A visit from some good friends

We were blessed by a visit from the Featherston family the Monday after Christmas. They are such sweet friends and we cherish any time we can spend with them! 

 All of our kiddos!

 If it were up to the daddies - and acceptable in our culture - these two would have a pre-arranged marriage!! Aren't they sweet!

Mig's expression here is so cute!

Miguel's first Christmas

Christmas for us was busy, busy - yet tons of fun! We celebrated on Christmas Eve and then on Christmas morning we headed to Belton to celebrate with our families.

 Miguel's big gift - a Bumbo! He doesn't look impressed!

Opening presents at GiGi and PopPop's - there were around 21 people there!

Rachel and Will with some sweet blankets and hats for the triplets due in late spring!

A cuddle from my baby boy

Gabe's big gift....

A violin!! He will start lessons on January 13th! I am so excited!!

Chillin' at Aunt Nicol's with Aunt Brandy.

Christmas Pictures

Now that Christmas is over and gifts have been opened, I can share the other pictures I took of the kids for our Christmas card! I love how they turned out! I used a digital scrapbooking paper to hide our less than beautiful apartment walls in photoshop. The kids cooperated and I got some totally sweet shots! Yay!!

 This is Byron's favorite picture.

 I love this one! Fun, fun, fun!!

This one shows the way I see my kids- to little gentlemen and our princess!

A Christmas Play

I have started a tradition with my nephews to write and perform plays every year or so and record them on video. We have had so much fun with it! Gabe and Selah have even been in a few of our movies. The Burris family used to make a special Christmas video every year to send to Granny and Grandpa who would winter in Florida. I have decided to kind of combine these two to start our own Serna Family Tradition of making a Christmas Video every year. This year I found a cute little play online and made a few adjustments to fit 3 actors and a narrator and the kids and I practiced it the week before Christmas. The kids had a great time learning the songs and planning it all out. It is a short little play and really sweet! Enjoy "The Littlest Christmas Tree"!!  

Santa's Little Helpers

This has been going around Facebook and I couldn't help myself but "Elf" our family. So here's a Merry Christmas to you from our family!! Hopefully it will bring a smile to your face!

2 months old!

Miguel turned two months old this week and he is growing fast! He now weighs 13 pounds 6 ounces and is 23 inches long. He is in the 87th percentile in weight and 48th in height. To put it in perspective, Selah was 23 inches at 4 months and 13 pounds at 6 months!!! He's a big boy! He is smiling and cooing and is facinated with the ceiling fan!

We are excited about our first Christmas as five!!

Above is Miguel at one month and below is 2 months.

Look at those chunky cheeks!! Very kissable!



Christmas picture preview

When Auntie Nicol came to visit in October, she came bearing gifts. Totally cute formal clothes for all of them. She just had one request - for Christmas she wants a nice 8x10 of them in their get-ups! So here is a preview of our Christmas picture photo shoot!

I can't wait to share the other pictures - they all came out soooo cute!!! 

Santa!

While in Belton, Byron, Miguel and I stayed at the Hilton in Temple. Saturday morning they had breakfast with Santa - so Miguel got a little one-on-one time with the Jolly Old Elf!

Santa let us know that after breakfast he was heading over to the mall - so we told him we would see him there with the other two kids!

This year Gabe asked for a remote control helicopter. Selah would like "Tinkerbell green jammies and Dora purple jammies".

Then we got all of the cousins together for a Santa picture - Jeremiah was quite embarrassed when one of the kids from his high school walked by!



Miguel Meets More Family!

Miguel got to meet more family memebers when we went to Belton for Thanksgiving! Memaw and Papaw - his great-grandparents were so excited to finally see him!

Memaw LOVES babies!!

Rachel and Will found out the day Miguel was born that they are expecting triplets - yep you read that right - TRIPLETS!!!! So above, Will is practicing holding 3 kids at a time.

We are SOOOO excited for them and can't wait to meet all 3 babies this spring!

This was also Nick's first time to see Miguel!



Gabe's 5th Birthday Celebrations!

Gabe really celebrated his birthday this year! We celebrated as the 5 of us the weekend before his birthday. We asked him what he wanted to do and he said he wanted to eat at Texas Roadhouse, have a Mario pinata, and ride his bike - so that's what we did!!

Although, he really wanted a surprise party. The morning of his birthday he wanted me to stay in my room and sneak out to yell, "Happy Birthday" when he woke up. So I did - but little did he know that we had a bigger surprise in store! We went down to Belton for Thanksgiving and had lunch with the family. After lunch, Byron took Gabe over to Memaw and Papaw's house to "help Memaw put her nutcraker collection out" ---hee, hee!! While he was gone we decorated GiGi's house for a Surprise Party!!!

He was so surprised and happy - just jumping for joy - literally! He wanted to open his gifts right away!

He was really happy to be able to read his cards to himself this year!

A Mario cupcake stand  - Gluten-free Strawberry cupcakes! Yum!

Then the next weekend, we headed over to Casa Ole - Serna tradition - to celebrate Gabe's and Jonathan's birthday!

Bike stuff from Auntie Nicol (and her boys).

A super-cool remote control car from Aunt Brandy, Uncle Nick and the girl cousins!

Unfortunately, the birthday sundae was not dairy or gluten-free - but the cherry was! So Gabe got the cherry and the cousins shared the sundae.

Aunt Brandy also brought fun costumes for Gabe, Selah, and Miguel! Here are Gabe and Selah rockin' their Luigi and Minnie Mouse costumes! Thanks, Aunt Brandy!!

Gabe is 5!!!

5 years ago today Byron and I became parents to the sweetest little boy ever! He completely changed our lives and has been a blessing everyday!

Happy Birthday, Gabe! We love you!!!

Byron got Gabe a new bike a few weeks ago ...he had already worn his old one out. He insisted on having his 5 year old pictures with his bike and I love the way they came out!

Miguel is One Month Old!!

Miguel turned one month old this week! In some ways it feels like he has been here a lot longer than that...in other ways it is hard to believe it has already been a month since he arrived into our world! We are starting to get used to being a family of 5 now. Miguel is getting big - already over 10 pounds. He isn't going to be a tiny thing like his big sister, for sure! He makes his presence known at about 6:00pm everyday with a good screaming fit, but is very mild mannered the rest of the time. What a little blessing!

We will use Mr. Monkey each month to see how big he gets!

Fall Crafts

We have been busy learning about the history behind Thanksgiving and being thankful this month. Of course, I had to throw in some Thanksgiving crafts, too!

We loved making these toilet paper roll turkeys... you can find templates and instructions here.

The garland on our mantel was super fun to make! It is also made out of TP rolls!!

I absolutely LOVE this turkey centerpeice, too!!



Now to get ready for some gluten free Turkey Day recipes!!