Thursday, November 1, 2012

Giraffy Halloween!!

Marcus is getting really good at his ABC's and what better way to do it than as a giraffe! We had a fun halloween even though we got the sniffles- probably from a sugar overload. Oh and he does know the rest of his ABC's- Juan just started talking on the phone at the end of the video and ruined it. Happy Halloween!

Monday, September 24, 2012

better blogging on the way...

okay- I have been a terrible blogger lately and I would like to change that. I have my excuses though- like - I can't get a good picture of Marcus anymore because he wants to play with the camera before I get a chance to take a picture of his smiley face. So all I end up with is a fussy face like this one:
Or- the excuse that my computer SUCKS and is so slow I have to sit and wait for hours for just one picture to load. AND I don't save any pictures on this computer because it will run even slower so they are all on Juan's flat screen tv/monitor. Yes, we mounted a computer on the top of the wall. So imagine trying to work on something with a little mouse while sitting on a reclined lazyboy. You can see it behind Marcus in this picture. When Juan was mounting it on the wall for some reason he kept hitting nails in the 2x4's so he kept going up and up. His defense was he couldn't go down because Marcus would destroy it. Good point. I digress.
Putting all those excuses aside- here I am blogging. Ya happy?
Oh- one more thing to complain about... for some reason I can't load videos onto my blog anymore!!! WHY???!!
So pictures will have to suffice. We went camping and I took a bunch of cute videos of this little guy pushing the broom around. Let me tell you this guy is definitely domesticating. His favorite toys are the washer and dryer, the broom, and the plunger, naturally. He wouldn't play with sticks (Mom! I'll get dirt under my nails) or rocks (I'll just push em around with the broom). His favorite thing to play with were the tongs I was trying to use to turn the tinfoil dinners with oh, and the lighter of course. Pyro.
 We had a good time though. And Juan hardly complained it blew my mind. He told me later that he wanted to complain every 20 minutes he woke up to the sound of his shivering body. But he chose not to ruin it for me. Isn't that sweet?? I enjoyed most of it but realized that without my dad around I have to do all the work. Now I am so grateful for all the camping trips we went on and all the work that my dad did to make it happen. Even though he will say it was his pleasure and that he enjoyed every minute of it, it still was a lot of work. Now I need to pay it forward to my kids so they can have a good time in nature. We do it all for the chance to be completely surrounded by nature. And it is worth it.

We celebrated my niece, Ashtyn's birthday. I love that little girl so much. She is wearing the shirt we gave her and I helped make the cake too. It was kinda thrown together because you can't frost a bundt cake but that is what she wanted. And my sister is obsessed with sunflowers so this is how it turned out. 


The skittles at the bottom are supposed to be a fence. Anyway, we tried :p

My sister has been having car trouble so Marcus and I got to spend the whole day with her little cutie, Lexy Lu. Here they are chasing each other and throwing rocks through the fence.



It's always a good time with these yahoos. They are learning social skills through trial and error. Sometimes I have to peel one of them off of the other but they still get excited to see each other. Don't be fooled by that adorable face Lexy has put on in this picture. She can be just as mischievous as Marcus if not more ;)

Friday, August 31, 2012

bubbles bubbles bubsas

We have been having a lot of bathtime fun lately. Marcus just loves bubbles! The video didn't load and it was so adorable of him laughing his head off at Juan blowing the bubbles in the air. This is his pre-bubble-blowing face. Haha! Yeah- that is peanut butter on the side of his mouth.

How's this for censorship?
And finally, his best modeling pose. We should get this guy into a bathtime bubbles comercial! Who wouldn't want to jump in a tub of bubbles after looking at this picture! HA!

Monday, August 6, 2012

Moving on after a miscarriage

I started writing this a few months ago and I just finished it. It is a long one:

