Happy Birthday Tio Esteban!

Momo Is Here...

... And she brought Nicho his big gift! He saw the gift and immediately gave us a big grin and started opening.

Oh wow Cars! My favorite! It's a bike too?!

He wanted Daddy to assemble it right away and even tried helping him. Of course this made daddy giddy.

Thank you momo and popo.

Look At What Happens When...

Mommy leaves daddy in charge while she takes a bath...

Nicho decided to take ALL of his shirts off the hangers in his closet *sigh*

Nicho's First Ceramics

Now that Christmas has come and gone, I can now show the pics of the mugs that Nicho made for both Grandmas (remember the "Don't Mess With My Nap" post). They absolutely loved them and are excited about having a special mug to use for their morning coffee. Even though Nicho didn't get to participate as much as we would have liked we still got his handprint and mommy and daddy had so much fun painting! Next time we will take bear when he is well rested and maybe about 6 months older :)

Herrera Christmas Dinner

Yesterday we finally were able to get everyone together for a late Christmas dinner. My brother-in-law and his family joined us because they had other plans on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day. We had a tamale dinner at the in-law's house and I was stuffed! We also exchanged more gifts while we were there.

Now we are waiting on Momo to get here tomorrow to exchange more gifts!

Christmas Day

Usually on Christmas day we are visiting my family in Palacios but not this year. Christmas day was another day spent relaxing...in our pj's all day! Mommy was so thankful for a peaceful day especially this year being pregnant and waiting on Noah's arrival. The day was spent watching reruns of A Christmas Story and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, two of my favorite holiday movies, while Nicho played with his new toys.

Later on that evening we grabbed some hot chocolate and visited the Zilker Tree where Nicho had fun spinning around and around.

Spin...

Spin...
Spin...

And he is down! He literally had a mouthful of dirt. Is it bad that mommy and daddy belly laughed about this?

He wanted to spin again but this time with Daddy.

I sat down on the sidelines because I got dizzy watching.

Finally we took a break for some funnel cake!

Then it was time to leave, Nicho said "bye" to the tree, we will see you again next year!

Christmas Eve

This year we stayed at home and did not travel at all! It was so nice! My in-laws came over for dinner and then we went to the 8pm Christmas Eve Mass all together. Nicho did great in church except for that one time where he shouted out "I have to pee pee!" his Papa took him and then came back and joined us. On our way home after Mass we drove by and saw beautiful Christmas lights and then we noticed our bear had fallen asleep. We went home put him in his jammies and then bed. Mommy and Daddy stayed up and wrapped some gifts and then watched a movie. What a peaceful Christmas Eve!

Mommy's Singing Is No Good

We love listening to Christmas music the whole month of December. While we were driving home the other day Jingle Bell Rock came on the radio so I started singing and dancing. Nicho quickly said "no sing mommy!" He has been quite the little boss lately. Even though I snickered to myself, I tried to explain to him that it was not nice to say that to mommy. I called John and my mom later on and told them what happened and of course we all laughed, he is such a TOOT!

An Eye Exam,Prenatal Check-up, And A Concert...Phew!

On Monday I had two appointments back to back. I took Nicho along with me. Our first stop was the Eye Doctor. When we got there Nicho went up to a teenage girl who was with her mom. He was talking her ear off, I had to go grab him because he wouldn't leave her alone! She thought he was cute and it was pretty funny, he is such a flirt! When we got back to the exam room he found pushing buttons on the chair was cool which it was not! My eye exam went by really fast and we were on our way out. Our next stop was my prenatal check-up. He slept the whole drive there. When we arrived to my appointment he woke up and seemed rested because he was in a good mood. Of course he said hi to everyone we passed in the elevator and on our way to the lobby. My Doctor is on vacay this week so I saw the Nurse Practitioner. It was another quick in and out visit since my Doctor wasn't there. Everything seems to look great, she wouldn't check my cervix but she said my Doctor would on my next visit which is on Monday again. My mom will be coming into town to go with me to that visit. I will be 37 weeks next week, I had Nicho at 38 weeks...EEEK!!

Nicho did well at my appointments so we stopped at the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar on our way home. I saw that Joe McDermott would be playing that afternoon and thought it would be fun to take Nicho. We got there a few minutes before he played so we looked around at all of the cool, unique gifts. Nicho saw these scary looking fish and said "ewww yuck!" I got a little too close to the fish and he said "no,no,no mommy" and he gently moved me away from the fish. I love that is so protective of mommy!

Here is a picture of the scary fish

While we were there he got his face painted, he touched it just after he was done and smeared it.

Here he is watching Joe McDermott closely

Congrats Cavs!

Here is Nicho giving his Lake Travis bear a bear hug :) The Cavaliers won their 3rd State Championship in a row! How awesome is that? Congratulations to the players, coaches, and parents especially for giving all of their love and support to these young kids. You all did a great job!

Don't Mess With My Nap!

