Being Positive

One of the things that I am working on this year is trying to stay positive no matter what, it goes hand in had with not getting frustrated or complaing about things.  It is turning out to be a little bit harder than I thought but I am still trying to stay positive.  It is interesting to see how people act and I would love to know what is going on in their heads when they do the things they do.  I mean why on earth would you assume that I am going to be OK with you taking a decision for me??  I have no idea but it is really annoying and as much as I want to go and ask this person WHY? I am going to let it go and just write this little post for myself so I can get it out of my system and move on, also turn my other cheek and hope that it doesn't happen again.

Pinewood Derby

What a difference a year can make.  Last year we were introduced to the wonderful and exciting world of Pinewood Derby.  We had no clue about how to do it but we did our best and Victor had fun which was the most important thing.  I remember him being over excited about getting 4th place (which was the last place since there were only 4 racers).  Aside from not having a clue about how to make one of those cars, we barely had any tools to shape it and the one that we had broke... anyways.  We had to get it done so we got all the tools that we needed, special paint, extra parts, weights, etc.  We spent more money than I care to spend on a little thing but Victor was happy with the result, his car looked cool.  We also took 2 weeks to get the shape that he wanted. This year I spent $0.00, yes that's right.  I didn't know any better before but now I have grown wiser.
Victor's uncle Steven has tons of tools at his house and Dan asked him if they could bring by the block of wood to shape it for him.  He did and it was a job well done (Thank you Steven for your help!!).  We only had to give it the extra details and sand it down.  It was all done in a day and a half.  Victor painted a bright blue all over and a fire design on the sides.  When it was done it was all shiny.  The tires are still the tricky part for us but I think we did better than last year.
All in all what I love about last night's experience is that Victor had a positive attitude just like he did last year and he was glad to just be part of the race.  His friends had some clever ideas too and he even told me which one was his favorite, a Ninja design car.  It is great to see him appreciate the effort someone else put into their car.  So he came home with his special Pinewood Derby pin which he said to me in a whisper "My first trophy ever" and that my friends made it all worthwhile.

 Here we see his car in action, not sure if this is the one that got 1st place... it happened twice.

 His awesome car with the shiny paint job.

 Taking second place in one of the races

The winners of the night.  What an exciting night is was!

Kahlan's First Birthday!!

And so it begins, my baby is no longer a baby. She is official 1 year old and cuter than ever.  This year sure past way faster than expected but I can say that we truly enjoyed every single day with her.  My sweet baby woke  up a happy baby and as always took her morning nap which was nice of her so her mom could get the house in order for her baby party.  Yes I thought it would be a great idea to celebrate my last baby's birthday.  I just wanted to get together with the ladies in my ward that had their babies around the time I did since they are going to be Kahlan's future friends.  My mom was so nice and helped me clean up and prepare the food, she even dusted my entertainment center... that was something I was dreading for a while.  Dan stayed home from work today and took the opportunity to hang out with Aaron while we had the party and they had a great time at the movies.
We had about 4 babies show up each with a sibling and their respective mothers and one of them even brought her grandma... it was a lot of fun watching all the babies interact and try to take carrots and sippy cups from each other.
Kahlan oppend her presents and we then enjoyed watching her destroy a slice of birthday cake.  She sure made a huge mess with it.  She would not do it later for her daddy so I am glad we got a video of it.
She liked all her presents and we are so grateful that her little friends could come over to celebrate with her.
I am looking forward to many many more birthdays with my little girl.

Sharing food with her friend Charlie

The guests

She got a baby doll.

 Of course all babies love the bows and wrapping paper more than the actual presents...

My friend was kind enough to take a few pics while I held Kahlan so we could blow the candle.

 Ready for cake!!

If you give a mom a camera...

 On these two I used the sharpening technique. 

Chances are she is going to ask you to pose for her and then she is going to take more pictures and if they turned out great chances are she will keep doing that for ever or until the camera breaks.
Let's hope the camera doesn't break.
It has been now a few months since I got my little toy and I have been having fun with it but was not 100% happy with my pictures.  I have seen some beautiful pictures taken with the same camera and they look amazing but of course these people know what they are doing, me... not so much.
But beware because I have discovered the wonderful world of sharpening and reducing noise on Photoshop and I love it.  How in the world did I not know about these stuff before?  In any case I am teaching myself (like with everything else I do) how to make pictures better.  I might not have the best camera in the world but I think I can learn to make it work for what it needs to do. So here is an example of my first edited picture on Photoshop.
Even better, just recently I discovered what actions were and there are endless possibilities now for my photo editing.  A friend of mine who is a photographer (I have some really awesome photographer friends who share their wisdom with me) has been giving me some pointers and I am so happy with what I have learned.  So you might see more pics than usual... as if that is even possible :)

 These two pictures were done with actions, The one on the bottoms if you look very close you can notice how I turned her eye pink by mistake... trial an error from here.

My First Young Woman

 And so it finally happened, Shayna decided it was time to grow up and turn 12.  She left behind the Primary programs, free meals at Denny's which she was very excited about because now she can a lot more.  She could not wait to be done with being a little kid.  Funny thing is that she will always be my baby no matter how old she gets to be. 

 We opened presents early in the morning and was excited about all her presents.

 She is turning out to be quite the artist so we got some expensive (with coupons not so much) crayons and a drawing kit.  Her grandma sent her a copy of The Hunger Games too and she already finished it 5 days ago.

 She loves her baby sister and when she plays with her she still shows signs of being a little kid.

