Our Beloved Prophet

President Hinckley passed away on Sunday January 27. We were a little sad when we heard the news confirm what we had read through text message. It was more like mixed feelings, we weren't crying as anyone would when someone as great and dear like Pres. Hinckley dies. We were somehow glad that his body was now at rest and happy that he finally was able to reunite with his sweet wife. As Latter-Day Saints we know that dieing is only part of the plan, but not to worry because one day we will be with our family once again, and hopefully with Heavenly Father and our Savior and brother Jesus Christ. My sister Areli, who is now serving a mission, wrote yesterday and said something that I had not thought about. She said that Pres. Hinckley's is now resting, but that in reality his spirit is not resting at all, that he must have gone to work right away in the spirit world because there is a lot of work to do there too. D&C 138:35-48, 56-57. I am going to miss seeing him at General Conference, and listening to his wise words and counsel. I know he was a man called of God and I feel blessed to have had the chance to be part of the generation that got to see the great works given to him by the Lord and benefited from his words and counsel in this last dipensation. I know I sometimes wonder how it must have been to have lived during the time of Joseph Smith or Moses, or Abraham. I know that in the future there will be people who will say "I wonder how it was to live in the time of Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley?" and I will be honored to be able to say I was there.

For the dog lovers

We found this great dog park out by the Zoo. It is the coolest thing I've ever seen. We took tank there on saturday and he had lot of fun. We were scared of how he would react to the other dogs, since he is very aggresive on a leash, but to our surprise he was great! didn't even try to attack anyone, on the contrary, he was really shy and kindda scared, running away from everyone else. After a while he loosened up a little and was able to play and run around with the other dogs, there were about 30 dogs that day, but someone told us that there's usually not that many, maybe it was because the sun came out that day and it was really nice outside.We were really happy to see him in that state. The place is really big, you can go for a little hike with your dog if you want, there's a little river that passes by, it's great! We also learned that at Millcreek it's always dog day on the odd days, so you can take your dog and he can run around off leash. So yeah, we are gonna try that place as well. I'm excited for tank! Winters are really hard for us and him. I usually take him for a walk around our neighborhood were if we're lucky we'll only bump into 1 or 2 dogs, but during winter he doesn't get walked as often because of all the snow, not everyone cleans their snow and it's makes it hard to take the stroller on hard snow and I don't dare going to the park because like I said, he is very agressive to other dogs when he's on a leash. So this will be great, I can take him up there during the week and he can get some of the energy out. Naomi had a lot of fun too. She run around after tank and other dogs, she played with someone else's dogs that knew how to fetch a ball, she tought that was the bomb. We met another couple with a little girl her age and they became friends instantly, they were the same, bossing the dogs around, taking off to go up the hill together, not afraid of dogs, very daring, very friendly, seems like she finally found her match. So for all the dog lovers, Joel, Kelli, you can take your dogs there. We saw all types of dogs from little chihuhuas to great danes, and everyone was getting along great. Let us know maybe we can go together one day. Just wanted to share this with everyone, since it took us so long to find out about this place.

Vegas trip and more

Aaron left to Las Vegas for a week on a trainning for his job. So the girls and I spent all week by ourselves. My dad would come at night to stay with us, make sure we'd be ok. My parents are always of big help to us, no matter the situation, they are always there for us. Aaron loves them and of course I do too. They rock! Anyway, one day while Aaron was away Naomi just busted out crying calling for her papi, papi! All week long we counted down the days 'til papi would be home from Vegas. So on the day he finally came home she squealed and jumped and yelled out of joy to see papi. After all the excitement she looked at Aaron with a very serious face and asked him: Papi, why Vegas? Aaron explained that he had to go away because of work, and then again with a very serious look Naomi said: "No mas Vegas papi, ok?" It was so sweet and hilarious at the same time. She is starting to speak more and more words everyday, sometimes the things she says or asks are so funny you just have to laugh and wonder where she got that from. Also while Aaron was gone she started calling me by my name, it was so weird. Now she understands that I have a name other than mami. She also knows that my parents are abuelito and abuelita, but she calls them 'ama and 'apa, and Grandma Kelli is "grandma", and grandpa Mark is "papi Mark". She is actually very good with peoples names. Right now we are working on learning numbers. She remembers most of them from 1-10 but not in order. She knows the shapes and colors and the letter A, I know that's funny, but that's the only letter she recognizes yet. She is a very energetic girl, you can pick her out in a group of kids because she will always be the only one jumping and laughing and not staying put. Yeap, that's my kid. And even though it's always a work out with her she is a very sweet tempered, loving little girl. She's not the kind to pick a fight with other kids, and she does pretty good at sharing, she's very friendly and sociable, not shy at all. How is Jocie doing? Jocie is a big girl as well. She is now 6 months and she is sitting up on her own. It was getting hard giving her bath because she does not want to be laying down anymore, so a few days ago I tried to let her sit up in the bathtub and she did really good. I have to be really carefull all te time because she wants to launch after the toys, but she really enjoys her baths more this way. She is a really happy baby, she's a babywise baby! ha-ha! Naomi and her are able to share a room now, it's been about 2 months. She is oficially sleeping through the night! That's about 11-12 hrs at night, plus 3 naps during the day of about 1 or 1 and 1/2 hrs each. She is going through that phase where she does not want to loose sight of me or she will scream! Naomi can be of consolation at times, but not all the time. Another thing that comes with the 6 months mark is solid foods! I started her on rice cereal once a day about a week and half ago and she loved it! She ate like a pro! Really, it was nothing to her, she was able to swallow her cereal really good. She was going crazy, grunting and jumping, she wanted the spoon, she wanted the plate and of course the food. She loves it. I'm dreading the whole home made baby food ordeal though, another thing to add to my to do list, it'll be a few more weeks.

