you + me = US

Thursday, December 12, 2013

My Nativity

I finished painting this nativity after Christmas last year. My mom had one like it when we were growing up. I used to love arranging the characters.now my kids can too. Thanks to my friend Jake Anderson for cutting them out for us!

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Mias 1st Recital

She did so great. Video proof to come.

Monday, December 2, 2013

One of those days

Today was mom & dad's first day @ the m.t.c.
I'm so proud of them and happy for them, but sad to see them go.

Last night my Uncle.David died. He's been sufferering from paranoid schizophrenia most of his lonely adult life in a rest home.
Im so happy for him but sad to see him go.

My kids are growing so fast sometimes my heart can't stand it. And today was the textbook depiction of family disharmony. I love them so much but its so hard when we don't get along. Why was today so bad? Why today?

I need peace. I miss my parents already. I'm sad when I think about my uncle's life and pain. I can recite all the attributes of the bright side. Now I just need to really believe its there.

Saturday, November 30, 2013

What we did today . . .

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a great holiday. Really. Even the best of holidays come with surprises, good and bad. This Thanksgiving held a lot of significance for me. I couldn't wait to spend the day with my family; our family of six and our Terry family of 27. As you probably know, Mom and Dad are leaving on Monday for the MTC. My brother Shaun and his family from Minnesota and my brother Brandon and his family from California are here. All five of us Terry kids (27 with kids and spouses in tow) were here on Sunday for their fantastic farewell and were planning on spending this special Thanksgiving day together. We were going to have a mini-Christmas party this evening to somehow make up for the next two Christmases we'll have without our missionaries.

Well, yesterday Mia came down with stomach flu. Alfonso got a fever and had body aches from head to toe. I prayed so hard that everyone would be healthy and recovered by this morning. Well this beautiful Thanksgiving morning Alfonso and Mia felt great! As we were preparing to walk out the door with our best outfits and our pies and presents, Spencer threw up. I cried again, as I am now.

No one wants stomach flu. Especially when traveling long distances. Out of consideration of the whole family, we decided to only go to the park in Bountiful to at least take the big family picture (it was outside after all), but left for Heber immediately afterwards. As we got on the freeway I cried again. On the way home, along main street in Heber there was an elderly homeless man walking. I was suddenly humbled when I saw him. Here I am thinking my life was hard, but what about him? Where is his warm home with a feast and a family? We stopped to talk to him for a minute, but I just want to say I am so blessed. WE are so blessed.

And right now as we speak, my hero, Alfonso just walked in the front door with a feast from Betos. I love him. And I love my little family here. I know we could have split up for the day but that, to me, is not an option. We are in this together and for THAT I am truly GRATEFUL. Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Presenting, our paper-clad pilgrim princess. Finally, a good use for those pesky black Friday ads.

Good Buddies

Spence is feeling much better. . . as you can clearly see.

I love that smile.

Fortunately Alfonso was able to find some pre-cooked turkey legs at Wal-Mart to go with our meal.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Monday, November 25, 2013

Soon

My Mom & dad are leaving soon. Like in a week. I'm ashamed at my resistance in wanting them to stay. Here after a life of serving our family and giving their all as parents & providers, now they get to go and serve God. They get to travel across the world and do something new they've never had a chance to do. I'm bursting at the seams with pride in the. I know I shouldn't say that I'm proud. More like "pleased & grateful" in the words of my former coworker, Lyn.

Yesterday was their farewell. It was awesome. Mom spoke about integrity & sacrifice. "Hurrah for Israel". Dad was so soft spoken and sweet. He stunned us all when he ended his talk by bearing his testimony in Latvian completely from memory. It was really special to hear their testimonies & see all of the people who came to show support. In a nutshell I'm very pleased & extremely grateful for their sacrifice & for this experience. We are already being blessed.

Hurrah for Israel!!

Monday, November 18, 2013

Suzy Snowflake

Mia is in a dance class. Beginning Movement and she is having an absolute blast. Well I found out today that she gets to perform twice this Christmas Season as a "Suzy Snowflake." I watched the teacher teach them the dance today. It was so cute. I can't wait to see her up on stage. To play the song for her, I was looking for a recording of "Suzy Snowflake" on YouTube. I found this: Warning, it's very old and VERY adorable! How have I not seen this before???

A Lovely Surprise

We were gone this weekend. When we arrived back home and came into our bedroom we were overcome with a strong smell. It was incredible, just like a bouquet of gardenias. It turns out that our houseplant (rescued from one of Alfonso's tenant's abandoned apartments 6+years ago) decided to blossom. For the last month it's had these weird pom pom things growing out of the top of it. I actually debated cutting them off. Now I'm SO GLAD that I didn't.

My question for you is, what the heck kind of plant is this???

