let it snow let it snow let it snow!

We have received a good amount of snow this weekend. Our backyard looks like a perfectly white carpet, it is pretty smooth except for the 2 tracks of kitty paw prints.
I cannot believe how incredibly fast this year has come and gone! Just the other day I saw a video of Franklin from last year on Christmas eve and he was teeny, he was about almost 4 months old., now he is almost 16 months old, he looks so grown up and big. He is saying "Papo, Mama, and Bella and Tatis" it is cute to hear him talk.
Bella is growing big as well. She is reading on her own level 1 books, the ones that are easy for 1st time readers. I am so happy to have my 2 little angels, so happy and healthy. What a gift!!
So I need to take some pics of the snow and of my sad Christmas tree. It is pretty bald at the bottom because the kids have plucked the ornaments off.
Everyone have a great Christmas. Stay safe out on those icy roads. Hug all your loved ones and let them know how special they are to you, that ought to bring them a big ol' smile, and that would be a great gift.
Feliz Navidad, and Merry Christmas to all!

let it snow let it snow let it snow!

Hi Everyone,
I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season, do your neighborhoods have Christmas lights everywhere? Well our Christmas tree has been summonned to the office so the little kids dont rip the ornaments off, well it's not working out too good, it has been plucked by Bella and Franklin.
I want to put the tree in the livingroom but I know it will not survive, if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know, I know many of you have kids and have ideas, so share the love please!

some old pics

I am ready for the hoe-down!

At Katherine Albertson's Park this summer.

What chocolate bar? I didnt see one!!!

on top of a hill

Here I am looking at the Snake River. Check out Wally's overalls, nice fashion statement, huh?

I hiked a little paved trail in Rexburg called Cress Creek. It was very beautiful and serene. I went by myself and learned to appreciate nature a lot more. The air is so clean and crisp. So here is Cress Creek and views of the Snake River.

THANKSGIVING

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. I think it is pretty cool that in the U.S. a special day is set apart in the year to give thanks, get together and enjoy the family over a massive feast. I used to think, "we should be thankful all year long, not just one day a year". I understand now that we need to be grateful everyday, but, Thanksgiving is a national holiday, people fly all over the place to go see family, most places shut down their businesses to allow employees the beauty of just being home, relax and enjoy.
So I hope you all were happy, and extra thankful.
I know I was!

Mas fotos en Halloween

The cutest witch in town. People would tell her "What a cute witch you are!" the which she responded each time "yep!"

Granny and her easy Halloween custome, creative Carolyn!

Yeay! it's Halloween, bring on the candy!!

Franklin was inspecting the pumpkins and making sure they glowed properly for the trick-r-treaters. They passed inspection!

Happy Halloween

We had a Happy Day on Friday except for...Zach lost his keys. If there is one thing is good at is keeping his things in their place. It is always me who loses keys, the remote, my phone... He had to borrow my key to get to work. I set out on search of those darn keys. I turned sofas over and looked under the cushions, under the mattress and in all the rooms...everywhere. Zach pretty much had a terrible day wondering where he could have lost his keys. I knew that Mr. Handsome Franklin had taken them and mysteriously placed them somewhere where we could not find them.
That afternoon Wally and Carolyn (Gramps and Granny) came up to visit. We went out to dinner the whole family. It was really nice to spend time with them. When we got home we still couldnt find the keys. The next morning I went over all the places again, I remembered I hadn't looked in the little storage room under the stair. We have a few sacks of flour there and I decided to move them to the side to look under there, and VOILA! there they were under 4 big sacks of flour. I am sure many of you have had your keys mysteriously disappear on you, know for sure the culprit is your little kid. So that was Friday, the trick was that the keys were lost, the treat was that we had a lot of fun with Gramps and Granny.
I took Bella trick or treating around our house. We got a late start and it got dark really fast so we didnt make bank on candy, but there is always next year! We had about 5 trick-r-treaters come to our door so we have a bunch of skittles and starburst left over! Candy anyone?
Hope you all had a good and safe and fun Halloween.

Happy Bella

Here is my girl with a beautiful smile! She is so fun!

Franklin eats Franklin sleeps

Yesterday, Wednesday the 22, Franklin fell asleep while eating his lunch. It was to adorable, I had to videotape him.

Lovely pumpkin couple

Bella would not go to see the scary decorations so she stayed by the cute yard decor.
Drawing faces on the pumpkins was Bella's idea, she plopped the cowboy hat on the little pumpkin and Zach painted his face and I did the lady pumpkin. Aren't they a unique looking couple?