Weight in

Aaron and I started to "diet" back in November. I know, it was kindda bad timming for a diet, but we did really good up until Christmas, and then we gained almost all of the weight back. So we started fresh in January and we've been doing ok. It is a lot more harder for Aaron, since he's only allowed 30 carbs a day. All he basically eats are salads, veggies, any kind of meat, eggs and cheese. So yeah it gets pretty hard for him. Me? I just don't bring junk home and snack on fruit or yogurt. I have never been big on soda, so that's never a temptation for me. Sweets in the other hand, are my weakness, so I have limited myself to indulging into these during the weekend. Somehow it has been working for me and since November I have lost 12 lbs. We also started working out about 3 weeks ago. I am 11 lbs away from my goal weight. Aaron wants to loose about 40 lbs, it will be a longer process but i know he can do it. We are gonna be hot this summer, ha-ha!

Christmas 2007

I guess without thinking this has become one of our little Christmas traditions. On Christmas Eve morning we head over to my parents to help with the making of the tamales for dinner that night. It is a team effort, everyone helps. We make a little production line and tackle the whole thing in a about 3-4 hrs including preparation. After that we wait about another hr and a half 'til they cook, by then we are all lining up at the stove ready to eat! We eat tamales for a week, non-stop! Yummy!
Killing sometime waiting for the tamales to be ready. Naomi is Jocie's personal goof and keeps her entretained all day long. They are a funny pair.
My handsome husband and baby Jocie. This was Jocie's first Christmas. We enjoyed it and having her with us, she had no idea what was going on.
Christmas morning at the Hernandez'. Naomi and Jocie got spoiled by everyone, specially 'apa y 'ama (grandpa Mundo and grandma Martha) The one gift she loved the most was her dress up trunk filled with dresses, shoes, princess tiara, the works, everything a little girl needs to play dress up.
Here's Naomi helping sister Jocie open up her presents, she volunteered. Jocie's favorite part... playing and chewing on the wraping paper.

Halloween 2007

I am very behind on my blogging, part of it was due to the holiday season and obviously being busy with the babies. But I tought I would write a short update on our little family. Halloween was fun (yeah, I'm that behind) Naomi was tinker bell and Jocie was a little bumble bee, they were both so adorable. In the morning we went to Gardner Village with some friends who also have kids around Naomi's age. It was dissapointing to find out that most of the stores weren't giving out candy. Hello! What's the point? There were tons of kids running around in their costumes and we were lucky to find like 3 stores that were giving out candy. Anyway, there was also a little petting farm with bunnies, goats, pigs, and ponies to ride. That was cool, Naomi seemed to have lots of fun. We went into the petting farm with out stroller and the goats kept trying to eat our purses and stuff, it was funny. Jocie was hungry in the middle of it all and I had to find a little corner to go sit at and nurse her while trying to scare off the goat that was trying to eat our stroller. Yeah, it was a funny sight. After that we were off to daddy's work. We went around every office in the building and got lots of good treats. At night we went to Aaron's bother's house, Ryan, where Naomi and her cousing Demee answered the door to trick or treaters all night. Everytime someone whould ring the bell, they'd run to the door yelling, Trick or treaters! and on the way back Naomi would grab a handful of candies for herself, it was funny. It was a fun day with lots of sugar for my already hyper girl.