The Valenzuelas do New Hampshire

We had such a wonderful visit with all of my family. As you read in the previous post, we had a lot of snow for Marissa and Andrew to play in at first, but by the middle of the week the thaw began and we saw much nicer weather. Marissa was still out there on whatever patch she could find to slide down. The rest of us stayed warm indoors just catching up and spending fun times together relaxing, celebrating birthdays and of course eating! I miss my mom's food and we got our fill along with all our favorite local food as well as a trip to the Ben and Jerry's factory in Vermont. I miss everyone almost as much as the Baby David misses you.

The Valenzuelas and the St. Patrick's Nor'easter

Last Friday my whole family was supposed to arrive for a week long visit, when the Northeast's weather reared its ugly head. My brother Daniel arrived first, his plane made it just before the storm. We got out of Boston just in time, the storm was right behind us. As we pulled in to our driveway the snow slowly started. His girlfriend, Michelle was close behind him on the next flight, but it was sent into Portland, Maine because the weather in Boston was too snowy. As we watched the news and checked the status of the following two flights, my brother Anthony and his wife on a Jetblue flight and my parents (who have never been on a plane before), Marissa (also her first flight) and sisiter Mari on a Delta flight both due out Friday night arriving Saturday morning. Both of those flights were canceled eventually. The Delta flight was able to be rescheduled for Monday night but Anthony and Awnie couldn't get a flight until Tuesday (with many connections). They instead embarked on an adventure. There were open seats on a flight to DC, so they decided to rent a vehicle and drive to us in New Hampshire. It was quite an adventure, as they plowed through several states and also drove through parts of the storm. Meanwhile Michelle was stuck in Maine for the night, was flown back to Boston in the morning and then caught a bus for the rest of the trip, finally arriving Saturday afternoon. Anthony and Awnie arrived later that evening at about 8pm. Finally on Tuesday morning after a safe uneventful flight the last group arrived. On the upside, we have about a foot and a half of fresh snow for Marissa to play and sled in to her heart's content. I will write more soon and put up pictures of all our adventures.

Sleep

This past weekend we worked on getting David to sleep through the night. The first night was very hard for me, we had to let him cry for about an hour and then again another half an hour or so. Eventually I fell asleep and I guess he did too, but he was just as happy as ever the next day (I though he might be grumpy at me, but he loves me no matter what). Last night we did much better (it really is harder on me than on him :) He woke up a couple of times but maybe cried only 15 minutes or so. It was a big difference for me. I feel more rested than I have been since before he was born. I hope I didn't jinx us by talking about our early success.

by the way, my computer is down for the count so I will post some new pics and video as soon as I can, David is such a character at 9 months.

The Day After the Nor'Easter

On Thursaday the snow finally stopped. It really is beautiful to look at everything completely covered in fresh white snow, well as long as you don't have to go anywhere in a hurry. Andrew had to do a lot of shoveling before he could go to work, as did our whole neighborhood. The snow plow doesn't do a very good job in our area, so it's a good thing Andrew has four-wheel drive. Since David is still sick we just went out for a quick errand across the street, that was scary enough. The plowed snow is stacked so high it creates extra blind spots and since it is the first big snow in a while you have to be extra careful. I made a wrong turn becauseit was hard to recognize a street vs. a driveway. Here are a few more pics of our extra snowy world.

Our cars

You can see how much accumulated on our trash can

My hero, shoveling away

It's a lot of work

Even my car got covered as the snow was blowing sideways

"Crawling"video

Last week, Andrew was having some fun with David, "helping" him crawl:

Baby David at 8 months

David is growing and enjoying life. Last week we went for a well-child visit and he now weighs 19.4 pounds! He is enjoying sitting on the rug and playing with his toys. He attempts to move around by reaching over and letting himself fall towards the desired object. He also last longer on his tummy. Andrew tries to make him crawl, but I'm really not in a hurry for such activity. I still appreciate being able to get things done and he's mostly in the same area.

This week he got sick again. It started with a croupy cough so we paid a visit to his doctor. Now it has progressed to a pretty nasty cold. We had started dong some sleep training to get him to sleep through the night, but that's all on hold again. Some day I will get a full night's sleep :)

He sees the block

He reaches for the block

I got it

Now I must eat it

Nor'easter

Yesterday we experienced our first real snow storm. It snowed for over 24 hours straight, the news called a Nor'easter. From what I understand this means that the storm travels to the north-eastern Atlantic area where it picks up more percipitation and then comes and drops a bunch of snow, sleet, and rain, depending on where you are. As you can see we got lots of snow, almost 2 feet. Darmouth College actually closed down for the first time in 15 years, it was a real snow day for everyone. Andrew went out to shovel some of the snow yesterday so that there will be less to do today.
These pictures were taken yesterday about halfway through the storm, I used our video camera because our regular camera was "snowed in" at Andrew's work.

