Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is such a beautiful holiday to be thankful for all the things that make your life so special.  I am grateful to be in this great country surrounded by the people who I love the most.

This day was so beautiful, good food, good company, just a good day.

We went to Spencer’s parents for dinner and the kids got to play and have fun with their cousins. 

November

 I have to post this picture it was taken one random night but this was the first time that all three of them were wearing similar pajamas at the same time. The big smiles are because all three of them were sliding up and down our hardwood floor on those pjs. Who needs ice skates right?

11/11/11

This was the year, my birthday landed on the most perfect day 11/11/11. I turned 29 and if you add those two together you get another 11. Spencer had big plans for the both of us we were actually going to go to N.Y as it was kind of our anniversary too, but I guess I decided to finish my basement instead so N.Y is going to have to wait for me a little bit longer. This will give us some time to plan. We are already discussing all the places where we want to go eat and see.

When Spencer asked me what I wanted for my birthday I told him I wanted to go and have a sleep over somewhere. Apparently a lot of people wanted to do this because all the hotels were booked in Salt Lake and the ones available were 400 a night. You’ll catch me dead before you see me spending $400 for a room.

Instead Spencer mom took the kids for the night and we went on a date to Rodizio Brazilian grill. They had pan the yucca which is something typical from Ecuador that nobody else bakes in Utah.  Then there was this Limeade, Oh my gosh it was extremely tasty!

When we came home we watch my favorite show on the TV and went to bed.
Oh Silent Night! It was perfect, No Joshua’s complaining or Julia’s asking to turn on her fan in the middle of winter or Andrew’s terrorizing the house.

The best part was the next morning when we saw our clocks and it was 8:30 and we were still on bed.

This was the best night ever! The perfect present for the perfect birthday.

 The next day Spencer and the kids baked me a cake and we had some ice cream. Andrew enjoyed it the most.

November 14Th

Spencer had a great idea for Family Home Evening. We mad Rice Krispy turkeys with the kids that night. Spencer took over the cooking part and I just took pictures and helped the kids make their turkeys

November 15 Th

After bath the kids were all settling down and when I saw that Andrew had climbed on one of our chairs. When I asked him what he was doing he hid behind the chair and came back looking at me with his squinty eyes. I am just glad I had a picture of this. We laugh the entire night.

November 18^th

Spencer mom was sick and she had tickets to go see a ballet production of the Nut Cracker. Spencer stayed with the boys and had a boy’s night in and the girls had a night out.

That day Julia had gotten her first report card ever. Her report card was full of A’s.  

That night, before we went to the show, as her reward she got to pick her favorite place to eat at.  Subway it was.

The show was lovely.  Except it was a bit too long for a 5 year old girl who is used to going to bed at 8:00. She grew really grumpy at the end Specially when the Snow Queen and the Nut Cracker dance 5 solo acts each in a row. Julia turns to me after their 3^rd solo and said: “Mommy, they already dance” They need to go.

She fell asleep the second we got to the car. 

The boys had a great night too, Josh told me they had watch the bad guys fight, so I assumed they watched Star Wars. 

November 19^th

The kids were so good

 this year that they received 

a special invitation from Santa 

to have breakfast with him. 

We had to be at the mall by 8:00

in the morning so it was kind of

 tricky with 3 kids 

to get there on time.

The kids felt so special the entire day. We even had our pictures taken with the big guy.

Julia told Santa she wanted a Rapunzel tower and a mini van for her loving family

It was great to see Josh with the Big guy.

 Before Santa could even ask him any questions

 he was reciting his list to him already.

 #1 on his list a fire truck, 

#2 a Thomas train, he is still a train lover. 

But that was it.

 Their list consisted of 2 toys each, not bad!.

When Santa finally got a chance

 to ask him if he had been good or bad 

he looked at me with a very concern face,

 as if pleading me silently not to tell 

him how many times

 he had bug his baby brother this year.

Andrew, oh my Andrew is just like Julia. He was terrified of Santa. If you look closely at Santa I think he is laughing at my poor boy's horror. 

Oh well this will be a picture to remember

My kids found this spot at the mall and made up for a cute picture, just have to blog it.

After that we headed to Barns and Novel where Julia had her first Choir performance.

Grandpa Smith came to see Julia sing and boy was I glad to have him help me with the boys while I tried to take some pictures and record the show for Spencer. He played with the boys at the train table.

After her performance they announced the winner of an art contest that her school had. They have to submit a picture of something that they were thankful for.

 Julia drew a lovely picture and got 2^nd place. They displayed her picture at Barns&Novel that day.

November 21^st

This was the choir’s second performance. This time they had it at the Layton Jr. High gym. The auditorium was full. There were 4 different schools performing that night. Julia was kind of nervous but she had fun and kept a big smile during the entire performance. 

Grandma Smith came to the show to support Julia and help me manage the boys.

After that we walked across the street to the park where we saw the Christmas lights turn on.

November 26^th

Andrew had to do some cleaning. This picture is so going to be on his wedding video. He was Shirtless, dorky pants on, vacuuming and had his goofy smile on, just the perfect combination, don’t you think? 