Getting Ready for Halloween

Last Saturday we went to pick 2 pumpkins for Halloween. Bella and I decorated the pumpkins, we didn't carve them yet, that will be for next week so the pumpkins don't get to wrinkled for the big day. Here we are at the Jeremy's Pumpkins in our little town. All the scary decorations are this pumpkin place, not ours, no way! we like Halloween, but we don't love it that much to decorate the house with scary witches or headless guys or skeletons, we'll stick to pumpkins!

The Many Faces of Franklin

 

Familia Moose on the Loose!

 
We were coming home on Sunday after spending time with Zach's family and to our surprise a moose family came running down the road, we stopped and took a picture as fast as I could. There were 2 big moose and a smaller one. Pretty neat, no creen? (dont you think?)

It's cold mom!

 

OK I will be silly for you!

 

Here's a big smile for you and your friends!

 

Last Friday, October 3rd, I woke up early and decided to go for a walk with the most beautiful boy in the world. When I was headed out of our street, I was pretty awe struck with the powerful sunrise and then I caught a little spark coming from the ground, I thought maybe I found a shiny diamond ring or something valuable like that, well, I caught a beautiful sight of nature's morning gems. The grass and weeds were elegantly dressed with perfect dew. That really brightened my day. The dew looked to me like really priceless jewels and that pretty much made my day. And not to mention the toothy-mega smiles from Franklin. I am really grateful for life's simple gifts to me. Thank you life, you are very kind!

 

 

 

 

I have never met a baby that doesnt sleep with their booties up in the air. Franklin falls asleep like this everytime I think it is the cutest thing in the world!
Chabelita loves to eat french toast for breakfast! Here she is her mouth full.

This is Zach just before he went to work, he was very happy, so he did his happy dance!

Here is Franklin happy at his high chair because food is coming!

On my mind is the fact that I need to lose some serious weight! There is a commercial on t.v. for a weight loss product, I dont know what it is, nor do I care, it shows 2 different people walking by, their heads are not shown, only their bodies with tight outdated clothes. These 2 people are overweight, then the commercial shows a super skinny girl! It's pretty funny. I dont believe those pills work, they are selling the hope of being thinner. Being thin is do-able if you are willing to change your eating habits and move your body more! It's all in one's true intentions. I want to lose weight so that I can stay healthy and with energy, if the good looks improve well, I will not oppose that!

Disc Golfmania

Zach is in love with this sport. He is pretty good at, ok, ok, he is so great at it he may soon be the most famous, professional disc golfer in the whole state! Go Zach!!!

Funny Man!

Last Friday Night, Zach and I went to watch Jim Gaffigan in Boise, he performed at the Morrison Center. I really liked Jim because he was very clean in his language. Most comedians like to curse like they have the devil in their mouths, why? no need to be vulgar to be funny. There are many excellent comedians that dont swear. I like Ellen Degenerous for that reason, Bill Cosby, anyways, a bunch. After the show we stuck around for almost an hour to get Jim's autograph, he was pretty cool, down to earth and I appreciate that in famous people, you know what? famous people are still people, they just have a little more talent at performing, maybe they are lucky, some may be pretty to look at, but at the end of the day they are just people, they get hungry, they have feelings, and so I conclude my Gaffigan shpill with: He was a funny guy, he was down to earth, not the prettiest man to look at, but he's cool (The Sexy Tour, should be changed though because in his skit all he talked about was BACON, being Lazy and the famous Hot Pockets...read that last item with the jingle please for maximum funny effect). Zach had Jim autograph one of his many many discs. When he got it he asked, what is this? Zach said "it is a disc golf disc, you play disc golf with it! Have you ever heard of this sport?" to the which JG said "Whattadaya throw it to a pin or what? I think you're making this up" then in his secondary weirded out sounding voice he mimicked Zach "I'll tell him its a special golf disc and he'll buy it!"

We had a lot of fun. We dont go on many dates so thanks to Paula and Don for hanging out with the 2 coolest kids in the universe, thanks u guys!

Mother nature likes to play with my emotions! At night she sends us crispy cold weather and in the day toasty hot weather, Zach turned on the heater 2 nights ago. Last night I just closed the windows and the house was just fine! I like not having to fire up the heater or crank on the AC. I guess that time is not yet here because I had to turn on the AC.

Franklin is a walking boy, almost a running boy. Last Thursday night he decided to catch himself from falling on the driveway, he got a pretty nice scrape on his forehead. I would say a good 2 inches tall and 1 inch wide. I am taking care of a little neighbor, (one month older than my angel) he too fell at his house, scraping his nose, right on the tip, nice and big. I went to Target and took all my kids, mine and the borrowed ones. That must have been an interesting trip to the store, I didn't get any dirty looks from other customers. Don saw us before we went to the store, he said: "I hope people don't think you beat these poor boys!"
Franklin's forehead is clear, it healed in less than 1 week. Yeah! But now he's got a cold! Yeah! It never ends!

