a whole lotta pumpkin (pictures)

We spent some time yesterday at the Arboretum--they do such a remarkable job with their pumpkin patch. I'm sure we'll try for more successful pictures again, maybe on a weekday when it's less crowded. As it is, we took over 300 pictures (Ricardo kept the camera on rapid-succession) in hopes to get one or two good shots of both girls.

We definitely got some good ones...of papa and ix :)

Papa and both his girls...admiring sister baby's shoes

Such a doll

Mama and a squishy (sleepy!) baby

It was probably just slightly too warm for their outfits. But it's still odd to me taking fall (pumpkin) pictures in summer clothes.

Ricardo being paparazzi, sneaking in photos of us

Mama and her pumpkin heads

X finding a new use for her pumpkin hat

Baby snuggles

2 girls! We got one....

So serious. We gotta work on the "smile for the camera" habit.

A little better...

Where's baby sister?

Couldn't get them to both face/look the same way. Ever.

x gives ix a kiss

ix interferes...

x is bigger and more stubborn...

kiss!

Running in the hay maze

She played a game where she would run and run and then come give me a kiss when she got close and I asked her for one. Great shot, minus the (RUDE) kid who came up and said "MOVE" right at that moment.

Hanging out with a (still sleepy) baby

Fun day...Lots of pictures in this post, and we'll probably try again to get some good sister shots at a later date.

Tour des Fleurs 2011

The Tour des Fleurs is an annual race sponsored by the Dallas Arboretum. Not only is it really pretty, it's also a great race with lots of amazing food (not just the typical banana and yogurt cup that are handed out at most 5K-marathons) and vendors afterwards. Plus, they have a kids/family 1-mile fun walk.

Since I was really hoping this baby would have been here earlier, I went ahead and registered for the 1-mile, and Ricardo for the 20K. And...since we managed to get up and get ready, we decided to go for it on Saturday morning. However, no one could believe that I was there are walking with my two and a half day old baby.

But it was an early morning. Ric's race started at 7:30, which meant he wanted to get there at 6:45--time to get to the start, allow for traffic, parking, etc.

So, we were up at way too early o'clock, and I had to pull a sleeping X out of bed and get her dressed and on the way. She was still a happy girl, but sleepy.

More awake and ready for the race. I posted this photo mostly because of those ears.

Enjoying our post-race snacks. I say post-race when ours was really a meander through the Arboretum. At the finish of the kids 1-mile, there was music, "I did it" stickers, snacks, photographers (who made free photo buttons of kids and families who participated), face painters, and a prince and princess who handed out toys (X got a wind-up neon green ladybug). Plus a butterfly painted on her face.

Ric enjoying his post-race "snacks"

Then we got to meander back through the Arboretum to get to our car. This is the first weekend of all the pumpkins--they really do an incredible job. I'm sure we'll be back to get some more pictures. I'm gonna need to knit another pumpkin hat first though!!

Tadpoles!

Papa and his girls

First family photo? We might have done one in the hospital...I'll have to check.

It was a fun day--and seemed totally do-able. I do wonder if I overdid it since I came down with X's cold since. I do not recommend getting a cold while trying to recover from childbirth. I'm starting to feel a bit better today--until I sneeze or cough repeatedly.

ilane xochitl

Finally! She's here!

Ilane Xochitl arrived Wednesday, Sept. 14th at 7:03pm. (two days before 40 weeks--but I was so miserable the previous 2.5 weeks or so, it was wayyy past time)

7lbs, 2 oz, 19.75 inches long.

It only took us a day to name her :)

Quicker labor than Xaris Sofia's, but a little bit of pitossin was administered, and my water had to be broken (didn't appear it was planning on breaking on it's own--just like her older sister!)

I don't know what it's like back home, but in TX they keep moms and babies in the hospital for something like 3 days (and other more insulting laws, like a mandatory 1st AND 3rd Trimester HIV test). We stayed the full time with Xaris--nothing pressing that we needed to get home for, but this time around I was anxious to be home and with Xaris (although she had a ball with Gramama and Tayta--even made up a song the morning we went to the hospital: "bye bye mama". Repeat.) We asked to go home early, and they decided all was fine and they could let us go after the baby had been there 24 hours and passed her newborn screen. Yay for a healthy girl, we've been home since last night!

