Celebrating 8 Years

You loved me when I was broken, when I didn't even love myself. You saw our future together, one that I was too afraid to accept or acknowledge. Eight years ago, you made me a wife. You helped make my house a home. You taught me to have faith and to believe. You supported all my decisions and try everything in your power to make my dreams come true.

Now, we have two beautiful kids together and I'm so grateful that God put you in my life. Sometimes I look at you and wonder where you came from. I don't even know. It seems as if you were always there.

Ours was a leap of faith and I can't wait to see what new adventures lie ahead for us! I love you!

Engagement Pictures on Sand Key Beach

My Wedding Portrait

The best look ever!

Most Romantic Kiss...

Getting a little crazy

Is that the best smile, or what? I love my dad!

Wasn't our planned wedding on the beach, but we made it work.

Without a doubt, the happiest moment of my wedding. Can you see that in my eyes?

Contentment at pulling the whole thing off...

I was always a Daddy's girl...

A toast

Cutting the cake

We went back about a month later to re-do wedding pictures and wedding video. I thought I would be scarred for life after our wedding. One day I'll blog about it. All I can say is that at that point, I was still quite sad and a little bitter. Even in that state of mind, I did recognize that it's not every bride that gets to wear her wedding dress twice and I did! I was thrilled.

Garage Pics

We started work on the insulation. So far, so good. The empty spot in the middle there is where our new window will go. Very excited about that!
We haven't gotten as far on the other side. We have to wait for the electrical work to get done first. You can see three electrical boxes towards the bottom for the electric and the cable.

Pictures!

Daddy puts up the bird feeder. Jayden and Maya are completely intrigued.
Jayden and Maya are calling "Tweet, tweet!" to let the birds know the feeder is out.

They crack me up!

I have to look at this sad face every morning at drop off.

Afternoon at the park, after church...

Weee!

Ingenious! Popsicles without the mess...

Maya doesn't really care for dolls just yet, but she is getting to the point where she loves to play with her stuffed animals. She often sits with Bear and Bunnie at her table and has tea parties. Here she is giving Bear a drink.

Maya picked out her own outfit today. After dropping off Jayden, I came home to find her in a 4t outfit that was Caitlyn's. I can barely believe how cute it looks on her. I would never have tried it on her on my own.

Big Hug for Bear

When he's not crying, he's working on beautiful creations. Here's Jayden's Artwork:

Garage Conversion Project

Well, we started the garage conversion project. Last week, we started to pick up materials. We were very fortunate. We had a neighbor loan us his truck so we could bring stuff back home and several neighbors loaned us drills and other tools for the job. On Sunday, September 6th, we began construction.

Here is the final sketch. We'll have two smaller rooms and a dedicated laundry space. The room on the left will have a window, door and closet for Ricardo. The second room will have an entrance (no door) and a closet. I'm putting the futon in here in case of any overnight guests. When not in use, it will serve as a sofa. We also plan to put the kid's board games and puzzles, an entertainment center, and maybe a small table. This is going to be their hang out room.

Here is the window we picked up for the space. It's a beautiful custom order, Pella double paned window with low E ($100 tax credit). It was a special order window that was originally over $200. We picked it up on clearance for $40!

We have a very limited number of tools, most of which I bought before I was married. We don't own a square. And I'm not ashamed to say that I sauntered out back to Jayden's Bob the Builder Workbench and I'm now using his square with great satisfaction. I should be ashamed that yesterday he wanted to play with it and I said "No!"

At the end of today, here's what we've got so far... The left hand wall is completely framed.

And we're about 75% done with the right hand wall.

Here's the teeny tiny space we have left to do. We were so bummed out that we couldn't just finish it up, but we ran out of time and Esteban was so tired already. He's got a ton of bruises and cuts and the makings of one gigantic blister on his hand. I felt awful that he woke up so early today to get started on the project. He didn't take a nap in the afternoon and he's working a graveyard shift tonight. I know he's going to be super tired!

Jayden's Progess at School

Well, believe it or not, Jayden just finished his second week at school. It seems to have flown by. He seems to be all settled into his school now. Let’s take a look at this week.

Monday: Tears in the morning and tears at drop off.

Tuesday: Tears in the morning and sad face at drop off. You know the look. Sad eyes, upside down smile, quivering chin… Yeah, that one.

