Jacob

Today was horrible hair day at preschool. Jacob insisted on messy hair this morning and here's how it turned out. The other picture is of Jacob with his birthday poster from preschool. David helped him fill it out and we thought it was so cute because when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up he answered a Dad.

Jacob is such a smart boy. However, he's terrified of getting up in front of a crowd. For example, he knows all the answers in Primary but he refused to get up in front. He was asked to do the 4th Article of Faith for opening exercises in Primary last Sunday. Jacob already has it memorized so we spent the week practicing and praying that Jacob would be brave enough to stand at the microphone and say it. During Primary I stood outside the door where Jacob couldn't see me hoping he would stand up at the microphone. The Primary president asked Jacob to come up and he said no. Then she asked him to just stand up at his chair and he said no. Then she asked if he wanted to just sit in his chair and say it and he said "Sure thing!" and rattled off the 4th Article of Faith perfectly. Afterwards he did get up and hold the poster of it while the other kids sang the 4th Article of Faith song. I was impressed he got up to hold the poster so I'll consider that improvement.

One last story...last week the babysitter asked Jacob to come help her find a pair of underwear for Adam. Jacob was playing the Wii but he did stop and help her. However on his way up the stairs he yells "Why do I have to do EVERYTHING in this house?" Gee I wonder where he got that from?

Ode to Hot Rod

As many of you know, I am an avid Jazz fan. Last night's game was less than stellar, however quite characteristic of the Jazz's season: spurts of brilliance that can never be sustained. So last night's game was a sad event made even sadder by the fact that it was Hot Rod Hundley's last Jazz game broadcasting. Yep Hot Rod's retiring. Read all about it here.

I love Hot Rod! Luv Hot Rod! Now I was already dealt an emotional blow when Hot Rod stop simulcasting 4 years ago. Nobody does play-by-play like Hot Rod. When I watch a sporting event I like to hear about the actually game. Not the game that is going on at the same time in the East. Or my favorite is when the ESPN guys talk about the player's judicial court appearances and their latest arrests. And TNT (while I do like them better than ESPN) can only talk about whether Darren Williams or Chris Paul is the better point guard. Really folks, I could call a game better than you. However that's while other topic for some later post. So for the past four years if I want to hear Hot Rod do great play-by-play I've had to listen to him on the radio. David is amazed I prefer to follow a game on radio but hey like I said I luv Hot Rod.


Me and the back of Hot Rod's head. This was the night David proposed to me. He proposed at center court in the then Delta Center after a Jazz game.





So here's to Hot Rod and his great one liners. While most known for "You Gotta Love it, Baby", my favorite is "with a gentle push and a mild arc, the cow-hide globe hits home". At least I've still got Greg Wrubell (the voice of the Cougars).

Matthew's smiles

Matthew will be 12 weeks old tomorrow. He's growing so big and getting chubby. Granted not as chubby as his brothers did but still some good size fat rolls on his thighs. I walked into his bedroom today to find Adam putting shoes on Matthew that were size 3. Adam looked up and said "We're almost ready to go to Costco, Mom!" I went to Costco yesterday but apparently Adam wanted to run errands again and was kindly getting Matthew ready.

Matthew has been smiling for a few weeks now but you had to really work to get a smile out of him. Now he smiles all the time and is almost laughing. He talks and babbles too. David calls him "ah goo" because he says that over and over again just perfectly.

Check out those cheeks! So precious!

More Pictures from the Wedding

David and Ashley at the reception


Adam picking in the cheesecake. Luckily it was just my cheesecake and not some other guest's. My parents came to the reception and they watched my kids while I was at the sealing. Mom even helped decorate the tables for the dinner. Thank you so much. I couldn't have survived that night without your help.

Moy's wedding

Last Friday was Moy and Jessica's sealing in the Salt Lake City Temple and then a dinner and reception at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It was a beautiful day with family and friends and we're so excited for Moy and Jessica. Welcome to the family, Jessica. We love you!

After the sealing everyone in front of the Salt Lake Temple

The Girls: Back: Sister Parra, Azu, Ilithya and Malena

Front: Carie, Jessica and Ashley

The Boys: Moroni, Bill, Moy, Jessica, Ben, David and Hugo

Everyone at the dinner at the JSMB

Sister Parra standing with all of her children

Spring Break with the Parra Family

We had a fabulous week during Spring Break with David's family who were in town for Moy's wedding. Moy is David's younger brother and the last to get married. All 6 children and their families were in town for the big event. Malena (David's sister) and Bill and their kids got here Monday and we got together for Family Home Evening Monday night. Hugo taught a great lesson on patriarchal blessings being instructions to guide us through life and the kids got to follow instructions to find the ingredients for banana splits which we then had for dessert.

