Christmas week celebrations!!!

What a fun week we have had! The kids have been in great moods, not overly tired or sugared up, and even us siblings have gotten along :) We have movie nights, game night, and even a little PPV fight night. Here are some pic high-lights!

Little Lettie and Sassy got matching vests from Tio Marcos and Haley and they worked out perfect for our giant family pictures the next morning!

The kids love to drink out of the adults water bottles, so Sissy found kid sized ones for "Damma" to give to the kids and they haven't stopped drinking since! (And they each got their own color.)

Garrett loves to hold baby Addelyn and he smiles all the time! Addelyn has done really well letting the kids hold and play with her all the time and dealing with the "happy noise"

Haley got to have her very own, private audience to watch her open presents since she didn't get to join us until Christmas night. Marcos loves to tease Haley about her eyes not being open in pictures but she looks great in this one!

Adam and Melissa got Marcos this great running suit for Christmas (they didn't get the real gift done until later) so he wore it for the entire day, just so people would wonder if he really liked it that much!


Then Friday, we got to have a girls outing after family pics, so we picked to have pedis!

Sassy got to pick out her own color...pink of course!

She was totally enthralled in what Sonja was doing to her toes...

That is some hot pink!

Not a happier 2 year old in the state!

Thanks "sissy's" for all the fun!!!

New Cousins

Last night we had a "Sibling Movie Night" (we missed you Haley and Marcos!) at Cheeto and Shena's house with Cookout milkshakes, and watched "Christmas Vacation" (Arellano classic). The 2 youngest Arellano's weren't into sleeping, and they can't repeat all the lines that shouldn't be repeated from that movie, so they stayed up with us.


Little Lettie was not too sure about Addelyn...

Addelyn was not too sure about Little Lettie...

But it didn't take long for Little Lettie to want to hold her, the whole time! She would get so upset when her turn was over! I think she needs a little sister too!

Shena was making Addelyn's stocking and Lettie thought it was a great hat!

Thanks to my siblings for hanging out and having fun!

Kids Sleepover...

We got to have the kids over for a pre-Christmas party this last weekend and it was so fun! The kids has been a little worried about Tia not having any Christmas decorations or a Christmas Tree, so our project for the night was a gingerbread tree...

Cade showing his muscles...his dad is so jealous!

Sassy helping with the tree and Cade is posing for Kelson who is taking the picture.

Tio and the kids.

Sassy taking her picture with Tio.

Cade now taking his shot.

This was Addy's Rudolph outfit and I just loved it! She did not stay the night with us for obvious reasons, but she will get to before we know it!

We love to have the kids over even if we let them eat what they want, stay up way too late, and be hyper! Thankfully their parents forget what they are like the day after and let them come back! Thanks for the fun kids!

Santa Clause is coming to town...

"We" had a special visit last night from Santa at Cheeto and Shena's house, and I of course, had to go too.

I love this smile of Cade's! He was the brave one that went first to show his siblings how it goes...all of his requests were about his favorite football teams! What else would you expect from a kid that is so much like Cheeto?

Kelson only had one request, a real light saber (how ever you spell it), but Santa said that they might have to improvise on that one since they aren't really safe for kids to have.

Addelyn did great! I think that she is the only one who can say that she has been good all year!

Here is the special family with their special guest. And great Santa Panther hats courtesy of Tia!

Sassy was not too fond of him and had a death grip on me when it was her turn to sit on his lap (thus I have no pictures of that) but we finally convinced her that she could at least give him a love before he left and she happily obliged!

Kelson then went on to sing "Santa Clause is coming to town" while he took a bath...gotta love sweet little kids at Christmas! Thanks Cheeto and Shena for letting me come over!

Silly dog owners...

I know that this is going to make me look like the dog lady, but I just couldn't resist and my brother-in-law requested an updated picture of Kris and Bofo. But, if anyone ever gets a calender or Christmas card with just my dog and dressed in all different outfits, please do have an intervention to save the poor dog! But I must say that he really is cute!

I think poor Bofo is embarrassed, at least he got to wear the Panther hat and not a Broncos! :)

Poor Bofo, he has ridiculous owners...Kris wanted to take his picture with the Panthers Santa hat on and he even had to hold his head up...

Go Panthers! I mean Broncos!!

