FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!

We wish you a merry Christmas and a tamale-filled year!



We had blessed morning, enjoying a very slow (at times crazy) family Christmas. We even made some yummy "monkey bread" (so pretty i had to take a picture of it!)





We loved seeing our kids appreciate the "at your own pace" of the day. We watched them open gifts and were reminded how this sacred holiday season is more about our Savior's amazing birth than any gift we could receive.




We got to carry on a wonderful Cortez Family tradition on Christmas eve and made our very first homemade batch of tamales!!! Thanks to tons of help from the kids and some great advice from Nana and Grampy, they turned out AWESOME! :) Dan even made the chile from scratch!




We have also made some new traditions, like decorating a Jesse Tree (a cool way to take kids through the Bible following the line of David all the way to Jesus), having a birthday party for Jesus at a friend's house (complete with cupcake decorating), and learning some fun new Bible verse songs in Spanish sent to us from some dear friends that i used to live and work with in Mexico!




























































It's cold and drizzly outside, but in our cozy culver city home we are filled up warmly with the joy of Christ and the love He sent us from all of You!!! We love each card we receive, enjoying "seeing" each of you at this fun time of year.










We pray God's richest blessings be on you and yours as you soak up the wonderful family moments these sacred Christmas days bring.

peace to you,


christa for all

cousin BENJAMIN!!!!!

BENJAMIN....


WE MISS YOU!!!!!!

relative bliss

cousins' weekend/gram and papa visit/bday bash!!! we did it all, oh yeah,and selah had surgery! phew!

God gently guided us through selah having surgery on two hiernia's by blessing us with her Gram and Papa to take care of everyone while dan and i were with her in the hospital for the day.


a great bonus was the surprise visit of two of our sweet cousins...joseph and emma!!! it made for a great party when we celebrated elia turning one and elijah miguel(he likes to be called miguel these days!) turning three! tons of fun was had by all, even selah!



tonight the dads took 5 of the six kids to the movies to finish celebrating miguel's big day...it is his first movie theater experience!!


it was an amazing treasure to have so many of the people we love in our house for constant visiting and laughter.
we sure are missing the rest of ya!

more fun

here's more of our weekend of fun!

Happy Birthday Jophish!!!

That's a direct quote from miguel (EJ)!!!

We hope you have a great tenth birthday dude!!!









we love you and miss you so much!

take some cool pictures of you riding your moto so we can see you in action!

have an awesome day bud!!

Love, selah, samuel, miguel, dan, christa and elia

ps...as you can see, it took several pics for us to get the sign to show up!!

Sweet tummy aches

super heros, princesses and bugs!

it sounds like a Disney movie, but it was actually just a cortez halloween! eight different costumes on four different children throughout the day...super man, lady bug, spider man, sleeping beauty, a doctor, sleepy mom of four kids, bumble bee, batman, buzz light year, and snow white! (thanks gram for a great dress-up box!)

we enjoyed our first ever door to door candy begging(can you tell i don't care for halloween!!)...after just 30 minutes of knocking on doors we had three HUGE bags of candy (and three quarters from a sweet lady down the street.) Just think, if every person had given us one quarter per kid...:)

it was a very fun first time for us all. ej started bartering, trying to trade what the first house had given him so he could have the second house's treat! imagine his excitement when he realized it was ALL for him!!!

samuel asked if halloween was about trying to scare people. i told him that everyone gave candy to kids in order to remind them how sweet the love of Jesus is for them.

not true, as dan reminded me...but not a bad response from a sleepy mom of four kids!

(the pooh bear and the snow princess are our neighborhood friends that we walked with.)

love you all,
c6

Autumn Leaves??

my heart keeps searching for Fall. i am seeking out crunchy leaves to step on, wood burning stoves to smell, crisp air to feel on my skin...you know, the kind of day that makes you crave a moment in the sun to warm you from the Autumn chill.







Ah! Seasons! This end of California doesn't seem to have them!






So, in an attempt to "look on the bright side of things", and "bloom where i am planted", we are enjoying our hose, the beach and popcicles way longer than i ever expected! We use way more sunscreen too!