Saint Louis, MO

What an amazing weekend we spent at Saint Louis, MO! Boy was it cold, I had to go and buy snow boots because none of my shoes were fit for the weather (25 degrees!)- my feet were freezing! Here are just a few pictures we captured while there (couldnt get them all turned correctly, I'll fix them later):

We went to see the famous Gateway Arch and it was truely amazing. Some interesting information about it is:
Height- 630 Feet
Width- 630 Feet also
Architect- Eero Saarinen
Built- 2/12/63-10/28/65
Weight- 17,246 tons
Projected Life- 1,000 years!
Stairs- 1,076
Cost- $13 million
Outer Skin- Stainless Steel
Annual Visitation- 3.4 Million



Here is the view from the very top of the Arch looking out, very beautiful.


We also went to see the Museum and that was soooo much fun. Robert and I went with Kurt and Shannon and we had a blast. There was so much to do and not enough time to do everything! This museum was made with nothing but recycled items. There was a monster slide from the 3rd floor all the way down, HUGE aquariums with everything from Salt water fish to crocodiles and snakes. We also made snowflakes while listening to a story about a wounded butterfly.

LOL... I still laugh everytime I see this picture...

This was so much fun! But it's a lot harder than it looks! The next day I was really hurting in my arms and back! I thought it was the bed at first, but it was too sore to be the bed. I felt like I got a beating or something, Geez! Wont be doing that again anytime soon... well who knows 'cause it was fun!

Hurry up and take the picture before it attacks me!


The biggest underwear in the world...

Monkeying around

On our flight home I read 2 incredible books:
I ready "Balcony People" and that was pretty powerful. It made me take a close look at myself to see if I truely was a balcony person, or a basement person. I'm working on applying these principles in my life right now and making a concious effort to be a balcony person to everyone I know.

The other book I read has to be one of my favorites:
How to Have Confidence and Power in Dealing with People.
This book I will definitely be re-reading over and over again until I master the principles in this book. This book really helps you understand people and the way they think and act and how you should deal with them in an effective way. I love this book!

My Cousin's Wedding

I've been wanting to post this for a while but haven't gotten around to it. My gorgeous cousin Omar Reyes got married to a beautiful bride Letty on 12/29/07. Here are a few pictures from the beautiful wedding.

The dollar dance is always so much fun.



Little Robert dancing the dollar dance with the bride. He had a huge smile the entire time.

My hubby and me capturing a memory of us at the wedding.

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.