newsletter archives

Feb 2008: Nose, Ears & Eyes…

Ohh, our little genius, Ava can now point out her nose, ears & eyes. She can say please & thank-you in her sign language way (totally in compliance with American Sign Language regs) and we’re pretty sure her next stop in her learning endeavor is going to involve profound insight to the art world. And by ‘art’ we’re pretty sure that it’s more coloring on the walls as she received a massive box of crayons from Lola on Christmas.

December was a crazy month; of course Ava’s birthday party was so fun, thank you to everyone to came and totally spoiled Ava with TONS OF STUFF. She is very lucky to have such generous family & friends who spoil her but also outright give her constant love and support! We feel pretty lucky to have you all too!

Just as we finally got the last crab shell into the trash, hurricane Christmas came along and dropped a bunch of fun things at the house. So, now we need to figure out balancing the Birthday/Christmas month, if you have any insight as to how to minimize the excess please let us know!

We wrapped up our December and started the New Year down in LA w/ the gibbeadles, where we totally were spoiled by the gorgeous weather, Wii and goooood food! But more importantly an exciting business venture was born, Lauren has decided to take her skills world wide and hatched : hippillow Check it out -place your order (shipping is free), love ‘em, and tell your peeps!

The hot issue in our family is that Bruce is running for moderator of the Presbyterian Church USA. BIG- BIG deal people, equate it to the Pope of the Catholic Church, the President of the Universe or Optimus Prime. Regardless of your religious affiliation please support the brother, (and by brother I mean sibling not hommie). If you would like to contribute to his campaign please send your scrilla:

Tax Deductible Donations should be made out to:
San Francisco Presbytery
ATTN: BRC for Moderator
2024 Durant Avenue
Berkeley CA 94704

Lots of exciting plans for the upcoming months! Until our next update…
XOXOXOX

dee.ron.ava

Winter 2007 Newsletter: Ring The Bells!

Ring the bells, sound the alarm, blow the whistle…etc, you get the point.

AVA IS TURNING ONE!

By now you all have probably received your invite and hopefully will be joining us for her upcoming celebration! Please don’t be put off by that whole oil spill fiasco in the SF Bay; we were assured that our crab will be oil free! If crab isn’t your thing (weirdo) fear not, there will be plenty of non-crabish food to devour! Entertainment for the kiddies is scheduled throughout the afternoon so plan to stay the whole day!

If you cannot join us, please make sure to let us know by 11/30. Otherwise, can’t wait to see you all!

We here at reyesrivera are not sure how much longer our website will be in existence. It seems that our administrator has decided that he has enough on his plate and will be ditching his webhosting hobby. Our lovely webhostess is working on some alternative solutions to keep us afloat!

In the meantime, here’s whats up with us… September was a BIG deal with Chris and Domi’s wedding ceremony and party at the rib festival. Everything was perfect and the whole weekend was just fabulous! Much love to Domi & Chris! Then off to Vegas for Tee’s bachelorette party, with about 16 girls in tow and just a couple drinks we had a pretty mellow time ;) I think it’s safe to say that after that weekend Tee was sooo ready to really relax in Hawaii! So when’s the next trip ladies?

October is our notorious B.I.G. birthday month, so we kicked it off with a friendly golf game for Ron’s 3-1! With only one head injury in the gaggle, we proceeded with dinner and GREAT company! Thanks to all of you who celebrated with Ron!

After recovering from Ron’s birthday, the crew all met up @ hotel nikko for Dee’s birthday brunch… OK. So FUN! Then again how could it not be awesome with champagne, shots and car bombs? Oh and of course delicious FOOD! Thank you everyone who came, especially the gibbeadles who were still so enamored from seeing JLo LIVE the evening before. They Rock! BTW check their site: gibbeadle

Fresh from brunch Lola, Jonelle, Kev, Ava and Dee hopped on a plane to celebrate Joe and Tee’s wedding in Maui. Their wedding was tropical-flawless and gorgeous, Congratulations to ….Joe (who we never knew could cut a freakin’ rug like no other) and Tee Albayalde.

Ava was able to celebrate her first Halloween in Maui where we dressed her up like a little butterfly, she hated the wings and tutu, but she was so cute! While in Maui she also got accustomed to poolside banana smoothies and attention from all her aunties and uncles who spoiled her crazy; yes, a little excessive, but she is adjusting just fine back into her reality!

Now our reality is setting in where we are still floored that our little baby can actually express herself by way of screaming, talking and shaking her head NO! *gasp*! She is also on the move, the crawling is down pact…she has started to take her first steps and is into everything! EVERYTHING! Before we can even say “where did the time go” [as we install the child safety lock] she is getting into the garbage, cabinets, behind the couch..etc. Lately, we have little time for reflection in our household since our little monkey moves so fast and talks so much there is no calm or silence in the reyesrivera house! But even with all the madness, we love every second and couldn’t be more excited for our baby to turn 1. We look forward to seeing you all, hopefully you seasoned parents can offer up a little perspective and advice for what the toddler stage holds!

Love,

Fall 2007 Newsletter

Sorry for the delayed update, the web mistress was busy getting ready for her wedding, honeymooning & moving to LALA land not to mention working full time. She hopefully won’t let her new job or school get in the way of future updates..

