Memory Lane

Allow me to take you for a stroll down memory lane... during my week long visit with family in Mexico!

The kids and I were SOOO excited to see each other that we insisted on sleeping together!  So naturally, we made our very own mega-sized bed on the floor!

For the very first time, Michele got full use out of her 'Windstar' minivan.  Trust me, it was a tight fit... but the majority of us refused to go in any other car since this one was the one bumpin' my newly created personalized CD (ghetto mix), which Nykol very much enjoyed!

Every time I see them I'm absolutely shocked at how tall & grown-up William and Sofia are!  It's a shame my hair was in a bun... but if you take a good look you will see William is at least 3 inches taller than me!  Hard to believe they actually fit into the palms of hands when they were just seven months old! Boy does time fly or what?!

 

We call Leo "the Attorney", for he always has a good argument to get out of being in trouble... and he never shuts up! (hee-hee!)

Catalina on the other hand, is the cutest little nerd ever...

so nerdy and she doesn't even know it!

Daddy and his little girl... just melts my heart!

A better look at Joanna Regina

She looks a lot like JR when he was a baby.

Outside my mom's house! (Okay, so Meeker, Colorado might have deer in their front lawns & streets... but down here in Mexico, we have cows!)

Joanna always smelled SO good!

Gotta love that 'New Baby Scent'!

We certainly can't forget about this little cutie!  Here we are at my uncle's birthday party. (I almost stole her bib!)

There was a live band (known as a "Banda") at the party, and Anabella certainly was no dummy... she sat on Abuela's lap and the two of them danced the night away!

 I don't know about you...

but that's five of the prettiest young ladies I've ever seen!!!

It just doesn't get much cuter than that folks!

 It wouldn't be a family photo without a little finger up the nose!

Love the "photo-bomb" here in this one!  I can't believe my uncle crashed a perfectly good 'tower-of-Tecate' drunken pic of Helen & Joanne!  Although to be fair... I'm pretty sure Rocio and I were responsible for our fair share of those empty cans!

We all enjoyed 'Family Game Night' later on in the week... with Bingo being our game of choice!

If we weren't dressing up in costumes or throwing a party... we were just plain lazy and would lay around the house giving each other smooches and being as silly as possible!  Of course some of us would try to be real sneaky and wear really cool sunglasses only to disguise a quick cat-nap! (Nice try, Dad!)

Uh, no... this isn't the Mexican "Octo-Mom"!  Rather two extremely lucky and proud grandparents with all eight of their grandchildren!  Wow... that's a lot of noise and chaos when they're all together! ...but one Hell of a good time!!!

My last day and it just so happened to fall on my Dad's Birthday! ...Happy Birthday, Dad!

What an absolutely fantastic vacation!  I thoroughly enjoyed every moment and don't think I could have had a better time!  Although I have to admit, it could have been just a tad bit better if Alec & Oscar Jr. had been there... but I try not to be too greedy, and am so very grateful to have spent such a significant amount of time with 'most' of my family... for God only knows when the next time we'll all be together again will be.  I just pray and have faith that it will be a lot sooner... than a lot later!

Taking the Kids to School

After a long weekend of fun and games... the kids had to unfortunately go back to school on Wednesday.  So after spending the night at their house, I played 'Mom' that morning and made sure to get up early to help make breakfast and take them all to school.

Nice to see they take it seriously... 

Here's Catalina taking one last look at her notes before her big test that day!

7:30 am and I never imagined going to school would be so much fun!

(for me anyway, hee-hee!)

The drop-off...

...and of course the pick-up,

with nothing but happy faces.

I also got to go to an after school basketball game and it was so much fun!  Check out William... even after not practicing for a long time he actually made this shot!

I forgot just how frustrating kids' sports games can be... Leo is William and Sofia's biggest fan, and so funny to hear him complain towards the end of the clip in which he says: "Err, Mom! Don't bring me to these games anymore!"

Now this is Sofia in her game:

Super fun time! The kids said you missed out Uncle Alec!

Halloween in Mexico

It's hard to believe Halloween 2010 has already come and gone... time and time again I prove to myself just how fast time goes by when you're having fun! For the very first time, the Valenzuela / Felix kids experienced a Halloween party together where everyone was all dressed up!  It really was an absolute blast! ...we had Michael Jackson (whom we ended up calling "Mike-O"), a Bug Fairy, Princess Aurora, a Witch, a Baby-Flower, Harry Potter, a Lady Bug, two cool looking Skeletons... and that was just the kids!

Of course it wouldn't be a Halloween party...

without a toothless dirty Mexican with a mullet...

and an innocent-looking pretty Devil!

