Balloon Festival

I know I am backwards on my posts but I really need to update the old stuff first.  About a year ago one of my friends went to a Balloon Festival near where she lives and when I saw her pictures I thought it looked like a lot of fun.  So I did a search on line and found that Houston has their own Balloon Festival every year (can't believe I did not know about it before).  I told Dan about it ever since and patiently waited for the day to come and take the entire family, what's the best part about it? It was only $10.00 per car for every one to go in.  We took two cars since my mom is here visiting but it was still a great price for the kind of show it was.  It happens at the NASA Space Center, kind of far but not so bad.  They had all kinds of displays, we saw the firefighters, the policemen took the kids fingerprints for me to keep in case they ever go missing, they had free coloring books and crayons, yummy food and some games for the kids do while we were there.  Since it was our first time there I didn't know what to expect and if we do it again we will probably show up just about when the balloons are supposed to show up because it was a long wait.  The frustrating thing about the show was that there was a lot of wind and they canceled it... yes I know but they still had their festival of lights once it got darker.  Sadly my husband could not wait any longer and he took the grouchy kids home with him.  My mom and I stayed with Kahlan so I could take pictures of it and then show the kids all the fun stuff they missed.  It was a firs for us and we thought it was the coolest thing ever.  Those balloons are huge and since it was windy at times also kind of scary.  The coolest part was when they had the National Anthem and right at the end all the balloons lit up in the dark, it was really cool.
We also got to see a lot of sky divers, model planes fly and little rockets go up in the sky.  They had some guy pull the hand glider guys up in the sky and they would fly over us the entire time we were waiting so there was something to enjoy while we waited.  Kahlan did great on her first long outing and didn't cry that much.
It was a LONG day but fun and I really want to go back next year and hopefully it wont be so windy again.

 This car was taken from some drug dealers and is now being used by the police, the cars were awesome.

 Only two balloons were allowed to take flight... still kind of cool.

 It was so interesting to see how they put the air into the balloons and how they make them go up, they need lots of man power for it.

 It look really pretty when they were all lit at the same time.

My first time at the shooting range.

Dan has been asking me for months since he got his gun to go with him to the shooting range.  I of course had the excuse of having the baby and not being able to go... but since my mom is here I had no more excuses and when I asked him what he wanted for his birthday he only had one request.
I hate guns, I don't feel any more secure with them than without them... it actually scares me more that there is a deadly weapon in my house.  Yes I know that the gun is safely sitting in a locked box but still.... maybe my fear of guns comes from a distant memory of when we were kids and we played with my father's gun thinking it wasn't real and later on were told that is was real (not sure if it was loaded).  In any case I went with him and was really OK with the idea until we pulled into the parking lot and the loud noise made it very real. I did not want to get out of the car and I think by that point Dan was getting very embarrassed... I made it into the building but jut barely, it was loud and I kept jumping with every single noise I heard.  We walked all the way out into the actual spot where you shoot and even with the ear plugs it was still loud and the casing kept flying every where, I got hit by those things in the face, shoulder, back...
We found a spot where it wasn't as crowded and started to set up but the one thing I could not figure out was how in the world we were going to put the targets out there, every body was shooting...  Dan calmed me down by explaining that they all stop shooting and then tell you it is OK to go and pin your target int he field... I was a mess I know.

We finally got our targets out there and Dan explained carefully how to load it and point and shoot.  I am telling you the first time was so scary and I kept jumping still, it took me a long time to finally feel comfortable with it and the noise but it eventually got better.  I do have to say that I am proud of myself for not being so bad at hitting the target. Dan says I was actually doing better than him but he is so competitive that in the end he did do way better than me.


All in all I have to admit that it was fun and I will probably go back with him in a few months.  I still don't like the idea of holding the power to take life in my hands and I don't think that I will ever be able to shoot any one even if my life depends on it.  And I don't know how soldier deal with bullets flying by them and the noise... it is SO LOUD!!!


I took this picture because I told Dan that these spots appeared to be blood, he said it wasn't but I am pretty sure what blood looks like and we were at a shooting range, chances are accidents happen... maybe some other lady got too nervous and accidentally shot herself in the hand???

