At the Guadalajara Temple in Mexico. I didn't edit that sky...

My beautiful Eva in her dancing attire.

Our chunky monkey. It's what we call this kid. Not sure where he learned that goofy smile.

Eva's cute hair. We always get some tears when I do her hair because it's still curly.

Eva showing me her dance moves.

Seems like January was a crazy month seeing as to the fact that tomorrow February starts. I can't even believe that I am saying that. Our kids are cuter than ever, of course! Elijah continues to grow like a gigantic weed. In fact, people comment that the poor kid should be carrying me around. Not true of course, because he can't even crawl let alone walk even though he will be 9 months on the 2nd. He makes the funniest faces, has the funniest laugh and loves his big sister to death. He is starting to get that stranger anxiety thing, which in a way make me feel good to know that he know his little family enough to be comforted by use whenever someone he's not sure of wants to hold him. I think we have an appointment for him soon and then I will really know if I am right when I say he's gotta weigh 26 or 27 pounds. He's definately solid.

Eva started dance classes this month, thanks to her little girlfriend's mom who takes her for me. She loves it! It is fun to see her little moves. She also started primary. She is so sweet singing the songs that she knows. Today she was supposed to give the opening prayer during primary but chickened out. Regardless, I am impressed with her and her ability to learn all that she does. She currently loves watching the nutcracker, that her aunt Sandy(well, really Matthew's aunt) gave her and playing "you wanna go on a bear hunt, yes we do!" Thanks to her daycare, Pam, she know that one. Elijah, Eva and I have fun doing that one around the house.

In January, Matthew and I (Nana came and watched the kids, THANKS again for that one Carla) went to Guadalajara and spent four days there checking out the city where soon we will spend the next 4 years of our lives. It was fun to be there and see the school. Matthew got into the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara. He's finally going to get to live his dream of becoming a doctor! We are proud of him and grateful that Mexico is giving him the chance to fulfill this desire of his to help people. I'm scared but know that this will be the best thing for our family. Besides, I keep getting the impression that everything is going to be okay, and that brings me great comfort.

For now, we keep going about our lives, enjoying our kids and taking everything one step at a time.

It's about time I post something...

We had a great Christmas this year spending it with each other and with family. Eva had a lot of fun opening all of her presents this year and realizing that there was a Santa Claus. She made cookies with Matthew to get ready for "sahnka tose." That night though, we didn't have any milk. But my little problem solver said, (in Spanish of course) "that's okay mom. We can use water." So we did. We left Santa cookies and water. Frankly, I think he enjoyed it better. Also, thanks to a little kiddo from my class giving me a Minnie Mouse plush doll that played jingle bells, she has played that thing the last two weeks singing "so much fun it is to ride" over and over. Her big present this year was a doll house and it is neat to see her go behind the couch and play with that thing for a good chunk of time on her own.

We have been trying to find our christmas traditions for our little family and I think a new one for us this year was decorating a beautiful house that a friend, Laura, from Matthew's work, made. Matthew and Eva were so cute doing it. It took them forever because she would get "tired" after working on that thing for minutes. But in the end, they finally finished it and I think it turned out pretty nice. Don't judge the picture though because for Christmas my parents bought us a new lens for my camera and it doesn't auto-focus. And rather than return it, I am trying to get better at my skills and actually learn to manually focus the thing. This was Matthew's idea though, because I would rather cheat and get the auto-focus. Oh well.

So, this year has already begun and I can't believe it. I am hoping to be more consistent this year in all the things that I should be doing and want to do. My good friend Melanie and my sister in law, Kat, have inspired me to bust out my sewing machine and make things for my kids. I have already started by making a colored pencil holder for Eva and a crocodile taggie animal that according to Matthew looks more like a submarine, but I am not giving up. It is actually kind of addicting honestly. I am hoping that practice makes perfect, because right now, I'm fail (as Scott, my brother and law would say) :)

And, lastly, thanks to my bro, Ricky, for taking our family Christmas picture and theone of our kids. You did a good job little brother!

