Natalie turns 9!

So my Natalie is now 9 years old. WOW! It had been awhile since I had made her a big party with a lot of guest and a big theme. So this year I have to say we really did go all out. Ofcourse the theme was SOCCER! She's so into it. She's been playing for like the past two years non stop all year. So it wasn't difficult to find a way to incorporate soccer into her party, starting with this piñata that Lucy made for her.

This was around the beginning of the day. We were preparing for the party. I love this picture because even though my gramma didn't want to take a picture, it ended up looking so sweet. I really like it. And this one of my two babies is another favorite. I can't believe how different they look yet at the same time they look so alike. Look at those eyes! Can anyone say "SMIZING" haahaha!I really have to give my mom all the credit for the food. She worked so hard. She had been working on food since the night before and woke up very early the next day to start cooking. She made carnitas, rice, green spaghetti, potato salad, and the list could go on and on.

Look at these carnitas. Nothing can taste better than being cooked in lard! haha MMMMM!

We all wore our soccer jerseys. Here's her daddy with a Guatemala jersey and Natalie with her jersey that her gramma brought her straight from Mexico.

Ofcourse she had to show off that her jersey was from el CHICHARITO the best player in the world right now!

I didn't have my jersey on yet, but I ended up wearing a PUMAS jersey.

The party was slowing getting started. Here she is with her BFF Celina! They're so cute together!

Here's some of her many guests. They played tons of soccer in my mom's yard. Poor grass, my mom was crying over it! hahaha!

Then instead of having official birthday games we decided to go behind the baseball field by our house and play soccer games. It ended up being the best idea ever. Everyone loved it. It was 4 teams of kids and adults playing soccer. Everyone had so much fun.

Afterwards our piñata was one of a kind because we didn't break it the regular way. We kicked it open. Instead of hitting it with a stick, we had the kids kick it. They really enjoyed it, and I thought it was much safer than having a kid swinging a stick around! :)

Ofcourse like always the piñata falls off the rope before it gets broken so it has become our favorite tradition to make it rain with candy!

And my brother is the best at it! We always hand him the candy and he starts to throw them.

Now I don't recommened everyone to do this because it's a dangerous sport, but our kids are use to it already. But if you do maybe you should pass out some head gear because in the process there will be some swollen heads and one or two kids crying. hahahaha! But it's so much fun!

The cake was delicious. My sister Alma brought it. It was almost too pretty to actually cut.

Here are all the kids at her party. More than half of them are all family!


It was such a fun and successful party. Some people think that it's a waste of money to make this types of parties. But I have to say that every cent spent was worth it. Seeing the anticipation in my daughter for her party. Then being able to have so many friends and family together. Sharing a good dinner, laughing, talking, and celebrating together has no price. I think that all the adults had as much fun as the kids, I know I did! And thanks to a wonderful husband who was wonderful and so helpful the whole day. I couldn't have done it without him. I got to reunite with old friends and got to meet new ones. All in all, it is now such a wonderful memory!

Young Woman Personal Progress

I never finished my Young Woman's Personal Progress and I had never really thought about finishing it now. But ever since I've been working with the Young Woman I've been motivated to work on it.

For some reason is seems like such a hard thing to do. I remember that as a youth it was hard for me to work on the goals. Like our girls, I would too, look for the easiest ones that only required to read a scripture and write in your diary. Sadly now, I find myself doing the same thing. Our Y.W. president keeps telling them that it's such an easy thing to do that they should be working on it easily. But I can relate to the girls so much. I mean it should be an easy thing to do, to live the gospel. If we're living the gospel than the goals should be easy to complete. BUT just as in my youth, I find myself not being able to commit to the goals. They require a committment, they require a desire to truly live the gospel in every aspect. That's why this program is so important. So important that we help our youth follow through with it with our support. Because if I choose to actually do these goals they'll help me break bad habits and form good ones. It requires me too choose today "to whom I'll serve". And it's sad that many times I skip over a goal because it requires me to do more than just sit here, say I believe in Christ but not truly live Christlike. Maybe if I would've had more support in my youth to actually try to do my Personal Progress and I would've put more effort into it, maybe just maybe, I would've made better decisions or atleast had some "personal progress".

