Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year! Since David's mom is in town, we wanted to show her what a traditional Thanksgiving dinner was like. We had her, Javi, Jose and Priscilla (Jose's girlfriend) over to our house, and I tackled the entire meal! It was crazy! Turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, jello, rolls, pie... I thought I'd timed everything okay until that last hour or so hit and I realized I still needed to do the gravy and all that last minute stuff that takes longer than you expect! Thankfully, everything turned out pretty good. :) The turkey was actually easier to do than I'd remembered. My visiting teacher's husband got one at work, but they weren't going to use it so they offered it to us. It had a little thing that popped up when it was all done cooking - getting it cleaned and in the oven was just a bit tricky. David handled that part. I made my first pumpkin pie and forgot a number of things - first I forgot to buy a pie tin (we're not big pie eaters, normally) and then when it was cooking in my round 9x9 cake pan I forgot it in the oven! I had to peel off the top part that had burned, but I'd covered the crust with foil and no one knew anything bad had happened. :) We also bought a yummy french silk pie (mmmmm... chocolate!) so we had the best of both worlds!

After the meal we visited around the table for a while, watched some football, took turns dozing, and scoured the Black Friday ads. We also put up and decorated our Christmas tree! I could hardly wait to start the Christmas season! We ended the day watching a Christmas movie and making our shopping plans for the following morning. :) It was a great day!

I really have so much to be grateful for. I love my wonderful husband and kids. They are everything to me! I'm so thankful for all that they teach me, for their love, and for the joy they bring to me. I'm so grateful for the Savior and for his gospel and the peace and hope it provides. I'm thankful for the closeness I share with all my family members, and for the opportunities I have to spend time with them. I'm thankful for my freedom, good health, and our many temporal blessings. I love that we have a holiday to reflect on all that we have to be thankful for, something I know I need to do more often.

Here are a few more random pictures taken throughout the day... I love these kids so much!!

(Matty made this tower and thought it was "so super cool" - until it fell on his toe!)

Our fancy night out

This Friday, David and I had the opportunity to get all dressed up and go to a "gala" at the Grand America hotel in Salt Lake.  I loved getting all fancy!  It was so much fun, and certainly not something we do all the time.  In fact, I think this was the first time we've gone to a really formal event since we've been married!  The event itself was sponsored by the Utah Hispanic Business Leadership Foundation and it was to honor some fifty students that had received scholarships through the foundation.  Since State Farm had sponsored some of those scholarships, we were invited to go and help represent State Farm.  There were ten of us altogether, and it was a nice opportunity to talk with some of the people David works with.  I hadn't realized it beforehand, but I had dressed in State Farm red. David was proud. :)  I have to admit I spent hours trying to find a dress (something that's definitely not easy with three kids in tow), so I'm glad I got the color right, at least.  David looked very handsome in his "black tie" attire, and I've decided I wouldn't mind going to formal things more often!  It helped, too, that we got to enjoy fancy, delicious food - filet mignon, rasberry truffle cake...  Yum!  Definitely a change from our normal Chinese takeout. :)  It was a little tricky leaving the kids, and we had to leave pretty early to get back to Ariana before she needed to eat again (she's still never taken a bottle).  Maybe next time we'll stick around for the dancing - that is if my feet can handle being in heels for so long!  I was in pain even before we'd sat down for dinner!  It was all really fun, though, so I wouldn't mind putting up with sore feet again in the future.  Everyone needs a good excuse to get fancy every now and then!

We took pictures at my sister's house when we left Ariana with her.  David wasn't too excited about taking pics, and yes, his eyes are closed in this one. Oh well. He looked great in person!

Ariana at 7 months

Time is going by so quickly and Ari is growing so fast!  She's sitting really well now, eats solids enthusiastically, and seems to be working on cutting her first tooth.  She still wakes up once a night (or early in the morning) to eat, smiles a lot, and babbles every now and then.  She's most content when she's jumping in her jumperoo, chewing on something, or being entertained by Bryan.  And she grabs at everything!

