My beautiful family

Christmas with my in-laws

Christmas

Jesus' Birthday Party

On Saturday our church decided to have a birthday party for Jesus. We had about 25 kids total. The kids did crafts, listened to the story of the Candy Cane, decorated cookies, and spent the afternoon together. Ella had so much fun. I'm so glad we were able to be a part of the celebration.

Happy Birthday Jesus!!!!!

Snow in Elsinore

Yesterday it rained all day and by the evening the temperature had dropped to 30 degrees. So through the night it snowed!!! When I woke up this morning and looked out my mom's back door, this is what I saw. Just a little snow, but enough to cover some of the Ortegas. I thought I moved away from the snow???

Baby's first Christmas

Ella's first Christmas
Noah's first Christmas

Gingerbread House

This year we thought it would be fun for Ella to decorate a gingerbread house. Gabe and Ella spent about an hour putting all the candies on the house. I made the snowman that is in the front yard. It was so much fun for her that I think this will be one of our family traditions.

I turn 25!!!

My Mom's lasagna

Me and Noah with my cupcake

For my 25th birthday I asked my mom to make me lasagna and instead of a cake I wanted cupcakes. This was the first birthday I have been in California in four years. I spent the day with Gabe and the kids at the mall and then spent the evening with Grandma, Grandpa, Kathy and her kids, my mom, and my family. It was a great birthday. I'm so thankful for these past 25 years and can't wait to see what the next 25 hold for me.

Santa

Ella and Noah with Santa
Noah's first time with Santa

Yesterday we took the kids to go and see Santa. Ella was great she didn't cry, like many other kids we saw. She sat on his lap and told him she wanted Sleeping Beauty toys. Noah just sat and looked around.

Birthday with my in-laws

My beautiful kids
My delicious cake, yum!!

This Tuesday we in-laws threw me a birthday party. Gabe was in Texas doing training for his new job so me and kids went up to my in-laws for dinner and cake. My brother-in-law, Tino, was so sweet, he got me balloons, hats, and pink roses. My mother-in-law made green enchiladas and rice, my favorite dish that she makes. My mother-in-law also bakes me a yummy cake, chocolate with strawberries in the middle. Everything was so good!!!! Thanks to all of my extended family for a great night!!!

Something funny...

If you didn't already know Ella LOVES Sleeping Beauty. She watches the movies at least twice a day, more if I let her. She has a Sleeping Beauty book that she wants you to read her before naptime AND bedtime, that's twice a day. She also has this set of plastic figurines that include: Aurora, Prince, Maleificent, dragon, and the 3 fairies. Well today she grabbed her dragon and ran up to me and shoved the dragon in my face and said, "Evil dragon, rrrrrooooooooaaaaaaaarrrrrr!!!!" And of course being "scared", LOL I said, "Oh no!!!" Then she said, "It's ok, Mommy, I save you!" And she hugged me tight. I started laughing because she was still holding the dragon. She wanted to scare me and save me at the same time. As she gets older she is starting to say the funniest things.

Trimming the tree

Ruthie, Ella and I putting up ornaments
Ella loved helping with the tree
Daddy putting hooks on the ornaments

Ella topping our tree with an angel

Disneyland

Meeting a Princess

Two tickets to Disneyland: $140

Lunch for a family at Disneyland: $40

Meeting your favorite Princess: Priceless

Christmas photo shoot

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

There are so many things to be thankful for:

• my savior, Jesus Christ
• my incredible husband
• our healthy beautiful kids
• our family's health
• an incredible family
• living close to family
• being able to stay home with my kids
• roof over our heads, food in our stomachs, clothes on our backs

I hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving!!!

Noah sits up!!!

Tonight Noah stayed sitting up all by himself. Last month he was only rolling from his tummy to his back. Now he can roll over from his back to his tummy and then back to his back and he can sit up. It won't be long until he is fully mobile. Where did my baby go?

