Merry Christmas!

It's the day after Christmas now, and I hope everyone had a joyous Christmas celebration with loved ones. I sure feel blessed this year. I have everything I need, and so many extras, there's no room for "wanting". I have already had "Christmas" with all three families. Each celebration was full of love, laughter and the joy of giving. Traditions were kept and everyone seemed to be full of the Christmas spirit. I hope to see my sister, Joni, before we head back home. She and her kids were the only only ones unable to be there on Christmas day.

Today we're enjoying the snow from our rare white Christmas, and having fun playing with our presents. And of course enjoying all the Christmas goodies left over from yesterday. We'll head home tomorrow and I'll try to post pics soon. :)

Let the holiday madness begin!

And I say "bring it". I LOVE the Christmas season! I have a perpetual feeling of happiness from Thanksgiving to the New Year. Obviously I'm not in charge of our household budget. Outwardly, it may appear that I should be stressed or unhappy. Our income is at an all time low, our debt is at an all time high, and, NO, we're not moved into the "new house" yet. And yet, I just feel such JOY - and it's all because I am so thankful for my life. I have so many blessings I could never name them - but mainly I just feel so much love for my family. And when I say family I mean ALL of them. My Hubby, kids, siblings, Mom's side, Dad's side, in-laws and all the extensions. And let's not forget the reason for the season. What a wonderful blessing that our Heavenly Father would send his Only Begotten Son to come to Earth, teach, bless and heal his followers, then sacrifice Himself for OUR sins, and show us through His example that we will be resurrected and have eternal life. WOW! How could you not feel the power of that blessing?
So, here's some pictures from the past few weeks of a few of the reasons I'm so happy. :)
Grandad came to visit for Thanksgiving! It's always so great to see him. He and Angel just love each other so much - it's so sweet to see them together. Then, we had Thanksgiving dinner at my sister, Joni's house. She hosted and prepared most of the dishes herself. She's a wonderful cook. Everything was soooo good. We had turkey, salmon, mashed potatoes, stuffing, rolls, sweet potato pie, corn, fruit kabobs, two jello salads, chips and an awesome dip, cheese ball, fudge pie, apple pie, and random treats. I'm sure I'm forgetting things. She really did an amazing job. We tried to get a family pic while we had most of us together. This was the best one. We even got 2 of the grandkids in the pic. Has anyone else noticed how short I am? Those people behind me are not standing on anything, and as far as I can tell, they're even slouching. I don't know what happened!
We had another Thanksgiving dinner that night at my in-laws. Frank's grandparents, 2 uncles and a niece and nephew were here to visit also. Of course it was delicious, and my MIL makes the best pumpkin and pecan pie! YUM! The next day all the Garcia/Gonzales men played golf. Damian had a blast. Then, my sis, Julie finally got here! I haven't seen her since she left for school in Aug. It was so fun to visit w/ her again. I'm looking forward to seeing her at Christmas again. On the way back to Springfield, I got a couple pics of this amazing sunset. What a beautiful world we live in! One more Thanksgiving dinner, and then we set up the first Christmas tree for the season. We always do the tree at my dad's after Thanksgiving dinner. This year, it was even more meaningful, because we don't have room right now to set ours up at home. We have done several other traditional Christmas-y things, though. We made a gingerbread cookie tree,

our traditional graham cracker train,and, yes - finally set up our tree. It's in my bedroom at the new house. So, we get to see it whenever we're over there working. :) I'm just glad we got to set it up. The kids were very happy, too. We've been to some really fun activities this month, too. Here are some MORE pictures! Our school's PTA president held a party for all the Exec board members' kids. They did several crafts, had treats, saw Santa and got a present from the PTA Pres. Thanks, Mich! (and Brett). :)
We went to the Bass Pro Santa Wonderland where the kids did more activities, played games and rode a little train. We attended a free Christmas music matinee put on by the Springfield Symphony. We got to see my dad and another sis play in the symphony. It was a very nice concert. So nice, that the kids were lulled to sleep for a portion of it. Oh well. :) Earlier this week, Angel and other dancers from A&B Dance Center performed at a local nursing home. Angel danced her first ballet solo to a portion of the Waltz of the Flowers from Nutcracker.
This week, I'm hoping to get the Christmas presents all finished and wrapped and cards sent out. This weekend I hope to do some baking. I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

First Nov. blog post. :)

It's been a fun couple of weeks for the Gonzales family. :) The kids had a lot of fun during Red Ribbon Week at school. There was PJ day, wear red day, hat day, etc. The most fun was crazy hair day. I sprayed their hair bright colors and put crazy ponytails in their hair. Damian's class decided his hair looked like a tropical island. Angel got Student of the Month on crazy hair day. Also, our dining room was finished that day! Woo hoo! For Halloween, D was a ninja, and Angel was a monkey - who became a flying monkey once we got to the dance center Halloween party, where Grandma Angie had her wings. :)For November, I somehow missed taking pics for most of the first week. On Friday, the 6th, however, I took many. I went to the St. Louis temple - my first time going to the temple since I was 17 (other than open houses or dedications). I took pics of the sunrise on the way there, me at the temple, and then sunset on the way home. What a beautiful day. The following day, we went to the farm where my mom keeps her horses. The kids had a great day riding horses and playing with kittens and puppies.
This past week, Ang, Alyssa and I have decided to turn our pilates class into a walking hour instead. We all have some Halloween candy to burn off before Thanksgiving gets here. We've been walking at the mall. "Walking" is a loose term, though, when there's a 3 yr. old involved. My niece is keeping us on our toes! We're sure to get skinny trying to keep up with her!
BMX season is now over for the year. Nov. 11 was the award ceremony. Damian won some cool riding goggles in the raffle. And, of course, I'm still enjoying taking photos of the gorgeous autumn colors. :)AND wildlife! These 3 turkeys were running around behind the houses on my street the other day! :)So far, I'm loving November. :) Now, I'm going to go play a game w/ Angel, who's been (somewhat) patiently waiting for me. TTFN!

