Miss Aspen...

Well, my "little love" is growing!!! She's now officially 6 months old! Can you believe it?! I can't. She's growing super fast... On her 1/2 birthday she began sitting up by herself. In the first picture, she was sitting up & giggled so hard she fell back. The next two pictures are of Aspen playing with her kitchen-set for the first time. :)

Now that Aspen is 6 months, we're very gradually introducing solid foods. She's not real keen yet, but we're still working at it. :) The last few picture are the first times she had avocado and then a few days later oatmeal cereal. Tomorrow we're going to do rice cereal...hopefully she'll like that texture better than the oatmeal. Stay tuned...

Wrapping up the trip...

On Friday, we drove from San Jose to Davis, CA where Sarah, Hendel & Julian live. Along the way, we stopped at the Jelly Belly Factory. It was lots of fun to tour....well, mostly. They were making popcorn & some other flavor that day, and it did not smell good. To the point, one of the little girls on the tour lost her lunch... Next time, hopefully they'll be making strawberry!! :) Saturday, the guys when golfing. But before that, we all met up at the local Farmer's Market where Sarah & I bought yummy, fresh croissants. Hers was chocolate filled, and mine strawberry & cream cheese. Sorry, no picture...guess I'll have to go back to get another one! ;) That evening Sarah made cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Sunday. They were really good!!!

After church on Sunday, we packed a lunch and went Sacramento Train Museum. It was really cool! I especially enjoyed riding the train, walking through the museum and quaint train depot town. Wish we could've spent more time there...it was so cute!! They were having some type of festival or special of sorts...there were Irish & Scottish dancers in frontier style dresses, a "church group" walking down the road carrying signs singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic", and lots of other old time-y town type things. :)

On Monday, the guys went golfing, again. :) Brian has decided he never wants to rent a gold cart again as he has lots of fun walking the course with Hendel, plus, it was great exercise! Sarah and I hung around the house, then went to downtown Davis & Trader Joe's..(T.J.'s is a neat grocery store.) after dinner we went for a nice family stroll through Davis.

Tuesday was filled with packing, last minute visiting & rushing to the airport...after turning around to go get Aspen's toy keys that had been washed & forgotten. Aspen did wonderful on our flights! Thank you to everyone who prayed for her! The trip was extra special, and I'm so thankful the Lord allowed us to go. Helene, Hendel, Sarah & Julian were incredible hosts & hostesses!

I'm sorry the pictures are out of order...when I up-load the pictures from my camera hopefully there will be better ones and posted in order. :) I'll get golfing pics up soon!

More CA Pictures....

These are a few more pictures from our day in San Francisco. As promised, I included Sarah & Hendel with their yummy sundae!

Vacation 2011 - Day 1 & 2

It's vacation!!!! Yay! We flew from Houston to San Francisco on Tuesday to spend a week with some of Brian's dear friends, Hendel, Sarah, Julian & Ms. Helene. We had a layover in El Paso, then an extra one in Vegas. Aspen did incredible!! The Lord answered many prayers. She's like her mommy & loves take off & landing. She even slept through them too at times. :)

This was at Hobby Airport before boarding our first flight. "I'm so excited daddy! Yay!!! Vacation 2011!!!"

This was at Monterrey Bay and had a picnic lunch! It was quite chilly...to everyone, not just us Texans. :) I didn't have a sweater for Aspen, so she had to wear Julian's 'eyeball' sweater. lol

We drove down Lombard St., then walked up and back down it too. It was SO pretty and I really enjoyed it... 

Golden Gate Bridge & looking back at San Francisco 

Snuggling with Daddy at Sausalito where we had yummy hamburgers with fries and watched the sailboats go by...

This was probably my favorite... :) Hmmm.....I wonder why?! Brian and I had hot cocoa...Hendel & Sarah and a yummy looking caramel Sundae...I'll post a picture of that later.

Okay...I'm sorry these are such fuzzy pictures. I've had quite the time trying to post this blog... I look forward to actually blogging more and posting "real" pictures from our trip. :) Stay posted! There's SO very much more I want to share. Like...how Aspen has a front tooth coming in, and how she's almost crawling!!! She's gets up on all fours, and kinda jump/scoots forward!

Our National Anthem

Have you ever thought about the words to our National Anthem? I have, and thought I had it all figured out...I could picture a battle, with our flag flying high, then it still standing afterwards. Well, evidently I was wrong. My Paw Paw sent this video out and I'm so grateful he did. It clarifies the history & the words behind this great song, and quite honestly, brought me to tears. I'm SO very grateful for the men & women who have fought and continue to fight for our flag, our freedom. I beg you, please take the time to watch this video. And, share it with others too! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrhUMhAmsHo

If it didn't come through, please let M's know so I can try again. I'm not sure how to post the actual video from YouTube directly on the blog from my phone, so you'll have to bear with me and click the link.