This is why I love my brothers and sisters

My brother Elias Ignacio. I really admire Nacho (Nacho is the nickname for Ignacio, that is the original meaning, the tasty tortilla chips drenched with melted cheese were named after a restaurant owner named Nacho after he served a group of american tourist this quick dish, since it was very late at night and the kitchen was closed and cleaned). The americans liked it so much they called the dish NACHO'S.)
Nacho has also joined in the memory fest. Here is a letter he sent me to share a couple of his nostalgic childhood memoirs.

So last Tuesday I was listening through some 80's tunes just to catch up with the old days; those days when people used to have puffy hairdos, wear plastic clothing and engage into who-knows-what other weird things. So there was A-Ha, Tears for Fears, Cyndi Lauper, The Bangles, Duran Duran, The Cure… (Sorry Adan, I still don't dig Ratt), while I was getting caught in this sort of nostalgia about those strange days when we used to live somewhere in California. Believe it or not, although I was somewhere between 2 to 4 years old or so, I have been able to keep memories from those days. Coincidentally, Sol was telling me yesterday that she was looking through some old pictures and that she was enjoying some good old memories of her own.Anyways, I was listening to a Kate Bush's song called Cloudbusting which has some elements characteristic of a good 80's song: synthesizers prevail throughout the song and the rhythm is set by one of those automated drum sets. Still, it's a very nice bittersweet song, but more sweet than bitter, probably the only one I liked from her.
So I remembered the day Sol got her fingers caught in the washing machine. It was one of those old models that had like two rolling pins which spun and you had to put the piece of clothing through them so that the two rollers could squeeze the water out of it. Unfortunately, Sol didn't let go of whatever she was trying to dry on it and her fingers got caught in between. I remember she was crying in pain while her nails were hanging off her fingers (I'm not sure about that part of the story, probably it's just my imagination helping me making it sound more dramatic). So my older brothers rushed on her aid and that's the most I can remember from that.
I remember one day Adan was driving us, Dany and I, to school on a rainy cold day. I can't remember if it was in one of those VW bugs that he was taking us to school. I'm guessing that's what it was, because Adan used to be very dreamy about those cars. Adan was driving and allegedly listening to an eight track, Dany was sitting on the passenger's seat while I was on the back seat, all of us without a seatbelt (it wasn't required to use them because it was believed that the puffy hair and the excessive use of hairspray would cushion the impact). I'm not sure if Adan got distracted or if the car slid off the street, the thing is that we crashed on another car parked on the side of the road. It wasn't a terrible impact, but Dany and Adan hit his head on the dashboard, and mine on the front seat. Dany was crying like a baby, and Adan was all freaked out for what just happened… That day, we missed school. It was a shame because I loved school lunch (back then, I didn't have a sense of good taste).
What about the day a trailer showed up in front of the little house we used to live at during Christmas time. We were very poor back then and it was a real delight to have one of those used G. I. Joe's or He-Man's toy from a second-hand store. So it was my great surprise to find out that the trailer was full of amazing things I only thought possible in my dreams. There was food, Christmas ornaments and, the best of all, lots and lots of toys. I still remember the toy I loved the most, it was a clockwork train, with a smiley face and big eyes. The cool thing about it was that it came with small plastic discs that you could put in it; as soon as you let the toy go, it started playing children's melodies. It was awesome, one of those days you wish you could bring back. I'm still very grateful to all those people who donated those goodies to us.
So there it is and there's more to tell about the past, but it would take me a whole book to do so.
I know Sol is trying to compile pictures and information from our family. That's a great idea. I have a picture from our grandparents I stole from Lety, so don't tell her please. I will try to send that one to her as soon as I can get the scanner to work. According to her blog, Sol believes our beloved mother was born in Morelia, Michoacan but according to my memory, she was born in Puruandiro, Michoacan. It is a small forsaken town full of cows, domestic birds and all sorts of farm animals. I know this because many, many, many years ago I went with her to that place. She was trying to get her birth certificate. So Sol, hopefully you're still up to help me out to write the collection of anecdotes from our brothers and sisters. We can definitely make a more touching movie than the Titanic from our own stories.
I think Leticia will understand, if we borrow that picture of our grandparents!

This is a picture of my beautiful mom. She was born in Michoacan, Morelia if I am correct in my memory. She was raised in the state of Nayarit, she later moved to Jalisco where all her children were born, Adan, if you know otherwise, let me know so I can correct this.