But now I'm here, in present time. I look at this book and realize that there should be a Adult Woman Personal Progress!!! I realize that I need this just as much as I needed it when I was 15. Can I finally choose to push myself to truly make changes to live more Christlike? Can I finish my Personal Progress?

Well I start today. After reading the scriptures required for the first goal in Virtue, I will now write my thoughts in my "journal".

I now realize the blessing I could've received if I would've worked harder to be a woman full of Virtue. But now that I'm married, I realize that I can still try to be a woman of Virtue. Sadly in the past I have failed at this again and again. The temptations of the world can sometimes be more alluring when our spirits are weak. But I need to focus in the present and realize that through God's grace it's never to late to live virtuously. As I read Proverbs 31:10-31 I realized that to be a Virtouse woman is not just refering to being sexually clean but that it encompasses a lot more. Being a good wife and mother, being worthy of our husband's love. Always speaking kind words, being ready to always lend a helping hand. So many other traits that I thought of as I read these scriptures. I hope that as I strive to be brave and complete my Y.W. goals I can truly make progress in the way I live my life. I hope that I can be a good example to my daughter as she prepares to one day also be in Y.W. I hope that I can one day give her the right support and motivation so that she can accomplish her Y.W. goals and hopefully have life learning moments.

Gramma got me thinking.....

About a week ago I went to pick up my gramma at her apartment to bring her over our house and on the way there ofcourse we were chatting. I don't quite remember how we got into the topic about her knowing how to sow clothing but we did. She then told me that she was self thaught to which I responded, "Seriously, you mean nobody thaught you or you didn't go to school or something?!"

Let me give you a little background on my gramma so you can understand why I was so surprised. She pretty much made all my sister's clothes when they were little and lived in Mexico. I hear stories about how my sister's had a friend who was more well off and always had new clothes and since my sister's couldn't afford new clothes my gramma would make them the exact type of style of clothing for them. They tell me how most of the time my gramma's clothing would come out even nicer and they would be the center of attraction at functions and stuff. That's not to show off but more to give you an idea of the quality of work my gramma would do.

She has also been asked to make several wedding dresses, including my own sister in law's dress. It was beautiful. She has made almost all her skirts through out her life time. Her age now stops her from being able to make much clothing anymore but she can still pull out great pieces when asked too.

This brings us back to our conversation. I asked her how she had learned.
She said that out of necessity, of not having money to buy her kids clothes, she found herself needing to make them. She said she started off by just undoing the article of clothing and then tracing the outline of it onto the fabric, cutting it out, and then sewing it together. She continue to sow and to better her techniques. She can't quite remember how she perfected her craft or how she learned the right way of fabricating pieces, but she does know it was all by herself and her desire to learn. She made sure to learn from others by watching, from books, ect.

I can't express how amazed and proud I felt for my gramma at that instant. BUT I also felt so ashamed and small next to her. I mean how often have I said " I wish I could learn this or that, but I can't cause I don't have the money to pay for classes." or "I don't have the time." I started thinking about my generation, and how lazy we have become. I mean yes we are two different generations but we truly have more advantages then their generation. We have everything at our fingertips to learn anything we want. I mean all we have to do is google it or go on YOUTUBE and it'll teach us anything we want. But if we're not taking a class we think we can't truly learn something. I guess it motivated me to start learning all those things I want to learn even if I can't learn them in a class setting. Like photography or drawing................the possibilities are endless. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing paying for classes to learn something, I would still do that in a heart beat. I'm talking about the ability to use our time efficiently and our ability to be able to learn more than we are learning currently. To know that we can self teach ourselves many other things, hobbies, and interests. I hope one day I can be talking to my grandchildren and tell them that their Abuela learned to play the piano on her own or to grow an awesome garden all by herself just by reading books!