Our game finally came yesterday in Charlotte! We were so excited and got to the stadium 2 hours before the game started! This was my first NFL game, so I wanted to get the full experience!



This is "Christmas Panther", she is very festive. If you notice the banner here in the bottom right corner, it says "Bag-Check Line" and I of course had a bag with all my goodies. I read the back of the ticket before we left the house to see if there was anything that we couldn't take, and there wasn't, and Cheeto had given us a football to get signed so I put it in our bag. We get up to the bag check and the guy said "sorry but no footballs are allowed in the game" what the!?!? Its a football game! So we had to either hike back to the car, or they had a "Toys for Tots" run by the Marine Corp, so we hope some kid loves his un-signed football! Now we just have to find another to give to Cheeto.

I love these self taken couple portraits! I am sure that my brothers will get to make lots of fun at me for this one.

This is our team after their prayer huddle! I wonder what they say in those...

Our seats were great! They are up high enough to be able to see the whole game easily, but close enough to hear it too! This win made us undefeated at home this year, so hopefully we will win one of our next 2 games to win our division. I was kind of sad for Kris that his Broncos didn't look so hot, but I did love the game! He was gracious enough to let me celebrate with the chicks next to me and didn't even scowl at me once! It started to rain with just under 10minutes left, and I have been fighting bronchitis for 3 weeks, so we left a few minutes early. On my way down the stairs a migraine hit me, so Kris had to drive and let me be sick. All in all we had a great time!

It worked!

So I decided that I would give Kris his surprise when he came to Mom's to help move in furniture (she finally got some new carpet).

I figured that that would give him a little extra pep in his step. He opened the envelope and said "oh, thanks"

and then read the tickets and realized that it was for the Broncos game and he gave me a little more excitement.
So needless to say, he got the furniture moved in and put back together in no time. Our little Addelyn was the supervisor! She did a fabulous job in that great outfit that she was wearing.

Broncos' Tix = Good Wife

That is what I am hoping for anyway...
I work with some incredibly generous people, and one of the firm partners heard that Kris was a Broncos fan and offered his tickets when they come to play the Panthers (which I love)!
Kris still doesn't know (he never reads our blog),

so I got him a jersey (which he has already tried on because I had to make sure that it fits before the game, so he thinks that it is for football Sundays at Grandma's house),

made him a blanket to take to the game (I chose the outside tickets and the game starts at 4, so I am sure that it will be cold),

and got a new digital camera to capture it all. At this point I hope that he will think that this will be fun, and like the surprise even though he hates to give or receive them. So I took pics of the blanket and was so excited to do this post, and now I can't get the pics downloaded...does bronchitis cause brain damage?
We (mostly me) have been sick for a couple weeks and I got Kris to finally go to the Dr. last night and got him some cough medicine before he ends up sounding like me and having to be out of work for a week. Marcos calls me a door knob lick-er and swears that being home is like being in a petri dish. I am off to find a card to put the tickets in to give to Kris...wish me luck! And I will try to get pics up soon...I finally figured it out!

For Fun

I thought this would be fun! And to humor my Sissy ;)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? wrapping paper
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real, although I am not putting one up this year...Bofo doesn't care
3. When do you put up the tree? Next year
4. Do you like eggnog? Love it
5. Favorite gift received as a child? Anything tom-boyish
6. Hardest person to buy for? Not sure
7. Easiest person to buy for? Shena usually gives me all the ideas, so its all easy!
8. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, Santa kneeling down to Jesus, I just don't know where it is
9. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail - not real committed to it though
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Strep throat, get it every year, although this year I started with bronchitis for Thanksgiving!
11. Favorite Christmas Movie? Christmas Vacation & Polar Express
12. When do you start shopping? Whenever Sissy has an idea
13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? hasn't everyone :) (its called white elephant)
14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? I just love food, but Carolyns treats are my favorite!!
15. Lights on the tree? Alot of whatever
16. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night, but there are so many!
17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? stay home
18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? yes, especially if I sing the song.
19. Angel on the tree top or a star? Bow
20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Both
21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Not getting enough time with family and friends, there never is enough time!
22. Favorite ornament theme or color? I love the ones that have a memory with them
23. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Tamales, (I'm mexican!) &Honey Baked Ham
24. What do you want for Christmas this year? Not be sick!
25. Who do I tag? Raychel, Tia, and anyone else who will do it!