Wednesday: No tears, just vocalized his desire to NOT go to school and got over it. No sad face at drop off! Thank you God! Today is the first day, Maya shows complete excitement over Jayden coming home from school

Thursday: Apparently, Jayden has a fan club and a little girlfriend. Taryn is her name and she jumped up and down with joy at seeing Jayden. They held hands all the way to class. It was too cute. Jayden wanted to hold my hand too, but I told him to go on ahead. You can’t hold your mom’s hand and your girlfriend’s hand at the same time! It was my volunteer day at the school so I stayed to read books during drop off. Just as the kids were getting ready to have breakfast, I left. Jayden was sad but he hung in there after I told him it was ok not to eat his yucky oatmeal.

Friday: Esteban dropped him off today with no problems. I picked him up and this time it was Taryn that came running over to me crying. Apparently, Jayden said he didn’t want to be friends anymore. 1st broken heart. Awww! He got his first homework assignment for the weekend. I’m looking forward to it!

Sometimes, I wonder what’s going on at school. Some days he says the teacher doesn’t like him and other times he tells me he told the teacher he loves her. Sometimes, he says the teacher is mad at him and other times, he wants to know what Ms. Helena is doing. One night he was rolling around on the floor and when I asked why he was doing that, he said the teacher told him to. Last night, he was hopping around the room, like a frog. The teacher said was his response to my questioning eyes. Today, we went to the store and I was eyeballing the meat when all of a sudden Jayden points to a sign and exclaims at the top of him lungs $10! I had to laugh. I was kinda thinking the same thing. I’m glad he’s learning!

If you have a Praying Bone in your Body, We Need You...

I've been wondering why it is taking so long for our package to arrive to the embassy in Honduras. We were given the address for an APO (army post office) so I did a web search for information on APO addresses and how often they receive mail. At first, I didn't find much, but as I started to change my keywords I came across this article.

U.S. moves toward formal cutoff of aid to Honduras (to read the article in full)

... the United States is taking steps — including its decision on Tuesday to cease issuing some visas at its embassy in Tegucigalpa — to raise pressure on the de facto government...

The official said this was a response to the de facto government’s rejection of proposals put forward by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, whose mediation effort has stalled over the government’s refusal to allow Zelaya to return to power.

The San Jose accord proposed last month by the Nobel Peace Prize winner would have allowed Zelaya to return to office until elections are held by the end of November.

The State Department said on Tuesday it would only provide visa services to potential immigrants and emergency cases at its embassy in Tegucigalpa.

A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity told reporters the visa decision was “a signal of how seriously we are watching the situation” and said Washington was considering other steps, though it was premature to disclose these.

Jayden, Jayden, Jayden… What About Maya?

With all the back to school drama, I’ve neglected to share how the transition has affected my baby girl. Well, I hate to say it, but Maya seems as happy as can be. While Jayden is at school crying his eyes out and missing Maya, she’s as if nothing ever happened. And it’s not hard to see why. She’s got all her toys to herself and she’s got the full attention of Mommy and Daddy. She doesn’t seem to look around for Jayden or ask for him, but she does wear his shoes. Yes, that’s right. She wears his shoes everyday while he’s in school. She must fall down a million times a day, but she doesn’t care. She wants to wear his sandals and flip-flops.

At night, I get Jayden’s outfit ready for the next day and she wants me to get her outfit too. Sometimes, she wakes up early and she sees Jayden getting ready. She follows me around. Brush teeth too. Dressed too. Outfit too. Mommyyyyyy… I go too. She’s so funny. Today, I had to brush her teeth, get her milk, and get her dressed all so she can stay home. “Go too” she said. I would bring her with me, but I’m holding off since Jayden is still having meltdowns at drop-off.

After the drop-off, I come home and Maya comes running. “Mommy, you back!” We have breakfast. We do some sort of activity together. Before you know it, it’s lunchtime. And lunch is so easy because my fussy eater is at school. Maya will eat practically anything. Before, I always tried to keep Maya up so that she and Jayden could nap together, but not anymore. She falls asleep so easy. It’s great. Today, she fell asleep on the sofa. All I had to do was move her. Soon after, it’s time to pick up Jayden. When we get back, Maya is up and the party gets started. And since the house has been quiet all day, it’s so much easier for me to be patient with their squabbling in the evenings. I love it.

Since Jayden attends the Head Start program, Maya will be able to enroll next year at age 3 because they give priority to siblings. Before I know it, Maya and Jayden will both be going to school. Is this really happening so fast? I feel like I just had Maya the other day…