THE SARMIENTO FAMILY

Nathan Turns TWO!

2011-11-14T21:41:00.001-08:00

Guess what Friday was?! Nathan's 2ND Birthday!!!

The fun banner I made for his big day.. :)

Nathan walking down the stairs checking out all the streamers and balloons in the living room..
"BALLOONS!?!? Orange balloon?! Red balloon?! Green balloon!!!"

"How old are you Nathan?" "I'm TWO!"

At Nathan's birthday party at the park-- once he finally woke up (by finally, I mean, "half an hour after his party started," and by "woke up," I mean, "got woken up by his Mom." )

All the kiddos decorating their cupcakes--

Nathan had a special little kid cake that we decorated together... (and all the kids wanted it.. EXCEPT NATHAN)

He just wanted to decorate a cupcake like everyone else.

Later that night we had cake and ice cream with the family...

This is Nathan conducting his birthday choir. Every time we lit the candles he'd start conducting and start everyone off by singing, "Haaaaappppyyyyy....."

And of course-- the moment he'd been practicing for... for like, oh, weeks. He was a total pro.

Ecuadorian tradition is to bite into your birthday cake once they're done singing and you're done wishing... {except generally this is the point where someone secretly comes behind you and pushes your face into the cake... Maybe next year, Nathan.}

But we did have fun playing with the whipped cream icing on the cake!

Lots of fun...

And Daddy got to play, too!

I can't believe he's already two years old! One thing that I love about motherhood is that every month I'm like, "You know, Nathan was cool last month, but this month is the BEST EVER!" And then the next month I say the exact same thing again. Month after month he just keeps getting better and better-- I don't know if all kids are this fun, but I sure like Nathan. He's such a great kid and I'm so lucky to be his mom!

Pumpkin Carving

2011-11-06T22:52:00.000-08:00

Time to carve our pumpkin! What fun!

Here goes....!

Except that Nathan did NOT like the feeling of the seeds one bit! "Ahhh! Sticky!!"

The stem (or "hat" as N called it) was particularly fun to play with...

...But a little tricky to get back on just right.

Trying to blow out the fake candle inside the pumpkin...

Here we have the "Papa pumpkin" and the "baby pumpkin." If you ask him where the "Mama pumpkin" is he shrugs, shakes his head, and says, "No hay!" (English translation: "There isn't any!")

Our Mickey Mouse Jack-o-lantern!

Showing his Mickey Mouse ears!

Uh... posing? We're working on that.. :)

We had a lot of fun carving Nathan's first pumpkin!! Halloween was so much fun this year!

Update on Us

2011-09-18T00:56:00.000-07:00

I wanted to blog about a few things, and I know I really should get back to our Ecuador trip, before I forget all the details, but in the mean time I'm falling behind on blogging all of the other things going on in life.

So-- just a few quick updates:

We got a new(ish) washer and dryer! Yesssss... As you may remember, we had bought beautiful, brand new ones, just over a year ago. Well, long {and sad} story short, when we moved into our new house, we needed electric ones, and we had just bought gas ones. So we ended up selling those to a good home and had been keeping our eyes out for a good deal. Well we found one! We got this set for $150... TOTAL. And they work perfectly, which, obviously makes them even better {than, I don't know, if they hadn't worked..}

Nathan helping me show off the washer and dryer.

Nathan not loving that the dryer was on while I had him pose for a picture.

Anyway, so that was exciting, because going to laundromats when it was 110 degrees outside was getting old real fast.

We celebrated our 4th anniversary! {Well, not really. We have been married for four years; we haven't celebrated yet.} On our anniversary, I was in CA for a friend's wedding-- and because of the distance she was traveling, the only day to do her endowment at the temple, her bridal shower, and bachelorette party-- was on our anniversary. We decided that it was okay for me to go, because we're planning on having lots and lots of anniversaries in the future. But not to worry-- we're planning a nice, relaxing anniversary weekend to celebrate four wonderful years... The theme of our anniversary this year: Four is just the beginning of four-ever! :)

Also, Freddy's started training at Wells Fargo-- he's going to be a personal banker {and my guess is a pretty good one, too!}. But before he can get to work, he has a month long training, so he's been enjoying that. He'll be working at the busiest branch in the whole state {literally}, so hopefully that training really prepares him well!

We've both started a new semester with BYU-Idaho. This is Freddy's first semester with BYU-I online, and so far he's enjoying it. But now he totally understands my Tide Cycle of Stress, I like to call it. Monday I'm like, Okay, lots to do, but I've got a whole week. Tuesday, I'm like, Wow, okay, more time consuming than I realized, I've really got to get things done here. Wednesday, Holy cow! How am I ever going to get all this done?! Thursday, I HAVE TO DROP THIS CLASS. THERE IS NO WAY I CAN EVER FINISH ALL OF THIS. Friday (as I turn more and more things in), Okay, I'm most the way done, but I still have a lot to do... And Saturday, once everything is all done and turned in, Huh. That wasn't so bad. I made it through... One week down! Woohoo!! :) Essentially that's my weekly Tide Cycle of Stress. I'm a wreck on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, but come Saturday and Sunday-- I'm totally fine again.

Anyway, we're enjoying classes, and one week down. Only twelve to go.

Tomorrow both Freddy and I are teaching classes-- his normal Sunday School lesson for the 14-15 year olds, and I get to teach the YW lesson tomorrow. :) We both really enjoy teaching, and it works out perfectly that we're busy during opposite hours of church, that way the other person can be the back up if Nathan's not enjoying nursery as much as we'd like him to.

Anyway, time for me to get to bed. And thanks, Em, for motivating me to blog right now.

And, shout out to the new Blogger dashboard. I love it!

Nathan's Big Boy Bed!

2011-08-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming of our Adventure in Ecuador series to bring you an exciting addition to the Sarmiento home....

NATHAN'S NEW BIG BOY BED!!!! :) Before he had a crib, but had never slept it in the whole night-- he's pretty much been with us in our bed since birth. Which has been fine, but we were ready for a change. :)

We'd been wanting to get him his own bed for a long time now, and we happened to come across an amazing deal from Groupon that made it all worth it. We paid $50 to get $200 worth at the Mattress Firm, and then we found this twin mattress and box spring which ended up being perfect for us. We walked out of there paying $20! So that's a mattress and box spring, with taxes and all for just under $70-- we're so pleased! (Considering originally we were looking at just getting a basic twin mattress-- no box spring-- from Walmart for $100-- which probably wouldn't have been anywhere near as nice as this one!) Nathan loves his bed! The first night he slept until 6:10 am all by himself! Then the next night was a little harder-- he woke up a couple times and was pretty sad to find himself all alone-- so I went in there... and yeah, accidentally fell asleep in his room. And then last night, he woke up a couple times-- the first time he was screaming but then the second time he just got up and headed toward our bedroom, without any drama.. SO! Overall, I think we're making good progress!

Also, we like that his bed makes the room look at lot less crowded than the useless crib did. So that's good--And he chose his sheets-- although it was a toss up-- he was very indecisive as he went from sports, to Toy Story, to Spiderman--- all favorites of his. Finally the sports theme won, because of ALLLL the balls on it. He runs from one side of the bed to the other, pointing at each ball. It goes like this:

"Basketball???!! (Dunks the ball) SLAM DUNK!!! Soccer ball??!! (Kicks) GOAAALLLL!! Baseball?!!? (Swings bat) HOME RUN!! Football!?!!? (Throws the ball down) TOUCHDOWN!!!!

(Now, obviously he can't say them as clearly as that.. but that is what he does, I promise!)

We're glad to have our own room again and that Nathan likes his room so much!

{And we'll get back to our Ecuador posts just as soon as I get our picture CD from my mother in law-- because we just have the actual pictures that we took on her camera and I am not scanning them all in. Until then, enjoy the more up to date posts!}

{Ignore the fact that Nathan is holding my chapstick in every. single. picture. He's a little obsessed with it. He loves that silly lid. That, and anything that resembles a lid like that, i.e. the little plastic white thing that covers the end of those springy door stoppers. Rolls eyes.}

Ecuador: Trip to Esmeraldas

2011-08-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

First, let's finish up our trip to Baños-- on the way back we stopped in Ambato at a mercado, or market place. We ate a typical Ecuadorian dish there, called llapingachos. It was SO good (I even ordered a second plate to share-- wait, did I share it? Maybe not, because it was delicious!) And I also loved the fresh juices that they offered at a nearby stand, too.
The cooks at work...Nadia (F's aunt--Marco's wife), Zoila (F's grandma), Marco (F's uncle), and Elvie (F's aunt).
One of my favorite things in all of Ecuador was all the fruits and vegetables they had. Here's a view at just a small part of their fresh fruits at the mercado. So much color! :)

Then, after Ambato, we stopped in Quisapincha, which is a little town near Ambato, famous for their leather goods. It was incredible what we were able to find there, and at unbeatable prices! We ended up getting leather jackets for each of us, and I got a couple pairs of cute boots, too! Loved it!

We got back to Quito late that night (Wednesday the 18th), and then left for Esmeraldas on Friday the 20th. Esmeraldas is a coastal city, famous for their beautiful beaches. (And they are beautiful.) It was about a four hour? drive there, but with several winding roads...

We stopped along the way to grab a bite to eat, and Diana (F's cousin) discovered a great way for keeping track of little Nathan! (That's her headband wrap thing..) :)
Nathan, just hanging out.. :)
Fermine, Diana's dog got to come to the beach with us-- which was great for keeping Nathan entertained during the drive. While we ate, he got to take Fermine for walk!
On the road again... (And that sign, about the curves coming up... yeah, no kidding. Although, to be fair, they have been doing a lot of renovation on their highways, and I was impressed with them, overall.)
This was the beach house that we stayed at-- it was Marcelo's (Diana's husband) parents' beach house. It was in a small gated community that was right up along the coast. Perfect, because since we were there during the off season, we had the whole beach to ourselves!

Now, I know beach pictures aren't the most flattering, but I'll make the sacrifice so that all can enjoy the pictures. ;-)

Nathan really enjoyed playing in the sand and the small waves-- and hey, there are shells and rocks to find!
The Ecuadorian beaches are suuuuuper pretty.. but beyond that, the water is warmer than you'd ever expect! And because they don't really have seasons, it stays that way all year long. You could go in the water at 4 am or 4 pm and it would still be warm enough to swim and enjoy the water.
Nathan with Grandma-- :)
These were the stairs down to the water, and the rocks that separated the higher ground with houses from the ocean-- during high tide, most of the stairs were covered!
Freddy climbing on the rocks. :)

The boys showering off after swimming..
The sun down there is suuuuper strong. I forgot to wear sunscreen for like ten minutes and I was already like a lobster..
Andddd... this is in town, when our camera broke.. It would turn on for like 0.2 seconds and then die. So... that's the last picture that we got on our camera. Luckily, Monica (my mother in law) was there with us and we got to use her camera for the rest of the trip (which was totally fine because her camera is way better than ours anyway.. Ha..).
And more to come, because after that we went on a week long road trip all along the coast and throughout Ecuador!! :)

Ecuador: Trip to Baños and Tungurahua

2011-08-09T21:28:00.000-07:00

Our flight left at like, 1:30 am on May 14th, and we arrived in Ecuador around 2 in the afternoon (which is two hours later than CA time). We flew from LAX to San Salvador, El Salvador (about a six hour flight or so)-- and just had a transfer there, and then from El Salvador to San José, Costa Rica (a two hour flight), where we were supposed to have a one hour layover, but ended up boarding just as they were about to leave! From there we went to Quito, Ecuador (which was a three hour flight). Yay! We made it to Ecuador! And {surprisingly} Nathan was excellent during the flight-- all the way until the last half hour or so. But really, for the most part he was great! :) (Thank you dollar store toys.)

Quick funny story. I knew that I'd be meeting a lot of people there, but I really didn't know who to expect. And after you arrive and get your luggage, there's like a small crowd of extended family waiting to greet you. So, naturally, I started hugging and kissing everyone on the cheeks, like everyone does down there. Well, there was this one kid that I totally hugged and everything.. "¡Hola, mijo! ¿Cómo estás?"-- kind of like, Hi, sweetie, how are you? Well, I thought he was part of the family waiting for us, and after a little while of him following me around, I realized was actually just one of the kids begging for money from tourists that were getting off the plane. {With a suuuper sad face...} "Señoritaaaa... por favorrr..." {Whoops! My bad.}

Any way! We went to lunch and got settled in at Freddy's aunt and uncle's house-- Oswaldo and Betty-- and everyone came over to see us. Nathan got to meet and play with his cousins, Camila and Valentina. He really liked them.

Especially Vale-- because she's a little older than him, so she's more fun to play with. :) Then this was while we were visiting Freddy's grandma on his dad's side-- where Nathan realized how much he likes {or loves} child-size plastic chairs.So, we arrived to Ecuador on Saturday, and the following Tuesday we left for a sweet road trip to Baños, which is the city at the base of the volcano, Tungurahua. We wanted to go to Baños because Freddy's grandma really wanted to go visit her Virgin Mary. {The way I understand it, it's like having a favorite temple to go to or something... so when you're in that part of the world, you stop by to see it.} And, more than that, it's a way touristy place to go, so we went! It's about a three hour drive to get there-- not too bad. And on the way we stopped and took pictures with the Cotopaxi-- it's a "nevado" which, I don't think there's a word for in English. It means, a volcano that's covered in snow. And I guess it was the clearest day any of the family had ever seen. So we took pictures.

Here we have F's aunts-- Elvie, Naida, Yvonne, then his mom, Monica, Nathan, Freddy, and then his uncle, Marco {I was taking the picture..}.
And a better view-- actually taken while we were stopped getting gas (which, by the way, is $1.48 a gallon. I thought it was per liter, but no-- seriously, it's a gallon. Whaaaat?)
After breakfast {or more like brunch..} Monica and her mom were surprised when Freddy wanted to take a picture of them exiting the bathroom-- until he pointed out that they had used the men's bathroom. Oops!
Every city along the way has something they're famous for. We got some of the famous Salcedo ice cream as we passed through Salcedo, Ecuador. They have four layers of various exotic fruits (and they're surprisingly healthy). My mouth is watering just thinking about them! They were suuuper good! Poor Nathan missed out on them (that time)-- he was asleep and woke up just as we finished them. :(

When we got to Baños, we stayed at the Hotel Acapulco, just across the-- what is that-- like park square-- from the Catholic church that we were there to see. Freddy's up on the balcony just outside our room-- Nathan and I are there on the sidewalk.

And here we are in the park square thing-- with the church behind us to the left. :)
One fun fact-- on that trip, Nathan learned how to cross his fingers and would often entertain himself just crossing and uncrossing his fingers. Too cute.
We had gone with Zoila, Freddy's grandma, to the Catholic mass the night before, so the next day we spent doing more touristy things. We drove up the volcano-- and took some pretty pictures... Uhh-- I think this might be me with the "cascada" or waterfall called Pailon del Diablo-- the Devil's Cauldron.. but I'll be honest.. I'm not positive which one it is-- there are so many..

THEN! We had a great idea to go on a "tarabita" or-- uhh-- like a cable car type thing. Except with wayyy less safety precautions than they would ever have here in the States. {Pretty sure it was a cable that went from one side to the other using like, an old lawn mower motor or something. Or it seemed like it anyway.. And seat belts? Ha. Or even seats? Double ha. Or anything to hang on to?!? Uhh-- try, the edge of the cable car.}
So here we are, mid-ride, and Nathan wasn't loving it. Look verrrry closely, and you can see the cable that we went across on-- it starts on the left side, about the middle of the picture. But you can't really see it more than like, half way across the picture, but the cable goes allll the way across the canyon, over the waterfalls, and back again. And that's a bridge down there-- to walk across, if you don't have the guts to cross on the tarabita. :PAnd there we are, as we're about to cross the waterfall, called the Manto de la Novia-- or the Veil of the Bride. We're in that tiny, red cable car, which when we got that far across, it didn't seem like such a great idea.

And after the ride, when we were glad to have survived.

After that, we stopped to try fresh sugar cane. That was pretty good-- I thought it would be ridiculously sugary-sweet, but no, it was just like good-amount-sweet.

We had great plans to do other fun things, but then they noticed that the volcano started erupting a lot more than it usually does*, and Freddy's grandma got pretty scared, so we headed down the mountain and out of Baños. It sure was a fun trip! And we got to see a lot of neat things! :)

*Tungurahua is an active volcano, and always has some ash coming from it. But supposedly it has a huge eruption every thousand years or something, and it's due for another big one. Or more like over due. It's like California waiting for THE BIG ONE-- the earthquake. But I guess the last time everyone was told to evacuate because they thought it was erupting, a whole bunch of thieves came in and robbed everyone. So now when they tell people to evacuate, they're like, Suuuure we will... (Roll eyes).

(Wow. I don't think it's ever taken me this long to blog before.. But I kind of want to add as much detail as possible.. For you to read, and for me to remember..)

Four Months in Four Minutes

2011-08-08T23:17:00.000-07:00

Let's not even get started on my past four months of {not} blogging. Instead, let's just jump right in and get a quick overview of what we've been up to.

1. We went to a Ward Family Picnic at the Mesa Temple.
It was pretty cute when Nathan saw the Christus statue this time-- he kept acting like he was so amazed. "Gasp! (And point)...Gasp! (And point)...Gasp!" You get the idea. It was pretty cute.
2. We've been {Nathan's been} playing hide and go seek.
3. Darren and Isis came to visit and we had a blast!

3a. We went to the Maricopa County Fair together---

{And these are the only pictures we have with D and I in them-- so, yeah, just trust me-- that's the back of Isis's head.}
3b. We stopped and took pictures by the river next to ASU {it's probably about time I learn what that darn river is actually named} and we almost went paddle boating, but Nathan was too little to go on the boat {and it was too hot to be out on the water having to paddle}. So we took nice pictures instead!

3c. And we went to the Mesa Temple together-- we wanted to see the Easter Pageant, but it turned out to be in Spanish that day.
4. We went to the Easter Pageant for real {and when it was in English}. THAT was cool. We left making a mental list of all the people we want to invite to it next year. {If you're reading this-- you're probably already on the list.}
5. We celebrated EASTER!!! Nathan had an Easter egg hunt out on our grass {Sure wish it still looked like that. We'll get to that soon enough.}. He needed a little help.
And he collected all of his eggs in his toy boat. :) {Brilliant.}
And Freddy accidentally fell asleep while Nathan and I played with sidewalk chalk. {When he saw this picture he was like, "Did I actually fall asleep??!" Uhh-- totally.
6. We've been weddinging. This particular one was Nick and Gloria's-- Freddy's cousins. They had Aztec dancers to a pretty sweet performance during their reception. Nathan reallly wanted to get his hands on some of those feathers.
7. Freddy surprised me for Mothers Day and made me dinner! WOW! He {and Nathan} made me a homemade chicken pot pie-- my choice-- and it was DE-LIC-IOUS!
And they played around a bit... like always...

