Random Pictures!

I bought the kids the movie Ratatoille and made them some popcorn. I thought it was so cute to see them sitting together eating popcorn. It was so funny to see Ryan's both hands in the pot the entire time! I mean the entire time! The only time he lifted a hand was to put popcorn in his mouth, other than that both his hands stayed inside the pot. It was too cute I had to take pictures!




Here's Ryan coloring his menu at Olive Garden

Little Robert is smiling for the camera and waiting for those breadsticks!

I've been working a lot with little Robert lately to make sure he's ready for kindergarten! He LOVES painting, it must be one of his favorite things!

And of course the alphabet. This one I'm struggling a bit, he knows the ABC song but I'm really trying to get him to learn his letters. I know he will, we just have to keep practicing.

I bought him a Pre-Kindergarten set of Hooked on Phonics and I absolutely love it! It makes it so much easier for me to teach him, it's much more structured and exciting for him. Each booklet comes with a poster and each time he completes a page he gets a sticker on his poster. I told him once he filled his poster with stickers and he reached the "I did it" block on his poster he would get a surprise. He was so excited and now he is expecting a "surprise party" which is really motivating him to fly through these pages!


Here he is at urgent care. My poor little man is always getting ear infections. This time he had 1 in each ear. How I wish I would have breastfeed him when he was little because healthwise I can see a huge difference with him and his brother (I did breastfeed Ryan). It was mostly because I was inexperianced and ignorant as a first time mom knowing nothing about breastfeeding. I just kept thinking he was starving and so I couldnt resist giving him the bottle. Naturally he preferred the easy bottle rather than working hard to get milk from me. :o( But he was such a sport at the urgent care. I just had to tell him beforehand he wouldnt be getting any shots (he's terrified of them, not to blame him!).


I took him to get his hearing checked in case it's been affected with so many ear infections but his hearing is perfect thank God!

Thank You!

A big thanks to all of those really nice comments on my pretty depressing blog a few days ago or a week ago! Geez! You know after I wrote it I felt better already. Sometimes you just need to let it out. Thanks for all the comments they really helped and it's really nice to have a circle of friends that are so sweet and awesome! ;o) I love you guys!

40 Days for Life




40 Days for Life
February 6th – March 16th, 2008

During the season of Lent leading up to the celebration of Christ’s resurrection, from February 6 – March 16 of 2008, our community will be uniting with 58 other cities in 31 states for a large simultaneous pro-life mobilization – the nationwide 40 Days for Life campaign. People of faith across America are praying that this effort will mark the beginning of the end of abortion.
40 Days for Life is a focused pro-life campaign that has generated measurable lifesaving results in more than 80 cities where it has been implemented. Some locations have reported as much as a 28% drop in local abortion numbers and hundreds of new people getting involved in local lifesaving ministry efforts. The 40 Days for Life campaign is made up of three key components:

• Prayer and Fasting: inviting people of faith throughout our city to join together for 40 days of fervent prayer and fasting for an end to abortion
• Peaceful Vigil: standing for life through a 40-day peaceful public witness outside local abortion mills
• Community Outreach: taking a positive, upbeat pro-life message to every corner of our city through media efforts, church presentations, petition drives, and public visibility

http://arizonarighttolife.org/40_Days_for_Life.html

Materials:
40 Days for Life Flyer - Baby
40 Days for Life Flyer - Mom and Baby
40 Days for Life Flyer - Family and Baby


If you would like to assist with 40 Days for Life please contact
Trent Horn – Program Specialist for Arizona Right to Life at
602-285-0063, or by email at trent@arizonarighttolife.org

or visit the 40 Days for Life - Phoenix Website at:
www.40daysforlife.com/phoenix

Sad Goodbye!

Okay, let me apologize ahead of time if this comes out depressing! Robert just left today and it was so hard for me! You'd think I'd get used to it since it's already been 8 months living apart! But you can never get used to it. I dont know about you guys but for some reason I try to play the strong one in front of him, I rarely cry in front of him but once he's out the door I'm bawling! Why is that??? Anybody else out there relate? I dont know why I try to act so strong and keep myself under control like that!?!?

Well today we went out to have lunch with our kids before he had to make the drive out to CA. After lunch it was time to go so he kissed the kids and we reminded eachother that this was only temporary and in less than 2 months he would do everything possible to get transfered back to AZ. So he left and once I hit the freeway I couldnt hold back the tears. I just thought about all the single mothers there are out there struggling all by themselves. And even though I'm not a single mom and I'm so blessed to have a loving husband, I feel like one sometimes because I'm here alone with the kids. Of course the music in the background had to make it worse. The song playing said:

Oh oh we need each other
So what’s the fighting for
Oh oh we need each other
Please don’t close the door
Oh oh we need each other
Through all the highs and lows
Oh oh we need each other
Cuz I don’t want to be alone

Dont you hate it when you're so emotional and then somebody comes to you and tries to comfort you by saying, "Are you okay?" Because at least for me, it makes it even worse because then I start sobbing! That's what this song reminded me of.

