A Day to Remember

On Memorial day we took some time to visit Alfonso's dad's grave. We didn't get to go last year so this year's visit meant that much more.

At the graveyard we spent a few minutes putting flowers and oragami butterflies on Alfonso's father's headstone. While we visited, Mia wandered over to "Tata's" grave and made herself at home, down on the ground. This was her first visit to his grave and it was the first time we heard her say his name.



We love and miss you, Tata.

Mom's Day

I spent the day before Mother's Day with a few of my favorite moms. One mom is especially special to me. . . MINE! We did exactly what we wanted to. Pedicures, Sushi @ Mikado, and a flick with the chicks, "The Lucky One." The movie was better than I thought it would be. I wrapped up the day at The Dancing Bear Cafe with my family (minus Ben). Mmmm, the food was delicious. It was a great day. Sunday was equally great with some time at church and dinner with Alfa, the mother of my main squeeze and my awesome sister-in-law, Walkyria. Happy Mom's Day, moms!!!

A practically perfect day.

Tiny Dancer

At our house, we LOVE to dance. And it's catching. Little Mia has been cutting a rug since before she started cutting teeth. Here is a glimpse of her latest jam with dad and Will. (Notice how she calls for Will to dance with her). I love that she's only wearing one shoe. I love that Will is so cute to dance with her. Love their choreography. I especially love at the end when she signs for more.

No. It really is.

Life is good. We each are changing, learning, and growing so much. Alfonso and I usually start the day reluctant to end our minute or two together. Bracing ourselves for what lies ahead, I say,"Let's go make everybody mad." Then we're off, waking up the troops, becoming everyone's FAVORITE PERSON. We have a goal to eat breakfast together and read together every morning. It is a tradition that is saving us.

Alfonso's job is great, he's such a hard worker, but he also knows how to play. Ben is almost as tall as me, he helps a lot around at home and makes us laugh. Spencer is doing well in school, I love his insights and his unwavering willingness to help (regardless of the task and no, I'm not exaggerating). Will is a little jokester, natural reader and keeps things exciting with his remarkably short fuse. Mia isn't learning many words, we are signing our way through. For a a baby learning spanish and english, I don't understand why she's speaking chinese. Her jibberish is amazing. She LOVES to dance and sing. She loves to explore. And me? I'm good too. I get to stay home with Mia, the hours we spend together are quite peaceful. She's a good napper. My inner debate is whether or not I am entitled to a nap too.

I also get to stay home with our boys. In the afternoon when they rush through the door, I go into octopus mode. This is a time to keep everything together (my patience and myself included). It's a time for homework assessment, making sure everyone is on task. It's a time for signing a form with one hand and holding a baby with the other. It's a time for "Yes you can have a snack." "No, you cannot play Wii." "Please stop freaking out." "No, I don't know what veracious means." "Why are you wearing a bowl on your head?" Thankfully I can still help them with math although the time soon cometh where their skill will far surpass mine. Somewhere in all this a meal is prepared. That is the miracle. The days that friends come to play just add to the glorious chaos. I always breathe a sigh of relief when Alfonso walks in the door. My favorite time of day (sorry kids) is when the you are all taken care of, in your beds, and I have a few minutes to myself. It takes a minute to switch gears, to take a deep breath and realize I made it. I survived another day! It also takes a minute to count my blessings including the man next to me, and say, "Hey babe, I love you." Then we close our eyes and do it all over again.
Like I said, Life is good.

Ben's Goal and Alfonso's Birthday

Ben's interest in reading has really taken off lately. It's been really exciting to watch him evolve into an avid reader. In August, Ben set a goal to read the first three Harry Potter books before the school year ends in 2012. Now, I don't know if it's because of the requirement at school to read 20 minutes a day, or if it's because our t.v. broke, or if he just thinks Harry Potter is really cool but, he's already read book one and two and yesterday, he finished book three!!! This is such a huge accomplishment for Ben. I am EXTREMELY proud of him! The moment he finished book three, he started book four. That's dedication :) Other book series' that aren't collecting any dust at our house: Fablehaven, Eragon, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid and any books by Roald Dahl.
Also the other day we celebrated Alfonso's birthday. Here he is pictured with the kiddos and his Star Wars cupcakes. What a good sport ;) Happy Birthday Alfonso!!! We are so lucky to have you in our lives!!!

You & Me in the Mediterranean. Day 3

Day 3 Venice and the middle of the ocean

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!! I gave Alfonso the cards that the kids made for him. It was fun.

Hey, I'm writing this on a boat in the middle of the ocean. Not just any boat, a 16 level floating skyscraper. Tearing through the water under a blanket of stars. That being said, let's rewind.

