Family Is Everything

We had a Family Get-Together at my Mom & Dad's place this past Saturday afternoon. My Grandpa Fermin, 82, my Tia Susie and my Uncle Ray came to visit. It was so nice to see them because it has been way too long since we'd been together. Growing up we used to visit my dad's side of the family every Friday night for pizza and movies. Those are precious, wonderful memories!! Here are some pics we took that afternoon:
Grandpa & The Girls...
Grandpa & The Men...
Fermin I, Fermin II, Fermin IIV, Fermin IV...
While I had the camera out, we took some individual family photos, too.
Liz's Family...

My Family...

Nicole's Family...

Fermin's Family...

We missed my oldest sister Connie's family. It was her husband, James, birthday and they had their own party going on. Her oldest son, Pete, is in the Men's group photo though. Yes, Family Is Everything!

Off To The Movies.....Again

Tonight is another Family Night out to dinner and to the movies. We saw the previews of the new Madagascar movie when we went to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Larry promised the kids we'd see it on its opening night. We all LOVE the first Madagascar movie. It is so funny! Whenever we're running late, we get the kids moving by singing the "I like to move it, move it" song. I bought our tickets this afternoon (love Fandango) and Larry will probably pick the place to eat. If we left it up to the kids it'd be MacDonalds or Wendy's. The kids are all dressed up to go out and are super excited! Alliah put on her slacks and dressy jacket and Angel even put gel in his hair lol. A Night out on the town with my three favorite people? Priceless.

My New Toy

Lately I've been experiencing ETD (Emotional Technical Difficulties). This is primarily due to this "pause" in our second adoption journey and the lack of my patience. Larry and I met for lunch today and there happened to be a birthday party going on in the restaurant. I was already having a shaky morning and I was looking forward to being with Larry. But of all things, this party just HAD to be for a baby who looked to be under one years old. Like I said, other things had been going on that made the ETD more and more apparent, but this took the 'birthday' cake. The room was buzzing with about 25-30 new moms and their babies laughing and talking baby talk and, of course, comparing their baby's development with the development of the others. It took everything within me to hold back my tears. In my mind I was screaming, "I want MY baby to find his way home!!!" Hhhmm...I can usually handle days like these and take it in stride, but for some reason, today, I can't - or I should say, couldn't. So....what else was there to do but return to my office and buzz around blogspot to read about other families who have been where I am and know what it's like to wait without ANY knowledge of when or from where my baby will come. After reading many, many, many stories I had the need to go to..........WALMART! Why you ask? Well, let me tell you. While I was reading the other adoption blogs and stories of how other Forever Families came to be, I thought of my two precious babies that I already have. On one site, a mom excitedly uploaded videos of her kids, They were uh... screaming. Yes, screaming. I guess she just wanted to record 'something' using the Flip Camcorder she had just purchased. The camcorder was amazing! So amazing I went and bought one! It's the size of my hand, can record up to 60 minutes and has a pop-out USB port so it connects right to my computer. It runs on recharable AA batteries and I'll tell you, it just fixed me up in a minute! So, please, don't worry about me. I share these thoughts so I can go back and read the blog entries for myself - especially when I've made it over the hill I thought was a mountain. I have days like this one every once in a while and then I gather my thoughts, pick myself up, cancel all the invitations to my pity-party and I get over it. I thank God for being there for me and for ignoring all the "not so nice" things I sometimes say to Him. I came home so excited to use my new toy (like the mom with the screaming kids) but I recorded my Alliah singing a new song she learned in music class. It took less than 10 minutes to open the package, put in the batteries, press the record button and upload the video here. I'll be posting more videos for sure, so keep reading!

We Voted!

We're all sitting here in the family room watching the electoral map flash across the screen. There's lots of blue. Larry, me, and the kids are watching in anticipation 207 to 135 Obama. We took the kids to the voting poll and we're here waiting to see what' going to happen... As republicans who stand for biblical truths and righteousness, we have no choice than to put our trust in the Lord no matter what happens. God is greater than this election and HE is ultimately in control!

My Felicia

My mom said my sister Liz and my neice Felicia are supposed to be coming over this weekend. I miss them so much and hope they can make it! Just had to post this beautiful picture of my neice. I remember when she was so small like Isabella is now. I was her most favorite person in the whole wide world, with the exception of her mommy. I sure do miss those days! (Felicia sent me this updated pic. She didn't like the one I posted. She said it's 'blah' She's all dolled up in this one and looking way too old in my opinion. :D I'll find some pics that I love, love, love of her....not that I don't love this one too. I can't wait to see her this weekend!!!)

Saturday Special

This past Saturday we had a lunch-time get-together at our house with my parents, my sister Nicole and her family, and my brother Fermin and his family. We surprised my nephew Isaiah with a walker and he loved it! Nicole (his mommy) zoomed him around our house. He went backwards a few times all by himself...he'll get the hang of it soon. Here are some pictures of baby Isaiah sitting in his new walker eating chocolate frosting for the first time. He did all he could to get every ounce of it in his mouth. He cracked us up!!











And this is our precious Isabella. She's my brother Fermin's new baby girl and is growing so fast! This was her first visit to Tia Kristie & Uncle Larry's house. She smiles and coos now and is such a good baby.

Little Fermin

This is my nephew Fermin who will be eight this November. All he wants for Christmas is his two front teeth!

Harvest Fest

Tonight was Harvest Fest! We don't celebrate "Halloween" so our church offers a family-friendly alternative to going out trick or treating and uses this night as an outreach to the community. That's Harvest Fest. Along with about 600-700 people, Angel and Alliah enjoyed the bounce houses, rock climbing wall, bungee run, pumpkin patch, carnival games, face painting, cake walks, popcorn machine, prize drawings, free food and sodas and, of course, the candy, candy, candy!

Buying costumes for Halloween is pretty much a waste of money so for fun, we let our kids create their own costume out of the clothes they have.

This year Angel chose to be his favorite ball player #25 Barry Bonds AKA Angel Bonds!
Alliah LOVES cowboy boots on any day, so what else would she possibly want to be but a cute little Cowgirl. She was a cowgirl last year, too. Country runs through her blood!

Alliah strikes a pose as her enthusiastic self. Tonight was a blast!

Page Update!

I updated my page today!

Angel's Take On Scandal

Tonight as we were trying to hurry out the door for church, Angel stopped me and said there was something cool he learned and he just had to show me before he forgot. It was important! I reluctantly stopped and gave him my full attention (I'm practicing to be better at that). He said, "Mom, today I learned how to write the secret code name of the man who stayed at the water hotel with the gate in front of it." I said, "What are you talking about, Angel? You learned this at school today?" He showed me a piece of paper that read: II I / O II He said, "Yeah, Mom, watch...." He quickly wrote a "\" to connect the II's and to cross the / and smiled really big saying, "It says NIXON." Get it? It's the name of the man who stayed at the water hotel with the gate in front of it?! ha!