Randomness

We are going to my parents home soon to spend christmas and new years, and also their 25th wedding anniversary, which has me thinking how awesome it is that my parents are still together and I am so lucky and grateful for that.
Being married and seeing the good and bad marriage can bring, it takes LOTS AND LOTS of work to make a marriage work, and although love is the main foundation to a marriage , love isn't going to "carry you through" like a lot of love songs say.

Andrew is so funny nowadays, he loves to dance, to every single beat and song. its so funny.
He is very outgoing once he gets comfortable he will be sitting on your lap if he likes you, and he loves the ladies. seriously anywhere we go he picks a pretty girl and sits with her... lord help me.

Hubs bought us a "family present" which is an xbox 360 with kinect! we have been having so much fun dancing to dance central and its quite a work out, the hubs and I SWEAT like crazy just playing that game! it should keep us entertained throughout this crazy winter.

I stilll have to finish laundry, packing, and a doctors appointment today. fun fun.

A day in the snow

Last week there was the first real snow fall of the year, as in snow stayed on the ground long enough.
Andrew looked out the window in awe of this new white thing falling from the sky, after all it was his first snow fall!
needless to say we didn't go out and enjoy it like you would have thought, we stayed home.
But today it snowed, and after church my hubs took andrew out to "play" in the snow.
My husband is from florida. Sooo you can imagine how much fun he was having * none* and then andrew didn't like it either, but he was brave and took some photos with us :)

Cherry blossom tree inspired nails

If there is one "beauty" type thing I enjoy doing is nails.
I love doing nails.

I have just been doing my nails since I was 9. I can't remember a time when I didn't do my nails.
Now that I am a mommy, and aside my regular mommy attire of pj pants and baggy shirts on an almost daily basis, my nails and occasionally my makeup are my only beauty outlet !

So here is my cherry blossom nails i did the other day!

Christmas seems to be creeping up to fast! truth is every night for the last week i've been drinking hot chocolate by my christmas tree just enjoying the cold nights.

BUT after all the holidays and such come new year resolutions and then valentines day, which i love,
but to be honest I HATED it when i was a teenager, probably for the same reasons every single teenage girl does, the lack of male attention on that day.
But now i have a permanent man in ma life ;) and he always follows through with something fun :)

A nice surprise!

No I'm not pregnant :op I can't afford that right now sadly :(.
BUT! I had a wonderful surprise in the mail today!
I've been blogging for about a year and I see bloggy friends send other friends things , and I thought how cool that would be!
Well I got something in the mail today from one of my bloggy friends!
She was suppose to send me a yo-gabba gabba CD * since we love them* and I got a few more surprises :)
Thanks so much chica!

See? The peppermint bark is AMAZING, and the ornaments match my tree perfectly!

Andrew has been sick this week, with a runny nose, that now turns into a stuffy nose which means 50 % of the day he's grumpy. blah.

But he is growing up so fast and is so cute. He says "woof woof" to almost all animals still, he's still not  saying specific words but def making LOTs of noises and it seems more inclined to spanish sounds, its weird but there are certain sounds that come from the spanish language, we'll see what happens!

Normality and christmas time !

I am so happy to be in my home home.
I love my parents home, but since having to move to a smaller house it just seems crowded and I anxiously wait to go back home.
We had a wonderful vegan thanksgiving, it was fine I did smell the turkey but just kept STRONG! haha.
Anyways I broke down crying like a baby when we did a family circle "what we are thankfulness" time.
I just broke down due to my bffs mom struggling through cancer, and a new church member who I have known all my life just was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer. I mean it was too much, I just felt EXTREMELY blessed beyond what I think I deserve . Anyways my husband said some amazing things about me, and I think its important to hear those things, sometimes through the business of the the week and life in general we don't have time to remind our partners how much we appreciate them.

We got home I unpacked * now i have like 3 loads of laundry again* and We put up our christmas tree right away. My husband thinks I'm crazy but Im glad he doesn't say anything and actually helped me put up things this year :)

Remembering My blessings.

Sometimes its so so easy to forget daily blessings.

The fact that I have a roof over my head.

Food to feed my family.

My own family

Generally good health in my family.

I forget those things. 

I see my BFF suffer with her mom and her cancer and it breaks my heart. Sometimes i'm speechless all i can do it hug her.

Today during our mom time at church we had a massage therapist come in and show us baby massage and she shared the importance of touch.

And she talked about Gods amazing touch, how he healed, and i swear i felt so close like Jesus was holding my hand.

We were talking about parenting the difficulties and the challenges but all we can do it grab onto Jesus, thats when our FAITH is truly challenged. 

So I pray God gives me the strength and remind me that he is holding my hand, my husbands hand and my sons hand as we travel through the journey of being parents together. 

