The slide show below shows you what we did today. The day after Thanksgiving is very important to me because it is when I get to decorate for Christmas, this is one of our family traditions and I am very obsessive about it. Poor Dan probably gets kind of nervous about it, because it has to be done, no matter what. Before all the decorating we went to a park that Steven and Amber discovered and it sounded like it was pretty fun. They have lots of trails there and trees everywhere, there is a pond and you can feed the turtles if they ever come out. There are also fire ants and poisonous snakes (fun fun fun). We walked on a trail and then looked for a nice place for our Christmas family picture and it turned out great, we only took the one picture and everybody smiled (except for Aaron, he was busy). The kids played afterwards and then came home to eat and decorate. The tree looks really good and the rest of my decorations all over the house. November is a tough month for me, getting older and thinking about my Dad always gets me down, but I try to keep myself busy so I don't think too much about it.

Day After Thanksgiving

My new look

Sorry Katie, I didn't mean to copy you, I decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving every year, so I thought my blog deserved a little something too. We had a great Thanksgiving and I am just waiting to go shopping in a few hours. (I love Black Friday).

One more thing to be grateful for...

So as most of you know when we left Utah we did not have any idea how things were actually going to turn out here, we just knew that we had to come. It is the second time in our lives that we just take off and leave knowing that the change will be better for us and also hoping that things will eventually fit into place. It has been 5 months now since we moved here. We started immediately to look for a house and job, and we had luck finding our new home, but the job thing wasn't as quick as we wanted it to be. Dan was lucky enough to find a temp job that would take care of us until the end of the year and we have been waiting to hear from them about a permanent job offer. There has been a lot of praying and fasting done lately and I had been assured that things were going to work out for us. Our Heavenly Father heard our prayers and Dan will be starting as a permanent employee at Hewitt (they do mostly Human Resources stuff) on the 8th. So for all of you that were concerned about us, don't worry we will be fine. If you were worried you can imagine how we felt these last few months. I just have to let everyone know how grateful we are for all the blessings that we have had in our lives, just when you think that things can't get better something happens and life seems a lit bit easier. I know Dan didn't really want me to say anything, but I think this is a very big thing and I wanted to share.

JUST BEFORE THANKSGIVING

It is so late right now and can't sleep thanks to Excedrin (the only pill that takes my headaches away). I had a nice day cleaning up and rearranging furniture, I also got together with my sister in law Amber to work on a quiet book (Book of Mormon theme). It was all going great until after the kids came back from school. I could feel it coming and knew that the rest of the day was going to be awful. I have suffered from migraines since age 13 and they come and go but these headaches have been really bad lately.

Having Thanksgiving just around the corner makes you think about the things you are thankful for and I thought it would be a good idea to name a few:
- My husband, for being always there for me all the time and for being able to stick around even when I get so moody.
- For my kids and their different personalities that make them so unique and special.
- For the time I get to spend with my Mom when she comes to stay with us, priceless moments that will last forever.
- For the Gospel, because it guides my life and makes me want to be a better person and gives me the hope and knowledge that we can be together forever.
- For friends that I have met through out my life, back at home and here in the US, every single one of them has taught me so much and they are like a priceless collection. (I wish I could bring you all with me where ever I go)
- For my blog and Facebook because without them I could not get in touch with my good friends and family.
- For my two crazy brothers, because no matter how much we fight and how many differences we have, you are still my brothers and I love you a lot. Nunca dejaran de ser mi primer familia y les amo mucho.
- And last but not least, my husband's family, so many of you have welcomed me in your homes and treated me like family, for that I will forever be grateful because when I was away from my own you were there for me.
I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving Day.

Lazy Saturday? I think not.