A wealthy Doctor, sweet little Dorothy, and the Wicked Witch from south of the border

all decided to crash the party!

Also making an appearance was a savage lady Pirate...

and her pretty little Pirate Apprentice! (Rocio's niece Dalina)

Michele was in full Halloween spirit and was supposed to be an 80's Punk Rocker...

But if you ask me, I thought she looked more like a White-Trash Ho!  (Hee-hee!)

And as for me?  Well, naturally...

I was a Pirate Wench!

Dinner that evening consisted of Rotisserie Chicken, Mac and Cheese, Green Beans and Chocolate Cake!  Not your typical Mexican cuisine I know... but we decided on an American themed meal to celebrate the spooky occasion!

And as the evidence shows below (hint: red mustache), we also had fruit punch!

William the scary Skeleton with his Mom, Michele the Ho... 

er... uh, I mean 80's Punk Rocker!

Sneaky Helen surprised the kids with a second costume: a Penguin!

Just in time to pass out candy!

One word: SEXY!!!

Then things got really spooky...

when J.R. came running down the stairs in Alec's Gorilla costume

and scared the living crap out of the kids!!!

Naturally, the little ones had to be consoled a bit
as I'm sure their little hearts had skipped a few beats!
 

It's a Skeleton! No, it's Mike-O! No, a Lady Bug? Huh, Harry Potter? No, a Witch! No?  Hmmm... Well, not really sure what that is... but apparently Xochitl had too much spiked fruit punch!

Hey look... a retarded Pirate with a stick!

A Wench with bright pink hair and cat ears? 

I probably could have passed as Lady Gaga instead!?!

This picture was for Uncle Alec!

And this was the girls' scary face!  Yikes!

 We didn't have the time on the day of Halloween...
so we saved Gema's gingerbread cookie decorating activity for the next day:

Although it doesn't look it... this was the Halloween Gingerbread House the kids had a hard time putting together. (It looks pretty scary to live in if you ask me!)

Halloween was so much fun and everybody had such a good time!  I wish we could do it again next year, but I won't be greedy... I didn't take it for granted, I enjoyed it to the fullest, and will cherish the wonderful memories forever!  Thanks to those who made my Halloween the best ever... and hope your Halloween was just as fun!

How Much is the Doggie in the Window?

Actually, it's a cat, and there's two.  How much you ask?
FREE!  

The calico is a girl and her name is Ming (awe...)

The tabbie is a boy and his name is Bing

 (They also respond to "no", "stop that" and "get out of here")

They are cute and cuddly:

Now don't they make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?

They help out around the house...

for example, they tell you when it's time to change the toilet paper roll:

They will give you an excuse to buy a new pair of shoes:

Decorate your furniture:

And in case you're ever found dead in a ditch, they will give you unique scars to identify you by:

So, do I have any takers???

They certainly are cute...

No?  Ok, how about this one:

Still no?  Huh?  (Shuffling through my photo library) Ok, I think I got it:

So, you must remember, this is a package deal as they must leave together.  Ok, well any offers to take just Ming are negotiable, as I think she's the one that does most of the "helping around the house".  Anyone?  Really, I'm serious.  Oh, why I'm giving them away you ask?  Well I just thought that they are SO wonderful, I felt selfish keeping them all to myself.  Do you want them?  No...?  

Going once?

Going twice?

Going three times?

Four times?

Five?

Fine, I'll keep them!  All I'm gonna say is you're missing out.

In Need Of A Hobby

Living here in Artesia is like being grounded when you were a kid!  Of course not in this day-n-age where pre-teens have their own laptops, smart phones, iPods, DVD players, and video game consoles in their own rooms... but back in the day, where you only had the posters on the wall to stare at when sentenced to your room!  So... with me being "grounded" out here for what seems like an eternity, I knew I needed a hobby!

I always find it amazing how the oddest things from your childhood come full circle and without warning suddenly pop back into your life again!  For example... one weekend afternoon about a month and a half ago, while hanging out at my buddy's place across the street, he begins to explain to me how his messy divorce is leaving his bank account bone dry.  He then breaks out his impressive gun collection and actually tries to get me to buy whichever and however many guns I was interested in!  After politely declining his offer, he then - almost out of the blue, asked me if I would be interested in buying his R/C (Radio/Remote Control) car.  My ears immediately perked and my eyes shot wide open! 

