"Life is what you pray for, Love is what you stay for"

"When I hear you crying at night

Like the world is on your shoulders

I'll hold you tight

Cause I know a secret or two

And the least I can do is share it with you

Oh, life is what you pray for

Love is what you stay for

And I know it's pretty funny how simple it can be

But you didn't hear that from me"*

When I heard this song the other day it reminded me of all the things I have been thinking about lately...


My Blessings: I have been blessed with such an incredible life. My childhood was simple and worry free. I had a Mother and Father... the design being perfect. I grew up in the same house, with my own room and all the wants and needs I could ask for. I was able to go to school and participate in different programs learning new skills. I had friends all throughout, some still with me today. Now, as a wife and mother, I see so many things I learned as a child and young adult, helping me in my household today. I have a wonderful husband who provides all those same material things from when I was young. Not only that, but he is my friend... another perfect design. I could not imagine being married to someone, I could not call my friend. He and I compliment each other tremendously. As with any marriage, there are things that arise when you don't see eye to eye. Yet, we have the ability and the will to rise above those differences and stay united, working together as ONE. We have built a beautiful life together, and through our love we now how two new blessings: Our children. Our babies are almost one year old. This past year, has been amazing. So many moments have brought joy to my life. Little moments bring the most. When I walk into the room, the smiles on thier faces, just lifts my heart and melts any burdens I may be carrying. Hearing them laugh and play with each other, is like the theme music to a musical... the harmony in my life. My heart rejoices when I see Uncle Tony, Aunty Melanie & Uncle Brandon reach their arms out in love to hold my precious babies or to offer comfort. So grateful, my children get to see them often and know them. I also am thrilled at my chance to not only have my own children, but to be a part of my niece and nephews lives. Those children also hold a special place in my heart, and I would do anything for them. I love then and pray for them always. I wish the only best for their lives. I am happy to have a closeness with them and share my life with their wonderful and lively spirits. My heart rejoices when my children's Grandparents act like grandparents and spoil them with love and even gifts. (it's not actually spoiling when its from Grandparents). My children are so blessed to be able to live close to some of their grandparents, and when I see the older generation and the younger generation together... I see love has no limits, not age, wisdom, or beauty. Love is pure and simple. I have love... I am so truly blessed!


I've been thinking about "time" lately. How much time do I use & waste. I did a little math, to get a better picture of a few things, take a look:
If the average person lives for 75 years that would give him 657,000 HOURS of life. But that person has to sleep so we need to subtract that. (15hrs of sleep a day for the first 8 years, and 8hrs of sleep for the last 67 *should average out OK) That would be 239440 HOURS of sleep. The average person will also need to work from about 16years old until they can retire. So calculating 40 hrs a week, means approx. 101920HOURS of work. After all the math it gives us 315,640 HOURS of OUR time. What do I do with it?? Sure seems like a lot of time, when you look at it in hours, but what do I actually do with it. How many hours a day, a week, a year do we waste and yet, it's our last hour of life we worry about? On that final day, in that final hour, will I be looking back wondering if my life was meaningful. Will I be wondering if I lived, laughed, loved enough? I hope not. I hope in my final hour, I won't just be at peace but be overwhelmed with love & satisfaction. Knowing, I lived for those I loved. I worked for those who love me. And I dedicated my life to the service of my fellow being and my Heavenly Father.

Getting Less, Paying More

I am really getting tired of EVERYTHING going up in price, and yet I get less than before. When I say everything, I mean everything...diapers, food, gas, everything. I am watching the news and now airplanes are charging to use the bathroom! There was also a segment on "do it yourself" to save money. Well, what happens if you already do it yourself... no place to go. We have cut all of our outgoing bills we possibly can: cable, gym, home phone. We are trying to save money as much as possible in this "economic crisis." Okay enough venting!

I do have plenty of smiles though... here is a video of Alexis last night. She was so cute. She was reading her book to mommy. (the video is sort of long, but watch atleast the 1st 2 minutes! The video is dark but I tried to capture her cuteness before she stopped. Make sure you turn up the volume so you can hear her "read")

OH BOY!!

