Yeiii Mason tiene 5 meses

Our Sweet little Mason

Ayer Mason cumplio 5 meses y estamos tan felices de tenerlo con nosotros lo amamos mas y mas cada dia, es un espiritu super especial para nuestra familia siempre nos recive con una super sonrisa cuando vamos por el en la manana apesar de que Gabriel le golpea la puerta tan animado para verlo por la manana el esta tan feliz y ansioso por vernos simpre. Mason te amamos con todo nuestro corazon gracias por escogernos como tu familia.

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!

Growing Fast

Pictures of Gabriel: top to botton, left to right.
Right before Argentina lost to Uruguay in copa america play, 4th of july, and shopping the day before the 4th (first time ever sitting up in shopping cart!), playing with a fake dog at old navy, singing at church, and sitting up all by himself for the first time (daddy peaked through the door at the same instant he was sitting up!)

Gabriel I can't believe how fast you are growing! I know each parent must think that same thing as they watch their children grow, but honestly it is amazing to see how much you have really grown these past 8 months. You are such a fast learner too. I remember about a month ago, when your mommy and I were watching another little baby at church sit all by himself on the floor on his blanket, and we said to ourselves, "man that would be cool if Gabriel could do that", well about two days later you had perfected it. However that wasn't enough for you, you have to always be doing something new, something different, and so now you have learned in honestly about 3 days time how to go from being on your little tummy to sitting down and it appears to be no effort for you. Again I repeat, that isn't enough for you though. So today you decided to stand up all by yourself in your crib, however you must have been too excited because you tossed yourself right on out of there, and when mommy heard you fall she came running and picked you up...poor little guy, you must have been so scared. However, now that we lowered your crib down, now you can stand up all you want, and I am sure that in no time you will be walking and running all over the place! You are such a big, sweet, and special boy, and we love you more every single day!

Mommy and Daddy

Come What May, and Love It

So, it's been months since Belem and I were able to go out on a date. Yeah, we have gone out with Gabriel every now and then, but we hadn't been able to go out just the two of us for a while, so this past wed when we finally had the chance, thanks to her mom coming and watching Gabriel at our place, we were very excited! Someone had recently gave Belem a gift card to Olive Garden, and so our plan was a simple one...go eat using the gift card, then to go see a movie perhaps. So, we got to Olive Garden, and everything was great, we ordered, and of course I changed quite a bit of things on my plate so, and added extra things. Belem ordered a decent sized meal as well. Our waitress was very nice and helpful, infact she was so good I had already decided I would leave her a good tip...that was until the check came. The check itself wasn't bad, we knew that we had the gift card and that would cover the majority of the meal, the problem was that we had gone over by 11 dollars. Ok, so what's the problem...as I went to pay, oops, no card! That's right, no debit card, no cash, no checks, no nothing! NADA! I didn't know what to do...I was so worried and embarrassed. I was sure that they would make us stay and wash dishes or something to pay off what we owed. However we were very blessed, and the manager came and told us not to worry, and let us go with out paying anything. We were so relieved. Well to be honest it was more me being relieved. I have to say how grateful I am to Belem, for staying so calm, and happy throughout the whole thing. I think that she might have been smiling ever since we realized we didn't have any way to pay. She made me think about a talk we once read one night a few years back. It was a talk by Joseph B. Wirthlin, his last before he passed entitled "Come What May, and Love it". He talked about learning to live with the challenges we face is life, and learning to handle them well. He shared an example of taking a trip with his nine member family, and how they took a wrong time and how they didn't realize it until after two hours later. They didn't get angry, they laughed. He said, "We laughed, and as a result, anger and resentment rarely resulted. Our laughter created cherished memories for us." That was exactly what happened to us, thanks to Belem's positive outlook and laughter, we laughed, and laughed, and joked about how we should have ordered more food. And, because of that I think we had one of the greatest dates we have ever had, and all we did was eat for free, and instead of a movie, we went and bought a snow cone that we payed for with the spare change we had laying around in the car. So, we were able to sit and talk, and just be together, alone. It was one of my favorite nights of all time, and it's all thanks to Belem!

Waking up

So, I have come to the realization that one of my absolute favorite things about being a Daddy, is watching mi chiquiringuis wake up in the morning. Actually not just the mornings but really anytime. We have been so blessed with a excellent sleeper. I swear he would sleep all day sometimes if we allowed him to. There is just something I love about sneaking into his room, and peaking into his crib to see him sound asleep. Most of the times he is completely turned around from where we left him. I think that he must dream that he is crawling or running around with all of his animal friends in his crib. And then there is his little feddish of having a blanket next to his face. He has to have a blanket in his hands, and loves to rub it against his cheek while he is falling a sleep and sometimes while he is sleeping. So, sometimes I just like to sit there and watch him sleep, but eventually I have to wake him up, so I call his name, and almost automatically he turns around and says hello with the biggest, and cutest smile in the world! It's those big smiles, those little moments, those feelings that fill your heart with love, and joy that I can't get enough of. Those are the times when you realize what is most important in life.