WELCOME 2008!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe we're almost at the end of January and I hadn't even posted pictures of New Year's Eve until now. I'm so bad at updating our blog, but one of my New Year's resolutions is to update it more often, so I hope I really become better at that.

We decided to welcome in 2008 at Planet Hollywood just like we did last year. The thing is that they have a themed party every year, they organize lots of games for the kids, and it's super laid back, so we don't have to worry about the kids being quiet at a restaurant. Last year the party's theme was Disney characters, so the kids had to dress like their favorite one. When we made the reservations for this year we looked up Planet Hollywood on the Internet and the theme was the same, so we thought Alan would wear the same thing as last year. However, I thought that it was weird that they would have the same theme two years in a row, so I decided to check it out on the morning of the 31st and the description for the party was different this time. At the last minute they changed the theme of the party to a Pirate one. As you can imagine, this isn't a country where kids dress up a lot and they barely sell any costumes, so I thought we wouldn't find anything, especially a pirate one and having to find it so fast. But we ended up going to this toy store where they had a really cute one, so we were all set.

We had a lot of fun. Alan became friends with a cute two and a half year old little girl dressed up as a princess (she didn't hear about the theme on time) and they were just playing and laughing all night. The girl's dad (in the picture) ended up being exhausted because they wanted him to spin them around and the little girl wouldn't let any of us do it. It had to be her dad, so we felt so bad for him, but he was really happy to see how much fun they were having. Alan participated in different games they had and ended up winning the costume contest. Eric had a lot of fun playing with a bunch of balloons that they had and watching Alan being silly playing and dancing with his friend.

We hope this year keeps being as fun as how it started and we hope this year brings lots of blessings, health and love to all of you and your families.

Have a very Merry Christmas

I can't believe Christmas is gone and we're already a few days into the year 2008!!!

I love the feeling that the Christmas season brings with it. I love having a Christmas tree and lighting it up every day. We love decorating the house and making Christmas cookies. I think the thing that Justin misses the most about not being in the US for Christmas is knowing that it's cold outside and being so warm inside the house sitting by the fireplace. So this year he recreated that feeling by downloading a video that shows a yule log burning. It was so cute, because it actually made it feel like it was cold outside.

Our neighbor Cathy invited us over to her Christmas Eve open house. Her house was so nice all

decorated for Christmas; she made so much food we couldn't believe it and everything was so yummy too. When we got back home the kids opened a couple of presents and then were off to bed because we were hoping that Santa would show up that night....and of course he did.

I remember when I was little the only day of the year that I was happy about waking up early was Christmas Day. I remember waking up like at 6 or 7 in the morning and running downstairs to see what Santa had gotten for me. I would feel so tired from staying awake till 2 or so in the morning the night before, celebrating Christmas Eve, but the excitement of getting to see and play with my new toys made all the tiredness go away (at least for a few hours).

I thought at Alan would feel the same way and would wake up early that morning, but I guess he's still too little to get that whole feeling. Eric and him ended up waking up at around 9:30 and we hurried downstairs to see all of the presents. I think Eric's favorite part of getting presents was the wrapping paper; he loved playing with it. Alan liked his presents too, but he specially LOVED Eric's presents, which doesn't really matter since Eric is still too little to realize which ones are his. However, Alan's favorite present was one that was actually for him. He got a really big train that stops when it gets to the train station and it makes sounds as it passes through different tunnels and stuff. It is so much fun to have our little boys and look at their big eyes shining with happiness when they looked at the presents they got.

On Christmas Day we went out to have lunch at a hotel and it was really fun. The restaurant was next to the beach and they had an inflatable castle where Alan jumped the whole time. Actually Justin and I didn't even get to eat together; we would switch to take care of the kids, so I would go eat a full plate, then Justin would go eat and we spent around 3 hours like that (taking care of kids and eating by ourselves). It was a lot of fun though, it is really nice to see the kids having so much fun. We just didn't have the heart to ask Alan to go in and spend an hour and a half having lunch (especially since he's not a big fan of eating, as most of you know).

It was so nice to hear from our family and friends and hearing how they spent their Christmas Day. My favorite part about Christmas is that it's so easy to be happy and to forget about all the bad things that happen in the world and just focus on how blessed we are to have love in our lives. I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas as well.