Mini me's and now....?

Many people have told us that Nicholas is a little mini Carlos and Eliza is a mini Marci. Here are some pictures of the us when we were about the kids age.

The question has always been "Ok now you have one of each of you, what is the NEXT one going to look like?" Well we will soon find out in February! I am 18 weeks along and we will find out what we are having on Wednesday. We can't wait to see if it will be a boy with blue eyes and light hair, or maybe a girl with brown eyes and dark hair...? Too bad ultrasounds can't be in color!

Happy 4th Birthday Nico!

This past Thursday Nicholas turned 4 years old! I can't believe he is getting so big. He was so excited all week for his pirate party. At pre-school he got to bring the cookies he decorated for snack time. Then he went to lunch with his Grandpa and Nana.

Everyone had pirate bandannas and eye patches so we could all play pirates. We had musical chairs to the "Pirate's Life for Me" song, then had a sword fight with long pretzels and fished for pretzels with a pirate hook.

Then we played pin the parrot on the pirate. Carlos drew this pirate free hand- great job Amor!

Finally we had a treasure hunt and filled our candy bags even more with the pinata.

Nicholas with his pirate ship cake

We love you Nicholas and are so glad for all the joy and excitement you bring to our family!

Eliza's Birthday

Eliza turned 2 on June 18th. I was going to post about Nico's birthday, but I figured I still had not done Eliza's birthday, so I will do hers first.

It was so fun for Eliza to have her friends come over for her party and she especially loved the pinata and dancing.

Eliza is such a sweet girl. Even with all the things her big brother does to her she never does anything back to him. She loves to play "mom" and play with her big brother.

Education Week

Ok I am finally back! I have a lot of catching up to do so here goes!

Last month I went up to Utah for Education Week. I arrived on Sat and that night my brother Danny and sister Stephanie and my parents went to Sundance to watch the play "A mid summer nights dream" We were all very tired and not really into the play, so we left at intermission. We still had a great time. Stephanie and I were playing with my mom's phone and laughing at the posts on "seriously so blessed" blog. Maybe that's why we couldn't really figure out the play.

Sunday we went to hear Steph teach a RS lesson and then Danny took us to the MTC to the call center where we made some follow up calls to people who had received videos like "The lamb of God" in the mail. I even made some calls in Spanish! It was so cool.

Monday Mom and I started classes. We were serious about learning all we could at education week and were there everyday from at least 8am-5pm. Tuesday I met up with Nicky and Terese and her sister Holly. We had a great time attending classes and walking around campus.

Thursday we went up to Anna's to celebrate her 30th birthday a little early. Even Melanie flew up for the occasion! It was so fun to be all together!


Thanks again to Carlos and his mom, Arlene, for watching to kids and taking care of everything while I was gone. You guys are the best!

Finger

Labor Day weekend we planned on spending a nice quite time at home doing some fun activities with the kids. We were getting in the car to go to the Zoo and I turned around and Eliza's finger was caught in the door jam of the heavy door to the garage. When I opened the door and got her hand out I knew it was serious. ***WARNING*** If you don't like to hear about gross stuff STOP READING- When I looked down I saw the top part of her finger hanging by a thread. It was hurting her so bad she was trying to grab at it and pull it off. Right away we knew we had to leave. Just before the door shut on her finger the garage door spring broke. Carlos and I both tried frantically to get the garage door to release and open, but with no luck. Carlos said for us to just go in his car. So we ran out the front door and jumped in the car. We arrived at the urgent care by our house and Eliza was in so much pain she wouldn't even let me hold her and was screaming on the floor. They got us back and told us they wouldn't be able to fix it there, but that we should got to Scottsdale where they have a hand specialist on call in case she needs it. They did give her something for the pain there and a few minutes later and we were on our way. After a while in the ER they told us they would stich her finger back on. After the pain medication she was doing much better and was so brave. They had to reposition her finger nail back on and sew the sides of her finger back together. After that we went and got some lunch and she was even dancing to the music. After several other doctors appointments we found out she did chip a piece of her bone in the accident, but it should be fine. Her finger seems to be healing well and a few months from now we hope you won't even be able to tell.


Thank you to Arlene for watching Nico while we went to the hospital, for dad for bringing a much needed pacifire to the urgent care, and mom for taking us to the hospital and staying with us, and for the support and prayers of everyone.

Slip n' Slide!

According to Target they must think summer is coming to a close because a few weeks ago they had all their swimming and summer stuff half off! I couldn't resist this slip n' slide for $5!


Joey, Jason, and Nico played on it for about an hour and a half!


What cute boys!

Wasn't everyday supposed to be like this?

Two weeks ago Carlos and I were both very busy with work and I felt like the kids were getting a little bored. So we decided to have a fun Friday and headed to Scottsdale. First we went to Penzey's (a great spice store) and as Melissa described it had a "party for our noses." Then as we were heading to the mall we saw Sprinkles and decided to have a party for our mouths too!

They were delicious! I highly recommend the red velvet flavor.

Then we went to Build-A-Bear Workshop and the kids had a great time picking out a new friend. Nicholas chose a dog and Eliza picked a cute teddy bear. None of us had ever been so it was a great new experience. Then we headed to the play area for a while, got some lunch, and finished off at the pet shop. As I was driving home I remember thinking when I was younger that this is how everyday would be when I had kids. Too bad it feels like these kind of days are so few and far between!

Last week Eliza woke up early and decided she wanted to get going. I was in the kitchen and she walked in with all of this stuff and announced, "I'm ready!" This was about 6:45am. What a funny kid.

It was last Tuesday and I was trying to think of something fun we could do while it was still summer and we could be a little more flexible with bedtimes. I found out the the drive-inn movies were only $4 per person on Tuesdays and that the kids were free. So we tried out Carlos' new work van and took out the back seat so we would have a place to sit and watch the movie. We saw "Journey to the center of the Earth" Not the greatest movie, but the kids had fun. *Just a caution if you want to try this- it was very hot! For some reason I thought it would cool down a little at night, but inside the car with no breeze it got pretty warm!

Parade

Here is Nico and Erick, Nico's cousin, marching to the band at the parade.


Here are a few seconds of the amazing fireworks show.