Holiday Activities in Chico!

Here we are in Chico and celebrating Three Kings Day! This is how Julio did "Christmas" growing up. This is a tradition in Puerto Rico and they celebrate in early January. They decorated a box and left it under their bed for the kings to leave them gifts. This was Ayden and Gabriel's first time doing this since we are usually in the bay area at my sisters for Christmas. We had to switch around our visits in CA this year because of illness.

That same day, we went down town Chico to a new and awesome candy store to celebrate Ayden's birthday with the Chico fam!

Everyone enjoying all the yummy treats!

We had the joy of meeting Julio's brother Franklin's new family while we were there. Franklin is getting married this Summer to Christina and she has two 11 year old daughters, Erika and Sharon. They are twins as you can see and so much fun!

Smiley Faces!

Just some cute recent photos of my smiley boys!

Happy 32nd To Me!

It was a quiet birthday this year at home. We didn't even go out because we were leaving the next morning for CA. Oh well, I got a gift from my awesome husband that I had been waiting for since our wedding (never got it from our wedding registry). It was the big kitchen aid mixer! For those of you that know me, you know I love baking and so it makes sense for me to have the mixer, but that thing ain't cheap, so my husband didn't give in to it until this year (7 years after our wedding)! :) Thanks honey!

Welcome Joseph Ethan Lukacs!

Welcome to little Joey Lukacs! My sister, Marcie and her husband Julius just welcomed their fourth little boy a little over 2 weeks ago on December 19th. They now have two little boys who were born on the 19th. Yep, two boys exactly one year apart! What are the odds?! Their older two are 7 and almost 5. Congratulations to the Lukacs Family!

Christmas Photo Shoot and Letter!

The Quinones Family - 2009 in Review!

It was a more relaxed year in 2009, thank God! :) Ayden turned four on the first day of the year and we celebrated a little later in the month wit a robot birthday party with friends! We enjoyed playing in the snow a couple of times during the winter with all the neighbors right in our own front yard! This sure is one of the perks of living on the east coast!

We celebrated Gabriel's big first birthday in April with the help of Grandma Gayle and all the neighbors and friends! Ayden started playing in his first big boy soccer league in the Spring, which he continued on in the Fall with his Dad as assistant coach!

The Summer brought an awesome trip with Granny and Papi down to Florida to visit NASA's Kennedy Space Center and then a relaxing week out at Hilton Head Island off the coast of South Carolina! Ayden's love of all things outer space prompted the visit. He loved every minute of it!

Later in the Summer, Gabriel learned how to practice American Sign Language. He took to it right away with fun video demonstrations and help from Momma and Daddy. This was a big deal and sort of took the limelight over verbal first words since he didn't have much of an interest in speaking. At the end of the year now, his verbal vocabulary is probably less than 15 words, but his sign vocabulary is probably more than 50 words!

In late Summer time, we went out to visit the family in CA and celebrated Gabriel's baptism. He was 16 months old, the same exact age that Ayden was when he was baptized! And so he of course had to wear the same outfit! :) We waited to arrange both of their baptisms since we have lived far away from all the family we wanted to celebrate with. Cindy stayed busy towards the end of the Summer planning and preparing for Fall baby showers, event planning still seems to be her thing!

In the Fall, we began hosting a church life group at our home with six families, including nine children under the age of five every Sunday afternoon! Julio took on leadership of the group, guiding us through bible study and such. Gabriel started his first two classes this Fall, Art Beginnings and Stretch and Grow. He loves them both! Ayden surprised us by wanting to try out his bike with no training wheels! He had it in about an hour. Don't know why I was surprised by this! This is Ayden were talking about! :)

Julio has progressed well in his job at DaVita with ten clinics now in his region and two hospital programs. He seems to enjoy his work and coworkers and he definitely stays busy!

We spent a bit of the late Fall at home with illness, but had a great Christmas time this month getting ready for the big visit from Santa that we will be sharing with the family out in CA! We couldn't stay away from all of the new babies that were born into the family this year!!

Merry Christmas and best wishes for a blessed New Year in 2010!

Just Goofing Around on a Snowy Day!

We had the neighbors over yesterday for some indoor play time since it was so cold that a bit of snow fell from the sky in the afternoon!
All the goof balls goofing around!

Signs of Christmas!

We got the advent candle ring out last year (it was a gift last year and new to us), but admittedly didn't participate probably because dinner was too crazy each night to actually sit down all at the same time, light the candles and say a prayer. We have been better this year and have it all set for each night. This advent candle ring came from Granny and Papi, they bought it for us on a trip to either Peru or Costa Rica, Julio can't remember.
I finally got back into the habit of forcing some paperwhite bulbs this year. Cheryl, you would be proud of me! I think Gabriel was too much of a handful last year! We have enjoyed watching them grow throughout the month of December! They smell so wonderful!
The countdown to Christmas advent calendar that is hanging in the playroom.
Wrapped up cornmeal pecan biscuits all ready for the neighborhood ladies group annual Christmas cookie exchange! I came home with more than 50 cookies in exchange! Yikes, don't really want to look at another baked good for a while. :) Fun stuff though!

Gingerbread House Play Date!

Here is what Ayden and I came up with when it was all done. :) Ya, I helped...couldn't help it, the thing wasn't that simple to assemble and it is so much fun to put gummy trees in the gingerbread yard! :)
Our friends Tyler and Valerie came over to decorate houses with us! :)
The silly shot of the two of them! :)

At school last week...

Ayden brought this home from school last week. I thought it was so cute and appropriate for the time of year! He has been so curious about Angels. He always wants to know if the angels are outside of his window, watching over him. He read in a book that the twinkling lights from the stars tell you that the angels are watching over you and so now, he believes that. :) I love it!
This is a drawing of the Angel, Gabriel. No, not Ayden's brother, but the one who came to Joseph in a dream to tell him that Mary was going to have the baby Jesus.

A Visit With Santa!

We went to the library again this year to avoid the mall and the library was very organized and had a great system for keeping the line down. There were waiting groups: A,B,C. We were group D and probably waited about 45 minutes. Ayden took his list that he made at the end of November to show Santa what he wants for Christmas this year. He wrote the words himself (with my assistance for spelling)! See his list below! This particular Santa is so nice and he looks just like the real deal! It was worth the wait, even though the visit lasted less than two minutes! :) The time to visit Santa was from 1:30-4:00 pm. We opted not to keep Gabriel up way past his nap to come visit Santa as well and so I feel bad about that, but we have a photo of him with Santa from Ayden's preschool Christmas event so it all works out! :)
I just thought this was so cute! This year was the first year that he was able to write the words by himself. The list got a little damaged by some water, but you can make out a couple of the items. We'll see what Santa brings him! :)

The Tree Trimming!

After putting the lights on and decorating the gingerbread man, here we are actually decorating the tree!
Ayden was very into this task! He ever got mad at me the next morning because "I finished putting the rest of the ornaments on the tree after he went to bed!" Oh well, at least he had a good time. :)
The finished product!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

On the same night as Astronaut Academy (last Thursday) we had an official "Tree Trimming" party! It was Granny and Papi's last night with us and it seemed suiting to send them off with a fun party! Here are Daddy and Ayden putting the lights on the tree.
To keep Ayden busy while we decorated the tree a bit and sipped egg nog, I bought this cute gigantic gingerbread man for Ayden to decorate! He loved it of course since anything cake is right up his alley! I even made two bags full of red and green frosting with icing tips for him to get creative!
Cheese!
The finished product complete with "new red buttons" instead of the ones he came with and coconut hair!
I think Ayden has my sweet tooth! :)