Andrew's car

Where's the road?

A couple of videos

There have been request for some more video footage of the Baby David. Here he is munching on Cheerios.



Here is try number 2, as you can see David really enjoys eating

Lakers, Lakers, Lakers!

Yesterday we made the trek out to Boston to watch Kobe and the rest of the Lakers beat the Celtics at their home court. It was the most fun we have had in a long time. David was such a star, everyone wanted to say hi to him, even though he was wearing a Lakers outfit. We were not aloud to take in cameras so we took a few pictures before we left. You can see that David is still working through his cold.

It's COLD!!!

We are really feeling the cold now. We have freezing temperatures day after day and it snows at least every other day. Today there was wind blowing at over 40mph. Let's just say Baby David and I stayed inside while Andrew bravely shoveled.

Check out Baby David's fangs

When we returned from our 3 weeks away it was very, very cold. We had a few presents that we didn't get to before Christmas (we raced to the airport), so we enjoyed our own little holiday (surprisingly with a fairly decent tree). David really enjoys his new books, this one in particular shows off his new fangs when he smiles.

Here is another picture of David at 7 months now, very heavy and quite the eater, showing off his teeth.

A few more days on the west coast

When we returned from Hawaii, we spent a few more days in California. The time went by very quickly, visiting with more friends and trying to pack up after being gone for 3 weeks. We sure enjoyed everyone and miss you all so much.

Out to lunch with the girls

So Happy!

Opening more presents with Sheri, more interested in bow

My two favorite presents!

A week in paradise aka Kauai

The day after Christmas, Andrew, Baby David and I joined Grandma Mary and Grandpa Keith for a wonderful week in Kauai. The trip was tough, as the plane was packed David spent most of the 5 and a half hours on my lap. But it was all worth it! We stayed in a timeshare condo, where we would wake up to the sound of the crashing waves. Thanks to David I was up every morning to enjoy the sunrise. The weather was incredible! We tried to soak it all in before returning home. We spent days relaxing at the beach, watching Daddy bodybaord and even playng in the ocean ourselves. We also had the opportunity to see the island through the eyes of some locals, Stephen (Daniel's college roommate) and his girlfriend Jenelle showed us around and took us to some fun places. We miss it so much, especially now that we are back at freezing temps!

Baby David and I are ready for the water

Enjoying the day at Haneli Bay

Getting my toesies wet

No, that's not a fake backdrop :)

Cuddling with Grandpa Keith before the luau

Playing in the cozy sand with Stephen and Jenelle

One of the beautiful sunrises from our balcony

Chewing on Grandpa's shell lei, yummy

Catching up on the Holidays

We are finally back from all our travels. Happy New Year to everyone and we hope you had a great Christmas with your friends and family. Ours was very good. We spent 3 weeks away from our home. The first week we were at my parents' place back in Southern CA. It was really nice to be back and enjoy some time before Christmas with visiting with old friends and relaxing at home with family.

Eating breakfast with Grandpa and Grandma

Have a good day at school, Primita Marissa!

Chillin out with Great Uncle Rob

Tia Mari knows how to make me smile

We ate lots of Chicken!

Next we spent Christmas eve watching our superstar niece Marissa performing a solo during the Christmas program at Cornerston Church. Check her out:



We also relaxed at Andrew's Grandma's house before heading back to my parents to open presents. It was nice, we started much earlier than usual it order to have our Baby David be awake for some of the time. He did great, his favorite was the paper, typical. It was a fun time with the family.

Baby David trying to keep a smile on past his bedtime

Opening a present from Tia Mari

Enjoying one of his new books

Cheeky Monkey!

The next day we started preparing for our big trip to Hawaii and spent the day with the Felch family at Andrew's grandma's house. Before heading over there, we stopped by to visit with David's other great-grandma (Grandma Mary's mom) in Downey. Baby David enjoyed watching all the cats at her house.

Can't keep my eyes off my Great-Grandma Neubauer's cats

Finally we made it to my other Great-Grandma's house and spent a nice evening with the family and enjoying her delicious cooking. Baby David and I were both a little sick with a cold, but we still enjoyed our time.

Mommy eyeing my new Uggs

I got more excited about my Elmo book,

Thanks Grandma Mary and Grandpa Keith

Well that's plenty for now, that was just our first week away, tomorrow I will upload more fun :)