I loved dinner! And I was SO proud of my husband!! :)

7. And then, of course, we went to ECUADOR!!! :D
So here we are in the airport at oh, 1:30 in the morning or so-- ready for the 10 hour? flight ahead of us! {Yeah right.}

And we'll stop there for now. :) So I guess that was more like, a month and a half in ten minutes, rather than 4 months in 4. BUT! Stay tuned! Because our whole SIX weeks in Ecuador is coming up next! Ecuador, Day 1... {Just kidding..} I think we'll just focus on the highlights, or else we'll be doing these posts until after Halloween or so. {2012, that is.} ;-)

Sender's Name: UTAH

2011-04-08T10:38:00.000-07:00

The other day we missed the mail man dropping off a package.. and all it said on the pick up slip was "Sender's Name: UTAH." I was so bummed that I had missed it!! AND to make matters worse, it was on a Friday that he came, so that meant that I had to wait until MONDAY to go pick it up from the post office.. But finally Monday rolled around. :)

Turned out it was a fun filled package from my sister, Jessica! It was the BEST! Among the fun things were (to mention a few) MY VERY OWN BIRTHDAY BOARD(!!!), a Valentine's Day craft, a kit to make my very own super-cute St. Patrick's Day craft, a prayer rug (yes, a prayer rug), a wonderful pamphlet on the family--which all families should have and use, and check it out--- BATH TOYYYYYSSSSS!

For the longest time, Jess had heard me complain that poor Nathan had the most pathetic selection of bath toys. SO! To my surprise, she sent a plethora of bath toys for Nathan! What FUN!

He had so many toys, he didn't know where to start!
(This one is mainly so that you can see his tan arms-- I think he's got a bit of a farmer's tan going on...) But then the real fun began: BATH FIZZY TABLET THINGS THAT COLOR THE WATER!
He didn't know what to think at first... And he kept looking to Freddy and I with this same stunned look.

Then what do you do? You catch it.
Awww man! It was all done fizzing and Nathan wanted MORE. All. night. long. all he wanted was more. (In this picture he was signing "all gone" to us...) We had to put the package up in the medicine cabinet because he wanted more. He didn't forget about them. He still wanted more. In fact, every time we go into the bathroom he points to the medicine cabinet and signs "more." Funny kid--
But the funniest thing was that the next morning, he walked into the bathroom and--HEY!!! LOOK AT ALL THESE TOYS!?!!?? WOOOOWWWWW!!! CHECK THIS OUT!! MOM!! DAD!!! WWWWOWWW!! He discovered them all. over. again. :D AND! He's done it every morning since. Thanks, Jess!

Family Weekend, Part 3: Dough Ball 101

2011-04-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

One of our new favorite restaurants is a pizza bistro called Oregano's. It's a really fun place, and even more important, has delicious pizza.

And to entertain the kiddos, while the pizza cooks, they bring out a dough ball for them to play with. So, for your viewing pleasure, Nathan's provided us with strict methodology on how to eat/use a dough ball properly.

DOUGH BALL 101

First and foremost: be very skeptical. Especially if it's your first dough ball experience, you want to proceed with the utmost levels of extreme caution.

Ahhh, what the heck?! Just jump right in with both feet!*
It's important to have someone near by, such as a dad or other responsible adult, to keep you from ingesting it all at once.
Particularly because you'll learn very quickly that raw dough is not every bit as delicious as it looks.
Thank you, Nathan, for sharing with us your firsthand knowledge of dough balls.

What a fun weekend together as a family.. :)

*This is, by far, one of my favorite pictures of Nathan. I can't look at it without laughing! It's got to be his tongue.. SO funny!

Family Weekend, Part 2: Dragon Boat Races

2011-04-06T10:15:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we went out to Tempe, right across from ASU, to watch the annual Dragon Boat Races. It was pretty incredible! Several of the teams were comprised of cancer survivors and their families...
And Nathan really, really wanted me to let him play in the water.
Who will win!? (You can see the ASU stadium in the background).
Nathan, look! Nathan... Nathan! NATHAN LOOK! {Rolls eyes.}

And, it was suuuper windy by the water.. hence, the hair. :\

We didn't stay for all the races-- they had like, oh forty-five or so just that day. But we did see enough to feel like it was worthy of posting on our blog. And that's plenty. (I just wished that we could have rowed with them. I was like, hey--- I want to play too.) And that's dragon boat racing. :)

Family Weekend, Part 1: Let's PLAY BALL!

2011-04-05T21:59:00.001-07:00

To start off our Fun Filled Family Weekend of Adventure, we went to watch the Dodgers play the Colorado Rockies at Camelback Ranch, here in Glendale! Spring training goes on all of March, so I'm sure we'll be coming to more games in years to come, too. :)

The complex is suuuuper nice--- you'd have no idea you were in a hot, desert wasteland. ;-) And the game was that much better because the tickets were freeeeee! (My kind of pricing!)

We had to keep a close eye on Nathan though-- he kept wanting to throw his baseball onto the field. That's a one way ticket outtttta there.

Nathan and Freddy had tons of fun playing around...
It was a beautiful day to go watch a baseball game!
And the sun finally got to him-- he was out!And here we are leaving during the 8th inning because we were losing 0-5. Seemed like a good idea to beat the traffic out of the parking lot, right? Later that night I heard Freddy in the other room on the computer, "NO WAY!! You have GOT to be KIDDING me?!" Turned out the Dodgers WON, 7-5! They got SEVEN runs, all in the ninth inning. Boy, did we learn our lesson!

Fun day at the baseball game-- and the weekend was only beginning!

California, Part 3: Weddinging

2011-03-29T10:30:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we stopped by my grandparents' house to visit for a bit.

In the evening, we had a wedding reception to go to-- for Josh and Elisa Peck (Congratulations to the happy couple!)

It was really nice, of course, but the best part was being able to catch up with friends we hadn't seen in a while.

Freddy and I (matching it up, saweeeet!)

Tina Shirley, my childhood best friend, and I got to finally see each other and catch up! I've missed her so much!!

Now, I know this next picture is super blurry, but I just had to share something about it. Nathan was loving all the music. He was dancing his little heart out and all the little kids were standing around to watch him jam out. SO funny! I had to hold him back while they threw the garter, because he really wanted to get out on the floor and dance-- they were playing "Macho, Macho Man!" He was causing quite a crowd to form watching him dance. :)

That's my baby boy! (Love the little tongue..)
Happy little family.. :)
And one final picture with Tina and Nathan..
It was so nice to see old friends and enjoy a night with them. Congratulations again to Josh and Elisa!

California, Part 2: Gettying

2011-03-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

On Friday we went to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles with Freddy's mom and grandma. It is AMAZING! And get this: it's free! You just pay for parking and that's it! I'm so embarrassed that we both grew up in the LA area and this was our very first time going! Well, it was great, if you didn't catch how I felt about it.

First you take a tram from the parking lot up to the museum. It's operated by magnets and what not-- and the funniest part was when Freddy's grandma heard that-- that it doesn't have a driver. "SOLO?!?!" (Meaning, like, by itself? Anyway, super hilarious..)

All throughout there are breathtaking views-- so I've kinda posted a ton of pictures.. By the time we're done here you might be able to say that you've been to the Getty, too!Nathan's not really the quiet, museum type. He was pretty frustrated that none of the guards would let him throw his baseball around on the floor. This kept him occupied for a little while though.This was outside, I think, the East building-- and funny story. We're walking through and looking at all these 15-16th century French artifacts and artwork. Another group is walking the opposite direction and out of the corner of my eye, I see the older gentleman get tired and sit down for a minute... ON ONE OF THE ARTIFACTS! He saw this side table thing and thought it was like a bench to rest on. You can imagine how quickly the guard ran over to make him get off the 500 year old table! Hilarious!Freddy took one look at this one and said, "Hey look-- it's the inspiration for the Snuggie." Made me laugh so hard I just had to take a picture. After I snapped it I said, "I'm blogging that."Fun in the fountains outside the buildings... Oh how Nathan wanted him to let go and let him jump in the water!

I don't know why no one else had a hard time looking directly into the sun at the camera. This was like, our third shot or something-- the only one that I wasn't squinting so badly that we had to take another one. Huh.
One of my favorites. :) Loved the view from the top!

Another one outside by the fountains...

Cool, right?! "Irises" by Van Gogh-- who knew I'd be standing right next to it-- like the real thing! Pretty neat, I thought!
And last thing before we left (because we were starrrrving, or at least I was), was out to the gardens. SO BEAUTIFUL! Oh. I guess this is the only picture I've uploaded. Ah bummer. Check out FB to see more, or just go to the Getty yourself!
I just love Nathan's laugh... :)
Very cool day at the Getty Museum. But very tiring. I was so glad that I wasn't the one driving in the rush hour traffic on the way back, because I was pooped! (Sorry Freddy!) But yeah, we loved coming here and we would definitely come again. (I'm sure we'll go back the next time relatives from Ecuador come to visit-- they're always looking for good sites to see and this, for sure, is one of them!)

California, Part 1

2011-03-27T23:17:00.000-07:00

We went to California for Freddy's spring break and also to celebrate his mom's birthday.

It was nice to be back in So Cal-- and Nathan enjoyed all the balls that Abuelito and Abuelita had sitting around in their backyard.
So many balls to play with! His very favorite toy!
But of course the one that he really, really wanted was the only one that he couldn't quite have... The bowling ball. Silly kid. He tried and tried to pick that thing up...Finally with a little help from Daddy he was able to get a grip on it-- but was pretty disappointed that Freddy wouldn't let him do it by himself!And since we're in LA, might as well jump on the band wagon and be a Dodgers fan! Cute one at that!

And that was Thursday-- a whole lot of playing around outside. What fun!

One Potato, Two Potato

2011-03-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

The other day I was on the phone with my sister, Jessica, while I was making dinner. All the sudden, mid-conversation, I stopped and said, "Oh my gosh, you've got to be kidding me!? This thing is HUGE!" In the middle of my ordinary bag of potatoes I found Goliath. I had to take a picture and send it to Jessica.I still don't know if anyone truly grasps how large this potato was. It was bigger than my size 8 foot-- and on the other side, a couple potatoes from the same bag-- average potato sized.Perhaps if you see it in comparison to Nathan-- it's huge!

Or, to help you understand how big this potato was, I made a whole casserole dish full of scalloped potatoes (a recipe that calls for 8 large potatoes) with this ONE potato. Yeah. It was a real monster. Amazing.

Parking

2011-03-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

We like the park.

Every week we have a play date with some of the other kids in the ward at a local park. Most weeks I think I should just skip it, stay home, and work on homework or something more productive. But then I think about how much Nathan likes going and I get up and get ready to go.

He likes climbing on the big kid playground. The little kid stuff is boring and there's no fun places to fall off from.
He also likes to climb up slides. Now Nathan, everyone knows that you go down slides, not up.

And of course, he likes to play in the sand, especially if someone else brought toys.

These kids were playing with their "construction vehicles." They showed me how to use their "excavators" to excavate for the mall that they were building. I asked how long it was going to take to build such a big project? "Ohhhh... (He shrugged) 20 seconds."
And every week, he always wants to swing in the swings.
Oh the fun that we have at the park!

Maria Comes to Visit!

2011-03-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

One of my very best friends, Maria, came to visit us in Arizona! Fun!

We got to have tons of fun catching up and spending time together. Here we are looking at the view of the city below-- it's a pretty cool place!
The family!
All Nathan wanted to do was climb down the rocks-- (except in this next picture-- I'm pretty sure he was looking at a couple dogs nearby...).

Okay, so the post was supposed to be about Maria visiting, but the problem is that all the pictures were on her camera, so yeah, it's more like family picture day. :/ But! We all had a great time together. We made delicious cookies-- both snickerdoodles and chocolate chip and we played a few rounds of Scattergories. We got to have a dinner at Olive Garden to celebrate Maria's birthday that was a few days ago-- and we also got to check out the Dodgers spring training facility at Camelback Ranch! So amazing! It was a ton of fun to have a guest here at the Sarmiento Resort and we'd like to announce that we do still have some availability for the upcoming months, but now's your chance to book your dream getaway! Call today to schedule your presidential suite in Glendale, Arizona! ;-)

Weekend Project

2011-03-14T13:33:00.000-07:00

We decided to do a project that Freddy's been dreaming of since we moved in to our house. Put grass in our backyard!

There's a section of river rock in our backyard, that I thought was just fine, but in Freddy's mind he saw the potential it really had*.

So we moved all the rocks over to the side (and we still need to figure out what to do with them).Then we added some soil into the dirt that we already had... and mixed it all up.And Nathan was such a good little helper...

Then we started rolling out the grass!And then we realized that the girl at the hardware store was wrong. The sod rolls were only 2x5, not 2x10, which meant that we had to go back to get more. But we got there and they had sold all but four rolls**, and we still needed six! We called and called other stores nearby to see if we could grab some from another location and sure enough, everyone was out. So, to make up for their mistake, they just gave us the four they had for free! Great!But then that meant that we had to get the two last rolls from a different hardware store. So now, we not only have grass, but we also have a science experiment going on in the backyard to see who sells the best sod. We shall see! :) I feel like this last picture belongs in a kid's activity book. (Hi friend! Two rolls of grass are different than the others? Can you tell which two don't belong?)

The project took a little longer than anticipated, since we had to do a little running around so that we weren't left with half a yard of grass, but all in all we're quite pleased. We just hope that the sod takes to the soil and grows as expected! And also, that the upcoming summer doesn't kill it all off***! So now it's just a matter of time before soccer practice starts!

*And every time we mention the project it's followed up with a sidebar. "We did this project! Which Tracy didn't want to do." But what can I say, I didn't want to do it.

**And one of the rolls was like, falling apart already... Hm.

***Which was my original concern, I wanted to wait and see how summer would be-- before we plant a sacrifice to the sun gods to kill on the first day of summer.

Our New House!!!

2010-12-16T23:56:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know... I've been the worst blogger ever. My last post was about the circus, and that was back in August. Wow. Perhaps I went into a terrible blogging depression since I didn't win the circus tickets. Actually, that was probably my fault too, since I stopped entering to win-- since my husband told me that we weren't going to drive for 8 hours to see the circus, even if we did get free tickets.. Fiiiine..

But! We have exciting news that warrants a new beginning in our family blogging activity...

We bought a home!! Hoorayyyyy! We just recently bought a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom town house in Glendale, Arizona. It's excellent. In fact, you should come see it!

But in case you're busy today or this week, I'll include a couple pictures for your viewing pleasure.

The outside--- now, there was a HUGE hail storm like, a month before we moved in, so the master bedroom window was broken by that. And our HOA is going to replace it, but there are a TON of windows that need to be done in our complex, so they're trying to do the best they can. At least we don't have to replace it! So, we're the end unit-- and we have the absolute best neighbor ever. (The neighbor next to her--they're renters and, meh, I wouldn't mind if they moved out, but at least our next door neighbor is AWESOME.)

And here's our living room-- it's RED. We planned to paint it right away, but now that we've been seeing how time consuming our other projects are, we're liking the red more and more. (And as a side note- there's not actually a dot on the wall.. I think that may have been a reflection on the camera lens or something..) Now, I planned to add more pictures, but I usually add the pictures first and then type-- that way I don't have to keep reorganizing everything. Buuuut, I've forgotten how to blog, so I didn't do that, so I don't really want to go through the hassle of adding more right now. But I will soon! So now, on to our first real project:

Painting the kitchen cabinets!! They started out that old brown color...And here's Freddy hard at work! (I hate sanding, so guess who was Official Sander?)And now they're going to be crisp, clean, white! So, this was the first coat for the cabinet doors. After this we also painted the cabinetry inside and then also painted the attached dining room too (not white, it's more of a neutral beige).

It's all starting to come together, but it's also been a LOT of work. And there's still LOTS to do too.. And in all actuality, the house is in great condition. It's not like we're having to fix things so that it's live able. Not at all, it's all just our preferences and us wanting to make it feel more like home.

All in all, we're very pleased with our new home. We're learning a lot about home ownership-- all the little details sure make it exciting!

BARNUM'S FUNUNDRUM!

2010-08-17T18:13:00.000-07:00

I hope no one reads this post.

Really.

Because if you read it, then you'll want to follow this link to Jessica and Mitch's blog and you'll want to enter into the BEST GIVEAWAY EVEEEERRRRRRRRR.

But don't. Because if you do, then it lowers the chances that I'll win. But the BEST GIVEAWAY EVEEEEERRRRRRRR is going on for four weeks, so if I win once and can't win again, then totally go ahead. And I'll hope you win too. :)

I so love the circus. Even when it means I have to convince my husband to drive to Utah to attend. :) So worth it.

Baby Shower Games!

2010-08-16T11:30:00.000-07:00

I l-o-v-e, LOVE baby shower games. I know, some people are so not into them at all, but I can't wait for the day that I get to throw some one's baby shower... It's going to be SO fun (not to mention so, so cute)!
(Okay, first I needed to add on this picture of Nathan and Freddy, just because I think it's super cute and I forgot to add it to the last post.)
So the point of everyone coming to visit was to see Johanna, and to have her baby shower. She's due at the end of September and she's having a girl! Yay! It was so fun to choose out little girl clothes for her gift... Nathan doesn't wear any pink, ever. Hm. Anyway!
Now! First, we have my favorite game ever (of baby shower games, at least). (And just so you know, I was in charge of this game--because it's the best.) It's memory, you know, where you choose two numbers and hope that what's on the other side matches. So the other side of the cards is various words and phrases and each phrase has to do with babies, mothering, pregnancy, etc.

And! Each phrase has a corresponding candy to go with it for who ever gets it right! For example, (just some off the top of my head) "11 lb Babies"=Whoppers, "Teething"=Crunch, "Postpartum Tummy"=Jelly Belly! Get it? Ha! It's the BEST! This time, I had THIRTY different candies. SO fun (especially when people are actually paying attention, that way it doesn't take forever)! Then we played some other games... Like this one. You're blindfolded, and you have to use a big spoon to scoop up cotton balls off the floor, into a bowl. They're so light weight that most people think they're doing great but they don't have a single one in the bowl! Funny!Freddy finally got a few... ha! (Now, not all of these actually have any real usefulness when it comes to having a baby, but they sure are funny!)Then there's the one where everyone that comes gets a little necklace to wear. Throughout the shower you can't cross your legs (except this time, they were super strict and you couldn't cross anything) and you can't say the word "baby." I'll tell you who's really good at this game: Freddy. He always wins. You can probably see why...
This was right after Nacho (in the pink) took like 15 necklaces from someone else and then he was like, (totally making this up because I don't remember, but you'll get the point) "HAHAHA, OH MAN, SHE WAS LIKE 'CAN YOU CHECK ON THE BABY' AND I WAS LIKE, HAHA, 'WHAT DID YOU SAY? Give me your necklaces!'"