 

18 months

Dear Andrew,'

Today you are  18 months.
A full grown toddler. Adorable and funny, silly but serious at times.
Your laugh fills my heart, and your smile literally melts any problem I have away.
Just to hold you everyday is enough for me.
You are a fun little man these days.
You love to run outside. You love LOVE to be chased around !
You aren't saying any specific words but you "talk" ALLL Day long
You make my heart happy.
You love yo gabba gabba and you like to dance (ha).
 You love to play on top of us and throw your self twirl and laugh.
You pretty much eat everything we eat, sometimes there are issues at eating times but for the most part you do pretty well :).
You love to sit and "read" and you continue to amaze me how long you can sit on the floor and pretend to do that.
You know how to "pray" mommy and daddy have taught you to hold your hands and bow your head, and you do that. We lower our voice when we pray and you do the same and whisper gibberish as we pray as well.
You are so funny little bunny.
You love animals and smile at them.
You love daddy and run to him when we go visit him at school.
You love me, your mom, and you grab my face and look at me, then hug me... I want to cry sometimes with the sweetness that is.
I just forget your growing, but your still small and a baby.
I need you to be loved and carried still! I'm going to soak up all the "baby" left in you.

So my sweet little babes, you continue to be the joy in my life. You are pure and innocent happy and you remind me of God's love everyday. That special gift God gave me. Through you I learn more and more about love and God's love for his children!

Te amo

your mommy :)

From a meat eater to a wanna be vegan

* I am by no means bashing anyone who eats meat or anything like that! this is my personal journey and story!


I grew up eating meat, in fact LOTS of meat.
When I look back there was lots of food issues as a child. I was rewarded with food, stuff of that nature.
I think now that my family ate a lot of red meat. We never ate pork or any sort of sea food, but chicken and beef were our main staple.
I think as a culture if there wasn't a piece of meat with the meal then there was no meal.
I then got sick at 12 from gastroenteritis from what I assume was a burger from McDonalds.
I had lots of tummy aches as a child.
Anyways. Then my mom got diagnosed with type 2 diabetes . She cut out ALL meat at that point.
Then we slowly introduced chicken again, but would not eat red meat at home.
If we went to BBQ's or other peoples home then we would consume red meat. I mean BBQ flank steak is or was to me so good!
As a religion in whole we preach a vegetarian life style. We don't say its a MUST but its a very strong point in our religion.
Then I was 16 and went to boarding school, where all the food was vegetarian. So I was there for 2 years! almost all year round sans meat, which was fine! I actually preferred a meat substitute instead of meat. During those years I would NOT eat real hot dogs just the "fake" ones, and still at home only chicken or fish was being made, and I would go home once a month!.

After boarding school I went to college where they also only served a vegetarian menu. It was an easy transition from high school to college. I would still eat meat if my friends and I went out to eat, and it would mostly be chicken.
My freshman year whenever I went home I would eat beef at a BBQ, I just couldn't resist. Granted I pretty much felt like crap after eating it and my stomach would literally feel horrible, because the last 3 years I was mainly a veggie.
Then a spent the night at a friends house and we went to outback steakhouse. *this is a crucial story for my cutting red meat COMPLETELY*
Clearly we are at steak house and the chicken options were not appetizing for me at all, and I dont like fish.
So I ordered a burger.
Biggest mistake of my life.
I didn't sleep that night. My stomach was on fire, I couldn't handle it. I almost died that night.
I had lost my "tolerance" to beef.
That night I decided to NEVER eat red meat again.
I'm going on year 7 sans red meat.
Chicken was still my go to when out to eat.
I loved that chicken let me tell you.
My Sophomore year I met my now husband.
When we were friends he was a vegan.
I was so impressed with him because honestly HOW COULD I LIVE WITHOUT ICECREAM>!!!#*$)*#
But I admired that about him.
He was just starting so it was hard for him. Plus his freaky fast metabolism he decided to just stay a vegetarian.
Then we fell in love and got married you can read our love story posts here and here and here

Andrew and I had clearly discussed that we were going to be vegetarians and raise our children that way. I was totally fine with it. He also said I can do whatever I'd like * i still liked to eat chicken when eating out* but he would prefer I not bring meat into out home. I agreed. I loved that in fact!.

We got married and andrew did NOT drink milk.
I loved me some silk soy anyways so that was not an issue.
One thing I loved that my husband wasn't a HUGE fan of was eggs.
I loved them and he really didn't eat them, and if he did they would have to be scrabbled to the point of almost being burned haha.
So that was our first unofficial step to becoming vegan we didn't eat eggs or drink milk.

I could NOT let go of the chicken. I mean when we would go home thats all my family made!