There is a reason why we call Nicho "bear", there are actually two reasons. The first reason is because when he was an infant he was so cuddly, mommy always liked to cuddle with him so I just started calling him "my bear". The second reason we call him bear is because he likes to sleep! The boy LOVES to sleep! This past Saturday he took a 4 hour nap before we went to see some Christmas lights. When we got home he got a bath and he went straight to bed. I was thinking he wouldn't be ready to go to bed just yet since he slept so much but he was willing and ready.
I was expecting him to wake up extra early on Sunday morning but he woke up around his usual time which is 8:30. John and I had a last minute Christmas gift idea "from Nicho" to the Grandparents that would have to take up pretty much our whole Sunday afternoon because the store didn't open until noon (Nicho's nap time) and NEEDED to be done so it would be ready by Christmas Eve. I thought "oh what the hay we will push back his nap by 2 hours, he slept enough yesterday anyway." Boy was I wrong! We got to the ceramics place right when it opened and picked out our pieces. We picked out our paints and brushes. As we were getting ready to begin applying paint to Nicho's hand he was starting to be uncooperative. The once calm and serene setting quickly turned into madness. We ended up having to trace his hand onto paper and then tracing the paper onto the pieces. Mommy took Nicho for a ride in the car to put him to sleep and left the daddy finishing up the pottery. As I was driving I laughed to myself thinking how funny John must look painting ceramics by himself while listening to the Christmas music in the background at the store hehe. I didn't have to drive far at all before bear fell asleep. I went back to the ceramics place and took the stroller out of the car and put him in it AND-JUST-LET-HIM-SLEEP. I went back in to join John with our pieces and parked the stroller at the table. There was calmness now at our table. We would have loved Nicho to have been more involved with the painting however it turns out it was good therapy and so much fun for both John and I! We talked about last week and the upcoming week and also laughed about Nicho needing his sleep or everyone has to "watch out." While we were talking I hinted to him the idea of how nice it would be for me to collect a piece of personalized ceramics each year from the boys. We will see if he delivers :) I know that I am going to start that tradition with the Grandparents but next time we will go back when he has FULLY NAPPED!
By the way...today I have two appointments and one of them is during his nap time...wish me luck!!

Christmas Walkway of Lights

Saturday evening we drove out to Marble Falls to see the Christmas Walkway of Lights. We stopped along the way in Spicewood to eat at Opie's barbecue, YUMMY!!

This is what you see as you cross the bridge entering Marble Falls, so pretty!!

Mommy and Nicho

Daddy and Nicho

Here are some of the pretty displays:

All of the train displays were Nicho's FAVORITES!!

This was one of mommy's favorites

Santa, Nicho loves Santa! He is not afraid of him and when Santa visited his school on Friday he went up to him in the hall and gave him a high five. He even says "ho,ho,ho" . I think it's been all of those Holiday movies/cartoons we all have been watching that he has become comfortable with Santa.

Trying to get a picture together but he was way into the lights and didn't want a photo with mommy!

The North Pole Express Train display. The Polar Express is Nicho's favorite movie, he could probably watch it everyday if mommy would let him. You can probably guess what his Christmas present is going to be :)

Remember This Shirt?

This picture was taken last December when he was 18 months old. The shirt says:
Xmas List:
1. New Puppy
2. Playset
3. Baby Brother
4. Toys! Toys! Toys!

I was going through all of his clothes and found it. To humor myself I put it on him and it still fits. It is a 24 month shirt. He was such a chunk last year and this year he has slimmed down alot and looks more like a little boy than a baby :( I am a little sad but at least I have Noah coming in a few weeks that will help me appreciate having a baby again. I hope he does have the same features as my Nicho bear and is a chunk too!

Well, it looks like this Christmas instead of only getting 2 things off this list like last year, he will be getting 3 things off this list! :) (Baby Brother may be a little late though) Next year who knows we may be getting the #1 item on his shirt list for Christmas :)

I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas!

Nicho's new favorite song :) He has been in the Holiday spirit lately and this age has definitely been so much fun to share Christmas with! (sorry his room is a MESS!! we will be working hard on it over the break before brother gets here!)

Nicho's School Christmas Party

Yesterday was Nicho's class party. It turned out great, good food, cookie decorating :) (and lots of mess ), and a book exchange. The kids all had a blast!

Neighborhood Light Show

This past weekend we were looking through our local SW Austin newspaper. We saw an article about one of our neighbor's Christmas light show. I remember last year this same neighbor's house was featured on the nightly news so I started reading the article. This neighbor's yard is AWESOME!! The person behind the light show is a 22 year old senior from Texas A&M. His whole family takes part in putting this light show together each year. This is a 40 minute show (synchronized to music) that consists of 40,000 lights all tied together and controlled by computer software. People that drive by the home can tune to a radio station in their car up to 100 ft of the house and hear the music. You can also view the light show from your computer by visiting:

http://www.mccoylights.com/

Just thought I would share this with everyone!! Happy Holidays!

In less than a month...

These two will be getting married! Last night after we dropped off Nicho Bear with the grandparents we met both my brothers along with my sister-in-law Marisol and future sister-in-law Tuyen with some of their friends at the Iron Cactus downtown. We had a great dinner and LOTS of laughs!

The married couple to be...

PJ and Marisol, Nicho's God Parents. At dinner Mari announced that she would be running/walking the half marathon in February! I was SO thrilled and happy for her! Of course I wish I would be running in the half/full marathon :( For obvious reasons I will not be but hopefully in the Fall :)

Group Picture

Trains!

Yesterday we took Nicho to see a Holiday Model Train layout in the downtown area. He absolutely LOVED IT!!

He was very sad when it was time to leave, here he is in his car seat after we left. He would not talk to us for 20 minutes, the whole car ride to Granny and Grandpa's house! He wanted to go back and see the trains. Once he saw that we were close to Granny and Grandpa's house he started to let up a bit.