My October blog

Ha ha! So much for me keeping up w/ this on a daily or weekly basis, huh? Well - here's our first 3 weeks of October. :) After Angel and I were finally over the flu, Frank's parents came down to help clean up some of the trees in our yard. They also cut down a huge tree in the yard of one of our rentals. The kids (and all the neighborhood kids) had a blast playing on the fallen branches. The biggest event in our family in October is Damian's birthday. We like to do a lot of celebrating on the kids' birthdays. Frank and I took root beer floats to D's class on Friday. Then Friday night he had a party at 1984 arcade . It's a great 80's style arcade and he loves it! My sis made him an amazing cake and invitations. After the party, we went to the Skinny Improv, our local comedy club (family friendly). They included Damian and another guy celebrating his birthday into a segment of the show. It was a blast! We also celebrated his birthday with two more parties at the Grandparents' houses.
I have had some fun this month working on my nature photography. Here's a shot from my back yard. I've also been helping at the kids' school quite a bit. In addition to my regular jobs of making copies, sorting papers, etc., I helped the kindergarten classes w/ an art project, took some pictures for the yearbook of PE and the school dance, and helped sort and count books for the RIF program. Here's a pic I took of the PE class. Do you remember doing this as a kid? I do. Parachute games were my favorite! It's so fun to see the kids enjoying the same things I did as a kid. :) October has also been soccer month for us. Damian's last game will be this next Saturday. He's been playing really well, and has scored several goals this season. I love watching him play.
I'll try to post again w/ Halloween pics next week. We went to our church's Trunk-or-Treat last night, and will go out again on Halloween. I'm hoping to get some good pics. :) This next week is also Red Ribbon Week at school - Just say NO to drugs! I'm hoping to get some good pics of the kids dressed up for each day's theme (crazy hair day, wear red day, PJ day, etc.) Until then - Happy Halloween!

Septiembre, September, Beginning of fall, beginning of flu season....

Here we are, at the end of September. It's been an eventful and fun month for our family. One of my sisters moved in w/ us, another came to visit, my bro moved into a diff. house, Cowboy Kenny came to visit, Frank and I attended a luau, D's soccer season started, and both kids and I got the flu (or flooe, according to Angel). I'll let the photos tell the story...
Sean's new house is right on historic Route 66!
My sis moved in and proceeded to convince me to diet w/ her and start walking in the mornings. Our morning walks are beautiful...even though we've only actually gone a couple times.This LO was done w/ French Quarter by Julie.ItIs.
She is also a very talented duct tape artist. Here's a wallet she made for Hubby. :) The first Friday of each month, we like to go to the Mystery Hour, our local late-night talk show. The guests this month were Cowboy Kenny Bartram and Yakov. We hung out w/ Kenny most of the afternoon before the show. The kids had a lot of fun w/ him. :) The next day, we went to a luau, hosted by some good friends. Our weather this month has been absolutely gorgeous, and I've had the opportunity to take many outdoor/nature shots. This is my fav. creature shot this month: I've also become a little fanatic about spiders this month. They always show up around this time of year all around the house. Watching them make their webs is just fascinating. Here are a couple pics I got:

We've been working hard on the house this past month. We got the master bedroom floor down, and moved the headboard in: Did you all remember "talk like a pirate day"? Here's D helping my sis get ready to go out that eve. I was happy to have my other sis and her 2 kids come visit last week. We went to the park and let the 6 cousins and 4 of us siblings visit for a while. Have you heard of cake pops? They're so rich and yummy - and now they're at 1984 (my son's fav place in the world). I had to take a pic of these Pac-Man cake pops. I had to eat one, too - this was the day before the flu hit - hard! I was in bed for a couple days w/ the flu, and the day I got up, Angel came down w/ it. Hubby took D to play his first soccer game of the season. I was sorry to miss it! They were happy to tell me all about it, though. D apparently made 3 of the team's 4 goals! Yay! By the time he got home, though, he wasn't feeling well, either. That was yesterday. Tomorrow is Monday, and both kids are not well enough to go back to school tomorrow. They are improving, though. By my next post, I hope to be able to report that everyone is healthy!

Good news and .....

maybe not so good news for this post.
Good - I'm actually posting!
Not good - I only posted once in Aug (so you get all my Aug. pics at once!)
Good: School started, and my kids got to ride the bus home for the very first time!
Not good: Apparently 3rd grade does this: to you
Good: we had lots of fun this summer! D got to try out his sailboat - FINALLY! We have had gorgeous weather for playing and taking pics. Even got a new pet!
We celebrated both Grandma Harris and Great Grandma Harris' birthdays. :)

Dance classes started up, and we've been working hard on the house! We're sooooo close to moving in now! Here are the kitchen pics some of you have asked for. Frank and Vivian did an amazing job on the tile backsplash! I absolutely love it!
Bad news: the wall paint (yellow) did not go well w/ the new cabinets, counters and backsplash - so I had to re-paint the wall an off -white, almost greyish color, but now it all looks good together. And...we have a faucet now! Yay!

More good news: I actually made dinner in this kitchen earlier this week!
Not so good: we learned the hard way that the oven isn't working, the dishwasher isn't hooked up right, and the drain under the sink is clogged. :( Hopefully we'll get all that fixed this week.
Well, that's it for now. I hope to post more often than once a month, but since I also hope to be moving in the next week or so, I can't guarantee anything. Bye bye!