Maria's fist Ballet recital

Last week Maria got to be in her first ballet recital. Obviously Christmas themed, she was a snowflake and did tap dancing to "Let it snow".

She enjoyed it and was as good as any 4 year old dancing in a recital!

This is from the dress rehearsal, she is second from the left.

Tamales

A New Mexican Christmas tradition is making tamales. You make them by spreading masa (dough in Spanish) onto corn husks. Then you add some pork and red chile to the center and roll it up! After they're all rolled up you steam them for an hour or so until cooked and then unroll the husk and (usually) add more red chile before eatting! We make these yesterday with most of Joe's family.
Maria got a taste of them for the first time and tho she didn't love it she ate it with few complaints! Hers didn't have the chile.

Masa and meat/chile mix

All rolled up

Mine and a little one for Maria

Wow, almost December!

So its been a while since I posted any news. Its been a busy time with good and bad events.

After getting home from our Canada visit we decided (well I decided.. Joe gave me a dirty look and then reluctantly agreed) it was time to put new flooring in most of our house. We've had the house over 7 years and have been planning to do it for oh about 7.5 years! It looks really nice.

This isn't the finished picture because I apparently haven't taken one yet! Little Maria absolutely loves to clean the floor for me tho... either with the swiffer seen above or with her knees..

The bad event was, as most people reading this will know, my sister-in-law passing away Nov. 10th due to complications from a surgery she had. Saying its been hard on the family I think is an understatement even if we all look ok on the surface.

Also, we just had thanksgiving at my house, which was yummy and the company was good!

Not to forget little Maria turning 4! Its hard to believe how she's developed into such an amazing little person over the past 4 years. Obviously, being her mother I think she's the most amazing kid ever! Hahaha! She never fails to make me laugh, smile and raise my eyebrows in amazement every single day.

We had a pinata at her party.... poor thing never stood a chance... the pinata I mean... Maria's face is priceless!!!

And somewhere in here we managed to get a few family pictures taken! We skipped the inside studio this year and tramped our way through the fall leaves to get some really nice pictures.

Now its time to get ready for Christmas and a new year....

Visit to Newfoundland

Well it finally feels like we're rested and settled back home after our trip. Which means I need to share some of our pictures (my mom is thinking *finally*!) and stories.

So lets see.. Our trip over was hectic. We barely made our last connecting flight but when we got arrived our bags sadly did not. So we spent our first day picking up a few things. Not so bad but it always amazes me how much St. John's has grown and changed in the 10+ years since I left.
We then headed out to Bonavista where my dad lives. We had a great time hanging out with him (see previous post! haha) and got a few projects done around his house.

The biggest of those projects were some news steps coming down from the drive way for him. Joe did an excellent job!










We also headed out to be close (-r) to the ocean. You can see it from pretty much anywhere in Bonavista and it only takes minutes til you're close enough to touch it! Tho we didn't do that coz its pretty cold!

Ok I lied, Joe didn't keep his hands
out of the ocean, even tho its just a tide
pool, its still freezing cold and apparently
slimy...  

Trying to listen for the ocean inside a sea
snail shell... She said she heard it but I think
 that was the real ocean 10 feet away from her....

Would have been a perfect picture
had I known it was being taken
and I hadn't ducked!

Its ridiculously hard to get a
good crashing wave picture! 

Spoiler: Most likely this picture will be coming with Christmas cards! 

Our collection of sea shells

 Here are a few more pictures from when we went to the Bonavista cape (see previous post below)

Nice little beach... just slightly difficult to get to
 (no we didn't try...)

The flag + wind would not cooperate!

I think the biggest success of my trip was getting my dad to take a few little family pictures! Maria is a great tool when it comes to motivating some people... haha! Tho we had to bribe her with silly pictures (as you will see below...)

Eventually we made it back to St. John's and spent some time with my Aunt Janet. She's lucky enough to live minutes away from Kent's pond (I'm pretty sure that's the name) which has a walking trail and anxious ducks who will fly across the pond looking for food if they see someone stopped on the other side (this happened to us twice.. thankfully we had food for them).

Then we got to spend some time with 2 of my best friends! We had an excellent supper and got some nice pictures. For the last 3 or 4 years we have taken a version of this picture (on the right). I'm guessing next year we won't be holding our kiddos!

 And I think that's it! :) We had a great visit. I always wish it wasn't such a long trip to get to Newfoundland because I'd be there more often!