10 years ago

10 years ago I was still a teenager. I was living with my aunt and cousins in the Big Apple; I was still trying to figure out life. I was lonely and homesick a lot. 10 years ago I   didn’t know if I was going to make it or not.  I had to figure out a way of putting myself through college. I had to fill out immigration papers every 3 months and beg them to let me stay just a little bit longer.

10 years ago, a decade ago, it feels like it happened so long ago and yet I can still remember the smell of N.Y, the sounds of sirens everywhere around me, the freezing cold winter weather they had.

On September 9^th I was baptized into the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints and little did I know this decision was going to change my life forever.

I loved Sister Age from my Bushwick branch. If you ever saw her you would think you were next to Woopi Goldberg.  That branch was made out of 20 people most of them were under the age of 20, teenagers like me. I remember I didn’t have money for the bus on Sundays so I had to walk for about 45 minutes until I got there. I wore jeans, but then again so did everyone else.
 I had my brothers, those boys who I looked up to. Elder Mickelsen was my big brother. He is the Elder that found me and invited me to church. Elder Evert was my little brother.

There were also Elders that were good friends like elder Day, Elder Beecroft, Elder Schaucher, Elder DeGomez, Elder Smith(from the Spanish branch).

One night as I was walking out my work and I saw another Elder, Russell Thomlinson. I will never forget his name mainly because all his conversations were about sheep.

As I start to walk towards my bus stop I realize that I am going to have to talk to him because he is standing on the same direction where I need to go.  I was in no mood for sheep talk that night. I was extremely tired.

I start making another route where I can walk by and avoid him completely.
As I am beginning to cross the street something stops me. I begin to feel bad for thinking that way about this boy who has done nothing wrong to me. 

I turned around and walked straight towards him and I started the conversation this time. As I predicted we quickly started talking about sheep but for some reason I don’t mind anymore.

It was a cold October night; I don’t remember the date exactly after all it was supposed to be another ordinary day. I am certain though that it was before the 20^th and after my Cousin Sally’s birthday. It was around 7 p.m

I was standing on the corner of Myrtle Avenue freezing to death when all of the sudden another Elder approached me. His name was Elder Smith. He had a red nose his hands were in his pockets. He had one of  the biggest smiles I’ve ever seen. He introduced himself and I remember saying to him: so you are the mean Elder Smith that kept throwing the pillow at my cousin the other night.
 I don’t remember what his reply was. The only other thing that I remember is looking into his blue-green eyes and thinking to myself how gorgeous they were.

I had no intention of falling in love, I wasn’t looking but I guess it was meant to be.  He was my best friend. He helped me read the book of Mormon, he help me go to church.

His area for tracking and getting people happened to be outside my work. I remember rushing to get work done so that I could go out and see him. He gave me a warm feeling, you know the kind of feeling you get when is cold outside and you walk inside your warm home.

I was broken hearted when his mission finished. My best friend was gone forever!. I am so glad that I was not the only one who felt this way. I am so glad that he loved me and that he came back for me and rescued me.

That October night was truly magical. Spencer remembers every bit of it too. Out of all the places where we could have met it had to be just one of the biggest cities in the world.

 Happy Anniversary my love, forever started 10 years ago

October Part 2

Presenting form the Star Wars Saga: Princess Leia, Luke SkyWalker and Darth Vader. The Irony is that Andrew, the youngest kid, is supposed to be Julia and Josh’s dad.

Halloween was on Monday this year and some people “us” started celebrating since Friday.

Friday October 28

First we had a Halloween party at grandma and grandpa Smith’s ward. They had several games that the kids could play. Grandma Smith was in charge of Bingo that night.

Josh’s favorite game of the night was musical chairs. He won 2 treats on that game and I think if it was up to him he would have gone around on circles the entire night to get more prizes.

Julia was anxious to play the donut on a string game; this one is still one of her favorite games for 3 years in a row.



Andrew was happy as long as there was candy involved. Here he is using the FORCE to open up his candy

 
Saturday October 29
I received an invitation from Ace for a trick or treat event at their store and since I was in need of some paint we made this our first stop.  Julia met a little friend from school there and they asked for candy together.
After Ace we headed to ToysRus for our traditional Halloween parade with Jeffrey the giraffe. They gave the kids Lego's, stickers, cars2 memory game and Dora coloring books not to mention some cute Halloween bags to go trick or treating with.

Syracuse city was having a Halloween celebration that evening with vendors, free inflatable toys for the kids and pie eating contests. We didn’t eat the pie but the kids got to have fun on the big bouncy slide and bouncy castle
After the fun all the kids got to parade around on their costumes and then the city did a truck or treat. We all had fun and ended our Saturday at home with pizza and bread sticks.



