Speaking of Special Occasions...

This may come as a shock to those of you who know my family well, so please brace yourselves. My little sister Lisa is officially engaged!!! The lucky guy is Paris Bayardo, a friend that goes way back to her highschool days (which is hardly back at all), and they got together after his mission. Lisa is only 19 folks, but we won't go there. Paris just turned 22 so there must be some common sense in all of this, right? Juuuust kidding. We do like you Paris, eventhough you are totally robbing the cradle here. The date right now is for June 28th, one week after Lisa turns 20. Phew!

Happy Anniversary (and Thanksgiving too)

So this year our anniversary fell on Thanksgiving, Nov. 22nd. Yesssssss. Four years already; I can hardly believe it. It definitely seems substantially longer after watching our wedding video. Yes, I like to pull out the video on our anniversary eventhough it's cheesy. Halfway through I looked at Josh and asked him how much of that day he actually remembers. He said not much. It really is such a blur when it happens that it's funny to go back and watch it.

We decided to celebrate the day before Thanksgiving and went out to the rebel basketball game and then the Melting Pot. The game was great until the end when Louisville took a substantial lead and our rebels lost. We always go to the Melting Pot for dinner on our anniversary and, as usual, it was really good. Cheese fondue definitely holds a special place in my heart. I recommend it for anyone that hasn't been there already.

All in all, it has been a great 4 years filled with so much more than I would've imagined. I am really happy with where we are in our lives now, and most especially for our daughter Macie. There isn't a day that goes by where my little girl doesn't make us laugh. And Josh is the best husband and father I ever imagined. He really puts his 2 girls ahead of everything else and doesn't hesitate to do what it takes to take care of us. His willing attitude and desire to serve others is a great example to me. I truly am so lucky!

Poor Baby

We already have our Christmas decorations out (I know, I KNOW!) so I thought Macie could use a little introduction and instruction about them. To cut to the chase, the item of interest for this post is our nativity set. Notice anything missing from the picture??? If you look closely you may notice an empty manger. That's right, there's no baby Jesus. I told Macie about the nativity and gave her specific instructions that we are not to touch any parts of the display, including baby Jesus. She complied at first, until her cousin Bella came over. After an evening of playing, I put away Macie's toys and found some pots and baby Jesus in one of her purses. The next morning after another talk about not touching the nativity, I saw her standing next to it with the baby laying on the floor, minus one arm. She dropped the baby and broke his arm off! I couldn't believe it! I sat Macie on the stairs and this is how our conversation went:

Me: Macie, you broke baby Jesus' arm. I don't like it.
Macie: I like it.
Me: No Macie, I don't like it.
Macie: I like it.
Me: Macie, I DON'T like it.
Macie: I like it!

At this point I knew she didn't understand and I was trying to be serious, but having a very hard time. She is such a crack up!

A Tribute to Comet

As I cleaned the house yesterday I was reminded once again, how lucky I am to have Comet cleanser. It really and truly is my favorite cleaning product. It is a very deep cleaner that gets out so much more than normal spray products. The reason I love it so much is because I get to scrub and scrub and scrub so many surfaces until things are spotless. It leaves no residue or filmy build-up, and contains bleach to disinfect. How much greater can it be? There's nothing like a sparkling clean bathtub after a good Comet clean. And yes, I am being totally serious.

How Did This Happen?

I know many people are already familiar with the picture above. I had seen it more times than I can count from people raving about it for a long, long time. I'm not sure the reason why I steered clear of this series. The whole vampire love story motif just wasn't that appealing to me. Hello, I'm more cultured than that! Well, I finally picked up Twilight after the billionth recommendation and I have to say, I didn't want to like it.

The book started out fine, but I still didn't understand what all the fuss was about. By the time I was halfway through I couldn't stop and, just like that, it was done. By the end of the day I couldn't stop thinking about it. I HAD to keep going. I read the series in less than a week and have to say, this past week my thoughts were completely consumed with Edward and Bella. The series was extremely well written, captivating, and full of surprises. I think what really sucked me in was the way the author brings the characters to life. They were so real, and I wanted to be a part of every bit of the action.

Now that I'm done I am sad that I have to wait so long for Breaking Dawn, the final book of the series, to be released. Not to mention Midnight Sun, a re-write of Twilight from Edward's perspective. In the meantime I have to satisfy myself with book discussions and author Stephenie Meyer's website. I don't want to do any blog posts about the series to refrain from spoiling it for anyone else, but call me if you want to talk about it! Oh, and if you haven't read it yet just break down and DO IT!

Money Matters

I was sitting on the couch reading a book when Macie came up to me and said, "Mom, I dollar." (Macie uses the word I for I want or my). Her uncle Kip was laughing behind her, and she just kept repeating herself very intently. "Mom, I dollar." Apparently Kip told her to ask her mom and dad for a dollar because he thought it would be funny. The funny part was, Macie had no idea what a dollar was, but she knew it was something that Josh and I had and she wanted to have it! Dang uncles. I told her that I didn't have a dollar, and since Josh didn't either, Kip finally gave her one himself. He held it up and said, "Look Macie, here's a dollar!" She took it from him, put it on the ground and colored on it. I guess money doesn't mean much to a toddler.

