Photo Shoot

Ciomara is THREE!

Well, as stated before, life seems busier than ever and with the move, Josh getting ready to leave for Honduras and me pretty much running the whole show (plus not having Internet at the new house until now), I have had a hard time getting this updated. But, I have a few minutes so I wanted to tell you about Mara's birthday. Ciomara turned three, can you believe it?, on Friday. She decided she wanted Chuck E Cheese for dinner and we came home after and had cupcakes and ice cream. She really wanted a leapster for her birthday so that is what she got! Grandpa's and Grandma's sent money and new bedding and clothes. She was very excited and kept asking if we could sing to her. She even danced around the house singing "Happy Birthday" to herself. Ha! She loved every minute of it and wants to know when it will be her birthday again :o) At Chuck E Cheese she met Chuckie and gave him a big hug and announced over the microphone "I Ciomara!". It was very, very cute and she had a huge grin on her face the whole time! She is a very delightful little girl (with a bit of naughtiness mixed in). She loves her Mommy and Daddy, baboo, Meema, Ashie, Tristan, Dacia, her big girl bed and her new house. She loves her friends Charly and Ellie and her thumb too (bad habit, I know, but so cute too....) She got her pictures taken yesterday and I will post them when I get the link. She wanted to wear her cowboy hat and boots and just looks so darn cute in all the pictures. We love you Ciomara!

Busy, busy, busy!

What can I say, but my life is incredibly busy right now. The weather was great on Saturday and since this February has been horrible and Josh is leaving for Honduras in a little over a week, and we had all that space in that big ole' house...well, we decided to move in! So, Saturday was spent packing and unpacking (and not blogging), and Sunday we had a huge blizzard and no Church, so I did more unpacking. The kids love all the space and I am loving it too, but I am having a hard time deciding where to put things.....(oh, the dilemma of finally have more than 5 cupboards!) We got our bed on Friday and I was surprised to see that it only took it up a fourth of the room. I had to ask the bed guy if he brought the right size! I am just not used to such big rooms and I was expecting the bed to take up more space! Ha! I sure am appreciative and proud of all of Josh's hard work so that we can have this beautiful house to live in and room for our family to grow! (But, I sort of miss my Broadlawns apartment oo, the closeness and simplicities of life in little space :o)

First Lost Tooth!

Tristan lost his first tooth on Saturday night. Actually it has been pretty wiggly for a while but he was too afraid to play with it and avoided chewing anything with it. Well, Saturday we noticed the tooth coming in behind it and decided it had to come out because the adult tooth was coming in pretty far back. Anyhow, Mommy got her fingers in his mouth (after many tears), wiggled a bit, and popped it right out. Afterward he said, "that didn't hurt!" with a big smile on his face. Well after all that anticipation, the tooth fairy failed to show, due to extremely cold weather which made it hard for him to fly (although truly he was up all night playing video games and it slipped his mind :o) Tristan didn't seem to mind though, and just tonight the tooth fairy slipped in right after bed and left a whole dollar! Tristan is going to be so excited! (I need to lose more teeth for the money!)

SOLD!

Well, we closed on the house on Tuesday! We are officially homeowners (for the first time) :o) We love, love, LOVE our new home. We are slowly moving in as Josh's schedule is pretty packed right now. Every day I drop by with a car load of stuff. We are actually clearing out the apartment fairly quickly and getting rid of stuff we just have not used in the past three years or don't need. At least that is one good thing about moving-- the opportunity to clean-out and get better organized. The kids are so excited about all the room and they love our new furniture. The new living room set and dressers for the kids were delivered Friday and hopefully this Friday Josh and I will be getting our Cal-King bed! Yes, after 8 1/2 years of sleeping on a full, we will finally have room to spread out! We hope to be all in by the end of the month, maybe even before Josh leaves for Honduras. I am actually pretty antsy to just have the space. The weather though has not cooperated all that great and unfortunately we have a foot of snow on the ground right now, which is not the best for moving.....keep your fingers crossed it will warm-up so we can get all the big stuff moved over without tracking the dirt and sand and salt and snow into the house!

Little Man

Our little man is 8 months old. Wow, how the time goes by so quickly! He is crawling now, a sort of modified army crawl with one arm, and foot tucked under and one arm swimming with the opposite leg dragging. It is quite the site to see, I get a good laugh every time. He is my first baby to do this... the others did your standard crawl. He eats 3 meals a day, drink 2 bottles, and nurses morning and night. He pretty much sleeps through the night. Josh has been on ER nights and I think sometimes he hears him come in so he thinks he needs to be awake at 1 or 2 am! He has been biting lately, everything including Mommy! One day I tried to cry to make him upset but I must have looked funny because he just looked at me and busted up laughing! Meanie! It hurts when those little chompers get the nipple.....I am sure you can only imagine. :o) He is also babbling a lot, says Mama and Dada and Deee!!! (not sure what that one is) The other day when I came into the room he even said "Hi!", but he has yet to wave. We sure love this little guy!

8 month comparisons

Final Walk thru....

The Passing of President Hinckley

As many of you know, and for those who don't, President Hinckley passed away last Sunday night. My sister called and told me about 10pm. At first I was ok, but when I called Josh at work to tell him, I cried. Not that I am sad, what a glorious thing for him to be reunited with his loved ones and finally be free of ailments. But, I am sad to see him go too, what a wonderful man to lead the Church and the World-- a man of great faith, integrity and knowledge. I had the unique opportunity to meet him on several occasions while working security at BYU. Just a sweet, almost ordinary, yet eloquent, little old man! I rememberthe day he became the Prophet and I will always remember the day he passed on....I told the kids the next day and they had loads of questions: Who is the prophet now?, is Pres. Hinckley happy?, when can we see him? We reassured the children that the beautiful, miraculous thing about the gospel is that it goes on... a new prophet will be called to lead and the Gospel always remains the same. The kids were happy that President Hinckley could be with his wife again.
Josh likes Glenn Beck, who, too is Mormon. He gave an awesome tribute on the web that you can view here.
The funeral was absolutely beautiful, and I appreciated the Channel 5 tribute to his life. It was very tastefully done and a great overview of what a great, accomplished man he was. I loved, loved, loved the bagpipes at the burial. I have to say, I agree that "O Danny Boy" is a beautiful song and a perfect sentiment for the occasion.
Thank you President Hinckley for being a wonderful leader and example. Thank you for loving the children, for expecting more from us, for truly making us a "Temple building (and going) people." We will never forget you.