Angry Birds costumes.

I spent a lot of time designing, cutting, measuring, making adjustments and of course sewing these cute Angry Birds costumes.  The kids were so excited and each one of them pick out what they wanted to be, even my mom got to wear one. I have to be honest, they are not exactly what I wanted them to look but we were on a budget and we had to do with what we could, so we didn't stuff them but I think I did a good job at making them keep their shape.
Dan got to be the slingshot since he is the tallest one, I was the box since I did not want to be a bird or a pig and if you know the game then you understand what those are for.  Kahlan's bird was supposed to have feathers on the top of the head but then we were not going to be able to see her face so we put the feather piece on her head and it look absolutely cute.
We went to the trunk or treat at the church and the kids had some chilly for dinner,





since we are not a chilly kind of family we didn't eat that much and afterward we went to IHOP for free meals for the kids, they got to decorate their own huge pancake for free and were barely able to finish it, it was the size of a plate.





 
Monday night we waited for Dan to get home, took pictures and then went trick or treating in the neighborhood, the kids got lots of candy and most of the people that saw the entire family walking around understood what we were supposed to be....
We all had fun and we hope everyone else did too.

13 years and counting!!

And so it is time to celebrate our wedding anniversary once again and it always surprises me how long it has been.  I was reminding Dan tonight that 13 years ago he gave me a blessing because I was so sick the day before the wedding and I wanted to feel good for it.  So much has changed since then, we have moved so many times, bought 3 houses and had 5 kids.  It has been a crazy ride, not in a bad way but you know what I mean. We have had our ups and downs along the way but we have tried to fix the things that go wrong and we support each other the best that we can and I love that about us.  Perfect couple?  Of course not, but a happy one indeed.  We are hoping for many many years more of sharing and loving and seeing our kids grow together.  I am so happy that I found the love of my life and that we were able to go ahead with our plans and get married when we did, I would do everything exactly the same way when did. Yes we were young, yes we probably did not seem like we knew what we were doing (because everybody had an opinion about us) but we felt it was right, we knew it in our hearts and til this day I do not regret one single thing.
I want to list in here some of the things that I love about my esposito, since he reads the blog often then I am pretty sure he will read this :)


- You are one of the kindest men I have ever met in my life, you give give give and never expect anything in return.
- You are also the most honest man that I have met (some times not a good thing).
- I admire how much you have grown in the last few years, there has been a change in you that happened naturally and it was for the better.
- You sacrifice your time for your family and are giving our kids the best example that you can.
- I love that we like pretty much the same things, of course there are a few things we disagree on but life would be boring if it was all the same.
- You are a very patient man and believe me, I know that I can be pretty intense some times.
- You love your kids so much and you always want to make them happy.
- You embraced my culture like your own... you always have.
- You make me laugh... every day.
- You know exactly what I am thinking some times even before I think it.

For these and many other reasons I love you, thank you for sticking around and for taking such good care of me, I hope that we can be best friends for ever and even in our old age laugh at each other's silliness.

25 is a good number!