Ava is a full on kid now, I mean in the sense of her little personality she is just a little entertainer with her high-fives, her struggles to get out of her car seat, her ability to scarf down little puffs, and her constant need to explore. She plays and laughs , crawls and climbs (which we are not to crazy about all the chasing we’ve been doing), and can melt our hearts all in mere seconds. She is so major and we love every waking minute of it. If anything we are sure that this kid will not have any confidence issues, miss Ava is already trying to stand up, but yet hasn’t perfected her balance, but after every tumble up and trying again!
Her first teeth have finally cut through,they appear to be a big ones so we have begun our orthodontia savings account. After dealing with a teething baby drama, we beg the question.. How do some of you have more than 1 kid?

After recovering from our Summer frenzy, we thought we would wind down NOPE! Ron decided to start Law School, he applied and started the very next week! A little fast but a welcome challenge! So far our household has be submerged in an abundance of school supplies, cords, books and paper everywhere! Only time will tell if we will ever get organized!

Although Summer is not ‘officially over’ we’re wrapping it up here. From weddings, to showers, more weddings, more showers, …and more showers we’re so dunzo! In about 50 years can you imagine all the anniversary parties we’ll be attending?

Congratulations to all the newlyweds including the: Lathoms, Melanos, Gibbbeadles, Chiavarras & Bobians!

Big thank you for all who came to the 25th ReyesGibbs anniversary party especially all of you who traveled and braved the carquinez bridge traffic!

Check out pictures from all of our Summer adventures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/reyesrivera/sets/72157600299665439/

This Fall is bringing super exciting events!! Tee’s Bachelorette Party in Vegas, Then Hawaii, Then Thanksgiving, (already?)

It’s summer now and we can’t believe how fast this year is going by! But we are starting off our favorite season very happily!

Of course we’ll start with the Ava update, she’s amazes us daily. Just when we were considering changing her name to Miss Seriouso she started flashing us huge smiles and even throws in a laugh to entertain us! She has begun eating solids, she’s teething like crazy and can jibber jabber until our ears fall off. Overall she is wonderful even when she wakes us up 3 times a night.

March/April/May
Thank you to all who came out to the Egg-Hunt it was by all means a success and hopefully we will be able to do it again next year!
Kris and Dee head to LA to celebrate Kris’ 30th @ the Lakers vs. Kings game. We were able to get in a little clubbing and gambling and but mostly lots of delicious food and equally yummy drinks!
Suzie’s post bridal shower party was tons of laughs and thankfully we survived the night thank you to the yellow cab company who got us all home in one piece.
Cinco de Mayo was of course a fiesta because we celebrated B’s 2nd birthday he’s too cute and getting so big! We officially kicked off summer with a couple of BBQ’s and Lauren and Beadle’s shower during the Memorial Day weekend.

The big news is Kristin’s 30th birthday and her graduation from UOP! We are so very proud of her!

Other BIG news is that Ron is starting a new job! Its exciting and nerve racking all at the same time, but for the most part it’s a very positive change in our household!

So that’s it in a nut-shell we are all smiles moving into the summer, we can’t wait to share the pictures and recaps of all the showers, weddings, parties and more birthdays the upcoming months will hold.

BIG SHOT out to Jude, Happy Birthday- Mr. Philippines..would it hurt to hollar at your stateside friends every now and then???

Spring, 2007
Shout out to all (two) of our dedicated readers! Here's the latest...

We’re still muddling through this new-parent thing so please forgive us for not coming with the updates sooner! We’ve been super submerged in baby-ville, and yes its wonderful and glorious… some days.

Here is what’s new with Ava—the brief version. She has participated in her first major holidays: Christmas, New Years (please don’t call CPS if you have peeped the pics), Valentines Day and as of late St. Paddy’s Day. Whew—oh yeah and she got baptized someone in between there. She has started full time day care and she looooves it- has inherited her parent’s allergies, discovered her hands and sleeps A LOT LESS!
She is determined to hold her own bottle, although her mama isn’t letting her and she is trying with all her might to roll over- again, mom isn’t having that! The goal is to keep Ava dependent and immobile for as long as possible, and yeah it sounds terrible- but she has lots and lots of time to grow up, we just want her to stay ‘baby’ for as long as possible.

It’s practically ancient history at this point, but here is the recap of the past few months in the reyesrivera household! We got so spoiled with visits from Lauren and Lola during the holidays that it was such a big adjustment when Lauren returned to UCLA and Lola/Lolo took off to Hawaii for a few weeks! It was a huge relief when the grandparents returned and we are counting down the days for Lauren to come back home! On January 22, we welcomed a new little family member, Aubrey Anastasia was born to Anna and Greg oh gosh….she’s a cutie!

Because Rudy plays rugby and seems to love it, we decided to go watch a game when he played in Turlock. RUGBY IS NO JOKE, it’s like football and ultimate fighting put together with no protective gear. It’s definitely not for those with weak stomachs. Anyway the Reno News and Review wrote a nice little article about Rudy … (wink-wink) check it here: http://www.newsreview.com/reno/Content?oid=295391

In Feburary the most exciting news was that we baptized Ava, she did very well and didn’t even cry! She is a very blessed little baby, she had all her aunties and uncles come and shower her with lots of love and gifts. Since we were both off of work, we took a last minute trip to Vegas… Here is how the thoughts played out in our heads: ”Yes lets go to Vegas during the all star weekend how fun will that be?” Although it was fun, it was crazy packed!!! Next time we’ll plan it a little better when not so much is happening in sin city.

Dee has returned to work and we are still figuring out this routine thing, some days we are so organized and other days, we are just a mess… but that’s parenthood right?
Spring is here now and we couldn’t be more excited! We hope to see you all at the egg upcoming egg hunt- And we promise that we’ll get better about posting updates!