Thanksgiving trip to Manteca

Joy and Weston helping Papa blow out his birthday candles

Don't you dare take away my bottle mommy!

Looking bored

Here are a few pics from our wonderful trip to Manteca for Thanksgiving. I will post some more later. We had a blast hanging out with Andrew's sister and brother in law and their two little ones as well as other members in the Gutierrez clan. What is nice is that even though the family is so big, many of them live in the area so we are always able to visit a few while we are there. The house is no longer calm and quiet like it used to be! ( not sure why the pics are fuzzy this time! Sorry , anyone know why this happens sometimes?)

Thankful

This beautiful sunset was one of many that my parents get to experience from their backyard each night. For some reason the sunsets in AZ are so much more vibrant than the ones here! Sunsets and stars are two of my favorite things to view in God's creation and always remind me of His majesty and how big He truly is. That no sunset is ever the same and that there is no end to the vastness of space just speak of His awesomeness!

During Thanksgiving week when we were kids, my mom would have us ponder what we were thankful to God for and to prepare to share that around the Thanksgiving table on Thursday. I loved this tradition and even though I am not at home anymore with this assignment I have begun to ponder on the great blessings of this year and what I am truly thankful for.

But yesterday during church, what the pastor shared directed my heart in another direction. My previous answers at the Thanksgiving dinner table were usually thankfulness for family, friends, good food :), a great college roommate, etc etc. While all great things and things that God should be praised for the pastor had us think more deeply on thankfulness.

He took us to Luke and the story of the ten lepers. He miraculously healed all ten of their horrible disease but only one returned back to fall on his face before Christ and thank Him. Why? This one leper truly knew who Christ was and what He did. This one thankful leper received not only healing to his body, but to his soul as well. It is not until we recognize the horrible/diseased state our heart is in that we can truly be thankful for what Christ has done in our hearts. Once we see our sin we finally see our need for a Savior. And what a loving Savior He is! He will never turn away a broken heart over sin and that is what I am thankful for. He saved me, a sinner, at a young age but I am still learning to be thankful for what He actually did in my heart and my life. I forget often the miracle that was done in my diseased soul and the great and mysterious sacrifice of the cross. This year I hope to thank God for my salvation more and to realize that all the other blessings are really secondary in perspective.  Happy Thanksgiving!

On the road again!

We are packed up and on the road once again, this time to Manteca for
Thanksgiving this week. We have had a busy week and our little guy is
tuckered out as you can see! He had his 4 month shots on Monday, poor
baby but is doing well. The only issue is he seems to be on a nursing
strike since Monday! Anyone had experience with this? But he is now
13lbs and showing no signs of being a little early praise God! He
laughs throughout the day at almost anything and just this week
mastered rolling on one side from his tummy to his back. He will also
now play with rattles and he loves anything that makes a crinkle
sound! So cute :)

Birthday in Arizona

My Parents live in beautiful Scottsdale Az and we always like to drive out when we get the chance, but it has been over a year and a half since we have been out! So for my bday this year I decided it would be fun to come! We feel so refreshed after staying at their resort like house and it is a great place to get away from all the hustle and bustle. We arrived late night this past Thursday and it was so quiet out, it was eerie! We all have been sleeping so soundly and eating gourmet meals every day :) I get to stay until this Friday, but Andrew had to leave today to get back to school. More pics to come of Weston's first trip to AZ!

Believe it or not, this was my first car! I know I know...spoiled brat right?! Well my parents let us choose any used car we wanted if we waited until we were 18 to get our licences. I don't think they thought about classic cars being in that genre, but I did! My dad loves to fix up cars and motorcycles so this was our project. I found it in a guy's garage in 5 pieces, but envisioned this beauty! My dad has added alot more to the car under the hood in the past few years and let's just say it could get me to school now alot faster than it did when I drove it! In college I traded it back to my dad for a car less precious to beat around town in. Whenever we come to visit we always go for a ride. The inside smells wonderful if you like the smell of old classic cars and it always reminds me of those early mornings driving to school with my sister!

Target practice in the back yard of course!

Birthday dinner at Heirloom. I am sad I didn't take any pics of the amazing food we had that night! One of my fav chefs out here opened a new restaurant and my parents thought it would be fun to go and sit at the chefs table with a perfect view of the kitchen. How fun! We even got to walk around the kitchen after dessert. The chef de cuisine made us his own personal creation before we ordered: foie gras on baguette with some tarragon oil and a berry reduction. Andrew passed on that but it was amazing! Then I had a grilled quail terrine with greens, a crabcake in a fennel broth and then an olive halibut fillet with artichokes and roasted tomatoes! They brought out two fabulous desserts for us to try: a chocolate speckles cake and homemade doughnuts with lemon cream inside.  It was a great dinner and Weston slept pretty much the whole time as well! 

4 months!

Our guy is already four months! He is growing alot and likes to eat
all the time! This past month has been more of a challenge with
keeping up with his appetite and he also seems to have developed a
very sensitive tummy. Each day brings something new with our
expressive baby! He giggles each time we change him and talks to
himself quite loudly when he wakes up each am. So cute! He loves to be
on the go! He likes to look around at different people and places and
will now fuss if he gets bored :) he also Loves music. To help him
cheer up we put on this classical baby cd and he will lay and kick his
legs for a good 15-20 minutes! We are having so much fun

Great new bath tub!

So this is bathtub #3 that we have purchased! Who knew it would be
such a tricky thing? The first one wouldn't hold water (ironic) and
the second one Weston grew out of, but this one is genius! It is
inflatable so it is super soft all around and is much more portable
than the other awkward plastic ones. Weston loves it since he has room
to kick his legs and be on his belly. We love bathtime, we just need
to work on the drying off part...he screams like I am torturing him!

Trying rice cereal!

Our little guy is such a hungry man all the time that I decided to try
a teaspoon of cereal and see if he would like it...as you can tell he
loves it! I'm not surprised as Weston loves any kind of eating
experience :) we will see how it goes!