Big Boy Bed

Finally Jaimito got a bed!

 And the transition was actually pretty easy! Especially because he's right next to his big sister.

He demands the door to be closed because he's scared.

But I think he's loving it because ever since he's been sleeping in his own bed he wakes up til 8 and sometimes even til 9:30! That's way better than before when it was around 7 that he would wake up. And best of all, pregnant me gets a lot more rest too!

Aaaaa my little boy is growing. Good thing he takes after his dad and is a shorty. It makes me feel like he's still my little baby! He's barely half the size of the bed!

Babyshower

Yesterday was my babyshower! I was so excited. I've been lucky enough to have had a shower for each of my kids. Each has been different and special in their own way. For Natalie, I had a HUGE shower. Tons of people came and it was so exciting to celebrate my first baby.

 

Then with Jaimito, we actually had the shower after he was already born since he came 4 weeks early. It was a much smaller and simple shower but you could feel the love and kidness everyone had for the baby and me!

 

And now it was my little Sophia's turn.

It was a little last minute since we were waiting to find out what we where having to then have the shower. But as soon as we found out it was a little girl we started planning. Unfortunately because of the last minute and the holiday rush not a lot of people could make it. BUT with the company of the ones who did make it, it was a super fun time!

We had cupcakes and special Hershey bars.

I loved the cake. It was so cute. At first we were thinking of pink and brown for the color scheme but it ended up being green and pink, which was perfect because green is my favorite color.

I actually made the center pieces and was lucky enough to find a bouquet with green and white flowers. I loved the way they came out.

The games where so silly. The bottle drinking race was hilarious and I can't believe I actually won. Poor babies I don't know how they do it cause it was tiring. Especially since we had newborn size bottles.

Then we had a new game where we saw how many clothes pins we could hold in our hand while we had a baby on the other hip. The winner was my sister in law with 22.

And ofcourse we couldn't leave out the famous "guess her belly size" game.

Then they blew up a balloon and put it in their shirts and then tried to tie their shoes. Just like us preggar woman have too. Not too easy.

Then it was gift time! My favorite. Sophia got lots of cute monkey theme clothes and super soft blankets.

The cake was super yummy. I almost didn't want to cut it, it was so cute.

Especially the tiny little candy baby.

Now all there is left to do is have this little girl! Can't wait to meet my little Sophia Abigail Mendez!

Buena Obras Meta #1

Ahora estoy trabajando en mi meta #1 de Buenas Obras la cual enseña acerca del servicio y como es un principio fundamental del Evangelio. Durante dos semanas anote y estuve pendiente de notar los actos de servicio que otros realizaron para mi y para los demas.

La verdad que esto me hiso abrir mis ojos y ver lo bendecida que soy al ver cuanto amor y servicio recibo de mis familiares y semejantes. Pero tristemente tambien me di cuenta que yo no estoy dando el servicio que podria dar.

Me senti mal porque haveces soy rapida en verle los defectos a mis hermanas, hermano o padres y jusgarlos. Me senti como una malagradecida porque ellos realmente hasen mucho por mi y yo soy tan facil de verles lo malo y no lo bueno. Como todo el servicio que ellos me dan a mi. Al contrario, yo podria ser mucho mas servicial con ellos. Cada uno de ellos siempre estan dispuestos a ayudarme sin pensarlo dos veces. Me cuidan, me aman, me apapachan.

Mi esposo dia tras dia me sirve al cuidarme. Ahora que estoy embarasada me a ayudado tanto.

Aqui esta algunas cosas que note y anote en esas dos semanas.

* Mi hermana Alma tiene 5 hijos y una vida muy ocupada, sin embargo siempre esta al pendiente de mi abuelita. Va todos los dias a verla, a darle su medicina, a darle de comer, la lleva al doctor, ect. Yo no se si yo pudiera ser tan servicial como ella. Es un gran ejemplo. Tambien ahora que estoy embarasada me a consentido mucho. Me arreglo mis pantalones de embarasada y un vestido. Siempre me da mis antojos de manzanitas o pan mexicano o cualquier cosa sin que yo se la pida. Ahora asta me quiere hacer mi babyshower.

*Mi hermana Claudia siempre esta dispuesta a darme un ride al doctor y quedarse con Jaimito. Siempre esta al pendiente de mi y si me siento mal. Cuando me enferme luego luego vino por mi y me llevo a la sala de emergencias.

*Mi madre siempre me esta dando de comer. Cuando me siento muy cansada viene a mi casa y cosina. Siempre esta compartiendo sus alimentos con todos sus hijos y sus familias. Los Domingos se esmera por darnos de comer.

