long overdue

On March 30th my beautiful niece had a lovely wedding. This was a great opportunity for me to get away and enjoy my family down in Arizona. My kids got to meet their cousins and get some serious sunshine. When we left home, we left a soggy, rainy ID. We had an overnight layover in SLC with my awesome little brother. From there we continued on our journey south to the land of sunrays. Following I will post some family pictures. My camera went MIA for the wedding so I have none for that special event. Karo, my niece looked absolutely stunning, she looked like a real live princess. I am so happy for her and wish her and Jerry the best of life as they start off their journey together! And now, la familia mia.

Franklin and Latif

Daniela, Isabella and Andrea after some awesome kareoke....yes they are cool chicks!

beautiful Daniela

Luis and Julio chilling

mi mama y yo....she is so petite I look extra grande next too her

Martin & Franklin watching Puss 'N Boots for the 7th time

on our way to some gorgeous canyon to hike a desert paradise

parecen Japonesitas las primas

goofy face time.....my kids are experts at this.

the Rock where we can rest our burdens

I just had to have a picture by a majestic sahuaro...check out the background...gorgeous....the weather perfect! Thanks Adam!

they came, they hiked, they conquered!!! las 2 mosqueteras.

splashy mcsplasher

Adan, y las 2 mujeres mas importantes de su vida

Julio knows how to relax.

traveling Sonora style, but not for long!

Adan, the Artist

mi changuito con tia Mari!

brincando en el mar....cosa mas linda, el mar y mi niño

A big ROCK in the middle of the water.

ay si, muy turistas las primitas

los nietos mas chiquitos de mi mama Irene: Luis, Franklin, Latif, Julio y Nicolas

boys rock!

abuelita con sus nietecitas, las mas chiquitas de todo el monton

This is Christopher. He is the coolest person ever. Although he has never spoke a word in his life, he has a smile pure enough to melt any heart in the planet. I love you Christopher!!!

a midnight meal with hot cocoa! mmmmm, cocoa!

somewhere in North Arizona

Spring, hurry please

We have in the eve of Spring 2012. The weather has been gloomy, rainy and fresh. In the fall I planted a whole bunch of tulips. I've always loved the way tulips pop up at the very end of winter. I imagine they were assigned to be the welcoming committee for the spring. This last weekend I happened to look down where I planted the bulbs, and a tiny group of little sprouts were making the way up to the surface. I am so excited to see when the flowers will show.

Sexy Zach

Cars and Toys make this boy happy

cute piggy bank, thanks Tio!

tilt your head

he does this a lot...yell for fun

He approves!

this serious moment lasted for 3.1 seconds

and we're back to normal

call him Monsieur Picasso

tilt the other way.

Blink Blink Bye Bye Old Year

Noche Buena: Poinsetta's from work

Today is December 28th, 2011 in a couple 3 more days after today and then 2011 will be laid to rest in the beds of history. I have to say: how did it happen? I am still trying to write 2011 and now I probably will when in I should be starting 2012. 
This year brought a few changes with it. We moved to town. It was sad to move from the small town, it was in that place that my boy pretty much began his journey in this world. It was there where my girl started her school career. And for me it was a place with many good people around me. I miss playing basketball on Wednesday nights with my super cool sporty friends. They are super athletes, the kind that go join triathlons, and excercise 2 times or more a day. They are coaches for little kids...I mean, they are movers and shakers. Me, not  so much! I had to sit for a few seconds after each play, picture me on one of those folding chairs, hunched over, index finger up....'give me a sec here!' I am awesomely not in shape, oh well!
Nothing too exciting did happen this year. No new additions to our family, we still have our dog Chachis, she is like a dog to us. Has been with us since the beginning, she continues to be a good little dog, blind as can be, she is still worth her weight in gold, that's normally a little more during this time of year, she gets lots of leftovers and her slim physique, starts to resemble a black watermelon, a cute cuddly one.
All in all, there is a world of possibilities to improve on for the next year, as you can see, the bar was not set high at all for 2011, ok, well, it was not set at all, it's stored away in the garage somewhere, I think I will dust it off and set it out. 

I almost lost her in this sea of red.

Yeah, she was an absolute *angel.

Christmas Eve Dinner: Roast Beef, party potatoes, Tossed Salad, and burnt Rhodes Rolls, move over Martha!