Jordan, Carie, Jacob, Ashley, David and Adam ready for FHE

Tuesday Moroni (David's brother) and Ilithya and their kids arrived and although they all went shopping for the afternoon, I had to take Adam to the doctor because his ear infection was back. So he's on another antibiotic for 14 more days plus his ear drops. Poor kid, but thankfully he wasn't too cranky. The funny part was he woke me up Tuesday morning saying "Mommy, I have an ear infection." And sure enough he had nasty stuff just pouring out of his ear. Not just draining but pouring! Tuesday night we were able to get together and had a little birthday party for Joshua and Jordan and visited. Wednesday we woke up to rain which turned to snow and just got worse and worse as the day went on. We all went shopping together.

Carie, Ilithya and Ashley at University Mall

Then later that night had a bridal shower for Jessica. Of course things were running late and Carie and I ran to the grocery store to get all the food for the shower. We were hoping to be able to pick up some fancy lingerie for Jessica for the shower but we were running out of time. David called me and told me he was on his way home from work and I asked him to do a little favor for me. Yep, that's right, I asked him to go buy lingerie for his brother's soon to be wife. David must have called me 5 times to tell me how creepy it was but he got the job done. David said the next time I ask him to pick something up on the way home from work it had better be a gallon of milk. I rushed home and David help me make 5 different kinds of desserts in less than 90 minutes. Then we rushed back over to Carie's for the shower. The men all went to get their tuxes for the wedding and ate dinner afterwards.

Bill, Moroni, Moy, Tyler, David, Hugo and Michael outside of the tux shop

Sister Parra, Malena, Xiotchil, Jessica, Ilithya, Ashley, Carie, Shannon, and Zazil before our dinner at the bridal shower.

We had a great little party for Jessica and by the time we left that night there was another 6 inches of snow of the ground. Thursday David had off of work and he helped me clean the house to get ready for Ben (David's brother), Azu and Azu's mother who were staying at our house. Then we headed over to Hugo's. David got to ride the 4-wheelers in the snow while I started helping Carie and the other girls do the flowers for the wedding. First we made 7 boutonnieres and cranked those out really fast. Then the hard part...Carie tackled the arrangements for the cake, Sister Parra did the 3 mothers' corsages and Jessica and I made her bouquet. It took us about 2 hours but it turned out really beautiful and it was exactly what she wanted. I was pretty proud of ourselves. Next we did the 8 corsages for the women and then finally Jessica and I made another bouquet for her to throw. All of that took us until almost 7:00 at night with an hour break for lunch. We might be slow at it but I must say we did an awesome job and the flowers turned out beautiful. Thursday night we had a huge family dinner which included all of David's family (that's 26 of us) and his Aunt Xochitl, cousin Sam and Zazil, cousin Jared, Uncle Armando and his wife Claudia, Azu's mom and then Jessica's Dad and his wife and their 3 kids.

Jessica, Ashley, Sister Parra and Carie doing the flowers for the wedding.

Easter

On Saturday, we did an Easter egg hunt for the boys in the house because of the rain. This year I actually had Easter baskets for them but they wanted to use their Halloween pumpkin buckets to put their eggs in. A couple of years ago we had an Easter egg hunt at my mom's and David gave the boys the pumpkins to put their eggs in because he thought it would be funny (and he likes annoying me) and now that's all they ever want to use.


After their Easter egg hunt courtesy of the Easter Bunny, they got to go on a Easter egg treasure hunt courtesy of mom and dad. They had to find an egg in the living room which held a clue to where the next egg would be hidden and at the end they would find a present from mom and dad. David drew these clues for them.


Their "treasure" was a trampoline which was in the back of the car because it was so heavy we didn't want to have to move it again. But when they went out there to look for it they thought it was going to be inside an egg so they told me they couldn't find their treasure and I had to tell them the treasure was the huge box in the back. Then they finally figured out it was a trampoline.