I need to write this as part of the healing process. I may just have to sit here with tears streaming down my face trying to see the words slowly coming together on the screen of my laptop. I cry tears not only for myself but for all the other wonderful women in my life that have also experienced the loss of a precious baby. As women, we have a special kind of intuition, we just feel our babies inside us from the beginning. And we know when we have lost them if it has ended in a miscarriage. But the first time it happened to me, I didn't have a clue.
Here are the awful ugly parts of my story
Miscarriage #1 (nov 2009)
I was still trying to get used to the daily struggle with nausea and strong smells and morning sickness when it was the 9th week of my very first pregnancy and my doctor had scheduled an ultrasound. I was so excited to see a REAL BABY inside of myself I could hardly concentrate at work and surprisingly I felt as if the nausea had eased or at least maybe I was just so caught up in the excitement that I was ignoring it. All my hopes and dreams of becoming a mother and having my own little precious baby that would one day look like me or act like me came to a sudden halt when the ultrasound tech didn't let me see the screen and coldly informed me that the doctor would be in to tell me the results of my ultrasound. I hated the doctor when she told me the news that there was no heartbeat. She had to tell me a few times how certain she was of the results because I didn't want to accept it. She did consent to having another ultrasound a week later with Juan there and that visit was just as miserable as the first with confirmation of the miscarriage. The hardest thing about it was the coldness of our doctor and her terrible bereavement skills or lack thereof. I had a D&C a couple of days later and cried my way through the next few weeks whenever I had to stop people from congratulating me on my pregnancy that I probably should not have announced to the world in the first place.
Miscarriage #2 (apr 2012)
We found out we were pregnant on valentines day this year (2012). I was nervous about it at first because we didn't have insurance because Juan had just changed jobs and had a probationary period of 3 months before the insurance would kick in. We had to pay cash for our doctors visits. I felt very nauseous and fatigued for 2 months until the day I started spotting. I called the health nurse and she advised an ultrasound but we knew it would be very expensive. So we found a clinic that does ultrasounds for cheaper- you know the happy ones where they have a wide variety of ways to see your unborn baby and print your out 3D pictures. We did the cheapest one just to check for a heartbeat. Well there was no heartbeat, which is what we expected, and the poor ultrasound tech didn't know what to say to us. The night before I felt different. I just knew our baby was gone because my nauseousness was coming and going and I was feeling more energized. We paid another $250 for a doctor's visit and she confirmed that I had had a partial molar pregnancy. Go here for a medical definition. Basically, the embryo had never developed into a fetus but my body was still producing prenatal tissue and I was experiencing all the pregnancy symptoms. I would need to have the tissue removed and tested for malignancy. Cancer? What the...
Now what were we going to do? Without insurance the option of having a D&C by my doctor at the hospital was out of the question. The cost could be anywhere between 6,000 to 10,000 dollars. Since I ruled that out my doctor gave me the option to wait the 12 days until my insurance kicked in to have the D&C or go to an abortion clinic. AN ABORTION CLINIC! I was horrified of the thought. Stupid insurance!!
So, I decided to wait. With the threat of having a natural miscarriage I tried my best to take it easy but how can you do that with a 1 year old? The inevitable happened and I started bleeding heavier than I ever have before. Without any other options we called the abortion clinic. My body was not able to wait for our appointment and passed a lot of tissue- what I thought was the fetus. I am so glad that I had Juan there at the time and that Marcus was sleeping because it was not easy emotionally.
Our experience at the abortion clinic was unique to say the least. We had to be buzzed in at every door and there were bulletproof windows with speaker holes like you see in the movies when someone goes to visit a prisoner. Juan was not allowed in the room where I had my ultrasound and met with the doctor. Everyone in the waiting room kept there heads down and no one was talking. The most silent waiting room full of people that I have ever been in. We just stared at the fish tank. I hated the doctor from the minute I met him. He seemed to be caught up in the politics of abortions rather than the people. He treated me just like he would treat any woman patient wanting to get rid of whats inside. I had a cold sore on my lip and he said to me-
"Oh, you have herpes. You know where you got that from right? Yeah, and if you keep going down there you are gonna pass it to the next person and its gonna get passed all around and get really ugly so you need to stop." I could not believe it. The reason why I had a 'stress sore' on my lip was because I was under a lot of stress from the miscarriage. I wish Juan would have been in the room to punch him in the face.
So gladly accepting the laughing gas the room was soon spinning and my body and eyelids got heavy. I had to tell myself that I at least wanted to hear what they were saying. I tried to focus the energy that was being numbed out of me just to listen to what the doctor was saying.
"Wow, she is already dilated almost completely," and "this is a lot of tissue," and "there is plenty of tissue here to be sent to the lab, just put it all in the jar."
It was really scary to say the least. I was able to relax after they took the laughing gas off and wheeled me into the recovery room. But that was short lived. The recovery room was very open- really just the hallway foyer to all the other operating rooms. There was someone right next to me (I think it was the 15-year-old-looking girl). The doctors and nurses were walking in and out of all the operating rooms while the doctor barked orders. I was forced to listen to their conversation because the gas had not worn off yet. Someone came into the room and started showing the doctor some documents. It was something controversial about abortion like a study or something political. So the doctor started cursing and flying off the handle over this issue. I had to lay there and listen to his rantings and it made me tighten up and wish I could get out of there. Finally, I felt a little more feeling and sat up. The nurse ran over and said, "Oh, honey! I don't think you are ready to get up yet." I told her I was fine and she helped me to the bathroom. Finally peace and quiet. I stayed in there until I felt recovered enough to walk out to the waiting room and Juan. It felt so good to walk out of that terrible place. I don't know why but I just felt sick about the whole experience. I am so glad it is over and I am so glad we have insurance now.

