The Family

 Cariña lost her two bottom teeth.  It was rather unexpected and one night she just pulled it out.  We barely knew it was loose.  Then two weeks later her other tooth fell out.  She sure loved the money, and the best part, she loved paying her tithing.  She is such a good girl.
 We went to the Dallas Arboretum where they had their pumpkin houses.  I am glad Sandra (Sam's sister) let us tag along with her family.  The kids loved it. 
As much of a family picture we could get.  I just wish we could all be looking at the camera.  Notice Sam straining to hold up the two bigger kids.  Come on Sam, where are your muscles.
Xenia being sold in the garage sale.  Unluckily nobody wanted her. haha Just kidding.  But the picture was cute.  She was having so much fun in the box with all the toys until she had the stuffed animals around her arms and she could move anymore.  I spared you the crying picture.
Halloween costumes.  I am so lame this is all I got, even though we went to two Halloween parties.  Cariña was beautiful ballerina and Helaman was a fisherman.  I bought that fishing pole at the goodwill.  They were charging $3 for the bottom half of the fishing pole.  I couldn't believe it.  Who would pay that much for a half of a fishing pole.  OH, I guess I did.  :)  Anyway, I figured he would get his three dollars out of it.  He hasn't put it down since we bought it.  It was a good purchase.
My three trouble makers at our ward party. 
Xenia's true character was revealed on Halloween.  She was cute.  At the trunk-and-treat she was my trunk decoration.  This was at my aunt and Uncle's Halloween party.  Much bigger than ours.  The best part about the  party was Helaman won the best costume.  It was a game, (not really judged by the costume), but inside his winnings included a $10 gift card to the movies.  We used it to go and see Toy Story 3 at the dollar theater.  $7 more dollar to go. 
My Uncle Wayne and Aunt Raeann let us barge in on their Halloween.  I can't thank them enough, and hope we didn't bother them too much.  It was so fun to visit them.  My Aunt let Xenia borrow the devil costume.  She let my kids carve her pumpkins.  She is a great cook.  We raided the kid's Halloween candy while watching a good movie.  We stayed up late and talked.   It was so fun.
I never imagined myself going to Louisiana, but I am glad I did.  It was much prettier than I expected.
The pumpkins the kids helped carve.
I couldn't resist the super cute picture of Xenia gnawing on an apple.  It is nice she still doesn't have teeth yet.  I just hope she has some, but no hurry she is a biter if you know what I mean.

Why is it that the older I get the harder it is to make friends.  Maybe I am just not that good at making friends, but I just don't know what to say to  start a friendship.  I am a pretty boring person so I don't have a lot of stuff to relate to other people with.  The things I am passionate about are health, and healthy eating but few people think the same way I do.  Whenever I talk I tend to be a little over the top when I share my opinion and usually offend people.  I don't mean to be, and I don't feel as passionate as I sound but most people don't know that.  So I have confined myself to share very little about how I truly feel.

The only problem with this no friend thing, is I need people around me.  I am the middle child and I am use to having people around.  When I was in college I didn't want a single room.  I always wanted to a roommate.  It is a good thing I got married.  Even when Sam and I are fighting beyond belief and he volunteers to sleep on the couch, I never let him.  I would rather have him be close and me mad than have him away. :) 

So if anyone has any advice on how to make friends please let me know. 

You know when kids are together you always here them cracking up, then when you hear the joke, or whatever it was they were laughing about and  it really isn't that funny.  Well there was a time like that when my kids were hanging out with their cousins.  All the cousins where playing on the computer cracking up.  When I heard them I thought what could be SO funny, so I went over to look expecting to find something NOT that funny, but when I saw what they were looking at I was cracking up as hard as they were.  Then a month later I thought about those pictures again, (not even looking at the pictures)  I started cracking up out loud.  They were that funny.  I hope that you enjoy these pictures as much as I do!!!

I haven't been posting much of my kids.  I have been a little lazy.  Here the pictures are finally.  Cariña and  Helaman right before church. 





 
This picture is of Helaman.  How can you resist such a smile. 



This one is of Xenia.  One way to resist Helaman's smile is to see him purposefully stepping on Xenia. 
 








Here are a couple of Xenia.  She has been so fun.  She has a very easy going personality, as long as someone is holding her.

The last one is after a bath.  She looks a little like a wet poodle.

Here are some pictures of the our new car.  For those of you who didn't know, Sam and I HAD to purchase a car.  We broke our car pulling our trailer while we were moving.  Really what luck.  But the truth is we were really blessed to not have the car break down at all during our trip. 

