december 2013

papa bear started the month off as perfect as he could. he went on a family golf trip to arizona for kyle's bachelor weekend. mama bear was a little jelly, she just loves the serenity of the desert

and he left just in time to miss the first ice storm of the season. he did have to drive home from the airport saturday night. and must of had plenty of angels protecting him, he made it safe & sound to his family

had it been snow we would've gone out to play but it was solid ice. even babygirl had a difficult time going potty, she was sliding all over the backyard. so poor mr.t was locked in the house for almost an entire week, it took him another week to recover from the cabin fever. one day he spent lots of time building a "time tunnel" (from dinosaur train) for his train. (you can barley see the tiny opening for the train at the bottom

 

happy anniversary to us (12-20)! wow-wee--depending on the day, these 5 years have gone by fast or slow. yet, we still make the perfect pair (this was from a trip to las vegas february 2010)

feliz navidad to all! these shots were taken at a christmas day brunch yaya had for us

baby kj's first gift came from yaya. forgot how cute baby clothes are

 

gma got tomas the cutest "george" (all monkeys are george) sleeping bag. he even had to get his george baby to share it with. he has become quite obsessed with the curious monkey

for the last day of the year we made a trip to the cultural district in fort worth. yaya took tom-tom to see the curious george exhibit one last time before it left while papa and mama bear went to the modern to catch the "méxico inside out: themes in art since 1990" before it too left

november 2013

as a family we celebrate all saints, all souls and dia de los muertos each year by visiting grammie carmen and praying for and honor all our departed friends & family. we both find a serenity in visiting cemeteries, people are finally at peace, and hope tomas can grow to feel this too. as a bonus, it renews our spirituality, strengthens the mexican part of our culture, bonds our family together and we get to remember the good times we had with those who have gone before us

he so much enjoys the tire swing at school and tries to get on every chance he gets

nothing like getting your hands dirty to play ball. mr.t didn't make it to the actual play ball stuff and preferred playing with just the dirt

kj's 2nd photo and he/she is thumb sucking (photo below is of tomas doing the same thing in the same place). like before, we're waiting until baby makes their grand entrance to know boy or girl

 

for thanksgiving most of the whitener's rented a 38' rv and drove from dallas to north carolina to visit and feast with 'gg' bette. what beautiful memories we will hold near & dear! 

four whiteners in the pile at a stretch-your-legs pit-stop. poor pappy is on the bottom

the kiddos did such a fabulous job raking leaves and even had fun doing it, maybe the highlight of the trip. mr.t loved jumping in the piles and peyton & eliana were tickled that they got to throw leaves on him. it was a big job and wouldn't have gotten done if we all hadn't helped

we did take a trip to discovery place in charlotte, so many things to see & do. t & eliana concluding the visit at the water tables. of course he didn't put the vest on until after he was all wet

mama bear had combed eliana's hair in two-french braids, so he wanted to have two-pigtails too(wouldn't stay still for braids). can only imagine how it is gonna be when there is a baby around

 

and before bulba and the kids left back home to san antonio we finished the trip and month off cheering-on the horned frogs (we lost another close one). still can't believe we all fought through the exhaustion of a week long trip and cross country rv driving to make the game but glad we all did

 

october 2013

we found out early-on about baby kj (kevonica jr. 2) and had our 1st exam at the beginning of the month to confirm our suspicions. tomas made mama bear sick for a while at the beginning but this kiddo has come in with even more punch. so much so that mama bear has tried an abundance of remedies (including the sea bands) to relieve the nausea...

mr.t has developed a minor obsession with a certain monkey. you guessed it, curious george has slightly moved ahead of dinosaur train. and he was in luck, the fort worth museum of science & history had a great hands on exhibit--we even got to take a photo with george in the flesh

we were unable to make our annual state fair of texas outing this year because we celebrated the marriage of tio ernesto and shauna the weekend we usually go. for you guys we were okay missing out on all the yummy treats--many blessing to your new journey together!

(thanks for the photo paula, this was the only photo of just kevin & veronica the entire year)

our annual light the night walk was also the same weekend but we managed to go to the wrong location (we'll blame it on vron's prego brain, she guided us to the wrong site) so we took our own stroll through downtown fort worth drinking hot chocolates and reminiscing about mama carmen. we could just see her shaking her head. at least the funds raised still go to all those fighting blood cancers--thanks again to all those who donated, we can't ever express how much it is appreciated

we can't decide if we've got a genius or not on our hands with the shenanigans t does. he still is not talking much and prefers to do things for himself. guess he thought the dishes needed to get done

 

september 2013

back to school was great this year, no tears! it's only been 2 years, but our goal of 1st day of school tradition is both of us taking him to school talking about our school year goals and playing the rocky theme-gonna fly now (you can tell our age). bonus for us, he seems to enjoy the song too

we also made a trip down I-35 to san Antonio to celebrate the kiddos b-days and visit with the familia. swimming, trains, shopping, more swimming, bike riding and b-day cake; what a super trip

 

mama bear has been cutting his hair (because he can't stay still for more than 2 seconds) but papa and yaya thought a professional would do a better job...he moved around so much they cut much more than we originally wanted, at least it will grow back. even tomas was in shock after bath that night

our first family trip to watch a tcu football game this season. he was enamored with frog fountain to and from the stadium

by accident, t and yaya were wearing his and hers grey & salmon outfits this day