And right as he was putting this mass of necklaces on Freddy was like, "Oh man! :D Give me your necklaces!! You said it!!!!" (Because, remember? You can't say "baby" at all.) And what do you know, Freddy has like 40 necklaces around his neck. Then there's this game where you have to use one hand to take off as many clothespins off the line without dropping any. And this time there was a twist to it! As you took them off, you had to call out some sort of item for babies. (i.e. diapers, wipes, etc.) Last time I played this game, no joke, I got like three and then dropped one. But this time I got fifteen and I was in the lead by a LOT!!! But then I dropped one, and another one or two slipped... I didn't know that you can just stop any time and count all of them (I thought you had to go until you dropped one). And I also didn't know that you lost ALL of the ones you dropped. I thought that once you dropped one, you just count the rest-- but no... I lost all three of those. :-/ Bummer.

Oh! And then we played this impossible one where you mix a bunch of those tiny gold safety pins in with a bowl of raw rice. You have to try to pick out as many pins as you can in a certain amount of time-- blindfolded. Oh my gosh, I barely got ONE. That is haaaard.

And then we also played the one where you guess the amount of ____ (ribbon, string, whatever) it'll take to go around the pregnant belly. And everyone is always wayyyyy off? Well, I'm really good-- I was only off by about 1/4 inch. :D

Yeah, I love games. Baby shower or otherwise. :) Fun, fun, fun!

Phoenix Family Comes to Visit.

2010-08-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

(I just wanted to point out that I really wanted to call this post Phoenix Phamily Phun. Heh. Still makes me laugh. But I didn't...)

Yay! So, Freddy's step sister came from Ecuador about a month ago (or so). His step brothers were finally both able to come from Phoenix to visit her (and us) (and bring their families too).

Here's all three boys with each of their boys. Cool how that happens.. all grown up. :)

So, (from left to right) (actually, like left to right and then zig-zag down to their kid too) Freddy with Nathan (9 months), Jose Ignacio (aka Nacho) with Gael (about 17 months), and Edison (aka Carlitos) with Javier (2 yrs, 6 months). (Also, they're all about nick names, so yeah..) And don't you love how distracted Nathan is by how squirmy the other kids are? Funny!And here's a big, family picture-- Back row: Gael, Nacho, Carlitos, Monica, Pepe, Freddy. Front row: Aileen, Nora, Patricia, Johanna, me, and Nathan.

And now a picture with just the girls... (and some kids..)

And then this is the next morning when Nacho, Nora, Aileen, and Gael had to go home...

They're so cute. If you look up at the family pictures-- they always (or well, often) coordinate their clothes and it's absolutely adorable. I'm always like, Dang, we should have done that. Agh. But yeah, they're super fun! And we love when they come visit (especially Nathan, because they bring KIDS)!

And then here's Freddy and I (and I'm totally thinking about how I wish we were color coordinated. Agh.)

We love all of our extended family, of course--- but it was super fun for the Phoenix side to come visit because it's great to watch Nathan interact with all the other kids. He loves it! It's also cool because they bring, almost like, a young side to the family that's not always there, and that's neat to have around. Come back soon!

Beach Fun

2010-08-14T09:59:00.000-07:00

We went to the beach again! And it was fun, of course! (And all the beach pictures are starting to all look the same, so yeah, enjoy.)Nathan didn't seem to mind the water, even though it was pretty cold, but there was one thing he did not like. He didn't like the way the sand moves under your feet when the wave washes it away... You know, how you kinda start to sink a little bit? Yeah, he's not a fan.This time Nathan wanted to be friends with the kids next to us. Mainly because they can WALK and that's COOL. (Also, one of the other kids really liked this turtle toy that Nathan was playing with--that's what he kept walking over to us for...)
And here we have Little N clapping for us...And waving at us... Every time he'd start crawling away from our area (usually to try to catch a seagull or pigeon) he'd get this look on his face like, Oh I'm outta here now!! Seee yaaa! :DAnd then we've got the boys playing...And Nathan with me... This time it was just the three of us-- which was way fun, but it also meant that Freddy and I couldn't actually go in the water together. It was just too cold for Nathan to stay in the water, but he loved playing on the sand with the other kiddos!

We do love the beach!

How to Catch a Nathan.

2010-08-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

Let's see what happens when Tracy's trying to put Nathan down for a nap and Freddy comes in and lays down--- while eating a plum. Let's watch.

First, Freddy uses basic distraction techniques. Looks like he'll have to get a little more creative than that!Nathan is intrigued.

He goes for the bait! Hook, line, and sinker. :)

And then I got to play with the Catch of the Day.

Nathan's First Beach Trip.

2010-08-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

After our Pioneer Day Overnighter (that we should have just skipped), we came home, chatted with our guests a little bit, made some beach snackies, and headed off to meet up with Freddy's family*. They originally wanted to go to Laguna Beach, which is gorgeous, but it's less gorgeous when you spend three hours** in the car getting there. But then we got there and we were glad to be there! :) Among things Nathan likes to fling around: sand.
Other things it can be used for: eating.
Among things Nathan doesn't like: not being able to play with all the other toys all around us that aren't ours.
The water was gorgeous! Cold, but gorgeous! And we almost got in the water because you know, you get used to it after a while---but we were actually at Aliso Beach and there are like, rocks galore in there. It made me wish I was wearing those swimming shoes that everyone had when they were like seven***. Freddy was willing to ignore the cold water, the rocks, AND the monsterous waves you had to get through before the water was nice--- I was not.
Afterward, the plan was to meet up with the rest of my family to have a bonfire, but that didn't go so well. And it's pretty much a topic we don't want to really bring up. :-/ Not the most successful beach day for them. But we did get to meet up with my grandparents that night, instead! Fun! And! We got to make s'mores, which I had been wanting really badly since we had that campout to go to (but we got there wayyy past when they were actually making s'mores, so I just still wanted them).

So yay for us finally getting to go to the beach!

*You're probably thinking, 'Wait, I thought Tracy's family was visiting?' Right. And wrong too. Yes, my sisters (and Mitch) were visiting us (yay!), but Freddy had family visiting from Ecuador that he hadn't seen in seven years. And while it may feel like seven years when the sisters are apart, it's not (thank goodness). And so obviously, we still needed to spend some time with his family too.
**Not exaggerating. Wish I was. But I'm totally not. Ugh.
***You know, the ones that are fine until they get wet-- and then they're SO awful because each foot weighs six pounds. And everytime you get out of the pool you have to wait for a gallon of water to pour out of each shoe. And then you walk-- slosh, slosh, slosh, slosh... Yeah, you know.

Friday Crafting on Tuesday

2010-08-03T13:28:00.000-07:00

I've been catching up with blogging and gotten a little out of order. So! Back* to while my sisters were visiting (yay!)---

Jessica and Mitch went to Disneyland for the day, Sarah was off with friends, and Freddy was working. So, that left Emily and I with a whole day all to ourselves (plus Nathan)! We decided that we would do a special Friday craft together... We wanted to make these hanging storage boxes.

Back a few steps-- Both Freddy and I had driven to my grandparents the night before for the Girls' Craft Night/Everything-Else-with-Everyone-Else Night and it was super late when we finally finished. We decided, instead, to drive back together and pick up the second car the next day. So, first we had to drive out to Duarte with Freddy to pick up the other car (otherwise our day would have been pretty uneventful).

Okay, back where we were--- The storage boxes have Plexiglass in the bottom, for extra support, so we had to get that from Home Depot. Then, we had to go to Jo-ann's, of course... Basically by the time we got home, we didn't even have time to even start the actual craft before Freddy and I were leaving for the Pioneer Day Overnighter (the one we really should have just skipped). Emily was able to cut up the Plexiglass and I think she started cutting fabric, but I'm not sure what else she was able to finish.

SO! I've been gradually working on them since everyone went home and I finally finished them yesterday!

I doubt anyone is really interested in making their own set, but if you are you can use the instructions that I followed, linked above-- and I'll just add a few comments that made it easier for me.
First of all, you need a yard of fabric for each box, and almost TWO yards of interfacing. I had to put my project on hold for a few days because I'd run out of it-- originally I got 4 yards, like the tutorial says, and I went back to get another 4 later. So, total I got 8 yards, but I ended up with a little over a yard left over, so maybe 7 yards would do it.The hardest thing was trying to get the Plexiglass to fit in the bottom. Em and I bought a big piece of Plexiglass and just cut it up to several 8x10 pieces. That's what size they're supposed to be, but I had an awful time getting them to fit. I was really worried that it would tear through. So! One thing I did was I took the pieces outside and used the sidewalk to sand down my corners so that they were rounded. That made it much easier and I wasn't so concerned that the sharp corners would rip my fabric. After I got the glass to fit, it was pretty smooth sailing from there (with a few interruptions from Nathan, of course).

Emily got to choose nice and pretty fabrics and I automatically had to choose kid-ish fabrics, by default. I still like them, but I liked Em's choices, too.

You can't really see the fabric used with the one with green stripes-- the light green one.. and that's really unfortunate because that's my very favorite fabric!

And there you have it. Now all I need to do is get a curtain rod to hang them... and decide where to hang them...

It feels nice to finally have a project done (except for the things I just mentioned). Although I do wish that I could have been able to do the project with Emily, like it was supposed to be. Unfortunately, time flies by twice as fast when you have sisters visiting... Too, too fast. :(

Guess that can only mean one thing: time for us to start planning our trip to Utah! ;-)

*I feel like that transition should have, like, that-- hazy, swirly picture and the twinkling sound, like when people on (cheesy) TV shows are dreaming...

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

2010-08-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

On Friday, we went to Mormon Night at the Arrowhead Credit Union Park for a 66ers game. They're the local minor league baseball team-- but I was super impressed... It was way cool because it was a much smaller stadium, so our $6 tickets were right behind home plate instead of in the nose bleed section. Super!Best thing ever: taking babies to ball games! Bernie, the mascot (and I have no idea what he is...), chose Nathan to get the little foam finger (except it was for like your whole hand) because he was so cute! :) Saaaweet! And I know we would have been on the jumbotron thing, but we were in a section where the camera couldn't get to us... Bummer.
But Nathan got to take a picture with Bernie! And then Nathan looked up at Bernie's face and got this look of sheer terror on his face... lol..

We had a lot of fun at the game! Friday nights at the ball park mean 50 cent hot dogs and quesadillas too! It was a blast to watch the game (even though we lost like, 6-1, I think..)

Then afterward we rented When in Rome, went home, and enjoyed a movie night. What a fun date night!

Pioneer Day Campout!

2010-08-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

We had a stake activity for Pioneer Day-- an overnighter up at Camp Seely, in Crestline! Fun!

The only thing was that we had my sisters (and Mitch) staying with us for the weekend! We, obviously, really really wanted to be there with them instead. (Looking back we should have just cancelled our cabin reservation and stayed home with our guests!) The activity started at 4:30pm and we didn't even leave our house until like, 8:30pm. Hm. And then we got lost. Way lost. Or if you ask Freddy, we took the adventurous route. Luckily, Emily was back at our apartment and she helped us find the camp site. (Her directions via text were waaaayyyy better than like, six stops asking locals!) So we got there at about 10:30, but dinner was already over so we went back into town to find something to eat. We finally got back to our cabin at about 11:30. Just in time for bed! We did have our own cabin-- which was pretty neat...

And then they had breakfast and some activities in the morning... but we had guests at home that we wanted to get back to asap, so we just left as soon as we woke up. (And, to be honest, I probably wouldn't have woken up for the 6:30 5k around the lake anywayyy.)

It was really fun for what we stayed for :) but next year we'd rather just stay and play with our guests!

There's Always a Silver Lining

2010-08-01T13:24:00.000-07:00

The other day*, Freddy was hurrying off to work. He kissed me goodbye and off he went. :)
And then came right back about 3 minutes later. Huh?

He had gone out to the car and found this:
Laaaaame. We had gotten home about 8:30pm and some time during the night some punk thought Freddy's briefcase looked pretty interesting. Enough so that he (or she?) shattered the window to get to it. They also used some sort of tool to try and pry off the window cover thing-- on the left of the shattered window-- can you see the marks?? It's like they used a screw driver or something**? They also took our change tray-- like all the change and the tray. >:-( Dang you, robbers! The last thing I wanted you to take was the 37 pennies in our center console! {Rolls eyes.} And glass was evvvvvverrrrrrywherrrre.

So! Through this we actually have felt quite blessed. (Strangely enough.) I'll list several silver linings that we've thought of. (First, I'll point out that that jerk cut himself in the process-- suckaaa!)

1. We learned to park in our garage***, from now on, without anyone (except the robber) getting hurt. It could have been worse.

2. The front passenger window was broken, which is cheaper than replacing a windshield.

a. Also, the front window isn't tinted, so we didn't have to re-tint a window.

3. We were able to find a good window replacement shop and it wasn't too, too bad to fix.

4. They didn't take anything really, really important.

a. We had quite a bit of paperwork that had been left in the car-- all with important information that would not be good in the wrong hands.

b. The car seat base (which is like, $70 to replace-- I did not want to replace that)

5. We asked that management warn our neighbors so that they can learn from our lesson.

6. Freddy had his briefcase taken-- and his company will replace the client's money that was in there that was stolen. But he (thankfully) had taken his handheld computer thing inside that night. Those are not covered by the company, if stolen, and would have been almost $1,000 out of our pocket, if it had been taken.

7. Wednesday nights are usually indoor soccer nights for Freddy. When he plays he often leaves his wallet, phone, watch, etc in the center console and often forgets all of that in the car overnight. Luckily, he's not playing this season, so none of that stuff was in the car either.

And I'm sure we've thought of more, but I can't really remember any other ones. Basically, it could have been way worse and we're both definitely glad that it wasn't.

*And by that, I mean back on July 15th, or something like that.

**That's really just my best guess... I don't have very much experience with breaking into cars. :-/ I'm really digging deep into my criminal history to figure out what could have made those marks.

***We have a garage, yes, but it's shared and it's not automatic-- so you have to pull up next to it, get out of the car, unlock it, lift up the door, get back in the car, pull in (next to neighbors that do not understand what half is), get out, pull the door down, lock it, and walk all the way back to our apartment. Naturally, we felt that parking in the parking lot near our apartment was much more convenient.

Fun with All My Sisters!

2010-07-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Emily, Jessica (and Mitch), and Sarah all came down from Utah last week! Fun! Now, Mitch is the one with the cool camera, so he took all the pictures, so he has all the pictures. :-/ Which makes it pretty difficult for me to blog about it. But ohhhh well. I'll just use the only ones I have-- from my phone.
So! They all drove down on Wednesday night, stayed in St. George, and then drove the rest of the way Thursday morning. They got to my house just after noon on Thursday. I had been eagerly anticipating their arrival.
A few minutes before they got there I looked at my phone and I had SEVENTEEN new messages! Whoa! Em, Jess, and Sarah all started taking picture messages and bombarding my inbox with pictures of my exit, my street signs, my complex signs, my gate, etc. All to show how close they were getting. :) Before I even had a chance to look at like, three of them--- KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK! Hooray!!!
I'll be honest, Nathan was in a bad mood when they got there-- and that was no fun! But Jessica took him with her when they were getting stuff out of the car. Sarah sent me this picture while they were gone. {Shakes head...} Yeah.. that's our fountain in our apartment complex. Sighhhh... But I bet Nathan thoroughly enjoyed it! Then we drove out to my grandparents' house (with a few stops along the way) and we had a Girls' Craft Day to make these blocks! Each of them is slightly different (except Jessica's-- hers are way different because she had a birthday banner that she was trying to match). They're birthday WISH blocks! Fun! This is the order-- from top to bottom-- Jessica's, Stephanie's, Emily's, Tracy's, Sarah's, Mom's. Each one has something that I love how they chose to do it. But the theme of the craft was, "It's your project-- you can do it however you want!" :)

We also took a long hiatus of crafting to attend a performance of Beauty and the Beast put on by the Arcadia Stake. It was very well done, but verrrry long--especially considering that we all had a craft we were waiting to get back to. After the play, at like, 10:30pm, we got back to my Grandma's and decided to just take 20 minutes to finish our crafts and be done, otherwise they'd just sit and be another unfinished project forever. Longest 20 minutes ever. We finally went home just after one-- or got home just after one-- can't remember.. All I remember is how tired I was! But we ended up with a super cute craft and had a great time. That was the first time that all the siblings have been together in a long time!

More to come, because that was just Thursday! :)

Our Little (Half) Ecuadorian Baby

2010-07-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

On Thursday night, some of Freddy's cousins came over for dinner! Fun! We had a really great time with them.

Also, Sandra, who's visiting from Ecuador, brought a little gift for Nathan! (how nice..) It was an authentic shirt from Ecuador... in Nathan's size!! How cuuute!

I tried my best to get a good picture of him wearing it, but as you can see, he was not very helpful with that.Finally I gave up and just took it off him to get a better picture. Cute, huh? I love it!

Thanks, Sandra! Enjoy California!

NATHAN LEARNS TO CRAWL!

2010-07-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

(This has been a draft waiting to be published for like, over a week and a half. It had a video to go along with it, but it was taking foooorrrrreverrrr to finish loading. And guess what? I got tired of waiting. So here's the post, withOUT the video instead.)

On Wednesday afternoon, Freddy was sitting at the computer and I was on the floor scrapbooking. Nathan was sitting on the floor a few feet from me playing with his toys, but of course all the things that I had looked a lot more interesting (especially since he's never been allowed to play with all my scrapbooking stuff). All the sudden, he started crawling to get to the scrapbooking papers beside me! Whaaaat? When did you learn to crawl?!
He's been able to manuver for a little while... leaning over this way and that, but he couldn't get his knees to follow his arms. All attempts (which were many) looked more like hand, hand, leeeean... collapse-- instead of hand, hand, knee, knee.

But now, oh boy, this kid is everywhere. I was cleaning up yesterday and he was right behind me every step of the way (unless he was distracted by something that looked like fun to play with-- a.k.a. something I didn't realize was still at baby level, that shouldn't be). Oh next project is getting all those little annoying baby proofing things that make doing anything much, much harder. (You can't just use the plug, first you have to figure out a way to get that dumb, little safety plug out of the plug.)

