Raphael, Three Months

Here are some pictures of my cute little guy when he was three months old.

Muaaaa!!  It looks like he is planning something.

At three months he started grabbing for things around him.  This was actually the first time I saw him reaching for something in front of him and actually making contact.  That is why the camera is focusing on his hand.

I had caught him right as he woke up from a nap.  Hence the look on his face like, "what are you doing mami?" 

Then I got some smiles! 

Love, love this picture and the next one too! 

He has an adorable smile and it never stops.  This is one little face I can wake up to every morning, no matter what time it may be. 

This was my horrid attempt to take my own three month pictures of Raphael.  As you can see I didn't have a great backdrop and he is not sitting up on his own yet so he kept slumping over and falling down.  But this is what I got. 

Here are a few pictures of Gabriel (2 yrs) and Raphael (3 months).

I love the look on Raphael's face.  Gabriel was having a good ole time laughing but at the same time scaring Raphael.  All my pictures in this photo shoot have Raphael looking like this.  So funny!

Grandparent's Visit

I'm still catching up with many family visits, trips and photos and I'm so embarrassed that it has been so long.  I don't even know where to start.  Wish me luck!  Let's start with a visit from my dad, step mom and little brother.  He's not so little anymore, he is about 9 months back from his mission.  It was great to see them all and also to have the chance to get together with my stepsister Angie who also lives here near Seattle.  While they were here we ran around Seattle and did many fun things.  Below are some pictures and short descriptions of the activities we did.

One of the first things we did was we visited the Woodland Park Zoo.

This is Kenneth and Karen, my dad and step mom.  Aren't they cute! :)

This was one of the main attractions of the day. This orangutan was enormous and cool to look at!

This was Raphael taking it all in.  He seemed to have a good time looking all around him.  He was three months at the time so it was neat to see him noticing more things around him.

Gabriel's favorite animal at the zoo had to have been the elephants.  We had been reading a book at home where they are searching for an elephant so they were the big thing at the time.  I love this picture.  I was asking Gabriel, "where is the elephant" and this was his reaction.  I love you can see the smile in Enrique's eyes! 

Watching the elephant with Papi!

Here is Gabriel with his new friend Jude.  Jude is my stepsister's little boy who is the same age as Gabriel and they hit it off as soon as they met.  They could spend all day playing with each other and rarely does an argument start.  It's is great to find a friend for Gabriel to play with that he absolutely loves!

On another day we took the ferry over to Whidbey Island to visit a little town called Langley.  It was a quaint little town with several little specialty shops, toy stores, and restaurants.  It is right on the water too and that is where we took the next group of pictures.

This is my brother Andrew.  He is a goof almost all of the time and I love that about him!  This is a famous pose of his that he does in almost all of his pictures.  It is hard to get a picture of him without this smirk.

But I succeeded! :) 

Here is everyone walking around on the beach in Langley checking out the rocks and shells.  The cool thing was that when we passed by this spot again later that day the tide had gone out and the water had receded a couple hundred feet.  It was a beautiful place.

Gabriel and Jude throwing rock in the water.

There were these neat statues of a man and his dog.  Gabriel and Jude loved playing with the dog and petting it.

The next place we visited while my parents were in town was the Seattle Aquarium.  It was fun but I think Gabriel is still a little too young to really get into it all and enjoy the animals.  I'm sure he had a good time though by the look of these pictures. 

This first one I just liked. There were these great mural on the walls as you came in. Loved the colors!

Here is Gabriel playing with the felt boards.  They had a ton of felt cutouts of all the fish and sea life there in the aquarium.  He had a blast and sat there and played for a long time.

Gabriel with Uncle Andrew.  Watch out!  Here he comes to get you Gabriel!

Raphael was there too just hanging out in the stroller.  At three months old he did a lot of hanging out in there.  He was a great baby and did really well with me dragging him all around Seattle.

This is one of my favorite pictures. He sat and played with this hole in the window for quite a while.  He thought it was pretty cool and I did too! 