Yes it is, that is how many pounds I have lost since I had Kahlan.  It might not seem like much but to me it is so exciting. Now let me explain something here, after I had Kahlan I lost 20 lbs just like that.  I was in shock because I only gain 16 lbs all together during the pregnancy so I did not understand what was going one, but a couple of weeks later 10 lbs made it back into my life and the stuck for a while.  Let's be clear about something, I have been trying to eat healthier since like 2 years ago, yes I have gone a little crazy every once in a while but tried to stick to a healthy "diet".  When I was pregnant with Kahlan I got Gestational Diabetes and had to go see a special doctor for that (not so fun if you ask me).  I had a monthly appointment with him and they checked on my numbers and gave me personal classes to teach me how to manage my blood sugars and all that fun stuff, when diet was not enough (which was not my fault by the way it is due to the fact that I am Hispanic and we tend to get this more than white people) they prescribed insulin for me. I am not going to get into all the details about it since I already blogged about this while I was suffering thought the whole ordeal.... anyways it was not fun.  So after I had baby Kahlan we needed to check on my blood sugar levels again to see if I by any chance had become diabetic for life... I did not (yay!!).  So at that last appointment while talking to the nutritionist I told her that I was planning on keeping the diabetes away from me by sticking to my diet and she said to me to not think of it as a diet but as a way of life.  Those words stuck with me since that day, if I see it as a diet it makes me think how annoying it is that I can't have two servings of something, or that I can't go out to eat every once in a while or that I can't enjoy my most favorite thing in the world "Chocolate".  So I have done what they told me and keep active, trying to walk every day if it is not too hot outside and when it is then I exercise at home.  So I have been doing that for a long time but no results until a couple of months ago that I notice that very slowly 10lbs came off without me trying anything different.
Ok so now it has been 7 months since I had Kahlan and nothing changed and voila the weight is coming off, so then it takes another month and another 5 lbs are gone... exciting right? Now I am super motivated to just keep doing what I am doing and before you know it it is 25lbs all gone.  Do I look like I lost weight?  Probably not but I know it and that makes me happy so 25 is a good number if you ask me :)
I am probably jinxing myself here but I don't care.  Do I still eat chocolate?  Sure, just a little piece of the dark chocolate and it makes my day go smoothly.  I am hoping to get back down to what I was after I had 3 kids, I was pretty comfortable with what my weight was back then and I am only about 13 lbs away from that.
I probably should not write this but I am so proud of my husband too because he once again joined me in my "healthy" life style and has lost officially 20 lbs too, He is doing great and we can see the progress in him a lot.  Our clothes are a little looser now and that feels great.
We still like to enjoy ourselves and go get some fast food ( not that often) but we limit the amount of food that we get and avoid things like French Fries or like I do, I get them for the kids and get a few for myself.  I am so good at counting calories now that I can do it with my eyes closed.  I don't cook as much as I used to because that way we reduce the chances of getting an extra serving of food, we are salad lovers, yes even the kids fight over the salad and they even come back for more when they are done with it, they love it so much that we have it every night for dinner.
It does feel great to see that it is finally paying off after so long and I find myself with more energy than before and on the plus side my kids are learning about what foods are better for them and that vegetable are really not that bad, I guess it is a good thing that they all like carrots because we have been eating those thing like crazy.
PS If you are wondering what kind of "diet" we are doing it is just sticking to calorie counting and getting a snack in between each meal so our sugar levels are always evened out (if that makes any sense) and that way your body does not get as hungry, so we do 6 smalls meals through out the day instead of 3 big meals.  It works out great and we are less hungry during the day.  No worries we are still taking all the calories we are supposed to get based on our weight, height and gender.

Some days are better than others.

The story of my life, a sick kid... yesterday or should I say Sunday night Aaron woke me up around 2 am to tell me that he had thrown up all over his bed.  Sure enough there it was, a gross scene in front of me that needed to be taken care of before it started to stink the whole house.  We proceeded to follow the usual "sick routine" we have implemented for years now, we go downstairs, find the throw up bucket, a blanket and a pillow and the kid sleeps on the floor and I lay down on the couch waiting for the next event, yes you guessed it right... another puking episode. This can go on for hours or I could get lucky and it could only happen two more times but I was not lucky so we stayed up until 4 am with several trips to the toilet or if he was way too tired just sat there puking in his bucket.  I don't know why he got sick but as soon as it came it went away.  By the time it was time to get everyone ready for school he was hungry but I made sure he took some Pedialyte and had some crackers to test the waters and see if it was safe to eat food again.  It goes without saying that I was so tired and had no energy for anything else but my husband sent me a text letting me know he left his wallet at home (thanks to a cute little girl named Kahlan who distracted him in the morning).  So I took a two hour nap and then drove all the way to work to put his wallet in his car so he could drive home and not worry about cops... with our luck we better be safe than sorry.  On the way to his job I encountered traffic due to an accident and it took me 25 minutes extra to get there, then I got lost and that was another 10 minutes, then on the way back another accident... Seriously what else can go wrong right?
But I made it back home in one peace and in time to wait for a sweet little girl that I had promise my friend I would watch after school.  The day went smoothly after that and we had our Family Home Evening as usual.
Today I was still tired from the day before so I was able to cuddle with my Aaron on the couch and took a nap while the baby slept, then remembered that Aaron had a field trip to the Fire Station at 1 pm and in between doing laundry and paying bills I suddenly found myself running late out of the house only to drive to the wrong fire station not just once but twice... for a while I thought we were not going to find the darn place but I finally remember where the third one was and we made it 10 minutes late.  Everything seemed to be going well until I realized that I left my camera at home so I have no pics to show of how much fun Aaron had at that place.  We had made plans of going to the store with my mom after the field trip, so we took the road that I never take and guess what?  Another big accident and this time it took 30 minutes to get out of there, Aaron fell asleep, Kahlan cried for a while and it was hot so I told my mom to just forget it and go back home so I could feed Kahlan and cool off a little bit.  Seriously another accident?  Funny thing is that the fire truck at this accident was the one that Aaron took a picture with (with my cell) and he was all excited about it.  My day went on just like always and then remembered that Dan had to do a test tonight so I figured we were going to spend some 20 minutes together eating dinner and then we would not see him again.  That is exactly what happened.  So I took the kids to the park with my mom and we spent about half an hour kicking the soccer ball, running and just enjoying a nice cool evening with the kids. The weather was just perfect for me.
So far my week has not been the greatest but it hasn't been that bad either, some times life is just too much and I can't handle it and others I don't feel so stressed out about things that would usually drive me crazy.
It helps when you are determined to have a good attitude about life and realize that things can't be that bad most of the time.  So today it was a good day because we are all OK and we are together :)

