Darancous in Denver

What a great summer this has been! Not only has Enrique been out of school which is awesome but we have been able to travel out west to visit friends and family. Our first stop was in Colorado Springs to visit some friends we know from Iowa City.

We went to the Garden of the Gods. It is amazing. Red rock, beautiful rock formations- it reminded us of southern Utah.

This backpack is so cool. We can tote Enriquito around everywhere!

Our second stop was in Denver to visit Enrique's Dads side of the family. Everyone was there. All the aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, grandparents and even great grandparents. This is a picture of Enrique's Dad with Qui Que.

This is Erica (Enrique's sister) with her little boy, David. He is 3 months old.

Grandpa Armando y Rosa bought this little soccer ball in Mexico. Here is a picture of him showing Qui Que how to play.

My very first Quinceañera! This blew my mind. It was so cool. Enrique's cousin, Breeze turned 15 and it is tradition to have a Quinceañera. For those of you that are not familiar with what that is, it is a large celebration to mark when a child becomes a women. There was a church ceremony and a huge party afterwards. Enrique's aunt Mari did a great job on all the decorations and Breeze looked beautiful!

We have got the 4 generations here.

Enrique, Armando (his dad), Enriquito, and Great grandpa Ruben.

So cool.

Enrique with is brothers and sisters. As you can tell they are beautiful people.

Cindy, Brian, Enriques, Armandito, Erica

This is Enriquito with is traditional guayavera shirt on.

Perfect for the surprise birthday party for his great grandma, Ester.

This is Enrique's grandma, Ester. All the aunts and uncles threw a surprise birthday party for her 90th birthday. She LOVES to knit and drink cervezas so her cake was a basket of yarn with a bottle of Corona in it. All made from frosting. It was the coolest cake ever!

That is it for now. More pictures to come of Qui Que's first birthday party!

Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day Papí!
Here is a picture of little Enrique with his Papí before church.

Enrique requested Cafe Rio sweet pork salads for his father's day dinner. Definitely a family fav. You can find the recipe we like here http://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/2007/11/jared-and-i-love-cafe-rio.html

I made him this shirt and tie cake but apparently I got carried away with the food coloring and the frosting tasted like crayon. We didn't eat much of it.

I was so excited for Father's Day because I made this book for Enrique. The book is called Papí y yo and it is all about Enrique and Enriquito. This picture you see below shows my favorite pages in the book. The page on the left shows 4 pictures of who Enriquito is named after. Enrique (husband), Enrique (Enrique's grandpa), Jesse (my great grandpa), and Jesse Dee (my grandpa). The other page shows a picture of Enrique and Enriquito at the same age.

Happy Father's Day Enrique!

11 months!

11 Months for Enrique Jesse!
What a big boy you are!
You can wave "hola" and bye bye.
You give us kisses- lots of kisses.
You can shake your head back and forth as if to say no.
You can clap your hands together-only sometimes.
Although you can do so many fun tricks you don't like to do them on demand. When I tell you to wave "bye bye" you bury your head in my chest and get shy. You are precious!

You are standing up all by yourself. I think it is because you don't like the grass and you don't want to be on it because whenever we are outside on the grass you stand up.

You love your daddy, as soon as he gets home from school you crawl over to his feet and cry until he picks you up!

You are into everything. You love to watch me sew and want to be a part of the action- which means I do it when you are sleeping!

You still love baths! We tried a shower the other day and you hated it! I think we will stick to baths for now.

You love to make lots of noise. You are either banging your toys together or babbling so loud I can't hear a thing!

Te queremos mucho Enriquito!

This last picture is hilarious. He missed his afternoon nap and feel asleep in his high chair. One minute he was eating and the next he was snoring!

Northside love

Last week we had our annual Brown Street Block party. We look forward to it every year. We get to know all our Northside neighbors better and eat delicious food. And this year I wasn't 8 months pregnant so I was loving it. Here are the Enriques at the party. You might be thinking Enrique is loving his gray Nike basketball shirt- yeah, I was thinking that too. He had it on in the last post.

Me and my baby-note the awesome cobblestone road.

la familia

Qui Que and Jack- Northside baby buddies

Stealing Jack's chupon

Giving Jack kisses

And that's a wrap. Can't wait until next years Brown Street block party!

Memorial Day

Memorial Day!
Yeah, this posting is a tad late.
We had such a fun Memorial Day! We met our friends the Abarcas and the Wards at Kent Park. It was beauitful! Qui Que-pronounced key-cay (we call him that more than Enriquito because it is shorter) loved the water and the sand! He had a blast with his little friends Jace Abarca and Cannon Ward.

Yeah, I saved this little red, white and blue outfit for this day. Kind of cheesy but so cute!

Qui Que and Jace Abarca

Jose Abarca, Matt Ward, Enriques and McKenna, Jackson and Cannon playing in the back.

He loved the sand!

Check out how full his diaper is!

We love all the parks around here. Iowa is so beautiful right now!

sewing with Mom

My mom helped me (basically did everything) make a skirt while she was out visiting. We found this pattern and fabric at Home Ec. (love this store) here in Iowa City.

This is a picture of what the pattern looked like.

I made a matching bow tie for little Enrique. This picture didn't turn out so good because of the flash. We were having a huge storm and it was super dark outside which is why we had to take the picture inside.

Thanks Mom! You are the master seamstress! I hope to be able to have sewing skills like you one day!

Enrique Jesse meets Mitt Romney!

We got to meet Mitt Romney in Cedar Rapids last night! What an experience! We heard about it on short notice and all headed up there. He is such a nice, personal man and was so generous to snap as many pictures as we requested!
Enrique Jesse with our future president! :)

Enrique is not in this picture. He was too busy pounding down the free hot dogs.

Notice Mitt Romney in the back ground.

My mom with Mitt Romney. She was also interviewed by a new reporter and on channel 2 and 7 representing Iowa! Good thing they didn't ask her where she was from.

Sara, me and my mom getting ready to meet Mitt.