Young Again

Just the other day I was thinking about how fun it was to be a kid. How there was really nothing to stress too much about. How life was so easy going. I had a friend that I would do just about everything with. We would always ride our bikes around town, walk, and just do fun stuff. I use to live across the street from a little park. There were times were we would go across the street and ponder as we would swing on the swings. I can't remember what we would ponder about at our age but I'm sure it wasn't too stressful. Oh to be young again. To not have to worry about the grown up stuff. As I am nearing my 30th birthday I have to admit it's kind of freaking me out about a bit! I am going to be THIRTY! I feel so old and I am literally feeling it! I have to actually watch what I eat, which I don't but should, I have to work out twice as hard as I use to, again don't, I should probably start taking vitamins to have energy for the day, again I don't do that. I am seeing little gray hairs sprouting out so that means better stay on top of dying my hair a little more often than I normally do. I noticed that my hand started to hurt now for 2 days so decided to go to the doctor. I wasn't too happy what he had to say to me. He said right now it's tendinitis BUT if it starts to occur frequent and goes in the other hand or other joints then arthritis. I cannot, repeat cannot believe it could be arthritis. I mean that's for old old people and I'm not that old. I told the doctor I don't remember every doing repetitive things with my hand whatsoever! How do you expect me to remember what I do. I am a stay at home mom to 3 kids and one is almost 3 and so half the time I pick up after him or do laundry. I don't keep track what I've done. I wish I  could just sometimes go back in time so I never ever had to worry about getting gray hairs, or hurt body parts. Ah to be young again. Well my hand is starting to hurt so I guess it's time to put a heating pad on the darn thing. I feel so old..*sigh*

Time Flies

I just realized that next week is the end of February! I cannot believe how fast this month has gone by. I have been crazy busy with stuff that I have not had a chance to just relax and enjoy this month. Then again not sure if I really want to enjoy this month since it's cold and has snowed again! It has been such lovely weather the last couple of days that I have really enjoyed it and I was able to get a few runs in-yay!

As I mentioned I have been crazy busy with a few things and it's about to get a lot crazier next week until May. The girls have their first competition at Thanksgiving Point next Saturday and have to admit I'm a little nervous not for Jazmin but for Mariah. This is her first competition and I hope that she doesn't get scared dancing on the stage with tonz of people starting at her. I'm sure that she will do fine and I am super excited to see her dances. She has a cute costume that's a lion, they are dancing to a song from the lion king, and a pretty little blue costume for her lyrical dance to In My Daughter's Eyes. Then March will come and we have 2 competitions and 1 one them is in St. George. I'm excited to go to St. George because we get to stay with Aunt Sheree and see her family, and we are taking a much needed break from the everyday home life and cold weather.

March is also Brock's birthday. That kid is going to be 3! I can't believe how fast he is growing up, literally he is growing fast because his pants are yet again too short for him. He just got a slew of new pants in December and they are already short on him. I have a feeling I will be shopping in the tall section for him when he gets older. Brock is doing extremely well on potty training, so well that he has finally earned his jazz bear that we bribed him with. Well unfortunately we haven't been able to find a jazz bear but build a bear has jazz clothes for you bear that you build and we figured that was the same. Don't think he will know as long as it says jazz I think he will be fine. Last week we were going to get his jazz bear but they were out of stock so Brock was really good about going back next week. I was afraid that he would throw a fit but he didn't thank goodness. So we went to the food court to grab something to eat. As we were finishing up Brandon spotted Jeremy Evans the rookie forward for the Jazz. As we got up to throw our food away Brandon started to talk to him and I told Brock that he was a Jazz player. Brock wanted nothing to do with him and hid behind me. I asked if I could get a picture with him and he was really nice and took a picture with me and Brock. I felt really bad for interrupting his lunch and I apologized to him for that. I'm sure he doesn't get too many people that come up to him because we were in the mall and no one (I think) even noticed him. A lot of people don't really notice the rookies but he is a good rookie and hopefully we can get him next year.

So from my busy month of running around and taking a picture with a basketball player February was good, minus the snow that we got. Here's the picture that Brandon took of me and Brock with Jeremy Evans. It was on my cell phone. I know blurry huh Brandon should be fired as a photographer. I think I will start to carry my small camera in my purse, but I need to buy the cord to charge it. Off to eBay to find one now.