I didn't have time to make a cake because we spent the day together shopping and going to the movies with her dad.  We had lots of fun and hope she had a memorable day.
Being my first born she will always have the first of many and they are usually exciting but turning 12 it just makes it a little bit more real that she is not really mine and one day she will be gone.  I feel grateful and honored to be her mother, she is a very happy person and has a lot of love to give.  She is having a tough time with her friends and the things she sees at school but it is good to know that most of the time she remembers what she has been taught at home and church.  We are proud of her and her decisions and whenever she needs a little help we are here for her.
Some facts about Shayna: 
-She has been walking on her toes ever since she was a toddler, it looks painful but she says it is not.
-Shayna loves animals and if she could she would live in a farm or a zoo.
-Shayna is bilingual, she needs to learn a lot more vocabulary but she is doing great.  She was actually translating for cousins since was 3 years old.
-She loves to read and stays up till late at night with her light on... she always gets in trouble for that.
-She loves music and playing her French Horn, even though she doesn't take piano lessons anymore she is still learning on her own with a little help from her dad.
-She is very flexible.
-She actually knows more about computers than I give her credit for.  She put a movie together that they filmed with her brothers.
-She is very creative, her sewing skills have improved since she got her sewing machine.
-She has a great imagination and it has always shown with her stories.
-She is a great kid all around, I love her so much and really do not know what my life would be without her.  I don't regret having my first baby when I did, she made me so happy from the first time I ever saw her.  I love you Shayna!!!

New Year's Eve

We danced with the kids for a little bit.

Kahlan being cute.

Tristan and Aaron asleep.

The last week of the year always goes by really fast. We have so much to do and so little time.  We had some problems with our fridge and so we had decided to go and check out the place where we got it from and figure out a way to order the part for our fridge... things never go the way we want them so a decision was made to buy a new fridge and part with the old one.  We didn't really cook a big meal this year because of the fridge so we went out to Denny's that evening as part of the celebration for Shayna's birthday.  The evening was spent watching two movies that we all enjoyed a lot and eating some goodies like crackers and cheese, piggies in a blanket which were a huge success and some other munchies.  We had our traditional grapes at midnight and made 12 wishes that hopefully will become a reality or probably will end up forgetting about. The two older kids made it till midnight and the younger ones fell asleep on the floor and couch.  Shayna and Victor went out into the street to bang on pots and pans to make some noise since we didn't have fireworks, it was fun until fire ants started to crawl all over us and sting out legs... fun memories.
Shortly after we went to bed and started our new year very tired but glad that we had a good year over all, despite all the horrible things that happen, they are temporal things that will go away and we do know that being together and healthy is all we need.  I am hoping to change my attitude this year and I know that it will change the outcome of things to come.
I am so very grateful for everything we have and for the special blessing we received this past year, specially for my wonderful first year with Kahlan which was just amazing.  She was probably the one thing that kept this family afloat with her infectious smile and beautiful eyes. There is not a single moment in the day that she is not making us happy, even when she is asleep all we do is talk about her.  Of course the rest of the kids also made us very happy and we are so proud of all of their accomplishments and the awesome job they do at school.  I admire Shayna for being so strong in her decisions and finding her own voice and letting me know what she wants to do with her life so far, she will have my full support.  Victor was brave this year when he decided to come out of his element and joined the Trash Can Band at school, we all were in shock when he told us he was going to try out for it and after he got in we could see how much he truly enjoyed being part of something musical, the best thing is that he chose to do that all on his own.  Tristan has been proving everybody at school what a smart little boy he is and how far advance he is with his reading, keep those books coming because he reads them fast.  Aaron my faithful companion is also a smart little boy, he is so observant and has a great memory.  We can't help but laugh when out of the blue he will come up with some interesting conversations and they actually make sense.  I love my kids, I love my husband, if you take all the other stuff away I might just have the perfect life :)

Feliz Navidad

I know it is so late to post about Christmas but I could never find the time to do it.  I can't say that it was one of the best Christmas for us but I am going to say that I am glad we were not sick and we made it alive.  The kids were very happy and had 2 whole weeks off school to be crazy and go to bed late and do all kinds of fun stuff.  For Christmas my mom and I made some home made tamales which was a first for us dong them together.  They turned out delicious and traditions were passed down form the grandma to the grand daughter. The Christmas tree was filled with presents for the kids mostly and some for the big people.  The kids really enjoy buying presents for each other and wrapping them too, it is a lengthy process having 5 kids because you can't all go shopping at the same time so Dan and I split up and take the kids shopping by themselves.  We only did 4 presents this year for each one of the kids and I really liked that.  It has been my goal to downsize on the amount of presents they get because I notice how unappreciative they can be many times and they don't know the effort that goes into getting their presents.  It had become more about the quantity than anything else.  Since my mom was visiting we did things a little different this year so we could accommodate her and also deal with the short time we were going to have on Christmas day since church was so early for my mom. she had church at 9 am and Dan had choir after that.  I was planning on going to church but Aaron woke up sick and I had a terrible back ache.  I could not move from my bed and ended up all medicated and Aaron lying down next to me in my bed. The family had to go without me.  I am glad the girls got to wear their cute outfits to church the Sunday before because they looked so cute.
We actually oppened presents before we went over to Steven's house on the 24th, it felt weird and I don't think the kids liked it.  They still had to wait for Santa's presents to get here the next day.  We went over to Steven's house after we had our dinner, which were the delicious tamales.  We spent a couple of hours over there acting out the birth of Jesus, did some caroling and let the kids exchange presents.

 Kahlan opening her first present ever.

 Brotherly love, doesn't get any better than this.

 My sweet baby and her dad.  They are adorable.

One of the Christmas gifts that we have been enjoying a lot is a Roku, you ca watch Netflix, Huly and other streaming choices out there.  Now we don't need to use Dan's laptop to watch movies or our favorite shows upstairs.  We love it and recommend it to everyone.