Tree lighting

Ella and Noah in the stroller
Noah enjoying the outside
Ella waiting for a balloon animal
Frosty the snowman
Ella with the train

Mommy and Ella on the train
Ella loves trains!!

Tree lit

On Saturday night the Outlet center had its annual tree lighting. I have never been before because I would normally be working during it, which Gabe had to do so he missed it, so this year I thought it would be fun for Ella and Noah. It was pretty corny, they had an arctic idol where Frosty, a penguin, an eskimo, and a polar bear sang and performed. Frosty won!! They also had a train which Ella and I rode, while Grammy sat with Noah. Ella got glow necklaces and a balloon animal. She loved it and that is all that matters. Christmastime is officially here!!! WOO HOO!!

Girly Girl

One nail down 9 to go
Sitting with Grammy
All done!!!

As many of you know my mom goes and gets her nails done every two weeks. Today she invited Ella to go along with her to get her nails done too. Ella got to pick which color she wanted to go on her nails. First she picked the brightest purple I have ever seen. I told her no purple. Then she picked the brightest pink, I mean 80s pink. Gabe said no. Thankfully Grammy helped Ella pick the perfect pink for a two year old. I am so thankful that we live close so now they could go do fun things together!!

Goodbye for now

Dear Ruthie and Ron- There are so many things to say. I want to thank you for being such good friends to my family. You have always been there even when I haven't and I appreciate it. You both are such beautiful people and Missouri is lucky to get you. We will miss you dearly, but we know we'll see you soon. We love you both very much!!!

Espinoza Family

Noah naps

I am so excited I had to share with all of you, Noah napped all by himself!!! I'm sure to many of you this is nothing special to me it means his own crib soon! Yay! First of all I am a strong believer in cosleeping. Ella slept with us for six months and then moved into her crib. Noah came home from the hospital and has spent every night with us. Even when Noah naps, 99% of the time he sleeps in my arms. I stop everything I'm doing and I hold him his entire nap. I did the same thing with Ella. I love having Noah sleep in our bed at night but I would love to be able to lay him down for a nap. So today I laid down with him in our bed and after an hour I got up to do some things around the house. He continued to sleep for 90 minutes!! He is becoming such a big boy!!

Update

I thought I should give everyone an update on what has been going on in the lives of the Espinoza family. First of all, we moved from Colorado to California, which was long overdue. Gabe hated his job in Colorado and after much praying and looking he received a great offer to go back to Gap Inc., which is where he was working when we met, and be the Store Manager of the Banana Republic Outlet in San Ysidro, California. San Ysidro is right on the border of California and Mexico. So we will be living somewhere in San Diego, close to his work but not too close to Mexico. He received the offer on Tuesday, October 28th. And by November 1st we were packed up and driving from Colorado to California. We had been packing over the last couple of weeks because we knew as soon as Gabe had a job we would be leaving Colorado. In the midst of all our packing was Halloween. Ella was a witch and Noah was a pumpkin. We went to a local museum that was having a festival. We also went trick or treating. Ella got way too much candy but she had a great time, Noah slept through most of the day. Right now Gabe is training in Lake Elsinore and Carlsbad. He won't be taking over his store until the 2nd or 3 rd week in December. So at the this moment we are staying at my mom's house until he takes over his store. In the meantime, we are trying to rent out our house in Colorado. Any prayers would be greatly appreciated because we need it to rent before we move so we won't have to pay mortgage and rent. Since we are at my mom's house, I haven't been able to upload any pictures here on blogger. I will keep trying but I have been uploading on Facebook, so you can pictures from there. Please keep our family in your prayers as we adjust to a new job and a new state at the same time.

Noah is 5 months old

Today Noah is 5 months old. I wanted to post pictures of him today because everyday he is changing and doing something new. He just started eating veggies, and so far he really doesn't like any of them. I don't blame him. He loves rice cereal. He can roll over from his tummy to his back and almost roll over from his back to his tummy. He loves to play with his toys. He is so good at reaching out and holding his toys. I've been trying to get him to sit up but he just falls right over. Maybe by next month he will be.