School Project

During a recent unit I was teaching the kids on maps and geography, we did this really fun project they were really excited about.  Its an edible map. The kids made up their own country.  We made a dough out peanut butter and other stuff and then made colored icing for water and land.  Then we used hershey's kisses for mountains, brown sugar for desert sand, cinnamon dots for cities, icing for roads, and sprinkles, well, for sprinkling.   Then, we ate them!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was at Mom's house.  Here's Mom and Bud taking a break from working in the kitchen to pose for a picture.  Cheese!

One of our favorite holiday menu items are Mom's orange rolls....mmm!

How can a roll with triple the amount of filling inside not be delicious?!

I usually eat 5 before dinner.  This year, though, no matter what anyone else says, I didn't eat more than 6 ( I think).

Mom's yummy table.  For some reason, though,...no matter what...even when we make fresh, yummy cranberry sauce, there is always a plate of sliced canned cranberry jelly-stuff on the table.  How did that get there?

Baby Kate is getting so big!

Mom and her girls.

Katie and I with our "little" brother, Bill.

Couldn't resist this picture.  Kenton and Ethan are such good buds.

All the grandkids!  

Halloween??

I know it sounds crazy to make a Halloween post in January and that I should just be a better blogger, but better late than never, right?  So here it goes...

For Halloween 2008, we went to Katie's and we had so much fun!  The kids love being with their cousins and we love hanging out with Katie and justin, too!  

We had a Halloween party with ghoulish food, and finished off the night with Trick or Treating!  

Our super cute 50's dancer!

Who knew Spiderman was so adorable?

YUM!

One of the kids' favorite party games...cheating to get a big bite!

TWINS!

Is that Skeletor with Spiderman?

Food is Fun

Baby Kate has started eating food (well, it's been a little while but I'm still catching up with my posting) and she loves it. As a member of the Sanchez family, we expected no less from her! Here are some cute pictures of her chowing down.



"Hey Buddy, take it easy with that camera, I'm trying to eat here!"



Kate addressing one of her short little life's tough choices:
The food or the hand? ... how about both!

Mmmm, Mmmm, Finger-lickin' good!

She seems to have figured out a way to save a little extra for a tasty treat later on. Look at those cheeks! I'm starting to think she's been spending way too much time looking at the squirrels out the window!!

Trip to Utah

Back in October we went to Utah for a really fun trip. Yes, I know that was two months ago but better late than ever. We had such a good time we had to post some pictures.
Originally, I was invited to go and recruit potential graduate students (so they come to UVa) at an undergraduate research conference held in Salt Lake City. How convenient! So we decided to all go out and visit my family out there. What a great time we had! I also managed to make a brief visit to BYU and gave my first scientific talk to faculty and students in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology there. It was challenging and I enjoyed it very much.
It was fun to see my brothers Gaby and Jorge and their families. Most of all, I (Sergio) enjoyed watching the all the cousins play together and have a great time.
So, without further ado, here are the pictures.




Relaxing with the children after my talk at BYU. They had a blast finally being there. They hear all about it (specially during football season) so they were happy to finally see the place . Next time, I'm taking them to a football game. I love this picture of Elli and Ethan at the Provo Temple. They are cute kids.



Even amateur photographers like us can snap amazing pictures when the surroundings look like this! Yet another reason why we miss living out there.




The main reason we miss living in Utah: Family. Just look at those girls! They had soo much fun together.


I turned 30 (did I really just write that?) while we were out there. Lots of fun and lots of food! I even got to go to a BYU game!! Thank you Gaby for the tickets!


A highlight of the trip for the kids was our visit to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgivinig Point.

Life Hangin' Around Our House

Here are some random pictures over the past few months just of life around our house.

Elli and Ethan on their first day of school this September.
Our two girls!
Our happy baby hangin' out at the park.
One of the many reasons why we love Baby Kate.
After learning about apples all week, Elli planned an apple party for her friends.  She and Ethan decorated and together we made apple cake, apple cookies, apple pancakes, apple sauce, and apple juice.  She loved playing hostess.
Our crazy sleepers!

Hiking to the Swimming Hole

Here are some pictures we took on a hike to a local swimming hole.  

Hangin' with the Cousins

Here are some pictures from a recent trip we took down to Katie's house.  Its so fun to have cousins around.  They are all such good buddies.  

                 Kaelyn and Elli on a carousel at a cool park near Katie's house.

Ethan and his"Katsey-Kates"...how he lovingly refers to his little sis.

This is at a children's museum near Katie's.  I could not believe it.  We walked inside this fence and wallabies were hopping all around us.  Amazing!

The three girls feeding the sheep.
A new favorite game...Emma gives the boys haircuts.  Now, 

 only if Ethan were that happy when I gave him a haircut!