In the mean time, we're in awe of how quickly Nathan's learning to do things. It really is fun and exciting to see him grow and develop. :)

Nathan's Discovery

2010-07-16T15:55:00.000-07:00

Nathan has a new discovery... and it's his favorite thing to play with. Who knew that there were built in toys at our house? :)

Indoor Soccer... for Tracy!

2010-07-12T23:25:00.000-07:00

I know, it's a surprise even for me... but it's true! I'm playing on an indoor soccer team on Monday nights! Normally, I'm a really good spectator... and just that. Not a player. Ever. But not anymore! :)
Today was our second game (I missed the first one because I just joined a few days ago..) And it is SO MUCH FUN! We won, 7-3, which was such a relief-- I was so worried that I would be the one to make us lose or something, but we did really well! And Freddy and Nathan were on the side lines cheering for me! How nice.. :)
It was also Tiffany's 20th birthday (Happy Birthday, Tiff!) So, afterwards we went back to the car where Maria had a surprise cake for her. Yay! Our team color is purple and I was like, "Uhh... the only purple shirt I have is my Chuck E. Cheese shirt. :/" And Tiny was like, "Oh that's okay! I wear my Princess Jasmine shirt!" Whew! So we looked great out there after all. Yay for Team Crush (that's our name because we crush our opponents... theoretically, anyway). And yay for Maria and Tiny convincing me to play! And yay for Freddy taking the time to teach me some cool moves (or even just the basics...). :D

Freddy and Nathan Together

2010-07-10T13:45:00.000-07:00

Freddy's a really good dad... You can see it just by how he acts around Nathan. :)It's obvious that Nathan feels special when Freddy's around... He's just always so excited to see him!

It's exciting to see them interact and it will be fun to see how their friendship grows and develops over time.

They have a very special bond, as father and son, that is unlike anything else.

It's Always Fun When Family Comes, When Family Comes HOORAY!

2010-07-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

When Freddy's relatives come from Ecuador, they arrive at LAX at about 12:30 am. Yes, that's late (and feels later when you have a baby to worry about too), but it's so exciting that we always want to be there to welcome them! And of course it's always a hassle to go to the airport-- especially LAX. But let me tell you, there is one thing that makes it all worth it: Quesadillas from Ecuador! Now, these definitely aren't your standard tortilla with cheese in it-- in fact, I don't even know why they're called that because they don't even have cheese in them at all. But they are delicious. Sometimes I talk about maybe moving to Ecuador to get a job with the lady that makes them, just so I would know the secret recipe and I could make them all the time... Someday maybe I will..
Of course I'm so happy to see relatives... (but I'm ecstatic when they remembered to bring quesadillas just for me.) :D Thank you, Joanna!

Apartment Gardening: Not as Easy as it Looks

2010-07-09T13:02:00.000-07:00

I've always dreamed of having a thriving garden to rave and rave about. Unfortunately, that probably isn't the case with this year's garden, but it is a step in the right direction. It's not easy having a garden when all you have is a concrete patio, but we're making it work!

First, we have my herb garden:These are complements of Stephanie, my sister. For our Secret Sister exchange from Christmas last year she gave me the herb garden I wanted (or at least promised that we'd make it eventually). So she surprised me a couple months ago with these cute, labeled pots. Some of them are dead, yes. But that's only because they were already dead by the time I realized that outside was too hot for them. I was hoping that once they came into our SecondBedroomOfficeCraftRoomGuestBedroom they would revive, but unfortunately that is not the case. And also, the cilantro, which looks the worst (and really makes me look like a terrible, terrible gardener), is that way because I think I harvested too much at once and it just couldn't recover. And you know, I even used Miracle Grow potting soil hoping that they would GROW instead of just grow, but :/ meh. I'm still learning how to have a green thumb. (And the one that's not in a pot is oregano, which is actually growing quite well, but I still need to pot it in a red pot..) Moving on...

Then we have our tomatoes! (Ta daaaaaaa!)

We'll see how well they grow. :/ Right now my problem is that I have no where to hang them... So they're tied to the fencing part of our patio, but the actual leaves and tomato plants are blocked from the sun. They've been growing every which way, trying to reach some sunlight. Also, they've been growing through the fence, (which is fine-ish for now) but secretly I worry that maybe some neighbors just might harvest my tomatoes if they see delicious, red, ripe tomatoes. Maybe they won't, but I'd rather not tempt them. :/ This weekend maybe we'll go to Lowe's and see if they have any sort of upside-down tomato plant holder type-thing.

But! The middle plant has some sort of growth on it! I say that because it had flowers and now there's this, which you would think it's a tomato-- and it might be-- but up close it sorta looks like it's going to open up into a flower like a pumpkin or squash would have. :/ Being an achieved gardener is harder than it looks. :/

Hopefully soon I'll have tons and tons of delicious tomatoes to rave and rave about. (I should probably go water them about now, actually.)

Fourth of July Weekend

2010-07-05T13:40:00.000-07:00

To start off our fun-filled Fourth of July weekend, we got new tires! Obviously those aren't the tires we got, but we were waiting (and waiting, and waiting, and waiting) for them to finish working on the car, we went on a walk and found this monster tire. We found it incredibly blog appropriate and had to take a picture. So that was allll dayyyyy long on Saturday-- new tires, new brakes, same old attitude of "Man, these are way too expensive" from me.

Then, we skip to Sunday! HAPPY FOURTH OF JULYYYYYY! I l-o-v-e the 4th of July and was SO disappointed that it was on a Sunday this year (so was Valentine's Day, Jessica's birthday, my birthday, and so will Sarah's birthday and Halloween/Steph's birthday. Sorry if I missed anyone- just making my point that everything fell on a Sunday this year.. And that's on top of Easter, Mother's and Father's days--which are already on Sundays anyway).

Anyway, we went to church and found out about the COOLEST Pioneer Day camping trip that our stake is having. We are SO excited about that! Less than two weeks away!

After church we had Freddy's mom and grandma over for a small barbeque and Maria and Tiny came too! Yay! (Sorry no pictures :/)

After everyone went home we got ready to go check out the firework display put on by the city. We got to what looked like a good spot and took some pictures while we waited.

Then! We saw them do a test firework and realized that we were RIGHT behind a bunch of trees (boo...) so we had to move to a better spot. As we were driving, the show started! Aaaah! So we hurried into a parking lot that looked like where everyone was supposed to be anyway and found a spot to park. It was perfect!!

We saw some really beautiful fireworks! I tried to take pictures, but my timing was awful so all of mine turned out as just black with like, two sparks in the sky. But Freddy's an amazing photographer and got some perfect shots!

It was a surprisingly long show and they did a great job! But the only problem was that afterward, instead of just clapping, everyone started honking their horns. >:( (I have a very low tolerance level for misuse of car horns.) Seriously, there were like 200 cars that were just laying on their horns repeatedly. That lasted for probably 25 minutes or so as we were trying to leave the parking lot. I was so not happy with those drivers*.

Instead of sitting in traffic, we waiting in the parking lot until it was a little less congested and took some more pictures together. Nathan is very ticklish, especially in one particular spot on the back of his neck. So here we have Nathan getting tickled by Freddy**.

And then here we have our favorite family picture from the firework show***. :) Fun night!

On the drive home I was reminded of a funny family story:

When we were younger, we would be sitting at the dinner table waiting to eat and my dad used to make us say one thing we were grateful for before we could start eating. Standard answers were obvious-- family, friends, our house, blah blah blah. But my little brother Jason (probably about 3 or 4 at the time) used to always say that he was grateful for "fireworks!" I couldn't help but just start laughing at the thought of it. :) Tonight I was grateful for fireworks, too.

*and their dumb kids that kept playing with the car horns. My kid wasn't doing that.
**Note that you can see Nathan's teeth in those pictures! He has FOUR now! Two on top and two on bottom!
***The only problem was that some people driving past would see us taking a picture together and they would honnnnnnnnnnnnnk because it was so cute!!! Which would make the person three cars away honnnnnnnnnnnk and the car next to them honnnnnnnnnnnnnnnk honnnnnk honnnnnk! (Which would only make me madder... >:[ )

An Unwelcome Guest

2010-07-01T00:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Nathan and I were cleaning up in the master bedroom and noticed a little friend that had come to hang out with us. A lizard had made it through (or around, or under, or who knows how) the screen door and was just outside the sliding glass door (still, definitely outside though). Later in the day, he had climbed up on the screen door and was showing off his belly, while we were outside watering our tomatoes. What fun we were having together.
Then. At night, (much later, once I'd totally and completely forgotten about our friend) Freddy was hot, so hot he couldn't sleep. I suggested that perhaps he would prefer if the door was open to let some cool air in? He kindly accepted, but just a little bit. We both fell asleep. :)

We'll fast forward to when I was in the shower this morning and Freddy walked into the bathroom. He had come to inform me that our visitor from the previous day had managed to make his way inside our bedroom and had become quite comfortable nestled up with Freddy's clothes from the day before. You see, Freddy didn't need his dirty pants, but they still happened to have Freddy's belt in them, which he did need.

One thought entered my mind: Where are my little brothers when you need them? My brothers used to catch lizards in the backyard and take them (in their pockets) wherever they went (including church-- which led to the ritual of the "Pocket Check" before leaving the van to go into church).

Also as a side note, Freddy isn't scared of anything. He'll kill anything I want him to-- spiders, crickets!!!, and bugs in general. But there is one thing he says he doesn't like, but I have yet to encounter: snakes. And the way I see it, a lizard is just a snake with legs. Thus I was concerned with how he might approach the situation. However, Freddy did not disappoint. Long story short, Freddy kindly led our unwelcome guest back outside where he belongs.

That was our morning adventure today. :)

Whale Watching!

2010-06-25T13:11:00.001-07:00

For my birthday, my mom got tickets for Freddy, Nathan, and I to go Whale Watching! None of us had ever been, so it was an exciting day for us! (I wanted to include this first picture to show what Nathan was wearing, since you can't really tell in any of the other pictures.) (The shirt's got the "whale" part down, and Nathan's taking care of the "watching" part.) :)

Here we are at the port in Dana Point, waiting to board the boat.

(Nathan was busy looking at the water, probably wondering when we were going to go swimming.) This was once we were on the boat and waiting to leave the dock. We were watching a sea lion in the water and some (really dumb) guy that was trying to swim up to it. As we were leaving, we saw the US Coast Guard stop him (and tell him what a really dumb idea it was to swim up to a wild sea lion, I'm sure.)

And off we went! Full speed ahead! They had only seen one blue whale earlier in the day, but it was just passing through. Most other groups had only seen dolphins, but each trip is different, they ensured us. (I was really hoping that we would see EIGHT KILLER WHALES, like the people that went on June 1st got to see.)

It was really, really windy once we were out on the water, so I went and sat down on the benches with Freddy and Nathan. It was still really sunny too, since the sun was starting to set and I, of course, forgot my sunglasses in the car. :/ But I did have my hat! After a little while of driving? sailing? (whatever you do in a boat), we found a pod of common dolphin that were feeding in the area. Fun! They're called common dolphin because they can be found all over the world and are not just native to our area. There were a LOT of dolphins! And! The captain of the boat said that for every one dolphin we see on the surface, there are SEVEN more down below that we're not seeing. Wow! He was saying that we were probably among about 400-500 dolphins. Amaaaazing.

Now, it was really, really hard to get pictures of them, because they're fast suckers and my camera is a slow sucker. But these are the best ones we got--My very favorite part was seeing the mommies swimming with their little babies. It was SO adorable! Female dolphins gestate for 12 months and then give birth to about a 30 lb baby. Then the baby drinks the mom's milk--about 45% fat, for 12 months. Females are pregnant every other year---so it's pregnant for 12 months, nursing for 12 months, pregnant for 12, etc. :/ Fuuun. But do you see the little baby in this picture? So cute!! As the boat moves, it creates waves and the dolphins like to swim up and surf on the waves, just like a surfer would. So, the dolphins actually come up to the boat to play with it! As a dolphin swims near a boat, the dolphin actually knows the speed, direction, velocity, etc. of the boat so it's literally impossible to hit them.Nathan fell asleep with the boat rocking so rhythmically, and Freddy felt sick with the boat rocking so rhythmically. :/ Right before getting on the boat, he scarfed down his dinner in the parking lot. Bad idea. He never actually threw up, but felt pretty queasy at times.On the way back we saw a couple sea lions sitting on a buoy in the harbor. They usually have like 15-20 piled up on that little buoy, but they're night feeders so most were likely down under water eating dinner. The captain told us all about them, but my favorite fact was that sea lions don't know how to swim when they're born! They have to be taught in the shallow water before going into the deeper waters. Interesting!

We had such a fun and exciting trip! Thanks, Mom, for such a memorable activity as a family!

Freddy's First Father's Day!

2010-06-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day to Freddy!!! I was so excited for Father's Day this year, obviously because it was Freddy's very first one. And if anyone deserves to be recognized as a great father, it's Freddy. More on that later, but first-- a run down of Sunday's events.

12:01 am, Sunday morning-- Wished Freddy a HAPPY FATHER'S DAYYYYY!

12:02 am, Freddy opens his presents. He got a new game for his PS3-- FIFA World Cup 2010! He also got couple nice collared shirts for work-- in lavender and wine. And finally a mix CD (Appropriately named "WHO'S YA DADDY MIX- Father's Day 2010") of all sorts of his favorite songs. :) He loved them all, but his new game most.

After church on Sunday we drove out to Moreno Valley to Freddy's cousin, Belen's, house to a family get together. We had a BBQ, which was delicious, and also Skyped with some relatives in Ecuador.

I liked the two kitties and wanted to play with them! Except, I wanted to play a cuddling/petting game and they wanted to play a scratching/biting game. :/ We ended up playing their game. :(

Nathan wasn't too excited about the cats. His favorite part was the huge, plush dog in the second bedroom. He liked it a lot.This was our first time going to Belen's new house and it was beautiful! We had a lot of fun together and enjoyed catching up with relatives. Most of them hadn't seen Nathan since Christmas and were amazed with how much he's grown! Here we are sitting on the couch Skyping with Ecuador...Freddy and Nathan singing together... it sounds something like-- "AaaaahhaaaAAAAaaaahh!" How nice... After that we went back home and relaxed the rest of the evening. It was a really nice day and we enjoyed spending time with our family.

And I just wanted to take a second to say how lucky I am to have Freddy as a husband! He's an incredible spouse and blew me away with what a great dad he is to Nathan. Freddy always loves to play with Nathan every chance he gets. The way Nathan's eyes light up and the huge grin he gets on his face are proof of just how much Freddy means to him. I'm so thankful for Freddy's commitment to fatherhood and how well he takes on the responsibility. And it's especially amazing how Freddy never had younger siblings to take care of or even a dad in his life as a role model. Yet he's broken the mold and stuns me with how naturally it all comes to him. :) I really am so grateful for him and I hope he enjoyed his very first Father's Day (one of many to come)!

Laker Game Tonight!!!

2010-06-17T17:31:00.000-07:00

We're SO READY!! It all comes down to this! Game SEVEN!

Game time! Woot! I don't think Freddy's ever loved any of Nathan's outfits more than this one.

Gooooo LAKERS!!! Hopefully we'll be posting pictures of being at a Laker Celebration Parade some time this week! ;-)

Outdoors-ing

2010-06-15T19:18:00.000-07:00

Today when Nathan and I went to get the mail, we realized what a nice day we'd been missing by sitting inside! We took a blanket and some toys outside to play and enjoy the sun (except we actually sat in the shade). :) So! Enjoy some of our pictures!
Nathan loves hair. Mainly pulling it. So here you can see that while I was like, "Nathan!! Look at the camera! Nathan!!" He was more like, "Oooo, hair!" :/Also, it's funny how true it is about kids liking the simplest things. For example, Nathan has like a thousand toys to choose from and what are his favorites? He really likes the Tylenol (he chews on that little squeezy top on the infant drops) and the Desitin. {Rolls eyes.} Whatever. {Shrug.}Oh yeah, also I was planning on changing his outfit (i.e. I had taken his old outfit off) but he was kind of enjoying not wearing clothes. Also, putting on clothes is Nathan's absolute least favorite thing to do.And these ones, once I finally did get him dressed, were just super cute (I thought.).
I love being outside! And Nathan does too! Our apartment complex has such nice common grounds; it's just so relaxing to walk around and enjoy all this beautiful, California weather. :)

Nathan's First Tooth!

2010-06-15T18:34:00.000-07:00

Well. It's finally here!

We've been suspicious that it just might be here, but Nathan sounds the alarms and begins a lock down on his jaws every time we even think about checking.

But last night, I saw it with my own eyes!!

That's right! Nathan's got a tooth!! His bottom left tooth came in!Now, I know this picture is awful, but it's the only one I could get of him with his bottom jaw showing. :-/

(And don't worry, he wasn't really as terribly sad as he looks. He was just a little mad that with all his toys around him, I wouldn't let him play with my phone.)
It's been a long, tough road to get to this point... and now it's a long, tough road for me (man that thing is sharp!). So now we're working on learning lots of things.. waving bye-bye, crawling, and not biting Mama (!!!). You can imagine which one I'll be most glad when he learns.

And just so this post doesn't just have a sad baby on it, I'll add a super cute one..

This was after a long day, one second he was sitting on Freddy's chest playing with his soccer ball and the next second he was out!

Cute, huh? :)

Happy Birthday to Tracy!

2010-06-09T11:14:00.000-07:00

For my birthday, Freddy surprised me with tickets to the Lion King, the musical! Fun!! I didn't even know it was in town (and they really aren't-- they're only here in Costa Mesa for a week). So last night, we dropped off Nathan at Freddy's parents' house and took off for our very first time leaving him for that long (so far the longest has been like an hour and a half--for Emily's wedding). And off we went! There was NO traffic at all (amazing!) and so we got there in perrrrfect timing! Here we are just before heading into the theater.

Wow. It was amazing!! We both loved it! My favorites were the stilt giraffes, the elephant, the cheetah, the antelope... actually, I loved all of it!
Here's Zazu-- he was GOOD... I was really impressed with how well they played him.And there's Simba and Nala all grown up... awww how sweet. :)I was really impressed with how they did the wildebeest stampede-- that was incredible! Overall, it was an excellent show and so much fun to be at! Afterwards we raced back to Monica's to find our little boy just as content as ever! Whew! He wouldn't take a bottle with milk for him, so they just gave him whatever of the pureed pear he would eat. As you can imagine, he was glad to see us, but was doing just fine with Grandma! What a relief! I think we were worse off than he was-- we missed him! Thank you to my wonderful husband for planning such a fun night for the two of us!

Best Memorial Day EVER!