I discovered that the Hilton breakfast featured 13, not 11, different cheeses. Mozz. is my favorite. We woke up early, packed, got our luggage on it's way, & ate breakfast. We boarded a boat that took us to the cruiseship dock. We filled out our forms, got our tickets, cards etc. and got on the ship. And what a ship!!! I really miss the kids and feel quite homesick. I'm trying not to let it show. We had a nice drink party with a our Auto Owners group. Alfonso and I sat next to a nice couple. We visited a while and found out that they are from Salt Lake. Ed & JoAnne. The ship pulled out and we sailed down the Giudecca Canal escorted by some tugboats. Wow, the view of Venice from the top of the ship was incredible!!!

We chatted a while on the deck of the back of the ship and then we went to change for dinner. Dinner was good. We found Ed and Joanne and sat by them. 1 word: Risotto, Delish. 3 words: Brandy soaked Cake. Not so good. blech ech. But the waiters did this hilarious parade carrying the cakes through the restaurant and then this one guy danced with his cake 2 tables away.
I couldn't help but laugh and bury my face. After dinner, Alfonso & I went up to watch the sunset. Again we took lots of pictures. Back to the room. We thought we were going to rest, but no. There was a show and we thought, hey, lets go watch it. 10 seconds hadn't passed since we sat down before I noticed that the band wasn't really playing, they were faking it along with a cheap backup track. Ugh, it ruined it for me. Lets talk about the singers. They were great. The dancers were great. The faking musicians. TERRIBLE. I laughed so much. But I don't think it was supposed to be funny. Anyhoo. There you go. Did you know I'm in Europe and that in Europe it is legal to buy kinder eggs? Did you also know that I LOVE kindereggs?
Did you further know that we bought 4 for the kiddos? Just between you and me we bought a box of kinderegg candy bars too Did you know that I'm about to go and open my fourth one to eat? Yum. Yum. Yum. Yum. I want to tell you what happened when I opened the sliding door on our deck and stepped outside. There was a gust of wind and the sound of rushing. It was the ocean water. We are on the 9th level and towards the front of the ship. The moon was so bright in the sky. Very cool!!!! a lot cool!!! But coolest of all is Alfonso. He is a really cool dad and a terrific husband. By the way, while we were walking around midship, this lady put some stuff on our hands to try to sell us some exotic & over priced dead sea scrub and lotion and stuff. Alfonso started freaking out like a little baby saying, "Ow ow ow! No this really hurts!" The lady was really concerned and immediately backed off. In truth, it hurt his hand a little, but he was just trying to get away from her without buying anything. He is so funny. A stinker, but a funny stinker.

You & Me in the Mediterranean. Day 2

Day 2 Venice

Adventure 5. Breakfast at the Hilton. Amazing. fruit tart, different breads, mermeladas, a vast selection of cold cuts, over 10 different kinds of CHEESE??? New yogurts, fruits, grapes the size of a silver dollar. Sausages that melt in your mouth. Delicious.

Adventure 6.
The tours. Tour of the doges' palace or palazza ducola, a glimpse of venetian architecture, the art is ON THE WALLS, THE CEILING, BUILT INTO THE FLOOR. I was very impressed at the workmanship and craftsmanship in front of me. People really took their time to MAKE something BEAUTIFUL. I loved it.
The history. Different parts of the palace date back to the 1300's, 1500's etc. Our tour guide was spectacular. A great teacher and he really took his time to paint a rich picture of Venetian history. We saw state rooms, meeting halls, and even the prison.
Very interesting. We passed the bridge of sighs. We went into St. mark's basilica. Ancient building. Built in 1060 a.d. TEN SIXTY A.D.!!! Intricate REAL gold mosaics covered the arched and domed ceilings. There were even mosaics/tiling covering the entire floor. So many geometrical shapes, creating animals and patterns. We last visited the Murano glass factory. We saw a vase and a tiny horse be made out of glass. It was fascinating. The man had such skill as he molded and pulled at the glowing glass.
Did I say fascinating? The showroom made my jaw drop but everything was beyond expensive.
We took a second gondola ride, this time with 4 other strangers from our trip. It was fun but during the day the "streets" are crowded, the sun is hot and it's just a different experience. Our gondolier had a booming angry voice. And when we were caught in a real boat traffic jam, (1 narrow "street", 5 gondolas behind us, 2 in front, all waiting behind a motor boat trying to correct itself after having made a wrong turn)our gondoleir had something to say to the guys in front of us. I'm glad I didn't understand what it was. Adventure 7. Souveniers. Glass bracelets for those who helped us with our kids, a painting, 2 venetian masks, glass birds, necklaces for moms, whirley gigs for boys. lip gloss (because the bag with my makeup was still lost). 2 glass necklaces for me. 2 magnets. We wanted to buy a painting to take home with us. We met a man named Pichio? His paintings were GORGEOUS! He took his time to get a feel for the art we liked. He was very sweet. We eventually discovered he had L.D.S. family members (mormones as he said) he pulled out a pass-along card of Christ and some children. He was a neat man and gave us a 15 euro discout on our painting (in us dollars, that's like 20 bucks). I brought a Book of Mormon on the trip, I promised the girls in my ward that I'd give it to someone, and I was DETERMINED to give it to someone. You know, when you find something good you want to share it? Well I wanted to give my book to Pichio. When we got back to our room, I filled out a message, in english, to him and brought it with me on our return trip to venice, which is adventure #8.