So the car window on the driver's side broke and we couldn't fix it ourselves and we had to wait for 3 days to take it to the shop. Dan went really early to the car repair place and they will fix it for us ($$$$$ Yeah!!!). In the meanwhile they let us rent a car for $9.00 a day and were able to go out to the Mall and let the kids play for a while. We had lunch and then went to a couple of stores to get supplies to make my new creation. I made a Diaper Cake for a neighbor that just had a baby girl. I have seen them before at a consignment store and I know they sell them for a ridiculous price, you can never go wrong with diapers for a newborn, but I think it is kind of lame to just put them in a bag. So this idea is very clever and whoever came up with it is really smart. I was able to use a package of 50 diapers (Luvs, my favorite brand) and got a couple of baby items to decorate it with. I used some left over lace and put a bow on the top. I think it looks cute but it is definitely not perfect, there are a couple of things that I can make better next time. It took only 30 minutes to put it all together so I ended up cleaning the kitchen, then got so carried away while Dan was watching the kids play outside that I even vacuumed, and on a Saturday, can you believe it? Saturdays for me are sacred, I don't like doing anything other than relaxing and spending time with my lovely husband and kids, but it felt really good to clean up, oh yeah, did I mention that Aaron threw up in the middle of the night? Yes he did, and didn't even cry, he just kept sleeping on top of it and when I got him out he was very stinky and the blankets were all dirty. So I also did laundry at 7 am. I have gotten a lot of things accomplished and it's only 3 O'clock in the afternoon. Now I don't know what to do with myself. I guess it is time to relax. Sometimes I love being a house wife.

We woke up early this morning to get ready for a very important day. My poor kids were so tired and sleepy they didn't want to get up. We were able to get them ready in half an hour and then off to the Ceremony. We got there around 6:30 thinking that it would start right at 7 am. We were soooo wrong. We were told to go get something to eat because they would start at 10:00 am. My sister in law Amber was there with her baby Olivia and she was so nice to take my kids back to her house and keep them occupied while we waited there for 3 hours. It helped us a lot.
Amber and the kids made in time and the Ceremony started. There were probably about a thousand people, I might be wrong, but there were lots of people. The Judge was really nice and the whole thing seemed like a dream to me. I had waited for this for months now and I didn't know what to expect really, my brother Nefi and my sister in law Tashia went through this experience before and it is not the same for everybody. It was exciting and also sad for me. By becoming a Citizen of the United States I am letting go part of me, I know that words can't explain exactly how I feel, but all I can say is that I am blessed for having this opportunity and I am looking forward to a lot more experiences in my life just as exciting as this one. I am glad I had my family with me even if my kids were acting like... kids? I feel bad for them in a way because they didn't really now what was going on and it took a long time. But I am grateful that they could be there, and also for Amber's support.
Just know that in my heart I will always be Guatemalteca and I wont forget where I come from, my home, my land, my culture. I am grateful to live in a country where they let you become one of them. So thanks everybody for your support and friendship. I can say now I AM PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!!!


Aaron and me waiting, later Aaron fell asleep on the floor.




































Family picture, Amber and Olivia, Ceremony Oath and me taking the Oath

I am getting old :(

My birthday came and went (I am 32 now). I had fun celebrating during the week. On Thursday I went out to eat with my Mom and on Friday, Dan went with the kids and my Mom to the store to buy me some presents after work. I told them that I didn't want anything. The bird was more than enough to make me happy.
They came back and decided to give me the presents that same night (I don't think they wanted to wrap them). The kids got me garden decorations, kitchen scissors, I got a delicious chocolate cake and cheesecake (I'll probably gain like 10 lbs). I got tons of my favorite chocolate too. On Saturday we went out to eat at my favorite restaurant, Pollo Campero and the food was sooo good. After that Dan took us to a Go Kart race track since I liked it there when we went for our Anniversary. It was the first time for the boys to go on one of those and Shayna did it years ago and didn't remember. They all had a blast going really fast, we got two seaters so they could come with us cause they are too small to ride on their own. My Mom watched Aaron while we had all the fun :)
Driving back home we found a huge Flea Market and we just had to go see what they had. It was pretty cool. There were lots of Hispanic people so it felt like we were walking in a market back at home. The prices were really cheap for a lot of stuff. We are definitely going back some day. It was kind of cold and we didn't have any sweaters, so we had to leave earlier than I wanted to. We went to an indoor flea market that we know just to show my Mom around some more and she liked it too. We then went home and played some Rock Band with the kids and then went to the park, where we also got really cold and had to go back home because the kids were freezing. But I really had a great day, Dan made sure that we did everything I wanted to do and I think it was really sweet of him. He gave me the most amazing card yesterday and it made me cry. I know I am pretty lucky to have a husband as nice as he is. He really does love me. I am posting a picture of me when I was a year old and in the other one I was like 3 or 4.
My Mom is now gone and I am going to miss her but knowing that she will be back next year makes it all better.

