New Year. New List.

My New Year’s Resolutions are getting stale. I feel the need to liven them up a bit. Instead of my go to’s: work out more, be more righteous/spiritual, learn something new, be a better mom/wife, save more money, etc. I’m going to mix it up in 2012. Not that those aren’t important things to do. Everyone should strive to do those things, but I should already be doing them. I want to resolve to do more than what I know I’m already supposed to be doing.

29 things to do before I turn 30

29. Get better at tennis

28. Play in a volleyball tournament

27. Perfect an authentic Italian style margherita pizza from scratch

26. Swim in a hot springs

25. Help someone move

24. Picture collage a wall in my apartment

23. Take a picture every day

22. Learn conversational Spanish

21. Make paper mache piñatas with my boys

20. Clean someone’s house in secret

19. Dance party with my boys at every opportunity

18. Make someone a picnic

17. Kidnap my nieces for a sleepover

16. Handwrite a letter to each of my siblings

15. Begin the process of getting my Masters

14. Surprise Casey

13. Invite someone I don’t know that well over to my house for dinner

12. Buy a complete stranger’s groceries

11. Give twelve days of Christmas Secret Santa gifts to someone in June

10.  Write down some of my favorite memories of my parents for my boys

9. Bike ride on the beach at sunset

8. Go out dancing with Casey

7. Send someone flowers anonymously

6. Make chicken noodle soup for someone that is sick

5. Learn more about Photoshop and photography

4. Visit my niece in Chicago

3. Read the New Testament

2. Plant an herb garden

1. Take a trip to New York City

After I have accomplished all 29 things, I’m gonna do something crazy on my 30^th birthday. Like skydiving or bungee jumping. Who wants to come?

Felicidades 2012

We started our New Year’s Eve at the movie theater as a family. We saw The Adventures of TinTin. Cute movie. It was like a younger animated Indiana Jones. When we walked out of the theater, it was a ghost town. Everything was shut down except for Chinese and Japanese restaurants. We drove around for a while and then decided to go back to East for some more teppanyaki enjoyment. Oh boy do we love tepanyaki. After dinner we headed over to Beba’s house for some partying with our PR family. Cash and Guy lasted until 11:15pm and they were both starting to melt down. Guy finally started to fall asleep, but Cash was going crazy.

We decided to head home and bring in the New Year at our house. Guy fell asleep right away and Cash caught a second wind as soon as we got home. We busted out the sparklers and sparkling cider and had ourselves a little New Year’s Eve celebration. Cash was not interested in holding the sparklers because as he kept saying, “hottee, hottee, owee, owee!” So he just sat on my lap as I forced him to enjoy the moment. At least Casey and I had fun with the sparklers. 

Everyone goes crazy here with fireworks and gun shooting for any celebration, so the New Year's countdown did not disappoint. We were lucky enough to see three different firework shows from our balcony. So we sat back, enjoyed the view, and rang in the New Year in Puerto Rico.

Happy New Year! I’m excited to see what new adventures and challenges 2012 brings us.

Feliz Cumpleanos a Mi!

I turned 29 on the 28th and we celebrated my day of birth to the fullest. We jammed packed a bunch of activities into one special day. First we took a trip to the El Yunque National rain forest for a hike to see some beautiful views and waterfalls.

Then we traveled to the public beach in Luquillo for some swimming and sunshine. The water was really calm and shallow making it ideal for swimming with the boys. I'm trying to soak up as much Puerto Rican sunshine as I can while we are here.

We had dinner at a local teppanyaki/sushi restaurant called East. I love me some teppanyaki and I always choose it for my birthday feast. Cash has been a handful of times, but it's been about a year since we have been. He was freaked out by the fire, but was really intrigued with everything the cook was doing. This was Guy's first teppanyaki dinning experience and he was mesmerized. He hardly ever looked away during the whole cooking experience. Teppanyaki is a fun dinning experience for the whole family. It keeps the kiddos entertained and provides delicious substance for the parentals. That's my little promo for you. I should get commission for my marketing. We finished dinner off with a birthday dessert for me. I love any excuse for dessert. Especially when it's a well deserved one like my birthday.

 After dinner we dropped the kids off at our house with our friends, Vivi and Crissy, and headed to the movies alone. I love date nights with Case, so it was the perfect ending to my really great birthday. It's hard for us to leave the kids behind and go on dates because Guy's still young and we love going everywhere as a family. Whenever we do get babysitters and go out though, it reminds me all over again why I first chose to spend the rest of eternity with my handsome big kid. We need to do it more often. I feel like a giddy teenager every time we get the chance to go out without the kids.

