Slide Show of Daya's Birthday!

Alfredo's cousin's daughter, Dayanara, turned five. Her birthday party was Saturday. The girls had a great time at the party. We also were able to visit with many of Alfredo's relatives. Michelle has gotten quite good at hitting pinatas... she shows it no mercy.

You're the best dad ever!

Michelle and Ella must have said that 10 times yesterday. They love their dad, as do I.
Alfredo does so much for our family, but yesterday he just about outdid himself. Here are all the things he did for our family in one day, after working at least 55 hours the previous week:

*before the girls and I even woke up, Alfredo went to Lowes. Our toilet handle had broken a couple of days before, and he fixed it.
*He also bought and installed two new swings for the girls on their swing set.
*he mowed the front and back yard.
*he figured out why the maintenance light was on in the minivan and fixed it
*a friend had a trampoline that he didn't want, so Alfredo went and picked it up, brought it home and assembled it and spent some time jumping with the girls
*he took us to his cousin's birthday party and took many of the photos for me during the party, played with the girls, and helped them have fun... also, during the party, his elderly grandmother got tired, so he took her home and then came back for us.


(Michelle loves the new trampoline and told everyone about it at church today!)

We love you! You ARE the best dad ever.

April's Reads... for my records

Life You Longed For by Maribeth Fischer
When Secrets Die by Lynn Hightower (both of these first two were about Munchausen by Proxy syndrome... both novels, both interesting)
Point of Entry by Peter Schecter (novel about terrorism)
The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh (set in India, about tigers and dolphins, quite good)
Persian Pickle Club
Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz (so-so)
Havoc by Jack DuBrul

strange dream

I often have bizarre dreams during pregnancies. This time I had a few early on, but I really haven't had any for a couple of months. Until last night. I dreamt that I went into labor...at only 32 weeks, which was the first weird part. Then my mom and stepdad were here (they live in Arizona). They refused to let me go to the hospital. They said that since I had Ella at home and had no problems, I'd be fine to have this baby at home too. And they wanted me to think of all the money we would save if they delivered the baby themselves. I tried to point out that first, we have good health insurance and second, this baby was very early so that I should definitely go to the hospital. But they would not let me leave. Then as the dream progressed, I found out that their main reason for not letting me go to the hospital is that I was only 18, and Alfredo and I were not married and they were upset that we were having another baby again (yes, we did have Michelle and Ella already... guess I started having babies at 13). I told them that I was sorry they were upset, but could we discuss it all AFTER I had the baby. At about this point, I woke up. Grateful to NOT be in labor, not be only 18 having my 3rd child, not be forced to have my baby at home and to know that I am married! :) Pretty crazy.

tagged

Okay, Shannon, here it goes. But I think I get a break from being tagged for awhile now.

1. What I was doing 10 years ago:

I had just graduated from BYU. I was just about to start my first teaching job. (I hadn't been hired yet at this point, but my first year I taught sixth grade at Mountain View. I then moved down to fifth grade for the next four years.) I was still living in Provo at the time, enjoying my last few months with my roommates, working part time, interviewing for jobs, and wondering where life would take me. My hope/plan was to find a job near Provo and stay near my friends but the job market seemed pretty saturated with teachers. I also followed leads in Granite and Jordan district. In Salt Lake District, all I did was mail in my application/file. They just stumbled upon me somehow. Boy am I glad now. I love where I live and I think Salt Lake District is the best.

2. What 5 things are on my to-do list for today:

Well, as it is 10:30 at night, my to do list for today is to go to bed soon. But here is what today's to-do list entailed:

take girls to preschool, clean out their old room (organize toys in their new room, take unwanted things to DI, vaccuum, etc), have Bryce and Sylas over to play, take girls to our "edible art class", go to Xaria's birthday party, go to Young Women's (and yes, I realize that is more than 5 things)

3. Snacks I enjoy:

Ice cream. Granola bars. Fruit, especially watermelon and strawberries and nectarines. Yogurt. Apples with peanut butter. Nuts, especially almonds. Every once in awhile, popcorn.

4. Things I would do if I was a billionaire:

Pay off my house. (Alfredo would say move to a different state and to a bigger house, but really I'm pretty content here). Make a few changes to my house (new carpet, new tile ... I currently have linoleum, add a garage with an extra bedroom on top). Quit teaching until my kids were bigger. (or perhaps forever, but probably not). Take some vacations/travel. Give some money to Alfredo's family in Costa Rica and, if they'd take it, to my family. Give most of the money away to charities and/or the church's humanitarian efforts.

5. Places I have lived:

Utah(birth to 3 months, age 18 to present). Arizona (3 months old until 18 years old).

TTA--Favorite sounds

Hmm... this one seems a little harder. What sounds do I love?

I love hearing my children talk (almost all of the time). It is amazing how their language skills evolve from just crying to babbling to single words to short phrases to complex sentences with often crazy, silly or interesting things to say. Side note: Ella has a regular talking voice and a "make believe/pretend" voice. When ever she is pretending, she shifts into this higher pitched voice as if she is the mom. It's too cute.

I love hearing waves lapping or crashing on the beach. (Since the beach has been featured in both of these Tuesday Tell Alls so far, you might think I visit the beach often. In fact, I have been to the beach less than a dozen times in my life, and yet I love it and wish I could go there more.)

Music. ... I find some classical music very soothing and calming, although I don't listen to it much. I mostly love/relate to/listen to country music. Not all country music, but most of what I listen to is country. Often it seems to have lyrics that I can relate to.

When Michelle was a toddler, I loved to listen to Michelle's cry. I hated that she was crying, but she had the best cry I've ever heard. She would totally trill her r's as she cried. In a big group of kids, I always knew whether it was Michelle crying or not, because no one cried like her. She has her daddy's spanish blood. She doesn't cry like that anymore, and I'm not sure if I ever captured it on video, but I hope I did. It was priceless.

I love to hear Ella say "Mama." She has never really called me Mommy, but always "mama". There is something so amazing about the way she says that one word... not just that she's talking to me, although of course that is a big part of it, but there's something so sweet about it.

I'm sure more will come to me later, but for now, these are my favorite sounds.

handy manny... i mean Michelle

For those who don't know, there's a show on Disney channel called Handy Manny about a repair man. Michelle really likes this show, although I don't think she's seen it for a couple of months now. Today after we got their room set up, we ran back to Ikea. They had a shelving system I wanted for storing toys (about the same as yours Shannon). I'd seen it at Ikea, but wanted to look around and see if other stores had anything better. No one had anything I liked even half as much, so we went back to get it. Michelle was eager to help Alfredo put it together, helping to assemble it and put in screws.

Such concentration
"This is hard, Daddy," she said.
She even got a chance to use the electric one to put in a screw.