Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all my family!! We love you so much and miss you terribly. This was Bailey Elizabeth Angelina Spiess the night I took her to see the Nutcracker. Isn't she just precious? OH yeah, she knows it too. Little sassy britch, but you wouldn't know it from this pic. I wonder where she gets it from? LOL!!

All I Want for Christmas

All Jonathan wants for christmas

is his 2 front teeth!! He was so excited

for the tooth fairy to come that he

actually lost it in the middle of the night!!

Happy Halloween!!

Here are some Halloween pics!!

Jonathan was batman, Maddie moo

called herself the white princess (winter wonderland princess) and William was Aniken Skywalker.

It was cold and rainy here in Michigan but the kids

had a blast!! And of course they got a ton of candy!!

My Cheerleader

My little Angel, Bailey, at her Homecoming with her
daddy, Billy. She didn't want to walk with a boy this
year except her Daddy. This is her 4th year cheering
and she just loves it. She cheers for the Bill Arp Falcons
for the 7&8 year old teams.

tortilla soup (Aunt Frances)

Tortilla SoupA colorful, hearty soup with chicken and vegetables
topped with tortilla chips
Hands On:20 minutes Total:30 minutes Makes:10 servings (1 cup each)
Ingredients
* 2 tablespoons Pure Wesson Vegetable Oil
* 1 large onion, chopped (1 large = 1 cup)
* 1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
* 1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
* 3 cans (14 oz each) chicken broth
* 1 can (14.5 oz each) Hunt's Petite DicedTomatoes with Mild Green Chilies, undrained
* 2 cups shredded cooked chicken
* 1 cup whole kernel corn
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 2 cups tortilla chips, broken (2 cups = 4 oz)
* Shredded Cheddar cheese, sliced green onions,cilantro sprigs and diced avocado, optional
Directions
1. Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat1 minute. Add onions, bell peppers and garlic; cook 5minutes, or until vegetables are crisp-tender,stirring frequently.
2. Add broth and tomatoes with their liquid. Bringto a boil; reduce heat to low. Stir in chicken, corn,cumin, salt and pepper. Simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes.
3. Ladle hot soup into serving bowls. Top withtortilla chips. Add cheese, onions, cilantro andavocado, if desired.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories 137
Sugars 3 g
Total fat 6 g
Protein 11 g
Saturated fat 1 g
Vitamin A 10%
Cholesterol 24 mg
Vitamin C 36%
Sodium 740 mg
Calcium 4%
Carbohydrate 11 g
Iron 5%
Dietary fiber 2 g

Joshua and the Superdragons

Joshua's soccer team has been playing together for almost a month now. They are still undefeated!! He plays every Saturday and I get nervous throughout the whole game because I want them to stay #1!!! I think I take it more serious than the kids do. You can tell that in the picture of him with his friend at the end of the game.

Laura C.

Big Day

Nathaniel
is in 7th grade now and just got his braces off earlier this month. He just had his first football game the other day he didn't get to play a whole lot but his team did win. He will be 13 in April and loves to remind me how he is going to be a teenager.

And then we have miss Madelyn. She is the princess in the house and boy does she know it. These are from her first day in preschool. She was pretty excited if you can't tell.
She will be 4 in May. I'll be sure to post some pics up of William and Jonathan but I couldn't find any recent ones. Hope everything is well for everyone!!

Pork and Calavacitas (Zucchini)

2-3 lbs Pork steak (cut in bite-sized pieces)
Zucchini (about 5-6, sliced)
1/2 onion, chopped
3 tsp ground cumin (to taste)
2 chicken bouillion (broth or cubes work well)
2 beef bouillion (broth or cubes work well)
sm can of Tomato sauce
1 tsp garlic
Water

I use a 5qt covered dutch oven, I like lots of juice and zucchini. Brown your pork and onions. Then add the tomato sauce, bouillion (beef and chicken), garlic, cumin and water to cover everything with room to cover zucchini. Stir all that then add you zucchini making sure it's all covered by water. Allow to simmer until zucchini is the desired tenderness, about 20 minutes or so.

Sorry, my measurements aren't exact, it's my trial and error method of cooking.

Albondigas

1-2lb ground beef
1/2 cup rice (uncooked)
sm can tomato sauce
1/2 chopped onion
1 tsp garlic
2 chicken bouillion cubes
2 beef bouillion cubes
3 tbsp ground cumin
Water (enough to cover meatballs)

Mix ground beef and rice in a bowl until well mixed and then form your meatballs. Place meatballs in your pan and cover with planty of water. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, stir occassionally and simmer about 25 minutes until meatballs are completely cooked and rice is no longer hard.

Any Ideas??

Ok Renee, I love your idea but how can we
look at the recipes without having to look at the comments??
Can we add an element to the page just for recipes??
That way we can add to it and it will have easier viewing.
What do you think?-- Angelina

Recipes

Hey Y'all,

This receipe exchange Angie got me started on with my e-mail friends got me to thinking. Dangerous thing I know, ha ha!!

I know we all have some favorite authentic mexican dishes that are out of this world. Why don't we make some type of post with those recipes so we don't lose them as our parents get older and forget? We could pass them to each other to keep them around in the family. Who knows, we might find a new family favorite?