At Elijah's six month appointment, these were his stats:

Height: 2 feet 5 inches (98%)

Weight: 22lbs. 3 oz. (96%)

Head Circumference: 18.82 in. (100%)

Matthew was calling him a monkey but I really didn't like that so we call him our chunky monkey. He is that to say the least. The doctor called him a tank. But we still love him, even if he is killing my arms. I wish lugging him around would eliminate the gut but instead the booty is disappearing. How come I can never get what I want? :)

October Fun

I love fall! I think the colors are beautiful and I think all the October festivities are fun. Eva and I had fun this year taking Matthew to the pumpkin patch with us for the first time. It has been nice having him around on the weekends. We also carved pumpkins and of course took our kiddos trick or treating. Eva has been looking forward to Halloween for a month now and I am glad she finally got it out of her system. She got it out so much so that she is a little scared now. The reason is that for our Ward activity we took her through the haunted spook alley and scared the poo out of her. I am still ashamed that we made her go through it. It was pretty scary. In fact, this morning when we got to the church parking lot she said that she didn't want to go inside the church because there were monsters inside. Poor thing. We told her there weren't and I can only hope she forgets about the episode real soon.

For your listening pleasure...

This is a little video that I took a couple of weeks ago. Now that our computer is out of Eli's room I feel like maybe I can blog again. This video makes me laugh because you will see Eva singing "Once upon a dream" from sleeping beauty and getting real intense with the song. Then she is singing the abab spider (itsey bitsey spider) while picking her nose! I am not sure if I am more grossed out or just think she is too funny!

September came and is about to leave. Crazy how that happens. Things in our home have been quite exciting. Once school started for me all of our lives changed. Matthew began working 6 am shifts meaning our late nights with the kids were soon to be over. Eva is still adjusting since she was used to getting up at 9:30 in the morning but overall we like the change. Now Matthew is actually home with us in the evenings. It does mean that we eat dinner super early, but since I am a Mexican, I love it!

These are some pics from the month. Eva started soccer even though she is a little young for the team. She likes it a bunch if somebody is out with her holding her hand kicking the ball around. However, what she doesn't like is her soccer shirt. I don't know why but she hates that thing. I even tried putting pretty purple bows on the shirt like a friend of mine suggested, and it seemed to work a little. We just figure that since it cost us nothing to join this will be a good experience for her.

Elijah is getting cuter than ever. But, he has the runniest, poopiest, diapers EVER! The picture of him in the garbage bag was to keep him from leaking all over the place. We definitely fight over who has to change those ones. Lucky for me, it's a 50/50 job although Matthew would probably argue he does it more than me.

So, life keeps going on for our family. I often feel like wonderwoman with all that comes being a mom but we are doing life one step at a time. I wouldn't trade any of these experiences for anything.

Where is the month of August going? In a couple weeks I will back to teaching and I can't even believe it. I remember when I was a kid, I thought summers were never ending (I was one of those kids that loved school, hence why I became a teacher) and now I can't seem to get them to slow down. Before I know it my kids are going to be moving out!

Anyway, we've had fun around here. We finally finished putting up our craiglist find, our play structure, and absolutely love it. We spend many hours on the thing. At first we thought we might have been wrong getting it since Eva only hung out on one swing, but now she is all over that thing. I love that I can put Elijah down for a little nap and run out and play in our little park.

We also celebrated Eva's birthday at our house. It was fun to see so many of Eva's little friends and ours in our home. It was totally stressful throwing a party with a little one but worth it. That's why my dad is wearing a pinata (sorry no tilda for the n) on his head. I love the picture since we rarely get one of him smiling.

The last two are a couple of my favorites. Elijah has been figuring out the whole eye thing. Poor kiddo looks cross-eyed, but its gotten better. And the last one is of him three months. We just love the little guy!