Junior High Buddies Christmas Party Poll

This poll is for my Junior High friends. We are trying to have a get together in December. This poll is to help us figure out when we are going to do it.

Road trip to California

Our family took an unexpected trip to California a few weeks ago. Aaron's grandfather, Grandpa Jim, has been battling cancer and after a long stay in the hospital he was finally going home. We tought this would be a chance to visit and have the girls meet him and as well as having him meet them. He's the only great grand parent left on Aaron's family's side, so I saw it as important to give the girls a chance to meet him, even though I'm sure they will not remember when they get older, there will be a picture and they will know that they met him once.

I met one of my great grand mothers when I was little, and I remember her, but I do not have a picture to show that I met her and show my children who she was, but my kids will have a picture of his great grandpa, I have made sure of that.

They also have both of my grandpa and grandma on my mothers side. They live in Saltillo Coahuila, Mexico, where I was also born. How would I love to take the girls there some day and show them were mami grew up. Anyway, that is another meeting I have to arrange, to have my girls meet buelita Coco y buelito Chuy.


We had a nice visit. Aaron had the chance to sit down and talk to grandpa Jim for 2 days in a row. I was chasing after the girls the whole time being there, making sure they wouldn't get into trouble, but even I was able to learn somethings about Grandpa Jim and his life, from his childhood during the great depression, going to war, how he met Grandma Jimison, and how he became a successful salesman after becoming a husband and father. I have to have Aaron write down all the things he talked to Grandpa Jimison about now that I think about it. He also told us some things about Grandma Jimison that I was very impressed about. How she graduated from Standford, how talented and smart she was, and how she was a great piano player who even gave concerts, if I'm not mistaking.

Like I said we had a nice visit.

Here's a picture with Grandpa Jim.

On our way to his house we saw cactus like this all over the place and were really excited to see "tunas" on them (cactus pears) This are very common in Saltillo, instead of ice cream vans we had "El Señor de las tunas" The tuna man, who came around the neighborhood with his tuna cart, chanting "tunas, tunas!" and all the kids would ran out to buy some, seriously. Aaron tried some a few years back when we went to Saltillo and he loved them too, so we knew we had to get some somehow before we left.So on our way back we tried knocking on a couple doors to ask for permission before taking some. We finally saw some people outside their house and ask them if we could take some, even though I think we would have been ok without asking because I don't think anyone eats them, there were a lot of them that had already fallen off on the floor, but we asked anyway, we didn't want anyone chasing us down, and they were nice and said we could take them. We brought some home for my family. They were all excited. It's been 13 yrs since any of them has had one of these. We didn't know how in the world we were going to pick them so we had to get creative. We had this hard plastic thing in our glove compartment, I think it was the package to a binky or something, it was perfect. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention they are prickly, so you have to be really careful."El Señor de las tunas"Tunas to go.

After that we found this little fruit stand on the side of the road. We got some of these. Honey sticks. None of us had ever heard or had any, and the lady said they kids love them, so we had to try them. They came in all different kinds of flavors, peach, cherry, rootbeer, and orange. They kids did love them! It kept them occupied for a while, it was really hard and slow to get the honey out, but we were in no rush, our 12 hour trip back home was just getting started!
And we also got some of these. Nectarines. They were really, really good, very sweet and earthly. I have never tasted one like this. My mouth waters just thinking about it. So good, they were worth taking a picture of! We took a small country road that we were on for half of our way through California. The scenery was beautiful, it gave us something to look at, good thing or we would have gone crazy! Did I mention our radio went out just as we were getting ready to head back home. Aaron left the keys on while we were inside the house saying our good-byes and that drained our battery. We had to jump start the car and that left our radio dead, we needed a code to restart it , I guess it's an anti-theft feature it comes with, and we did not have the code. We still don't have it 'til this day. We need to take it in to the dealer so they can fix it.

Anyway, there a cow in this picture, is that little black dot in the distance.

Another picture we had to stop for. This white fence went on forever and I thought it would make a good picture. There was a tree orchard on the other side of it, I think they were apples or something. Anyway, this is me trying to get artsy with my camera (is that even a word? artsy) Isn't the sky beautiful?
We came to this view point while we were driving through a canyon. The guy who took the picture didn't do a good job, but that's what we got.
I was really nervous taking this picture. In case you can't tell, there's a big cliff behind that little wall the girls are sitting on. The wind was blowing strong, so I had Aaron on standby. I think this is the quickest picture I have ever taken.

The girls did awesome! We sang, we sang a lot. We played "I spy!" or as Naomi says "Io veio!" (Yo veo) She can't help having an accent. We read books. We stopped for lots of potty breaks, including one on the side of the road in broad day light (for Naomi of course). We draw pictures. Played with toys. They napped!

