Flashback # 3 : Andrew is 10 months

This little boy is everything but little any more.

His stats:

Weight: 22:3 lbs

Length: 28.8 in

He is wearing the cloths Josh wore last summer. They are size 18 months!. He is a chubby baby no doubt.

Andrew does not prejudice against any food. They are all his favorite now. He really enjoys drinking apple juice though.

He is definitely crawling everywhere now. He loves to follow Julia and Josh wherever they go, although I think he regrets it after he gets banged in the head with some toy.

He is a very tough kid. I think josh is roughing him up. Josh tries to play with him but gets frustrated when he doesn’t get much of a response from Andrew and that’s when Andrew gets pushed or pinched or crushed into the floor. Most of the time you wouldn’t hear Andrew complaint, I think he believes that’s just the way you play, but there are those moments when he’s had enough and certainly lets you know. My poor dear, all he needs after is a big hug from mummy to be up and going again.

Andrew is even trying to take steps now. He holds on to the couch and moves to where he wants to go.

His favorite toy is paper. Yes PAPER. He find pieces of paper from who knows where around the house, puts them on his lips and crawls away where I can’t see him. Once he reaches his safe spot he proceeds to taste the paper and chew it like gum.

His other favorite thing to do when he is roaming free on the floor is to race straight for the kitty’s water and spill it all over the floor. He of course gets in the middle of the puddle and starts splashing the water on himself. I do really not like the cat right now.

He has 7 teeth, 4 on top and 3 on the bottom. He loves to keep his tongue between his them. He had his second visit to the Doctor to cut the little film under his tongue. It took four people to hold him down. Yes, he is really strong.

A couple of days ago he was playing with Josh’s train and he came to take it away from him and couldn’t get it out f his hands. It was very funny to see Josh been over taken by his baby brother.

Andrew is developing his personality. Whenever he gets mad now, he starts to growl. It is so funny to hear him complaint about things he doesn’t like. He loves to get mad at the blocks for not coming apart.

His favorite place to be in the house: underneath our computer desk. He can’t resist crawling over to all the cables hiding under there.

He does not like his saucer anymore. It almost feels like time out for him. I love it, because it is indeed his time out chair, especially right after he spills the cat’s water.

He has this new habit of rubbing the hair behind his ear when he is getting tired. If he is on bed he can actually put himself to sleep.

One funny thing he has developed this month is that silly frown of his. He watches TV with a frown. He is also a big flirt, just like his brother. When girls talk to him he raises his right eyebrow and smiles at them.

He is going to be a great reader. He loves to pick up books and look at them and even change the pages. After that of course he has to taste them.

Andrew dear you need to slow down. You are growing too fast for your mamma.

A Thomas The Tank Engine Birthday Party

This is flashback #2

Although we’ve been celebrating Josh’s birthday since our trip to Disneyland, it officially happened on April 28th.

We had a lovely time with him. He had to wait until his sister came back from preschool to open presents, and boy was he so excited. Let’s see if you can guess what he is into right now. He got a Thomas the train track, a shake and go Thomas, train books and His Polar Express train set. Figured it out? Yes he is obsessed with Trains. He also got his first bike.

For lunch that day we went to Iceberg and of course he had to bring his new train along

After we ate, we went over to the Syracuse Fun Center. We went bowling together. The kids looked adorable with their bowling shoes. It was a tight game. I missed my first 5 shots and Josh was ahead of everybody. Yeas, Josh. This boy really knows his game. Of course he was double cheating, playing his game with the rails up and the ball lifter.

Josh knew where to put that thing though; he almost got a turkey at some point.

Once the game was over the kids went over to the bouncing toys. Played for 30 minutes, had great fun and got themselves really tired.

The celebration continues…

 On Friday we had Josh’s birthday party. This was his first friend party. We invited four of his very best friends. He wanted a train party, so Thomas it was.

We had a Thomas piñata, colored paper conductor hats, made some trains out of cardboard. I had that idea one night and was afraid how they were going to turn out. I was happy when I saw how cute they all were wearing their little Thomas’s.

We played pin the face on Thomas, musical Trains (the kids walked on paper tracks and had to stop on the picture of a train when the music stopped) and the grand finally was bubbles which are Josh’s favorite.

He opened presents and blew his candles…no wait; he didn’t want to blow his candles, so Julia ended up blowing them for him.

 After our friend's party we had our family party. He loved having his cousins, ants, uncles, grandma and grandpa over.

We played games and busted the piñata opened. I made the piñata a little too strong because it took a great deal of beating to get the treats out. Thanks Matt for holding it up while the kids went at it.

We opened presents, Julia blew the candles again and we had some cake and ice cream.

We ended this party with bubbles again.

