Phew! What a week! My niece and nephew were back this week since their regular babysitter is still out of the country. They may even be back next week! Although they keep me pretty busy, I love spending time with them. With that said, I had not been able to blog the entire week so we will play a little game of catch-up now.
Lorenzo Noah's Baptism:
Last Saturday, my cousin, Sandy and her husband, Jose, baptized their baby, Lorenzo Noah. They had a beautiful private ceremony which was followed by a lovely day at the park. Sandy and Jose suffered the tragedy of losing their first baby, Leandro at the age of six months due to a congenital heart condition. Leandro was a beautiful baby and he fought to stay strong every day. God only knows why these things happen. All we can do is pray that through these unbearable circumstances, His plan is being fulfilled. Soon after Leandro went to heaven, Sandy and Jose welcomed baby Lorenzo Noah. A beautiful and healthy baby boy. Needless to say, this baptism was very special and I feel blessed to have been a part of it.
Mateo and his cousins waiting for the ceremony to begin; David, Daniel, Julissa, and Emma:
The Godparents, Elizabeth (Sandy's niece) and Carlos (my cousin - Sandy's brother):
Elizabeth is a poet and she wrote a beautiful poem for Lorenzo. If I can get my hands on it, I will share it here.
Just us girls; Elizabeth, Lulu, me, aunt Concha, Chuy, Shelly, and Veronica. Lulu, Chuy, Shelly, and Sandy (not in the picture) are sisters. My aunt Concha, their mother is my mom's sister. She has eleven children! The two lovely ladies on the outside are their nieces from two of their brothers.
Lulu and me with Fr. Martin Hughes who resided over the ceremony. He is a visiting priest from Ireland and he is a lovely priest with such a gift. My cousins met him at Cursillo which is a spiritual retreat that I hope to attend in October.
Mia Luna:Also this week we have been babysitting my cousin, Lorena's Yorkie, Mia Luna, while Lorena and her family are on vacation.
She is so adorable! She reminds me so much of Penny. Penny was our little Yorkie that we tragically lost in May after she was hit by a car. I miss Penny so much and having Mia around has brought back so many memories. We are really enjoying Mia but we are also very stressed out about her getting out into the front yard so we are constantly calling her name to make sure she is still in the house. I won't even let her out in the backyard unless someone is with her for fear of her finding a little opening that would provide her an escape. I would love to get another dog but not until we can build a fence around our front yard, which might be a while.
Here is our baby, Penny. We miss you, Penny!
Viviana and Luc having a ball:
Concert at the park:Last night we went to the weekly Concert at the Park. We saw a band called Proud Mary, a tribute to Tina Turner. It was awesome. For the first time in this series, I actually got up and danced by the stage. I was inspired by the energy of the performers. Boy those ladies could move. During the intermission, we sang Happy Birthday for my nephew (on Horacio's side) Julian. I baked him a giant cookie. This was my first attempt at a giant cookie. I wanted to make it round but I realized that I threw out all of my round molds and I haven't replaced them. So then I tried spreading the cookie dough into a cookie sheet but I didn't want to make it too thin so I didn't cover the entire sheet. This was the result. Oh well, it was good and that's all that matters, right? In the picture is Nico, Andy, Julian and Jason (Julian's brother):
Tomorrow we are going to visit my brother, Armando, in Escondido. I am excited about seeing him since we have not seen him since he left about a month ago.
Happy celebrations and blessings!
Sara
xoxo
This weekend we visited our brother Armando in Escondido for his birthday. We spent the day at the boardwalk in Belmont Park. Below is the Padilla clan: Ruben (my sister's husband), Nico, Andy, Cari, Tia (aunt) Felipa (my mom's sister), Armando, Mom, Luc, David, me, Jeanette, Horacio/front row: Mateo, Viviana, and Alec. The only one missing is my dad. He doesn't like long car rides or crowds so he stayed home.
Little Missy must be in every picture:
Andy and Mateo after the Big Dipper roller coaster ride. I went on the ride with them and I am not kidding, I thought my neck was going to snap in half! Note to self: You are too old for wooden roller coasters.
Mom and Tia Felipa, taking a break from all of the walking we did:
David and Luc, sailing away:
Would you believe that there was no decent place (that we could find) to have a cup of coffee on the boardwalk? So after much debate as to where we should go, we ended up at Krispy Kreme. In retrospect, I'm not sure it was such a good idea to get the kids all sugared up for the long car ride back home. Hee hee.
...it might have had something to do with the wine.
And for the star of the meal: Slow cooked...smokey...sweet ribs.
