AJ's Prayer

Heavenly Father,

Please bless Mommy and Papi and Isabel

and bless Grandma and Grandmpa

and bless Ada (Alexandria) and me

and bless DJ

and bless that we can see Grandma and Grandpa and Whitney

and bless that we can go to Disneyland

and bless that Alexandria can be good

and bless Alexandria to go to school

and bless . . . . . . .(something not understandable)

and bless that we can play with our toys

and bless . . . . . .

and bless that we don't break DJ's helicopter

and bless that we don't break my car

and bless . . . . . .(another line I didn't understand)

and bless that we clean up the toys

and bless . . . . . . (again didn't understand)

and bless that we can go to church

and bless that we be safe

and bless . . . . . .

and bless that we go, that we go, that we go (DJ whispers,"to where?") where Mommy can see us

and bless that we don't get lost

and bless that we have sleep tonight

and bless . . . . .

and bless . . . . .

and bless . . . . .

That's all I remember of his five minute prayer. He sounded so sincere but I think it was just a ploy to avoid going to sleep. ;)

Finally something blog worthy!

I haven't blogged in so long I think I almost forgot how. We've just been busy with Papi home. As you can see from my last post he gets home and our house becomes a disaster area so we've been running around trying to get stuff done before he leaves. But finally something blog worthy happened . . . . .

Alexandria lost her front tooth! It's been loose for awhile but she finally let Grandma pop it out after she bumped her mouth and her tooth just kept bleeding. She's holds on to her loose teeth for as long as possible. I don't think she likes being toothless.

And here's another picture that's just a fun one to post. Jordan got a new four wheeler for Christmas and they've been "breaking it in" around the neighborhood.

So just a few more days and things should settle down and get back to normal. Until then . . . .

Knock Down!

So we've never really liked the brick fireplace in our house. I've always been afraid that the kids would hit their head on the hearth especially when they were learning how to walk. During Christmas I had it covered with a white blanket in an attempt to make it look like snow. We've always talked about changing it but have never got around to it. Sunday night Dionys decides to hit it with the hammer to see if the bricks come loose at all. He tapped the corner and nothing happened. I went and tried to lift the brick and with my super human strength it just popped right off. So all the kids started taking the bricks off and we tore it down. It was actually very dirty! Inside the hearth there were broken bricks, dirt and garbage (cigarette butts, straws, paper, etc.). We even found an old Pepsi bottle cap. We do like it without the hearth though. It kind of gives us more space in the room. Now we need an idea of how to do our fireplace. We like traditional/modern and as cheap as possible. It's not like we were planning to take it down now it just kind of happened.




















Luckily, I kind of have a before shot from two years ago right after we moved in. I took a picture to show Dionys our new home because he wasn't here when we moved. Here's the after too. Obviously the before looks better but I'm posting the after so you can all help me with some ideas.




















And here's my cuties working hard to clean up all the dirt that was trapped in our hearth. It filled up two garbage cans and we still have more waiting to be thrown away.

Make Your Own Valentine's Day Card

I got this idea from another blog. Check it out here. Thanks ONEHM! I'm not a great photographer I just used my regular digital camera but the idea still worked. Alexandria and I had a good time making them and I think they turned out really cute.

Here's the picture we took and here's the final product.

Fitness Friday - Warm Up!

Trying to lose weight faster? Warming up first can help you burn more calories during your workout. It will make your muscles more pliable and also increase the range of motion so you actually end up using more muscle fibers! Choose a warm-up that uses all of you muscles, not just your legs. Something like walking while pumping your arms back and forth would be great.

In Loving Memory . . .

We just got back from a quick trip to Utah. My cousin, Austin, was in a bad skating accident and passed away Sunday, January 27, 2008. He has three kids and an awesome wife. I have lots of memories about Austin because we used to play together when we were kids. One of my favorites was when I was about 5 years old. I was being babysat by my other cousin, Marchell. There was this boy in our neighborhood that I was completely scared of and somehow he got in our house. I remember sitting on a chair in our kitchen and he was leaning over the chair trying to talk to me. I remember yelling at him to go away and he wouldn't. Remember those wooden shoes, clogs I think they were called? I had some and I was wearing them. I remember kicking my shoes at him and he wouldn't go away. Then I saw in the doorway of our kitchen Austin was standing there with a big grin on his face. I started to smile the kid noticed, turned around, saw Austin and I remember very distinctly the kid yelling, "oh crap!" as he bolted out of our house. Austin chased him away, we laughed and everything was good. He was always watching out for me. We soon moved out of Utah and I really only got to see him at family get togethers but he was always fun and always had a ton of cousins following him around. His funeral was really good. He was in the National Guard and very respected so he got a helicopter fly over at his burial site. That was awesome! There were a lot of people there. You can look at some of the other people who were blessed enough to know Austin and read what they say here, here, and here. He was a great guy, very fun and we will definately miss him.

We did try to make the best of our trip though. Isabel got to see snow for the very first time. She wasn't a big fan. I think it was a little too cold for her.

