They are engaged!!!!

My brother proposed to his long time sweetheart on Christmas Day!! Although the hubs and I were not there when the proposal took place. I was told about it later on in the day by my brother and his very happy Fiancee :) My brother did a great job at keeping it a secret! I am very excited for both of them and I cant wait for the planning to begin!! Below are a few pictures that I got from when he proposed!!! I was told he was nervous too!!!! Congrats bro and soon to be sister in law :)

Christmas Day Begins At Midnight

Where do I begin with all the things that happened at Christmas. For our family the tradition of opening up Christmas presents starts as midnight. I can't really tell you why it's that way but it has always been like that. Our friends and family gather together on Christmas Eve and after a nice dinner all the children gather around and we each choose one present to open up first. This year was our first year that we did it as a married couple and it was a great time had by all. The guys showed up...as usual...fashionable late. Scott actually hosted his first Christmas for his mom and so they had dinner together. He and Benny showed up to the house around 9 PM and we were all finally together. Carlos and Elsa had been at her parents house and they finally arrived at 1030.

When midnight rolled around Little Carlos was amped up and ready to go!!!! He was like a kid at a candy store...then again for him Christmas is like having a huge store come to his house...so needless to say he was ready to tear into the presents that were under the tree. I began to pass out the gifts, giving everybody their first one.

Big Carlos was the first one to tear into his gift, and with a look of shock found that his girlfriend had given him an XBox 360!!!! Elsa went next and she got some make up that she had been wanting from Mac. Then it was the guys' turn. Ben tore into his present like a kid getting a dollar for the first time. Fast and quick and with a look of surprise when he saw that Hady and I had given him a sweater and a shirt for him to wear. Not that we didn't get them more, but they had actually given us our gifts a bit early and we decided to let them have one gift early as well. I had gotten Benny a headset for his XBox 360 and had gotten Scott the video game called Forza Motorsports 2. It's what they wanted and I was sure I couldn't fail with those gifts. Scott opened his second gift for the season, but his first gift of the night. He too got a sweater and a shirt but in true "Scott style" decided to open it up like El Guapo from the Three Amigos and yell "EET IS A SWEEATER!!!!"



Then the gifts that I had been waiting for the entire night to be opened came up. Hady didn't ask me for much, and with everything going on the last couple months as far as work and money went I figured if I couldn't get her much I would at least get her the gifts that she really wanted. It was really two gifts that I wanted to see opened at once. The one that I had gotten for Hady and one that I had gotten for Christina. Both of them wrapped in identical little boxes and with the same wrapping paper. Hady shook the box a bit to try and guess what it was since it couldn't have weighed more than a pound but was too big to be a jewelry box. She finally tore into it and her jaw dropped!!! She had been fooled for a bit since the To/From tag said that the gift was from Jessie. We don't have a Jessie in our family...just so you know. When she got to the contents of the box her eyes widened and her mouth opened!!! It was an apron from the Jessie Steele collection that she wanted, and to top it off I had gotten Christina the exact same one in a little kids size. I won't go into detail as far as how I found the freaking thing, but my best friend and I now know where there are certain stores where there shouldn't be.

Little Carlos was finally up and he actually got to open two gifts at once. Due to lack of communication between Carlos and us, Los got two identical gifts which turned out to be a great thing for him. He tore into the wrapping paper and discovered that he got, not one, but two NERF Long Range Shot Blasters. They are basically huge NERF guns but it was good he was gonna have two since he and I were gonna be shooting at each other. He immediately tried to get the guns out of their boxes and start a NERF fight. We had to restrain him a bit since he still had more presents to go through!!!

We all kept alternating turns for the remainder of the night until all the presents were gone and once again our tree was bare underneath. In a total tally this is how the presents ended up

Hady

Jessie Steele Apron - From Christian
Aldo Leather Shoes - Christian
Victoria's Secret PJ's - Elsa & Carlos
Pearl Ring - Mom

Los

NERF Guns x2 - Hady and Carlos
Nintendo DS Black - Hady
Etnies Shoes - Scott
Havoc Heli Laser Battles - Christian
Pokemon Diamond for DS - Elsa

Christina

Crayola Easel - Hady
Jessie Steele Apron - Christian
Learn and Grow Kitchen - Hady
Dora the Explorer Tent - Elsa
Wood Puzzle - Hady
Dora The Explorer Trike - Carlos

Scott

Dress Sweater - Hady and Christian
Polo Shirt - Hady
Forza Motorsports 2 XBox 360 - Christian

Benny

Dress sweater - Hady and Christian
Dress Shirt - Hady
XBox 360 Headset - Christian

Carlos

XBox 360 Bundles Pack - Elsa
Assassin's Creed - Scott
1 yr XBox live - Hady
Reserve copy of GTA4 - Christian
Halo 3 Special Edition - Elsa

Elsa

MAC makeup - Hady
Aldo Gift Card - Scott
MAC brushes - Carlos
Snow Jacket - Hady

Christian

Winbreakers - Hady
Jeans - Hady
Socks - Hady
Sweater - Carlos
Assassin's Creed - Elsa
Boxers - Dolores HAHAHAHA the tradition continues!!!

