valentines day

Years before, Spencer had always surprised me with Ecuadorian roses, but one day after accidentally finding a bill for it, I told him I rather him not do it.
The roses were the sweetest and most thoughtful present that he could ever give me and I truly appreciated receiving them.

On Thursday night, Spencer came home and surprised me. He called Julia to the garage and handed her the beautiful bouquet of roses and asked her to give it to me.

Julia looked kind of confused and thoughtful, but she finally brought them over and said: "Happy Birthday mommy". She was probably asking herself: (wasn't it her birthday just a couple of months ago?)

After the kids were sleeping he pulled me over and said he had gotten me something else, that was inside his lunch bag. He then asked me if I wanted to see it then or if I wanted to wait until Saturday( official valentine's day), as if he didn't know how impatient I am with present

I decide to open it right away and to my astonishment it was the movie Becoming Jane. I've been wanting this movie since my b-day and it was a great surprise to get it.

Thank you Honey for listening and remembering this special things that made my day so wonderful.

I could go without gift, It is you that make my life so sweet and special. You work hard everyday, you come home and keep working hard to help me out and still you have enough energy to make your kid's day special too.

I adore you my husband, I am grateful that our path's crossed one cold night in New York that may enjoy eternity together

S: is for the SMILES you always put on us when we are feeling down

P: is for the PATIENCE you have to solve our problems

E: is for the EXAMPLE you are to our family

N: is for the NEVER ENDING love you show to us everyday

C: is for the CHERISH MEMORIES you have help us build

E: is for the ETERNAL LIVES we'll share together

R: is for the ROMANTIC MOMENTS we enjoy.

Happy Valentine's day!

The case of the missing cookies

Every now and then Spencer would buy a box of Oreo cookies and stores it on one of the top cabinets in our kitchen. I hate chocolate, so he doesn't fear me eating his cookies.
His stack had been decreasing significantly every day and he was blaming me for eating the cookies. can you imagine Me eating chocolate cookies! ew
I was coming back to our living room from changing Josh's diaper and what do i find? the cookie bandit on the act.
Let me just explain how clever she had been!. I had assumed that he'd been watching where Spencer put the cookies, then on a attempt to reach them, Julia had pull over her brother's high chair, climbed up on it, then climb onto the counter top and stood up gloriously trying to reach for the cookies. She went straight for the jackpot, yep! Ignoring completely the other treats I had in there
See, The funny thing was that this time she couldn't get down from the counter and was stocked up there.
Her final decision, very smart one, sit on the counter top, finish her cookie and then yell for mommy to come to the rescue! silly girl!

first trim

Memorable moment, Josh's first hair cut. Spencer and I had been talking about how long Josh's hair was getting and finally on January 19Th, at exactly 6:49 pm we decided to given him his first haircut.
Spencer has cut his own hair ever since his mission. He's always talked about cutting our boy's hair and on this day the oppportunity presented itself.
We were very nervous about it because Spencer uses a machine to cut his hair. Josh didn't even feel it, he just sat there and behaved wonderfully. He actually loved the vibrations from the machine and couldn't stop smiling.
I didn't take any pictures because I was recording it, but as you can see my baby doesn't look like a baby any more.
Like Julia says he is a big boy
love you Big J

New Year's

We spent the night at Spencer's parents house, although they weren't there. They are just finishing moving to their new house.
We brought the game that Spencer got from Santa, Guitar Hero and everyone had a fun time playing with it.
We had fireworks (left overs from the 4th of July)
and of course you had to have the Martinelli on hand to welcome the new year
We had actually thought of going to eat at a restaurant that day, but Spencer thought everyone might feel the same way, so instead we order take out food from Beto's, Yummy!.
when we got there we had a good time with the brothers and sisters in law.

Christmas

CHRISTMAS has always been my favorite time of the year, so here is what been up to

I was really lucky this year to find myself a play train to go under my Christmas tree. Ever since I was a little girl I've wanted one and I happened to find one at Smith's for only $15, so proud of myself.

The kids and I love playing with it. Our favorite thing to do now is lay on the floor of our front room at the end of the day and watch it go around.

Christmas morning was great, everyone had a great time. We woke up at eight and actually had to get the kids up, not bad for Christmas morning.











What was I thinking,  I probably wasn't thinking, when I decided I would snap my own kids picture's in front of our tree and mail it with our Christmas card. I never thought it could be so hard to get two kids to look at you at the same time. I am just glad that perseverance paid off at the end. Here are some of my favorite shots.

Pictures with Santa

I have taken the kids with me to do one of my shops at the Roy's Harmons, to my surprise Santa was there. The kids had their pictures taken with Santa and he gave them cute little Santa mugs.

This was a wonderful surprise specially when you have to pay $20 to get your picture taken with Santa anywhere else.

The most enjoyable things we did this Christmas:

We took the kids to templ Square to see the lights. It was a very cold night and although we almost froze to death we had a cute time and were able to make some fun memories.
 

I love buildng our gingerbread house each year.  This was the first year that Julia was really into helping put the candy on the house instead of eating it.

Last but no least, we had our Christmas party. We invited all of our family over to enjoy some ecuadorian dishes and then we finished it up with home-made hot chocolate.