Dear Phil

Dear Punxsutawney Phil,
 Please do not show your shadow tomorrow! For if you do I may have to go and hunt you down and whack you with a baseball bat! I am really tired of this cold weather that we are having and I would really like it if sunny spring would come here as fast as it can.


Thank You
Maritza

As you can see for my letter above that it is groundhogs day tomorrow and I am hoping that spring will get here fast. It was soo cold today and the wind has been blowing so that doesn't make it any better. I miss being able to go outside and run and I want to be able to have the kids go out and ride their bikes and take Brock to the park so he can wear himself out and take a nap. I really think that Brandon and I need to get away to somewhere nice and sunny. I am thinking Arizona, Texas, or even Vegas. Somewhere I can warm my body up cause I am FREEZING!

I can dream right

It has been so cold here the last couple of months and I am done with it! I am sooo ready for spring-no wait summer, to get here. I hate being cold all day and I hate having to hang out upstairs for the majority of the day. I hate how winter here in Utah last a gazillion years.  Monday was such a beautiful day that I was able to get a nice 5 mile run in and I figured that Tuesday would be gorgeous to go on another run. I was wrong! It freakin snowed! I was so ticked and got all blue all over again. There is something about winter that makes me all gloomy and down right depresses. Maybe it's because we are inside all day. I go outside and I am cold all darn day. Brock and I stay upstairs as much as we can because it's a lot warmer up there. There are days when I dream that I'm back on a beach in Hawaii or the Philippines just soaking up the warm sun. The sand in between my toes, me in a beach chair with a good book. Oh how I need to go somewhere where I can enjoy the weather without wondering if it's going to snow. Ahh I can dream right.

Anywho, I have been trying to learn my camera a bit and learning how to edit some pictures and it's been fun. I don't have any camera lens just my camera with the kit it came with but I've had fun taking pictures and editing them. I don't want to do it as a business but it's fun to take pictures of my family. I'm going to this little club meeting that teaches you how to use your camera and I am learning lots of cool things. The really neat thing is the guy that has set this up also tells us where we can get equipment for a reasonable price. Hopefully I am able to get a few things that I want so I can take better pictures. For now enjoy the ones I've taken so far.

 Here are all the cousins and I enlarged this and gave it to my in-laws as a gift. My mother in law has wanted a picture of all the grand kids together.

I took some pictures of my friends kids and I loved this little picture. Her boys are cute and crack me up.

 I was playing around with this photo. I was going to do more to it but it took forever and I was done.

 This is my sister in law's family. I'm the best at editing or taking pictures but I have lots of fun playing around and learning how to use the programs. I am learning while playing around. 

Well that is all for now. I thought I would post again and put more pictures up to make up for my lack of posting. Off I go now to dream some more about laying out on a warm beach somewhere.

Busy

So it's been forever since I've last posted anything and I have been just busy. Well I guess not busy but some personal things have come up and I'm cold and have the good ol winter depression blues. I really do hate winter because it's too darn cold to do anything so we are cooped up in the house doing nothing but eat. I am soo ticked off of myself because I gained 10lbs! I usually give myself a 10 lb window for the holidays but this year it just didn't happen. I really haven't ran because it has been cold and I didn't really want to worry about slipping while running. I did get the Biggest Loser game for the wii and I've done it a couple of times but no motivation. I have figured out that I am the kind of person that likes to get away from the house to work out. It's hard to work out at my house because of Brock getting in my way and working out is me time. That's why I love run is because it's me time. I get to get away from it all and just thinking about things and clear my head. I love love going to the gym because it's me time. I do much better losing weight or staying somewhat healthy if I can get away. I have now joined a workout group within my neighborhood on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays for 1hr. It just started on Monday and we did P90X and it was good. I felt soo much happier after working out and it was such a beautiful day that I decided why not go on a 5 mile run. So I did and I loved it! I had the best day on Monday and I was soo happy. I didn't feel all yucky and gloomy. I figure if I can keep that up for a couple of weeks I should be able to lose my 10lbs that I have gained-right?

