Here is a slideshow from our recent and wonderful visit to Lubbock! We stayed with Karol's madrina, and attended Sebastian's padrino's wedding! (Wait! Did you catch all of that?)

At the end of July, Jorge celebrated another birthday! We praise the Lord for the gift of his life! The kids & I surprised him with a cake at his job, then took him to dinner later that evening!

Sebastian had the wonderful idea of making his dad a "Dinosaur Football Official" cake! You see... Sebastian loves dinosaurs... and his dad loves being a high school football official!
And since I'm on the topic of cakes... many of you know I love cake decorating! (Definately Eva's daughter!) So I've been playing around a little more! I've been working with the Divine Mercy Church youth group, so for our night about Mary, I made a cake!

Well we hope all are well! God bless!

We attended a wedding in San Angelo, and also met Buela there for the weekend. We had an awesome time!

Our dear friend Tamara, who we know from our days at Tech, had a beautiful, and holy wedding!

And thanks to God, we got to have a fun and very entertaining dinner with Fr. David! He's as kind and silly as ever!

We've now completed our 2nd month in Laredo. It's getting better and better, and slowly I am having fewer and fewer "I despise Laredo" days! It's not at all a terrible place... it's just that there are so many cultural differences, and it's difficult to adjust. Aside from the outrageous cost of real estate, it's a very beautiful place. God has been so good to us. I am loving being with the kids more, I actually might have a great p/t job in the fall, we have a wonderful church community, & Jorge is enjoying his new job. :) What has also helped us is that Uncle Ralph (Jorge's brother) & Aunt Suzie visited one week, and Tia Nessa (my sister) came another week. We had a blast with our families!

For those of you that "check in", here are some updated pics:

Sebastian is growing like a weed! We started a new "Be Good at Mass" incentive program! After many weeks of good behavior, he finally earned his much-awaited wrecking ball! (And Jorge & I finally get to pay attention and pray at Mass! Go figure!)

Karol is a bit fiesty (which no one can deny is totally Carrasco!), but she is such a sweetheart! She is growing up quickly. We even occasionally assign her the small chore of feeding Roy, because she's so good at it! :)

We are officially Laredoans! We're settled in and perhaps even getting used to the heat... ok, maybe not. Things are good, thanks to God.

Here are some recent pics! The first two are from the San Antonio Zoo! We're only a couple of hours away now.


Here's Sebastian after a day at the Dinosaur exhibit at a San Antonio museum. Back in Laredo at the local library!

Here's our home!

And... one more of the kiddos!

Lots of pics for this post...
First, despite the dreary, freezing cold weather (plus snow flurries), Easter was a beautiful celebration of the Resurrection! Allelulia, allelulia!

Sebastian still loves dinosaurs more than ever. This microscopic dinosaur is the latest arrival! He even gets to nap with our kid.
Buela was recently in town to help me out with the kids. While we were out shopping, she threw a couple of outfits in the cart. Here are the kids in the new Dora & Diego duds. Sebastian couldn't wait to wear his Diego shirt. He even wanted to wear it to bed! And that Karol... not only does she look like Dora... she really likes Dora! She kept pointing to all of the little Doras on her shirt, saying, "Dor!"

(By the way, I did not prompt Sebastian to do the finger-pointing "hey"!)
And here's one with Sebastian getting his guns up! Once again, unprompted... really.
And thanks to God, we have 26 newly Confirmed Catholics! I'm guessing this was my last dinner with Fr. Jim & Bishop Placido, so ghetto-Roni pulled out the camera to capture the memory! My time in youth ministry has been priceless!

We're looking forward to becoming Laredoans! (Is that what they're called?)

Oh, this thing is definately in need of an update!

First, we're moving to Laredo, Texas! Jorge will be the director of the new rec center at the local university. (TAMIU) God-willing, I'll be able to stay home with the kids. Additionally, by God's grace, the university will also allow me to teach a speech course or two... pending I finish this 8 year masters degree! Good news: I successfully proposed my thesis a few weeks ago, and am getting closer to the finish line day by day! Thanks, God!

A couple of months ago, Jorge & I celebrated our 5-year anniversary! We are tooooo blessed by God. Only grace could give me the best husband on earth! :)

One of my best friends here in Lubbock, Dana, just had a 10lb baby! (And 4 ounces!) This is a pic at her shower. Some of you may recognize some of these girls from the CSA days! (Tori, Christy, Dana, Laura, Me)

And last, but not least, here's a more recent one of Sebastian & Karol! Sebastian is now 3.5, and Karol is 1.5. Sebastian STILL loves dinosaurs and sports, and is growing up into a wonderful, sweet, yet wild, young boy! :) Karol is one tough cookie, and handles her brother well. She loves to wear necklaces, climb the dog, and ride her motorized car!

We are so excited for what God has in store for our family next! Please pray for this transition... including that we sell our house! (St. Joseph, pray for us too!)

Our love to you all!

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Create Your Own!

What a fun day! Today was my first 10K! (Hey, that rhymed!) With God's help, I had a great time! And I am soooo blessed to have such awesome & supportive family & friends!!

Our little Karol is now ONE! Oh, how time flies! It's seems like just yesterday we were expecting her arrival! She is becoming so interactive and so independent! She's not walking yet, but the time should be here soon! When she stands up by herself, she also claps for her achievement! Here's a picture of Mom & Karol at the birthday party.