My boy is 5!!

And here we go again, another birthday at this household.  This time is Aaron's turn.  Today we woke him up with the Happy Birthday song at 6 am and found him still sucking his thumb... he decided to stay in bed a little longer and then finally woke up to get his presents.  He was a very excited boy to get his presents so early in the morning.  He got a very cool train set and some building blocks (Mega Blocks) and some board games.  I took him out for lunch at BK and then to Chuck E Cheeses for some free birthday tokens.  He had so much fun playing with me all day and enjoying all his presents.  His Abuelita gave him a couple of presents too which I think were the favorite ones :)

Aaron at age 5 is still as cute as he was when he was a baby and so sweet and caring.  He refuses to stop sucking his thumb even though he was doing great for a whole month... He is enjoying his time at home with me and loves to watch old cartoons like Felix the Cat and The Littles, he loves to eat his very healthy snacks and no I am not being sarcastic, he loves yogurt, fruit, milk, grapes, apples, carrots and cheese.  I feel so blessed to have such wonderful kids even if I have some issues every once in a while but I do love my kids and Aaron shows me everyday why it is such a big blessing to have them in my life, he so innocent and things are so simple to him, plain black and white.  I wish he could stay in this age for ever, this is my favorite stage in their lives so far, I mean everything in the world to him and he kisses me all day long, hugs me everything time he enters the room I am in and when I want to lay down on the couch he always come to sit right next to me.  I love my boy and really hope I made his day special.  Happy Birthday Aaron!!!
And now a few pics from the past.


The day he was born, I know he is mine :)

This is pic is too funny because it looks like Tristan just shot him... he was a month old.

Big grin, two months old.
You can see how he is starting to suck on his thumb here, only three months old.

His first trip to VA and sporting his Redskins attire.  4 months old.
Being loved by Victor, look at those blue eyes. 5 months old.
I promise he is my baby, he might not look anything like me but I know he is mine.  6 months old.
Another cute smile and more Redskins clothes, 7 months old.
Taking a bath and yes he is sucking his thumb in there too. 8 months old.
He always looked so good in blue, 9 months old.
Taking a shower in food is always good. 10 months old.
This is the best picture that I could find of him at 11 months old, he is so white...

1 year old!! He got his first haircut the day before and he was not thrilled about the whole birthday thing, can you tell?
2 years old
 3 years old and this is one of the last pictures taken with his Grandpa Brown.  He loved him so much and still talks about him.
 Last year after he turned 4, he was in PK3
 And finally 5, wow he has grown up so fast and he looks so handsome, this is my awesome boy Aaron and I hope he never changes.