WOW!!!

So for some reason this site was not allowing me to update the blog ... I wrote the last post about Naomi early in November and it wouldn't let me upload and truthfully I must admit I stopped trying for a little bit!!  Truth be told we have had a crazy past couple weeks, all for the best!!

First allow me to introduce our beautiful baby girl, LUNA REESE ARCE!!  She is amazing and such a good baby!!  She was born Monday, December 17, 2012, 7 pounds 11 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long.  What an amazing Christmas present for everyone!!

She looks a lot like Cruz did but a little girlier!!  It has been quite an adjustment but fortunately Cruz loves his "baby sister" and likes to hold her before nap and bed so he can give her some snuggles before bed.  I'm sure it's also overwhelming for him since I cannot pick him up yet and am feeding Luna every 2-3 hours so he gets bored and has no one to play with.  Hopefully we'll stay on this positive note and the whole transition will be good!

We were so lucky to have the Arce clan come out to Phoenix to celebrate an early Christmas and to welcome Luna home!  It was so nice to have everyone here and to introduce our precious little one to her uncles and abuelitos!  It was a very merry Christmas with lots to be thankful for and lots to celebrate!  Santa was good to us and most of all we got to celebrate our first Christmas as a family of four!!

I'm in love!

There is a new addition to the family and I am so excited to introduce everyone to her ... Naomi Mary Quinn.  She was born October 21, 2012 and is the most beautiful, precious baby girl and more importantly, my niece!  I am so thankful that I was able to fly out there to meet this precious little munchkin and have been anxiously awaiting posting these pics!

Mommy and daddy are doing great!  Naomi is a champion sleeper and a booby monster in training.  She was so sweet and just that baby smell alone can drive anyone crazy!  It was so cool to see Kim and Tibyron as parents and obviously they were both naturals!  Tibyron is super dad and such a big help, so much so that my only job was to lay around and chill while they did all the work!  Hey, I cooked dinner one night!  ha!  It was such a nice trip out there, my only complaint is that it is too far!  I wish I could be closer to see Naomi every single day, don't get scared, maybe every week, or at least every month!  I love you guys!

Two two two

I cannot believe my big boy is two!  Where does the time go!  It has been 2 wonderful years with this little guy and somehow amazes me more and more every day!  He is so sweet and loving and is just so much fun to be with!  He makes me smile bigger than I knew I could!!!  We had a fun little birthday party for Cruz last Saturday (actual birthday was Monday, Oct. 22).  We had some friends and fun and pizza and cake!  yum!  Check it out!

 Robots were the name of the game!  "I luv wobots!"

This is Mario's hand in the crafts, amazing!!

 ...and my hand in the crafts.  haha!  I have a little catching up to do but besides a couple burns from the hot glue gun I was pretty proud of my contributions!  Above, robot juice boxes with applesauce heads!!

 Friends gift bags which included robot rubber duckies, bugs, and stickers, lots of stickers!

 Mr. Robot himself, handsome little fella, isn't he!!

 yummy robot cupcakes compliments from Mario's co-worker Robin!  So yummy!

 We all got to feed the ducks and wave to the choo choo train, so fun!  Here's the birthday boy now trying to figure out why he's all out of bread and still not on that train!!

 Balloon time!  Who doesn't like balloons!

 This was intended to be a game, not a ramp but boys will be boys and tractors will dig where they dig!!

 Playground adventures!  This is a big park, good thing we had balloons to stick on the little ones!!

 All this fun is making me hungry ... pretzels!  ok!

 Song and Cake time!!

Shockingly, Cruz is not one for cake.  He often ops out of cake at birthday parties (more for me  ;o)) and goes for the fruit snacks or apple chips instead, still sugary but different.  He did try both flavors though, I think he's more of a chocolate than vanilla kid!  That's my boy!!

 All Aboard!!!!

 Cruz and friends enjoying the choo choo ride!  

 Cruz say with his friend Macie.  He had a great time on the train!!

Happy birthday my sweet little boy!  We love you so much XOXOXOX

Camping

So I feel pretty confident in saying this was the final camping trip of the year!!  It started off great!  What, sweatpants and sweatshirts, awesome!  Until it got really cold, darn rain bringing the cold weather around!  We camped just outside of Flagstaff with some friends!  Cruz had a friend to play with, Camilla, which was very nice and they picked flowers and were able to dig and get dirty together.  It was a trip just trying to find clothes for Cruz to wear!  I'm proud to say he has grown lately!  Of course that being said I had to try like 5 pairs of pants on him to find some that still fit!  It was fun to wear "winter" clothes and relax in the nice fall air!  I love the smell of camp fire (when I'm actually camping anyway) and hot chocolate and toasted marshmallows.  

 Cruz and Camilla starting their hike

 Stopping to smell the flowers!

 "Here you go Mommy!"

 Our camp site

 Trucks and dirt, what more could a boy want!

 Is it getting cold out here or is it me?

 Funny being this cute!!

 Did you hear that?

The next morning, Brrrr!!!

Well, hopefully we'll get back out there for some more camping next summer!  Of course we will be four so maybe we'll wait one more year!!  ha!  We had a good couple times camping and Cruz really enjoys it so that makes me happy and is encouraging to continue going!  Something about seeing your little boy explore nature that's so cool!  

Pepere Memere visit!

There is nothing quite like a visit from family!!  It's great, things don't really change for Cruz which makes sleep and eating fairly normal except he has friends to play with at all times which means mommy gets to take a break!!  :o) (BIG SMILEY FACE!)  My parents came to visit for a whole week this time which was really nice.  For the most part we just hung around here.  It was still hot out (as it still is during the day) so we played inside a lot!  We were able to sneak out one day to Flagstaff and go hiking and out for lunch near the train tracks.  Yes, this is how we choose our restaurants these days, can we be outside so he can walk around and is it near something cool.  This place had it both!!  Plus it had beer for the grandparents to kick back!!  Good times!!

 hiking with Pepere/Memere

 Flagstaff in early fall, can't wait to get back out there when the aspens are in bloom!

Little rock climbers!

 yeah, we did it!

 Wilderness signs are always rustic and cool, ha!!

 1, 2, 3 ... wheeeee

 heading back, I guess there are some perks to being slow these days, like the next couple pictures!!

 me and my boy!

 As usual there is always added confusion with visitors, I gave my mom Cruz's pj's and said time to get ready for bed, I guess she forgot who's bed time it was!!  You can not see Cruz's face but needless to say he is cracking up laughing at the fact that Elmo was sitting in front of him talking.  We figured out the mix up and Cruz was soon put to bed!  I have to say he slept great all week!  The grandparents did a good job at tiring him out!  

 While Mem and Pep where here they took Cruz to buy a birthday gift.  Can you believe it, a birthday gift already, yes that's right my munchkin will be two in a couple weeks.  Crazy!!  He got a pretty awesome Harley tricycle.  He has been riding it around the house and even rode it the whole way to the park the other day.  It is pretty fun to watch him!  He's still a too short to reach the pedals but at least once he can reach them he'll be good and comfortable on the trike!  

It was great to have time with my parents once Cruz was in bed too!  I guess I don't document those times with pictures but it is nice to have them here even if for only a week at a time!! It was sad to see them off on their big big airplane but every once in a while when Cruz sees one and points it out he says, it's going to Florida like Pepere Memere.  Too cute!!

Love you mom and dad!  Miss you!!  XOXO