And of course, what birthday party is complete without the pinata?! Big brother was counting down the minutes until it was time to beat that thing open! After taking several beatings at it, he proudly flexed his muscles for the crowd! Ahhh, shy little kid! Where does he get this from?! ;)



The day of the party was also the feast of St. Pio (Sebastian's patron), so to celebrate, we took him to the Red Raider game with his cousin Lucas & family! He does a great "guns up" and even made up his own rendition of the Tech fight song!

Jorge & I are doing well, although football season is known to cut down lots of our regular family time. But thanks to God, this too shall pass! :) Until next time...

It's football season! This is a picture of me & Sebastian at "Meet the Tigers", a local high school event. (I attend these types of things frequently as a youth minister!) So with fall here, Jorge & I see less of each other, since he is often officiating games & since my fall schedule is so busy. :( But that just means we appreciate more the time we have together as a family!

For those that might not know, I was recently in a car accident last weekend with my teens from church. But by God's grace, we're all ok. :)

Karol's big 1st birthday is quickly approaching! It seems like I was pregnant with her just yesterday! She is just now occasionally standing up on her own!

Sebastian is the quite the sociable guy! He loves to have fun conversations about all sorts of things, in particularly about sports, loader trucks, and his sister!

We've been so blessed. I hope each of you is doing great too!

Oh, I am a terrible updater...

Ok, so we're all doing great, thanks to God.

Roy (our dog) recently had surgery again, but is doing great. That dog is such a part of the family! For those of you that don't know, he has struggled with cancer on and off for several years now. But he looks just great now! Here he is with the kids...

K loves to crawl all over him!

And Sebastian loves to hug him & ride him like a horse! Oh, poor Roy!

Jorge just celebrated the big 3-7! It was low key, but wonderful! First, we went to Mass, then out to dinner (and the kids actually acted so nice & proper!), then home for ice cream cake! (I only had a #7 candle... no #3! Oops!)

And here's one of us making dinosaur sounds (a common occurrence for us). Yes, it's a bit ridiculous, but part of the joy of parenthood, I guess!
Other than that, life is just the same... thank God!

Hi! Thanks to God, life is good. We're thankful for this laid-back time of the year that includes lots of outdoor play time!

This past weekend, Mom & Tia Angel came to visit. With Mom's (AKA: "Buela") help, we finally got some work done on our yard! Our busy lives had allowed our yard to become the eyesore of the neighborhood! ;) But even aside from the yard-help, it was great hang-out time. We really miss having family close by. Plus, it's so hard to live in a college town, because we find and grow attached to awesome & wonderful people... but inevitably, they move far, far away from Lubbock to get jobs elsewhere. (*Hmmm... Roni ponders whether she has run off these countless friends!*)

Here are some pics of the kids!





"Wow, she has sooo much hair!" That's what we always hear about her! It's fun though! At 8 months, she has an array of hair bows that actually stay on!




And below is a pic of life-long friends (My godson on the left, my kid on the right)! Whenever the Rowe's are in town, they kindly make a stop! We miss them!


Hope all is well for everyone who drops in for a visit!

What? A blog without a picture of the kids? What is this world coming to?!

We're doing well... and things at our jobs are slowing down! Whew! I am now the proud teacher of 13 newly Confirmed Catholics. And I guess Jorge is proud of another good semester of softball coming to and end??!

Last weekend was like the reunion weekend of a lifetime! It was like our lives were rewinded about 5 years! We attended the Rock reunion (our college praise & worship service) and worshipped with all of our old college friends... except this time Jorge & I are married with 2 kids in tow! Then Saturday, we attended the beautiful Sanchez wedding! It was a great & blessed time!

Family News! Sebastian is moving to a new room, and Karol is also moving to a big-girl room (as opposed to sleeping in Mommy & Daddy's room)! So to any of you "regulars" who stay at the Juarez Suites, you're still welcomed of course, because Sebastian is sharing!

My apologies for not updating more! I've been a blog-slacker! We've been great, thanks to God! We wish all of you a blessed Easter! Mom, Angel & Angel's friend came into town to hang out with us. We would've traveled to "the big O", but Karol cried for 2 hours straight of the trip last weekend from Odessa to Lubbock! So "Buela" kindly decided to make the drive. Whew!

Today we went to Mass & it was awesome. Thanks to Mom, Karol looked better than all of us put together! Well, Sebastian also looked very, very handsome, I must say! Then, when we got home, the Easter Bunny showed up & left lots of sugar! (Tia Angel somehow has pull with the Easter Bunny!)

Well "God and the Girl" is on TV & I want to check it out. One of my core members knows one of the guys from her year on NET! Cool! Our love to you all!

This was a recent morning while everyone was still in PJ's! Sebastian is such a good big brother! He's talking so much... but what do we expect with the somewhat boisterous parents that he has? And our Karol is now a whopping 15 lbs at almost 5 months old!

Our house needs a good bleaching! Everyone has been sick! We have all had the typical cold... and poor Karol has RSV. We were in the ER for about 7 hours on Thursday. God is good though. Fr. Jim said he would offer Mass for her at 5:30pm on that day. By 6:00pm, the nurses in the ER were quite impressed that her oxygen levels had really increased! Thanks, God! Today is her last day of breathing treatments. I'm staying home with her this week.

It's a little hectic, because Jorge is training all week late into the evenings, and I'm trying to plan for the upcoming LIFE TEEN retreat! Yikes! But God always gets us through somehow!