2010-06-05T11:18:00.000-07:00

Sunday night Freddy and I were planning for Memorial Day. I was pleading my case that we had to do something, after all, it's Memorial Day!!! Maybe we could go to the beach? No.. everyone will be at the beach. Maybe we could go to Disneyland? Six Flags? No... everyone will be at Disneyland or Six Flags..
So! We ended up having the BEST MEMORIAL DAY EVER!
First, we woke up and went on a walk. It ended up being the longest walk ever. Not that we were lost, we just couldn't find a street that connected back to where we wanted to end up. It ended up lasting almost an hour and a half, but it was fun!
Then, we went to Walmart to do some shopping and get some groceries. We also ended up finding new swimming trunks for Freddy and a matching shirt, too. It took longer than we thought, so we split a Subway sandwich (the Orchard Chicken Salad Sandwich is the BEST!)
Then! We came home and watched a couple episodes of my new favorite game show, the Newlywed Game. Freddy and I always get out a note card and pen and we play too-- answering the questions and then trying to match each other's answers. (And we almost always get better scores than the actual contestants, too!) It's SO much fun!
After that we went over to the pool to go swimming and ended up spending most of the time in the spa instead.
We came home and had barbecued cheeseburgers that were SO delicious! Probably the best ones I've ever made...
After dinner we went and played tennis at the tennis courts just outside our apartment. It was SO much fun! We're still learning, but it was the perfect weather outside. Nathan sat in his stroller playing with toys right at the net... he was our line judge. :)
After tennis we came home and had ice cream cones--obviously delicious. And we ended the night with watching a movie together-- 2012. It was pretty good, but the more important thing was that we had enjoyed such a wonderful day together as a family. Of course we spend time together often, but it's not every day where we get to spend the entire day with one another. We felt like we'd gotten so much accomplished and yet had such an enjoyable day at the same time (and the best part was that we didn't even really spend money to do it-- sure, grocery shopping, but we would have done that anyway... I mean, like it's not like we went to an amusement park or something).
That's going to be a memorable Memorial Day, for sure!

Pre-Memorial Day Fun

2010-06-05T10:37:00.000-07:00

I figured I'd better hurry up and blog before I get any more behind. SO!
Memorial Day weekend was tons of fun! On Saturday, Freddy's parents and grandma came over to visit! We decided it was a great day to head over to the swimming pool! Yay!
Exccccept that that morning we had like a tornado outside. It was suuuper windy and our poor pool, which is usually crystal clear, had about a billion leaves in it. Laaame. So! We got crafty and Freddy went back to our apartment and brought back our strainer. The pool would have been way too hard to clean and it wasn't very warm anyway, but the spa was perfect and well worth our time! So, here we have pictures of us enjoying the spa.
First, a picture of Freddy and I-- finally. Here's Nathan with Pepe and Monica, my in-laws. In this picture I'm pretty sure Nathan was busy eyeing his toy turtle... And that's Nathan's little, wrinkly foot after being in the spa for a while. :) Cute...This is one of Nathan's very favorite places to be--sitting on his Daddy's shoulders.

And I know this family picture is pretty awful (in regards to us being ready to take the picture), but it's the best one we had of us as a family, so I had to add it.Then it was time to go back home to watch the Laker game and start our barbeque.Nathan was so tired and relaxed from being in the spa. It was so adorable how he just rested his head on Freddy's shoulders as we walked home. :)

All in all it was a great day... The Lakers won and our barbeque was delicious! What a fun day with the family!

We Call Them PRIDE and JOY!

2010-05-27T22:42:00.000-07:00

Over the years, I have certainly put in my time at the laundromat. Whether at a community laundry room at an apartment complex (that you still have to walk to whether it's sunny or mid-blizzard) or driving to a laundromat and spending ALLLL DAYYYY LONG doing laundry (while holding/entertaining a baby). Bottom line--I've done my time and I hope to never have to ever, ever again. BEEECAAAUSE.....

Dun da-da-dun!!!!!!

We've rightfully named them Pride and Joy. They took me longer than nine months to get, so I feel that they truly deserve to be considered part of the family unit. :)
Also, when we were in Paramount, our neighbor Max (who so kindly let us know--upon moving in--that we would watch out for each other and that he had our backs) offered us a washer for $30. Sweet! So we took it and... it was this bad boy...And I used it every so often... But here's the deal, when you have a washer, but no dryer, you still have to go to the laundromat to dry the clothes. And when you go as only a dryer you're like the laundromat owner's worst enemy. Every laundromat has signs clearly posted that say, "DRYERS ARE FOR WASHING CUSTOMERS ONLY!!!!!!" (Seriously, with like, twelve exclamation points, that's how much they hate people coming in only to dry). So I kind of ran out of laundromats to go to with wet clothes, hurry and start my dryers, and then innocently plead that I didn't know that was the rule.... :( But once you do that once, you have to find a new laundromat for next time. Annnyway, so this is the thing--we got our amazing washer and dryer (and they really are amazing) on clearance (yessss!) and beyond that (!!!) we had an old energy-UNefficient washer to trade in for the Cash for Appliances government rebate program too! SO! We paid $30 for a washer that gives us $100 back in a rebate (you do the math!!)! Sweeeet!

And lastly, if you remember, Nathan is always so intrigued by spinning dryers. Well, now both our washer and dryer spin. So we sat and watched the washer do it's first cycle (just for fun)... and this is what Nathan got out of it---
He totally fell asleep watching it spin--- SO cute!
Anyway... a nice, warm welcome to our newest family members!

Nathan Starts Solids!

2010-05-25T18:10:00.001-07:00

We started Nathan on solids today! Fun! Who doesn't like a little mashed banana here and there?

NATHAN!
You know, for being a kid who puts everything (and I mean everything) in his mouth, he sure didn't really enjoy US putting anything in his mouth.

But we did get plenty of pictures and recorded the whole monumental event. :)

Maybe he'll like it more in a couple days... Just wait until he gets to broccoli and asparagus.

And afterward, of course, he got a bath! Which he LOVES--especially when he has NEW bath toys! FUN! They really are pretty cool-- these turtles that all have different colors and different things on their shells (one is a rattle, another has a mirror, etc). Only problem is that they're too slippery for him to catch very easily. When he finally got a hold of one it was already time to get out and dry off... Bummer!

But we had fun smearing banana all over everything and hoping that even a tiny, tiny bit actually got in his mouth, down his throat, to be digested-- (it could reverse from any point on that timeline).

SIDE NOTE: For those of you that actually read our blog (however few that may be) we now have reliable, dependable internet service and will be blogging a LOT more often! SO exciting! Stay tuned! :)

Nathan Gets Some Shots! Ouch!*

2010-04-20T20:46:00.001-07:00

Here's little N with Moosey. Nathan's latest thing is sucking on his bottom lip-- like this. It's pretty cute. :)
Anyway, on Wednesday, Nathan went to the pediatrician to get his first shots! I was really worried that he would waaaail. But nope! What a tough kid. He had to drink one and did, and then made a disgusted face, heh.
Then he had three shots, all in his thighs...
The first one, he just kinda looked up at me. The second one he kinda cried out, but never cried. And then the third one was pretty quick and he was just kinda confused, not sure what to think or do. :/

But there are his battle scars. They said to expect him to get a fever and to be really fussy over the next few days. I think Wednesday night he was a little bit fussier, but he's generally a very good natured kid, so it still wasn't much. Also, he does not like the taste of the Tylenol they gave him--- cherry flavored or not, it still doesn't taste like milk. :) What a good kid though.

We like him!

Also, he's now (as of last Wednesday) 19 lbs even and 25 1/2 inches long! He's in the 85th percentile for his age... Healthy boy!

*Also, I know I said I'd make an effort to make our blog more about F and me, but as it turns out, there's not much to blog about us... so... :/

Next time we get shots or something I'll make sure to make a note. :P

SALLY JACKSON WANTS JUSTICE!

2010-04-20T20:21:00.000-07:00

Back on April 12th, my grandma had her right (terribly arthritic) hip replaced! And now she has a brand new one!

So, recovery is tough... really, really tough. She's in a rehab center now, out of the hospital, so that's progress.

Yesterday I went and picked up my grandpa and took him to visit her. It was really cute-- I called him to let him know I was on my way over and this is how it went:

"Hey Grandpa, it's Tracy!"

"Hi there!"

"I was just wondering if you wanted to come with me today to visit Grandma?"

"I would love to go out there today."

(There was more to our conversation, but I just thought it was really cute how excited he was to go see his sweetheart.)

As soon as they were next to each other they were instantly holding hands. It was like magnets. It was so cute. :)

Annnnnyway... you're probably wondering why in the world my post isn't titled Grandma or something. WELL. Her roommate is Sally Jackson. And Sally Jackson is NUTS!

Just a few examples:

1. The nursing staff took away her call button because she was abusing its purpose. While we were there she pulled out some sort of monitor that caused a shrieking alarm to go off. When the nurse frantically arrived, she said that she was sorry to do that, but no one was listening to her. Several times she asked me to press my grandma's call button so the nurse would come for her.

2. She kept calling out, "HELP! HELP! Call the police! Call my lawyer--- Mr. Munther, I mean, er, Gunther!.... Somebody! Anybody!! Help me!!" When someone came, she couldn't remember what it was she needed. Oh right, her pills (she calls them her pass out pills because she thinks they might be helping her sleep, but she's not really sure what they're actually for). No, Sally, you already took your pills... But, but! Someone told me I could have more any time I wanted! No Sally, you have to wait eight hours, until bed time.

3. The next time she called out, she meant business. "SALLY JACKSON WANTS JUSTICE!!" Then she started getting up. My grandma saw her and was like, "Oh and now she's going to get up and she's not supposed to."

4. Right when we got there, my grandpa was barely saying hi to Grandma, not having seen her in two days. And she snapped at us, "Now that's enough discussion!" Ha! Ooookay!

5. She also made me get up and clean off her bed side table because it looked like a mess in her peripheral vision-- it was distracting her from reading.

This woman is NUTS and it's HILARIOUS. My last and final example was the funniest.

6. She's still calling out, okay? And some young guy that's passing out the dinner meals hears her as he's passing. He takes one step toward her door to help her, and his coworker along with Sally's nurse are both like, "Wait!!! No, no, no!! Don't go in there!!! Noooo!" Lol. Luckily they were there to warn him.

Poor Grandma, I don't know how she got stuck with Sally Jackson. Hopefully Grandma or Sally recovers quickly and goes home soon!

Sad Day for the Sarmiento Family...

2010-04-20T20:02:00.000-07:00

Sad news... I was hoping that we wouldn't have to post about this, but nothing's changed yet...

Riley ran away... :'(

We've called around to near by shelters and posted signs too... but sadly no one's called.

He has tags, so I would think that if you found a poor, little (he was actually pretty big), lost puppy (he was a full grown dog) that you would call his family so he could go home. :(

Our backyard is a pretty good size and he gets to run around all day long. But there's a gate in the back that our landlord had nailed to the fence post. I guess the wind or something knocked down the gate, which consequently pulled out one post of the fence. I'm guessing he went into the neighbor's yard and who knows where from there.

:( Poor, poor puppy... Hopefully he comes home safely. In the mean time, we sure do miss him. :(

Thursday Fun for Nathan

2010-04-08T20:25:00.000-07:00

Yay for blogging!! (Also, my in laws are really enjoying us visiting more often now..) Just thought I'd post some pictures since I'm here. Also, I've noticed that even though our blog is http://freddyandtracy... it seems more like it's all about Nathan, these days. After today I'm going to make a better effort of the blog being more about Freddy and I, as well as Nathan-- instead of all about the cute, little kid. But bear with me for today. :)

This is Nathan and Freddy together--and Freddy is so proud. With the NBA Playoffs just under two weeks away, Freddy's preparing for them in every way. :) Freddy walked up to the Laker section and Nathan just grabbed the t-shirt (keep in mind that he grabs at everything, but still-- )!!
And here we have Nathan practicing his soccer moves. The World Cup is coming up too! Nathan has to be ready!

And you can't always be playing around... so here's the little guy taking a break from all his hard work.

And this was at the library the other day. We were reading books together. :) Our favorite of the day was Little Gorilla. "And everybody loved Little Gorilla..." If you haven't read it, you should.

And this is just him sitting in his car seat. Nothing really special or anything, just cute. :)

So there's nothing really new in our lives, that I can think of anyway-- but we're still alive and well! And hooray for me blogging more often than ever before. Jessica will be so proud of me. :)

Easter Sunday and General Conference

2010-04-04T22:05:00.000-07:00

I always love when General Conference comes around. It's like the Circus coming to town-- you wait and wait for it to come, and once it's over you start counting down until it comes again. :)
There were so many good insights that were shared this weekend. It's amazing how you can start with a prayer in your heart for whatever reason, hoping that you hear something that will touch your heart. And it never fails to amaze me-- I always end up feeling like at least one General Authority wrote their talk and simply left out the "Dear Tracy," that was obviously at the beginning (well, as long as I'm actually paying attention to the talks and not chatting with other people {ahem--sisters}).
The last day of Conference landed on Easter Sunday this year! Fun! Not only did we get a higher content of talks about the Resurrection and Atonement (always nice) but we also got to spend the day at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Easter dinner was delicious, of course, and we went home with tons of leftovers. Although we didn't ever have an Easter egg hunt (Nathan's not old enough to enjoy it yet..), we definitely did enjoy plenty of Easter candy (or at least Freddy and I did--).
We hope everyone else had a wonderful Easter and spent it with the ones they love!
(Yay for me blogging about Easter, on Easter... Amazing...)

UtahFlatTireAndEverythingElse

2010-03-31T14:47:00.000-07:00

I'm at my in-laws again today, so naturally, it's time to blog. With so much going on, March seemed to be such a promising month for blogging frequently. Instead, I just ended up with a thousand things to blog about, come March 31st. Bummer.

Gotta hurry, since Nathan is with his Grandma (or well, Abuelita) and starting to fuss.
First of all (which is actually last of all, but I uploaded the pictures in the wrong order, and it's not worth it to change it all), we got Nathan a little plush soccer ball! Freddy's so proud. :) Here's Nathan learning how to play-- from the best! :)
Also, the other day we were driving to Walnut and all the sudden the low tire pressure light came on. What do you know? Flat tire. It was the BEST!!! Really! It was such a reminder of why I married Freddy. Some people really get frustrated or mad when something like a flat tire happens, but Freddy was so excited! It was his first time changing a tire all by himself, and what a great job he did! He had SUCH a good attitude about the whole thing, which made it easier on all of us. I was SO proud of him. :)

But it sure was messy! Look at those dirty hands! Freddy really kept such a positive perspective-- at least it didn't happen yesterday on the drive back from Utah.... We're lucky it was a tire still under warranty.... Good thing it was in broad daylight and not at night! It was really a fun family activity, surprisingly. :) While we waited for it to be repaired we even got ice cream cones! We should get flat tires every week! ;-)And here we have Nathan and I helping on the side lines. (Oh-- and it turned out to be like a razor blade or maybe even a prison shank embedded in our poor tire!) We also just had the opportunity to go up to Utah for Emily and Jeff's wedding! Yay! Nathan and I flew-- his first time (and he was SO good the whole time) and Freddy drove up with my Mom and brothers. It worked out pretty well. We had tons of fun up there with all our (my) family! Here we are outside the Jordan River Temple, after the wedding. (And that's my brother, Tyler's, best attempt at "make sure it's straight." :-) )

And here we have Nathan's first driving lesson (sorta.)

And finally, Nathan and Freddy eating oranges (well- Freddy was the only one eating oranges).

But they sure do look cute together! Nathan really loves his Dad-- his face lights up every time he sees him. And that's pretty much everything (or at least everything I have time to blog about)! Go me for actually blogging--- it's almost like Visiting Teaching... sometimes I just try to squeeze it in by the end of the month just to count the numbers. :)

March Madness

2010-03-09T20:10:00.000-08:00

So far March is proving to be a very busy month... And we're only a week into it.

I'm at the school library while Freddy does school work and I don't have any way to add pictures to my post. Super lame.

Yesterday was Freddy and my Anniver! Our anniversary is September 8th, so March 8th is our Anniver! :) That's 2 1/2 years already... Time just flies by when every day is with your best friend.

This past weekend Freddy helped at the annual Irish Festival held at the LA Fairgrounds. My mom and Jason went along to help too. I'm sure they had a blast working all weekend-- being on their feet all day and having to talk to anyone that would listen. Sounds like endless fun to me! :-/ (And this year they didn't even have to elephant in the parade. Why even go if the elephant isn't going to be there.)

Anyway, it made for a pretty uneventful weekend for me though. I actually just spent the weekend with my little brother, Brandon. Poor kid-- it was more like he had to tag along on all my boring errands... and they were boring. We have a Camry that was affected by the Toyota recall. Consequently, as soon as we got our letter asking us to come have repairs made we called to schedule an appointment. The dealership employee made it sound like their Saturday was completely free and if I were to come in right now, I'd be out in NO TIME! Well, I should have known better. Everytime I deal with the Glendora Toyota dealership I leave wishing I hadn't even bothered going. What we thought would be a 2 hour waiting period for the repairs to be done turned out to be an ALLLLL DAY waiting game. Wait 10-15 minutes for the shuttle to pick you up to take you back home (actual time-- 2 hours). Wait at home for their should-be-any-time-now call (another 2 hours). Pick up the car-- wait 2 minutes for them to bring it out (another half hour). It took all day long. AND our other car was at the mechanic's to get the spark plugs changed, so that doubled the amount of weekend time taken up by cars. However, I love having working cars and I know that this is alll part of being a car owner. :)

As a side note, while we were waiting for the shuttle, a little 4? year old girl came up with her mom and saw Nathan. Then this was the conversation that followed:

Little girl: "Ohhh he's so cute... I like his pajamas... Mom? I want a baby..."
LG's Mom: "Okay honey, maybe when you're older... and married."
LG: "I want three of them..."
Mom: "Oh? You're going to be a very busy mommy!"
LG as they were walking away: "I want one of those... Mom? Will you buy me one of those? Will you buy me a baby?" ....Lol.

B and I also got to go grocery shopping (ooooo), buy a new straightener for me (ahhhhh), and stop at Walmart (wow!). Like I told you, they were boring errands.

Next-- my sister, Emily, is getting married in less than two weeks. And I'm flying up for it!! Yay! I really am excited-- and a little nervous to be flying with a 4 month old. (If anyone in Utah has a rear-facing infant car seat we could borrow, please let me know!) But all in all, I'm really excited to go up and see my sistas. :) ANNND Jessica is planning a VIP Craft Night so that I can play too! FUN!