Stuff

I love blogging and can't stop. I love reading blogs, posting my stuff and then reading the comments. There is something about staying connected with other people that makes me happy and also I love that we can save all this stuff for the future. I just noticed today that I have 102 posts on my blog and I couldn't believe that I have written that many posts.
Anyways yesterday we had a fun day, since my Mom is living on Sunday we kept the car so we could go shopping and my Mom wanted to take me out to eat to celebrate my birthday. We went to eat at a Mexican restaurant and we ate so much. It was fun to be out just the two of us (plus Aaron) and just talk and enjoy ourselves.
Tristan decided last night to throw away his "Mama", for those of you that don't know about it, that is his security blanket. Hi has had since he was 9 months old and loves it to death. Since he started school he thinks he is a big boy and doesn't need it anymore. We were so proud of him. We took a picture because it was a big moment in his life.
The home owner association sent us a little note to let us know what we need to fix so we can make our neighborhood look good. All we needed to do was get rid of some weeds in our flower beds. We don't have that many weed but since we don't have colorful mulch in the flower bed like the rest of the neighbors, our bushes look like weeds from afar. We got the supplies yesterday and today I got busy working on it.
It is always fun for me to work on my gardens or anything that has to do with dirt. It also makes the house look prettier. So here is a picture of the before and after. My next project is the spot around the tree, but I need to get a shovel for that, so we will wait until next week. The last picture is of Tristan with his Mama in the trashcan.

Good news

Last night I went to pick up what I thought was going to be junk mail at my brother in law's house and I was very happy to see a letter from the INS people. They finally sent me my appointment for the Oath Ceremony and it will be next Wednesday (19th) at 7 am. I don't care that it's going to be that early, all I want is for this whole thing to be over. I am very excited and sad too because my Mom wont be here and probably nobody else will be there with me to celebrate except for my husband and kids. That is all I need :)
So next week I will be officially a Citizen of the United States...

Family Home Evening.

I know that I have been posting a lot lately but it is because this things need to be written down for my kids to read in the future and see how they made me feel. It is really weird how you can go from feeling frustrated to being so full of joy and amazement for your kids. The toy thing did happen and I feel great about it, there were tears and some mad feelings towards me but I know this will help. So Shayna had told us on Sunday night that she was going to be in charge of FHE for the next three weeks because she had them all prepared. We try to be really good about it every week but when Dan gets home late it's kind of hard and I guess Shayna really enjoys having them every week. She spent a good 3 hours putting the whole thing together and she had scriptures, activities, everything planned out and also translated a little bit for my Mom. The lesson was about service and she did great, she had us do a puzzle and write down how we can serve each other. I took a picture of the puzzle and also a picture of how Tristan gives service to Aaron (by wiping his little behind). The thing is that I always feel like we are not teaching them the right way but by seeing my 8 year old trying so hard to teach us a lesson and to know that she already has a testimony of the things that we have been teaching her, it makes me feel like we are doing something right. I can't really explain how I feel but I know that somehow they are getting it and they will be Ok, they are good kids I know that, they do try me everyday but they are good kids and I am grateful to be their mother and can't imagine my life without them. I hope that they realize how much they mean to me, I tell them everyday and make sure that they her the words "I love you" even when we are mad at them.

That is it!!!

Yesterday I was very frustrated with how things work on Sunday. I always get up very excited and hopeful that the kids will behave and try to avoid getting punished for it. We have a simple rule, you sit there quietly and try to listen or you get sent to your room as soon as you get home. I guess they must like the punishment because somehow they always manage to fight with each other or talk too loud, or Tristan cries because he wants to do something, I understand that the sacrament meeting can be boring for the little ones, but also remember how we used to behave as little kids during sacrament and moving around or crying wasn't part of it. Tristan won the prize yesterday because he was the worst one and insisted that he had done a great job behaving... by the end of the meetings I had a huge headache and when we got home I had to lay down for a couple of hours. Mean while Victor in his room took Tristan's matres off the bed and all the toys were on the floor. Shayna's room didn't look any better either. A family in he ward invited us over for dessert at their house and we had fun there, I was just surprised to see their house, it was huge, very elegant and most of all it was clean and on a Sunday!!! I don't know how they do it but my house doesn't look like that at all. I have tried everything to teach my kids to keep things organized and to put away the toys when they are done playing, they can play all they want that is the reason we get the toys for them, but the cleaning part never happens. So last night I decided that today while they are all in school I am getting all their toys out of their room and wont give them back until they can prove to me that they will behave at church and they can be responsible for their own messes. I know this might be a bit extreme but I don't know what else to do. We always try to teach our kids about their actions and consecuences and I know they understand it, but for some reason they choose to ignore it an do it anyways. I know we are not perfect parents and this punishment is probably far from what anybody else would do, but something has to be done right now before it gets worse and they grow up. Why is it that other people have perfectly well behaved kids and I don't? I am not mad at them right now, just a little frustrated and yes I still love them to death, I am just trying to teach them good behavior.