Sunday October 30th

A couple of days prior we were driving by a house that had some mummies on the front yard. Julia turned to Spencer and I and said “look they have moms in their yard”. My sweet girl thought those were moms wrapped in bandages. So on Sunday for lunch I made mummy hot dogs, mainly to see her reaction. Let’s just say she was shocked to discover what mummies really were

For dinner that night I made pumpkin brains and vampire blood with bugs. Josh was reluctant to touch his dinner; he second guessed himself a lot until he finally had a bite of the food and told me: “mommy you are silly this is not blood”

I don’t want to forget how silly these kids can be. Last year Julia called scarecrows happy crows because they had happy faces. This year is the mummies and josh has actually asked me if the Holy Ghost is going to come on Halloween.

Later on that night for family night we carved our pumpkins. Josh wanted a scary face, Andrew wanted a smiley face (no choice) and Julia really wanted a Rapunzel’s pumpkin so her mom slaved trying to get that darn thing done. I don’t think you could tell I made Rapunzel but she was happy with it

Monday October 31st a.k.a “the big day”

Besides being Halloween it was Julia’s first field trip in kindergarten. We usually go to school at noon, but today she had to be in the school by 8:30.

She has day dream about the day when she got to drive the big yellow school bus and today was her lucky day, forget going to the pumpkin patch at Black Island Farms, riding the bus is way more exciting.

The first thing she told me when she got out of the bus was: mommy the bus didn't have seat belts

Halloween!

Our first stop for trick or treating that day was great-grandma James’s house. The housing community where she lives was having a Halloween party. They had games, a spook alley and the kids got to trick or treat at every one’s apartments.

After that we stopped at Matt and Brook’s house for some rest and to have a little play time with keldrie.

Next stop of the day was grandma and Grandpa Smith’s house. The kids visited for a second and got a big chocolate bar with nuts which made it Spencer proof.

I needed to run to the mall before heading home. When we got there people kept asking us if we wanted some candy, so we decided to go trick or treating at all the stores.

We were there for 30 minutes and got so much candy!

On our way home we stopped at the kids favorite hunted houses. It is not the same driving around and seeing these houses. So here they are

Josh’s choice:

Julia's choice:

We had a great time. I loved seeing the different expressions on the kid’s faces throughout that night.  They were a bit nervous at first but then they got courage to go ask for candy and oh they were so proud of themselves. 

After dinner, Spencer took on the trick or treating duties. He took the kids around the neighborhood

I was sad at first to be left behind with Andrew, but then I realized how tired I already was and just enjoyed my time with A.D.

This was the time for just the two of us. We sat on our front steps and waited for kids to come get candy. I did 2 groups and Andrew decided that he needed to take over.

It was so cute to see my baby giving these big kids candy. The funniest thing about this was that Andrew actually try to talk and do body gestures to kids. I promise it almost look like he was asking them if they wanted some candy, because as soon as the kid say thank you to him, he would place the candy on their bags.

So Halloween was the best way to close the month of October. Between the three of them they managed to get enough candy to last us through Easter next year.

October Part 1

I can’t believe another month just slip by. I was sure that we still had 2 weeks left in the month when I realized that Halloween was actually in 2 days…crazy! Here is my recap of our month

October 13th

Joshua had his first field trip to Black Island Farms with his joy school. He was so excited to go do something with his friends. Here is the little bunch that I get to tech every 12 weeks.

Julia got to come along. This is one of those treats she gets for helping me when I have to teach.

Our fun started at 9:00. A.M  We invited keldrie to come along with us since we were getting really good prices and they could actually make it to my house that early The kids loved having her cousin around

We went on the hay rides tried all the slides about a million times and we even saw a pig race, not to mention the photo session that I took of the kids.

There were cargo nets to climb onto the slides, well if you look at this picture no net was stopping Andrew from a slide. He loves slides.



At the end I ventured to take pictures of all 4 kids together. I got 1 out of 3 to look at my camera, pathetic, oh well.

Like I said the kids also endure a photo shoot session with their mom, here are the results.

October 22 nd

Julia had her very last game of the season. She scored 1 goal and played so hard for 1 hour straight. It helped that grandma and grandpa were there to cheer her up.

October 27th

Josh had his Halloween party. Here he is starring as Luke Sky Walker. And here he is with his mean face, he really wanted to be part of the bad guys so he said to me: “take a picture of me with my mean face mommy”. After 2 pictures he broke up on laughter, giving up his bad guy aspirations
 

Here is the rest of his class on that day. Cute bunch!

We played some games, read stories and made some crafts

That night we made it to the Syracuse pumpkin walk with some friends. I like this tradition; we have done it every year since we moved into Syracuse. The best part about it is that it is free.

I got a hundred pictures of the kids next to their favorite carved pumpkins but for sanity reasons (mine) I am just going to post a couple of them. Julia’s favorite were Cinderella, snow white, sleeping beauty, Tiana, Jessy and some witches she found along the way. Josh’s favorites were: lightning McQueen, Meter, scary face pumpkins. The ultimate favorite of the boys was a train track display. The trains had a pumpkin on top of their engine and just went around on a 6 foot tall mountain. We could of watch those trains all night except our hands were becoming num with cold and our noses were about to freeze.

At the end of our tour we stopped to watch a movie from a screen they had placed in the park and warm ourselves by the fire.