Some old pics

My dad and my brother

My brother and I

At the park

In the middle of no- where with my mom.

My grandparents, my mom, my aunt and my cousins. 

Me at 6ish

My b-day cake. 4th b-day

I found these old pics on my I-pod and made a post so I won't loose them, I don't have too many pics of me as a kid.

The prophets really know what they're talking about.

“Sadly, the effects of this great pollution are perhaps most evident in the mass media, films, television, and popular music. Of this, Senator Robert D. Byrd said, ‘If we in this nation continue to sow the images of murder, violence, drug abuse, … perversion, [and] pornography … before the eyes of millions of children, year after year and day after day, we should not be surprised if the foundations of our society rot away as if from leprosy’ (in Michael Medved, Hollywood vs. America [New York: Harper Perennial, 1992], p. 194).
“… In most areas of the mass media there seems to be a declaration of war against almost everything the majority treasures most: the family, religion, and patriotism. Marriage is degraded, while premarital and extramarital relations are encouraged and glamorized. Profanity and the foulest of vulgar gutter language bombard the ears of all who listen. … Human life itself is trivialized by the constant barrage of violence and killings” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1993, 12; or Ensign, Nov. 1993, 11). (Book of Mormon Student Manual, Chapter 49: Mormon 7–9)

While doing scripture study together(which doesn't happen all the often), Francisco and I came across this quote in the institute Book of Mormon manual. This was said in 1992 and 1993! Over 10 years ago, they said TV was bad. I'm pretty sure it is way worse now and I am scared to watch that prophesy come to pass. The media can be so damaging and we need to be so careful with what we let out children and our selves see and watch! I absolutely believe every word of what is said here. Please think twice about what you are watching and have the courage to turn it off!

Summer, Pirates, Sam, Garden, Yoga

We have had such a great summer so far!

Francisco started  summer clinic where he actually gets to have real patients and do real dental work on them! He says it is stressful but he likes it. It is nice that he never has to come home and do home work! Father's Day was pretty laid back. I asked him what he wanted and he said nothing... uhh. okay. So, honestly we didn't do much. but I still think he had a nice day. The boys made salt dough hand prints and food prints for him. Luke was very proud of his masterpiece. They did turn out cute! I also bought a bunch of his favorite groceries that week (croissants, nutella, chocolate milk, mangoes). I made him lasagna rolls (individual lasagnas rolled up like a cinnamon roll) for dinner; turned out great! Then I made lemon bars for dessert! I also made some giant chocolate chip cookies for the fathers in the ward. I wished my recipe made more cookies! They were delicious! Later that week, he told he wanted a skinny tie, so I bought him one a few days after! Just plain black. Francisco is such a wonderful father and we are so lucky to have him! He loves coming home to us and spending time with us. He always helps out around the house, will always change a diaper or get the boys in bed. If I say I need a break, he insists that I do and will entertain/take care of the boys while I either nap, or go to the gym, or go to the store. He is the love of my life and I am so happy to have him as a husband and the father of my children. And isn't his long hair so sexy?! He looks just like a movie star, in my opinion!

                                     

Luke is growing up so fast and learning new things all the time. He has started to sing at the top of his lungs some of his favorite songs, including "the BINGO song", "Jake and the Neverland Pirates", and the "Wonder Pets song-- what's gonna work? TEAM WORK!" and other little tunes and catch phrases he picks up randomly. He is very in to pirates, mainly due to the Jake and the Neverland Pirates cartoon. He loves it. I personally don't love it, but it's not the worst choice. He also has an app on the ipad where he can produce his own little pirate animation and it is so cute to hear his little voice on the recording trying to make up a story. He plays pirates whenever he's not watching it; making a boat and going on adventures to get back the things Captain Hook has stolen from him. It's pretty cute! I've been trying to teach him that sometimes pirates are not very nice and that we need to be nice pirates...(no stealing, fighting, hurting others). He started using the word "kill" in his animations which I really don't like!