They are the cutest little girls ever! They did so good, not much crying or complaining. Jocie took like three naps each way, and they were both out by night time. Aaron did not let me help him drive, he drove 12 hrs straight coming home. We left California at about 1 pm and got home at 2 am. He did awesome too!

We had a nice trip.

Thursday's Night Out.

Last night we were able to spend and evening together with Daddy. He's so busy, we don't get many chances to do a lot of things as a family, except for going to church on Sundays. Yesterday he took the day off from his church calling and decided we'd go do something with the girls instead. We all really needed it. The Tabernacle Choir rehearsals are Thursday nights, so we thought we'd go see Grandma Kelli! The girls have never heard or seen her sing live. We record every Sunday's Broadcast and watch it before or after church, and that so far, had been the only times they get to see her. Naomi even looks for Grandma's face in the TV, she's actually pretty good at finding her and Ncoyo (sorry, I'm sure I'm spelling it wrong).



So we told Naomi, we'd go see grandma Kelli and she was really excited and looked forward to it all day long. The Choir is amazing! The only times the girls would sit still was every time they Choir would start singing, and then they would smile and clap when everybody else would start clapping to. We kept pointing Grandma Kelli to Naomi, and telling her where she was, but I'm not sure she ever found her. Then Grandma finally spotted us and very discreetly gave us a little wave. "I see her papi!" That's what Naomi said.



We didn't stay long, we were there for maybe 30 mins and then decided to head back. Jocie has had a runny nose for the past couple of days and wasn't feeling very well, but we finally got the girls to see Grandma Kelli sing live! Naomi woke up this morning talking about it- "Papi, grandma Kelli was singing"



Grandma is a very talented woman. She does everything from baking, crocheting, quilting, sewing, singing, playing the piano, scrap booking, to genealogy, and on and on. Did I mention she has a PhD? I told you she was talented! I only hope I'm doing enough to help my kids appreciate her and love and learn from this amazing woman. We love Grandma Kelli!

On a funny note. Yesterday on our way to Temple Square Naomi spotted a motorcycle driving next to us and after letting us know that there was a motorcycle she continued to say- "I want to ride in a motorcycle!" I had to think about it for a few seconds and then asked Aaron -"Did she just say she wants to ride a motorcycle?" We both just looked at each other and laughed. Who know were she got that one from. I think we are in big trouble!

A day at the Wheelers Farm

I am so behind on posting things I think I'm never catching up, and on top of that I have more things piling up that are happening mean while. For example, Naomi's B-day party this past weekend. I will get to it next, mean while I will share with you about our day at the Wheelers Farm.

I'd been wanting to take girls there for a while. So I invited my cousin Evelin and her two babies and we went. I had heard about the milking the cows and that was really my motive for going. Come to find out that part of the whole experience only happens once a day at 5:00 PM. We were there much earlier than that, so unfortunately it did not happen for us this time. Maybe next time.

To top that off, the day started off on a bad note. I will tell you about it. We were all hungry by the time we got there, around 11:30 AM. We spotted a nice pic-nic table under the shade of a tree and headed that way to have our lunch before getting down to exploring and running around. To make long story short, Naomi got stung by a pesty bee, while we were trying to eat our lunch. ARRGH! I saw the whole thing happening, from the dumb bee going after her peach, landing on her little hand, to hearing her scream of pain. I was so mad at myself and that bee! DANG you bee! You got what you deserved! LOL. Anyway. Naomi was such a trooper though. I rushed her to their offices there and good thing they had we needed. Candy and a little antiseptic swab thingy. Don't forget the band-aid. Band-aids are like trophies or something, she loves them so much she will look for the tinniest little scrape just to get one.

After that we bought some food to feed the ducks. I guess the ducks were either very hungry or excited to see the food they charged at poor little Alex and Naomi. They both dropped the food and escaped running. It took them a while to warm back up to approached them again and finish what they had started.

Then we got to the cows. Naomi being the big sister that she is, led the way for Jocie while she stayed back trying to decide whether she wanted to get close or not.

Then Naomi decided to stick her arm in through the fence and got scared when the cow looked her way. Can you see her face? She screamed and closed her eyes as she tried to pull her arm out, and I got the shot. She was fine, just a little startled.

There's something about ponies, kids are just drawn to them. Jocie stood there giggling and clapping and talking to them. Same thing with horses, since I was little until this day, I wish I had a horse.

And Naomi just couldn't resist climbing onto the tractor. I was an old, broken tractor. I think is just there for decoration, the tires are flat and it's pretty dusty. I felt bad that other kids there wanted to climb up after seeing Naomi up there and their parents wouldn't let them. Oops! Am I a bad mother for letting my kid do that? I didn't see a sign that said not to touch or climb. I figuered it must be there as part of the fun. Oh well!

