Happy Birthday Julianna Luna Gonzalez!

Baby Jules was born on July 15 2010 at 7:06 in the morning. She weighed in at 6 lb 7 oz and was 20 and 1/2 inches long. Poetry in motion, personality plus, cute as a button! Just look at how beautiful she is!
Faye and Jules taking a very needed rest.
Nathan, Niko and Maceo getting to know their little sister.
Papa Jules meeting baby Jules
Uncle Ryan visits. I know he held her after we left however, I will have to get that picture later.
Just look at that cute little face
My sister, Jacki was visiting for a week and we were hoping that Jules would be born while she was here. Well sometimes hopes and wishes come true because she decided to come into the world a week early. It was great having Jacki here she got to see Faye while she was still pregnant and get to see Jules shortly after birth!
Taking a well earned nap
Great Grandma Coral meets Jules. Jules was born on the day after my Mom's birthday. Faye went into labor on Mom's birthday!
Four generations
I was so blessed to be there for labor and delivery. These pictures are actually backwards in time. The last were soon after birth. They were all taken on her birthday or the next day.
Faye and Javier
The first picture of Mom, Dad and baby Jules together
She has long fingers and toes
Grandpa Nick holding Jules. She was so alert for the first couple hours after birth, so she got to meet all of her Grandparents and Great Grandma while still awake and looking around.
Nana and Tata Gonzalez meet their new granddaughter.
This was taken minutes after her birth
Faye did an amazing job of labor and delivery. She was so brave and athletic. After she was 10 cm dilated and the doctor had arrived, Faye pushed through 5 or 6 contractions and Julianna was born! Jules had her eyes open when she was only part way out. It really reminded me of Faye's birth because Faye also had her eyes opened and was looking around during birth!
Love at first sight!

Kelly visits

Kelly and Dean visited us in Arizona the week of June 23. Kelly is Julian's daughter who lived in Atlanta. We really, really enjoyed their visit. Jules was feeling pretty well so we were able to do stuff! We took them up to Flagstaff. We hadn't been up there since the cancer diagnosis, so it was great! Mostly just spending time with them and visiting was priceless. The thing about cancer is that it certainly increases your appreciation of friends and loved ones and opens your heart to each little joyful moment in each day. This picture was taken in Oak Creek Canyon at our favorite lunch stop, Indian Gardens. They have a pretty little garden out back that makes you sit back, sigh with contentment and relax.
Kelly and Dean with the red rocks of Sedona in the background. Now you have to have a parking permit to stop anywhere along the roads or parking lots in Oak Creek or Sedona. We stopped to find about a year ago to find about them as we often drive through Oak Creek to or from Flagstaff. Since Jules has a Golden Age "geezer" card, all we have to do is show that and we are home free! At much the same time they started building round-abouts in Sedona. They didn't just put in a few, they probably put in 15 or more in Sedona and on the highway between Sedona and the Black Canyon Freeway!
Red Rocks of Sedona
Kelly and Dean outside Northern Arizona Museum. Kelly celebrated being cancer free (breast) for 5 years and she took her last pill with great happiness on the Saturday she was with us. 5 years cancer free! What a celebration!
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
An eternity in an hour. By Blake (I think).
Kelly and her Dad
This was the Schultz wildfire. You can see how far up the peaks it got! They had almost 1000 firefighters (986 I think) fighting it at it's peak. I don't think it burned our favorite aspen grove of which I've put many pictures on this site over the past year or so. I'm not for sure as it was definitely in that area. We will have to check it out next time we're up there.

Faye's baby shower, 6/19

Here's Faye with a crown on her head and baby Jules in her belly. Aren't they both so cute? Javier's sisters Letitia and Veronica were the main enthusiastic planners. They made a diaper cake, planned co-ed shower games, headed up the decorations, helped Norma and I and May plan the food etc. Hats off to them. It was a fun, magical evening for all!
Here are a few of the many presents
Niko with his big brother name badge, Mr Tough guy! Brothers, Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts and Uncles all wore these pretty pink name tags. Nathan and Maceo refused to have their pictures taken with theirs
Faye and Javier's table under the arch with baby toys hanging down.
Overview of the party area at La Casa Gonzalez. This is a great place to have a party and they probably have every family get-together under these trees with magical fairy lights
One of the party games, who can drink lemonade out of a baby bottle the quickest. Javier was disqualified when he took the top off and drank it that way! May and I went to the dollar store before the party and bought prizes for the games, all in pink!
Another of the games the guys had to pretend they are pregnant ( balloons) and lean over and tie their shoes as fast as they can without breaking the balloon. A good time was had by all. We had more food than we could eat and it was all delicious. We were having so much fun. We looked down and it was 9pm so Faye and Javier decided to open all of the presents the next day.

More MacIntyre pics

Kirsten and her Dad and the kids. We had a great visit. Our biggest outing was a visit to the Children's Museum, Carolina's (Mexican food) and MacAlpine (ice cream sunday's). Carolina's in a hole in the wall barrio mexican food place which my family has gone to as long as I can remember. It has great Mexican food and freshly made tortillas. MacAlpine's is a soda fountain which my Dad went to when he was in High School.
Rowan, Dilly and Papa
Kirsten, yours truly, Dilly and Rob
We went down to the ditch for a picnic. This is a area about a half mile from our house that really reminds me of growing up in South Phoenix. It is an open ditch surrounded by cotton wood trees just off the canal. As a child, I walked to school each day along a ditch like this, but it was much deeper having been dug out many times. We had paths along the top of the ditch and it was an adventure to get to school and not fall in! Other times we played in the ditch catching frogs, crawdads and finding tadpoles to take back to the house to watch turn into frogs.

We have boats which we throw in & catch downstream


Papa reading to Ro and Dil
Drying off after a romp in the irrigation
It was late afternoon and the irrigation was just starting to fill the yard. The kids remembered playing in the irrigation other visits and had to wade even though it was sorta cold.
Making pizza
Grandma Coral taking the kids for a ride in the basket of her bike
Grandma and Dilly riding down our street

Faye's shower #2 & RoRo and May's Birthdays

Javier's getting ready for the big day
This was Rowan's 3rd birthday party. She milked turning five for all it's worth celebrating at all three grandparents!
We celebrated both May and Rowan's birthday at Faye's shower. We tried to get as many celebrations in as possible! I'm all for birthdays. Julian and I just celebrated our birthday on June 9th (yes it's the same day). It is great fun as we get many calls, e-mails, cards and facebook greetings. We seem to spend the whole day talking on the phone. We started the day with a call from India and Kirsten, Rowan and Dylan singing Happy Birthday. We had Happy Birthday sung to us a total of 4 times. I think that is some kind of a record!
These are the letters that Ro and Dilly gave to Faye and Javier to decorate baby Jules nursery, shades of pink, green and brown. The picture below shows the painting of the letters. The kids painted them, then Kirsten and Julian painted the dots and stripes.