ELLA!!!

Another post? Yeah, cause today was another special day...Today ELLA came and visited us! It was a lot of fun! Leah sent me a message letting me know Ella was in town with her dad, and that she really wanted to see Gabriel. So I texted John and set up a time that she could come over and see him, and so we all could see her. We decided to make it a family affair and invited Anna, Emma, Riann, Tean, and Lecksa all over to see her as well. We all talked played, ate, played, and ate some more. All the kids love going out to the garage and playing on the rings. I think Tean would ask me almost every 10 min, "Andrew, can I go play in the garage?"

All of them play and get along so well, it's really enjoyable to see how much they get along and like being with each other.

Plus it was fun spending time with Ella. We had a gymnastic throwdown. I think I might have taken her on the cartwheel, but she had me on the splits.

When Ella first came, Gabriel was sooo excited! He started waving his little arms up and down like crazy, and making his little humming noises. He went to Ella with out any problem, and had fun the whole evening. He loved seeing Lecksa, someone around his same age and height (more so than the other kids), and had a blast mimicking Tean's crazy arm movements and gestures. Overall it was a great night. We should have taking more pics but here's what we got.

Sugar High?

So, Gabriel has never had sugar, at least out side of natural sugars in fruit and stuff, but you wouldn't be able to tell that by the way he has been acting lately. We went to the park the other day and I don't think that I have ever seen him so hyper. He wouldn't stop! Crawling from one side of our blanket to the other, then sitting up, then rolling, then crawling, then turning around, then sitting up, then crawling again, then reaching for something, then...just would not stop. The best part is that he was really having a great time. It wasn't like he was bored and needed something different to do, he was so happy, and having a ton of fun. Maybe he just enjoys his new mobile lifestyle now.


The other thing that I relearned about Gabriel during our pic nic in the park was just how determined he is. When he decides he wants to do something he will not stop until he gets it. I can see this as a good and bad thing. It really will depend on how well Belem and I raise him. If he learns the gospel, its importance, and how to use that determination towards accomplishing good and wholesome goals in life, than it will be a fantastic gift. Now Belem and I need to be determined to make sure that's what happens.

Temple Trip

This past friday was great. We did some fun things, laughed, ate well, spent good time together as a family, and like always had something happen that seems like it would only happen to us...

First of all, Belem wanted to go to the mall and check out some sales that were going on (she has become quite the savy shopper - I think that she has evey phone app that exists for coupons, deals, etc) So, we headed out, and on the way she had a craving for gas station nachos...ok, so we go to the gas station and pick some up, I also grab some almonds and a protein bar for myself. Then she realizes that the sales are not going on until August, so now we don't have a plan...what should we do? Since we were already heading north, we decided it would be fun to go up to Temple Square in Salt Lake. We start driving and Belem decides she wants to try the new Mcdonalds pinneable mango smoothie. Ok...so now we are laughing cause its friday night, and so far we feel pretty white trash, gas station nachos, and mcdonalds. hahaha.

We finally make it all the way up to Salt Lake, we park and begin walking around. I must say that our white trash evening quickly changed themes, and became a very enjoyable and fun evening. We walked around the temple, went to the family themed visitors center, and then took the tour of Brigham Youngs house. It was pretty fun, even though Gabriel decided that he wanted to make tons of noises, burp, and demand his little cereals the entire time. We really did enjoy it!

After walking around some more we sat down by the reflection pool that is next to the temple and just relaxed. The hot sun was finally setting and so the evening was becoming very nice. Gabriel was a little hesitent at first about the water but quickly acclimated himself by splashing and playing like crazy. Babies are a blast, but you really have to be careful, especially with our little Gabriel. He is so stinking quick and funny. As he was playing he just threw himself out of my arms and went face first into the water, luckily I grabbed him before he could even realize that he was scared. Then we went and played some more in the grass and he continued to crawl all over the place and eat almost eveything in his sight. Again, we took our eye off of him for a second and he took advantage of his second of freedom and grabed his entire bowl of cereals and attempted to eat them all at once. Man, he is so freakin cute!

So, tired and hungry now that our white trash meal from earlier had worn off, we decided to head over to Red Robin (yeah I know, alot better higher quality food choice eh?) to get something to eat. Again the weather was perfect and so we asked for a table outside. Gabriel got comfortable in his high chair and quickly began to devour the adults menu, then the kids menu, then some crackers, then anything else that he could reach. Belem orderd off the kids (10 and under) menu, and I got something from the correct menu...hahaha...so we ate and relaxed, enjoyed the weather and the time together as a little family.

Right next to the Red Robin is a movie theater and stores, so we went walking around. It was so comfortable just walking and talking. Then we headed over to target and bought Gabriel a new little car toy and laughed about how our fun, and enjoyable night had included eating food at a gas station, mcdonalds, and spending time at target! It was pretty funny. So, now tired from our long evening, we headed back home. It is always funny to us how almost without fail we tend to go to bed late every night, and then come the weekends we are so tired from the entire week that we are usually in bed much sooner than during the week. It was like 10 or 10:30 when we were getting ready for bed!

So, the funny, not so funny, actually really frustrating part to all of this is that the following morning, we getting ready to leave to go to the park when we realized that we didn't have our stroller! Yeah, we...I...must have either not loaded it into the car for some reason, or someone stole it out of our car during the night! We don't know, but it is so frustrating, cause it was a great stroller, and a very nice and expensive one. Oh well, stuff happens I guess, so now Gabriel has some cheap ol $15 one from wal mart that doesn't even lay down....so sad.

However even after losing, or leaving the stroller behind, even after eating so well the entire night, even though we were so tired and were in bed sooner than normal, I wouldn't have changed anything! I love my family, my beautiful, loving, supportive wife Belem, our crazy crawling all over the place, never full, or completly quiet son Gabriel, and now the starting to make mommy show some tummy, Nathan Elijah (yeah that will be his middle name). I love them all, and loved this last friday too!