Sam is growing and is so cute! He practices "jumping" all the time. He kind of runs/gallops and does a sort of head bob while bending his knees and says "Jump! Jump! Jump!" His feet never really come off the ground, but he will get there! He also loves to spin in circles and always bumps into walls. Medically, he is getting bigger/taller and eating better (not so much spitting out his food, but still eats very small bites and takes a long time to chew) He still has retractions in his neck with heavy breathing. We learned that his tonsils and adenoids are enlarged, which is partially obstructing his airway. We are waiting to get an appointment with an ears/nose/throat doctor to know what that means for him. Sam still loves cars and wheels and also enjoys throwing everything! He throws toys off the balcony all the time. We went camping and he threw rocks into the lake for over an hour! He is growing up so much. He is no longer a baby! and I am definitely baby hungry. Aww, baby! But I am waiting to start trying until after the Oregon trip in August. I don't want to be sick during our vacation!

 

Luke and Sam are getting better at playing with each other. Last night they were running circles around me and squealing while I was trying to get them reverent for family prayer. Often while at the table, they will have scream/squealing wars. Or one will make a loud noise and the other will tell them to stop, so they do it again. and again. Usually it is Sam that is provoking Luke.

I am enjoying the warm and not so hot yet weather! My garden is growing pretty well!  It's doing a lot better ever since I started fertilizing it! My tomato plants are almost 2 feet tall now, but not very bushy. They have the little pods for the flowers to form, but still no flowers, which means still no tomatoes... I really hope I can get at least one before it gets too hot... I read online though that some plants will produce a ton in the fall once it cools down a bit more. I am hopeful! We ate our first garden carrot last week. It was about 2 inches long (we have a variety that only grows to about 4 inches). It was sweet but had a bitter after taste. Not quite ready yet. I have also cut back my green onions to eat several times and they keep coming back! but the stalks get skinnier and skinnier every time I cut them. We have also enjoyed some delicious fresh basil twice this last week! Yum!

                                                    

I have also started doing yoga again! I did it often before I was married when I had a gym membership, but stopped when we could no longer afford a membership. Well, I downloaded a free yoga app on the Ipad that I really like! It is close to actually going to a class. It has a simple video of a woman doing the poses while a voice tells you what to do and other tips like breathing and which poses are good to do after back bends, etc just like an instructor would. and it has relaxing music in the back ground. I just shut myself in my room and explain to the boys this in my yoga time so I need you to just watch TV and don't bother me for the next 1/2 hour! and it has worked ok so far. The other day I tried to do it with the boys in the room with me and Luke wanted to try it. With every new pose, he would say "I can't do it..." with a little grunt. Then he would do it (sort of) and say giggling, "This is so much fun!" It was so funny!

 My tomatoes are even bigger now! About 6 inches or more past the little black stakes!

Doctor Luke!

This is how I get him to give me kisses!

You can also appreciate Sam's dramatic side ;)

-Francisco 

Luke at 3 yrs

Me talking to Luke: What is your name?
Luke: "L", "U", "K", "E"..... Luke!
Me: Wow, this kid is amazing!

I love how smart, loving he is. He has such a great imagination and he is definitely like a little sponge. I'm glad that my children have short names so that they can learn how to spell them quickly!

Luke never ceases to amaze me. He is such a good big brother!

-Francisco

We still have the buying bug! Now we want bikes, yikes!

-Francisco

We are now members of the "Perot museum of Science"

We didn't get to do much since Luke and Sam decided to be on their best behavior. Sam just wanted to press the buttons for the elevator, he managed to push the emergency call button, not once but TWICE! Then Luke decided to be the first person out of the elevator once the doors opened and we lost him for good 5 min. It felt like forever!! I started screaming and running around like a headless chicken. I love the these kids and hopefully next time we will see more of the Perot museum. I think I have memorized the children's section already. 

Life is good.

Francisco

Proud minivan owners

We had a pretty eventful day today! We bought our first car together! I am just so excited about it and want to show it off and post pictures on Facebook but Francisco says that we shouldn't, so I am just bragging about it on the blog! 