Adventure 8. An unexpected trip back over to the fun. After the tour and souvenier purchasing day. . ., we well, I, was exhausted. WE got back to our room and I just LANDED on the bed. We found out that our luggage had in fact NOT been located and NOT been delivered. Let me refresh you, that means little to no makeup for me, no camera charger, no power converter, no jewlery, no laptop charger, no journal (hence my writing this using precious uncharged, unplugged laptop time), no hair accessories, no scriptures. The biggest emergency though was no camera charger. Hence no more pictures. (You'll notice that the pictures only cover the first part of this blog entry.) Alfonso got info from the concierge about where we could either buy a new camera or charger. And just minutes after landing on the bed, we discovered that in order to reach the shop by it's closing tmie 7:30 actually 19:30. We needed to book it over there PRONTO and we were off, jetting across the water on the hotel shuttle, running through the streets of St. Marcs. over bridges, through alleys, till we finally reached the photo store. . . @ 7:32. THE SHOP WAS CLOSED!!! Discouraged, we meandered around the streets till we found the Rialto bridge. We went to the top of the massive bridge to enjoy the view. Near the bridge we ate a delicious meal. Later we got some gelato and listened to some live musicians. I gave the Book of Mormon and note to a nearby vendor and friend of Pichio, who agreed to give it to him in the morning. When we got to the shuttle area, we discovered that the next shuttle wouldn't come for an hour. ayayay. We decided to try to walk to Zettara, the next shuttle pick up area in 20 minutes. It took over an hour to find our way. My dogs were barkin. My back was achin, but man, it was a beautiful place to get lost in. Some new friends through auto owners is lending us their camera. We talked briefly to our mom's on the phone and checked on the kids. I took a bubble bath and kept falling asleep in the tub. So so soo tired. But I eventually, safely, found my way to the bed and slept with visions of Venice dancing in my head.

You & Me in the Mediterranean. Day 1

Alfonso qualified for a mediterranean cruise this year through his work. Cruise, hotel, airfare, some excursions, all paid for. I was beside myself with excitement - I've been wanting to go to Italy since I did my 6th grade country report on it. I honestly didn't think I'd get a chance to go there til later in life, if at all. But for some reason the day miraculously came and has now passed. I wanted to keep track of all the memorable things we saw and did, so I wrote it all down, one day at a time. Here's the first day.

Day 1 From Utah to New York to Venice

Really it begins with a blurr of packing, entertaining, birthdaying (hence the crown below made by my sister and nieces), and preparing for departure.

Leaving Mia was so hard. I probably kissed her 40 times that morning and squoze her hand extra tight on the way to the airport. Mom gave me a hug, got choked up, and said, "Mia will be fine. Have a wonderful time. You may never have a chance like this again." I needed that.

Adventure 1. Luggage. We thought we could carry on 2 each. Not so. So we performed a total luggage rearrangement right there at the check out place. Checked 2 in and ended up taking the extra as a carry on. But right before boarding the plane, there was an announcement that there was limited carry-on room and passengers for that flight could check in any bags they wanted to for free. So we were able to check in that bag after all. . . for free. Well, they lost it. It was left @ JFK airport and is now being flown to paris and will then find it's way to my hotel room.