Here it is.  We are officially a Buick family.  It is the same type of car but 3 year newer.  Mind you that still means it is 12 years old. :) I just love the space for 3 car seats, the extra front seat in the middle, and the huge trunk. We might of got a really good deal, but at the same time I am not sure.  I am scared to take it to the mechanic because I am afraid to find out how bad we got ripped off.  As much as Sam and I try not to be, we really  are suckers.
 
The inside.  It is nice. It is all electronic.  We have controls the radio and a/c controls from the steering wheel.  It really is a luxury car.

So what is the matter with the old car.  Yes it still runs, but we have a cracked engine head block, so it is not going to last long, and now it isn't worth anything. 


We decided that we would keep the old car and run it into the ground and then sell it for scrap.  It will be Sam's to and from work car.  But we bought this car for right now because it is so hot and the other car doesn't do well now in the hot weather so we are saving it when it gets a little cooler, and right now we can't afford the two insurances and the two gas tanks. We needed to be a two car family now anyway so this will allow us to save up for awhile.

There is something about Utah that makes you hate it when you live there, but you miss it so much when you leave.  I tried not to complain about Utah when I lived there, but who can help it. :)  But I can say now, how much much I miss it.  Here is what I miss.  (not in any particular order)

•   I miss my brother and sister-in-law Felipe and Krys.  I always gave them a hard time for not hanging out with us.
• I miss Sam's brothers.  They always bailed us out.
• I miss my Aunt Sandra and cousin Tiffany and even though we didn't see each other more I miss not being able to see them if I want to.
• I miss my ward.  When I moved it I wanted to move out but that ward ended up being so awesome.
• I miss my nursing room friends.  They always knew how to solve my problems.
• I miss my job.  I loved my students.
• I miss that if my mom does come to Utah I can't see her, or if there is an emergency she can't come.
• I miss my apartment.  It had it's problems, like it being so hot the thermostat was maxed out at 90 at 10pm, or that you couldn't hear the t.v. if the windows were open, but it was ours.
• I miss my friends who helped me, beyond belief, when I moved.  They were there for me.  I wish I could name names but then I would go on forever.  You know who I am talking about.
• I really miss my sister Sally and always begging her to come and visit me.  
• I miss her kids.
• I miss my stuff, it still is in Utah.
• I miss the cool nights.
• I miss people going outside.  People don't do that here.
• I miss BYU.
• I miss my friends and family.  Yes I repeated it.
• I miss my neighbors.
• I miss all the women in my ward who had babies the same time I did.  There was A LOT.
• I miss the security of being a student.
• I miss Good Earth's bulk prices.
• I miss the local bread that comes from Utah.  There was always some really good bread at any store you went to.
• I miss the fact that the health food stores are close.
• I miss the fact that the  raw milk could be bought at anytime if I wanted to, or I should say when I had the money too. :)
• I miss knowing which generic items are good and which ones weren't.
• I miss knowing which items usually went on sale, like western family medium cheddar for $4, and kroger $1 cream cheese, cottage cheese, and sour cream.  
• I miss the mountains.
• But mostly I miss the people.

There is one consolation of being in Texas and that is I entered the 13 fattest state (leaving the 44th fattest state, or the 6th skinniest state).  I went to the mall today and I have to say I feel pretty darn good about myself now. :)

Despite all the changes that have already been going on in my life I needed one more.  A new hair cut.  This is the most extreme I have done in a while.  Yes I did get the annoying bangs that you have to fling to one side or the other every 5 seconds, but I had to have a change.  Okay so it is not that extreme, but for me it is a little shocking since I haven't had bangs since I grew them out in 8th grade.  Oh well I love it, so what do you think? 

I appreciate all the comments on my post.  I totally expected zero but I had the pleasure of all the comments and two of them that were from totally awesome people that have never commented on my blog before.  Thank you.  Now here is my view.  I have to agree with  Shari, my health food buddy.  I think I can live anywhere that meets my needs.  In all the places that I have lived so far, except one, Hermiston Oregon, my heath food needs were met, which include an affordable health food store.  Now here in Texas I have to start my search all over again, but so far I am not finding the variety and prices that I am use to.