Come to find out, my buddy had an old gas R/C car that he hadn't used in forever and was just now putting it up on 'Craigslist' to try and sell.  Well, little did he know... at one point in my life I was absolutely infatuated over anything & everything R/C related!  So of course he broke it out and showed it to me... and I of course broke out my 'Flux Capacitor' and traveled back in time to when I was a kid again!  He didn't have any of the special fuel required to start and run it, so all I could do was just hold, inspect and stare at it... and reminisce about a better time in life when 80's music was just simply referred to as music... and me, Justin, Andy and the rest of our friends spent the days building tracks and racing our R/C cars... and having but only one small worry in the world: how long our batteries were going to last!

To say I seriously gave a lot of thought to buying his car from him would be a huge understatement!  But I always came back to the same argument: it wouldn't be any fun if I didn't have anyone to race against!  So in the end, I chose not to buy it.  But as time went by and the more my buddy & I talked about it, the more interested I became in buying my own... and the less interested he got in selling his!  Finally, after completely talking me into it, I ultimately succumbed to the peer pressure and bought myself a decent cheap little R/C car off of eBay.

No sooner did I click 'Buy It Now' than my buddy already asking permission from the owner across the street if we could use his acre sized empty lot as an R/C car track!  We got permission and suddenly I had no more free time on my hands... for the next two weeks my buddy & I spent just about every day designing, shoveling, and sculpting out a brand new R/C track with nothing but our hands & our shovels!  It was back-breaking work that came with nothing but blisters on our hands... but to tell you the truth, it gave me something to do, I was outside enjoying the warm weather, and call me crazy... but all that shoveling and hard work moving dirt around, sculpting jumps and making that track was actually quite therapeutic!  I can't really explain it... but it was very satisfying and I actually enjoyed it! 

By the time we finished building the track, my car had finally arrived... along with plenty of "Nitro" fuel, and my buddy & I were ready to race!  We really didn't think anything of it... but apparently our little two-week construction project attracted some attention with the locals, and much to our surprise a few of them just so happened to share the same hobby!  We befriended a couple of local guys that had their own R/C cars and were absolutely thrilled that they now had a legit track to race them on!

If you would have told me a year ago that I would have my own R/C car, built a track for it, and race it with friends in the middle of nowhere New Mexico in a years time... I would have looked at you like you were crazy!  But as crazy as it sounds, I now have a new hobby... and it's an absolute blast! 

    

Here's a short video...

of one of our local friends racing around the track with his R/C car! 

So Cute!

Today a bunch of us girls from work got together for a "girls day out" and at the same time celebrated Alexis' upcoming baby girl "Ava".  So last night I went to the kitchen and got to doing what I do best: a cake!

The girls: Me, Jackie, Brianne, Alexis, Jen and Miranda.

Mission Impossible... DONE!

This week I accomplished my greatest baking fear: making a wedding cake! After many months of worrying about what I was getting myself into, planning and coordinating with the bride, and changing the design literally four different times... the delivery has come and gone and I couldn't be any happier or more proud of myself!  

The baking and decorating process didn't take any longer than usual (even though it was my first four tier cake!), but what took plenty of thought and sleepless nights was having to figure out how I was going to get the cake to the venue!  Because of the sheer size and weight of the cake (after tallying up all the ingredients, the whole cake weighed just shy of 40 pounds!), and the half-hour drive to get it there...  the transportation part of the process was my biggest worry!  So the morning of delivery I woke up extremely excited for I was already so confident & proud of how everything was going... but I still had one big feat to accomplish; I still had to get it there!

Below is the cake the bride chose.  I call it "The Inspiration Cake"

for I converted it into a round cake and added a fourth tier.

So I packed the car, cranked up my AC and started my 29 mile drive which seemed more like 50!  My palms were sweaty and I swear every pothole and pebble on the road seemed 100 times bigger!  I had the two bottom tiers stacked and ready making the trip in the trunk, while the other two top tiers sat on a cookie sheet on the front seat with nothing but a prayer keeping them from sliding and smashing into the seat and/or the door!

But by the grace of God... all was well & intact when I arrived at the house!  There was plenty of help to unload the car, so the only thing left to worry about was the final product. The house had an awesome industrial freezer to help with the handling of the top two tiers when stacking, and it also had a big audience which surprisingly didn't make me nervous at all.  In the end, I got all four tiers stacked and looking beautiful for the newlyweds! 

 

 

Believe it or not (and much to my surprise!), it was a lot smoother process than I thought it was going to be!  It also turned out a lot better than I thought it was going to be too.  To say I was a little nervous going into my first ever wedding cake would be a ridiculous understatement!  But through the stress & my nerves, I got through it and I have to admit, I'm very proud of myself for taking on such a monumental cake... but more importantly, I'm even more proud of how it came out!