Dona Luisa's Banana Bread!!! Hmmmmm...

Ok...so not all of you who read this will know what I am talking about...but for those of you who have lived (or visited) in Antigua this is for you.... OK I have been missing Guat. right now a lot! So I decided to reminisce and I made a batch of Banana Bread from my Dona Luisa's Cookbook. Wow...do I have to say more? For those of you who haven't been to Antigua...this bread was soooo good! Anyways, let me know if my friends from Antigua would like the recipe....very easy and simple but oh so moist! :) I know I am a little Loco...but I thought maybe you all would know and could relate!

HE IS WALKING!!!

What fun!! J and I decided yesterday...that we could now and would officially declare Little M "walking". He is now letting go of things with a determined look on his face and stepping out... He also is just standing up in the middle of the room and walking. So far the farthest we have seen him walk is across our living room (the long way) this morning. He is so proud of himself and looks like he is thinking to himself " wow...this is so fun...why haven't I been traveling like this all along". J and I want little M to stay this age for another year!! We are having so much fun with him! He is so precious...though some of you might not agree... we have decided that we have the best baby in the entire world!!! How could it get any better than this! Thank God for our little blessing! (who is not sleeping (nap) right now like he should be :{...our little stinker! I hear him talking right now)

I aged my son...

OK with in 20 minutes I aged my son from a baby to a little boy....I have always wanted to be able to spike my sons hair. So I took him to get a haircut and this is what he looks like with a lot LESS hair. It is not the best picture but you will get an idea...It took me a few days to get used to it...and I was bemoaning the fact that it made it him look so much older :) But...now two weeks later half of it has grown back already...his hair grows really fast. Here it is:


Well...I am winding up my posting for the day...more quick info...Little M is still not walking about yet. He has taken on average 6 steps little walks but you have to stand him up and encourage him to walk to you. But...in the last 2 days he has been standing himself up in the middle of the floor...well just anywhere really. So I think it will be soon! He is so proud of himself when he does this. He is very talkative... He is a happy boy (most of the time :) He loves music (and he is mommy's biggest fan...he is probably the only little kid that is not scared of my opera singing) He loves his daddy sooooo much!!! He gets very sad when he leaves in the morning and very excited when j comes home. "HI DADDY HI HI DADDY DADDY"...at the tops of his lungs!

I have started watching a 3 year old 2 days a week and Little M loves him. He is learning and picking up a lot from him :)

That is all I can think of now...feel free to ask about anything I might have forgotten to share!

Uncle Marty and Aunt Erin...

Then the day after my sisters and brother-in-law left, J's family had a outdoor bbq get together because his aunt and uncle were here visiting from Colorado. Here are a couple of cute pics of Little M with J's sister Erin and Brother-in-law Marty!

This is me with my Aunt Erin...:) I am having so much fun!

And here I am with my Uncle Marty...don't I look so cool in his sunglasses! For some reason I couldn't persuade him to let me leave with them!

Aunt Mindy, Aunt Missy and Uncle John come to visit...

We were so excited to have M's family come up and visit for almost two whole weeks!! (all the way from Minnesota and Seattle) Aunt Mindy had never met Little M and Aunt Missy missed him like crazy since the time in Guatemala when she escorted me down and helped me get settled with Little M. (Uncle John had not met him yet either) We started the time off, by going camping the first weekend near my Grandparents house. (2.5 hours from our city) It was a lot of fun (or at least some of us enjoyed it ;) ) We have some "city folk" in our family that still had to drive to town to have their daily dose of Starbucks! :) It was a great time...my grandparents and uncles and aunt and best family friend (you know who you are ;) came and had dinner with us around the campfire! It was a good time to have family catch up with each other. Then after the camping trip we just came home and enjoyed a week of relaxing... at the end of the week (right before they had to leave) we went to the State Fair. Little M got to see a lot of farm animals for the first time and we all enjoyed the hot weather (yes it was hot for alaska...in the 70s) and good food and entertainment. Here are only a few pictures from this time...more will be coming soon.

This was us packing for our camping trip...

This is sitting around the campfire...

This is me right after I was dropped by my mommy...er...I mean canoing with my mom and dad

This is me with my Uncle John...he is funny ...

This is me playing with my aunt Mindy....you can't see her but she is a blast to play with and she takes tons of great pictures of me ( I am quite a ham) I am also quite blind after a week with her :) he he he (all the flashes going off :)

And this is me being very inquisitive of my Aunt Missy...she has something in her hand that I really want...if I smile just right she maybe she will give it to me...

Don't worry there are more pics to come...ones that actually include the family we are alluding to :) I know it isn't allllll about Little M.

OK...OK... I know we just dropped off the face of the earth...

Actually, in the last month, we have had family visiting! Well only 2 weeks of it (the rest of the time was me being a slacker...:)) I have some pictures for now and we are collecting more from our family. Hopefully by next month we will have a new computer and it will be easier for J and I to upload our pictures on a more regular basis. But I have some cute ones now...and more coming!
Here are the pictures we promised from Grandpa Cross from our arrival night at the airport (Time -line -wise they belong down at the bottom of this blog....but I am afraid no one would see them):

This is Grandpa and Grandma Cross (J's parents)

And these are Papaw and Granny Casey (M's parents)