We also got two gifts as a family. Benny got us Rock Band and Scott got us the camera we used to take all of our pictures. We stayed up until about 4 AM and finally went to bed so that we could get up in the morning for Christmas dinner. It was a great Christmas, and everyone got presents they wanted and even some that were very surprising, but I'll let Hady talk about that big one we got.

Christmas Eve Pt.1

We had another great Christmas this year!!!. Hubs and I hosted this year and I'm really happy to say that everything turned out great. From our dinner to gift opening at midnight (Our tradition) I loved the look on everyones face as they got to open up their gifts, but most of all I loved being with my family and loved ones. This is pt. 1 because I'm blogging from dinner preparation and Christmas Eve. Hubs is going to do pt. 2 ;)

I loved our Christmas tree!!

:) ....a pic of our tree all lit up

I love to bake so the must were sugar cookies and cupcakes :P The kidos love to help doing this as well as hubs. Man, what would I do without him.

I baked Sprinkles Red Velvet cupcakes. They were pretty good :) My brothers GF also baked cupcakes.

more to Come !!!!

Christmas In The Park!

Again this post is a weeklate but here goes.

San Jose has a yearly tradition of puttting on "Christmas In The Park". We attend almost everyyear and this year was no exception. We had a good time walking around with the hubs, he kidos, my little cousins, brother, future sis in law, and good friend Ben. Sipping on some hot chocolate was delicious too!!

Christina loved being at the park. She especially liked being in the "snow" How can you not fall in love with that face!?!?!

Yes, we love playing around with each other!

My little cousin Mayra is the best :) I cant believe how much she has grown. She is growing up to be such a beautiful young lady!

We made it a family affair. My brother and his GF Elsa also joined us

There were soooooo many people being it was the day before X-mas eve.....nontheless it was tons of fun and I cant wait to go back next year!

See how packed it was?!

Until next time!

Early Christmas Present!!!

I wanted to post on here and say a quick thanks to Scott for getting us our brand camera we will be taking pics from so I can post on our blog! He got Christian and I a sweet Casio Exilim EX-S880. Thanks Scott!

We love our new camera!!

Christina's Second Birthday!!!

Our little girl turned 2 we had a great day planned for her :)

:) We planned a fun day for her and her big brother carlos at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and boy did she love seeing the Fishy's!

Our day started with her Nino Carlos and Nina Elsa who stopped by and had breakfast with us.

They got her a really cute Curious George and Tyrone from the Backyardigans. Tyrone talks and sings and Christina really likes him :) Although at first she was a little scared of him!

Thanks Nino Carlos and Nina Elsa. Christina Loved her presents! <3<3<3>We then packed the kids and left for a fun filled day to the Monterey Bay Aqarium. It was beautiful out and we couldnt wait to get in there and see some animals.

She was in awe of where she was. We had been to the aquarium before when she was younger but now that she is a little older she saw everything in a whole diffrent way.

Her big brother loves to show her the different types of fish.

*Funny Story-The Monterey Bay Aquarium has these really cool 3-D windows type things that you can view the fish through. You reach your hand inside and its almost as if your inside swimming with the fish in the water. Christian thought it would be funny to try and sit Christina inside of the window bubble thing so she can look at the fish and the faces she made were priceless. She was terrified lol dont believe me? look at her face in the pics below :D

Daddy I dont want to go in the bubble!

I did not sign up for this!!!!

After the aquarium we had lunch at this restaurant called Archie's. Pretty good place, with very good food and milkshakes! I got to show my creative side and drew Christina a little birthday banner that we got to bring home with us :P

I love food! so one thing you will notice is that I will take pics of the food we eat. Above is a picture of the shrimp pasta i had at Archies. It was really good and I couldnt finish it!

The food was so good. It made Christian want to take a nap!

He was only kidding though! Heres my handsome hubby :D

We had a great time and I know the kids enjoyed themselves. Until next time Monterey!!!!

p.s We also celebrated Christinas birthday at my moms house with cake. I need to get those pics from my brother so I can post them up.....so to be continued :)