Trick or Treat!

Once again we celebrated Hallowe'en, Day of the Dead, and Nana' Birthday, all wrapped into one big bash. It wasn't so big this year, really. 'Buelo couldn't stay very long, because he is still recovering from his heart attack, but we all had fun. Sonya's cousin came down from Houston with his daughter. They, Steve & Amanda stayed for trick or treating.

The day before Hallowe'en, we went to "ZooBoo" at the San Antonio Zoo. The girls had fun, mostly because it was exciting for them to be at the zoo at night. We won't be going there again, however. We had to pay to get in (despite being Zoo members), we had to pay for tickets to play the cheezy little games (none of which we did play due to loooong lines), and the only other way to get candy was to listen to sales pitches ('free' portraits, 'free' day at the resort while they try to sell you more, Mary Kay cosmetics). It was all very irritating, and really crowded. To top it all off, people parked where ever they felt like, trapping half the parking lot behind parked cars. I recommend avoiding it. :)



Oh, and none of the animals were out. In fact, most of the zoo areas were blocked off.

First Day Of School! First Day Of School!

Enough filler - as funny as it may be. The girls were very excited for their first day of school! They are both at the same school now, which is a lot more convenient for us. Even more convenient is that Sonya works at the church now, so we walk them to school, I walk Sonya to work and then head back to the house for my truck. Unfortunately I do not work within walking distance. I do all this for the company and the exercise.

We also went to the San Antonio Botanical Garden on Labor Day. Nana & 'Buelo took us as their guests. There we saw the displays for Terrific Treehouses:

From traditional to fantasy, Terrific Treehouses will feature up to nine locally designed treehouses intended to delight and stir the imagination of our guests. Terrific Treehouses encourages guests to experience the wonder of our extensive plant collection, as well as to learn about the beneficial aspects of trees. Designed for fun adventure, Terrific Treehouses is for the young at heart, no matter the age

We had a lot of fun there. The garden is beautiful, and there is a lot of art throughout.





In other news, we have finally gotten some more chickens. We have 4 hens now - no eggs yet. We converted our old shed to a luxury chicken condo, complete with screened windows.

Favorite Newton

more graph humor and song chart memes

I Can Has Cheezburger?

more cat pictures

Mother's Day

Sonya made some neat gifts for her mom, for Mother's Day. Here are the pics:

Sonya recently got promoted to managing her department. She is excited about that, but it stresses her a bit. She also got a cool hair cut and it rocks. It looks really nice.

The girls are nearly done with school. They've started swim lessons, so they'll have something to do in the summer. The pool is right down the street from us, so it is very convenient. They love swim lessons. I haven't seen them practice yet, but they are thrilled when they get home. The lessons are taught by college competitive swimmers. Gabriel has started taking piano lessons on Saturdays, and Uriel is going to visit a ballet studio this Saturday, to see if she likes the teacher. She decided to do ballet instead of Irish dance.

At last, here is a photo of my new Utilikilt. I got it at the Celtic Festival and Highland Games last month. I love it! It is very comfortable. The majority of complements I've gotten have been positive. I've got a black one in a different style (the Mocker) coming this week. They were discounted so much, I couldn't refuse.

You can also see in the photo of me that I've gotten my hair cut. I've gotten a lot of positive complements on that, too. I couldn't stand the long hair any more. This is so easy to take care of, and I like the look.

Return of Underdog!

Well, its been a while. Here is a picture that Uriel drew of herself in her Underdog costume last halloween. I hadn't seen it before. I was cleaning out a basket of junk and I found it. They loved those costumes.

We didn't go to the St. Patrick's Day parade this year. The girls both had sore throats, so we stayed home and watched DVDs. Sonya and the girls took me to the San Antonio Celtic Festival and Highland Games last weekend, for my birthday (the big four-oh!). It was a lot of fun. I even bought a Utilikilt. It rocks. As soon as I get a picture taken of me in it, I'll post it.

Sonya is running the scrapbooking department at Hobby Lobby now. Its more fun than being cashier.

For My Girls...

A cute and fuzzy bunny.

木こり

I've written a haiku, inspired by my lumberjack post:



私はガレージでから見ている私の妻の驚きに傷を得なかった





Kidding! I didn't write it in Japanese. Here it is:


I didn't get hurt,
to the surprise of my wife
watching from in the garage.

Gabi's Birthday 2007

Our Kitchen

Sonya did some cool paint work in the kitchen. Our theme is 'French Country'.

I'm running out of witty titles...

The girls groom a goat at the zoo.



Uri or Gabi took this of Gabi's stuffed dog 'Smelly'.
Uri took a shot of Sonya enjoying a tasty homemade popsicle

These Go Way Back

These shots were taken by Uri on one of our first visits to the San Antonio Zoo. These are from before we bought our house, probably around Christmas time, 2006.

Gabi and I are caterpillars.

7th Anniversary

Sonya & I celebrated our 7th anniversary yesterday. I gave her a ton of flowers and she made me this really cool card. It rocks. She also had the mariachis play 'El Rey' for me when we went out to eat. At our engagement party, my future uncle had the mariachis play "El Rey"; he told me it would be my theme song. Its basically about a guy who's been kicked out of the house, but still claims to be the king. Pretty funny.

I am amazed that its been 7 years. Sometimes it seems like it was just last year. I pray for many happy years with her.

I'm a Lumberjack, and I'm okay...

The girls took these photos of our efforts at cutting down a tree. If you look back at the photos I posted of our new house, you can see a tree growing right on the edge of the drive. I was getting tired of driving around it, when it became infested with aphids that dropped (pooped) sticky goo all over my truck. Said goo turning black with mold rather quickly, and difficult to clean off.

Out came the axe!

Chainsaw, really, but the tree is gone. And, I didn't get hurt, much to the surprise of my wife and children watching from the garage.

Parking Bliss!

Easter 2007

The girls are posing here with the lamb cake Sonya made for Easter last year. It was kind of rainy, so the cascarones (bottom picture) weren't the huge event they've been in the past. The girls had fun, tho'.

Fiesta San Antonio

Working our way forward in time (it won't last - I've got a really old roll of film somewhere) to April '07 and the Battle of Flowers Parade. With us is Sonya's aunt & uncle, her cousin (orange shirt) and his daughter.