.

I was packing up clothes and bottles today missing my baby so much and still so proud that she has grown into such a big girl. I can see why birthdays are such bittersweet times for parents, it's so easy to concentrate on the time that has passed and all the growing that's already been done. Looking forward to an event like a birthday party and seeing Santa helps me look forward to another year with undoubtedly the biggest blessing to Miguel and me. Thanks for the suggestion of doing this Aunt Teresa! It was your best idea! Merry Christmas!!!

More Birthday Pictures

We feel so blessed to have so many people who love our little girl! There were so many presents! She got everything from pajamas to outfits to tons of toys! Thank you so much everyone.
Mom and Kathy with the birthday princess. Isa is sporting socks knitted for her by her Grandma Mary.


The cake mess was awesome! My friend Koren had given me that bib at Katie's first birthday party and I had no clue it would be the exact pattern as the invitations I chose for Isa.

Auntie got the cake for us from Schnucks, I loved it, it was exactly like the invitation and it turned out so well.

First Birthday Party

With Isa's birthday being so close to Christmas, I decided to throw her birthday party on the 13th. There were so many people to invite, I had to look for a place other than our house to have the party. Enter our neighbors, the Shawleys. They offered their house up for the party and then proceeded to do almost all the work for the party itself. There aren't words to express the amount of thanks for all the generosity given to us by our family and friends and especially the Shawleys. I think the party rocked and it was all because of their basement!

Christmas Decorations

I love Christmas decorations!! After Thanksgiving dinner is put away, Miguel and I come home and decorate the house for Christmas. We used to do this drunk, but for the past 3 years, circumstances have made us keep our wits about us PLUS, when you're drunk decorating you have to re-do half of the stuff you put up anyway so this cuts out a lot wasted time. Anyway, here is a picture of our tree. We only put up the big one in the living room and the tiny one in Isa's room. Usually we have about 8 trees around the house.



The first picture- The stockings. These were miserable to make but once I got the hang of it, turned out quite well if I do say so myself. A complete labor of love. I decided to do "mom & dad" instead of our names, Claudia and Miguel are just too long!!

The second picture- The big tree. I love this tree. When I was a little girl my favorite part of our family tree was the angel on top. I wanted a tree full of angel tree-toppers when I grew up in a tree that looked like a starry sky. From then on I got angel ornaments, and every ornament on my tree is a gift from someone (mostly my mom & aunt). The tree and the manger scene that Grandma got Miguel and me for our wedding are the 2 things I couldn't live without at Christmas time.

Merry Christmas!! (Yep, I say it, to EVERYONE, regardless of political corectness, religious standing, station in life, or risk of general offense. If someone has a problem with it, they should go to work on December 25th and not reap any benefits of this glorious holiday!)

New Mittens

Today I took Isa to Wal Mart to pick up some stuff for the goodie bags for her first birthday party. On cue for December 1st, it snowed today, little flurries all day but it was cold and windy. Isa has had so many problems with ear infections that I almost always have a hat on her to keep the cold air out of her ears. On the way into the store, Isa took off her hat and threw it into a puddle. Needless to say, it was back to the winter stuff to look for a new hat. I found one that was perfect for a princess complete with little pink and green matching mittens. As soon as I put the mittens on her she started waving at EVERYONE in the store like she was a beauty queen riding on a parade float. I was about to be embarassed, but then total strangers started smiling and waving back. She must have made 50 new friends by the time we got out of the store. She's gotten quite hammy with other people and the camera (see the prevous post), but my little ray of sunshine just shot her million dollar high beam smile all over the place and really brightened up some peoples' day. I'm so proud!!!