A Very Merry Christmas!

We had an amazing Christmas and hope all of our friends and family did as well. We spent Christmas Eve at our house - Juan made a brisket and some borracho beans and we had Lady and Paw-Paw over for dinner. Mateo opened his big presents that night, the ones that were too big to transport. He got a play gym with a slide, a picnic table, bubble maker lawnmower, and some books from Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Edith and Jeanette. We spent the night that night at Lady and Paw-Paw's - and Aunt Monkey and Uncle Worm came in from Austin. Christmas morning was great. Mateo got more presents than he needed, toys, toys, and more toys....He actually learned to open presents for the first time. We relaxed for the rest of the day, until Christmas dinner. Mateo was so well behaved the entire weekend, it made it a very relaxing Christmas weekend. Unfortunately it went by way too fast, and I have to go back to work tomorrow.

Reading his new books

Mateo was wearing his overalls for the first time on Christmas Eve. They were so cute, he looked like a mini-PawPaw in his overalls and flannel shirt.

Playing on his new slide

He was playing in the box that the gym came in.

Reading books with Lady on Christmas Eve.

Digging goodies out of his stocking.

Opening presents

Pulling his wagon full of toys

The cutest present under the tree.

Mateo loves to read so much, although this one book makes him angry. It his a hole in the back that you stick your finger through to look like a cat - and for some reason he gets mad when you do it.

He had more fun playing with the wrapping paper than the toys.

This is Mateo's new chair. He loved sitting in it and relaxing. Pretty sure he learned this pose from his Daddy.

He got this little red ride on toy we call the Zoom-Zoom. It's hilarious to watch because he does a half standing half sitting walk that doesn't exactly work right. Hopefully he'll figure it out soon.

Mateo got Lady the game Memory. He may be too young to play but that didn't stop everybody else from playing. I think we decided the older you get, the harder the game gets.

Relaxing after dinner. Notice PawPaw passed out in the back.

We hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays!

We have had a pretty hectic holiday season. Thanksgiving was great – we spent time at Lady and Paw-Paw’s house with Aunt Monkey and Uncle Worm. We did some Black Friday shopping and got some new furniture for our new house. And we got all of the Christmas decorations hung – inside and out. Juan has always wanted to hang Christmas lights, and now that we have a one story house he was able to go all out – has to keep up with the neighbors! Grandma and Grandpa Ortegon have been in town for the past two weeks and Aunt Edith has been here for one, while Juan and I went to Playa del Carmen for our friends, Cassie and Brady’s, wedding. It was a very beautiful wedding and a relaxing trip, but after a week without our little man we were excited to be home. It’s amazing how much you can miss somebody! Things Mateo likes now: • Dancing! He dances like a rockstar every time music starts playing. I’m going to say he got this from dad – however I taught him to put his arms up. • Jumping – He tries so hard to jump. With all the determination he can, he squats really low, throws his arms back, and shoots upwards, but his feet never leave the ground. He doesn’t know though, so he looks so proud when he does it. It cracks us up! • Reading – His favorite spot is my lap. He will grab book after book, and he backs up into my lap and we can read all night long. • Pull toys – He still loves his pull toys. You can see in the video below he likes to pull multiple toys at one time. These are some pics we took trying to get some pictures for Christmas cards. I liked the one with the mouth full of goldfish! But it didn't make the final cut!

We went to the holiday parade a week ago. It was Mateo's first parade. It was nice although Mateo was more into people watching than parade watching.

Mateo likes to play on my exercise ball. Funny since it is the same ball I used to bounce on to soothe him when he was a little baby (a trick courtesy of Josie).

We are thrilled to finally have a gas fireplace that we will actually use. Our last house had a wood burning one and we never once used it. This one turns on with the flip of a switch and actually heats the house.