Our Beauty

Kinda looks like a beast. But we'll still keep her.

Holy Freakin Hair Batman!!!

Orton party?? Yes Please!!

Some of my favorite childhood memories are spending time with my Moms family in Utah. We went every summer and stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Orton and they would plan tons of stuff for us to do. We have been trying to go to Utah every year to visit Jesús' family and when we are there we try to see as much of my Moms family too, but we dont get the chance to see everyone. Weeelllllll......my Moms brother Matt and his wife Ravoe and 4 of their 5 children, Whitney, McKay, Max and Andi (Sam is on a mission), stopped at Moms house on their way to the coast for a cruise. We were fortunate enough to go over and spend a few hours with them and it was "So darn much fun" as my Grandma Joy would say.

McKay had a fun head lamp that the kids wanted to try out. We turned out the lights and let them run amuck.

They were a little excited about Moms marble maze thing and immediately started to build their masterpiece.

Once Patrick warmed up to them he couldnt stay away. The kids swarmed McKay.

See McKay, have some kids, they love you.

McKay showed Elena how to swaddle her baby

Where's the baby??! McKay we might have to work on that before you actually have children.

Sara made a Pizzookie for them to try. If you've never had one, head on over to BJs on Stockdale. You wont regret it.

Look at them, tempting my sweet little boy with sweet goodness before bed. He was in Heaven.

This is my Aunt Ravoe and my Uncle Matt and their youngest Andi enjoying a Pizzookie.

Let the madness ensue. Both kids full of giant cookie and ice cream. Bad combo, but soooo good.

Look at what a stud my cute little cousin Max turned into!!!! He played a song for us on the Ukulele. Patrick really wanted to sing along but didnt know the words. We'll practice for next time!

Of course then Patrick needed a turn in the spotlight.

Then so did Elena

I needed a picture of the Matt Orton girls and the Randall girls since we never get to see each other.

Elena wanted Ravoe to read a book to her. Matt wanted to rock Patrick like a baby but Patrick informed him that he was indeed NOT a baby.
You guys definitely need some little people in your house. Tell your kids to get crackin'.

We had so much fun with the Ortons and I'm so glad that they came. Patrick was so funny all night using his very large vocabulary and expressions. He is certainly an entertainer. I think I might just hire him out at parties, how much should I charge? He had a great time with them and couldnt stop talking about them and kept saying their names. Even Sunday after church he was telling me how much fun he had with Max and Andi (probably because those were the only names he could remember by morning). So it turns out we need to get together more often. You guys bring a dessert and we will bring the entertainment.

A little update on our offspring

I feel bad that I neglect the kids milestones so here are updates on both of the kids
Patrick has been a big ball of energy lately. He loves to run around and scream and he is really good at imagining things. He has started coming up with little stories about things. Most of them are pretty short but they are pretty funny. The other day he came in while we were still in bed and said "Mom let me tell you a story about a boy named Patrick. Once there was a boy named Patrick and his tummy growled because he was hungry" I looked up at him and said "Is that all?" Then he said "Oh yeah, the end". Creative huh? He has also started directing our conversations. He will say "Mom, you say Patrick what are you eating and I will tell you I'm eating a cheese sandwich, Ok say it" I'm usually pretty good at following his direction but when I mess up he makes sure to correct me. He has also had a pretty good temper lately. He loves to play with his sister but only as long as she is doing what he says. He is doing pretty well in preschool and this past Sunday he went into Sunbeams in primary. I led him into the primary and found the sunbeam chairs and the whole time he was trying to let go of my hand. When he sat down he was fine and said goodbye. I went into the hall and cried. Pitiful. How will I handle Kindergarten? I love this little boy and I cant believe how big and smart he is getting, its happening all way too fast.

