Christmas Cards A La Shutterfly

I love getting Christmas cards in the mail. But it seems like every year I get less and less! I'm either losing my spot on my friends' and families' lists or people aren't sending them as much anymore. This year Shutterfly.com is making it really easy (and cheap) for me to send out mine. I've been busy busy busy this year, so I'm so happy to see that they have great card templates to choose from so I don't have to design my own like I usually do. Here are a couple of the templates I like: I love the Family Wall Red one to showcase all the family pictures we just got, or maybe Glitter Glamour with a cute picture of my kids. I'm going to have fun picking one. This picture might be hitting a mailbox near you:

Okay, maybe not that one, but Eliana's face is hilarious in it.

Shutterfly.com has a ton of good stuff. I just printed a photobook from there a couple of weeks ago as an anniversary present to my aunt and uncle. I got so excited when I saw that orange package arrive! They also have Wall Calendars, which make a great Christmas gift, Folded Christmas Cards (I can picture my three kids on this one), and cute Birthday Invitations.

Go check out Shutterfly and browse their cute stuff for Christmas gift ideas!

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We usually go to two houses in one day, which means we eat double the food and see double the family. But this year my parents and aunts and uncles were in Colombia, so we only had one side of the family to celebrate with. Although I missed my family, we had a great time with my in-laws. My father-in-law drove the kids around on a trailer on the back of his tractor. Here they are getting ready to go on "Grandpa's hayride".On their way backPulling into the driveway We ate tons of great food and had a lot of fun. I had photoshoots to do on Friday and Saturday, so the kids spent a lot of quality time with Marcelo (while I spent quality time with my lovely camera). Friday evening I took the boys to Zumba family night with me to work off a few of those Turkey Day calories! We had a wonderful weekend (up until this morning when both boys were sick) and I'm going to miss Marcelo when he goes back to work tomorrow!

Family Pictures

My friend Happy and I did a photoshoot swap last week. We took each other's pictures and then edited our own. We didn't get to go to the location we wanted and had to pick a last minute spot that neither of us were familiar with, but even though it didn't go exactly as we had planned it, I am SO SO happy with the results. Happy did such a great job and taught me some new tricks. :)

Here are a few favorites. As you can tell, I had a hard time narrowing it down.

I love how these pictures capture the boys' personalities. Ohhh Celo.Diego cracks me up. He loves posing for pictures. She got so many mother/daughter ones that I love. Here's one:And a great father/son one!And I'm sooo happy to have an updated pic of me and this handsome guy.
Thanks, Happy!!!

Halloween

This year Marcelo and I did a theme costume with Eliana. The boys are too old for it. They have their own ideas about what they want to be. Last year they chose McQueen, so we went with it and still tried to do a theme, but this year it was just too hard. So Marcelo was the Mad Hatter, I was Alice in Wonderland, and Eliana was a white bunny. Celo was Clifford the Big Red Dog, and Diego was a racecar driver. Showing his tail.

He's not a Jeff Gordon fan, so he asked if we could pretend that he was Juan Pablo Montoya or Kasey Kahne.The annual Halloween party was at the studio where my cousin teaches Zumba this year. It was a lot of fun and Diego danced all night. I posted all the family pictures on facebook. :)

5 Months

For Eliana's 5 month pictures, I dressed her in her Halloween costume. She's a bunny!

A very happy bunny. I had to cut the legs off and shorten the arms because size "infant" is really like size "18 month old".

At 5 Months, Eliana...

- Wakes up every 2 hours at night and takes two 20 minute naps a day. And how many cans of Pepsi I drink per day will remain a secret. She got sick at about 4 months, so I started feeding her on demand. After a couple of months of sleeping through the night, her schedule got all messed up and now she's still waking up. It's a nightmare.

-She rolls over both ways. She started rolling from tummy to back at 3 months and just learned how to roll over from back to tummy.

-She babbles nonstop. I love hearing her play with her voice.

-She is not interested in solids, which is fine because I'm not really pushing it yet.

-She has had her ears pierced for a month.

-She is getting more and more interested in her brothers and tries to get their attention by screeching.

-She loves her jumper, exercauser, and walker. She stays in the bumbo or on her playmat for shorter periods of time, and is too big for her swing now.

-She makes us fall more in love with her everyday. Even if she doesn't sleep.

Baby in a Tutu

I recently did another newborn photoshoot. Have I already mentioned those are my favorite? Once or twice? Well, they're my favorite.

I put a ton of the pictures from that shoot on my photography blog, but here's a glimpse:


My weekends from now until Christmas are filling up fast. I've got an engagement shoot, a wedding, and some family photoshoots coming up. I feel so blessed to be able to do this as a little part time gig. I never get tired of it!

Lentil Tacos

I grew up eating lentils. One of my comfort foods is Colombian lentils and rice the way my mom makes them. I make them for my family regularly. One day I'll post the recipe, but I've never actually measured what I do. (It's basically rice and lentils with tomato, onion, and garlic, and some spices that are used regularly in Colombian cooking.)

Since lentils are a superfood, great source of protein, fiber, contain no fat, and are all around really healthy, I've been wanting to find other recipes to add to our regular menu. I found a great one that my whole family loved. (Okay, the 3 year old had to be coerced a bit.)

Lentil Tacos
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon canola oil
1 cup dried lentils, rinsed
1 Tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2-1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup salsa
Flour tortillas or taco shells
Toppings (see below)

In a large skillet saute the onion and garlic in oil until tender. Add the lentils, chili powder, cumin and oregano; cook and stir for 1 minute. Add broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes or until the lentils are tender.
Uncover; cook for 6-8 minutes or until mixture is thickened. Mash lentils slightly. Stir in salsa.
Spoon mixture into shells and top with whatever toppings you like. We did lettuce, tomato, cheese, sour cream, lime, and cilantro, but next time I'll try adding black beans and/or cilantro-lime rice.