December and 2016 in Review

December was crazy busy.  With two birthday, a double birthday party, and the holidays....I'm so glad that 2016 is almost gone

Decor around the house. We were able to finally upgrade our tree this year. 

The house.

Decorating for Christmas. 

Goofy kid

Found this on the HGTV website. I only used epsom salt, some brush trees I found at target and
the truck is from Dom's stash. 

somehow we have accumulated too many xmas books

the polar express

The Grinch that Stole Christmas

We started new traditions with the holidays- we started searching for synchronized light houses. So far, we found four who did a really good job. A lot of projections. One can only hope that we can even do something like that next year. For now, we are just enjoying looking at them. We also started reading a book a day (about 10 days) before Christmas. I was able to find out that the local hunting store had pictures with Santa, and since the weather was fantastic, we decided to take advantage of it. It got cold for about a week, meaning it was never above 20 degrees, but recently it's been in the 50s and 60s. So, it's still possible to go play outside.

always with the bulbs

he loves to color

No interest in lincoln logs

good pic huh? I'm actually surprised it turned out this way.

Christmas Eve dinner was just us and my parents and brothers. For those of you wondering...my family has always celebrated dinner on the 24th....and continued the fiesta on the 25th. I am not sure why people go out and do weird things on the 24th. It feels weird to me- this is a the day to be with family and have a nice dinner. Spencer wanted a dinner on the 25th- so it was just the four of us that day. We kept it small (usually we invite missionaries over). We just did tamales for dinner (typical Mexican Christmas dinner). I had three thinking they looked small, but i forgot they had lard...haha. Yeah, my tummy didn't forgive me for a couple of days.  Then, dessert was cheesecake (Spencer had been craving it since Thanksgiving) and he practically finished half of it on his own. So, to say that we were health conscious during this time...would be a flat out lie. Back to gym, I go....for a LONG time.  On Christmas day, we just had a small ham, mashed potatoes, a salad, and mac and cheese for the kids.

Right after Santa left

The night of the 24th, Ethan got a fever and slept horribly. The fever lasted all the way until the morning of the 26th- peaking at 103....making me too nervous. Usually I will not let it go past 48 hours. Luckily, he got WAY better by 9am on the 26th (since there were NO other symptoms...I'm thinking the molars are making their way out). He was so bummed, he really didn't care for Christmas Day. He got a late start on enjoying his presents. The kids...once again...got too much. Most if it, was hoarded from summer toy sales. Nobody really asked for anything in particular, so I had to guess. Dom really loved the legos and the cars. Ethan really loved his letter puzzles and his little people.

Christmas Day

I will control myself next year, and we will go way smaller. Nana and Bopi got us a game we could all play along with a nativity set (Dom loves nativities...he calls them "activities"), while Guelito and Gueilita got Dom a bike, and Ethan an ipad mini. Uncles gave Dom a rescue bot he did not have, and Totoro shirt. While Ethan got an ABC puzzle and totoro pjs. He loves Totoro right now.  Spencer and I didn't get anything for each other, because we opted on buying the TV instead. I found a great deal at Target- a 65in. I know what you're thinking....Spencer actually wanted to go bigger. He thought the tv would look small in our HUGE wall (two stories high). While I somewhat agreed, we didn't really need anything massive. The new TVs...are not even TVs anymore....they lack the tuner. Which means, that they are basically big monitors on which to use apps and wifi on. I wanted a TV that I could actually play local channels on, so we were running out of time. We gave up cable this year, in order to focus on other things financially, so having local channels was a must. I was surprised how easy it was to install and how fast the apps are. I have heard from several people that netflix is super slow on smart tvs....not this one. It's just like changing a channel. BOOM....it's there asking you what you want to watch. Same with amazon video and you tube....never gets stuck. It could be that the modem is right next to it....but it works and I love it. Nothing has an Ethernet cable, everything is wifi, and I am impressed with the quality based on the price we paid. I would buy a VIZIO again if I ever needed it.

Oregon Coffeys got us this year....so we got a hammock and
flip flops....for next year at the beach! (and Brazilian candy
which is very good)

I don't really do end of year updates, mainly, because that's what the blog is....A HUGE UPDATE. But I do want to mention a couple of things I have noticed this year, especially in the kids....so here's my sort of yearly review:

Dom had a Christmas program at school and he loves signing Christmas songs (Frosty the Snowman being a favorite). On the last song "Santa clause is coming to town"...Santa showed up. The kids got to meet Santa TWICE- first time at the local hunting store, then again at Dom's program.
 Dom did great this semester in preschool. He learned percent. The other day he told me "Mama...it is 10% light outside (around 7am)". He's goofy.  He also has learned a lot of science - from how to do crystals to volcanoes, how light/shadows work, how baking works to all sorts of cool stuff. He also learned how to do addition and subtraction with an abacus. He  found a lite brite and loves it. He was trying to tell me how it works. I had to explain to him, that  I had one growing up, and he asked me where it was....again, goofy kid. I'm glad that toys like that still exist, and not everything is an app.

School Program

He is doing so good in ST. He has learned a lot of sounds that were not possible for him at the beginning of the year...like ST endings, and TH sounds, and separating S and Z sounds. He's doing wonderful. He probably will need one more year, and then he will be done for good. I am so grateful he is putting so much effort into this. His therapist is really good. She's young and loves superheroes and cars....what a perfect fit! Dom loves going into her office and playing with her "toys".  She keeps telling me how funny he is, and how awesome his memory is as well.