Everyone is going to be so amazed by how quickly Nathan is growing! The last time anyone saw him was when he was... 6 weeks? And now he's 4 months. Yeah.

I have to say, one of the things I'm most excited for (after my sister's wedding and seeing my family) is going to Texas Roadhouse!! That is without a doubt my FAVORITE restaurant and for some silly reason they don't have any in Southern California. I've been thinking about it for weeks and now it's only a matter of time. :)

Anyway... Freddy's still homework-ing, but I think I've kind of run out of things to blog about. And no one ever really likes to read a post that doesn't even have any pictures. So I'll end it for now and my next post will probably be about all the fun I'm having in Utah!

Valentine's Day

2010-02-18T20:56:00.000-08:00

Since Valentine's Day was actually on a Sunday (laaame), Freddy and I decided to celebrate it on the 13th. We wanted to take family pictures-- yay! But we got to the portrait studio and found that everyone one else wanted to take pictures that day too. Ugh. So we went to the park to take some. But everyone who wasn't taking pictures was at the park playing in our nice backgrounds. Sooo we decided to take pictures outside the church instead. We'll wait to take professional ones when we actually have an appointment.

As a side note-- Nathan has the cutest little smile. One that lasts like, one billionth of a second; it's like, impossible to catch on camera. These ones are the closest we could get. I'm sure he'll be more cooperative as he gets older. :)

Later that night we went out to dinner at Olive Garden-- along with everyone else. We finally ate around 9:30 pm... but it was SO worth it! I chose the BEST meal I've ever had there! It was delicious!

After dinner we went home and exchanged presents. Overall, it was a great Valentine's Day!

Alright-- out of time! I'll blog more later!

Nathan LOVES...

2010-02-03T12:24:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post-- I'm at the library and I told the woman at the Information desk that I only needed a computer for a few minutes. She let me use one of the special, reserved ones usually only for the Literary Center. Now, 35 minutes later, I'm still on... and blogging.
Okay-- so here are some pictures of little Nathan (Although these pictures are quite a bit bigger-- I guess I figured out how to take bigger pictures on my cell phone)!

Here's N asleep in his car seat... He LOVES being in the car. So much to see (when you're awake)! And such a nice nap otherwise..
Nathan also loves to watch dryers! We have a washer at home, but still have to take wet clothes to the laundomat to dry. And boy does he LOVE that! All the different colors of clothes going around and around! What FUN! (This was me taking a picture with my phone trying to capture his mesmerized look...)

And Nathan loves to SMILE! (Finally caught on camera!)

There's another cute one... just while we were waiting for Daddy (Nathan's dad--) to come back to the car..

And finally one of him in his CUTE dinosaur sleeper that he loves to wear. He's been sleeping quite well, even though he's had a cold lately. But what a good kid! He's so adorable and we love him!

Uh oh-- "MY SESSION WILL END IN TEN MINUTES." Have I really been on this computer for an hour?? Oh boy-- guess it's time to get going. Hope to post again soon. If not, Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!!

Holiday Fun for Everyone!

2010-01-06T19:56:00.000-08:00

I'm at my in laws, which can only mean one thing--- time to update my blog. And I can already hear Nathan fussing so this has got to be quick*.

Okay-- let's see...

Yesterday we went to the pediatrician again. Last time he weighed 10 lbs 3 oz-- this time he was at 12 lbs 3 oz! I asked the doctor if that was a normal amount of weight to gain and he said that they only HOPE that ALL babies would grow so well!! He's developing VERY well. He's now 22 1/4 inches long and his head circumference is 15 1/4 inches (I don't know what it was originally-- so I have no idea how that compares). The pediatrician says that he's developing SO WELL that he's just about ready to start JUICE (which is absolutely ridiculous-- he's still happily enjoying breastfeeding and WILL BE for a while to come)! But besides that, we really like our pediatrician. Their whole staff is very interactive with the babies and seem to make the visits more personal.

Here's little Nathan after a diaper change a couple weeks ago-- he just looked so cute!This is one of us Christmas shopping.. N was pretty fussy and tired right when we GOT to the store. We didn't think he'd last, but Dad has the magic touch! He fell asleep in his arms and we were able to get everything we needed! (As you can see this is as we were leaving when he was WIDE awake again. Happy, but WIDE awake.)A close up... I LOVE this little pose-- when he rests his fist up by his face like he's leaning on it. He often does it while he's nursing and it's absolutely adorable!

For Christmas, we went to Freddy's aunt's house (for Christmas Eve) and opened presents at midnight with all the rest of his family. Then we headed to his parents' house to open more presents. After that, we drove to Grandma and Grandpa's house to spend the night so that we could wake up with the rest of my family. Boy were we TIRED. But we got FUN gifts! I got a Cricut Expression and Freddy got a PS3! (Actually, we got these back on Black Friday and totally didn't wait for Christmas to use them. Those were supposed to be our only presents, but I had a hard time knowing that there wouldn't be anything to open on Christmas day. Because of that, we each got a few little things for each other.)

Santa Claus actually DID come to town! Monica, my mother in law, bought two ADORABLE outfits for Nathan for Christmas, but one was size 6 months and would have been wayyy too big. But this one was quite the hit.Freddy and I, right before midnight on Christmas Eve. And Christmas morning at my grandparents' house, here's Freddy with his surprise gift-- a LAKER BLANKET! He LOVES it... and it's suuuper warm. And here are Tyler and Brandon with their blankets that Mom had been slaving away on... She loves to do big, huge projects for Christmas when there's definitely not enough time to finish them. But somehow she finishes them just in time!

Then for New Year's it was basically the same deal. We went to the same aunt's house with the same family members and then afterward went and spent the night at G&G's house with my family. EXCEPT! This time Jessica and Mitch were there!! Yay!!! We like them. And this time we were sick-- Freddy still was getting over a cold he'd had since before Christmas. I had a cold, sore throat, had lost my voice COMPLETELY, and then New Year's Day both Nathan and I woke up with pink eye. Grrrreat. So that was tons of fun, as you can imagine.

Here's baby Nathan with Grandpa Lyons on New Year's Eve..And at midnight.. Welcome 2010!!Gotta have someone to kiss at midnight!!And Nathan with Grandma, well, his great Grandmother.

And then Sunday, January 3rd, was Nathan's blessing**! It was wonderful-- especially with Jessica and Mitch still there. Also, Chami was in town with the girls so they came too (and I can't believe how much they've grown)! The blessing was incredible and the testimony meeting that followed was quite possibly one of my favorite meetings I've ever attended. Most, if not all, of our high priests got up and bore their testimonies. In a ward that usually endures long, awkward pauses between testimonies, this week there were over a dozen people waiting to speak. It really was such a perfect meeting. :) Following Sacrament meeting, we went to take pictures QUICKLY since all of our guests had to leave to drive back ASAP. It reminded me exactly of a wedding. UGH. I wish I could figure out a way to better coordinate group pictures. But we used Mitch's camera because it's suuuuuper cool-- wayyyy better than anyone elses.

But this is one picture that was taken on my camera-- us with Chami and the girls!And here's Freddy with little Nathan (as you can see his outfit is WAYYY too big.. it was the smallest we could find-- size 3 months. And Nathan is only 7 weeks here..).

And then, Jessica and Mitch left... and stole Sarah too. :( We all miss her, but know that she'll love Utah and UVU.

And that's pretty much the update. Our handyman was supposed to come Tuesday, make that Wednesday, wait, make that Thursday. So hopefully eventually he'll actually come and fix our phone jacks so that we can finally plug in our modem and get the internet to work! Then I'll finally be able to blog as time passes, instead of these MASSIVE blogs to keep everyone satiated until I can post two weeks later. We will see!

*Don't think for one second that this post was actually quick and that I finished before he needed me. Not at all. In fact, during the writing of this one post, I've fed him probably three times. But now he's sleeping-- hence why I ended up with a much longer post than I planned on.

**As a side note, I sincerely apologize to anyone that didn't know about the blessing that would have liked to come. With all the holidays and our internet STILL not connected at our house it was just impossible to email or post about it. Send me an email if you fall in this category so that I can at least email you some of the notes from the blessing, if you'd like.

The Three of Us

2009-12-19T14:35:00.000-08:00

Hello again! It's been a long time since we last posted pictures of little Nathan (not out of choice-- still no internet at our place so my time online is VERY limited).

But I wanted to post a few pictures of our cute, little boy... and he is cute...

Here's his first real bath! We had to wait for his umbilical cord to fall off until we could use his little bathtub. He wasn't such a fan of bathing at first-- but we're better at it now. It's always really cold at our house so there's never a great time to be getting out of the warm water into the cold, cold air. But now bath time is lots of fun for him-- and what's even better is that he sleeps SO WELL after a bath.

Nathan likes to play two different games-- both related to changing his diaper. The first is called "How a Little Boy Surprises His Parents." As you can imagine, that's played simply by either Freddy or myself going to change his diaper-- you turn for one second to grab a wipe and when you look back everything is getting wet! That's a fun one.. The second game is called "Blue Line." I call it this because on his diapers is a yellow stripe down the front. Conveniently, when the diaper is wet the stripe turns blue. SO! You change his diaper and he's got a nice, clean diaper on... then you head to go _______ (fill in the blank-- sit down on the couch, feed him, blink, etc.) and what do you know?! It's blue! Like magic! :) Yeah, our family LOVES games so Nathan fits RIGHT in.

Our CHRISTMAS TREE!! Yay!! We have a tradition (ahem- that we decided to start this year) that we decorate for Christmas and get our tree on the first Saturday in December... So here it is while we were waiting for the branches to settle.. And Freddy putting the lights on... (We moved it because it was blocking the tv... Now it's blocking the couch... Sigh, oh the joys of living in a shoe box.)And here's Nathan helping by laying quietly. Thanks, Nathan! This is us at the Creekside Ward Christmas Party-- Santa came and Nathan got to sit on his lap! But really, all he wanted was to eat and Santa couldn't exactly help him with that, so needless to say, he was a little bit fussy.

Santa, Nathan, and his grandmas, all having fun together. :) Nathan and me. :) He was asleep for the ENTIRE party... finally he woke up just before Santa was about to leave. But of course he was staaarving so we headed for the mothers' room. Unfortunately by the time he was done eating there were only two cars left in the once full parking lot (and one was ours). Bummer..

And here's our happy little family! Nathan has been such a blessing in our lives and we have SO much fun with him. I'm amazed by him every time I look at him... What a little sweetheart. :)

(Isn't that the cutest little face? I love that one...)

I'll try to keep up with the holidays-- but I hope you enjoyed the update!

Nathan Andrew Sarmiento

2009-11-14T14:39:00.000-08:00

He's finally here!! (And thank goodness because, as it turns out, labor is not fun at all!)

Nathan Andrew Sarmiento

Born November 11th, 2009 at 12:14pm
7 lbs., 9 oz. and 19 1/4 inches long
and soooo cute!!!

I'll make sure to add more details later, but as you can imagine-- we're pretty tired.. But here's a few pictures to look at in the mean time!

Getting Ready...

2009-10-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

So I just wanted to post really quickly since who knows when the next time I'll have a chance will be. My due date is two weeks from today so it's only a matter of time until we have a new addition to the family. :)

First-- let me appologize that the pictures are so small. The upside of taking pictures on my phone is that I sometimes take pictures more often and I'm more likely to post them because I don't have to upload everything from my actual camera. The downside is that they're super small. I'll look into it and see if I can change the settings or something.

Okay- here we have my yellow roses that bloomed!! Yay!! Unfortunately I didn't even notice them until they'd already bloomed and started kinda wilting, so they're not as pretty as I'm sure they once were. BUT!! I noticed that the red rose bush has probably 4-5 that are budding and should be blooming soon enough.
Next! Freddy is the best ever. :)
He's been so good at helping me in whatever way possible throughout the pregnancy. For example, I totally can't reach my toes at all-- for obvious reasons. Anyway, he's been painting my toe nails for me! How niiiice. It's really cute because he tries really hard to make sure they turn out pretty well. He's done them twice now and I'm so proud of him!!
And yesterday was like the best day of Freddy's life-- :) We were at IKEA in Carson getting a dresser for the baby's clothes and as we were leaving-- passing the Carson mall-- we hear Power 106 broadcasting outside. And to Freddy's surprise, they had the Laker Girls there too! It was the highlight of the day for him-- and he's contemplating framing the 8-1/2 x 11 squad picture with all of the autographs. :)

So we've been getting ready for the baby to come! We live in a pretty small place (understatement) and so there's not exactly a seperate room just for the baby's things. SO! We've been making do. On Friday night we went to Babies R Us to pick up the travel system and the portable crib (we don't have space for a regular crib and decided that a portable one is the solution-- now we have it for visiting grandparents, sisters, etc.) that we wanted. Welllll. We. Got. Jacked. >:[ I was sooooo mad.. This is what happened. We were at Babies R Us looking at a certain model of travel system (the ones that have the stroller and the car seat that snaps into the stroller). We've pulled the display out and are trying it out, seeing if we like it, pushing it around a little bit, etc. We decide that we like it. Yay! Then this employee comes directly at us and is like, "Do you need help with anything?" JUST as I'm like, "Ye--" this other woman is standing over by where the display goes is like, "I DO!" So I'm like oh, okay-- we'll let her go first or whatever (even though we'd been there for like ten minutes and she JUST walked up like 20 seconds ago). So then she's like "I need that one (pointing at the box above the display to the travel system that we're looking at and waiting to get... the LAST ONE)." My jaw just dropped as he pulls it down for her and sets it in her cart. (And I could swear that at this point she looks directly at us and gives us this ugly, smug look, but I'm probably just making that up because I was so mad). So she walks away just as fast as she came and I'm like, "Was... that... the... last one?" And the employee is like, "Uhh.. yeah." I was like, "Nooooooooo!" (Tiny bit of background-- we chose a travel system and registered for it and it was discontinued the next week. Unavailable. Ugh. So we chose ANOTHER one to replace it and that one ALSO was discontinued just like two weeks ago. Great.) So you can imagine, for me, who NEEDS a car seat in order to be ALLOWED to leave the hospital with my newborn baby, I was somewhat annoyed that yet another one was going to be taken and we were STILL without a carseat, etc. So as we were leaving the store completely empty handed, I just stared at the woman in line that was buying MY stroller. I was not happy. But! It all worked out okay-- we went the next morning to the Babies R Us in Westminster and they had it waiting on hold for us. :) And I also found the cutest diaper bag ever. (And HER stroller was probably defective anyway.) SO! We have the box for the stroller/carseat combo along with the portable crib at home waiting for us to come home and assemble them. (SIDE NOTE: Freddy is always SO much calmer than I ever am. He was like-- "[Shrug.] That's okay." I was fuming mad and he was like, "What's the big deal? It's okay..." Lol.) I'll make sure to post pictures of all the fun things we got. :)

Home Sweet Home!!

2009-10-12T16:00:00.000-07:00

It's been a while, I know. But things have been pretty hectic around here and I've been doing my best to keep my head above water. So, this is pretty much the longest post, but it really catches me up on blogging!

First of all, WE MOVED!! Yay!!! We're now renting a one bedroom, one bathroom home out in Paramount (near Long Beach). Some may ask why we'd move out there-- the answer: Freddy will be starting a Physical Therapy Assistant program at Cerritos College in January. This house is a mere five minutes, if that, from campus. Wonderful. Also, this little place has a nice, big backyard-- perfect for Riley. Some of the apartments we were looking at that were "pet friendly" offered little balconies for your pets under 25 lbs. We thought maybe Riley would be close. Not at all- he's 38 lbs and still looks skinny for his breed. SO! This ended up as the perfect little place to call home. Now. I'm not going to lie, it was pretttty ugly when we found it. In fact, the leasing agent almost wouldn't let us see it because he was confident that it would be a waste of his time to show it to us, since we definitely wouldn't want it. Little did he know, we're pretty low maintenance. :) Anyway-- we've now moved in and spent all weekend unpacking, painting, hanging curtains, etc.

This is Freddy painting the dining room wall Fresh Guacamole. Oooohh... It really looks nice. I'll have to post a picture of the completed project. Also, you can sort of see (I'm standing in the kitchen while taking this picture) how (small) the kitchen is! Our refrigerator on the right-- the opposite counter just about 2 feet away. My mom mentioned that it'll be so much easier to fit once I'm not pregnant. :) We also painted a wall in the living room-- it was called something Fawn. To me it looks almost like chocolate ice cream. :) But really-- everytime we pass it we're like, Oooo I like that color...

And here we have the newly installed toilet seat and toilet seat cover. Oooooo.... That was my job to install... until I got tired of being on the floor so F took over. Go team!

This was taken the day we moved in to the house. :) We really have our work cut out for us in the backyard. BUT! Even in the ugliest backyard in Paramount there's something to smile about! Practically the only living thing in our yard-- it was the prettiest rose I've ever seen! It was so sweet to see that-- almost like a welcome home present. :) Also-- I found THREE yellow roses that are about to bloom!! And Mom says we have wonderful ferns and also a wandering Jew plant too!! (Both plants that Freddy thought were weeds that were going to be going ASAP. Now we're reconsidering..)

Besides that-- we went to our new ward this week. It starts at 8 am. Grrrreat. Although, F pointed out that mayyybe we'll be switching times come January and we'll only have to do the 8 am for a couple months. But! Our new ward is suuuuper friendly and welcoming. We already love it!! Yay for feeling welcome!

In other news, we enjoyed General Conference at my grandparents' home. We also saw a BEAR while we were there!!! It was just hanging out in their backyard. I was getting some things from our trunk and looked over and what do you know, there's a bear in the backyard. Come to find out later that he was eating their persimmons. Regardless, it was pretty exciting. I guess with the recent fires they've had quite a bit of wild life coming down the mountain. (Mom and I both think that this is the exact same bear that we caught in the exact same place a couple weeks ago.)

Next, here's a picture of me at... 35 weeks (last week). Everything is going well with the pregnancy! My feet are about as swollen as they could be and feel like they could explode at any moment. Sister Rowley kindly mentioned that she thinks since I'm retaining so much water now, I'll be losing weight SO fast once the baby comes! Everyone loves hearing nice comments like that (especially when your feet are as swollen as mine are)! Tonight we have our second Childbirth Prep class-- those are fun! We're learning so much and becoming so prepared! And seeing as our hospital is in Glendora and we now live in Paramount-- we're praying that I go into labor at a convenient time (otherwise there could be so much traffic on the 605 that Freddy will be delivering the baby on the side of the freeway or something). But yeah, we're down to about 3 1/2 weeks until the due date-- it'll be here before we know it, I'm sure! We'll keep you posted*!

*As much as possible.. We have yet to have our internet connected at our new house-- so there may be a slight delay in posting.