Sunday after church and naps we had a special Family Home Evening on the last week of the Savior's life and then we went to Hugo (David's brother) and Carie's for Easter dinner with Sister Parra and Moy (David's brother) and Jessica. It was a wonderful evening! Since David grew up in Mexico where most people are Catholic and Mexican Catholics celebrate the cruxification with re-enactments of the the Saviors suffering for Easter, David always thought Easter was a little strange. This was his first Easter where he had positive feelings about the holiday. I have obviously been doing a very bad job at celebrating Easter. But we had a great experience this year teaching the boys about the Savior's atonement and his resurrection and that we would live again as the Savior did. It only took me 6 years of marriage to figure out this cultural difference of Easter.

Happy Easter

My household of boys

David, being the near perfect man that he is, writes a letter each week to my brother who is serving a mission. He's been writing a missionary once a week for 4 1/2 years now. This is an excerpt from a recent letter. It pretty much sums of my life living with all my boys.

"Last Thursday I decided to work on my yard with my 2 boys. They were a lot of help and we were making great progress. The boys were absolutely filthy since they were helping me pull weeds. After a little while Jacob notified me that he needed to use the bathroom. I hesitated a little to tell him to go in the house since he was filthy, so I decided that it would be OK if he went number 1 in the yard, especially since I was going to wash it off after we were done with the weeds. I then told him to go towards the fence, pointing to the corner and pee on the ground. I knew that it was not the best thing to do, but I thought it was harmless and it would be OK. He agreed and I continued pulling the weeds. A few seconds later I turned to where he was to see how things were going and I saw him right against the fence that faces my good neighbors the Walkers, his pants were down his ankles and he was doing his business. He had found a little opening in the fence and decided to pee right through it unto the neighbor’s lawn. It was the funniest thing in the world but of course I had to contain the laughter and make him stop. I told him where he was supposed to be doing his business and he finished and continued helping me. A few minutes later, I looked at the fence again, just to discover Adam doing the same thing. Good grief. It was hilarious, and thank goodness that the neighbors were not having a BBQ because then I would have had to do some explaining. Ashley does not know about this story, and I am sure she will not be very trilled with my poor parenting skills and terrible example."

I really hope you're not reading this, Angie!

My bathroom

One week after Matthew was born, David ripped up our master bathroom floor to investigate some water damaged. Then, the walled was torn out and then a hole cut in my closet to see under the bathtub, and then the siding was taken off the side of the house and some flashing put up once we figured out where the leak was coming from. Do you know where all the flies go during the winter? Underneath my siding!!! There were thousands of them. DISGUSTING!

Thankfully we have a secret weapon when it comes to home improvement projects: my dad! Dad come over several times to teach/help David find the leak and then repair it, and how to sheetrock, tape and mud, lay subflooring and then vinyl flooring. I finally found towels that I liked and now I have a finished bathroom with cute purple paint and an even cuter shower curtain. Once again superhero dad rescued us and I must say that David is becoming quite the handyman himself. So thank you both because I love my bathroom.

General Conference

We had a great General Conference weekend and the boys enjoyed our traditional tent setting for listening to the Prophets and Apostles. A couple years ago we did a Family Home Evening before Conference about King Benjamin and the people setting their tents up around the tower that King Benjamin built so he could teach the people. So for conference, Uncle Mike so kindly gave us a little tent so the boys could set it up for conference. (Since we all know that will be the only time David uses a tent!)

I had to post this cute picture of Matthew with his Air Jordan shoes. I figured Aaron will be green with jealously and yes, I'll keep them for you until you have a son to wear them too.

Smith's Grocery Store

The local Smith's grocery store has little children size grocery carts. I don't shop at Smith's very often but when I do the boys get to push a grocery cart and I put the groceries in their cart and Matthew's car seat in mine. The other day I told Adam that we needed to get our shoes on to run errands and Adam asked to go to Joseph's. Usually he asks to go to Costco so this was a new one. I said "Joseph who?" He just kept telling me he wanted to go to Joseph's and I had no idea what he was talking about. A few stops later we pulled up to Walmart and Adam started bawling that he wanted to go to Joseph's not Walmart. He wanted to push his own cart. Finally I realized he was talking about Smith's but he was calling it Joseph's because, yep that's right, Joseph Smith. I guess he really was listening during all those Family Home Evening lessons.

To learn more about Joseph Smith go here: http://www.josephsmith.net

Matthew's Blessing Day

Ashley and Matthew on Matthew's blessing day

Adam, Ashley, Matthew, David and Jacob

David and his boys!

Each month someone in David's family writes a letter to everyone else in the family and then asks someone else to write for the next month. This year we're supposed to share a story or thought or scripture that has impacted us in some way. March was my turn to write the family letter so here it is.

