Pedro has been working for Coca Cola for the past 4 1/2 years and they usually do something like a coctail Christmas party for the employees and spouses. But this time they did something different, they had a Holiday Carnival right at the parking lot! It was exciting to be able to bring the whole family and enjoy some fun time, free food, free games, and all you can drink sodas, juices and water. They even had a huge trailer with video games and about 20 students from a school (can't remember the name) giving free massages, which would have been great if I wasn't so ticklish and the poor guy had to finish my massage early because I just couldn't stop giggling (that was embarrasing)... Anyway we had a lot of fun and here are the pics to prove it. Thanks Coca Cola!

As soon as we got there, my kids were drawn to these.

A beautiful Coca Cola truck...

that was really a big, chocolate cake!

This truck had the music

which was very nice and loud

Emma was the first one trying this ride, and by the end of the day she was actually pretty good at it.

She did not want to miss a single thing, so up she went to this giant slide...

and down she came with a happy face...

unlike her mother who is afraid of heights, she enjoyed every minute of it...

Then Pedro tried to get on the bull, but it wasn't as easy as he thought ( the seat was actually very slippery)

but he never gave up and triumphantly sat on the bull's back!

Then the first -born son tried his luck with the bull, and lucky for him, the camera didn't catch him on a horizontal position...

Then the eldest daughter tried to prove what little girls are made of, gun powder and lead... (oh no that's the song, sorry) she always got up with a smile...

Pedro and Erik spent a great deal of time on this game trying to prove who was stronger, and I have to be honest, Erik was the strongest and more balanced of the two, although Pedro ended up knocking him down many times...

Yes, he knocked his son down because he would loose his balance and fall on top of him! What a cheater don't you think?

Here is my girl again trying to prove that us women can do anything the men can do...

unfortunately balancing is not one of them...

Emma tried to prove the same thing but the poor thing couldn't even balance the "thingies"

but at least she tried...

Then came my turn to tame the bull... as you can see height is not my strong point and Angie gave me some pointers before I got on it: "Jump two times on the floor so you can gain enough height and then you can jump onto the back of the bull...

That's when I realized how slippery the seat was, but to be honest I wasn't really jumping that high, so I couldn't even get my right leg across the animal... it was soooo embarrasing...

Until I finally did it on my third try ( and with a little help from the ride operator who made the creature lean towards me so I could get on top) and triumphantly sat on it for the next 6 seconds, before I met the cushionny floor again...

What a great day! Like I said... Thanks Coca Cola!

Davieth is now 7 years old!

On December 18th we got together at my mom's house to celebrate my little niece's seventh birthday. There was a BIG cake, pinata, pizza, and lots of candy. Happy Birthday Davieth!

Everybody

Mom, husband, baby and niece Dayanara

Emma was tired and ready to go home.

Birthday girl!

Davieth had a doll pinata and when she gave it to first hit, it broke right away, so they had to go and buy another pinata (above) to let the other kids have a chance on hitting it. That girls has muscle!

Karmina always making funny faces.

My baby girl doing her best with the pinata

She really was concentrating hard

Davieth getting ready to cut the cake

She wasn't very happy when her face was dipped in the cake frosting, but after a minute she was just fine.

The Gang's Christmas Party!

It was two weeks before Christmas...that friends gathered together to share a good meal, a good laugh, a good time. On Friday 11th, we had "The Gangs' Christmas Party", it was such a fun time. The food was great (potluck) and there was so much variety: Pozole, Wheat Pozole, Baby back Ribs in spicy tomato sauce, Lasagna, Spanish rice, Mashed Potatoes, Fried Chicken, Broccoli and Chicken salad, lots of chips, Champurrado and Sodas. That was just dinner, we still had desserts in abundance, sooooo yummy. Good conversation is always part of our parties and this time was not the exception. Later at night, we did a little Christmas program and every family participated. Angie played some Christmas songs on the keyboard and then we all sang a song. Then the others did the same thing, we all sang songs from the hymnbook and at the end the Islas family delighted every one with a special number where they reminded us of why Christmas is so important and why it should be the center of our festivities. They were all dressed in costumes and Marbella posing as Mary sang a lullaby to baby Jesus. After that, we all played games together and, like Cinderella, left for home after midnight. It was such a special night, truly a night to remember. I am so thankful for this season, for my Savior, and for my family and friends. There is nothing like celebrating Christmas with those you love.

The Aviles Family

The Rosas Family

The Parra Family

The Badilla Family

The Islas Family

Target Shooting in the Desert

Today we decided we wanted to do something we haven't done for a very long time: Target shooting. We are surrounded by beautiful desert and it shouldn't be hard to find a nice quiet, out of the way place to do this, right? Wrong! We didn't want to go to Usery Park, we just wanted to go to the desert and believe it or not we drove, and drove, and drove and we just kept getting signs saying: No Target Shooting Allowed. We also found lots of: State Trust Land, access allowed with a permit. Oh and yes we also found this one: U.S. Government Property, No Trespassing. I didn't want to go all the way to Maricopa and suggested to somewhere around the Superstitions Mountains for our family activity and we just kept getting this signs EVERYWHERE! We finally found this little place, don't ask me where because we were even lucky to find highway 60 after we were done, but anyway, we were so happy and Angie, Emma, Pedrito and I went exploring in the desert while Erik and Pedro got their targets ready, and guess what we found? THREE dead CoWs!!!! You'll see the picture at the end ( I had to put them at the end since Pedro still is so nauseated just by looking at them). I even told Erik we might be able to "make" him the leather jacket he wants so bad (ha,ha,ha,ha) but he didn't like the idea. We had a good time there enjoying the desert and we had a nice little lunch at the end of our adventure. THe END.