Flashback #1 into April: Easter

It took longer than expected t blog about our Disneyland trip. So I didn’t have time to blog about other important things we did during the month of April, so here they are:

Easter

This year Easter caught me so unprepared. I remember thinking that it was so far away and in a blink of an eye it was here.

Julia complaint the entire month that Easter bunny wasn’t going to come to our house because I had not put up any Easter decorations on our house.

On Saturday, the day before Easter we went to Grandma Smith’s house to color eggs with her, Brooke and Keldrie.

We had great fun putting stickers on eggs, dipping eggs in all sort of colors. Josh tried to see how resistant the egg shells were, but soon found out that if you drop an egg it will CRACK.

The kids loved to eat lots of candy and they even watched Megamind.

Our Easter started bright and early. It was such a beautiful day. We watch the cartoon version of Easter from Living Scriptures and wouldn’t you know it the Easter Bunny came during it.

Julia almost caught him hiding the candy in our living room. Some nerve that Easter Bunny has. Especially since he stayed up until 1:00 am preparing and filling eggs. Please next year don’t bring so much candy Easter bunny, kind of got carried away.

The kids loved finding their eggs. They were scattered everywhere; under and over pillows and balanced on blinds. Julia kept laughing and saying: “Ha, that Easter bunny is so tricky, mommy”

The kids got some bubble wands and lots and lots of candy and The Cat in the Hat movie.

It was great watching Julia and Josh open their prized eggs and finding the candy that was inside of them. Gum was their favorite find, no doubt; again what was that Easter bunny thinking. Kids don’t know how to eat gum; they only know how to play with it in their mouths.

After church we went to Grandma’s Smith house where the Eater celebration continued. Julia and Josh had fun playing with their cousins, finding eggs in the back yard and Learning about the real meaning of Easter, The atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ.

I am grateful for the Knowledge I have about my savior. He loves me and each of us so much that he gave up his life so that we might find Eternal Happiness.

Mother's Day

What can I say about this day other than it was perfect for me. Spencer was off the Friday before and we started the celebration then. Sorry no pictures of anything, I was too involved on enjoying myself to take any pictures.


He took me to my favorite place to eat, which happens to be a little Peruvian restaurant by our house. I love my food, especially when I am not the one cooking it.

We had a lovely evening together and afterwards he took me to Wal-Mart to pick my own present. He took the kids in a shopping cart to one side of the store and I went the other way. He told me to text him anything that I wanted to get and that he would go afterwards and find it for me.

It was a lovely idea, but with three kids to haul around, it didn’t quite work. Also, an hour after roaming around the store, I barely had 2 things in my cart. To be honest I didn’t know what I wanted for mother’s day myself.

Spencer finally told me to go to the kitchen department and see if I wanted anything. I had forgotten, yes I did wanted something or some things out of that section. I felt in Heaven. I can’t tell you how many things I’ve been meaning to get, but I just never find the budget to do so.

I got new baking dishes, tonsils, wooden spoons, a cute red colander and a big cutting table. I felt like a bride opening gifts from her bridal shower that Sunday. Oh how I loved it.

Sunday morning started late for me. I got to sleep in forever. Then I was awakened by three cute kids who jumped over my bed and gave me the biggest kisses ever and wished me a happy mother’s day.

My husband came with a fresh cup of orange juice and some home-made blue berry pancakes, that he had been working on all morning, topped with weep cream all over.

The kids then brought me my presents to bed wrapped on kitchen towels and waited excited as I guessed what they were and unwrapped them. It turned out to be a great game to play.

My dad called me to wish me a happy Mother’s day and the kids were able to tell her lita (grandma Núñez) a happy Mother’s day as well in Spanish.

Spencer had a really thoughtful idea on wanting to go to her mom’s ward for church that day. I told him he should surprise her and just tell his dad that we were coming, but I guess his mom happened to picked up the phone and found out our plans.

I had such a lovely day, pampered all day long. Spencer took care of the kids, changed Andrew’s diaper, helped with dinner that day; I was even able to take a nap.

Being a mom to my kids is the greatest blessing I have ever received, I love every second I get to spend with them and be part of their lives. I love to listen to their stories, their accomplishments, I love to ease their fears and console them when they are hurt. I know though that my job as a mom would be a million times harder if I didn’t have Spencer to carry me on.

Spencer thank you for everything you do to make my job as a mom so easy and thanks for a special and Great Mother’s day.

Disneyland day 6

We woke up bright and early to get our things all packed up to leave our hotel, but before we left we had to go try their pool.

We went swimming at 9:30 in the morning it was an overcast day, not much sunshine coming through just yet. What a great surprise it was to find out that the pool was heated.

We had such a great time; my personal favorite was relaxing in the whirlpool. Oh glorious 30 minutes!

Once swimming time was over, we went back to our room and say our last Adios to our room.