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Mia, The Budding Musician

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

WAaaaaaAAAAAAAHHHH

My parents got their mission call to serve in Latvia. It's insane. I am so incredibly happy for them. On their call, it said they'd report to the MTC on February 10th. Well, tonight I got a message from them that the date has been changed to December 2nd. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!! Like I said, I'm so happy for them, but I really thought I'd have this Christmas to prepare to let them go. At this moment, tonight, I AM NOT PREPARED. At all. Like not even in the smallest degree.

So in the meantime, while I try to pull myself together, here's some pictures of what we've been up to lately.

Ben got some Nesquik crazy straw glasses.
Lookin' good Ben.

Mia attended and LOVED her first dance class.
Here She is getting a sticker on her foot at the end.

Spencer created a killer-cool model of a "neon" atom.

Mia loves storytime with Miss Sally every Wednesday,
Here she is, in her happy place.

Monday was Veteran's Day.
This was taken in our front yard.
The Flores' will never forget.

There, I feel a little bit better. As long as I don't think about it.

Kids Say The Darndest Things

9/8/14 After a massive pillow fight with Spence and Will, Mia fell to the floor and exclaimed, "I'm soaking tired!"

5/15/14 We were watching a Baby Einstein movie featuring a rhino puppet. Mia said, "Mom, that rhinoceros is a genius."

5/13/14 Mia just told me some disturbing news about her imaginary friend. "Squella, not like you, so her is hiding." I even offered Squella a popsicle to bribe her into liking me and she wouldn't budge.
5 minutes later:
No wait, Mia just informed me, "Her likes you now. Her gets a pop-is-cle."

5/02/14 Mia has been coming up with some unique names for her imaginary friends, Squilla, Quinley, Tortilla are just a few. Well today she was talking to her friend Celia and said,
"What's your Cat's name, Celia?
"Tiddley-Dee"
"Oh!!! GREAT name!!!"
Later, I asked her later about the cat and found out that there are TWO! One cat's name is "Tilly-Tina" and the other's name is "Tiddley-Dee."

4/21/14 Mia was shouting at me from the bathroom in a bossy way. I said, "Mia, don't talk to me like that." She said. "I YELLING at you." I needed to leave the room and she shouted again and said, "Mommy come here, right now. I gon count and you gon go in time-out!!!" Sweet swirling onion rings, I'm in for it.

4/4/14 While enjoying a chocolate chip cookie together, I asked, "Mia, why is chocolate soooooo good?" To which she naturally replied, "Cuz we gon' eat it."
Best reason ever.

1/07/14 At the store, at the top of her lungs, in attempt to tell me that she's going to "crack me up" Mia shouted, "Mom, I go a crap you up!"

12/11/13 Today at story time Miss Sally was teaching the kids about the color red. She was pointing out those with red hair. She said, "This little boy has red hair, and look, this mommy has red hair. And this mommy has red hair!" There was a pause and Mia shouted out, "I HAVE TWO MOMMIES!" All the parents looked around, Miss Sally bewildered, looked at me. Appalled I laughed and said loudly, "I have NO IDEA what she's talking about." Everyone started laughing. . . hard! For the life of me I couldn't figure out why she'd say that. So afterwards I asked Mia, and she pointed to the two mommies with red hair and said, "See? Two mommies!" Ohhhhhh, now I get it. Two mommies with red hair.

12/14/13 The dinner table was busy with multiple conversations occurring at once when Mia said, "Hey Will, this song my favorite: (in sing-song)
Hello Kitty, Hello Kitty,
I like Hello Kitty"

12/03/13 Ben was teasing Mia on the couch. When she angrily yelled, "Ben, DON'T BLOW ME! I NOT a bubble!!!"

11/13/13 Today I was crying and couldn't stop. Mia dropped what she was doing and ran up and said, "Hold me, you feel better!" I hugged her tight and put her down. A few seconds later she came up and said, "Here Mom, a have a Kleenex."

Lately, Whenever we are having a nice snuggle moment as a family, Mia will come up and say, "All To-ah-gedder."

10/13/13 I need to preface this by saying, Mia's word for "girl" is "grill." After church Mia got very upset and ran to her room. Alfonso went up to try to comfort her and said, "Don't cry, Mia." To which she responded, "But grills like to cry."

09/25/13 Mia and I were playing with pretend snakes. In their "conversation", they made a deal and so I told her, "Let's shake on it." she immediately began to violently shake the snake.

08/24/13 Once again, Pandora displayed the album cover (One World's Acoustic) of Justin Bieber on the screen. Mia looked at it again and said, "Mom, look! A doggie. Doggie wif guitar."

08/21/13 Pandora displayed an album cover of Justin Bieber on the t.v. Mia, startled a little by the music, looked up at the screen, studied for a minute and said, "Cute doggie!"

08/19/13 As we were all getting ready to go swimming, Mia was excitedly showing everyone her "swimming soup."

08/17/12 A day after I taught Will about the Star of David, Will was playing with a couple of triangle magnets. When he had overlapped them just right he held them up and said, "Look, it's Jared's star!"

