The News on What's New

Hello, fam!

We had a wonderful summer and fall, and as we head into winter, I'm trying to get caught up on everything that's happened in the past couple of months!

On of the biggest events was Ricky's sister, Christy's, wedding in August. All five of us were in the wedding with Ricky as an usher, me as a bridesmaid, Tomas and Mateo as ring bearers, and Isabella as a flower girl. Even though the rain tried to put a damper on the festivities, we were thrilled and honored to witness and participate in the love and commitment of Christy and Tyler. It was held at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs, and it was truly a memorable and magical day. You can view the pictures in the new slideshow post on this site (you'll notice Ricky and I were "enjoying" the festivities at the end of the night!).

Tomas is now in first grade and doing incredibly well at his new school, Cesar Chavez Academy. He has reading homework every night and I cannot believe what an impact this has been on his reading! He'll be reading Tolkien any day now.

Isabella is completely obsessed with all things High School Musical and is soooo smart and sassy (she's doing the Francia women proud!). She loves fashion and art, including putting on her own concerts where she impromtu performs a song of her own creation - hysterical!

Mateo is 100% boy and is just thriving. He's speaking so well and is losing his sweet little raspy baby voice. He doesn't call his dad "Ricky" anymore, which breaks my heart a little more everyday. He still just asks for balls for every holiday, so we'll see if we can figure out how to spice up his Christmas with more than just another soccer ball. I guess we are officially out of babies, although our puppy Hiro keeps us pretty busy on the baby front.

Ricky and I are both doing great at HP, enjoying our jobs and the amazing friends we've made there.

I hope you are all doing well as we head into the holiday season. We love you all!

RBTIM Aguilar

Family vacation in Arkansas

Greetings, all!

Over Fourth of July weekend, the Francia side of my family got together at the eldest Francia home in incredible Hot Springs Village, Arkansas. Uncle Tony is finally home from his sojourn in Germany and tour in Iraq with Aunt Karen and Michael. Little T was also there with his significant other from Florida. Mom and Dad with Juliet - who is more beautiful than ever - came, and the Aguilar family got to enjoy the trip back and forth with Brandon.

We golfed, played tennis, karaoked (thanks to our dear friend, Tequila), ate amazing food, relaxed at our condo, and spent a ton of time at the many incredible lakes at Grandma and Grandpa's retirement campus. We had a blast and, as a family, finally got to have a real vacation.

It was wonderful being able to see everyone and get to know the family who've been separated so long by distance and necessity. Grandma and Grandpa, thank you so much for inviting us to come to your home and for all your wonderful Southern hospitality. We love you!

I only wish I had taken more pictures! But, as you can see from the slideshow below, the kids had a fabulous time being reunited once again - it was as if there had been no time lost.

Until next time...

Blakely

Welcome!

Hello, friends and family!

In response to some monthly requests for pics of the kids and our family (Grandma Hepner!), we started this blog spot to share some of the daily, albeit slightly mundane, happenings in the Aguilar family - members Ricky, Blakely, Tomas, Isabella, Mateo, Boo, and Hiro.

We are all happy and healthy. Ricky and I both work at Hewlett-Packard in Colorado Springs, so it's been great actually seeing each other more than in passing for the first time in our seven years together. I am still in school, one year away from finally finishing my bachelor's degree in liberal arts.

Tomas just graduated from Kindergarten with flying colors - he's reading great and starting to catch onto math. Isabella is 4 years old and hilarious in that she is a little fashionista - for her fourth birthday, she wanted an all-expenses paid trip to the mall. And little Mateo just turned three and already is a jock - every year the only thing he wants for his birthday are balls.

So, we're just living in Pueblo biding our time and enjoying the beautiful Colorado summer. I hope you all are doing well and we love and miss you all.

Blakely