Adventure 2. The flight. I've decided that an international flight is like a giant sleepover. . . on a plane. . . with a bunch of smelly strangers. And that I really REALLY can't sleep on a plane. There were two 12 year olds making out in front of us. Lady bizzarly stomping her foot next to us. The touch screens on the backs of our seats were a real bonus. Except that they were touch screens and required considerable pressure. When I strangely found my seat being vigorously shaken (it felt like someone was punching it) by the person behind me. Serious poundage. I looked @ alfonso in bewilderment and he looked back @ the lady behind me. She was completely wrapped up in playing and winning her game on the back of my chair till she realized what she was doing. "Oh, sorry." She said. I'm just glad that she stopped after that. We got a good laugh about it anyway. Adventure 3. My inflight playlist and a magic landing. You could brows throught hundreds of songs. My favorites were Cee lo green's Bright Lights, Big City, Love Gun, J. Legend & The Roots', Compared To What. Stuff by Miranda Richardson, Tim McGraw, Norah Jones. I also got that main song from Tangled, Now I see the light?Whatever it's called. I really like it and the words were very meaningful.It was playing as we touched down on italian soil. "All those years, watching from a distance. . . . I know I'm where I belong." I've always dreamed of traveling to Italy. My hayfever started acting up. I was just so full of GRATITUDE for this INCREDIBLE experience and humility for having this chance. Adventure 4. The water taxi. After arriving in Venice, we dealt with our missing luggage issue (boooo), and were escorted on a short walk to our water taxi. WE boarded the boat (alfonso said to sit in the back per richard's request). IT was such a fun ride.
We felt the wind in our faces as an old venetian style motor boat cruised us along the coast of venice. Taking us to our hotel, the Molina Stucky Hilton. We saw so many beautiful buildings and began taking pictures. Lots of pictures. Our career as asian photo taking tourists really took off. How do you not take a billion pictures of the most beautiful place you've ever visited? The hotel was AMAZING, the dinner, amazing, and our mini excusion afterwards. . . amazing. Our room was perfect. The dinner was delicious. Buffalo mozzarella - my new favorite. We decided to venture across the Giudecca Canal on the hotels shuttle boat, to the Zattere. First item of business, GELATO!!! For me, 1 scoop Cacao, 1 scoop twix. Alfonso got 1 scoop limona, 1 scoop melona. It melted so fast. We ate it like 2 year olds, giggling the whole time. We strolled along the rios gasping at the architecture, the flowers, the alleyways, and I realized that I'd found a place where every ally was beautiful. Seriously. We stumbled upon a community gathering. A play of some kind? Everyone was celebrating and having a great time. They gave me a candle to light when it got dark. I don't know why, but I was so honored that they would chose me out of all the other people there. I'm wierd, I know. They play started, it was a comedy in Italian of course. We listened and couldn't help laughing at everyone laughing at something we/I didn't understand. Alfonso understood a lot of italian. I guess Spanish and Italian are very similar. We topped the night of with late Gondola ride. (I have to tell you we rode the gondola's at the Venetian in Las Vegas on our honeymoon, where we were told that it was good luck to kiss under each bridge. So we were experts at the gondola thing :))The water was so peaceful. (GAG ALERT, GAG ALERT)Just like on our honeymoon we kissed under every bridge. That was fun. We tried to take pictures but it was so dark, we just wanted to remember how beautiful everything was.

After the ride, we passed by the celebration and watched the local children dance to american pop songs on a stage lit up with lights and smoke. It was so fun.

I woke up in Salt Lake, I ended the night in Venice. It was a very long, but very GOOD day!

Faboo February Update

Ben is getting so tall! Everyday he seems a little more grown up just to be counterbalanced by moments a pure immaturity. We love our Ben. He always makes me laugh. Always makes me smile. Sometimes makes me crazy. He has decided he loves techno music and the "Black Eyed Peas." As his taste in music updates, my iPod outdates. Gotsta get some new tunes. Ben is very proud of the fact that he can hold Mia when he's standing up, as he should be. He's very good at it! Spencer loves, I mean LOVES to read. He is currently devouring the "How To Train Your Dragon" series and the "Fablehaven" series. It is not unusual for us to have to pry him away from a book in order to participate in other activities. I'm so thankful he enjoys it! February was literacy month at the school and he ran with it. Spence loves his little sister and just melts and says, "Ooooo Miii-yaaaah" when ever she's around.
Will is too stinkin' smart for his own good. I cannot keep up with the witty, funny, amusing things he says. His vocabulary is growing daily. He's reading at a third grade reading level. He LOVES to play Wii. In fact, yesterday when he said the prayer in primary he ended his very heartfelt prayer with, "Please, bless the Wii." Here's a picture of him listening to my iPod, dressed in his sunday clothes, and snowboots. Priceless.
Mia continues to grow exponentially. She smiles everyday. She has recently discovered her hands and loves to suck on them and swat at her toys with them. She loves to see her brothers smiling faces. She cannot resist falling asleep in daddy's arms. She is such a joy. I've been singing to her, and it feels good to be doing it again. Our favorite diaper changing songs are, "My Favorite Things," and "Getting to Know You." When I sing them she often will stop crying and listen with big eyes. She's my sidekick and partner in crime. I feel like we're becoming quite the dynamic duo. p.s. I can't help but play dress up with her all the time. She has so many clothes, I don't want to miss seeing her in them. She's usually a good sport about it :) This having a baby business takes it's toll on the emotions and Alfonso has been and continues to be my rock through it all. I cannot help but lean on him for support. He helps me to laugh when I'm too serious, and helps me to believe in myself when I feel like a failure. I'm so glad I have him to keep me grounded and can only hope that I'm giving as much as I'm recieving. I'll try at least.
He took the guys to the Monster Truck Rally and to see the Harlem Globetrotters last weekend. I didn't go because I was recovering from a little foot surgery. Which is ok, it's good for them to have some "guy" time together. As you can see, they had a GREAT TIME!!!