So how did we decide to go vegan?
Well my husband came home from class and he said "we need to try to be vegan". I was scared. No lie.
I was like " oh yeah why?"
He was like i just watched "forks over knifes"*on netflix* and i want to try to be vegan.
I said "yes babe" i will jump on this vegan train with you.

So now I will not eat chicken if it kills me, and we have officially said goodbye to cheese and any animal product.

This journey is interesting but I am loving it. A handfuls of raw almonds does me better and keeps me more energized than a cup of coffee, and perhaps my allergies will improve sans dairy products? who knows.
Its still new but I thank GOD we live 3 min from a healthy market in which there is EVERYTHING in the world to be vegan.

My journey is still continuing and soon i'll be able to not "miss" the cheese.

The small stuff

We have this kind of open field out in our back yard, we do share it with 6 other apartment but none of them have kids so I'll take andrew out to run around. He loves going outside, a lot, and I wish i could take him out more, im so scared of the crazy weather coming up, and the cabin fever, and oy. But today was such a nice breezy day, more like extremely windy but it was warm, warm enough for us to go out.
Andrew is so cute.
I can't handle his new things, his expressions, the way he plays, loves to climb on us. Looks at me and starts babbling and smiling like he is trying to tell me a secret and laughs. I want him to be this way forever.

Why does time fly so fast, why do i feel like i can't remember his newborn days, does God do this intentionally so we can reproduce and not remember the very sleepless nights? But I am so enjoying my son right now, I want to give him my all, even if toodlerhood is hard and andrew has his moments throughout the day, I love every moment with him.

And I am obsessed with animal hats. I don't have a girl so i can't deck my son out with tights and stuff, so i go for all animal things.
My son has been a puppy and now my mom bought him this adorable bear hat, I'm thinking the next one is this moose from target... i love it.. my husband on the other hand thinks its "over the top", but he is only going to let me dress him with what I want for so long right? so I will take all the opportunities for him to be my little puppy, bear, bunny... you get the point :)

A message through a massage.

My husband has insurance through his current job/school .
And there is an amazing lady who give you 30 free massages through this particular insurance a year.
Yes i know i almost died when I heard i can get massages for free.
Thats when i met her. A sweet older lady. Andrew came to drop me off with the baby and she thought Andrew(my son) was so cute. He of course smiled and laughed with her.
She was sweet. Told me to press this button when i was ready and she'd come in.
She then asked if she may pray with me before our massage, i said "of course"!
Odd for most massage therapist, but for the area we live in its not unusual to find christian professionals, she also knew my husband was in the seminary.
She then prayed , and said something that no one has ever prayed for us as parents, that " mommy and daddy love each other and he sees our love". I almost couldn't talk. I don't know what it was about the sentence, or was it in her voice, but she kept talking about it, saying " isn't that your biggest desire, that you can provide a happy family for your child", and i said " yes, yes it is".
*ps. my back was horrible she said i need massage thearpy like WHOA, well she didn't say "whoa" but  I am cause my back was/is really bad.

I've gone to 5 sessions and she is so sweet, constantly prays for me and my family and during one conversation she told me to enjoy  my son as much as I can, and then she told me she had lost her 2 sons both in car accidents 7 years apart. My heart broke, but she had a calm way of talking about it, just her desire to see her sons in heaven one day.

She always has something amazing to say after every massage, I swear I look forward to her massage cause its a 2 for 1 deal my daily dose of prayer and a massage.

Needless to say i hugged my baby as soon as I got home, and realized through the rough times the cranky pants moments, he shows me love, that love that God can only give.
I am not perfect yet my son loves me no matter what.

The last bit of fall

I love fall.
fall is when my birthday falls on, its also when i found out i was pregnant. and I can't believe 2 years have passed since I freaked the heck out found out i was pregnant.!
Anyways.
the last few days there was some "nice" weather and the evening was cool but had some warm air.
So i took andrew out back for a walk .
and he looked so big, like a "real boy"  hahaha  a la Pinocchio.
But seriously, he was adorable and  held my hand, pointed at birds, laughed at the big kids playing across the street, sigh, he was so funny.
He like to pretend he laughs with everyone else and its hilarious, cause he has no idea, he just laughs like he is part of the conversation.
 My baby boy.

i hope he wants to hold my hand for a little longer :).

Sunday night randoms

it was such a nice day today, and by nice i mean 60 degrees.
I am trying to absorb all that i can of "nice" weather before the great winter strikes.

Andrew is so funny these days, he is starting to "sing" along with us when we sing at church and when i sing at home.
He loves Adele, i mean LOVES

Its been nice to find a group of married ladies around here. Some of them have kids others don't.
The ones that have kids i see at Mommy time at the church on tuesdays and the ones without kids we have girls nights either watching an episode of Pan Am and eating popcorn or having a nail/make up night.
I decided to do all the nail designs i know to show the girls if they wanted me to do something like that on them

Yeah i looked pretty crazy running around with all these different designs, but it was fun.