Dressed for the ocassion with his cowboy boots.

We took a hay ride around the farm. We looked at the chickens, the pigs, and the sheep and then headed home nice and tired ready for a nap!

Early Autum Hike

Playing with the leaves.
Covering her hears from the loud windy noises from the trees.
Who can resist throwing rocks into the water?

All the pretty colors.

A hairy caterpillar.

Trying to get some shots.

Before I got married, even before I met Aaron, I used to always think "I want to have an outdoors type of family" Now that I'm married I often find myself thinking the same thing. I feel that with the girls going to the park and my running we often end up "outdoors" but not the type of outdoors I would rather. Smog from passing cars, stop lights among other things are not exactly what I picture in my head when I say "outdoors" Well one morning I woke up thinking "We're never going to be and outdoors family if we don't get out there!" and I decided to replace our morning run for a morning hike! I called my sister Areli and she was more than excited to tag along. It only took us a about 20 mins to get there. Such a shame I have not taken advantage of such pretty sights and trails before.

The girls loved it! We hiked for about an hour and half. Naomi wanted to keep going, but it was getting late and we needed to head back for lunch and a nap. We found lots of interesting things along the way and I had a lot of fun watching them explore and seeing their reaction to things. The wind for example, it kept blowing really hard that the trees would get really loud and both Naomi and Jocie kept covering their ears. They were cute. I think it was a good learning experience for my little ones. We definitely need to go back before winter strikes.

Here are some pictures from our trip.

Always a step- or two, ahead of me.

We found a little stream and of course they wanted to take a closer look and touch the water.

Naomi thaught Jocie how to turn leaves into little boats. They sat there throwing leaves into the water and then watching them sail away down stream.

Tia Areli came with us. She was lots of help and fun. Thanks Tia Areli!

Were there not two of them?

The girls helped me bake some chocolate chip cookies last night. We had some left to put away and munch on today. After a very busy day they woke up very hungry from their naps. Dinner was not ready so I offered a cookie. Their faces light up with a grin.

"Here's one for you and one for you" I said. Naomi skipped away with excitement, eyes fixed on that cookie. Jocie followed... and then... stoped half way into the living room, turned around, walked over to me, stood by my feet looking staight up at me and...smiled with a twinkle in her eyes, turned around and continued on her way to enjoying that cookie. I stood there mezmerized at what had just happened, trying to save that little moment into my memory forever. If only I'd had a camera right then. Those are the little things that make motherhood such a wonderful thing.

What else could we have done?

I know that you are not supposed to tell your left hand what your right hand does, but I am really troubled and having a difficult time processing all this, I think I need to vent.

This past weekend we met a couple at our church. Both Aaron and I had noticed them coming for the past couple of weeks. We had said our his and how are you, but it wasn't until this past Sunday that we got to chat with them and found out they have been homeless for a while now. To top it off, the girl, who is only 18 is pregnant (the guy is 28). Remember how cold it was last week, yeah. Aaron tried to help them without compromising our family and we had both agreed that inviting them into our home was not an option. Aaron pointed them somewhere where they might be able to rent for cheap and told them that if that didn't work out the girl could come stay at our house if she wanted. They showed up at our door step Tuesday night. We invited them in, talked and were ready to stand to our word of letting the girl sleep in our basement. Soon after that, actually, after a very long talk, it changed to letting them both stay in our basement. We were really nervous about it, but felt compelled to help them. After all they had open up to us, told us about their tragic and very traumatic lives, and were now asking for our help.

The guy told us of his struggle with alcohol, so we put him in contact with someone we know who attends the AA support groups. He went one night, but didn't want to go back. Today, after they came back from looking for a job he went straight downstairs and slept the rest of the afternoon. His girlfriend came and hung out with me while I made dinner upstairs. She said he was tired because he went to sleep late last night and woke up at 4:30 this morning, only getting about 4 hrs of sleep. I was very straight to the point and asked her if he had been drinking, that was one of the conditions under which Aaron let him stay, that he couldn't drink or he was out. She said that he had not been drinking and that she had talked to him about how important it was that he wouldn't because she understood how that would worry me with two babies and a complete stranger living in my basement.

Then it was bed time and I was getting the girls ready for bed. I couldn't find Jocie's osito and remembered she was with me in the office downstairs while I searched the Internet for a recipe for dinner, and that she must had left it there. I headed downstairs to look for it, and even though it is my house, I always knocked before coming in. They wouldn't answer so I let myself in...and that's when the smell hit me. It was alcohol. I went upstairs and told Aaron he needed to go see what was going on. It took him a long time to come back upstairs and when he did he was accompanied by the two of them. They said thank you and went out the front door, again into the cold, dark night. I told her, as she was leaving that if she needed anything she could always come back, remember, she is 4 months pregnant.

