Merry Christmas from El Rancho Dominguez

Benjamin's Photography Debut

Yesterday, I finally was able to get out and about. We drove to Marble Falls for the afternoon for Christmas with my family. Today, I am really sore from riding in the car (it's only an hour, what gives?), but it was well worth it to see my family and have a festive time. Although I will be laying around a lot the rest of the week.

I brought my camera and took lots of fun photos....but that would be too boring to just post those, right? My parents gave Benjamin a really cool gift....his own digital camera. It was the PERFECT thing for him. He literally chronicled the entire day from the moment he opened it (so technically, he missed the meal....but it's not like you want to see photos of all of us eating and such).

So this morning we uploaded Benjamin's photos onto my computer and we decided his photos would be the blog photos this time.

This is the camera he got:

I HIGHLY recommend this camera to all of you with kids who always want to play with your camera. They make a pink one for girls, too. It has already taken a lickin', too by rebounding off the sidewalk last night. Still works great!

Right out of the box, he took a few photos of Grandpa.

And then onto Daddy.

Uncle Bud

Cousin Amanda

Cousin Amber and Isaac

Cousin Andrea

Mommy

A very excited Jonathan.

Grandma

No Hummel nativity is complete without a can of Dr. Pepper.

Present opening hoopla

Cousin Austin

The cheerful version of Jonathan

Grandpa in the kitchen

Grandma's Pantry....sure are a lot of Cars fruit snacks

Amanda and Isaac

We ended the day with a round of Happy Feet

Amber, Isaac and Amanda driving off into the sunset.

Grandpa's tree

Uncle Dale

What would a photostory by Benjamin be without photos of the vacuums?

And the shop vac...

All in all, Benjamin had over 200 photos on his camera from yesterday. I thought it would be fun to let him show them off. Onto a little R&R.

Takin' it Easy

Life always has a way of telling you that you need a little break. And I guess that's what has happened this week. Just wanted to thank you all for the prayers and sweet words on my little "ordeal".

For the last couple of weeks, I have been trying to figure out what is going on with a little tummy situation. What was thought by two separate doctors to be either an ulcer, a blockage, or GERD ended up being...my gall bladder! Yay-- if I was going to have surgery, that was the one to have!

Sunday night, I had another "episode" and ended up at the Metroplex ER again. This time (since I embarrassingly puked in front of the ER staff) they considered my gall bladder as a possibility. Low and behold...we had a winner! 

They loaded me into an ambulance (which was a little over the top for me, but you take what you can get in these kind of situations, right?) and took me to Scott & White Hospital in Temple. I had my surgery Monday morning and spent the night. I was sent home yesterday and have been literally doing N-O-T-H-I-N-G since! 

My parents were so incredible to drive to Killeen in the wee hours of Monday morning to watch the boys and then take them to their house for a few days so I could recuperate. They are bringing them home tomorrow. THANK YOU so much, Mom & Dad. I don't know what we would have done without you in this crazy situation. I am very thankful for all of your help...and it was so nice to come home to a clean house yesterday, too! We appreciate you so much.

Thank you also to all the sweet friends and family who have done so much in these last three days for us-- yummy food, beautiful flowers, and sweet, sweet notes of well wishes were much appreciated. 

Hopefully in a week or so, we'll be operating at 100% again. We do plan to take it easy for the holidays so we can be back in action in 2010. 

Thanks a million, everyone! 

Love, the Dominguez Family

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Enjoying some time indoors...

He was waiting on these.... 

Mmmm...smores!

Gobble, Gobble

We had a great Thanksgiving out in Pecos with the Dominguez/Davidson/Forrister bunch. Lots of food, family and fun times were had by all.

David's brother, Daniel, his wife, Syndi and Grandma working on the food prep.
I am quite sure I drove them nuts taking photos...I was messing around with my camera and trying to figure out how to take photos out of the auto mode.

Great Grandpa carving the turkey.

Benjamin

Cousin Elena, Thumper and Jonathan playing in the backyard.

Aunt Arly and Cousin Nathan

Ema is following in Grandma's footsteps....a cup of tea and quilting kept her busy all morning.

Cousin Eli and Benjamin

Jonathan waiting on his turkey....

The Spread...lots of yummies as usual!

The never-ending table! How fun, huh?

From the other end...

Everet wasn't too keen on Grandpa moving his sippy cup! Um...within arm's reach, please.

Nathan enjoying a little bite of turkey.

After dinner, several of us played several rounds of Dominoes

This morning we headed out to Barstow to tell everyone bye.

Great Grandpa explaining to Jonathan that two was only two fingers...not four.

Black Friday Starts TODAY!

My Black Friday deals start today over at my business site! Come by today for free gift tags with any purchase!

Preschool Fall Program

The boys' had a big day at preschool on Thursday. Although, I didn't make it to school during the day to make it to their "Sharing Feasts" (I was recovering from that stupid bug), I have had many reports that great fun was had by all. Each child in their classes brought something special to share with everyone for lunch. Benjamin was particularly excited that someone in his class brought cheese! Hey, whatever it takes, right? They both came home with lots of cute turkey crafts and fun memories of their day.

I did feel much better by the evening and we all pulled it together to make it to their Fall Program. Jonathan was a bit of a ham on the stage:

Here he is waving at Benjamin's class in the audience.

Here's where he realized I was sitting on the floor taking pictures. 

I was just glad he didn't run down the stairs to me!

He did decide to perform with his class a bit, too.

Singing The Cow Song

Benjamin was kind of buried in the four-year-old classes on stage so I didn't get the best photos of him....

you can see his head poking out in the middle.

He's still in there!

Yay for Bennagins!

And, I guess I am not the only bad videographer in the family (as I certainly learned from the EHS Choir incident). Although he did have a bad lighting situation on his hands, David is right up their with me on video skills. Jonathan's taping was *somewhat* watchable. Benjamin's however didn't turn out at all. : (

I guess we'll be purchasing the one the school made!

I know not everyone will want to watch the entire thing, but if you have a few minutes, here is Jonathan with the two year olds: