Good Start to the New Year

2011 is off to a good start.  It is hard to believe that we are already three weeks into 2011.  I remember as a kid thinking that 2000 sounded so far off.  2011 did not even cross my mind.  The year is already going well and we have so many exciting things to look forward to this year.  We will welcome baby number two.  (Name still pending).  I will turn 30 this year.  I am excited to see what exciting thing Hector has planned for me this year.  I told him a year ago that I wanted something special for my 30th birthday.  I told him it didn't matter what we did as long as he did not wait until the night before to plan something to do.  I am not really a present person, I prefer a good experience, so I am excited to see what he has up his sleeve (p.s., this is also serving as a friendly reminder to Hector that I only turn 30 once)! 

Last Saturday Krystale came over and spent the day with us.  Hector and Krystale planned a weight loss competition.  They have 11 weeks to see who can loose the most weight.  They made fun posters to help remind them to stay on track.  Natalia had fun helping them color the posters. 

Natalia discovered that she could take all of her stuffed animals out of this bin and then fit herself in there.  She had so much fun getting in and out.  I told her to smile for the camera and she is not afraid to strike a pose.  She gets silly when I get the camera out.  She knows to smile and sometimes she even sits in funny little positions trying to pose just right for the camera. 

Natalia is such a girly girl these days.  She loves to carry purses around, wear necklaces and bracelets, put on chap stick and dance.  She got to take a bubble bath for the first time this week.  Now every time she gets in the bath she points at the cupboard under the sink where the bubbles are. 

We both had Martin Luther King Day off on Monday, so we spent the morning with Hector's family and then spent a couple hours in DC.  My nephew is doing a project for school and he needed a host family for a character from a book he is reading.  He sent us a flat paper man in the mail and we got to dress him and take him around with us.  I dressed him like an FBI agent and he spent the day with us in DC. 

Kyle named the paper man flat dude, now that he has spent time in DC, he is Agent Flat Dude.  This is Hector and Agent Flat Dude looking over the river from DC to Arlington Cemetery on the other side of the bridge. 

Me and Agent Flat Dude with the monuments behind us.  In the next picture we are in front of Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial.  The security guards kept staring at me trying to figure out why I was taking pictures of a paper doll.  The guards starting staring and moving closer and then they laughed.  Good times.  I thought it was funny. 

It was really cold, but we had fun looking for good places to take pictures.  We got back home and started our week long project....read about that in the next post.