It's self explanatory... the kid hates green beans. But you know, on Oprah I saw that a child needs to be exposed to a food up to 10 times to truly give it a chance? So I'm guessing, I'll reserve the other nine for really special occasions, like his high school graduation, or his missionary farewell luncheon or maybe even his wedding rehearsal dinner. We'll see. For now, it's off the menu. I don't feel like wiping it off the windows.
Character Day at school is when the kids choose to dress up like a fictional character from a favorite book. They have a little parade around the school. It's very cute. So this year, Marin was one of the English Roses and Santi was Little Red Riding Hood (from the bilingual version, of course). Curious...is that the same red cape Marin wore last year? I hope no one is accusing me of recycling character day outfits! That would be outlandish at best!
Bill and Meagan Sullivan hosted us for dinner. Meagan made a delicious meal with all the fixins. Excellent! Somehow she pulled it all off without the least look of stress or crankiness. (Note to self... it is possible.) They also invited Bill's coworker Kivet and his wife Meagan (yes, two Meagans). Meagan Sullivan said it was like the beginning of a bad joke: "So some Mormons, some Hindus, and some Episcopalians sat down for Thanksgiving... " Now that I think of it, we never came up with a punch line. Hmmm?
We missed our family, but it was really great spending time with our very dear friends The Sullivans. Everyone should get to have friends like them. We're very blessed.
This kid loves mashed pinto beans. I guess you could call them refried beans except that I don't fry them. Anyhoot, I never saw a kid get so pumped up about eating beans! Hey Andrew, he could make a promising sidekick for SuperMex. Think about it.
I couldn't help but be nostalgic for this little sliver of memory. I had the same one that played "Small World." It better not be a piece of crap! Ehh, I payed five bucks for it. I'm over it.
Fortunately, Dr. Young (whom we love) took an x-ray and found everything to be fine. Luckily she's young and all will heal quickly. She's not allowed to wiggle it. Ammends were made and you can barely see Santi just out of the picture up top reading Highlights with Marin. Santi felt pretty bad. Good! Since Dr. Young is going out of town this weekend, he asked Santi to promise that she will not sit on any of our faces until he returned. Now that's a good doc. He's pretty funny, after his nurse had told him Marin's tooth was loose, he got on the phone and said, "What happened, was she talking back to you or something?" I said, "A little bit." He's actually a member of our old ward and he and his wife have babysat the girls a few times. 
So Marin was in good hands, and boy was she thankful. She kept asking Dr. Young if he was going to give her a nasty fake tooth. She must be thinking of something ugly like Austin Powers or George Washington's wooden teeth. Anyway, all is well. All teeth are present and accounted for.
So this is Abram's romantic side. He grabs you on both sides of your head, usually by your ears with his super-human baby-grip, pulls you toward him and slimes you with an open mouthed -- well I guess you could call it a kiss. He's working on his aim. Right now he just sort of spreads it around. Baby girls are undoubtedly lining up.
" kids are great...as long as they're not moving or speaking..." 
We're so proud of our girl!
As I was helping Marin get dressed for her baptism, she looked up at me with her big smile and said, "I can't believe my baptism is finally here!" She was so excited and ready for her day. There really aren't any words to explain Marin's baptism. It truly was amazing. She was so delighted to have family and good friends near. She picked out her dress months ago and couldn't wait for it to arrive. Santi and I helped Marin dry off and put on her special dress. I will always remember that moment... I was buttoning Marin's dress, and Santi was fluffing and smoothing out the skirt. And while I put on Marin's shoes Santi was combing her sister's hair. We were smiling and giddy. We shared a special moment which was a glimpse of how it will be in the temple one day. I'm so grateful for that.
My mom made her baptism dress. It was so beautiful. She also wore a pearl necklace my grandmother made for her and she wore the pearl bracelet Grandma Nay gave her. She's already decided to save her bracelet for her own daughter's blessing and baptism. Cute. Look at Brian! He's so handsome. He baptized her and also welcomed her to the ward as her bishop. He was just beaming! It was adorable.
Here are some of Marin's friends who came to her baptism. She invited about 10 of her closest girl friends to sing "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" as the special musical number. It was the next best thing to having all of her aunties sing. They sang beautifully and kept looking over at Marin and smiling while they sang. Our friend, Sister Smith gave the talk on baptism. We've known her since we were up at BYU. She said, "I've known of Marin before she was born, when she was in her mom's tummy, and I held her as a little baby. So I feel very fortunate and honored to speak today." It was sweet. The bishop from our former ward talked on the Holy Ghost. He's hilarious and gave a nice and sometimes funny talk. Dad was the big co-star of course and Big Finn was a witness and helped with the confirmation. My mom and Lainie read a scripture and my grandparents offered the prayers. It was so nice for my family to be able to participate in a small way. It was lovely.
Abram is very proud of the fact that he can pick up his own food. Where it ends up is a different story. The kid is a crack up. After a while he's like, "Ohhh, all right, just give me a bottle." He enjoys the instant gratification of the bottle. I mean wouldn't we all if it wasn't taboo? It has got to be the life when you can recline in your favorite spot, kick your leg up and just drink your food. I really need to look into that.
Here we are as a rag-tag party-O-pirates. As we walked around trick-or-treating, random people stopped us and wanted to see our outfits. They were like, "Ahhh, son piratas!" Of course they thought Abram was the cutest pirate. Someone even video taped us and I don't know if he expected us to break into song or something, but we just stood there like, "Ok here we are, we're pirates!" and he kept taping us and we kept standing there and I was wondering how we were going to get away. So finally Brian's like, "OK, well Happy Halloween" and he just taped us walking away for a little bit. Awkward but funny.
Can you believe Brian agreed to wear this hideous wig? You can see by the picture that he is barely tolerating it. Luckily I got this picture in the beginning of the evening because by the end he was fussing with his wig and saying, "Gosh this hair, it's just so long and messy and in my face." Actually, I think he was somewhat allergic to it or something because he kept sneezing. So like every other house or so, we had to stop walking so he could break into a loud sneezing fit that scared all the little kids around. Because honestly, what's more frightening to a bunch of little Mexican kids than a 6'3 white guy in a long-haired wig and with a dead bird on his shoulder. Hmm. Poor kids.
Santi looks even more of a sneak while holding a sword. It cracks me up that Abram has the biggest one. And Marin, she's such a sweet pirate.
Abram's had quite enough! Even his little fake eyeliner goatee has melted off thanks to the endless drooling he's got goin on right now. Oh yah, and he must have been a little sea sick because he threw up wherever we went. So all in all, our Halloween totally rocked!