Tio Danny in action

our Christmas Tree

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving, we traveled to SE Idaho to visit Grandma Bennett and also to spend the weekend with Wally and Carolyn. It was really nice to see them again after their mission to the Washington D.C. Temple. The D.C. Temple has got to be one of the most beautiful buildings in this whole world. I am sure my friend Gail will agree with me since it has special meaning in her life. Thanksgiving was all about eating and spending time with family. We have decided that we love the Crawfords a whole bunch. They are a bunch of cool guys (well mostly girls). I am sad to report that I did not take any pictures at Thanksgiving. Posts are not fun without pictures....just like the books I like to read....."what? no pictures? this stinks!!" I'll stick a picture of a turkey in here somewhere. Enjoy.

Trick or Treat

I happened to be perusing the web and decided to visit my own writings. I last wrote of Halloween, and even then, my attempt consisted of 3 sentences; empty in content, so that post really didnt count.
Halloween was celebrated the Wednesday before the actually Halloween, which fell on a Monday. My church, in its infinite wisdom (this phrase is not sarcastic here, I really mean it), held the ever so popular 'Trunk-or Treat' along with some great games and activities, even a potluck dinner. It was wonderful. The kids had a blast. The 4 yr. old discovered the magic of the the words "trick or treat". He ran from trunk to trunk so he could get his bite-size chocolates. He had been sick with some type of tummy bug, but it did not stop him from getting his candy. The boy dressed up as Buzz LightYear and the young lady dressed up as Silvermist, one of the Fairies from Disney's Tinkerbell. On the actual Halloween we helped a friend from Star move out. That was an adventure, but it was great to help out. There is a family in Star that really stepped up to the plate and helped this lady out; the Hernandez family. I have never seen a trio of men work so hard and so steady. Also a couple of our old neighbors helped out a lot. There was a lot of work to be done, A LOT!!! I am grateful for hard working people that put their backs into it until the job is done.
So that was our Halloween. Because we were not home to hand out candy, we got to eat it all, wonderful! now I know why my pants seem to be shrinking on me. I just could understand why, but now, I see. It was a 3 pounds of Snickers, can really add up to about 10 lbs. of Sol.

halloween

Holy Halloween Batman! there are pumpkins and fake spiderwebs all around! I have already consumed way too many fun size snickers.

Monday Aug 22nd---FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

My girl has started 2nd grade in a whole new school. The 1st week was rough. She is a bit of a social butterfly but unfortunately she got to experience getting bullied. She has never had to deal with this sort of nonsense. The very 1st day of school she made a little friend in her class, when recess time came around, she tagged along with the new 'friend' only to find out she was going to play with her 'other' friend. My kid, being logical, said, I will play with you guys too...NO, the 2 girls said they had "their own business" when my girl asked "what is business?" the girlies were stumped and couldnt answer. The outside friend (Bullirina) said: "You can't play with us! You are being RUDE! and don't talk to my friend (the girl in the class). My girl told me she was sad and started crying. Welcome to your new school! What brats! I told her to ignore them and play with other nice kids. The week went by and my kid was just not herself. She mentioned more than 3Xs  "I don't want to go to school....the teacher is mean....I want to go back to my old school" I thought nothing of it until Friday when I asked her about her day in school, she replied very quietly "OK" and then she started crying....she told me that Bullirina would tell her everyday to stay away from her friend or else she would beat her up...when my girl tried to stand up her by saying "you can't beat me up, my mom with come and talk to you" she replied,,,"oh yeah, well my dad is going to beat up your mom!" My girl was just a bawling when she was telling me this. I went straight to the phone and called the office. Appearantly, they know about this brat and were going to talk to her.
That phone call was all it took. BullyBrat is no longer tormenting my kid. And according to mykiddo, she even wants to be friendly. I told her she can be friends with whoever she wants but not to let anyone make her feel bad, not to let anyone push her around. We talked about the word "confidence". 2nd week was great, we are currently on week 3...so far so good. I hate bullies!

We are fast approaching September 11th. I was living in Salt Lake City in 2001 on this date in history. My brother Danny and I had just gotten back from Washington; we went to go be with our older brother, and little brothers, our older brother got married the Saturday Sept. 7th, 2001. September 11th, 2001 was a dark day in the whole world.
 It's important to me to remember that day; the way I felt during the days that followed. I was very fortunate to have my brother living with me during that time, he was a great source of strength, also I had many good loving caring and honest friends during that time. Eventhough something horrendous had occurred, there seemed to be a spirit of love and friendship everywhere I went. People seemed more compasionate.
I hope that we all learn to be a better people. A better world.

longtime no post

I love these beautiful people. Somehow I know they love me too.