Interspersed tender mercies of the Lord
1. The experience of losing a baby helped me form a friendship with a dear sweet sister in our student ward who had lost a baby at childbirth. I admired and still admire her courage and testimony.
2. We were all the more grateful for the news of a second pregnancy of our sweet baby Marcus.
3. We were able to get pregnant again only 4 months after the D&C.
4. Whenever I found out of of other sisters in our ward who had had a miscarriage I wanted to run to them and cry with them. I was able to form more meaningful relationships.
5. We have Marcus- who is the light of our lives
6.  My mom and dad just happen to show up the weekend that we found out we had lost the baby. They stayed with us for a long time and we had some great bonding moments.
7. The lab of the abortion clinic sent samples to my regular OBGYN so they were able to tell me the results.
8. The result were surprisingly that I no longer have any cancer cells.
9. We are able to try to get pregnant again.
10. We were able to go on some fun trips this summer and I was able to do some things that pregnant women can't do: go down a waterslide, hike a 17 miler, and play in a volleyball tournament.

It has been a while since this all happened and I can finally say that I have recovered from it. I look forward to adding little cuties to our family in the future and I think if there are any more bumps in my baby making years we can make it through. It will be alright in the end and if it isn't alright then it isn't the end.



Wednesday, June 27, 2012

17 months? already??



I can't believe my little big guy is already 17 months. Its true what everyone says about how fast they grow. I am such a terrible person and have not recorded all the hurdles he has passed. I started a journal a while back and made a goal to just write one sentence a day. Guess how many sentences I wrote? yup- you know me all too well.
So here is a list that proves that Marcus is a totally awesome kid. I will list the most recent stuff first:
1. He can feed himself with a spoon
2. He climbs up onto a chair at the table and sits down ready to be fed (no more high chair)
3. He still eats at least 1/2 avocado a day
4. He can catch a ball. piece of cake.
5. He loves to throw balls across the room. Heads up!!
6. He also likes to experiment the projectilability of many other objects: spoons, forks, blocks, books, brushes, toothbrushes, mascara, tampons (which leads to number seven.)
7. He can reach his little dirty paws into any drawer in the kitchen and bathroom without any trouble at all (we are no longer allotted a 'junk' drawer)
8. He gets his shoes, a book, and his balls when asked
9. He knows how to productively ask for milk (sometimes hysterically).
10. He can kick a ball and drink his milk at the same time
11. He can swim in and out of his inner-tube (only in the living room of course)
12. He kisses on command
13. He high-fives on command (also, when the opportunity arises, he likes to high five your face)
14. He can go up and down the stairs of the slide (that's right, its more fun to go down the stairs rather than take the 'easy' way down. I guess the rest of us are just lazy)
15. He can bark at the dogs and meow at the cats in the neighborhood.
16. He can jump off the end of the couch onto the love sac
17. He can dump water on his own head at bathtime
18. He can take off his own diaper in the morning while still in bed....and still peeing
19. He can climb into his toy box and empty the entire contents of it till the floor is impenetrable in less than 5 minutes
---aaaaaaaand last but not least---
20. He can cue his audience for applause when he successfully does any of the above