I'm feeling pretty good about 29. I'm nervous to enter my thirties, but I still have one more year to live it up and accomplish a bunch of stuff. Right now I'm just happy that my kids, my husband, and our lifestyle keeps me feeling young. I'm pretty excited to age with this group of boys that I call family. They make every wrinkle and pound feel pretty important, well earned, and beautiful.

Feliz Navidad 2011

Santa Claus came to our house last night with a few gifts for our boys. They deserve them. Cash (2.5 years old) is a sweet little boy who is getting fonder of his little brother and starting to become his protector. He loves his Daddy so much and copies everything he does. He is currently obsessed with Spongebob, balls, swords, and cars. Guy (7 months old) is a good baby. He is calm, loving, smiley, and such a little sweetheart. He is also very active these days and keeping us busy. If he isn't pulling the Christmas tree down, he is trying desperately to crawl head first down the stairs. Guy loves his binky, blanket, and Mommy. They are both special boys who are going to do great things when they grow up. I'm so priviledged to have a front row seat to all of their life experiences.

Casey and I were pretty good this year too. Santa gave us each a shopping spree in early December. Generous guy. Casey's volleyball team, Plataneros de Corozal, is currently in the semi finals. He is hoping to repeat and win the championship. He misses beach volleyball and is looking forward to getting back home to train for the summer 2012 season. Our family loves living in Puerto Rico and exploring the island. We miss Huntington Beach, our family, and our friends. But we are having so much fun meeting new people and building our Puerto Rican relationships. We are so blessed to have our two little beautiful boys in our lives. We are grateful to our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave his life for us so that we could have the gift of eternal families. That is the most important gift we will ever receive. God bless us, every one!

Christmas Eve 2011

Our household has been attacked by the winter season sickness. Cash started the whole mess by throwing up in the car on the way home from Casey's game on Monday. (Note to self. If you think you cleaned up all of the throw up, don't be so sure. Always take the car seat out of the car, completely take it apart, and hose the entire thing off. Otherwise it will pool in hidden cracks in the bottom and days later when you emerge into the light for a trip to the store for more medicine, your car will wreak. And when you remove the car seat from the car, the hidden vomit will leak all over you.) Casey got a fever later that night and started feeling the usual sore throat, cough, ear ache, body aches, etc that come with the flu. Then Guy woke up with a fever. My boys were seriously a mess. Somehow I never got sick due to either righteous living, healthy living, or a miracle. Fingers crossed. After a week of being shut in vampires, we started living again.

On Christmas Eve, we made Cash's first ever gingerbread house. And let me tell you. It was a disaster. The icing wouldn't dry because of the humid heat, so we had a less than stable house to work with. Cash kept pushing too hard to put the candy on, so it started cracking. And the icing was a hot mess. It wouldn't come out of the tiny hole at the end of the bag without pushing so hard that the bag kept busting at the seam. I had it all over me. It was definitely an experience. Cash loved it.

Our adopted Puerto Rican family (Morales, Rodriguez, and Lopez families) always get together on Christmas Eve to exchange gifts. Cash's first Christmas present ever was opened at this party in 2009 and here we are again with our new baby Guy in 2011. We are so fortunate to be included in their family fun. They make the holidays so joyful and we don't feel so far away from home when we are partying with them.

Baby Guy's first Christmas

I bought this Santa hat for Guy at the store while he was napping and when I got home I realized that it was clearly too small. I almost like it better that way. You can see his ears and he looks like a little Christmas elf.

Feliz Navidad & Merry Christmas

Puerto Rico 2011

The Patterson Family

A Puerto Rican Wedding

We started off the Christmas weekend with Marivi and Jose's wedding on the beach. Casey had a game the same night, so he couldn't come with me. Cash stayed at home with a baby sitter because I didn't want to be chasing him around the beach during the ceremony. Guy was my date. I'm a lucky girl. It was a beautiful wedding and Guy and I were so honored to be a part of their special day.

The attire was semi-formal with men wearing Guayabera's which are traditional wedding shirts in Puerto Rico. Guy's guayabera is a knock off from Old Navy, but it looked almost exactly like the traditional ones. He's so Puerto Rican.

Christmas in Old San Juan

Our friends, the Butlers aka long lost Mexican cousins, left town to go home for Christmas break and we are missing them dearly. We made a trip to Old San Juan with them before they left. We ate at this little place called Cafe El Punto. We had baked empanadas, chicken stuffed avocados, churrasco mofongo, and fresh mango juice. It was so yummy. Then we walked around downtown to look at the Christmas lights. Here are some pictures from the square.

Cash and Carson have become the best of buds here in PR. People always ask if they are twins. Below shows just how much they love each other.

 

The best part is that they were both laughing really hard the whole time that little devil Cash was putting sweet Carson in a headlock and pushing him to the floor. Boys...