2nd time meeting Santa..

He took piano lessons in the summer and then our teacher left...so she left us hanging. So I signed him up for music class (taught by his BFF's mom). She says that Dom has a knack for music. He gets it...he loves the math involved in it, and he has a wonderful memory. He remembers way more than he's supposed to. Maybe this is his calling....music. I just don't see Dom sitting still long enough to play music....but we'll see how it plays out in the future...no pun intended. Recently, I won a few piano lessons from our RS activity and he's been playing piano again with Sister L. She was so impressed at how much he knew- half notes, quarter notes, whole notes, terms like forte, tempo, piano. He surprised me! I had NO idea he even knew that. He sat at the piano, like he already knew what he was doing. He knew where to put most of his fingers and knew some of the notes even.

piano lessons

Ethan is growing and stretching. 2t is perfect on this kid...which I"m not sure how long it will last. He's a couple of inches taller than Dom was at this age.  He has learned so much in the past month- he learned all his ABCs, numbers 1-10 (front AND backwards), AND all the basic colors- blue, purple, red, green, yellow, black, white, orange. Super recently, he potty trained. He tells me when he needs to go and I pray that I have enough time to take him. For now, he only goes in the small portable potty. We're working on transferring to the normal potty, so we can get rid of this little one. It's so nice to not have any diapers during the day. He totally did it WAY before older brother, I am so grateful for that....I was tired of washing diapers. We just use disposables at night....and most nights he's totally fine with just one. He's learning so fast. He also learned how to open all doors (and sneaks out at night, when he's suppose to be sleeping)....he's the one that's going to give me a hard time during puberty....I just know it. He's been eating so well, and hardly got sick this year...maybe once...nothing urgent though. It's been awesome watching him blossom into a baby/toddler. He understand the language so well, even if you talk to him in Spanish....we believe he understands. He loves the color blue and purple and loves to color...he has every kind of marker imaginable- washable paper, color wonder, window, dry erase...too much to confuse him on where to use each one. He loves to do his own creations, but loves to color in images mostly. He loves ABC puzzles and can spend half an hour to an hour on them....he's my busy body one.  He likes to watch TV (all of it prek appropriate and most of it nursery rhymes) and can watch whole episodes without leaving. He loves to sneak unto the loft, and take all my supplies out and just leave them out. He LOVES outside...he loves the beach, the water park, the park slides...anything having to do outside. We will probably try to take him camping this upcoming year.

they love matching

Last Doc appointment.

Spencer worked WAY less nights than last year, and we are so grateful for that. He is now the Hospitalist NP leader, which basically means he makes the schedule and trains the new kids. If he had to work nights, he was home by 3 am, very rarely 7 am. He tolerates his work, but enjoys the people he works with. He did so much work outside. He tore up the grass in the front AND backyard, planted nice green grass and we even had a veggie garden. We got plenty of tomatoes and jalapenos. We got ONE watermelon...and unfortunately, we lost our pumpkin, strawberry and cucumber plants (which gave us 3 veggies before dying). We changed our other fence (with a gate) and he also built a shed. While doing the shed, he hurt his back, and has taken it easy ever since. He has slowly gotten better....super slowly. He is going to the chiropractor and says he's getting better. Hopefully an MRI is not necessary this upcoming year.  He also redid our kitchen cabinets, and our master shower, along with a few small DIY projects.

Leslie has done some stuff...mostly kid stuff haha. The kids take up most of my time. This year, I took seriously going back to the gym. And starting june, took a weights class...seriously. It feels so good to be able to lift way more than I ever could. I can now carry both kids with heels from my car to the chapel on Sundays...easy peasy. I wanted to make sure I could keep up my with highly active children, and I am starting to see the fruits of my labor. When I started, I could only do 5lbs on each side...now, I can max out at 20lbs on each side of the bar. IF they happen to be free weights, only 10lbs....but I will get there. I'm starting to see definition in muscles that I have only seen on TV (especifically workout videos haha). By no means do I look like Jillian Michaels, but it's nice to see. When I was younger, college aged, I thought it was just enough to starve and keep my weight in check that way. Now, I see I was just harming myself. While I have not lowered any pounds this year, which I really wanted to, I can see I am building muscles. I can also see that I am very hungry a lot of the time. Spencer makes me watch strongman competitions on TV and you hear about these massive guys eating so much.  You lose so many calories working out, it makes sense you have to eat a lot to compensate for the lost calories. I am finding myself eating more as well- we eat dinner at 5pm and I am starving by 9 pm. I usually eat cereal, but every now and then I will just eat meat- like a sandwich or a ham quesadilla. It's awful, I can't help it. I figured as long as it's not junk food- like candy or cookies....I should be fine.  I have recently found a cycling class and hope to go more often in 2017 and work even more muscles that way. For now, it's just weights and cardio. I find myself struggling the first 20 minutes (while I learn how to breath through the exercises) and the rest of the 40 minutes I am just numb.
I was also able to work on our kitchen cabinets. Next year, I plan to redo our laundry/utility room cabinets and maybe fix the ones in the kids' bathroom. we definitely need to purchase white doors to match the trim in the house. This house is looking fantabolous. I am so proud of everything we have done to it. We hope next year to make an even bigger veggie garden (we raided the seed aisle during clearance time in august) and keep working on the yard to make it even greener.

HERE'S TO A NEW YEAR. MAY 2017 HAVE NOTHING BUT GOOD THINGS COME YOUR WAY!