Our 2nd Anniversary!

2009-09-10T17:41:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was our 2nd Wedding Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to us!!

So to celebrate, we spent Saturday on Catalina Island!

It was so, so beautiful and we had a blast! Our boat ride (about an hour and ten minutes) left at 11:30 am, so we got there at about a quarter to 1pm.

We first went on an hour long tour of Avalon (so that we could get to know the area a little better and know what we wanted to spend our time seeing).

Following that we had these HUGE burritos for lunch from a little restaurant. Mmmm... Then we went on a glass bottom boat ride!

And actually, the it's not the whole bottom that's glass, like I pictured-- it's only certain parts of the boat that have the glass bottom.

Still very cool though.

After that, we walked over to their casino (that doesn't have any gambling) and museum-- only to find that they were both already closed for the day. Bummer.

Instead we went and shared an ice cream cone and then laid down on the beach for awhile. The weather was absolutely perfect for relaxing and enjoying the scenery!! Later that evening we went and did a little shopping--I got a cute, pink Catalina jacket. Also, I was suuuuper thirsty and finally found a water fountain. Buuuut, it was at the wrong height-- where, because I was pregnant, I couldn't bend in half to drink from it. Freddy thought it was wayyy funny. I thought I was still really thirsty.

After that we were pretty beat, so we just walked around and waited for our boat to leave (at 9:15pm). We got back to the mainland (that's what everyone over there calls it) at about 10:30pm. We even got escorted to the dock by the LAPD Boat Division-- while we were getting off we saw some guy being arrested! We were SO curious, but never found out what had happened.

Then, on Tuesday, our REAL anniversary, obviously most of the day was taken up with work and what not. But in the evening we went to the park for a delicious picnic dinner. Then once it got cold outside we went to the mall and walked around for a little while. It was really nice to just spend some time together, talking and enjoying the day. :)

Freddy's Bike Ride and More

2009-09-03T17:06:00.001-07:00

Recently, Freddy went on a little bike ride with some friends. :)

They rode from Josh Peck's house, in Corona, to the Huntington Beach Pier. Supposedly it was going to be 20 miles... then it was actually 25 miles.. and it ACTUALLY ended up being just over 30 miles. Boy was that a surprise for tired bikers. :)

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do the bike ride for some reason--- and ended up as a driver. Again. (I'm sure we all remember my role in the Grand Canyon hike...). BUT! Freddy was a great sport and took pictures all along the way so that it FELT like I was riding right along with him.

Here are some pictures from all the fun they had!

All the bikers getting ready... Freddy's bike had a flat before they even STARTED. Thank goodness for who ever brought the spare tube for Freddy.

Freddy and Ryan Peck together.

Freddy and Allison Constantino. For some reason, I was under the impression that everyone was SUPPOSED to wear yellow or a neon color, so I got Freddy's Ecuador jersey out for him. As it turned out that was NOT a requirement. But Allison was like, "That's okay, we ALWAYS knew where Freddy was!"

So they rode ALMOST all the way--- I guess someone got a flat tire about 3 miles from the pier and they had already gone over 30 miles. They were ready to be done, so we drove and picked them up. But they did make it to the beach-- we had just planned to meet at the pier and their trail came out a few miles south. Great job anyways, guys!! Everyone was SO exhausted from the ride.. Several of the riders decided that before their next ride they would buy more comfortable bike seats. :)

This past Saturday we went out to a Turkey Fry that Stephanie and Laz hosted! Parking was AWFUL and finally I just called Steph to see if she knew of any places to park and what not. As it turned out, we got to park in the DRIVEWAY because I had special pregnancy privilages. SWEEET! We don't have any pictures because we weren't the ones with the camera, but we DID have fun! And guess what? Laz makes SUUUUPER good potato salad! Who knew?!? Only down side is that I have yet to get the recipe. Booo... Also, you'd think that FRIED turkey would be gross because like, c'mon, it's fried. But NO-- it's waaayyyy moist and juicy instead of the often dry bird that results from sitting in an oven all day. Overall, we ate a lot and enjoyed our time with Steph, her BF Laz, and all their friends! :)

After THAT, we went back to make it to a birthday party for a good friend-- Suzie Pardo's son, Jared. Happy 8th Birthday, Jared!!! And guess where it was? Oh, only the best place ever-- CHUCK E. CHEESE!!! On the down side, we got there like seriously as everyone was leaving. Oops. But on the up side, we still stayed for like 4 hours and played tons of games! Suuuuper fun!

Here's Freddy playing the football throwing game (which he was wayyyy good at) and Maria, Tiny, and Brandon watching in awe. :) Later that night Freddy won the jackpot on the basketball game-- YAY FREDDY!!! We were suuuuper impressed.
And this is the game that Freddy is SOOO good at. The one where the bulbs light up one by one in a line (super fast) and you have to press it right when it gets to the right one. He pretty much has cat-like reflexes. Everytime we go he wins the jackpot on this game. It's basically like a guaranteed win. :) Yeah, we had tons of fun at Chuck E. Cheese.. and we got all sorts of great prizes with all our tickets.

And here we have a picture of me pregnant. :) This was actually two weeks ago-- but I kept forgetting to post it. Unfortunately it's pretty blurry... it was after church (and it was almost our turn to go in for our temple recommend renewal interviews that we were waiting for..) We'll have to take more and post them soon. Afterall, there's only two months left until we'll be posting pictures of an actual baby instead of just a bump!

A Day For....

2009-08-16T16:15:00.001-07:00

Riley!

Today was all about Riley! We finally took the time to finish his dog house! Yay!! Here's the finished product!

And here's Riley with his new and improved house! We've had the dog house taken apart for a few weeks trying to finish it. In the mean time he hasn't had that extra shade to enjoy. Poor puppy... But now it's back and BETTER than EVER!!

(I think I took the picture too fast because it looks like the white trim on the doorway is warped. In reality it's not, I simply have a dog that won't stay still for very long.)

And to finish off the day of fun, Riley got a baaath!!! Yay!! While usually it's not his favorite thing to do, today it was pretty hot so he enjoyed being cooled down.

In other news, we just recently got new (and desperately needed) phones! Fun! We actually have the exact same phone, the Samsung Eternity-- but mine has a pink cover and his has a black one (much more professional looking than pink). Our contract had just ended so we went ahead and upgraded our phones to wayyyy better ones. We're both still getting used to them, seeing as they're touch screen-- which neither of us have had before. But so far they seem great! My favorite feature so far: you can set TEN alarms!! On my last phone you could only set ONE. Talk about improvements!

The baby is growing so much lately! I really am starting to feel like a blimp... But on the up side, he kicks and moves more often and they're stronger too. Freddy's been able to see and feel the baby several times. (Before it was kinda like, "Ooo ooo! The baby's kicking!!" He'd quickly put his hand to feel--- "Oh... nevermind.. he stopped..") We're already well into the third trimester and only 12 more weeks to go! Amazing how time flies...

Weekend Fun

2009-07-27T16:09:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was fun-filled, to say the least. Or, at least just--- filled. We had an Elders' Quorum picnic at the park on Friday night to be at. Then Saturday we had to work in the morning and be at a family get together all afternoon (with relatives visiting from Ecuador). Then Freddy had to be BACK to meet with a client in the evening and off to a graduation party for a friend that night. Sunday came and Freddy had an early morning meeting at 7:30 to be at, church until noon, an impromptu picnic put together by my dad that afternoon, and a birthday party for a friend that evening. Boy, oh boy. It was enjoyable and fun to be with friends all weekend-- but I must admit, EXHAUSTING. And now we're back to Monday all over again.

Other things that have happened recently:

1. Riley became BFF with Ricky and Allana Rowley's dog, Milo. We went to Schabarum Park and let them run around together and then went for a hike. They have tons of fun together because neither one of them ever seem to get tired of playing!

2. We finally found a roofing company that would give us a few shingles from an open bag for FREE rather than having to buy a whole bundle of them. We wanted to roof Riley's dog house (which has turned out to be a bigger project than we originally intended) and were so excited to finally have the materials. We worked on the roof last week and it's turning out pretty well-- only a few set backs (ie the drill battery died after like, one screw-- we're still trying to find the time to put the roof back on the house..) Also, the shingles are like... blue. So we plan on spray painting them black ASAP.

3. The baby has been kicking a ton lately! Freddy and I frequently enjoy time together watching and feeling the baby kick... :) And my clothes are slowly being weeded out of my closet into a box in the garage-- all the things I totally don't fit into anymore. We went in for another doctor's appointment this past week. Everything looked good! The baby's heartbeat was great-- at 142 beats per minute (should be between 120-180). I'll be 25 weeks pregnant tomorrow; my next appointment isn't until the 19th? (or something like that).. But yeah, some things that Tracy doesn't like while being pregnant: the heat, the smell of seafood, and standing for more than like- a minute. Things that Tracy does like: swimming and cold showers, feeling the baby kick, drinking milk all the time, salads, and watermelon! Overall, things are going great!

That's pretty much the extent of things going on over here-- oh-- except that the CIRCUS IS IN TOWN!!! We're hoping to be able to go on Saturday!!!! :) I love the circus. But yeah- that's the update for now!

4th of July Fun, House Hunting, and Riley

2009-07-17T20:49:00.000-07:00

Go me for finally taking the time to blog. I was waiting until I had pictures to post. Then I realized I still had some 4th of July ones that I never even blogged about! Silly me..

First, I wanted to tell about our fun Fourth of July--

We woke up early and went to the Boy Scouts Pancake Breakfast. It was pretty good-- we had pancakes (obviously), scrambled eggs, and sausage. Unfortunately eggs and sausage aren't really on the Tracy-likes-to-eat list, so I just had pancakes and Freddy got double the eggs and sausage. We're such a good team. :)

Then, we drove up to the high desert to look at some homes. It was two thumbs way down.. Not because there weren't good houses to see, but here's the thing: Monica, my mother-in-law, is our agent. And she has this COOL thing called a SupraKey. (I always thought they were calling it a SuperKey-- but whatever.) So the idea is that you have this little sensor remote thing and all the lock boxes on all the houses sense that you have the remote thing-- then they open up and give you the key-- and you look at the beautiful house. UNLESS. IT. DOESN'T. WORK. Unless the SupraKey is only for a certain area and it keeps telling you "Access Denied" every time you try to use it. And unless 99% of the houses don't even USE the SupraKey boxes, and instead use lock boxes with codes and you don't have ANY of the codes. Like I said-- two thumbs WAY down. We only got to see ONE house (well, at least beyond looking through the windows) and it was TRASHED. And it smelled like they were housing horses and pigs in there. Now, I'm the first person to understand the need to look past minor physical details that can easily be changed. Trust me, I've seen like, every episode of House Hunters on HGTV-- but seriously, this house had me against it right from the moment I found out that it was on Chippendale Circle. It really could have been gorgeous and I still wouldn't have wanted to live there because of the street name alone. But once I saw the inside too, oh man, that was like, strikes 2 through 20. So we drove an hour out there only to be SO frustrated that we couldn't even get into anything. Suuuuper frustrating. (Side note: We went again last weekend and we were (ahem- our agent was) WAYYY more prepared. We saw like 12-15 different houses and had a MUCH better experience.)

After that we went over to the Pardos' house and joined in on their 4th of July party! We had tons of food, lit pretty fireworks in the backyard, enjoyed sparklers, and watched the firework show (usually Walnut HS puts on the firework show, but this summer they're remodeling the whole track and field, so it was from Suzanne Park-- just a block away-- we still had great views from the Pardos' roof).

Riley is so funny!! So first of all, he usually eats just dry food, but occasionally we let him have a mix of wet and dry food. The only problem is that the wet food attracts flies-- LOTS of flies. And Riley gets SO DISTRACTED by them! He'll start eating... and then hear them by him... then he SNAPS and tries to catch them! He'll chase them ALL OVER the back yard until he loses them and comes back to eat his food. Funny!

And the FUNNIEST thing he does.... So Riley has to be an outside dog (lame) because my in laws don't want him in the house. Fine. But he also has to be a chained-up outside dog (super lame) because one time he found one of my step father-in-law's tools on the ground and chewed the cord (duh- pick it up off the ground). (But whatever-- I'm not bitter about it!) Anyway-- he's usually pretty good about having to be put back on his chain when we have to go back inside. Lately he's been playing this game where Freddy will call out, "Riley, chain!" and he'll start walking toward you--but stop about 2 feet past where the chain will reach. He'll sprawl out on the ground and then mayyybe start inching toward you (as long as you still can't reach him). Suuuuper funny!

The BIG Announcement!

2009-07-01T23:51:00.000-07:00

(Side note: First day of July and I'm starting off strong with the blogging! Woo hoo!!)

Okay. So I know that I had my mind set on waiting to find out the baby's gender. And I really was determined to wait! But then.... it just seemed so unfair that the ultrasound tech knew and I didn't even know what it was going to be. So-- if you want to make a final guess as to what you think the baby is, now's your chance!

Oh and if you don't want to know-- you should just not read this post probably. :)

It's......

......a.......

....BOY!!!!!

Yay!!!! We're suuuuper excited!! You see, I kept having dreams (more like nightmares) that the baby would come and I didn't even have like a diaper or any clothes or anything. It was AWFUL! So finally I decided to start getting things-- you know, sticking to gender neutral things. But here's the thing: gender neutral things stink. And beyond that, I don't think they're THAT neutral. Green just seems more like a boy color-- and yellow seems more girly... I don't know.. But I wanted to get cooler clothes. So then I decided that since I thought I was having a boy, I would just start buying boy stuff (which is a fabulous idea, if you actually end up with a boy-- not so great if you really get a girl). I only bought one cute little dress that my mom made me buy because it was simply adorable. I'll save it for another kid, maybe. Anyway, when it came down to it my determination to wait was getting weaker and weaker. Finally, I just cracked! SO- now we know (although my mom really wants a girl still so she reminds us that ultrasounds CAN BE wrong!!)! Freddy's so proud already. He's like, I'm gonna teach him how to do _____ and show him how to shoot/pass/kick/dribble like this... etc. Cute.

And now, if we could just come up with a name we like... :/

Catching Up-- BIG TIME

2009-06-30T17:51:00.000-07:00

Okay. It's seriously time to catch up on blogging. Everytime I'm like, Oh, I should blog. And then I'm like, Mehhhh but if I do, I'll have to do like the post of the century to catch up on everything since like 2002. And then guess what? I don't blog at all. So you know what? Now I'm going to. I'm thinking instead of doing a FULL, DETAILED post about every single thing, I'm just going to give the highlights and catch everyone up.

Let's see--- end of May--- We went to Arizona with most of my family to hike the Grand Canyon. Well, Freddy hiked and I was a driver (my doctor didn't think that hiking almost 25 miles was such a good idea in my condition..). Regardless, it was pretty fun to go and see the canyon. Freddy was basically amazing at hiking and did a great job. (I had a huge long post ONLY for the Canyon trip and it got deleted accidentally so I'm kind of over posting about this...)

Beginning of June-- my 21st birthday was on the 6th! Yay!! I LOVE birthdays (mainly mine) and was counting down forEVER. Freddy planned a nice little family party to celebrate! Fun! Unfortunately I still was getting over a cold (lame birthday gift from Mother Nature of something) so I made the wish and Freddy blew out the candles for me-- didn't want everyone else to catch my cold. But I had the prettiest cake and my mom even brought me some pink tulips! I love tulips!!

For my birthday Freddy took me to Medieval Times!! I love Medieval Times!!! It was suuuper fun and the food was delicious (so much of it too)! We were cheering for the green knight-- who actually turned out to be like the bad guy that no one liked. He almost won-- but like, obviously the bad guy can't win... Oh well.. Overall, great birthday!

Mid-June--- we went to watch everyone in the World Famous Mud Race at Camp Pendleton! Freddy was supposed to run too, but he hurt his knee playing soccer and it was still too sore to run (it's still too sore). They were all pretty dirty by the time they finished the race.

Recently--- (can't really remember when-- maybe two weeks ago?) We finally got around to painting Riley's dog house. We chose a beautiful shade of red and were thrilled to start. Freddy set the can of paint on the edge of the trash can while he finished setting up. And when he got back? Hm..a big red paint blob on the patio! Needless to say, we painted very quickly-- using the ground instead of the paint tray we had gotten. Afterward we hosed and sprayed the spot in hopes that it wouldn't stain. And now there's a nice, faded, pink stain on the patio to remind us of the day we painted Riley's dog house! (We're still not done.. we need to paint the trim white and we want to put shingles on the roof to make it look super cute-- but we can't find a roofing company that will share some scraps!)

And that PRETTY MUCH brings us up to date! We still have one more announcement that I think deserves it's own post-- but who knows when I'll realistically get to that. My goal is within the week!

You've GOT to be KIDDING Me!!

2009-06-04T23:12:00.000-07:00

Ohhh brother!! I just spent the last hour and a half uploading pictures of our trip to the Grand Canyon. I was SO excited!! It was going to have MORE PICTURES than ANY post I've EVER done!! (Pictures are always the best, so I wanted to have a ton..) Then, at the very end, I was just adjusting the spacing between all of the like, oh, 15-20 pictures and one silly slip of my finger... and before I knew it the WHOLE POST was BLANK! Of course, I ctrl+z'd that SO fast, but in the second that it took me to realize my mistake, my draft was so graciously autosaved. BLASTED AUTOSAVE!!! So now, it's way late and everyone is just going to have to wait a little longer for this amazing post, because now I'm totally going to bed. *Rolls eyes like a thousand times.*

And now, what you've all been waiting for....

2009-05-29T17:17:00.000-07:00

I guess you could say that we have some news for everyone!! And you've probably already guessed it if you didn't already know..........

...And we're very excited!!! The baby is due November 8th, or 9th, depending on which doctor you ask... (Or according to my idiot family doctor, due on November 30th..) Right now I'm 18 weeks along and starting to think that I might be feeling the baby inside me. I mean, obviously it's not like, "WHOA, SOMETHING JUST KICKED ME!" But more like just having the butterflies for hours at a time... It's all really strange. Who knows, maybe I'm just imagining it!

My next doctor appointment is on June 2nd-- looking forward to that! I really like my OBGYN, or really, more like, I like his office. It's really classy and inviting. :) Although he is the one that vetoed my Grand Canyon hiking... Sighhhh, but after seeing how dead tired everyone else was after the hike, I was glad for his expertise!

I will admit, I was trying to think of a really cute way to announce the pregnancy on our blog. And it's gotten to the point where it's about time we just announce it already. But there was no way I was going to go to all the work that-- um, let's see, oh- Annie went to to make all of the letters and frost every single one. Great job, Annie! They look amazing!! Okay, okay, I totally just found this picture online... I really wanted it to say that WE'RE pregnant-- because WE'RE a team, you know? Why wasn't Annie thinking about that? Annie- there is no "I" in T-E-A-M. That's okay-- it's still really cute.. but I also wanted to share some of the runner ups!