I'm still seating here, wondering what I could have done more than giving them warm meals and a place to stay for two days. Aaron and I had this plan were we would get him to agree about going for a three month detox, while she stayed with us, no charge. She could work and save up for them to get their own place and star new. With him clean he would be better ready to be a better dad and a better husband. That worked out perfectly in our heads. Why would he not think the same? He didn't. Aaron offered it before they left, and he said no.

We took a chance. We knew we were compromising the safety of our family and still don't understand why we did something like that. We had faith that Heavenly Father would protect us for trying to help two of his children, at least that was our prayer.

We learned that in cases like this it is very difficult to try to help someone when they won't do much to help themselves. But then again, how can they help themselves when they are trapped in their addiction and the addiction controls them, not the other way around. How can you make them understand that they can have a better life when that life is all they know, all they were given?

As for that little one, I will always wonder. It will always hunt me even. Still, is there anything more I can do?

Harvest time!

I tought for sure our green beans were not going to bloom. I had lost all faith when finally one day we went outside to check just in case, and they there were! Baby green beans!

Our tomatoes in the other hand, were not so succesful. Two years in a row and I have not been able to figure out how to grow tomatoes! Everybody else's gives plenty of BIG tomatoes all the time! No, this are not supposed to be cherry tomatoes. They are supposed to be big, plump, juicy tomatoes! What is wrong with me? Still, Jocie loved to eat them. Naomi is not a fan of tomatoes, so she would take them off to give to little sister to enjoy. Third time is a charm? I think that's how the saying goes. So we will try again next year.

Good old squash never fails!

We got plenty of this all season long!

Our green beans finally came in. We planted this after mother days just as someone adviced me to do. Waited, and waited until one day it finally happened, later than I was expecting, but they came, just as it had started to cool down. I think the heat of the summer was not very good for them, so they waited until summer was over. The girls were all over them eating them fresh off the vine, Yummy! Finally all of our waiting payed off.

Ready to eat!

Enjoying the fruits of our labor.


Cute little Jocie eating green beans.

Yummy!

Bird Watching

There is a family of sparrows that comes back every year to our neighbors home. They have made their nest along the side of their roof. We can see them across our backyard from the girls bedroom window. Last year we hung up a feeder from our big tree in the back yard so we could have them over and we could take a closer look. This year I had a better idea. We hung the feeder right outside the girl's bedroom window. It took them a few days to finally work up the courage to venture into coming closer to us and letting us watch them as they'd eat as long as we stayed very quite and very still or they get scared and fly away. The girls loved to see them up close that a lot of the times it was hard to contain the giggles and jumping out of excitement. Even then we were successful at going unnoticed many times. We also hung up a humming bird syrup thingy, but none ever came. We have seen them around the neighborhood so I know there are some around here, they just haven't found us yet, maybe next year. Now our feeder sits alone, no visits from our feathered friends. I have tried to explain to Naomi that they have gone somewhere warmer for the winter. She asks, Where? "Somewhere warmer" is all I can say and that next year they will be back along with new babies. So here goes a shout out to our little friends, wherever they are: We'll see you next Spring! We will be waiting with more food!

I took this picture with the flash on and scared the little bird away.

Got it!

Naomi waiting for someone to drop by.

Summer catch up

I was going through my pictures trying to select some of my favorite ones to print and I realized how many things I have to document here. I am so bad at scrap booking that this is the best thing my babies will have to look back on and know how their childhood days were spent. My blog will still be here in say... 10 yrs, right?

So the next few entries will be me trying to play catch up so just bare with me.


Our first visit to the aviary


We live really close to my favorite park in the whole wide world- The Liberty Park. The girls and I have spent many mornings there, feeding the ducks, playing in the playground, cooling off in the little water park during the summer, or for myself, running. For the past 2 yrs I have been telling myself every time as we leave the park- "Next time we are here we are definitely going to the aviary" And it finally happened a few weeks ago after I mentioned it to my neighbor and she said she'd been wanting to go too! So here are some of the pictures from that day.





My neighbor said some trees had fallen over during that really windy storm we had sometime last year. They got creative and used them to make something fun. They also made some benches that I did not take pictures of.



Notice Naomi does not have shoes on. She throws them off EVERYWHERE we go as soon as we get there. She is my free spirited child!

I think I see why that theory about dinosaurs evolutioning into birds. See the resemblance?

Another funny looking bird.

This one is actually kind of cute.

Taking a closer look.

Trying to feed the peacocks, while they kept getting further and further away.

Having a little something-something to eat.

Jocie took a ride in the baby carrier, thus leaving her out of the picture. But she had a lot of fun too. She kept pointing to the birds and talking to them. Always paying attention to what's going on.