Let me know your thoughts on this. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Love Ya,
Rene'

Settings Change

Hey Everybody -

I went in and changed some of the settings to this blog. You now just have to be a registered google user to be able to post a comment without having someone log in and approve your comment. I hope that worked. I invited myself to be an author of the blog so we don't have to hog Angelina's log in. If you'd like an email invite to be able to post with your google userid, just email me or Angelina. We should be able to add you.

Love,

Jennifer Jones made of Chicken and Bones

5 month Emily

Emily is rolling over all over the place. She really wants to sit up. Its amazing how much you can really love one baby:) We're 10th in line to get swim lessons. Hopefully by next summer she'll be swimming in the lakes of Michigan!

First Day of School in GA

Here they are . . . my 5th and 2nd graders!!

Schertz, TX - Laura and Joshua

Hello All,

This is my first time to post to a blog EVER, so I hope I've done this right. Joshua and I have had a wonderful summer 2007. We have been able to go see an Indy race in Dallas, watch the Houston Astros and we've even been to a couple of WNBA Silver Stars games. Joshua plays soccer and basketball, but his current passion is BMX racing and he does that three times a week. Thanks to my wonderful boyfriend, I was able to visit my father in Queretaro, Mexico this summer and also explore Mexico City and the surrounding areas. That was a memorable trip and I can't wait to go back. Joshua starts 3rd grade this fall, and as for me, I am still teaching 8th grade math. I will keep you updated as to our "goings-on" in Schertz, TX and I hope to see you all next summer.

Laura C.

BJ

Look at my handsome baby boy, well I don't guess he's much of a baby anymore is he? He's 10 years old, 125 lbs. going into the 5th grade this Wednesday. Oh . . . did I mention he's about 5' 3" tall already? Yeah, he's a big one. I haven't figured out how to raise em small yet. He just got his braces off. He's just so handsome I had to share.

Well that's all for now. I'm sure I'll have pics of my little Angel Bay Wednesday on her first day of 2nd grade. Yeah, she's not so little either.

Love y'all,

Rene'

Happy Birthday!!

Happy 41st Birthday to Alicia!!
I'll post pics later after we go to dinner!
Love you!
Angelina

Daddy's Visit

Here's a few pic's of Antonio, Daddy and Mari during their visit to GA in June 2007. They'll probably kill me for the bunny ears, but well, they put them on their heads, not me!! lol

Family Reunion 2008

So Uncle Benny was here a few weeks ago and has been hounding me to put something together for next year.
He was thinking something in July and he also said he would rent the pavillion at Dodge Park.
So any suggestions?? -Angelina

Surprises?

Okay . . .

Apparently I don't get all the info I need to be getting are there any more cousins being born or married or whatever out there that I'm not aware of? This is just beginning to get embarassing!!!

Love you all,
Rene'

Beautiful Me in Tennessee

This is Tricia Contreras......no i wasn't rock climbing.... i just thought it would be a good pic. As it turns out well "muy bonita". I'm 23 years old and my birthday is coming up in August. Just to let you all know. Im a traveler soo no tellin where i will end up next. I've been to New York, Tennessee, Flordia, Nevada, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, of course Michigan where i reside for now. I have a female pitbull named Shadow. Shes the best. Well i guess thats bout it for now. Peace , Love , and Chicken Grease...(oh don't mind me i'm a bit ghetto) born and raised in Pontiac.

Steve & Angela

Well Adam will be 10 in October... Alexander turns 5 in November
& Ethan turned 1 in May. I'll have to take some updated shots of Ethan but this is
all I have for now. Hope everyone is well.
The Santana Family

Madelyn Olivia

Here is a recent picture of Madelyn!

She turned 3 on the 25th of May.

We went to her first "Big Girl Party"

for her cousin Christine today and boy

did she think she was cool!

Thanks for having us!

All is well this way and I'll be sure to post

some recent pics of the boys soon!

-angelina

Baseball

Diego ready for his game today!

Looks like he's ready to play some ball!

Let me know if he won.

like father like son

Steve and Alexander swimming

ok, Angela I'm waiting on some

more pics!!

Frances - Jennifer & Steven

Thanks for setting this up, Angelina. Steven and I are doing great. We have been living here in Houston for two years now. We welcome any visitors who may want to come see the Lone Star state. Lately, we've just been hanging out with the newest addition to our family -- our daughter. Her name is Emily Mary Vaughan. The Mary part of her name comes from my mom -Mary Frances. I bet some of you even forgot my mom's name is Mary:) Emily is 15 weeks old. She keeps us active. She's about as much excitement as we can handle right now. I hope everyone is doing well.

David's Grandchildren

BJ - 9 Katie - 8

Bailey - 7 Jessica - 11

Georgia Grown!!

David and Mari at Auto Show

Here's just a few of the recent pics I have with me today. Daddy and Mari will be coming for a visit this weekend and we're sure to make TONS of pictures.

Love Y'all!!

Rene'

BJ, 9, and Bailey, 7, on Mother's Day 2007 in Sunny Georgia!!

Fyi

Hey everyone just wanted to let you know this is set up now.
I hope you all enjoy this. If you'd like you can add your own pics and messages.
Please feel free to edit or make changes to the page. I'm new at this!!
Have fun! Ang