Yesterday, we had a post-op appointment for Jeremiah. I am happy to say he is doing just fine, and we should only have one more appointment with that doctor (in 6 months). We have been seeing that doctor since Jeremiah was 6weeks old, so now that he is 11months, they feel like part of the family. Anyway, I am happy that we are almost done with the surgeon

After the doctor appointment, my mom, the kids and I all went to El Pollo Loco for lunch. I got my usual: chicken tostada salad, and decided to get the kids a cheese crisp and some pinto beans. While we were waiting for the food, I gave the babies some raisins to snack on. BAD IDEA!! After the raisins, they didn't want anything to do with the lunch I just bought for them. I kept trying over and over to give them some cheese crisp, but Alexis would do her typical: sealing her lips, closing her eyes, and pulling her head as far back and away from me as possible. Jeremiah, did his typical and protested loudly, for the entire restaurant and neighboring businesses to hear. As mommy, I would sternly tell him "NO" when he would so rudely spout his dissatisfaction. We repeated this over and over. Finally Jeremiah decided it was time for his first word. He forced his neck and head out towards me, slanted his eyebrows in a "v" shape, pursed his lips together and shouted "New!" Which was obviously his attempted to tell me "NO!" Once again, being the mommy I had to tell him that was not okay, through the laughter of Nanu next to him. Oh boy! This kid is a handful and I am sure will only continue to be!

another week has gone by...

Another week has gone by, without me posting anything. Part of me wants to just forget about he whole blogging world, but another part is just itching to get on and write about everything that has happened in our super hectic life.

Jeremiah has had a rough time after his surgery. Everyone that has said "babies don't remember it" is wrong!! My 11month old baby was traumatized by the event. Yes, he won't remember anything about this when he is 15 years old. But Mommy and Daddy will never forget the insanity it brought to our lives. Since the last few months have been so rough and getting worse each day. Daddy decided to take some time off of work and stay home to help me and Jeremiah. I am happy to report, IT TOTALLY HELPED!! We really worked with Jeremiah, helping him deal with me leaving his sight. It was hard on me, I would walk out of the room and he would immediately start screaming, would walk back in and he would be quiet. (This would happen while he was in his highchair, sitting next to his sister and father). We felt so hopeless, that I even called a "fussy baby" help line. However, we have fixed the problem on our own (with the help of God, lots of prayers!!) Anyway, Jeremiah is doing so much better, he is acting like the happy little fellow he once was. I am sure the past few months were bad because he was in pain from his hernia, and then the last couple of weeks were bad because of the traumatic experience of he hospital and surgery.

Alexis however, has developed a rash covering her entire body, that won't seem to go away. We have tried changing laundry detergents, baby oil, auquaphor, paid attention to food; allergies, etc... Now she has started running a fever and seems to not feel very good. I talked to the doctor today and they said as long as her fever brakes with Tylenol and the rash doesn't itch, there is not a lot we can do, and it will probably go away on it's own. We just have to keep an eye on it. So we'll see.

We are at it again....

Since Justin took some time off from work, he decided that we have lived too long without construction. So he decided to knock out our pantry wall and extend it into the laundry room. Changing the laundry room into an organized and fancy storage room, and moving the washer and dryer into the old storage room. (meaning we will soon be remodeling the "new" laundry room) I do like my new pantry and storage room though!!

As I was trying to clean my house the other day, with out much success;mind you. I started thinking about how God works in our lives so in depth that we will not even see most of it. I started thinking about this because I realized how the Lord was preparing me all these years… Justin got in his head that the pantry was no longer user friendly so he knocked down the wall and started to rebuild it. Does that sound like any one you know? Sounds a lot like my father. Anyway, I laugh because I have lived in remodeling mode for so many years!

As I watched Jeremiah crawl with a red balloon, to watch his dad work, I remember the first time, when my dad was remodeling the garage. I was about 3 or 4 years old. And I had a balloon. He told me to not bring it in there or I would pop it. Well, I was stubborn and told him I wouldn't pop it. I remember standing still for about 2 or 3 minutes watching him, clinging to my balloon, to prove to him that it wouldn’t pop. Then I ran to my room, put it away, then came back to watch him work.