Christmas tag

I've seen this tag and I thought I'll give it a try. It has been forever seen I've done that and considering that: my kids are on bed, for the first time in a long time is Saturday and no one is sick and finally It is almost midnight and I am not tired. , So here we go.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
I love wrapping presents. I could never get enough of it, so if you need help just call me
2. A real tree or Artificial?
I don't really care but Spencer does. He loves the smell of fresh pine and I love to have my tree up and decorated early, so we compromised last year. I could get an artificial tree as long as I got Spencer a candle that smell like a pine tree.
3. When do you put up the tree?
It is really hard for me to wait but I try waiting for the day after Thanksgiving
4. When do you take the tree down?
In Ecuador we believed the Wise man didn't come until January 6Th, so I don't take my tree down until the 7Th.
5. Favorite gift received as a child?
My first bike. I believe I was five and although it was a quite cheap boy's red bike I loved it
6. Hardest person to buy for?
Spencer. He never ever tells me what he wants. It is always a guess with him and that's why he ended up with a shirt from the Big&tall department last year ( My bad)
7. Easiest person to buy for?
You could say the kids, although this year I found myself returning and exchanging a lot of toys I had already bought them.
8. Do you have a nativity scene?
Of course! It is the main thing about Christmas. My grandma used to hide the baby Jesus and she wouldn't lay him down in the nativity until after X-mas dinner on the 24Th, but Julia kept getting mad at me about baby Jesus not being where he should be last year, so I guess we'll try that tradition later.
9. Mail or email Christmas cards?
I don't have a preference, although it is cheaper and more fun to create one and just e-mail it to everybody
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
On my last Christmas in Ecuador I just got one pair of shoes. NO more, no less. I was excited until I put them on and then . . . nothing, big let down
11. Favorite Christmas Movie?
"The King is Born" by the living scripture. We have made it our tradition to watch this movie on Christmas Eve
12. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
As soon as I see good sales coming up, which are usually after Halloween. I do it little by little depending on the sales. If you didn't know, I am a bargain shopper.
13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Hmm! Yes, sorry.
14. A favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Eggnog, Peppermint Ice cream, Candy cane hot chocolate
15. Favorite Christmas song?
I love to hear my Spanish Villancicos. In English I love Silent Night and Away in a Manger, but I enjoy listening to any of them. They just cheer you up!
16. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
If I could go to my mom's house, I would probably travel every year, but since that would take a lot of money and time, let's just say I'd prefer to stay home.
17. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's?
No, I can't. I only knew about Rudolph the red nose reindeer my whole life until I came to the US
18. An angel on the tree top or a star?
I really love having a star over my tree and be able to explain all about it to my kids.
19. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
I love to see a lot of clear lights on my X-mas tree.
20. Open presents on Christmas Eve or morning?
Here is another compromise. I am used to opening my present at midnight and playing with them until two in the morning. Obviously kind of unrealistic with two little kids. Spencer is used to waking up early on X-mas to open them. The compromise is that we open one family present on Christmas eve and the rest on X-mas morning.
21. Most annoying things about this time of the year?
1)you never have enough time to get everything you need to do. 2)the tendency of people to forget that it is a time to remember the Birth of our Savior and not a shopping season. 3)grumpy people everywhere
22. Favorite Ornament theme or color?
I love gold and red. I don't own anything in particular just things that happened to be left over on the 90% off clearance shelves
23. Favorite for Christmas dinner?
The perfect Spanish dinner would have: Turkey, Home made hot chocolate, raisin bread, oven cooked potatoes and sparkling cider. The perfect English dinner would have: Ham, Funeral potatoes, apple pie and eggnog.
24. What do you want for Christmas this year?
I can honestly say that I already have everything in my life to make me happy. If anything though, a good night sleep + sleeping in one morning would be pretty much welcome.
25. Eggnog or wassail?
I love Eggnog, but I can only have so much of it. I am not even sure what the other one is, never tried it before.
26. When do you start listening to Christmas Music?
After Thanksgiving
27. What is the last thing you ate?
My neighbors brought us some caramel nut chocolate candy. so I ate that "yes, I ate chocolate"and a glass of nest quick strawberry milk
28. What is your favorite drink?
Hot Chocolate
29. Last people you spoke to on the phone?
Spencer
30. What are you listening to right now?
My husband's Nintendo Wii background music
31. What color are your socks?
White
32. Places you have lived?
Ecuador, NY, Ogden and Syracuse.
33. Favorite season of the year?
Christmas, with headaches and stress but I just can wait for it every year!
34. Most enjoyable things about the Christmas season?
Feeling the spirit of the season. The joy that you get by giving to others and spending time with those you love

crazy november

Well this a was a crazy month indeed. Spencer got Pneumonia. We all got sick with the cold. He had to take a couple of days off from work (never done it before) because of that.

I turned 26. getting so old. my cute family baked me a b-day cake. I have to say I love this kind of cake better than those pre-made ones. Thank You Spencer, Julia and Josh for a beautiful birthday, even though we celebrated it a couple of days later. last but not least without even been looking we decided to get a new car. My Mazda3 was starting to feel a little bit too crowded with two kids and their stuff. I felt like I was playing tetris every time I went grocery shopping, so a bigger car was starting to become my day dream.
Spencer surprised me and on my b-day we went to the dealership and got it. So long cute goldie car I'll miss you not, welcome to the family mini van ..I love you