This day we had planned to go to the beach, but it’s a rule of thumb to have seafood for lunch when you go to the beach, so we made a stop at a Peruvian restaurant.

I was rejoicing and Spencer was wishing he had had a bigger breakfast. Although I have tried teaching him how to eat Latin food, he still struggles with some of the dishes; Especially when his food has octopuses’ tentacles all over it.
After lunch, we headed over to Moss Point in Laguna Beach. They had tide pools where you can see marine life. We saw a couple of crabs, sea weed and Julia was thrilled to see sea grass. In the turtle talk with crush in Disney California adventure, she got to ask him what kind of food did he eat and he told him sea grass, therefore you could imagine her excitement to see what crush the turtle ate.

 Once the tide started to come back we went back to Laguna Beach. This was a very peaceful and beautiful beach complete with restrooms and a playground.

I brought some sand toys for the kids to play with and they loved making castles on the sand. They attempted to play with the water, but the ocean water was still freezing cold.
We spent a couple of hours at the beach and we finally had to say goodbye to California.
We started our long trip back to Las Vegas about 5:00. Wishing every second to be able to turn back and do it all over again. We actually felt tempted to turn south and go to San Diego. Have I mentioned how much I love San Diego? I would move there in a heart bit if it wasn’t so darn expensive.

Anyways, we didn’t turn :( ; we continued our drive to Vegas and got there about 9:00. I wanted to visit the strip but since it was so late already we just drove by it, and may I just say how glad I was that we didn’t. Let’s just say I am glad that there were so many lights that got the kids attention instead of the other bad stuff all around us.

And so with another over night stay, sadly we were on our way back home on Friday. This is how our first family vacation ended. We had the greatest time of our lives and will cherish every memory we made in this trip.

Disneyland Day 5

Our last day at the Park was a very sad day, we didn’t want this vacation to finish and sadly we were at the end of it. We woke up early and were able to go to the ToonTown morning madness.  We saw all the main characters and were able to enjoy a few rides.  The kids favorite Gadget’s go coaster; they even got to ride the front seat. They both had their arms up in the air during the entire ride

After  Toon Town the boys headed to their favorite rides and Julia and I went to get in line to see Rapunzel. We waited 75 minutes to see her, crazy! I know but it was so worth it. Julia loved telling her all about her Rapunzel’s birthday party and talking to her about her cake.

We went to adventureland, Tomorrowland. We saw the Star Wars show, which was greatly entertaining.

I got to go to Indiana Jones all by myself. The kids were too little to ride and Spencer let me have this ride all by myself. Another mom, who had also ditched her kids on this ride, was seating next to me and we were talking about how nice it was to enjoy ourselves.

The kid’s favorite thing to do that afternoon was Tarzan’s tree house.

The bravest thing we did that day was to go into the Haunted Mansion. How scary was it you asked? Well let’s say it put Josh and Andrew to sleep and Julia was as happy as she could be, so not bad.

                            

 We had our well expected character dinner at Goofy’s Kitchen that evening. We had the time of our lives. We got there at 5:00 pm as soon as the restaurant had opened. We got the characters for ourselves for 20 minutes or so.

Minnie was just adorable. She walked Julia to her seat and Played peek-a- boo with Andrew. Pluto was the second star of the day; He came over about 4 times to our table and spent a lot of time with our kids.

The part I will never forget though is when Goofy hissed at Spencer for moving the kid’s autograph books before he had signed them. Goofy just kept glancing over Spencer who at the same time was as red as an apple. I’ve never seen him laugh so much, lol.

Everything was fantastic that night. The staff even brought a little cup cake with a candle on top for Josh and sang happy birthday to him.

Between the head taps from Snow White on Julia’s head as she was having desert to the kisses and games Pluto played with Andrew to the dance that Josh had with Chip and Dale it will be impossible to say what we enjoyed the best about our evening. It is only fair to say that it was magical and it felt like the icing on the cake. This was a great way to finish our vacation.

After dinner, since we were not ready to call it quits yet we went back to both parks. Josh had to visit her “princesses” as some girls may call it, his trains. We waited at the Train Station so he could ride with the conductor. Although we weren’t able to do so, he got a chance to meet with them and see the engine. He loved it!

We rode our favorite rides one last time. Julia picked the railroad mountain roller coaster and Josh picked the Matterhorn. We took some last pictures of the park. As you can see, by this time Andrew was tired of me taking pictures, poor thing had given up.

We went over Disney California Adventure and went on soaring over California. Julia was really impressed with this ride.

Anyways, remember Andrew’s sandal we lost on our first day at the Park, we found it that day it was our last chance and we got lucky.

I believe it was 10:30 by the time we made it back to the Hotel. We were exhausted but oh soooo happy