Sorry I kept this going I just felt the need to "Let it all out!" Inside I know that things are going to completely turn around for us in just a matter of a short time. I feel optimistic for our future, I just cant wait until Robert comes home and stays home!

Salt Water Fish- Jack the Shrimp dies!

Okay something really funny, well not so funny happened. Robert and I started a salt water fish hobby about a year ago and we're soooo passionate about these fish because they are so beautiful. Robert wasnt too excited about it at first and tried to convince me as well as many others to first start with freshwater fish because salt water fish are so much more delicate and difficult to keep. But I had a DREAM! Inside I knew I could do it if I just decided to learn everything I could about them. I read many books, researched a lot on the net and jumped right in when I thought I was ready. I couldnt give up the beautiful bright colors that you will only find in salt water fish. Well very quickly Robert grew really interested in them and also fell in love with this hobby! We're fascinated by them and want to own every fish species we can! Kind of crazy I know, but it's so addicting and we love it.

So about a week ago, I gave Robert the heartbreaking news that his favorite animal in the aquarium (Jack the Shrimp) had died. He was really bummed. Our fish are very healthy and most of them we have had for many months if not almost a year. So it was a bit of a shock also.

Anyway, when Robert came home last night our son little Robert now 4 years old gives him the news again, "Daddy, daddy the shrimp died!" And Robert pretended he was crying (deep inside I know he was! Just kidding!) Then little Robert tries to cheer him up and says, "It's okay daddy, it's okay, we put him in the trash!"

... kids say the funniest things and they're so innocent! Here's a few pictures of our aquarium:




I discovered we have tons of small seastars in the sand while I was cleaning the tank. They're so small and blend so well that its almost impossible to find them! How cool is that though, that over time the aquarium is full of life!



Here below is a really cool fish called a Rabbitfish (they yellow one with black and white markings on his face). It's actually venomous so we have to make sure not to touch him when cleaning the tank! Then of course there's Dory (Blue Hippo Tang) one of my favorites, we've had her since she was a baby and has grown quite huge!

Poor Jack! This shrimp was so awesome, he was really friendly and would even eat from your fingers! He was really cool and actually would clean the fish in the tank like they do in the ocean.

Little Robert's Birthday Party

Little Robert's Birthday Party!!!

Robis turnes 4 on Christmas Eve but we celebrated early this year.  We took him to Amazing Jakes and invited just a few close relatives.  Of course the theme had to be Transformers since he's absolutely crazy about them!  Since that movie came out his vocabulary shrunk to: Bumblebee, Optimus Prime and Megatron.  He anticipated this day for weeks and was sooooooo excited!  He would ask me on a daily basis to get him transformer toys and I kept telling him he had to wait for his party and for Christmas because Santa was going to bring him some if he was good.  Then he would tell me that he has been praying to Jesus, here's what  he said:

"Mommy I told Jesus-"

 "Jesus, I want a transformers"

 and he said 

"Yes Sir!"

I laughed so  hard it was too funny.  Then he told me that he also told Santa the same thing and Santa also said, "Yes Sir!" (I have no idea where he got that!)  Anyway, we had tons of fun celebrating his birthday.  It was so awesome just seeing how excited and happy he was, it made it totally worth it.  It's hard to believe  how fast he's growing!

Ryan slept through most of the party!
Don't you love those lucious lips?  I just want to kiss them!

Weeeeeee!  Okay maybe he's getting too big for this ride!
Okay... so Robis wasnt the only one having fun...
Neither was Robert!  Girls rule I beat him!  Sorry honey I know you tried...  J/K I love you!  Man these things go pretty fast it was a blast!
Robis with his 3 cousins: Timothy, Austin and Leonardo.
Please be a transformer... please be a transformer (I know he was thinking this!)
"Wow!"
I kept telling him to give thanks after opening his gift, he was way too excited and would just raise his hand and say thank you! And he would move on to opening the next one...
Ha Ha... he looks so funny here!

Family Pictures in California

Wow, I havent logged on in a while! These are some family pictures we took at a really awesome park in CA. They were taken by my sister, Rocio in October on Ryan's Birthday. It wasnt the best time to take the pictures because Ryan was so tired and ready for a nap, but we got some good shots!