This month I have started to potty train Brock and he is doing awesome! I would say that he is pretty much potty trained. We still have to put a diaper on at night but he is doing great! I was soo tired of having to constantly change his diaper every 1/2 so I figured if he is telling me to change his diaper he is ready to get potty trained. I was soo scared to potty train him because he had no desire to go potty in the toilet. Whenever I would try to put him on he would kick and scream. One day I was done and we went and got a toilet for him and got him another pack of underwear. I had already bought him a pack (Toy Story) a month or 2 ago. I told him we were going to take his diaper off and go on the toilet and he was fine with it. Well when we got home from the story he kicked and scream about sitting on his new football toilet. I thought there was no way he was going to get potty trained. I had heard that boys were way harder than girls so I knew it was going to be a rough couple of months or even a good 1. I really wanted to get him potty trained by his 3rd birthday, or get semi potty trained so I was determined. Brandon and I told Brock that if he went potty in the toilet and did good we would get him a jazz bear. He absolutely loves the jazz bear. When we watch the jazz games and they are playing home he will try to spot the jazz bear. So the next day Brandon tried to put Brock on his toilet seat and again kicked and screamed so he showed him how daddy goes potty. After that he was fine to sit on the toilet. He did awesome his first day, he had only 2 accidents! I started him in the middle of the week and he seriously had no more than 5 accidents. He did poop his pants and he did not like that at all! For going on 3 weeks he has done soo good. He hasn't gotten his jazz bear because he pooped his pants a couple of times and has had a couple of accidents. I told him once he stops pooping his pants, which has only been 3 times, and goes potty with no accidents we will get his jazz bear. Now the only thing is trying to find one. He has done soo good and I had heard horror stories of how hard boys are to train but honestly my girls were a lot harder than Brock. My girls were always wetting their pull ups. I think that's where I made the mistake with them was pull ups but as soon as I gave them a big incentive (dance) they tried their hardest. I know that nighttime will be the hardest but I'm just glad we don't wear diapers during the day. It was starting to get expensive buying diapers, from Costco every 3 weeks or so.

A couple of days before Christmas I went up and stayed a few days at my parent's house and we took the kids and my brother to Lights at the Bay. It was freezing cold and we waited forever in line to get the stupid horse carriage ride to take us through the park. It would have been faster and warmer if we just went through in the car but we figured we would do this for the kids. My dad started to get grumpy after waiting in line for an hour.

I had to take a picture of my old man because he was starting to get ticked off and I figured I would try to crack a smile by taking his picture. It didn't work.

Making snicker doodles cookies for Santa Claus Christmas Eve

New Year's Eve. We took the kids sledding at a park in Brigham not too far from my parent's house. This was Brock's first year sledding and he loved it. He wanted to go down the hill by himself and bring it up by himself. The kids had fun and mom (me) froze. It was cold that day.

Blah

I am such a horrible horrible blogger now! Life is busy and computer is super super slow now because I have a program on my computer that takes up alot of memory. Brandon's laptop crashed so I have to rely on our desktop. I'm debating on whether or not I should continue blogging because I haven't done it in such a long time so we shall see.
Christmas has come and gone and it was a good Christmas. The kids were sooo excited to see what Santa brought them and no complaining. Honestly, my kids are soo good about not complaining on what they didn't get or a gift that they didn't like. Jazmin decided to wake up at 1 a.m. on Christmas morning that we told her to go back to bed. Brandon and I had just gone to bed about midnight so I was not about ready to get up at 1 a.m. The kids got up a little after 6 and off we were down the stairs. It was fun to be able to see Brock's reaction this year since he's a little older and knows what is going on. He was soo excited to see that Santa brought him a 4 wheeler (a remote control). I swear he saw that and he was done. He had no interest in opening the other gifts. The girls were happy with what they got and that was good. After we hurried and picked up and showered and packed and off to grandma's house we went. Brandon's family had a party planned at 10 10:30 so I asked Brandon if we could stop at my parent's house first to open gifts our gifts that we got from there before my family showed up for the Christmas party on my mom's side of the family. I know 2 family Christmas party back to back. We stopped and opened our gifts and then I stuffed my face with my mom's delicious tamales that she makes every Christmas. They were sooo good. That's one thing that I look forward to during Christmas time are my mom's tamales. I am vowing to learn to make those bad boys this year too and then sell them in the Walmart parking lot-kidding. It was a fun day and boy did I eat. By the end of the night I seriously thought I was going to throw up and not because I was getting my groove on, on my brother's kinect game dance central, but because I ate wayyy too much. It was fun though. I love going to my family's parties because good food and it's fun to hang out with my cousins. Sure they are a lot younger than I am, and I mean a lot like teenagers but it's fun to talk to them.
The kids got to spend a couple of days with their grandparents so that meant a couple of days of peace and quiet. I actually was bored though. The first day I didn't know what to do because it was soo quiet and I wasn't yelling at the kids to stop fighting. I do miss those little kiddos of mine and I am very very grateful that I have the opportunity to be a stay at home mom. I am soo excited to get them on New Year's Eve and take them sledding. My parents took them and Brock loved it. It's going to be fun to be able to see his face in person going down the hill.
2010 is almost gone and I can't wait for 2011. 2010  was a huge trial for us and we will never ever forget our trial that we have gone through. At times it totally sucked but it has helped us see what is truly important and how much we take little things for granted. I am ready to put this year in the past and welcome 2011 with open arms. Happy New Year's everyone!