Elena is a little fireball! She is all over the place and into everything! I call her my suicide baby because she has had so many near misses. There was the whole toilet incident, then one night we were at my parents and Stephanie and Cory were bathing their children and Elena wanted in so she leaned way over and OOPS! yeah she had just been dressed for the night so we had to do it again. Another time I was at my parents house again and we were in the kitchen and she found her way into Moms bathroom and climbed up on the side of her big bathtub and turned the water on. We heard a scream and we made a mad dash for the bathroom. She had fallen in. Luckily she didn't knock herself unconscious and drown in the tub before we found her. There was another time in the bathtub when I turned around for one second to grab a towel and when I turned around she was face up under the water trying to grip the side of the tub with a scared look on her face. Its a difficult face to forget. She immediately wanted out. Crazy kid. She has been working on talking and so far she can say: I love you, Daddy, dog and most animal noises, juice, she has said Momma or Mommy a couple times but really is a Daddy's girl most of the time. She loves saying No even though most of the time she means yes, if she says no and means yes I will ask her yes? and she nods her head. She is also the sweetest little girl. She loves getting hugs and giving hugs. Our favorite hugs from her are the really tight ones around our necks. Those are like gold to us. She loves her brother and loves to wrestle with him. She has had trouble not biting and hitting us and we are working on teaching her that its a bad thing. She is pretty good at saying sorry when it happens. She loves books and being read to and I try not to say no to her when she wants to be read to. She will go into nursery in March and that seems so close and even though it will be nice to finally listen in class, I will miss her being with me. I love that she is my daughter and that we will eventually get to do all those fun mother daughter things. I feel bad she doesnt have a sister because I love my sister and we have had so many good times and are really close and I trust her opinion and feel that before I make most big decisions, I ask her first. Luckily Elena has been blessed with two cousins very close to her age and I hope that she can be close to them and feel that they are like sisters.
I love these kids and I feel so blessed to be their mother. I hope I can be the best mom I can. I really am glad that I focus so much of my attention on them and their needs so that feel loved and secure.

New years resolutions

I've been inspired to post my new years resolutions on my blog so that everyone that reads this can question me on my progress.

-Lose weight- I have lost almost 40 lbs since Elena was born. I am thinner now than I was when Jesús and I were married. I am making good progress but I have stopped due to several things. Moving, cold weather, loss of motivation. This year I will have my 10 year highschool reunion and I have already found a dress I am determined to wear and look smashing in. I think if I work hard enough I could be down to my goal weight or less in 6 months.

-Organization- With just moving into a house, I need to find out the best way to organize everything so that each thing has a place and we will have no clutter. I no longer want to have massive piles all over that I let grow and procrastinate putting them away. It may take me several months but once its done I think things will go much more smoothly around here.

-Money- I want to live financially sound. We aren't the richest of people but we wouldnt have as many worries if we watched our finances a little more closely and followed our budget. I have had a budget since we were married but we dont follow it that closely. We are distracted by fun things and things we want rather than preparing for future necessities.

-Cleanliness- I am a very bad at being a housewife. I like to be home to be with my children but when it comes to the responsibilities of our house I am very remiss. It has nothing to do with how I was brought up, I remember our home always being clean, the kitchen was cleaned every night and we were always doing our big chores on Saturday to prepare for Sunday. The only messy part of our house was my sisters and my bedroom. We loved to play, and when it got messy it was even more fun. I remember when we were sent to our room to clean it and instead of cleaning we played in the mess all day and we pulled the mattress off the bed and made it into a slide. However, cleanliness is next to godliness and that is where I want to be. Besides, our home is a happier place when everything is taken care of and that is my job.

For funsies:

Learn to play the guitar- in my spare time (if there ever is any) I would like to play the guitar. I got a guitar several years ago and I donated it to Sara while she was at BYU so she could fill her spare time. She now has her own and has taught me how to play a little, I doubt I remember any of it though. So I would like to refresh my knowledge and improve my skills.

Sew- I would like to sew more, only if we can afford it. I have some fabric I could use and I would like to make Elena some fun summer dresses and I have ideas but I will have to create a very small fabric fund so I can finish them. I have even talked to Lindsey Bunting and Amber Cola and they would like to start a little sewing group which I think would be "sew" much fun;) We all have sewing machines now and a couple of our other friends got them as well, I think it would be fun to do it all together a couple times a month.

So now that you know my resolutions, feel free to ask me about them, make me feel guilty that I am not finished and encourage me to keep at it.

It's not 2009 anymore, Don't ya know

Happy New year!!! We welcomed the new year by having a small party at Old House. We invited 4 families and 2 came which was definitely ok for being our first party. Next year we will make it a bigger event but for our first party, this was perfect. Jesús made this fun screen and set up a projector for the kids to watch movies.

We set up some sleeping bags and pillows for the kids in case they got tired and wanted to lay down. Our kids needed to test them for safety purposes.

I bought some poppers for the kids to throw on the ground. We didnt have enough for everyone so we let the kids do them before everyone showed up.

Then the Colas showed up and the David Buntings minus baby Sarah. We had so much fun and Patrick and Roegan had fun staying up all night, I couldnt even tell if they were tired or not because the were running around all night. Elena went to bed at 8 and woke up at 11 to join us for the last hour. The Cola girls fell asleep in the sleeping bags which made me glad we had set those out. We really had a ton of fun and I cant wait until next year, wait....yes I can.