24 hours old---ready to go home!

Darker eyes than Xaris, but lighter hair--looks like she has brown hair with red highlights!

Full of sweetness

Love from papa

And big sister

We love our sweet girl!

P.S. The name. It's pronounced

eee la nay

so cheet (the l can be pronounced if you can handle it :)

Here's the story.

We've been updating the nursery. Changing colors, moving furniture, etc to make it a two girl room. I took down the birds that were Xaris' theme, and ordered a vinyl tree with cherry blossom flowers and X and I were talking about putting a big tree on the wall, with lots of flowers. When it came, we took a couple days to put it up, and Xaris loved the new "arbol con muchas flores!!" (tree with LOTS of flowers). We saved a branch for over the crib and a few flowers to decorate that side of the wall, and Xaris knew that the big tree by the big bed was hers, and the little branch above the crib was for sister-baby.

Well, that was last week. During that week, anytime I asked X for name suggestions for the coming baby, her only offering was "Arbol con muchas flores". So, while we were in the naming process we decided to let Xaris name her baby sister.

Ilan is Hebrew for "tree" (we added the "e" to make it a more feminine name).

Xochitl is Aztec (ric's roots) for "flower"

And that's the story. :)

Hard at work, Hard at play

Painting with papa.

A few weeks back Ricardo and my dad and our friend Fabian replaced 3 more windows in our house. They are lovely! During the weekends that followed, Ricardo finished them up (sealing, adding the trim, repairing the drywall inside, etc). He had Xaris help him with painting the trim before he put it all up. She was a very good worker.

And of course, after work there's play! With lots of water--particularly when the work is messy and is done in 100+ degree heat. Yes, that is paint in her hair, and it took weeks for it all to come out :)

32 weeks

Funny...I'm almost 32 also...next month.

Is that right?

Crazy how time flies!

Since we hadn't done ANY intentional belly shots of this next little one, I decided that we needed to do this (we can't have this one feeling she was ignored)! So, yesterday we went to the Arboretum just before it closed and had a picnic and took pictures. We only stayed about 30 minutes because it was 99 degrees and insanely humid, like every day here.

I live inside.

In fact, today I only ventured out a couple times for a few seconds each time.

But we got some pictures and X went crazy chasing a bird that was just a little too smart for her...it would just fly over the little fence so she'd have to go running all the way around to the other side just in time for it to fly back over...and repeat....and repeat....

Anyway, here are the photos!

Yay for baby!

We started out with silliness, probably showing off for papa since he met us there after he got off work...

Climbing in the bottom of her stroller....

Kisses for sister baby

Making tummies big...I win.

Adventures in the Peter Rabbit houses

And then telling mama ALL about it! (one thing those of you who are far away won't know about X is that she is a chatterbox. All the time. And if she's not talking, she's singing).

Posed photo without glasses to make Ricardo happy

Fat and Happy!

Smiles and kisses with papa, because he was there too!

By far my favorite photo of the day.

30 minutes at the Dallas Arboretum in July was more than enough, we were hot, sweaty, and very pink. So...we went swimming.

And then out for frozen yogurt!

Vacation Bible School

Our children's minister left in March. By then, we were down to about 4 kids weekly, so instead of hiring a new children's minister, some of us sort of "absorbed" that job. SO, yay for VBS and my first time as a VBS director.

We actually had a fairly successful week! I learned several things that I WILL do and WON'T do next year, but some of the things we tried ended up being good ideas. And we had over 50 kids registered, which means we had 20 more than last year (which at the very least makes me happy because the people in the church who care about numbers and evaluate our positions won't be able to complain that I'm not doing my job).

We also included the preschool, which means we had to adapt/rewrite curriculum for both a 2 year old class and a 3 year old class. Most VBS curriculum (including the one we bought) only does elementary and preK. Here are some fun pictures from the week (mostly of X's week)!

The preK-1st class

The 3 year old class

The 2 year old class (minus one, who was still getting changed)

2 year olds with their teachers

Play time in Noah's Landing

Bible story time, learning from "Mary" about what it was like when Jesus was a kid. They are playing with wheat kernels in this photo.

Parachute!! Best invention ever.