Happy Birthday Josh!

...last Thursday (Nov. 1st) that is. I'm just now getting to post the pictures because I had to do Halloween first and there's no time and excuses, excuses. I'm finally getting used to the idea of his birthday being the day after Halloween. I get busy with Halloween things and have to make sure all the birthday presents, parties, food, etc. are also ready before Halloween. But after all that, we always have a great time.

Since Macie was sick Halloween night, we decided to take it easy on Josh's birthday. She was definitely doing better when she helped Dad unwrap his new 80gb ipod in the morning.


To celebrate Josh hitting the big 26 we decided to go out to dinner with family, and then have a party the next day on Friday night. We went to Claim Jumper for some delicious food with my brother Ben and his family, my sister Mel and her family, Josh's brother Chad and his wife, and Josh's parents and 2 siblings. We had a huge table! Friday night we partied at our house with appetizers, birthday cake, and a few games. It was fun to get together with so many friends and have a house big enough to do it! The girls won the games (pictionary and catch phrase), as usual, while the guys insisted we were cheating, as usual. Sore losers is all I have to say about that. Macie was up for the beginning of the party and was very excited about all the people. It meant a lot of cell phones to talk on and shoes to wear. She was so cute! At one point she walked into the kitchen with a pair of high heels and a cell phone in hand...that's my girl!

Every year I make Josh's favorite, a lemon-glazed cake. And every year I get better at making it. I'm not a big fan of cake, but this one tasted pretty good! Macie was THRILLED to see the cake all lit up (literally) and everyone singing happy birthday. It is one of her favorite songs.

All in all we had a wonderful week of Halloween and birthdays and look forward to things slowing down again before Thanksgiving creeps up on us. So happy late birthday to my favorite guy who is the best husband in the world and cutest dad around. We love our Joshy!

Not So Happy Halloween

I'm not sure what it is about holidays and getting sick, but I'm starting to see a pattern. Macie woke up Halloween morning and I thought she felt really warm. Josh thought it was because the house was warm, and later she felt fine. After her nap she woke up hot again and seemed cranky. She even told me her tummy was hurting. Later in the day she seemed happy and was outside playing with the neighbors, so I assumed she was doing alright. That evening we went to my uncle's house in Eagle Hills, as is our De La Paz tradition, for lots of good food and cousins to play with. While there I noticed she was on the downhill again because she wouldn't eat dinner and just cried for about 15 minutes until she threw up. Poor Macie! Luckily she was outside and luckily Josh was holding her...ha! I felt so bad because we (more like I) was so excited to get pictures with all of her cousins in her cute costume. Also, the neighborhood goes all-out with crazy decorations, haunted houses, and awesome candy. You'd have to see it! Sadly we packed up and went home so Macie could rest and not get anyone else sick. On the 4th of July all 3 of us had an awful stomach flu that lasted for days, luckily this time it was very mild and only Macie had it.

I snapped this picture before we got in the car to go to Beto's house. My Macie is too cute! And yes, notice the un-fallish outfit. The weather here is warm and oh so nice!

This is right after the sickness incident while Josh was packing up the car. Luckily we were in the backyard where clean-up was minimal! My poor girl even had her duck feet on. What a trooper.


I needed a family picture from this year's festivities (I'm really bad at getting picts with all 3 of us). Yes, Josh had a clean shirt on for this.

See below for actual shots of our duck in action!

My Little Quacker

I'm finally posting some pictures of the cutest little duck around. Last week we went to 2 trunk-or-treats, our ward and Josh's parents' ward. Macie enjoyed following the kids around and being part of all the commotion. When we walked around to get candy I showed her how to hold up her pumpkin and say "treat." She decided that was easier than trying to say trick or treat. Anyway, after the candy was put in her pumpkin she would stare at it while I moved her along to the next car. It didn't take long for her to get the hang of it and she enjoyed the process of her pumpkin getting filled with stuff. Oddly enough, she didn't know it was candy until one lady said, "Here's some candy for the cute little ducky." At that point Macie perked right up and screamed "CANDY!" I had to calm her down and convince her to continue to put it in the pumpkin so we could continue. When we got home I went through it all and only kept 1 bag of animal crackers and chips ahoy cookies for her. She never asked for the candy again. I'm not trying to be mean, but I know kids love candy and I'm trying to keep Macie away from it for as long as possible. She does know that "candy" means something good, but I'm not sure who taught it to her or where she had some!


One of the parties had an actual "train" (barrels on wheels pulled behind a 4-wheeler) that Macie couldn't get enough of. She cried when she had to get off! I wasn't quite sure about the safety when I saw it, but I was eventually convinced and Macie wouldn't have taken no for an answer anyway. That's my girl!

This last picture is quite hilarious. Josh felt left out and was determined to get his 6'3.5" body into the barrel for a train ride. He is, after all, one really big kid. Macie spends the ride holding on as demonstrated below, and laughing while yelling "weeeeee!" the entire time.