Gray Hair, Wrinkles and Heart Attacks

This past weekend we went to see Raymond's family. While we were here we (my sister-in-law and myself) decided it would be so awesome to get all the grandchildren together for a photograph for abuelita for Christmas. I know, I know we are very thoughtful and come up with such good ideas. I amaze myself.

The grandchildren are ages 17, 4, 20 months and 3 months. Sounds simple enough, so an appointment was made for 10 am.

I will start from the beginning so you can feel all the joy these sessions bring.

At around 8:30 am the 17 year old, whom I love dearly, came out of his bedroom with such a furry about breakfast and then about 9 wanted to know if his mom would iron his shirt. When the answer was no.......well you can imagine the mumbling and grumbling. Then at 9:20 he jumped in the shower. My sister-in-law left to pick up the other two grand kids while I was to get the teenager and Molly out the door. We did leave about 9:40 and got to the studio on time but the other two......were still getting ready. Luckily the appointment after us was already there and we just switched times but I have a military back ground, and I don't wait until the last minute and I (for the most part) show up 15 to 30 minutes early. This worrying about time and being on time, made 20 new gray hairs and a few wrinkles. I also think I had a small heart attack but Raymond says I am just a drama queen.

Now it is our turn, all the boys did good, got in position, smiles on and Molly wanted nothing to do with it. Did not want to stand by them, sit by them or even look at the camera. NONE OF IT. I knew she had a strong will but I thought surely I can get her to do it. I AM HER MOTHER, SHE MUST DO WHAT I SAY.

Her will is stronger. Nothing worked. I bribed her with a juice box, threw her in the picture, told the lady to snap it and we were done. Only one picture of Molly and she has a juice box in her hand.

I am laughing now, because...well, there is a juice box in her hand! At the time, not so funny and I don't know if I will be apart of such a plan in the future. Oh and her dress! It was so cute and will have to get a picture of her in the dress, next to Santa. Second thought...maybe not.

Laughter

Its the little things, isn't it?

Balderas Family 2009

I didn't want to do it but I am not getting any skinner and I didn't want too much time to pass by so here are a few:

Isn't the whole genes thing and DNA amazing!

Busy November

We have been quite busy so far for the month of November. First of all there was a carnival right down the street. We just had to go it was Molly's first time riding on any kind of ride. It was pretty darn expensive, if you ask me. But we wanted to get out of the house and my girlfriend, Cecilia and her two kiddos (Emily and Matthew) said they would go with us. Anyways....Molly had a blast. She was not scared to ride any of the little rides that Matthew wanted to go on and the rides where kid friendly enough that I didn't have to ride on them with her (yeah!).

Then we had Veterans Day. I have participated on the Austin Veterans Day Parade Committee for four years now and my only duty is to find a vendor that will supply port-a-johns and another vendor to set up chairs at the capitol building for the ceremony after the parade. I usually get to the down town area very early to make sure the chairs arrive and then enjoy a Starbucks. This year was no different and Molly and Raymond joined be about 30 minutes before the parade started. Molly sat on my lap the whole time and watched the parade. She was really very good. I was also interviewed by Fox news. It actually aired here in Austin. I was really embarrassed after I saw myself because I do have strong views on our Veterans and what it means to me and none...NONE of that came across. I just had too much eyeliner on and was holding my upper lip very tight to hold myself from crying. It was my one chance to explain to Austin what Veterans are and how important it is to support those of us still alive......and I blew it with mumble jumble bull crap.

After the parade we had a picnic in front of the capitol building and waited for the Veterans Day ceremony to begin. We did not last through the whole thing because nap time is VERY important to all of us and I am hoping all Veterans understand this and support our nap time.

Next we had a wedding to go to. Cecilia's baby sister got married in San Antonio and we were invited. It was a beautiful wedding and we just made a mini weekend vacation out of it. I took quite a few pictures but did not manage to get one picture of Raymond, Molly and myself. This upsets me because it was probably the first time we have all been dressed up and all hairs washed. I am hoping someone, somewhere caught this on film. In any case, I did find this awesome sweater for Molly.

So all of this and we have not hit Thanksgiving yet. Once again with all this movin and groovin you would think I would be skinner.

BFF

This is Mosul, Molly's new best friend. Molly is NOT Mosul's best friend. Molly will follow Mosul around and give her love, when Mosul is in the mood to deal with Molly. When we are outside both kitty and Molly will stay in our yard and the neighbors yard but to get them back where they need to be, I just call out "here, kitty, kitty" and 20% of the time Mosul will listen and Molly will follow.

We have another cat Taji. Taji wants absolutely nothing to do with Molly and runs as fast as his little legs will carry him. This is a few clips from the other day:

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween! This year because of our vacation and Raymond's work schedule we did not have time to go to a real pumpkin patch but Molly had fun just the same picking out pumpkins from a local church.

Here is the finished product:

On Halloween Day we went to the outlet mall and walked around. They have a trick or treat thing and it was fun just looking at all of the kids in their costumes. We can home at dusk and passed out candy.

I found this year's awesome, hand-made costume at the Goodwill store. I just added on jeweled candy corns to the yellow portion of the dress and sewed candy corn buttons around the yellow portion of the hat.

Just to get a good idea of how big my girl is getting, this was last years costume.

Oh come on.....it's funny. She's a hot dog! That is funny.

So here is my Halloween story this year.........we have not given candy to Molly except for suckers. We have used suckers on the airplanes as a distraction and thinking it would keep her swallowing during take offs and landings. With all the candy around she really did not show any interest except for the suckers. She went through our basket of candy and pulled out about 5 suckers and just kept playing with them, licking the wrapper things like that and then..........she figured out if the wrapper is in one hand and the sucker stick is in the other hand and you pull....ta-da....you can have a sucker. The look on her face was as if she had discovered fire!