*Mi esposo me a dado tanto amor y servicio ahora que estoy en estado y un poco malita. Cocina, limpia, cuida a los niños y todavia tiene energia para cuidarme a mi.

Se me pide que agradesca sus servicios de alguna forma significativa para cumplir esta meta.

La verdad que siento que no hay maneras suficientes para demostrarles mi agradecimiento pero tratare. Pero pienso que al final del dia, la unica manera en la que realmente puedo demostrar mi agradecimiento a ellos y a Dios es dando de mi tiempo y servicio a otros y especialmente a ellos. Realmente el servicio es como un circulo. Uno necesita de otros en ciertos instantes y los demas necesitan de nosotros en otros instantes. Es algo que es un ciclo y que sin la ayuda de otros y su servicio no podriamos vivir.

Estoy grandemente agradecida con Dios por el servicio y ayuda que me brinda por medio de mis seres queridos. Se que soy grandemente bendecida ya que no todos tienen seres queridos que los amen y sirvan como los que tengo yo.

What to do with leftover Halloween make up.

On Pinterest I found a fun list of things to do with my kids. One of the things on the list was to let my kids give me a make over with my make-up. BUT I have to say I was kind of nervous to let my kiddos play with my cosmetics. I had let my daughter before but I was nervous on letting my 3 year old boy play with it. Hey I love my make up and I'm on a budget so I wasn't going to take the risk. So instead I decided to use our left over Halloween make up that I had saved. It ended up being a super fun activity that kept them entertained for quite awhile. They decided to do a Halloween theme again. Here's my daughter's make over!

 

Then she decided to do her brother's make up. Ofcourse he wanted to be HULK.

She was trying to draw his facial expressions.

Ofcourse she had to add a mustache!

Hahahaha love this picture!

And here's what we all looked like when we were finished.

So don't toss out the left over Halloween make up. Save it for a rainy day of fun!

Groovy Parents!

 

Nothing like watching your parents dance! Can't imagine how I'll be dancing with David when we're their age? Then maybe Natalie and Jaime will be laughing at me!

Bowling

Jaimito had his Pre-School fieldtrip to the bowling alley to celebrate the end of their study on balls! It was too much cuteness for me to handle!

 

A little mad because he couldn't get a strike!

Trying not to drop the bowling ball!

And trying to bowl like a proffessional!

How a fieldtrip re-affirmed the purpose of life!

A couple of weeks ago, a friend tagged me on a Facebook picture of a rainbow that said she hoped we had a colorful day and that God would bless us. It was a very nice gesture. Then someone who she had tagged answered back with a response that really made me sad. I won't quote word by word, but it was something to the extent of that he didn't need blessings from above because as far as he knew God had send us all to this Earth to suffer. He said he didn't understand why if we were so happy and comfortable in Heaven why would our Heavenly Father want to send us here to suffer so much.

 

I couldn't stop thinking about this comment, especially because it hit a cord with me. I too had felt like this once and I have heard many others say this too. But I had thankfully found understanding and peace and I wish I could find a way to share it with this person. But I let it go since I didn't know this person.

 

Then on a sunny Thursday morning I found myself getting ready to go on a school fieldtrip with my daughter. As we sat on the bus I watched her interact with her BFF, smiling, giggling and just full of excitement to be going to the planetarium.

 

I couldn't help but reminisce about my school days and all the wonderful memories I have of awesome fieldtrips. Especially the ones where my dad got to go with me. And now here I was, full circle, now my turn to see my daughter make her own memories. At that very moment my heart was full, a feeling of joy, of assurance, of gratefulness to my Heavenly Father came over me. At that moment I knew my Heavenly Father's Plan of happiness was perfect.

 

Yes we were in Heaven and yes it was great, but H.F. knew what it was like to experience mortal life. He too had experienced it. He knew that to progress and grow we needed to know sweetness from sourness. We choose to come here. We choose to follow his plan because we wanted to grow and learn as He did.

 

And yes life is hard. Yes life is full of horrible things. People do suffer. A lot of it are the consequences of our bad choices and H.F. has to let them be so that we learn.  We may not fully understand everything now but as I left my bad habits, as I turned to him once again with a humble heart and contrite spirit, as I repented and as I humbled myself to Him I received confirmation and peace in his gospel. I received more knowledge of my purpose and reason here on earth.