We bought a 2008 toyota sienna xle. It is beautiful. I originally said that I would not buy a white van because they look like polar bears, but I caved and of course the one we got is white! But I really don't mind, it doesn't look too polar bearish... Haha 

Features include leather heated seats, DVD, dual a/c, automatic doors, 6 disc cd. I don't know what else... We had fun trying to figure out how everything works.

We are happy. I hope that this car will only bring smiles and won't have any underlying mechanical issues.  It is risky to buy used cars and you never really know, so I hope we made a good choice. 

I still can't believe it is mine!

Buying Bug

Do you ever get the urge to spend money? Like you really just need to go spend money. Sometimes it's clothes, sometimes electronics, sometimes baby stuff.

Well, as most of you know, we are poor students who have very little money to spend. Usually, Francisco and I take turns holding each other back and talking sense into each other when the other gets the urge. So if Francisco gets the desire to go buy something, I tell him, well it would be nice to have that, but we can't afford it right now, or maybe we can find something similar that is a little cheaper...

We are always, (well I am always) fighting myself to not over spend on things that we don't really need.

Right now both of us have the buying "bug" pretty bad. In one day we thought seriously about buying a car and even almost applied for a loan, browsed bigger houses to rent, went out to buy new scrubs, went out to dinner, bid on an ipad on ebay, and tried to sign up for a new/better phone plan for smart phones.

Lol. Thankfully (I guess) NONE of these things worked out and the only money we actually spent was about $10 for fast food. We are planning to move to a house at the end of our lease thought (in July!) and we do REALLY want to buy a minivan and we will hopefully be proud owners of one within the next 6 months. Maybe sooner. Just not today. Francisco does need new scrubs for school, he just didn't like the place that we went to, so he will have to go to a different place another day. We really were going to sign up for the new phone plan because it would be saving us money and we would both get Iphones, but they stopped selling that plan just 3 days before! lame!!! So anyway, we decided to wait until Francisco's contract is up in October and get a different plan which is a lot cheaper than what we pay now and we decided that we would get cheaper smart phones and buy an ipad with the saved money (still cheaper than buying 2 iphones). but again, that won't happen 'till next fall.

So, we come out empty handed. Again. Man, I really want to buy something... Anybody want to give me money? ;)

Balcony Garden

I have always wanted to have a garden and for one reason or another (usually had to do with always moving in the spring or summer) I have never had a proper one. This is as close as I've come to have a little garden and I really love it! Luke loves it too! He has been with me every step of the way and we both get so excited when we see a little seed sprout up and grow! It has really grown into a much bigger project than I originally thought. It started out just carrots and cilantro. Then, I added green onions (just cut off of green onions stubs bought from the store, so no seeds. I saw on pinterest that if you leave them in water, they will just grow! so I thought I'd try it with dirt and water. We've got one to grow so far!) Then, we plant sitted a neighbor's sprouts and in return he gave me a few tomato seeds, so we have 3 tomato  plants growing in the yogurt cups. Then a friend gave us some leftover basil seeds. Those are in the strawberry container and have not sprouted yet! Since planting the garden, Luke has discovered that there are seeds everywhere and wants to plant them all! So we planted some green bell pepper seeds from a pepper I used for dinner the other night. (Luke was so excited, so we planted them even though I doubt that they will grow...) and the big green container is Luke's "trees" that he planted all by himself. Simply some branches stuck in dirt. Eventually I will transfer the tomato plants into the big green containers.

I really hope that I will at least break even with the money spent on dirt and seeds and containers. It kind of adds up! Not that it is expensive, but when you have very little "play" money, everything seems expensive!

 There is a bird feeder directly below my garden and so birds tend to grab some seeds and eat them on my guard rail dropping little seeds into my dirt. So I have to go out and "weed" my garden of bird seed plants. I wonder what they would grow into?

 I took the pictures of the garden while Sammy was doing some "potty training". I just let him drink water outside with no diaper on and brought his potty outside in hopes to get him to go on the potty, but also to just let him feel what it feels like to go pee without a diaper on. He was quite surprised when all of the sudden he was all wet!