Family Fiesta

This weekend we were treated to a Mexican feast courtesy of the latest return missionary in the Higginbotham household: Sister Davita Michelle Washington. (FYI--Davita has now decided to go by her middle name, Michelle. Since I know it will take me at least a couple years to fully register that transition, I'll just call her "Didi" for now.)

Didi has been home from her Spanish-speaking mission in Texas now for a couple weeks. She gave a great homecoming talk in the Higginbothams' ward and she's ready to head back out to Provo soon.

I'm getting hungry all over again!

It's clear that she learned a lot on her mission--including how to make some mean homemade salsa! Seriously good stuff. She claimed to give me her recipe, but I think she must be holding out on some of the key ingredients. I'll have to try it and see if it's as good as hers.

A happy customer!

I would have been happy with just the salsa, but we also had yummy marinated, grilled chicken, guacamole, beans, rice, grilled tortillas and oh yeah--pico de gallo, which she forgot to mention had fresh, chopped jalapenos in it (fire extinguisher, anyone?!).

Nana and Papa are convinced that Tessie will follow in her Dad's footsteps--quite literally. Evidently, Ryan didn't start walking until he was 18 mos. old. After dinner, Keith pulled out the old home movies to prove it. (And when I say "movie," I mean it! Projector, screen and all!)

Ry's first steps.

I was amazed by how much Tess looks like her Dad when he was her age. They have practically the same build--Tess is an inch taller and weighs 2 oz. more than he did at this age. She has his eyes, nose, hair and so many of the same mannerisms and body language. It's so funny to watch him resist walking in the exact same way she does--pulling up his feet so they simply won't touch the ground.

He looks like my Tessie!

Tess has had her own unusual means of locomotion, but thankfully she didn't inherit Ryan's hilarious "monkey crawl." Who needs walking when you can scoot around like an ape?

The monkey crawl.

Anyway, I taped a few clips of his walking so you can see what Tess will look like if she ever decides to do the same.

Tess has been sick this week, so it's been relatively quiet around here. She's still climbing and getting into things as usual. Today she decided to help herself to a banana--peel and all, so Dad decided to show her how to peel it. He also managed to capture a few, fleeting moments of Tess with a bow in her hair. Rare footage, so enjoy.