 

And I knew at that moment that even this simple but wonderful pleasure of rejoicing as I experienced seeing my daughter's smiling face was a gift from my H.F. A gift I wouldn't be able to have if I wasn't here on Earth living life. He allowed me to experience happiness as a child and made a perfect plan where as I grew and got to experience being the parent I can also experience another even greater joy. Yes I have had hardships, I have been sad, I have been hurt, and I still struggle through many of life's difficulties but non of those things even measured to the sweetness of this moment and of many other moments of blissful happiness and blessings. Many of which I wouldn't appreciate if I hadn't gone through many of those difficult times.

 

I also noticed that when I felt this way before, it was a time in my life when I wanted to be disobedient. When I wanted to give in to temptations or bad decisions. When I was being rebellious and then seeing the results of those bad choices. It's sad but true, most people who feel this way or who say such things are people who are relying on their own strength, people who have forgotten about God. We don't want to be humble and rely on God for guidance, we are proud and vain and blame our problems and choices and consequences on others, but especially God.

 

But even in many of the very famous movies my point is proven. Take the Matrix for instance, even though they had the choice of staying in a "sleep" and living in a controled enviroment they choose to be free. To experience life for themselves, to be ALIVE and have choice. In every story, movie or fairy tale, the characters want to experience happiness and sorrow for themselves. So yes, maybe we were in a very blissful state in Heaven, not knowing anything else but happiness, but we wanted more. We wanted to be able to grow and maybe to truly appreciate all that we had, but to do that we needed to experience mortality. We needed to experience sorrow too. In this I have a testimony of, I know I choose to come here. I choose to experience mortality even when I knew it would be hard at times.

But even the simplest experiences that would produce happiness would make it all worth it. Just like that day, being able to be with my daughter as she got to have a simple yet joyful experience in her young life. Something as simple as a fieldtrip full of laughs and memories I wouldn't have want to miss it for anything. If this brings me joy, I can only imagine what I will feel when my Heavenly Father receives me in his arms again.

Bows for the Primary Presentation.

Our Primary Presentation was last Sunday and it went wonderful. All the nerves, work and sweat payed off. The kids were wonderful and their singing was beautiful. We decided to make CTR shields to pin on the boys' white shirts. That was fairly easy. BUT for the girls we decided on making them some green bows to go with the green theme of the CTR shield. Well I had never made a hair bow before and I was feeling overwhelmed since I left it til the last minute. But I found a tutorial on YouTube and here's my version of it. Hope the pictures help.

 

The tutorial asked for thick 1" ribbon but all I had for the moment was this thin one. I cut strips into 8" strips.

Then I took one end and folded it in half twice so that it looked like this.

 




 Then I cut a piece off diagonally with scissors. Repeat the process on the other end of the ribbon.

This will give you nice clean and matching looking ends. Then carefully with a lighter burn the edges to prevent from fringing.

 

 The next steps take a couple of times to get right. It's more like eyeing it out. You make a first fold like so.

Then fold again like this.

 

And finally it should look like this after folding it one last time. So like I said you have to kind of estimate how much to fold so that it can come out even like this.

You then pinch it in the middle. It's a little difficult to get the folds in but after a couple of bows it got easier.

 

Then with a threaded needle you go through the center once and then just wrap the string around it a couple times and knott it up.

 

 It should look like this. You then just adjust here and there and you're almost done.
To finish it off you wrap a piece of ribbon around the middle section to cover of the string and to make it look nice, I used a glue gun to attach it. I choose a different color green to make it pop.

All I did then was add a bobby pin through the ribbon and voila, ready to wear. I think that for my first home made bow it came out pretty nice. I made about 15 of these and I regret not taking a picture of my primary girls because they looked so cute with these on.

I know these aren't the greatest directions but I'm learning. I just really wanted to share this with everyone even if my "tutorials" are horrible!

Halloween Bat Treats.

First of all I want to give credit to the blog where I got this idea from. I had pinned it to my Holiday Ideas board on Pinterest and decided to try it. Here's the link to the original post: http://www.tonyastaab.com/2012/09/easy-halloween-treats-for-kids.html

 

I did do things a little different so here's my version:

 

This person actually went out and bought black pillow cases. I didn't, I collected all my empty paper towel and toilet rolls. Almost didn't get enough, so I recommend getting a head start collecting them if you need a lot. I then painted them black. I did notice that certain rolls became a little bit hard to work with once the paint dried but nothing too major.

I then enlisted the help from my hubby to make me some bat wings.

I then folded in one of the sides on the toilet roll and then stappled on the wings.

Added some candy to the inside of the tube and then folded the opening up. I didn't need any glue or anything to the folds. The tube actually is thick enough that the openings stay close on their own.

I then added some googly eyes. I wish I had a white gel pen to add some fangs to my little bat, maybe next time.

And Ta-da! Aren't they cute! I really hope they like them. Love that I actually made something I've pinned!