Swimming with the Orcas!! :) Really he kept climbing up and jumping off of the whale.  He had a good time but the kids behind him wanting to take a picture weren't too happy.

Gabriel with Grandpa Kenneth on a cool carved log like an otter.

The last place that we visited on their trip was the troll under the bridge. I've learned that a good portion of taxes in Seattle are allocated to public art so you will see a lot of statues and sculptures all throughout Seattle and the surrounding areas. In one of the suburbs near downtown there is an enormous statue of a troll hidden underneath on of the bridges. He is known as the Fremont Troll.

Look how tiny Gabriel looks standing by the troll!

Trip to Whidbey Island, WA

We are lucky to live in a beautiful state where we are surrounded by snow-capped mountains and next to the Puget Sound were we can explore the wonders and beauty of nature.  One weekend we decided to take a drive to Whidbey Island.  What meant to be just a few hour trip was actually about six hours.  We drove up north and over to the island where we made our way back down the island to the Mulkilteo ferry to cross the water and arrive back home.  I marked our journey on the map below in blue. :) 

It was a great trip and we saw some great views of Mt. Baker to our north, the Olympics to the west and the Siskiyou Mountains to the east.  It was a beautiful day; a little cool but clear and sunny.  Here is Deception Pass. 

Next stop was Deception Pass State Park.  We headed down to the beach to take in the sights and let Gabriel throw rocks into the water. 

The last leg of our trip was taking the ferry back to the main land.  I had never been on a ferry before so I was looking forward to the ride.  We weren't expecting to have to wait so long to actually get on the ferry but as we got closer, the line for the ferry stopped us.  It was over thirty minutes before we boarded the ferry.  Here is Enrique waiting for the ferry.  It has been a long day.

Getting ready to board the ferry.

Gabriel was very excited to get on the "big boat".

View from the ferry.

Raphael - 2 months old

I'm still trying to catch up on my posts so I'm posting two month old pictures of Raphael when he is five days away from being four months old.  Crazy!  Anyway we will get to those pictures in another post.  At two months old Raphael was doing really good at holding his head up and when on his tummy, lifting it high to look around.  Also, he has the best little smile ever.

Gabriel's 2nd Birthday

We were in the Dominican Republic for Gabriel's birthday this year; actually we left a day before his birthday but we celebrated it down there with family.  Everything turned out great.  I had a lot of help from Enrique's sister and mom setting up the location and the menu.  I don't think I would have been able to do it without them there to translate for me.  We had the party at the country club so the kids could go in the pool if they wanted to or go play at the play area.

Here is the birthday boy waiting for his friends to arrive and the party to commence. :)

I don't know how but Raphael managed to sleep for quite a while in the sweltering heat.  It was very warm that day.  You will notice that the pictures after this one you can see both Gabriel and I starting to shine with sweat and flushed red with the heat.  There was a breeze which helped out a lot and made the day enjoyable.

The party theme was airplanes since that is what Gabriel is into these days.  Here are the centerpieces that Tia Mirtha made for us.  They turned out so cute.

I also had airplane cookies made in primary colors for party favors for guests to take.  I love how they turned out.

Here is a picture of the kid's tables

Now my favorite part...the CAKE!  I love how it turned out.  I saw this online and knew that is what I wanted for Gabriel's birthday.  The lady that made it did a great job replicating what I found.  It was adorable and yummy.  It was a white cake with dulce de leche filling. Yummy yummy!!

Gabriel took a break from the celebration, and the heat, to take a dip in the pool with papi and his cousins Cecil Marie and Miranda. 

Enjoying some yummy popcorn!

Gabriel eating pizza with his friends.

Gabriel played with his cute little friend Sara for a long time, running up and down the hill, laughing the whole time.  It was cute to watch him enjoy himself so much.

'

Time to sing "Happy Birthday"...

and blow out the candles...

and of course Gabriel play a ton on the slides and swings.  It was a wonderful party and I think Gabriel enjoyed himself which is all I wanted. :)  Happy 2nd Birthday Gabriel!!