Alexandria got to build a snowman with Aunt Whitney and a little help from me. That was a big highlight for her. Whitney and Juan were super nice to let us stay with them in Provo while we were there. (I hope we didn't trash your place too much Whit.) My kids loved staying with them. DJ is even asking to drive back to Aunt Whitney's.

We were planning on coming home on Sunday but it was snowing pretty bad so we decided to stay. Instead we drove up to Salt Lake and went to the Visitor's Center and saw the Temple. It's Alexandria's favorite so I was glad we were able to stay longer. Plus, we got to spend more time with Adam, Fabiane, Carter and Whitney.

And this picture I had to post because Adam thought it was a little girly to wear his baby in a sling but I think he looks great! What a good dad!

We got home late Monday night. The kids did awesome on the drive. It was long but they watched a lot of movies and we made it with no big disasters. It's good to be home but I really miss the snow.

Fitness Friday - Need a reason?

Any guesses as to what can contribute to all of the following ailments?

aneurysm, angina, atherosclerosis, back pain, cardiovascular disease, colorectal cancer, coronary heart disease, depression, diabetes, heat attack, heart blockage, heart disease, hemorrhoids, hypertension (high blood pressure), kidney stones, obesity, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis

If you guessed eating a high fat diet, you’re wrong!
If you guessed having high cholesterol, you’re wrong!
If you guessed physical inactivity, you’re RIGHT! Not moving enough can put you at risk for all of those problems. Not to mention by being physically inactive you increase your risk for cancers of the colon, prostate, uterine lining (endometrium) and breast. Did you know that 1 of every 5 deaths of people 35 and older are attributed to a lack of physical activity? By not moving you are putting your own body at risk for a painful future.

The human body is designed to move around. And by moving the muscles, ligaments and limbs, you actually massage the tissues and organs of the body, bringing them oxygen and enhancing their flexibility. You also move lymph fluid around the body, and lymph must be moved through physical activity alone since there is no "lymph heart" to circulate lymph fluid. (In other words, your heart pumps your blood even if you're sitting in a chair. But there's nothing to pump your lymph fluid other than sloshing your body around through regular movement.)

The good news is that studies show that it doesn't take an enormous amount of physical exercise to achieve health-enhancing results. A mere 30 minutes a day of walking, swimming, jogging, biking, dancing with your kids, rocking out while cleaning your house or other cardiovascular exercise can have astounding positive health effects.
There is no surgical procedure or pill that can create the health that your body would create on its own when you engage in regular physical exercise. So get out there and MOVE!

New Mural

This is the mural I just finished in Alexandria's room. We finally decided to do a castle and a mermaid. The castle is huge. It couldn't even all fit in the picture. I was putting the finishing touches on last night and Alexandria was so excited . . . it was like Christmas all over. She kept coming in and wanting to play. That's why I love doing it. The kids love it. You can't tell from the picture but the roof tops sparkle and the little stars glow in the dark.

I love doing interactive things with my murals like on this one I added boxes to give her little balconies for her to play with her Barbie dolls. Some of her bigger dolls fit too.

Then there was the whole mermaid issue. Alexandria had to have a mermaid by the castle. Actually, if it were completely up to her she probably would have preferred all mermaids. I'm not too sure of my mermaid ability though so I agreed to do one mermaid next to the castle but behind the door just in case it didn't turn out great. So that's what we did. Here's the mermaid a little closer. She turned out okay but I'm still thinking it was smart to put her behind the door.

Now I've run out of kid spaces to paint in our house so I guess it's time to do our room. What theme would we like? hmmm . . .You can see some of my other mural work from our home here.

Fitness Friday - Flat Abs Part II

Okay so last week was the exercises for flat abs, this week it's a few extra tricks to help trim those inches.



1. Eat more! Yep, it's true. But it has to be the good high fiber, good fat foods. Women to consume 400 more calories per day and eat healthier foods are two and a half times less likely to develop abdominal obesity than women who take in fewer calories but consume more saturated fat and less fiber. So eat! Good stuff.



2. Lots of Vitamin C! Foods rich in vitamin C not only help your immune system but also help fight ab flab. Vitamin C is found in a lot of fruits and vegetables like, citrus fruits, broccoli, tomatoes and peppers to name a few. Or add a twist of lemon to your water.



3. Sleep! Not much is known about sleep yet but research is uncovering more and more about the benefits of sleep. One of those benefits is controlling hormone levels that add to increased waist size. So sleep in!

Working on New Year's Res

My word for the year is organization. We have a huge storage room / pantry area so I took it on. I tackled my first project towards organization and here is the before and after.

That was the pantry. It's so embarrassing.

That's the back pantry. Even worse. Now, it's not as pretty as it could be but it works and I feel 100 times better. I trashed so much junk! I filled the recycle garbage can once and I'm waiting to empty it so I can fill it again. And look Papi you have places for your stuff too, so NO messes when you get home. Thanks. Love ya!