Monday, April 9, 2012

Easter

I love love love love Easter. who doesn't? I almost wish there were more songs and hype about it because it is clearly the second best holiday of the year. This year I didn't get to celebrate at home (in rosytown) which is the best! but...I did have Sarah and her kids to celebrate with which made it awesome. You gotta have candy-craving-kids in order to enjoy the hunt. It was especially fun because I got to play Easter bunny for the first time! I didn't have the slightest idea how fun it could be. Hiding eggs and stealing baskets and candy in true Easter bunny fashion (reference to Uncle Marshal). It was a delight.
And this year we had Marcus and boy did he catch on quick. After observing his big cousins he realized that as soon as you find an egg you start yelling back at the table triumphantly. For him it doesn't matter what you are yell just as long as get back to the group as quickly as you can with the prize egg held high over head. He loved it. Just as much as his first taste of all the delicious kinds of candy coated chocolate and jelly beans. Oh, and did I mention- he already adores eggs- hard boiled eggs. Eats at least one everyday.
Having kids makes holidays especially special. And I am not just talking about for the hunt or the candy. I am so grateful that my little guy will be mine forever. My Savior made it all possible. I love my little family now and can't wait to get to know the rest of the little angels that heaven sends our way. I only hope that I can be a worthy and able mommy to all of them. The sickness that I am feeling right now is quite a trial. I am doing it for our second little one. Jesus suffered for all of us. I am so glad that I can be a part of his plan of happiness in bringing little souls so the earth. The pain and sickness is only temporary. The joy is eternal.
Happy Easter!

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

By the sea

We had an awesome vacation a few weeks ago. Juan's brother, Andres, came for a visit from Ecuador and stayed with us for a while so we took him and Marylu along with us to San Diego.I was pleasantly surprised how close it is to drive to California from Vegas- only about 4 hours. We stayed with Juan's friends the Walkers in Mission Viejo the first night and Saturday we went to Sea World. Marcus enjoyed it so much even though we sat in the splash zones during every show. He only cried a little bit when we got splashed. Most of the time he was very entertained. His favorite part was the turtle aquarium. As the fish swam right by his face he tried to grab them- it was so cute to watch. I wish I would have gotten a good video of it. We loved seeing dolphins, killer whales, sea lions and all kinds of creatures of the sea. Still, I like to see it all in the wild and I found myself missing Hawaii and snorkeling. I would do anything to be able to swim with dolphins again in the wild.
Marcus' favorite part in the whole park was the baby fishbowl. In my opinion this was genius for the little toddlers to run around in. He met some other cute fishes too.
That night we stayed in Carlsbad in a hotel a few blocks to the beach. The next day, while Juan and Andres went to a Clippers game during the day, Mare and I took Marcus down to the beach. What a fun time we had; playing in the sand, finding seashells/rocks, and chasing birds away from our picnic. Marcus ate it a few times...literally...and after the third time, and it was into the water because a wave wiped him out, we decided to pack up and head back. SO MUCH BETTER THAN GOING TO A BASKETBALL GAME! Our last day was pretty awesome. We got to see the San Diego temple and went to a beach in La Jolla where we got to see about a hundred leopard sea lions basking in the sun and some huge pelicans. Can you spot them on the rock?

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

smile wide and drool

I love my little man. ever since i can remember he has been dripping from the mouth like the bulldog in Rio. I think its his happy attitude and hunger for...well...food. some of his favorites include:
eggs
avocados
shrimp
chicken
spaghetti
grapes
bananas
cottage cheese
shredded cheese
granola bars
I could go on and on...he is not a picky eater.
Lately, I have felt like we are really communicating effectively. When he wants to go outside he brings me one of his shoes. Then I point to the other shoe and explain that he needs it and so he goes and retrieves it as well. At meal time when he is not happy with one of the options being thrust in his face he looks heavenward as if saying a prayer and puts his hands on his head and under his chin. I abuse this one a little too much cuz I love seeing him squirm and stress out :)
To the relief of both his parents his favorite toys are balls. Big ones, small ones, deflated ones and especially bite size ones. That might be the only reason why he likes grapes.
He is a very independent little guy. It is very hard to get him to hold your hand while walking and he has exhibited frustration when I have tried to help him climb up onto the slide or chair.
He is a fast learner and daredevil (like his mom). He loves naps, the iPhone, and food (like his dad).

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

long time no see

time to just say something here since a few months have passed by. uh...a lot has happened since halloween. we had a wonderful thanksgiving and christmas out in rosytown with all the fam. i love it there with everyone- pure bliss. new year's was spent at lauradaves which was a lot of fun, of course. that is until kids started throwing up. then a week later Juan had an job interview in las vegas so we headed down there (here) and the day after the interview they called him up and offered him a job. so the last day of january we packed up our lives in a big moving truck and drove 7 hours to vegas. and here we are in our little apartment. we live a few blocks away from sarah which is awesome.
that was a quick up to speed post...but i left out one minor detail....
we found out on valentine's day that....drum roll please.....i'm pregnant.
so that means i am sick. as a dog. but not throwing up. hooray!