#2-- Message in the Sand!

We didn't have time to go to the beach to write this in the sand. Didn't even do it like a backyard sand box. This is actually Jamaican sand!! Thanks to the girl that wrote this for THEIR blog on their Jamaican vacation!! :) You see, I like this one a lot. It DOES have "We're" instead of "I'm," but the writing isn't as cute as it could be, it does seem a bit boring, and what's with the capital P? But still, this one is way cute; it got 2nd place!

#3-- Bun in the Oven!

Traditional, bun in the oven-- cute, but I liked the cookies better. You know, I didn't even know about that phrase until Em, Jess, and I had our apostle birthday party during General Conference weekend. We played Pin the Tie on President Hinckley and one of the guys there, Sam, decorated his tie with four words, "BUN IN THE OVEN." ...?????... He explained it to me at that point. :)

Honorable Mention awarded to entry #3- Bun in the Oven!

Anyway, pretty exciting news. As far as names go, we're thinking we might not name the baby at all. Simply because we can't find names that we like for more than a couple days at a time. Some names sound cute for little kids, but not for adults, which inevitably the baby will become someday-- we don't want to doom our child with a ridiculous name. Beyond that, very few names sound decent with Sarmiento anyway! So many vowels!! Definitely a challenge we've put off for the next few months or so.

Also, we've decided to wait and be surprised as to the baby's gender! Trust me, it's been a long, difficult process of developing patience (on my part especially, Freddy's #1 quality is patience)... but that's what we're going to do! (This does also present a problem in the sense that not only do we need to come up with one name, which is already proven to be a challenge, we now have to come up with ANOTHER name, just in case it's not that bouncing baby boy Freddy is so determined to have!)

And that's about all the energy I have for blogging today!! Now that the cat's out of the bag I'll have more to blog about (since these recent events have been somewhat of a large part of our lives)!

Day to Day

2009-05-05T22:32:00.000-07:00

I guess I've been having a hard time blogging simply because our lives have become pretty routine.

Monday- work, then school.
Tuesdays- work, then school.
Wednesdays- work, then-- Oooh! Soccer tonight!
Thursdays- work, then school....

You get the idea... and the thing is, our day to day lives isn't that interesting... so... what does one blog about?

But let's see. There's only 5 or so weeks of this semester left, which is good-ish. Of course it would be better if it was over, like a lot of other schools are.

My birthday is only one month away as of tomorrow! So that's the best thing ever. I'm still not sure as to what our plans are, but it is on a Saturday this year, so that's pretty cool.

Yeah, and that's pretty much it. It's not so interesting, but I just wanted to keep everyone up to date!! Who knows, maybe soon we'll have something more exciting to share!

What We've Been Up To!

2009-04-05T19:43:00.000-07:00

Let's see, what have we been up to?

1. Family came to visit. Actually this was quite awhile ago, like a whole month. Whatever, at least I'm blogging about it eventually. This is Freddy's stepbrother, Edison and his wife and son, Javier. They came from Pheonix for Javier's birthday to celebrate it with us. It's always nice to see them--we're planning to go out to Phoenix to visit them (they always come to see us).

2. Monica had a birthday. We went to a Brazilian Churrascaria to celebrate and it was delicious! Happy Birthday to my mother-in-law!

3. We've been having fun Family Home Evenings with the Pardos, Isis, and the missionaries! I always look forward to Sunday night when we go over to the Pardos' house and have dinner, dessert, a lesson, and games! Fun!

4. We've been lucky! Our ward had a super fun western activity a couple of weeks ago! I had so much fun at it and the best part was when Freddy entered a game to guess the number of whatevers in the jar-- AND WON!!! He won two tickets to Friday's Dodger game!! We had a blast!! It was a little chilly and we only lost by like 10 runs, but we enjoyed it!!

And that's pretty much it!! We also went to G&G's (Grandma and Grandpa's) house today to watch the Afternoon Session of General Conference today. Uncle Gary and Aunt Marlene were there too! It was fun to see them and get the update on all of their kids and grandkids. And of course G&G were fun. Last night I went there to hang out with the girls during Priesthood session. Afterward we had cauliflower soup for dinner (Yum!) and celebrated Grandpa's 85th birthday! His words of advice for getting to age 85, "Oh... just hang on!" :)

And now we're about to finish up watching Madagasgar 2- cute so far, but we were getting too tired to keep watching last night!! ...And that's the update for now!!

Uh-huh.

2009-03-14T21:28:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to blog about this for a couple weeks now-- just because I thought it was absolutely hilarious. I'd forgotten, but then Mom reminded me about it...
On my first day of my Sociology class my professor was trying to explain the relationship of one thing to another. She compared it to the story of the rabbit and the turtle. You know-- where the rabbit and the turtle are racing? The rabbit runs really fast and then he gets tired, but the turtle-- even though he's slow just keeps going. Eventually the turtle wins because his pace is steady, just like (insert subject we were talking about).

I just laughed. Um. The Tortise and the Hare?

101 Goals in 1001 Days!!

2009-03-08T22:56:00.000-07:00

The Mission: Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria: Tasks must be specific (i.e. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable, or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (i.e. represent some amount of effort on your part).

http://www.dayzeroproject.com/

Tracy’s Final List
101 Goals in 1001 Days
Beginning March 1, 2009

To be completed by November 27, 2011.
**Items to be completed by November 6, 2009—250 days.
Orange means that the goal is in progress.

Creativity & Projects

1. **Write personal letters or thank you cards (at least 5 a month for 2 months). (0/10)
2. Get caught up on scrapbooking.
3. Paint a piece of artwork that will actually hang on the wall/be displayed in our house.
4. Take a pottery class and make something to actually use.
5. Buy a Cricut Expression for scrapbooking.
6. Make jewelry. (0/5)
7. Participate in NaNoWriMo at least once.
8. **Make a puzzle quilt.
9. **Finish bird quilt.
10. Can fresh fruit once.
11. Blog an average of once a week. (2/143)
12. Make our blog into a book.
13. **Build a dog house for Riley.
14. Obtain Canadian citizenship.
15. Make at least five Amy Butler projects that I’ve been meaning to do. (0/5)
16. Send my Christmas cards by the 10th of December every year.

Education & Learning

17. Learn “girl auto maintenance”.
18. Learn how to cut men's hair well.
19. Finish my bachelor’s degree.
20. Read at least one book (outside of school assignments) every month. (0/33)
21. Purchase and complete the Rosetta Stone levels 1-3 for Spanish. (0/3)
22. Take a refresher course in ASL.
23. **Make pomegranate jelly with Grandma.
24. **Get my insurance licenses.
25. Learn how to arrange flowers.
26. Learn how to install tile well enough to install tile in my own home.
27. Take a cooking class.
28. **Learn how to drive a manual car.
29. **Start using Google Reader.
30. Read several from Mom’s Book List and her Why I Believe book.

Environment & Outdoors

31. Start a compost pile.
32. **Use only reusable bags when shopping for 2 months. (0/2)
33. Plant and maintain a vegetable garden.
34. Replace all light bulbs to energy efficient light bulbs.

Family & Friends

35. Attend a professional game of each main sport with Freddy (soccer, basketball, football, hockey, baseball).
36. Get pregnant and have a baby.
37. Make a one month meal plan and stick to it all month long.
38. Cut coupons to save over $50 on a single grocery shopping trip. (Best- 0/50)
39. Write an “8th letter” to Freddy for 12 consecutive months. (0/12)
40. Learn how to proficiently make 10 Ecuadorian dishes. (0/10)
41. Take professional family pictures at least semi-annually. (0/6)
42. Visit with G&G at least twice a month. (0/66)
43. Send birthday cards to close family members on time for two years. (0/35)
44. Have one craft night a month for at least a year. (0/12)
45. **Identify and write down 100+ things that I love about Freddy.
46. Spend quality time with a brother each month to make him feel special.
47. Spend time with Dad recording favorite memories.
48. Complete all of the ideas in our Date Jar from Jess and Mitch.

Health, Fitness, & Appearance

49. Lose 25 lbs. (0/25)
50. **Hike the Grand Canyon with Mom.
51. **Take my vitamins daily for a whole month. (2/31)
52. Run a mile in 10 minutes or less. (Best- 0:00)
53. Increase earring collection by 15 pairs. (0/15)
54. Go on 15 bike rides. (0/15)
55. Not straighten, curl, or blow dry my hair for a month. (0/31)
56. **Ride bikes at the beach.
57. Take a yoga class.
58. **Get 8 hours of sleep every night for a month. (0/31)
59. **Drink 64 oz of water everyday for a month. (0/31)
60. **Don’t eat out for a month. (0/31)
61. Complete a 5K.
62. Get a professional massage at least twice a year. (0/6)
63. Reduce get ready time to 20 minutes for 15 days out of each month for 2 months. (0/30)
64. Buy three adorable hats that I look great in. (0/3)

House & Home

65. **Fold my clothes right when they get out of the dryer for two whole months.
66. **Enroll Riley in puppy training classes and complete the classes.
67. Own my own washer and dryer.
68. Start an herb garden for my kitchen.
69. Organize (or help organize) a Lyons family cookbook with favorite recipes.
70. Spend a weekend preparing 3 meals to freeze at least 6 times. (0/6)

Money, Finances, & Work

71. Buy a house in Southern California.
72. Build an emergency fund of 2 months take-home pay. (0/100%)
73. **Pay off all debt. (0/100%)
74. Make a budget and stick to it for at least a month to start off. (0/31)
75. **Save all of my change for one month. (0/31)

Responsibility & Good Things

76. Complete my two month food storage and keep it current (ie rotating foods, using items in food storage to make sure that we'll actually eat it, etc.)
77. Write my senator about something important to me.
78. Volunteer at least 20 hours somewhere. (0/20)
79. Donate blood or platelets at least 10 times. (0/10)
80. Purchase a fire safe lock box and store all important documents in it.
81. Do the 12 Days of Christmas for someone.

Spirituality

82. Read all of the standard works at least once. (0/5)
83. Attend the temple at least 60 times. (0/60)
84. **Start a spiritual journal. Write in it at least twice a week for two months. (0/16)
85. Say a prayer in front of Freddy's family in Spanish.
86. Learn how to play two opening, two Sacrament, and two closing hymns on the piano. (0/6)
87. Give someone a Book of Mormon.
88. Read the Ensign cover to cover for 12 consecutive months. (0/12)
89. **Be at least ten minutes early to church for three consecutive months (0/12).
90. Invite the missionaries over for dinner once a month once we have a house.
91. 100% Visiting Teaching. (0/33)
92. Have Family Home Evening every week for 12 consecutive weeks. (0/12)

Travel & Places to Go

93. Travel to Ecuador and Peru.
94. Visit 10 new states. (0/10)
95. Go on a Church History Tour.
96. Visit Emily and Jess, Mitch, and the Kitties.
97. Vacation in Hawaii.
98. Go on a cruise with Mom and the girls.
99. Go camping somewhere beyond the backyard at least twice a year. (0/6)
100. Go to a dinner theater.
101. Visit Chami and Alan.

Valentine's Day and Freddy's Birthday!!!

2009-03-06T20:48:00.000-08:00

Ok everyone-- I know, I know... We didn't blog once throughout ALL of February. Don't worry-- things are looking good. I've made it a goal to blog an average of once a week as part of my 101 in 1001 Goals (we'll get to what those are later). Also... we've got some pretty exciting things going on lately... but first we need to catch up!!

1. Valentine's Day. (How did we ever get this behind on blogging??)

Let's see... we started off the day by going and taking professional family pictures for Valentine's Day. After that we drove out to the place that Freddy proposed out in the Hollywood hills. Once it was dark we decided to go Santa Monica Pier and we walked around for awhile.

We saw a guy that was a one man, seventeen instrument band-- that was pretty cool. And he even dedicated the song he sang to us!! It was pretty cute, except that he had such a thick Asian accent that it was hard to understand him.

After we had had our fun there, we stopped by the LA temple-- intending to do a session, but it was too late. Then went out for pizza at this cute little pizzeria around the corner from the temple. It seemed a little shady for some reason... like they didn't know the prices and weren't sure about other things like that, but the pizza was delicious. Freddy got me some potted tulips that were gorgeous, a teddy bear, chocolates, this cool scrapbooking paper organizer, and a jogging suit! I got him some new soccer shorts and I had to give him one of his birthday presents early... LAKER TICKETS!! He loved them-- we'll get to that later. Overall it was the perfect Valentine's Day and we both just had a blast being together all day.

2. Freddy's 24th Birthday (Feb. 18th)!!!
So like I said before, I got Freddy tickets to the Hawks vs. Lakers game on the 17th, the day before his birthday. I ended up giving him the tickets on Valentine's Day so that he would have time to prepare for the game and get excited!! We had such a blast at the game!! It was tons of fun to be there.. Our seats were pretty high up in the stands.. like the top row... but it was STILL FUN!! After being down by more than like 12 pts the Lakers came back and won the game!!

Then on his REAL birthday we went out to dinner with the family and went to his soccer game. Afterwards a few friends and family members came over to have cake and ice cream. I got him some new sunglasses and some Nike pants to match a jacket that he got for his birthday last year. All in all it was tons of fun to celebrate Freddy's birthday down here with our family!

This post is getting a little long, so maybe I'll have to post again tomorrow. Stay tuned for tomorrow's updates!!

Soccer and Camping

2009-01-31T15:58:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday nights we go to institute and then Freddy goes to play soccer at the church... and I go to cheer for him (and the other guys too). So this time I took pictures and wanted to post a few of them. The main problem is that soccer is fast and no one wanted to pretend they were playing, but really posing, or play in slow motion for me. Hm. So, sometimes the pictures are cool-blurry, and other times they're just lame-blurry. You decide. (Oh- and Freddy was wearing a black and blue jersey with white shorts-- just so it's easier to spot him!)

In this one, you can barely see it-- but Freddy's heading the ball in the corner of the cultural hall! Sweet!

There's a blurry Freddy kicking his leg back to get the ball... Pretty impressive, I'd say...
And then, for date night last night, we went camping. In our backyard.

Sooo fun! So yeah, I think I maybe hogged all of the blankets and the sleeping bags because Freddy was freezing all night long and I can't remember being the slightest bit cold. Poor guy. And Riley slept with us! Yay! He's fun.. mostly. Not so much when your really trying to go to bed and he just wants to play... but yeah, once he's asleep, then he's really fun to sleep next to!

I left early in the morning because it was my dad's birthday, so Sarah and I took him to Bob's Big Boy for breakfast. Because of that, the tent didn't get put away until mid-afternoon. When we got to it-- this is how it looked.

It was pretty hard to put everything away since Riley had grown acustomed to having three blankets and two sleeping bags to sleep on. He wasn't very excited to see those go... Bummer. Don't worry, Riley! We'll camp again soon!

Family Pictures and a Day at the Vet!!

2009-01-24T16:44:00.000-08:00

We took some casual family pictures the other day and I thought I would share a few with you. Now, keep in mind that Riley is about 3 1/2 months old. So, yes, he's not very good at smiling for the camera-- but he's a lot better than a 3 1/2 month old child would ever be. In that case, go Riley.

So this was probably the best one of all three of us. It's just not convenient to try and take a picture of yourselves-- reaching out as far away as possible. Yeah, you know you've tried it too. But hiring someone to follow us around so that we can get a good picture just isn't logical. But! I did just buy the coolest tripod at the DOLLAR STORE! Soooo excited. Balancing the camera on anything (a ledge, a wall, a fire hydrant, etc.) and then running to be in the picture was one of Freddy's talents. Really, he's amazing at it. But now-- we've got our handy 5 inch tripod to assist us. Ok-- on to the next one!
Awww look at my handsome boys together... How cuuuute...
The picture before this was wayyy better... or totally would have been. But I forgot to zoom out before I took it, so it was a great shot of like our eyes and noses. Gosh dang. I hate when that happens...
Ohhh, look at Riley... what a cute little puppy!!!
And there he is, worn out after his photo shoot... What a trooper...

And then on Saturday we went to the vet. Riley loves the vet's office. And loves our vet, Dr. Dice, even more. He gets sooooo excited to be there. And it was a nice little check up. She did like a physical on him and it was so nice for us to hear all of the great things about our canine's development. So he gets to go get his rabies shot in like a week or two and he can go out in public then!! Hooray!! We've been waiting and waiting to be able to take him out... but before we had to worry about him getting parvo. He's only days away from being totally protected!!

Let's see... Freddy's team won their indoor game last week! Yay! Within the first, ummm, three minutes they were down 3-0 (Not a good start). But then they came back to win 5-3-- the other team was suuuper lame and kept wanting to fight. If I was the ref, I would give them all yellow cards (which is the indoor soccer equivalent of a red card in real soccer) for all their foul, foul language. But regardless, go our team. They play Wednesday nights and up until now the games have started at 9:00 or even 9:30! Not cool, since so many people are married and some even have little kids and we want to go to bed earlier... but I think they'll switch our team to start at like 7ish from now on... hopefully anyway...

Saturday Fun

2009-01-17T13:38:00.000-08:00

I'm so productive today. Freddy is at a conference in Long Beach today that was supposed to be over at 12pm, but actually goes until like 2pm, so I've had so much time to get things done. Yay!

I've been keeping track of things that I wanted to blog about and so now I'll unload all of my ideas.

1. First- I just wanted to add a visual image of the shirt that I got for Christmas, so this is it.

2. Second on the list, is something that I really thought was awesome. It's a chocolate bar that Stephanie gave to me (and it was suuuper good). But the packaging is my favorite. You might not be able to tell (my camera wouldn't focus like I wanted it to) but this is a Marital Bliss Bar. 5o% Hers, in pink, and 50% His, in black. Love it!

3. And finally, something that I thought of while browsing the weekly grocery store ads this past week. I've always found it funny that the advertisements come out the day before the sales for that week begin. It reminds me of that tv show, Early Edition. If you're not familiar with that one, this guy always gets tomorrow's newpaper today. Basically he has the opportunity to go around stopping bad things from happening and becoming tomorrow's news. As he saves people, the stories disappear from the paper. Well, sometimes when I get these advertisements that don't start until tomorrow, I feel like the guy in Early Edition. I feel like I know the future and other people don't. I feel like I should be standing by the frozen peas to prevent everyone from paying $2.99 when tomorrow they'll only be 99 cents each or something. Or maybe doing half my shopping today and the other half tomorrow, that way I can take advantage of ALL the sales! How wonderful.