Busy Busy Busy

Yes it's been a long time since I've last posted anything so here I am posting a little quickie recap of what's been going on the last couple of months.

November- Jazmin turned 8 on November 13th and we headed up north for the family party. She got lots and lots of clothes from all of her aunts and we had a blast partying with family. I did my annual Black Friday shopping and it was just crazy as always. Although, this year was different because Walmart decided to start at midnight but anything electronics started at 5 a.m. I didn't need a new t.v. or camera or laptop so my shopping was going to start at midnight. So I took my pregnant cousin with me to the Brigham Walmart and walked around the store to find the item I wanted. I was going for the Wii Band Hero for my kids because they love love playing band hero, and for $75 it was a steal of a deal. I found where it was at drove my cousin back to my parent's house and went back to Walmart at 8:30 p.m. to stand by my item. I know a little crazy but I know how people get when it comes to Black Friday and I wanted to make sure that I was the first person by band hero so I would have first dibs on it. I got band hero and some other things and waited in line for what seemed like 4 hours to check out. I didn't get out of Walmart until 2:00 a.m. needless to say I was really exhausted since I woke up Thanksgiving morning to go running at 7:30 a.m. in -3 weather. I know a little crazy but I figured it would be a good idea because I knew I would probably be eating a lot of food, which I really didn't grrr. On Saturday my friend and I signed up for the Ogden 5k Santa run and it was fun. We got santa suits with our registration packets and let me tell you they were pieces of hud. As my friend said they were some good quality crap. I am not kidding they bought the cheapest santa suits they could possibly find. I put my pants on and they were starting to tear. While running the race there were some people's pants that actually split in half, that's how cheap those suckers where. The weather wasn't that bad the day of race but it was kind of a boring race cause all we did was run up and down the street 3 times and then on the 3rd lap turned a corner to the finish line but it was fun to see 700 people dress up as santa running. I was pretty proud of myself because I finished the race in 24mins32secs my fastest 5k so I am getting up there to be where I want to eventually be someday speed wise in my races that I do.

December-On the first Saturday of December Jazmin was baptized. I couldn't believe my baby was getting baptized. I couldn't believe that 8 yrs ago we were blessing her and now she was getting baptized. We are soo proud of her and the beautiful girl she is becoming. Yes, she does have her moments and I want to beat her but I love her none the less. She looked beautiful in her dress and I made some cute announcements for family and friends that I will have to post later cause I am typing this post at my parent's house. It was a busy but good day that day. Mariah had her 1st grade Christmas program the following week and it was cute. I love it when the kids get to do their little programs and we as parents get to see them perform. Brock has finally stayed in nursery and I couldn't be happier. He loves it and gives me kisses and tells me bye. What a cute little kid I have. We are fastly approaching Christmas and I can say that I am excited. I am excited that they kids have 2 weeks off and we get to hang out for 2 weeks. Normally I get annoyed when they have time off of school only because I have to deal with the non stop fighting but I think this will be fun. I've got a couple of things that we can do so it should be fun. Right now we are up at my parent's house for a couple of days and then we will be back up for Christmas and Brandon has a couple of days off at work. I am looking forward to Christmas and I can't wait to see my kiddo's faces when they open their presents on Christmas day.

I've tried to recap what's been going on and I will post pictures up once I get back to my house. Merry Christmas everyone!