Here are a few pics from this last month...  We sure love our little lady!

Catching Up

I'm really bad about blogging when I don't have pictures to include, and these past couple of weeks we've had too many boogers to be taking pics!  Thankfully, right now we're doing okay - we all survived our first colds of the season.  David was okay, but Matt, Ari and I came down with fevers, coughs, runny noses...  Bryan had a few sniffles and a cough for a few days, but he wasn't nearly as bad as the other two kids and I.  There's nothing worse than seeing your kids sick, especially when they're tiny like Ariana.  She was so congested, I was afraid she was going to get an infection of some kind, but she pulled through really well.

Of course I was worried we'd gotten the flu - swine flu has been going around like crazy in our neighborhood these past few weeks.  But we weren't flat out in bed like other people I've talked to, so I don't think that's what we had.  I did get the kids swine flu shots a while back, and both boys and I have had the seasonal flu shot, so hopefully that keeps us safe.  I debated for a long time whether or not to get shots - I'm pretty wary about stuff like that - but decided to follow the crowd on this one.  The kids haven't had any negative effects so far, so I'm glad we did it.  It gives me a little peace of mind at least.  I'm sure we'll be hit with our share of illnesses in the months to come, but if we can stay out of the hospital and away from the doctor's office, I'll be thankful.   It's been just over a year Matty was in the hospital with his respiratory problems and that was the worst!  He didn't wheeze at all with this last cold, though, so that's definitely encouraging.

While we've been battling sicknesses at home, David's been busy building up his business at the office.  He's been doing really well and loves working for State Farm.  A couple weeks ago they invited him to speak to soon-to-be agents about how to start off successfully.  He loved getting to present and felt honored that they'd ask him to do it after being an agent for just a short time.  He certainly works hard, but he's also been good about making time for our family.  I expected to hardly see him at all this first year, but it's been a lot better than we'd anticipated.  The past few weeks he's taken the boys on a weekly "date," and while they've been off doing fun boy things, Ari and I have gotten to have some girl time together (shopping, mostly).  It's been lots of fun!  David and I also got to go on a little date this last week to a dinner for State Farm up at Thanksgiving Point.  I stressed for days about what to wear, but it ended up being pretty chill and I enjoyed getting to see David with the other agents doing his thing. :)

This past week I also participated in a program put on by our ward Relief Society.  We did a musical of The Ten Virgins and I got to play the part of the foolish virgin, Nava.  Yes, I was foolish - forgetful, mostly.  I had a few different speaking parts and had to sing a solo, which I haven't done in years!  In fact, I can't remember the last time I sang anything all by myself!  Put me in a group and I'm fine, but singing a solo is a totally different thing.  It was scary, to say the least, and I did forget some lines (fitting, since I was playing the forgetful virgin), but overall the performance went really well.  The spirit was certainly present - all of the songs are so touching - and I'm grateful I had the opportunity to be a part of it, even if it did require me to go quite a bit out of my comfort zone!

So now that we're feeling better and David's work dinner and the performance are over, all I have to do is look forward to the holidays!  I really love this time of year.  I'm thinking of putting up our Christmas decorations early so we can enjoy them longer.  Christmas music is already playing non-stop on the radio and we had our first good snow of the year yesterday...  I wouldn't mind welcoming Christmas a little early.  We are doing Thanksgiving here this year so we can show Mali what a good American Thanksgiving is all about.  There's nothing wrong with celebrating Thanksgiving with the Christmas tree already set up, is there? :)

Happy Halloween!