So little time so much to see and do.

Since my Mom is leaving next Sunday I wanted to go show her a cool park that we like a lot and also the Houston Temple. Dan and I haven't been to the Temple yet but we are planning on going soon. I think it's one of the smallest temples that I have seen but still it looks beautiful. While we were there we walked around the garden and took a couple of pictures and even found a squirrel. The kids liked it so much that Shayna wants me to bring her back just to sit around and look at the beautiful flowers. I know how she feels I used to do the same thing, just go to the Temple and stay outside and enjoy the wonderful feeling of being a little bit closer to Heavenly Father. The kids were good most of the time and they enjoyed going to the park and play in three different playgrounds. We just sat there and watch them play, they love to pretend and it is kind fun to see what they come up with. They had a little Chinese restaurant and the pine nidles were the noodles, they got some sticks were pretending to eat it all gone, even Aaron. The day was really nice, it wasn't hot and there was some wind so it made it really enjoyable. On the way back to the car we stopped at this Health Awareness thing they had going on and they had free games for kids, Dan still thinks that we were not supposed to participate but I thought it was fun for the kids to get some stickers for kicking a soccer ball and rope jumping. They were having some presentations and all of the sudden this guy starts to give instructions on how to to the Salsa and Merengue and every time I hear the music my feet have a mind of their own and can't help it but to dance. I forgot all about being shy and stuff and took the kids over there to do some dancing, it was so much fun and I am sure Dan was embarrassed by it because when I turned around he wasn't there anymore. Tristan danced a little bit and Shayna tried a little bit too. It was no more than 10 minutes but it felt good.
Early in the morning I took Shayna to the last part of the testing for the Gifted and Talented program and my Mom and I went to a couple of yard sales. I found a cute little love bird on sale for $50.00 and it came with the cage. Dan wanted to get me something for my birthday and since I didn't know what I wanted he was told not to get anything for me. When I saw the bird I decided that it what I wanted and bought it. Dan was very excited because he knows how much I love birds ( I had two talking parrots back at home). Her name is Tuki Tuki and she is very cute. The kids love her and she loves to talk to Aaron since they are both very loud. She did great last night, after we put a cover over her cage she got really quiet and didn't make a sound until the kids woke up today.
I love having pets specially if they are easy to take care of. Our turtle Franklin is still alive and healthy. So this was my day yesterday and I liked it, we had fun, spent time together, listened to some good music in the car and took my Mom places she hasn't seen before. I hope she enjoyed her stay with us, we sure have and look forward to have her come back in a few months.

My 6 quirks

I was tagged a while back again and I couldn't do it. Things just get crazy around here. I am sure everybody did it already so I am not tagging anybody unless you read this and haven't done it yet... then tag you are it.

Here are my 6 quirks.

1. I like to start everything from left to right, for example when we go in a store I have to go in the left side always, it messes me up if I don't do it that way, I even forget what I was going in for.

2. I love to count stuff, I do it all the time all day long. I just sit there and count the corners on the TV, pictures on the wall, walls in the house and everything has to add up to 15. It is very entertaining and sometimes people think I am not listening when they talk to me.

3. I do my laundry by colors, I know most people put blacks and blues together, but I can't. I have to do a blue load of laundry, a black one, a green one, a red one, you name it... that is why it takes me a while to do my laundry :)

4. I have a place for everything and this drives me insane because my kids get all their things out and never put them back in the same place. I get really irritated if they don't do it my way. I am trying to teach them to get organized.

5. I follow the same steps when I take a shower, I never change that. I even stand in the same spot facing the same wall.

6. When the dishwasher soap is gone I have to get a different kind the next time, it can't be the same brand or have the same smell, same with the hand soap. And the toilet paper has to be in a way that it falls towards you not the other way. I am weird.

1st. Day of School for Titi.

