Our Christmas Letter

December 20, 2008


Seasons Greetings to all of our family and friends! After seeing so many of your wonderful letters each year we finally decided to start doing a family Christmas letter as well.

At the beginning of this year we were preparing for the birth of Gabriel. We attended a birth preparation class and were the only ones in attendance that were having our second child, so we were looked to as the “experts!” Yeah right! J On April 4th, we welcomed Gabriel into our family! He has fit right in and is completely taken with his older brother! He watches whatever it is that Ayden is doing with complete focus. It has really been a joy to watch them interact and be able to start playing together in recent months. Gabriel turned 8 months on Dec. 4th and has taken off physically in the last month! He sat up in the his 6th month and then last month right before turning 7 months, he started crawling after a couple of weeks of practicing on all fours! It seemed like only 2 weeks after the crawling began that he started pulling up on objects. He liked to stand from the get go just like Ayden! Now he has been practicing his balance by standing in one place with no hands holding on, over and over. It is his favorite activity, aside from playing peek-a-boo. He will lift just about anything over his face (his bib, blanket, etc.) so that we will play this favorite game!

Ayden has done a lot this year as well! He of course became a big brother, which is a very important job to him. He always tells us how much he loves “baby” as Gabriel is called often times. He already wants him to play with his toys and act like a big boy with him. I even found Ayden trying to sword fight with Gabriel using tinker toys! Ayden is in the 3 ½-4 year old preschool classroom and will move up to the next room in the new year. Ayden has spent a lot of time this year progressing at letters/word sounds. He loves to guess what letter is at the beginning of all kinds of words. Ayden is also particularly interested in geography. He said today when talking about a flashcard of a place in Israel, “It is not in the United States, but it is still on the earth!”

It was about the early spring time that our “still very new” neighborhood started taking off with more families moving in, which means more neighborhood friends for Ayden!! He now spends many evenings and weekends playing outside with his many new friends or in one of their houses. We have had several gatherings in the neighborhood including an early Summer block party, several girls nights, a Halloween BBQ party and most recently we hosted a Christmas gathering! The neighborhood men even have a regular poker game. It is amazing to see how the neighborhood has progressed from the time we moved in August, 2007!

Julio finished up his training at Davita not long after Gabriel was born. He took on his role as regional operations director for our area in the beginning of May. Though he spends a lot of time in the car and on the phone, he loves his job. Working in healthcare seems to keep him motivated. He is doing his best to stay in shape and spends a lot of evenings watching the kids outside and tossing the football with the other neighborhood dads.

I started attending a women’s bible study in February. I found out about it through a friend from Mops (Mother’s of Preschoolers) who invited me to join. We attend a non denominational church called Crosspointe Church and both the women’s bible study group and Mops are affiliated with Crosspointe. I currently serve a couple Sunday’s a month in the 2 year old Sunday school classroom. I’ve also been participating in a fun neighborhood womens group called Amberly Angels who get together socially on a monthly basis. Of course my main job is taking care of the boys and if any free time happens upon me, I spend it scrap booking, blogging or doing my crafty projects!



We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and many blessings in 2009!

With love,
Cindy, Julio, Ayden and Gabriel Quinones

Amberly Angels!

Not long after we moved into the apartment here in Cary last year, we got connected with a Yahoo group that sends out information about the developement that we now live in. It is called Amberly. I heard through this yahoo group that a woman in the neighborhood was starting up a womens group called the Amberly Angels. I was so excited because this was exactly what I was hoping to find here in our new neighborhood! It took the group a few months to really get going, but we have had some awesome gatherings in about the last 6-8 months including a monthly bunko game group, making cards for the troops night/karioke, dirty santa in August, a movie night and much more! In November we decided to combine our efforts and sponsor a family in need so that we could provide a full Thanksgiving dinner (and then some) for this single mom and her two kids. Here is a trunk full of the grocieries that we put together that were delivered to the family so that they could cook a free meal on Thanksgiving and have plenty of leftovers the next week! It was great to give as a group! This neighborhood has really been a blessing!

November Highlights

Good thing there wasn't a car out in the road! Papi snapped this mid air!

Just some shots from November while Granny and Papi were with us. It was a fun month!

Granny & Papi Visit in November!

Thanks Granny and Papi for coming out to stay with us from mid November through Thanksgiving! We had a great time with you and as always appreciate your willingness to help us with everything! You are the best house guests ever!

The "Head Tilting" Gesture Among Brothers!

This is an old photo of Ayden when he was almost 8 months old, I believe. He did this cute little head tilting gesture when he wanted to be playful. We loved it and would tilt our head back in response. :) Well...look who else knew just when and how to do the same little gesture:

Gabriel! He started doing it right at 7 months and in the same cute little playful way! It was a passing habit because not long after turning 8 months, he stopped doing it, even when encouraged. From what I remember, Ayden didn't do this cute little gesture for very long either. Do genetics really work this way??? Did their genetic wiring somehow make each of them do the same little behavior at the same age in the same way? I really wonder with this one or is it one of those little cute things that all little babies do? Hmmmmm.....

Ayden Loves Robots!

