Christmas Pictures

We had a wonderful Christmas! We spent Christmas Eve at church and then with Roger's family. They open gifts on Christmas Eve which works out perfect since my family does it on Christmas day. Joshua got lots of toys which are scattered all over the house right now (thanks to my parents who bought him a dump truck that dumps out blocks everywhere). Roger bought me a new wedding ring since I had lost mine a few months ago. It is so beautiful!!




Joshua decorating the tree

Joshua's new outfit his Auntie Michal bought him

Joshua playing with his new toy!

Apple Hill

Last week my parents took Joshua and I to Apple Hill. I always enjoy going there in the fall. They have the best tasting caramel apples, apple cider, and other treats. Most of all I love looking at all the different Craft Booths. Joshua's favorite was the pond where he could see all the little fishies swimming around. We had lots of fun!!!




Joshua and Grandpa at the pond

Joshua looking at the fish

On a wagon ride

OK, so a pretend wagon ride driven by Grandpa! :)

Orange Chicken Recipe

I'm not a huge fan of Chinese food but my husband absolutely loves it. So I decided I needed to learn to cook Chinese food. A few weeks ago I came across a great recipe for orange chicken. It is definitely better than Panda Express orange chicken which is hard to beat.

I served the orange chicken with chicken fried rice. It was kind of time consuming but you could serve the orange chicken over white rice to save time. I added more crushed red peppers than the recipe called for, we like our food hot and spicy!! Below is a link to the recipe.

http://blogchef.net/orange-chicken-recipe/

Orange Chicken and Chicken fried Rice

The Nut Tree Family Park

Last week we went to The Nut Tree Family Park with my mom, Grandpa Al and Grandma Mona. We went to lunch at a nice restaurant called Fentons Creamery. Grandpa Al and Grandma Mona insisted that Joshua had to have his own dish of ice cream, they just love to spoil him! :)

The park is still under some construction and was not open on weekdays but it was nice to see everything. It will be a fun place to take Joshua when he gets older. They have a carousel and kiddie rides like bumper cars, roller coasters and a train that wraps around the whole park . It also has a small pond where kids can feed the fish. One of the things I loved was it had a miniature house that you can rent for little girls to have tea parties. It even provided little dress up clothes, it was just too cute! Outside the park there are many different shops. We went to the Jelly Belly Store where Grandpa Al and Grandma Mona just had to buy Joshua a Teddy Bear! We all had so much fun!

Joshua with his ice cream!

Airplane ride with Grandpa Al

Joshua and I

Little Monkey Joshua!

Joshua at the Jelly Belly Store with his new bear!

My Recent Criticism

Recently I have been attacked and criticized by close friends, my sister in-law, and even my own husband for being a " Poor blogger!" Truth be told it was not until I went on Faithful Word Baptist Church's website and saw the link to Mrs. Anderson's Blog that I even discovered what blogging is. I really enjoyed reading Mrs. Anderson's blog and my husband suggested I start a blog. It sounded like a brilliant idea so I went with it. Then one day as I was siting in front of the computer pondering what to write, it suddenly hit me....... my life is not interesting, what is there to write about?!?! But due to the recent complaints I will try to post more often.

I am a stay at home mom and I love it! I am so blessed to have a godly husband who will never send me outside the home to work. One of the many tasks I perform as a stay at home mom is cooking and baking. I love to bake but cooking is not my favorite thing. I try to always cook and bake from scratch as it is much healthier and more fun. Sometimes a home cooked meal can leave me spending several hours in the kitchen. Last night for dinner I prepared refried beans, rice, and carne asada tacos with pico de gallo salsa. This is one of my husbands favorite meals and I am still trying to perfect it as it is no where near as good as my mother in laws. Pico de gallo salsa is very easy to make and gives good flavor to tacos or you could just eat it with chips.

Pico De Gallo Salsa

2 Tomatoes diced

1 Onion diced

1/4 Cup of Cilantro diced

1 Jalapeno diced

1 Lime

Put the first 4 ingredients into a bowl. Add a few squirts of lime and salt to taste.

Last Night's Dinner

Joshua's 1st Birthday

Joshua turned one on September 6th. We had a birthday party for him last Saturday. There were 28 people there and we all had so much fun! It was nice to see all our friends and family there.

Joshua is still not walking although he is capable of doing so. He has been able to pull himself up and walk alongside furniture since seven months but he is too cautious to do it on his own. I have tricked him to stand and take a step on his own a few times but now it is nearly impossible to outsmart him. So I will just have to wait until he finally becomes brave enough to do it on his own. :)








Joshua and his cousins

Pinata!!!

Daddy and Joshua

Joshua and I

Joshua on his toy fire truck

Trip to Washington

We recently took a trip to visit my grandparents in Woodland, Washington. The car ride was very long (over 11 hours) but Joshua did surprisingly well. My brother, Darren also came who is visiting from the Bahamas. Joshua just adores his Uncle Darren. They would play for hours crawling on the floor chasing after each other. Joshua got to meet his cousin Anne (who is so sweet) for the first time. He also met Corky my grandparent's dog. He was very intrigued by Corky and would follow his every move which included getting into the dog's water bowl every chance he could. We all had such a nice time visiting with each other, I can't wait until the next trip! Below are some pictures.








Joshua meets his cousin Anne


Great Grandpa Hish, Uncle Darren, Grandpa, and Joshua


Joshua playing with Corky

Uncle Darren and Joshua at the park

Great Grandpa and Joshua waving

Jimenez Family's New Blog

Joshua happy to be home!!!

I have decided to start a Blog to keep our family and friends updated. Constantly people are asking for updated photos of our family (which really means Joshua) :) It is pretty time consuming sending them through mail, so this way will be more efficient.

Joshua is now nine months old and is crawling and walking alongside furniture. It is amazing how fast he is growing, it feels like just yesterday he was a newborn. Above are some pictures of his first plane ride. I was a little worried that his ears would hurt him on the plane and it would end up being a horrible experience. I made sure that as we ascended into the air I nursed him which would not allow his ears to become plugged. It worked well and he enjoyed the plane ride very much.