After school






I am so happy for my little Tristan. If you know the whole story about the cut off date here in Texas you will understand why it is so exciting for us to be sending Tristan to Pre-school. Today he woke up ready to go but had to wait until 11:30 to leave for school. His teacher is really nice and she was expecting him today. He wasn't sad to see me leave and I have cried with my other two kids when they went to Kinder for the first time. I guess he has been waiting for this day for so long that he didn't care about me which is understandable. I took a couple of pictures to remember this day. His teacher said that he was so good and he didn't need any help. He had lunch there and got a couple of friends. He is so lucky, my other two never went to pre-school. So we made it through the first day and the only disappointment for him was that there was no homework today. Oh well, he will have to wait until tomorrow, that's right, school is everyday for him :) He is gonna love it.

Preschool, Dan's Birthday and Halloween.

This will be kind of long, I hate writing like this, but I need to remember what the events of the last 3 days were like. It was Dan's birthday on Thursday (32) and I wanted to make it a special day for him. I had planned to get together with Amber that day to work on a quiet book that I am making for Aaron too, but after going to school that morning I found out that I could put Tristan in preschool if I got all his shots before Friday. Needless to say I was very excited and decided to cancel my craft activity and take Dan to work instead so we could keep the car. I made Dan a special breakfast with sausages and eggs and everybody woke up early to eat with him, we gave him cards and hugs and kisses. My Mom babysat for me while I took Tristan to the Health clinic, where we got all 6 shots to bring him up to date and I was charged only $4 (My poor little boy, he says it was only 2 shots). After that I took him to Dollar General to buy some Children's Tylenol and a prize for being so good about it. He found this weird looking car that was priced $1 and I was more than happy to buy it for him, he also got candy. At the register we realized that the toy was discounted and it only cost 1 penny. I was so excited, silly right? Anyway, we got the information to the school and were told that he could start school on Monday, he will be in the PM class. He is sooooo excited now. The funny thing is that when he found out he needed to get shots he didn't want to go to school anymore and it has been his dream for a long time. He will do 2 years of preschool until he is six and can start Kinder. After school we went home to bake a cake for Dan and got dinner started, he loves Lasagna and garlic bread so that is what we prepared. I went to pick him up and then we had dinner at home, Steven and family came over to say Happy Birthday and gave him a present, it was a good day and we had lots of fun. At night I went to bed with a discomfort in my ear and by the morning it got worse. I took the kids to school where they were going to have a parade and I wanted to go see it, but my ear ache grew stronger by the minute. I couldn't go and took three Ibuprofen, I am sure that is way more than I should have taken, but it made me sleepy and was able to lay down on the couch to keep an eye on the kids kind of. I wasn't going to ruin Halloween for anybody so we got all the kids ready and the candy and went outside with my Mom, she actually took them for me so they could get some candy before Dan got home, then Dan took them the rest of the way. I guess they had fun. At night things got worse and I was literally dying of pain, I can honestly say that it was worse than having a baby, I couldn't get any more Ibuprofen and Dan went to the store to get me some ear drops. They didn't help, he gave me a blessing and stayed up with me for a while until I sent him to bed because he had to work on Saturday. I didn't sleep at all. I drank all of Tristan's Tylenol which made the pain go away for a little while. Shayna had a test on Saturday for the Gifted and Talented so Dan took us there at 8 am and then went to work. Since we don't have an extra car I had to figure out how to come back home. A nice Hispanic woman probably realizing I didn't look well at all took pity on me and gave me a ride home and then offered to come back for me and pick Shayna up. She did and I am so grateful for that. I am planning on doing something really nice for her, we exchanged phone numbers and addresses. Dan took me to a walk in clinic to be seen by a doctor, they injected me with some steroids to bring the swelling down and I am now taking three different medications, antibiotics, pills for the pain which are WONDERFUL, and some drops for the ear. Not having health insurance makes it very expensive but then again, I don't usually get this sick. After taking all the medicine I felt worse and had to go lay down and cried some more because the pain was unbearable and eventually fell asleep for 4 hours, it felt so good. I didn't even kiss my kids good night. We watched a movie and finally ate after 36 hours. Dan is so great and I could see he was worried about me. On the way to the doctor yesterday a cop pulled us over, for some stupid reason and were able to get away with no ticket, but it was just another thing that made our day look very bad. I felt that we were being tried very strongly but prayers work, and I know our Heavenly Father loves us and he will always keep us safe. I had a great night compared to the night before and hope to have a better day. My mom and Dan deserve a trophy for all they have done in the last two days, I hope they know how much I love them. Sorry this is so long. Don't forget to check out our slide show at the bottom of this post.

Halloween 2008