There are a ton of other memories I have of remodeling. I remember painting the outside of our house, going to Home Depot with my dad, I just loved that time we spent together. I also remember getting on the roof to help him with a chalk line. I remember him telling mom, that he wanted me to help because I listened the best. Don’t know how true that was, but it made me feel good. Anyway, all those experiences has helped me in my own house and all of our remodeling. The thousands of trips to Home Depot. Helping Justin with numerous things and living with everything torn up for a while. I bet if I wasn’t so prepared for this life it would be hard. Justin is so much like my dad, its crazy!! He is stubborn in the fact he won’t pay people to do something he can do (not a bad trait!!), if he doesn’t know how to do something, he’ll figure it out, and I am sure there are other similarities that I can’t think of right now.

I am thrilled that my daughter will have a daddy like my daddy. I know I was truly blessed!

Growing so big...

The kids are growing so much! The other day, I got a video of Alexis crawling then told her to say "bye bye" she said "bu bu" I told her that was a good job, but figured it was just a coincidence. However, the next day (last Sunday) she heard daddy telling brother that we were going to go bye bye and go to church. She immediately looked at me and said "ahh, da dad, bu bu" As I am sure you speculate, I was thrilled! Then, Wednesday night she was telling everyone "bu bu" and waving!

Jeremiah makes lots of noises but no words yet. However, he is so close to walking it's not even funny. He will stand up in the middle of the room, on his own. Just stand there, playing with something, then slowly lowers himself back down then back up. I see him contemplating each time, about taking a step. He will be one year old next month and I am sure, he will be walking before then!

Funny moment...

Yesterday, I fed the kids a big lunch. When I looked over at them I noticed the only thing left on Jeremiah's tray was his cucumbers. He was still eating them so I just chuckled and carried on. Moments later, I watched as he started putting them on sister's tray and took her cheese.

P.S. my fellow bloggers who wrote about a lovely Valentines... I envy you! My husband talks the talk and walks the walk.... no valentines for me:( oh well!

Mommy and Lexi (in dresses from Africa)

Long time, no post..

It has been a long time since I posted anything. Life has been crazy the past couple of weeks. Jeremiah had a surgery last Tuesday and since then we have been dealing with major issues. We were thinking he was in pain, but it seems more like he is having extreme anxiety issues. Justin and I are exausted. He waskes up at night and screams and screams. I have been up 1-3 hours every night with him. Then during the day, he will not let me leave his sight. The moment I start to walk away (or it even looks like I might) he starts screaming and following me. This morning Justin was looking out the window and Jeremiah went bilistic because he wasn't getting attention. I was sitting in his room on the floor with him in my lap, playing with a ball. He dropped the ball and would not leave my lap to get it. He reached and stretched as far as possible, even attmepted to leave my lap, but would not do it. I tell you all this, maily to vent, so I don't go insane, but I am also up to ANY suggestions or ideas you may have. This has seemed like an issue for a couple of months, but this past week is almost impossible. I have pretty much been prisoned in my house and in their room. I can't even put him in his stroller without constant screaming, because he can't see me. I can almost tune him out, which I have to do sometimes at home. But when you are out in public, people get annoyed real quick with a cranky baby.

On a lighter note.... Jeremiah got stuck under his highchair, and we got some funny pictures. ( he was screaming, until mommy came and started talking to him, then he thought it was fun)

Splish Splash

Spilsh, Splash, they were taking a bath. Oh, last Saturday night. Rub a dub, dub, 3 babies in a tub!

Saturday Night, we were watching our neice Kaia. After dinner she kept telling me "beebees, blap blap" I told her when the babies were finished we would. So once the babies were finished we went into the bathroom and turned on the water. Then Kaia really was happy and shouted "beebees, blap blap, woggy!" I said "yep! you and the babies are going to take a bath and you can play with the froggie" Here are some pictures!

Wordless Wednesdays

Poor baby had surgery yesterday!