08/16/12 After taking off Ben's newly acquired football gear, Will sat next to me, sighed, and said, "It's nice to have a football player in the house."

07/24/12 I was looking at my wedding ring while tucking Will in to bed. Will noticed and said, "That's a pretty fancy ring." I said, "It is. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever owned. But I love it mostly for what it stands for." Will surprised me when he responded, "You love it because it reminds you of the day you got married. Even if it was made of wood, it would be a still be a great treasure."

07/23/12 After a run to Dairy Keen, Will shared the following insight: "The most humblest flavor of ice cream in the whole entire world is vanilla." When I asked why, he said, "Because it's simple, it's plain, and it's always there. "

07/05/12 Fearing that Mia might ruin his pillow fort, Will asked, "Mom, can we put her to sleep?"

06/28/12 As we were setting the table for breakfast, Will (7)said, "I'm a simple man." I couldn't help but smile. "I'm a simple man with complex thoughts." Did I mention, he's 7???

06/25/12 While I was looking for a rubber band, Spencer handed a large one to me and proudly said, "I wear 5 rubber bands on my wrist at all times."

06/22/12 For the second time, Spencer said, "I don't believe in sarcasm." I argued that sarcasm does exsist and gave him an example. His response, "I call that oppositism."

06/03/12 While we were driving, Spencer spotted a slowly oncoming tractor and car and said, " 'Wow, tractors drive slow!' thought the lady in the green car."

06/03/12 We had watched a bunch of old footage of Beatles performing some of their hits, when Will yelled out, "Can we PLEASE stop listening to classical music?"

05/12/12 Trying to explain to our sick kids why we couldn't have friends come play, I said, "We need to get this virus out of our house." Will said, "Lets give it to someone else!"

03/03/12 Will just said, "I have a faculty butt."

03/01/12 Will told Ben that from now on he wants to be called Bethica, queen of the sea.

03/01/12 Will came inside from shoveling snow with cold hands. After explaining to me that the problem was his gloves, he asked,"Can I have an upgrade?"

11/29/11 Me: "Will, what do you want the person you marry to be like?" Will: "Hot and sexy." Room fills with shock & stifled laughter. Me: "Will. . . what does it mean to be hot?" Will: "That you just came out of the desert."

11/28/11 When it's time for oracion/prayer, Mia oftentimes will fold her arms and talk quietly while the prayer is said. At the end we say "amen." She loudly says, "BOB!"

11/26/11 Alfonso swatted at the pesky fly once again. "It's taunting me." He said. Will exclaims, "It's taunting you??" Mutters to self, "I hate taunting flies."

11/10/11 Will walked in the door and when he saw his friend Annie sitting on the couch said, "I knew this day had something special in it." "What?" Annie asked. "You! I knew you were coming over. You make today special."

11/10/11 In the car, Annie (a girl I'm tending) said, "Jesus is so lucky! He gets to be born on Christmas, huh!"

09-09-11 Alfonso and I went on a date for our anniversary and left the kids with family. After we picked up the kids, Will politely asked, "Were there a lot of people at the anniversary?"

09-08-11 At the breakfast table, I was telling the kids that tomorrow would be Alfonso and my anniversary. Will lowered his head and said, "I'm glad I don't have to see that."

09-07-11 At a restaurant, we were all joking back and forth and Will said, "You gotta be pushing my leg!"

08-20-11 At our moving sale, my 3-year-old neice, Nicole held up a shiny quarter and said, "Look, I have a quenny."

08-20-11 5 minutes later, Nicole was whining. Her Mom, D.D. said, "I'm not going to talk to you until you use a big girl voice." Nicole gave her a mean look and said, "But you just talked to me."

08-19-11 Will, sitting at the table kept singing, "Can't you see, I love my pancreas, look at me, I love my pancreas." Over and over. Thank you, Wierd Al.

08-19-11 Quite proud of himself and giggling a little, Spencer announced, "Faster than a speeding two-year-old, able to leap a towering pile of laundry, it's SUPERMOM!!!"

04-29-11 We had just finished a large meal at Chick's Cafe when Spencer leaned back in his chair and energetcally patted his stomach saying, "Now I know what Santa feels like."

04-28-11 Will was helping me pull our huge new stroller out of its box. His job was to pull the box down as I held the stroller up off the ground. It wouldn't budge. He paused and said, "Wait, should I go drink some milk, to make my muscles stronger?"

About Us

Our blended family is many years and obstacles in the making. We two were raised in separate countries, different cultures and upbringings. For each of us, God's blessed broken road weaved through marraige, the birth of a child (or two) and a painful divorce, in the end, leaving a himless her and a herless him. We met on a blind date in 2008 and haven't been able to stay away from each other since. Married for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple, we and our four children are determined to BE a forever family. This blog is an account of our daily lives, our ups and downs, and our journey to become "one."