THE CARVAJALS

Friday, July 5, 2013

Love these guys!

There are a lot of things I miss about Austin, but one of the families we miss the most are these guys. While we were in town, we made sure to carve out some time to visit. The girls had fun "swimming" and the grown-ups had a great time catching up. If only we could move them to SA.

It will be a sad day when these kiddos don't think baby pools are fun anymore.

Miss you Jen!

the princesses....and prince?

Cheering on Daddy!

This was Mark's third time participating in the Cap Tex Tri in Austin. We were there to cheer him on, but honestly we got there a bit late and missed everything except the running portion. But he had a cheering party that included Rick, Brisa, Benjamin, Nicolas, Noah, Mimi, Mack (and Hammer) to see him finish strong. We were so proud of him! He's our superman.

Just arrived and found the perfect spot.

Still waiting to see Daddy fly by on his bike. Little did we know he had already finished cycling and was now running. Oops! Oh well, he was just too fast!

The Ramos family joins us to cheer him on.

Baby G was such a trooper. Auntie Brisa helped to soothe a very tired baby.

All done and he looks like he went for a stroll.

So proud of him!

Father's Day

We spent this Father's Day weekend at Hyatt's Lost Pines resort in Bastrop with our extended family. We all had a blast floating in the lazy river, sipping on pina coladas, and hanging with the cousins. The big kids enjoyed some time in the Kids' Camp while the mommas spent some time being pampered in the spa and the daddies showed off on the golf course. Who took care of the littles? Thank you Cynthia for hooking us up with your babysitters! I vote for another family va-cay that includes a Kids Camp and babysitters! Thank you Charlie and Kathy for a memorable Father's Day weekend.


Our three little beauties ready to hit the pool!

When we got home I realized this was the only photo taken during the weekend. I'm grateful for Cynthia for snapping some photos to document the weekend. Obviously we're still trying to figure out how to handle three kids.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Ballet Folklorico + Very Special Birthday = A Busy Weekend

The big girls have been taking ballet folklorico lessons since January. It's a thirty minute drive every Saturday morning to their lessons, but they look forward to it, and they are worn out after a full hour of tapping and twirling. Not to mention, it's only forty dollars a month for both of them! They love performing and have shown no stage fright at the six festival performances they've done. We are so proud of them!

This past weekend, they performed at the Folk Life Festival. Mimi, Mack, and Nana came into town to see them dance. We were so happy that Nana's birthday happened to fall on this same weekend, so we were all able to celebrate with her. After a full day at the festival, the grown-ups left the littles with a babysitter and enjoyed a delicious dinner out. And then the next day was another day spent at the festival. We made sure to get there with plenty of time to eat junk: sausage wraps, funnel cakes, ice cream and egg rolls. Oh, and we couldn't leave without getting the girls' faces (and Mimi's) painted.

Jesus loves me

"Look Mommy! Jesus died like this on the cross for me."

Friday, May 17, 2013

Gianna Rose - 6 months

I just love this little munckin so much! She is so much fun right now. I love this stage because she's full of smiles, everything's delightful to her, when she's fussy she's easily distracted with a shake of a rattle, she can sit up yet she's not mobile yet, she loves being on her tummy, and she can be fully entertained for half an hour in her exersaucer, swing, or jumperoo. I fully appreciate this age because when I wake her up in the morning she has the biggest smile for me and she's so happy to see me, like she hasn't seen me in years. On the other side of the house, there are two other little girls who don't usually wear such a big smile at 7 am. Instead of a ear-to-ear grin, I may get "Uggh, I wanted to wake up by myself" or "Where's Daddy?". For now, I'll enjoy this time with her and try to engrave all her smiles in my memory to pull out when she doesn't have such cheery mornings. Gianna Rose, we love you too much! And stop growing up so fast. I nearly cried when your first tooth popped out. I will never have a toothless baby again....boo hoo hoo!

The happiest 'horn around!

I could just squeeze her and kiss her all day...because she's the only one that lets me.

Adorable!

If you look closely, you can see her teeth coming in! Nooooooo...she's growing up too fast!

Seven Years Strong

How did we celebrate our seven year anniversary? Camping of course! I know, most people thought I was crazy, but I thought it would be romantic to hike in three miles, be so secluded, spending such quality time with each other without our usual distractions...cell phone, computer, kids, work, etc... Our first night there, I thought "What was I thinking?" No, don't get me wrong. It was so much fun to pack, hike in, pitch our tent, eat simply, and sleep in bags. It was fun until I heard footsteps and someone fiddling with my backpack right by our tent at 1am. Dang raccoons! And I really began to second guess my wonderful idea to camp the second night when we heard gun shots at 1am, 3am, and 5am. All I could think of was a serial camper killer on the loose! Turns out it was just pig hunters on neighboring ranches. Pig hunting in the middle of the night does NOT sound like a good time to me. And how rude! Don't they know there are campers trying to catch some much needed shut-eye?

Needless to say, we were both happy to pack up and head down the mountain first thing Saturday morning and head to our bed and breakfast that was waiting for us for the next two nights. And we got there just before it began to pour! We had a great time wine tasting the next two days, well, maybe we had a bit too much fun wine tasting and relaxing.

The entire trip was such a blast! There's no one else I would rather have been with to protect me...from a gang of racoons. And there's no one else I would rather have been with to get sloshed on wine. What a couple of light weights! I love my hubby so much and thank God for him each and every day!