It is my opportunity to write the family letter for March. I’ll start with just a little update on my family. As you know the newest member of our family, Matthew, was born on January 29th. He just turned 2 months old and now he weighs 11 ½ pounds and smiles and coos. He is adored by his older brothers (almost a little too much) and we are so grateful he is here and he’s healthy. My pregnancy was just one problem after another especially the last month and so we are so happy to have him here at last. Jacob is doing so well in preschool and can’t wait for kindergarten in the Fall. He started Spring soccer last Saturday and scored three goals. A funny story about Jacob…the other night David told Jacob to wash his hair really well or it would fall out. Jacob replied “Oh, that’s what must have happened to President Eyring, Dad!” He’s been learning about the apostles in primary to get ready for General Conference. Adam rather not ever leave his mother’s side and loves being at home with Matthew. He is a very good helper and loves to run errands. Each morning he asks if we can go to Costco. David and I are both doing well. David graduated with his MBA 3 days before Matthew was born and he stays very busy at work. He loves his ward missionary calling and is currently running a missionary training program for the priests in our ward. I enjoy staying at home with my boys and I’m still serving in Young Womens. It’s amazing how fast life seems to fly.

A while ago I read a talk by Elaine Dalton who is the Young Women General President of the Church entitled “Look toward Eternity”. She gave the talk in General Conference in October 2006. This is a story she told in her talk.“When our first grandson was born, the entire family rushed to the hospital. It was an amazing experience for me to see our oldest son, Matthew, holding this precious new baby boy. While standing at the nursery window with our youngest son, Chad, we gazed into the eyes of this new little spirit—so clean, so pure, so recently from heaven. It seemed that all time stood still, and for an instant, we could see the great eternal plan. The sacredness of life was crystal clear, and I whispered to Chad, “Do you understand why it is so important to remain clean and pure?” He responded reverently, “Oh yes, Mom, I get it.” Just last month our youngest son, Chad, went to the temple with a beautiful, worthy young woman to be married for time and all eternity. As he took her hand and knelt at the altar, I looked into the mirrors on either side and again I wanted to whisper, “Do you understand why it is so important to be clean and pure?” But this time I didn’t have to remind him because the Spirit did the whispering. That moment was so powerful that I desire for every young man and woman, every young adult, and indeed each one of us to feel and know the importance of living a worthy and pure life. It is our personal worthiness that will qualify us to fulfill our individual earthly missions.”

Last Sunday was Matthew’s blessing in our sacrament meeting. We were so happy to have Hugo, Carie and their family, Moy and Jessica, and Sister Parra there. All of my siblings except my brother who is on his mission were also there. As I was sitting there surrounded by my family and as I watched David bless Matthew surrounded by my dad, brother, and brothers-in-law, all worthy priesthood holders, I thought of this story by Sister Dalton. This is why it’s so important to remain clean and pure. These special sacred moments in life are the Lord’s tender mercies bestowed upon us for our faithfulness. While I often fall short, I’m grateful for these tender mercies. I’m grateful for my knowledge of the plan of salvation that teaches the importance of families and that by remaining clean and pure we can return to live with our Heavenly Father and our families for all eternity. I am so grateful for my family, for my supportive husband who is so willing to do anything to make my life easier, and for my three beautiful boys who teach me so much and are so easy to love. I hope I will remember the lesson I learned at Matthew’s blessing of the importance of living clean and worthy lives so we qualify for the companionship of the Holy Ghost who will lead us back home to our Heavenly Father.

I would like to ask Malena to write the next family letter for April. We are excited to see you all in a few weeks and be able to spend time together. Until then...

Love,

Ashley

Book Club

I love my book club. I love that someone else finds a clean book and hands it to me and I just get to enjoy it. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is our book club's book for the month and I loved it! Go find a copy and read it. It's about the German Occupation of the Channel Islands during World War II and the characters are so well done. I can't stand reading books with undeveloped characters. It's like watching a movie with bad actors. So thank you, Becky, for an excellent read!

In Honor of General Conference...

In Primary Jacob is learning about the lives of the prophets and apostles. The other day Jacob was in the shower and David told him to wash his hair really good or it would fall out. Jacob promptly replied "Oh, that's what must have happened to President Eyring!"

I have a blog...Yipee!

So I've finally taken the plunge and started a blog. Here's to my new adventure in the blogging world.