Oh and target received some Elf nail polishes and they are to die for.

I bought them and I am obsessed.

As you can tell nails, doing nails, nail polish is my little thing.

happy sunday chicas!

randoms

Its cold and rainy here, and you know what I kinda like it that way... for now until i start complaining about the cold in a few weeks, don't mind me.
Bed time has been going well for us that last few months.
Something new that we started doing with the baby is reading a story and praying with him.
I mean we would do this with him but now he looks at us and does what we do. Which is SO cute.
he will fold his hands and bow his head and start "praying" with us... which is more of a whisper since we lower our voices when we pray its so stinking cute.
Also he LOVES to put on shoes, not his but anyone elses. Mostly my husbands shoes and he will walk around in them. Seeing as my husbands shoes are 10x his size its quite funny to see him in those shoes.

because i'm a month late... my accent vlog

Okay guys so here is my accent vlog, also i realized i am sick so my voice sounds more nasaly than it is..

ha. so enjoy

The instructions are to say these words:

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught
And answer these questions:
•What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
•What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
•What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
•What do you call gym shoes?
•What do you say to address a group of people?
•What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
•What do you call your grandparents?
•What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
•What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
•What is the thing you change the TV channel with

What is the most amazing thing you have ever seen?

I was hanging out with my BFF house tonight and we were watching tv when a commercial came up and it ask " what is the greatest thing you have ever seen".
For a moment, i thought ... i haven't seen anything "great".
I haven't been to the grand canyon, or scuba dived in the great barrier reef.
I haven't seen "real" mountains, or seen Alaska through a cruise ship.
But then I turned to my friend and said " my son is the most amazing thing I've ever seen"
He is.

Just to think that something made with so much love was growing inside me was in front of me for the first time? That my friends is the greatest thing I have ever seen, and I get to see everyday, grow and learn in front of me.

Tuesday tidbits.

- I have started to drink some coffee. just some. maybe 3 times a week. and this morning I didn't have any and i felt like i needed it... which is what i DID not want.
- I want a new camera so bad. you know one of those 800 dollar cameras.. but alas our budget says that or rent and food... hmm i wonder what will win.
- My son is a toddler doing toddler things.
-  I wish he would say more words, any at all... hopefully in the near future he will burst out in spanish or english... poor child  he hears both so much he is so confused, I would be.
- I need to do better in communicating with my long distance friends. I do miss them.
- With that, I wish I could go see them.
-  I am not ready for another child... but when is there a good time?..never.. but now is bad.
- I want to go to a pumpkin patch so bad

The young mom discrimination

I became a mom at 22.
Thus making me a "young mom". This is a good and a "bad" thing. and when I say "bad" its only because other people judge me by my looks.
Yes I do look young, and perhaps I get mistaken for a 16 (especially when I wear my glasses and a hoodie) and I see the pity in other people's face.
You young moms might know what I am talking about.
That "oh poor girl ruined her life and had a baby"..
Or " she is a baby having a baby"
I hate those looks. I hate being looked and and "discriminated" because I look young.
I felt that way in our sabbath school, where most parents were in their late 30's early 40's and I knew they thought I had no idea how to take care of my child.
Most people think I want to go out every night, and have had people tell me that life changes with a child and I know your "young" and it will be hard.
Seriously? it hurts when people that KNOW ME might mention something like that.

The other day I was walking on campus to meet my husband from class and an older mother, wife of one of the professors here on campus stopped me to tell me about a mommy and me group at the church on tuesdays.
She could have just said that and walk away, instead she made sure to tell me " its not like a free babysitting thing where you can drop your kid off and leave"... I think I was so shocked I wasn't sure what to say.
I am a stay at home mom, I dedicate all my days to my child, and yes some people might think "this girl wasted her 20's by having a child", and that hurts me. It also makes me mad that people judge young moms thinking they know better. I'm pretty sure young or older having a child is a learning experience for  20's,30's or 40's moms. We can learn things from each other, give each other tips on things that work for each other.. ect..
One thing I might look forward to from being a young mom is being 40 and my son in college and finally getting to enjoy some time with my husband. Also empty nest syndrome will hit real hard and I will get 3 dogs  :).
Have you been through " young mom discrimination?"

My birthday weekend

This past weekend I went home to celebrate my birthday with my family. I love being around all these people that I love.
My grandma made my favorite Ecuadorian food, and I think our family would fall apart without her.
She is like my second mom in every sense of the word.
All my aunts and uncles were there and it felt nice to just be there and sit till 2 am talking drinking coffee.
Sometimes I forget the importance of having a support system, and times like this I am thankful for living where I am now, only 2 hours away when I can call and count on my family.