Cheap Chick-Fil-A

Last Friday was "dress like a cow, get free food" day at Chick-Fil-A. I had a dear friend of mine encourage us to go make a fun family memory. :) So, we took her suggestion and grabbed a couple white undershirts and a black marker (and a red one) then "went to town" decorating our t-shirts. You can see Brian's in the picture, mine said "eat mor chiken" with "Chick-fil-a" written at the bottom, then the back said "we love the cows" (like little Jakes said.) We tried a couple different things for Aspen...lol The first resulted with her getting a black tongue as she put a black spot in her mouth...no worries, it was a crayola marker/nontoxic...not ideal, but ok. :) So, we resorted to a white dress with black paper spots pinned to it...it worked great until she started getting the paper in her mouth. We also put her "cow" diaper shell on her too. It was SO fun as a family preparing, and then going!! The best part----we all got free entrees! :D Even Aspen got her own! Brian ate it for her later. I'm so thankful for a sweet husband that could humble himself, have some fun with his family and make such a special memory. I can't wait to do it again next year. Hopefully I'll be more prepared for Aspen next year! Brian and I are set now. Thank you Naomy for encouraging us to go!

Simply Thoughts...

It's Wednesday. In our Moreno household, that means house-cleaning day. Just like Monday means laundry & grocery story day.  But, today is different...even though the couch in piled high with clean laundry to be put away or folded, and the house hasn't been cleaned in a week, or the simple fact that there's plenty that needs to be done...I decided all that could wait; that Aspen and I were going to put everything on hold, and spend the day with "Daddy". When was the last time you dropped everything, and spent the day with your husband, or someone special? My husband would rather the house be a mess, and us with him, than to miss time being together. What are your priorities? Does your husband know that he is more important to you than anything or one else? Does he know you cherish the time you spend with him?

I've been thinking alot the past day or so about the type of atmosphere I promote in our home. I desire it to be one of peace, but do I really do that? It's not always the easiest thing to do...especially when dinner's almost done, the baby is ready to eat, the dog is begging for anything to drop on the floor, the phone ringing or vibrating, and your husband walks through the door, ready to be greeted with his daily kiss and "welcome home!". Peaceful?! Not to me ,necessarily, but that's the perfect opportunity to create a peaceful atmosphere...it obviously doesn't just happen. So! I challenge you ladies, and even men (if you're reading this), CREATE an atmosphere of peace. It'll make your evening or day at home with your family far more enjoyable than hectic and rushed. :) And, take some time to spend with each other...whatever it is, it can wait!

And, just incase your not married and you read this...instead of a spouse, try applying these thoughts to a parent, sibling, friend, grandparent...anyone! :)

Independence Day

July 4th!!! Whoohooo!!!! Not only is it our National Independance Day, it's my 1/2 birthday!!! Lol Ok, so that's a little corny, and the fireworks really aren't for me, but I made you smile! Mission accomplished! :D

Today was great. I really struggled last week as I anticipated today. I've always been either on vacation or packing to go on this day, so I didn't know what to expect. Mama encouraged M's to just pray about where we should be...so I did, knowing He'd show us. The Lord allowed us to have several exciting invitations to celebrate at, and we ended up have a nice, relaxing, slow day. Our friend Ruben (best man @ wedding)came down from Cy-fair and then we went to a park to meet to meet up with some church friends where we had pizza & a little ice cream competition, along with fun fellowship. Brian & I made ice cream which turned to custard ice cream. Lol The ladies named it "All American..." something...lol I can't remember now. I was up
against 3 other yummy ice creams. We won best testure, while the triple vanilla & grape-nut cream won flavor. (mine was amaretto FLAVORED with Reeses peanut butter cups...no liquer. :)) One of the judges doesn't like amaretto flavor. Brian liked it, and that's all that matters to me. We came home, then went to our sister Roni's for dinner with the Moreno's. Jason grilled some scruptious steaks. After some sweet fellowship we headed back home for more time with Ruben, and a relaxing evening together. To top it off...Brian wanted to play a board game with me, so we stretch out on the floor, grabbed some blankets & nutty trail mix, turned on the iPod and had a wonderful evening spending quality time together. I've got the best husband! :) The Lord answered my prayers...He abundantly blest today beyond my wildest imagination. "Thank you Lord, for our country, my family, and a extra special day together."

Can you tell Aspen's teething?! :) She's chomping on those fingers because she has 2 bottom teeth bumping up.

Saturday with the McLennan's

We had extra special visitors on Saturday! Our dear friends Jessica & David were able to come visit for the afternoon and evening. Suze (my almost sister) was able to join us too for a little bit, which was SO fun. Jessica & David live in San Antonio now...I had the honor of standing in their wedding in '09 and it's been exciting to grow together now as couples. We hung out here at home for most the afternoon...then us girls headed out shopping while the guys did whatever guys do while their wives shop. (lol, went to chick-fil-a & Frys) After our refreshing dinner of salad w/ chicken, dried fruit & nuts, we headed to Kemah Boardwalk for a nice evening stroll. We found a new ice cream parlor that serves only Blue Bell ice cream! :D yum!!!!! Brian & I shared a Turtle Sundae while Jessica had a delicious looking cone full of Birthday cake ice cream. Aspen hung out comfortably in our Babyhawk and fell asleep just as we got our decadent dessert. :) It was fun watching the rollercoaster and theme park type rides as some in our party had never ridden or seen such entertainment. Aspen woke up just as we got back to the car. Brian thought it was so cute that all you could really seen were her "little peepers."