A BOY!!!! After four girls, we are going to be adding a boy to our (not so) little group of kiddos. I must say it was quite a shock, especially for Keith. He was just so sure that it was going to be another girl, and actually hoping for another girl, that when we realized what we were having, he just sat there in shock for the whole rest of the appointment. Didn't really say much of anything, except "He could be wrong, it could still be a girl". Um honey, no, that's a definite boy. :)
He's since warmed up to the idea and we're both pretty excited for this new adventure. I told Keith he can take care of all the diaper changes on this one. I'm not interested in getting hosed down, which I hear is a a common occurance with little boys. Í'm a little nervous though, as I have no boy experience and am not prepared for a boy at all. There isn't one single piece of blue clothing in this house at all. I guess we've got some shopping to do.
Here's a profile pic of the little booger...
We're pretty excited about our new addition!! (But does this mean I'm going to have to change the name of my blog?)
You can download my brag book quickpage and birthday invite here.
Also, we're all sharing a birthday tradition from our family. One of our family's traditions (that we got from my family, that came from my mother's family :D ) is to let the birthday person pick their birthday dinner. Whatever they request (within reason of course) is what we eat for dinner. We've had spaghetti, enchiladas, macaroni and cheese, and lots of other special requests. Tonight we're having Italian Crockpot Chicken for Amya's birthday dinner. Feel free to share one of your family's birthday traditions with me (we could use a few more)!!
Next stop on the birthday blog train is www.haynay.blogspot.com (Heather N.)
And please remember, we are an international train, so if one stop isn't ready yet, be patient and wait for it to be posted. The freebie links will be valid for a long time, so you won't miss out.Have fun guys!!!!!
This is the one I made for the speed scrap I hosted today. I came up with the design all on my own (I've been using a lot of templates lately, so this one took me a little longer than usual!) and then came up with 7 instructions to give to the people participating in the speed scrap. The instructions were:
1. Pick 3-5 photos to use. They must show a sequence of events or be a series of photos. If you want, you can run an action on them.
2. Line up your photos, either horizontally or vertically. The focal photo should be larger than the others (it doesn’t have to be a lot larger, it can be just slightly larger).
3. Pick your papers (no more than three). Your background paper needs to be solid, but the other two can be patterned.
4. Mat your photos. (You can use one of the papers you chose…) Your focal photo, however, needs a frame.
5. Add some elements. You need at least one ribbon, one flower, one “bling”, and one staple.
6. Add your title. Your title needs to be a combination of alpha and font. One word should stand out more than the others.
7. Add journaling on some sort of journaling block (it can’t just be typed on your background paper) and date your layout.
It was a lot of fun to host and not as nerve-wracking as I thought.
If you want to see what the participants did with my instructions, you can click here. Oh and this page showcases Erica Zane's products, which you can find here.
Whew!! That was a lot of information! And because I'm lazy and hungry, I'm only going to post a link for credits once. If you go to my ScrapMatters Gallery you can find all these layouts and click on the individual ones to get credits. I have two more pages from other speed scraps during this month that I still haven't finished, therefore totally missing the point of the SPEED scrap. Once I finish them, I'll post them.
And while I'm at it, here's the August one. I just realized I never posted it. Do you like how we're all wearing our Drywall shirts?
And I'm way too lazy to have done these myself....you can find the Sep one here and unfortunately I forgot where I got the August one.
And this is the cool prize you get just for participating in the speed scrap:
So if any of you who read my blog are digi-scrappers, hopefully I'll see you there!
Amya got her ears pierced this month! Or to quote her, she got her "earrings pierced". I think it sounds cute when she says it like that and Keith keeps trying to correct her. She was so brave. She sat right down, let the lady clean and mark her ears, and then counted down for her to pierce. It hurt a little bit, you could tell she was kinda cringing for the second one, but she was a trooper. Didn't complain at all, cause she knew it would scare the other girls.
Keith was joking that it was more like a stab wound and now she can say she’s a true Mexican. Okay. Maricela is also a huge copycat! If anything is said in this house, it’s said twice because you can always hear her little echo. She ADORES her older sisters and follows them around all the time, trying to be just like them. So if Téa’s out doing bike tricks, you better believe Maricela is trying to do them as well.
Last week we went to a ward luau and that was really fun as well. 
Amya kept calling it a lu-how. Anyway, Amya entered the watermelon eating contest for kids. It was a race to see who could eat the most slices in 20 seconds. While Amya didn’t win (she ate 3), she did go on to eat 7 more that night. I love the little bit of watermelon dripping off her chin in the picture. And Maricela had so much fun playing that she zonked right out as soon as soon as we got home. She loves this little chair.
In case you can't figure it out, that's me and a baby in my tummy. Yep, you heard it here - I'm knocked up again. :)
Last, but not least, there was a speed scrap over at Scrap Matters this morning and this is the page I made for it.
I was even more depressed. I can just imagine putting one of these on my camera. They are SOOO pretty! She has a ton more in her etsy shop: Cotton Candy by Natalie. My friend Amy got one like this the other day and it looks so cute on her camera. Natalie's also having a little contest on her blog where, if you talk about her straps on your blog or on a message board, you have a chance to win one of her straps! How exciting! So I'm crossing my fingers that my camera (my "precious" according to Keith) comes back to me soon and that I win the contest. Go check out her shop - you won't be disappointed!
But next time we take pictures, we'll make sure she hasn't been drinking KoolAid right before. :)
Since my camera died right after I took the picture of her holding her birthday money from Noel, I have no other pictures of her birthday. :( So I've decided to share lots of other pictures to help describe what she's been up to lately.
She loves playing in water, whether it's stomping in puddles, getting Daddy wet with the hose, shooting water guns, or playing in the little pool at the farm.
She LOVES jewelry. She has this pink necklace that she wears EVERYWHERE. She loves to put 'pretties' in her hair (that's what we call ponytails) and she gets into my makeup.
Maricela loves to draw. She scribbles on everything with anything she can get her hands on. We've had to pay for marked up library books, there's a new art gallery on my wall, she colors on herself and her clothes, etc.
She is definitely an eater. She takes after her daddy. Here's she's eating a bean tapatía. Apparently she was more interested in the beans than the tortilla.
She loves to wear pretty dresses and skirts and is always willing to put on a cheesy grin for a picture.
She loves to be outside. Whenever she hears the door open (we have squeaky doors) she starts yelling "Ah-siy" (outside) over and over, while running towards the door.
She's a goofy little girl who loves to make us laugh. We definitely have another Keith Jr. on our hands in that department.
She loves anything that has to do with Princesses. She has this funny way of saying princess, something like "lellellellella". I'll have to get video of her saying it and post it.
Maricela also loves babies. She has to have her baby with her when she goes to sleep and she carries it around with her all day long.
She's also into bugs. She loves to go out with Téa and hunt for roly-polys. She calls them po-wees, and any other bug she sees is a pi-der (spider).
We love our little Maricela and are so glad she is a part of our family! Happy Birthday Mari!!!
p.s. Mom, these photos are big enough to print and should still look good, not all pixelated.