Ayden is into robots lately! His new favorite movie: "Robots" of course! He also loves "Ice Age." He has been getting so creative lately with all things crafty that he made himself (with Papi's help) a robot costume out of paper! He really is a very imaginative child. :)

Silly Giggles!

November Play time!

In November at about 7 months for Gabriel, the two boys were able to start playing together nicely because Gabriel could get up to a stand and play at the train table. A mother looks forward to this moment after having a second child! It was fun to watch!

Pulling to a Stand!

About two weeks after the start of the crawl in early November, Gabriel started pulling up on everything! Chairs, train tables, people...just about everything! It was a fast physical progression...I wasn't quite ready for it. Thankfully he is not walking yet! (as I am posting this in mid December!)

Gabriel is Crawling!

On November 2nd, Gabriel started crawling. Of course a lit up baby monitor was motivation! :) It was really exciting because Ayden never really crawled until he nearly walked. So, we now have a crawler on our hands!

The Beginning of Upward Motion!

At the very end of October, right before Gabriel turned 7 months, he started becoming stronger and moving from on all fours to a sitting up position. Then he started being able to get up on his knees (like in this video) but he wasn't all that sturdy. The story goes on...a lot happened in the next three weeks! :)

The Parade Continues...& Halloween Night!

The Neighborhood folks all paraded with their kids all dressed up across a main street into the senior living section where they had a fire truck to explore, trick or treating, balloon animals and face painting.

Here is a quick shot of the kids on our street who came to the parade. Ayden, Ereka, Gabe and Layla.

A Family shot on Halloween Night. We were eating some grilled food out in the street because we had a block party before all the trick or treating began.

A Little Bumble Bee!

Someone noticed that all the guys were hanging out on the sidewalk together, so we all snapped their photo...they felt like they were famous or something, it was funny. We were laughing, "The men of Chalk Maple Drive!" It was a fun party!

A Costume Party & Halloween Parade...

This is the "cake" that I made for the costume party. The challenge was to bring the most "disgusting, yet edible" dessert or appetizer! So this is my version of a hand coming out of the dirt. Ok,ok...there are a few un-edible items on the cake, but the cake and cookie crumbs (dirt) are certainly edible. I didn't win...some eyeball cupcakes did! :) Oh well.

We pulled out some old costumes from the past...Bert and Ernie! My mom and dad wore these costumes that Great Grandma Pat made almost 30 years ago. They held up pretty well!

The Amberly (our housing developement) Halloween Parade was the Saturday before Halloween. Here is a pic of Ayden and our neighbor's little girl Ereka.

The Red Power Ranger is ready!

Group shot of all the kids in the neighborhood who came out for the parade!

More Photos of the Baby Shower...

upclose photo of one of the centerpiece arrangements.

food table flowers...

An origami decoration for the baby nursery. Can you see the little roses? So cute!

The table afterwards. I didn't clean these table up for about 3 days! I loved admiring the flowers. :)

A Baby Shower for Katherine!

I threw a baby shower for my neighbor, Katherine in mid October. It was so much fun to plan and execute since she is having a little girl! Yah!! Decorations in pink and green...such a fun change from the usual blue in my house with all the boys! We all had a great time and enjoyed some good food. :)

The gift table with the party favors in front.

These party favors were hand made, personalized stationary for each guest. Katherine's baby room theme is polka dots and so I took on that theme for the shower and stamped polka dots on the stationary and made a little packet of them for each.

It was a brunch shower with crepes, fillings, quiches, fruit, scones and coffee cake. We had some yummy fresh pressed apple cider, orange juice, coffee and tea.

I made the table runners for the shower...they added just the right touch to the tables!

Some Brother poses...

Gabriel-6 months, Ayden-3 3/4 years old

Gabriel's Creative Mobility!

Gabriel's Creative Mobility

In mid October, Gabriel was able to get up on all fours and get ready to crawl...but this was after he developed a couple of other ways to "get around." I think I have a video of it and will try and upload it after this, but he loves to scooch backwards while on his back by way of his head. (can't picture it? Hopefully the video will make it up. :) )

Here is one of his other favorite positions prior to crawling. My friends call it "the downward facing dog pose!" I was saying, "push up ready!" Anyway you say it, this kid is pretty agile for 6 months! :)

Our 6th Wedding Anniversary!

Truth is, we don't get out too much these days...so since it was our anniversary, I found a babysitter and we went out to a nice dinner in a cute part of Raleigh and then walked around the street to witness all the night life. We stopped in for a cupcake at this cute bakery and as we walked around, I couldn't believe all the action going on...it reminded me of college! I said to Julio, "Are these people all college students, they are going wild?" He said, "No, mostly 20's and 30's hang out here, these people are our age! This is what people our age do!" I laughed and said, "Not us!" Guess kids make you feel older than you are sometimes! :)

First Trip to the Dentist!

I had to post this photo from the beginning of October when Ayden went to the dentist for the first time! Can you see the button on his shirt...he was pretty proud of himself since the dentist told him that his teeth were healthy and that he was doing a good job brushing. He even sat still in the chair while the hygenist cleaned his teeth!

Autumn Activities!

Picking out pumpkins!

We went to a local farm...went on a hay ride, picked out pumpkins and went through the corn maze...it was a gorgeous day!

On top of a hay mountain!