I haven't always liked Halloween - it's always been a little too dark and scary for me. But then I had kids and discovered how much fun it is to dress them up! I love Matt in this dinosaur costume. The tail's the best part! His favorite part was getting to roar at everyone. :)Bryan's been obsessed with Star Wars lately, so he insisted on dressing up as Anakin Skywalker from the Clone Wars movie. His favorite part, of course, was the lightsaber!To get the most use out of the kids' costumes, we decided to go trick-or-treating in downtown Provo in the afternoon. All the businesses around Center Street gave out candy from 1:00 to 3:00, so it was a fun way to pass the afternoon. Unfortunately I had a bad cold with a fever, so I stayed home while David took the boys out with Jazmin, Mali, and Javi. Bryan's costume came with this mask which seemed so freaky to me! I never let him wear it when he was around me, but he liked it, as did a bunch of the other kids out trick-or-treating.Poor Matt ended up coming down with a fever as well. We think it's an ear infection... He wasn't feeling too hot by the time they were done.Later in the afternoon while Matt rested, Bryan and I finally carved a jack-o-lantern. Bryan had been waiting to do this for days!He was a little grossed out by the pumpkin guts...We got some plastic gloves and then cleaning out the pumpkin wasn't so bad.Bryan really wanted a mean-looking pumpkin, and he liked making mean faces to show me what it should look like. I think he was pleased with the finished product, though you wouldn't know it since he's got a mean face on.Here's Bryan showing off his stuff at our ward's "Trunk-or-Treat" activity.Matt tagged along after he'd started feeling a little bit better. He got a hold of way too many dum-dum suckers, though!And here's our little strawberry! Well, big strawberry - she looks like a tomato! :) At least I love tomatoes just as well. Ari had a cold, too, so she hung out with me at home all day. I was really bummed that she didn't get to show off her costume, but at least we dressed her up for some pics.
Nate and Allison and Jazmin and Landin came and joined Bryan and David for some trick-or-treating around the neighborhood to finish off the day. We took one last pic before they left and I put the little kids to bed.Despite sicknesses and everything, I think we all had a fun day. And even if I didn't get to go out and enjoy trick-or-treating with the kids, at least I got to see them in their costumes. :) Happy Halloween!

Like mother, like son

Matt loves marshmallows, as do I. It's one of my favorite treats. Many times I'll find Matt hiding behind the recliner with a bag of marshmallows he's snuck out of the pantry. Little stinker. I can't get too upset at him, though, because I sneak marshmallows all the time, too!

That's not the only way we're alike. Matt tends to be a little wuss sometimes. He has to defend himself a lot to Bryan, "I'm NOT a wussy! I'm NOT!" I'll admit, though, that it's totally my fault. I think he inherited my wussy gene. I get scared so easily over the smallest things! David has many stories to tell to prove it, I'm sure... But I'm surprised Matt survived the Halloween season as well as he did. He just about cried when he saw our jack-o-lantern! He's said about so many things, "That be scary!" He even said that yesterday about a picture on the "Cars" movie cover, though I'm not sure why. And then last night he came into our room and wanted to sleep on the floor by our bed. After a short while he woke me up again whining that he was "scared of the crack," pointing to the gap between the head of our bed and the wall. I couldn't blame him, poor thing! When I was little I used to stuff the "crack" next to my bed with all my stuffed animals so I wouldn't get scared. I'm afraid he's going to have to learn to toughen up fast or he's going to get it bad from other kids as he gets older. :) His dad and brother give him a hard enough time about it now as it is!

Another way we're alike is we're both really emotional. I always said that if I never got a girl, I'd know what it was like because I'd had Matt. :) He starts crying if you look at him wrong, like at breakfast today when he dumped his oatmeal onto the table. His bottom lip sticks out super far and the wailing begins. He has a really loud, high-pitched cry, too, which is different from any other cry I've heard. I remember being in the 2nd grade and crying because my teacher used a stern voice with me. I wasn't even in trouble - it was just the tone of her voice that set me off. Matt doesn't like being in the spotlight either, just like me. And he can have quite the temper when he wants to, just like me as well, I'm afraid.

I hope that as the years go by I'll find he's inherited some of my better traits or talents. For now, I'll enjoy cuddling with my marshmallow-loving, over-emotional, wussy of a boy that I love so much! And hopefully when he's older he'll forgive me for calling him that. :)