I also want to mention opportunities.  I will be comparing Sam's life of growing up in a city of 2 million, compared to my life growing up in  a town of 12,000.  Sam and I both love sports.  I played city leagues, $20-$40 per sport.  Sam couldn't because they were so expensive, $300.  I played 5 different sports in High school, lettering in 3.  Sam played one because the competition was too great.  My little league softball team went all the way to the world series.  I was in school leadership because there wasn't the great numbers running for office.  We went to the same university.  Sam went to the museums on field trips.  I went to, yes smaller, museums on field trips.  Sam had great teachers.  I had great teachers.  We ate the same fast food.  Sam went to the movies.  I saw the same movies.  So it seems that there really are more opportunities in a small town.  But it does depend on the town.  Good luck to me surviving this really big, spread out, city.  It definitely takes a lot more work to find stuff in a big city.  I feel like a am drowning, and I barely even leave the house. :)

ps Cariña said something funny the other day.  Cariña and Helaman were watching a movie when it was time for dinner.  So their Grandpa said "Cariña press the stop button."  So she got up and looked at this VCR, which was new to her, and found the stop button and pressed it.  Her Grandpa said "Wow, do you know how to read?"  Her reply, "No, I don't know how to read, I just saw S-T-O-P." What a girl.

Which one is better? I say a small town can have more advantages than a large city.  Sam says that a large city has more opportunities than a small town.  What do you think and why?

No air conditioning (we had it, but Sam wouldn't let us use it)

No small DVD player (it was in the front seat of the car, but I refused to let m\y kids use it, but they didn't know it was an option so they made it.)

2 kids in car seats covered with backpacks

1 nursing baby

and a trunk loaded as full as we could pack it so that we could last 2 months without our stuff

We drove 1200 miles and it took us three days and two nights.

Maybe two fights and Xenia only cried for the leg of each day, but once you picked her up she was so excited that she didn't make a sound the rest of the night.

Only one road delay and that was for 1 hour for a flooded roadway.

Countless stops on the highway for bathroom breaks.

2 lunch stops which included a stop in a town with the population 394 and the only place was a pizza place located inside the gas station.

3 Amazing children that are the best travelers out there.  I couldn't have asked for better.

Over all it was a great trip. 

And we are still in the same place.  This move has not gone smoothly.  We seem to have trouble after trouble.  We took our over loaded trailer to my sister's house 64 miles south.  At my sister's house we had to reload and down size.  We decided to ship all our media through the mail, and redistributed the weight to our trailer.  This added an extra day onto our trip.  So the next morning we left once again on our adventure to  our new life and made it about 120 miles south.  About 3 miles out side of the city the tire  shreds and pops.  Amazing people came to help took Sam into town to find a tire shop.  The place was so busy that Sam had to do all the work.  He put on another tire and it too also started to shred.  The tire  place finally was able to rig the trailer to drive into town.  So we had to call a trailer fix it guy who came but it was going to take forever.  So we had to drive another 50 miles south to rent a hotel room to find a cheaper hotel room because Moab on the 4th of July was running $125 a night.   In the morning we drove back to moab to gather our trailer and realized that it is just too heavy for the small tires.  So we drove carefully back (45mph) to my sister's house to downsize once again and figure out how to get our stuff to Dallas.  It seems that we either are destined to stay in Utah, or have no belongings. :)  Oh what a trip and it is just barely starting.

ps if you are ever going to break down do it around Moab.  The people there are so nice and helpful.

Dads are so cool. Today in church I was admiring all the good men who are dads. I saw one who had a baby wrap strapped over his suit carrying the baby. One dad was carrying a pink, sparkly Alice in wonderland bag. Sam was wiping baby throw up with his bear hands. One dad just holding the baby. Another dad who was dragging his two boys to the restroom. These are good men who make the world a better place, and not to mention life easier as a mom. :)


Sam at his favorite past-time. Eating a FREE hamburger with unlimited refills on soda.

Happy Father's day

This post is dedicated to the men who are fathers, and ones who will be. As I have gotten older I have learned to appreciate men. One thing I have come to love is listening to a male's voice sing. I prefer it now actually. My favorite is men choir. I don't know why I am writing all this, I guess it is because I have come to realize how important and helpful they are in our society and it is so sad that there are scumbags out there in the world that tarnish men.

But here is to the fathers that I know

1st and most important

Sam, what a great dad. He always knows how to keep the kids busy. He is the best and fastest living room cleaner there is. He is a great frugal shopper and will spend hours driving to different stores to find the best deal. He plays the violin, (I wish he would play it more), and most importantly (and this is why I married him) he LOVES people and will sacrifice anything he has to help someone in need. He is honest. One time I was baby talking with Xenia and he said that you sound ridiculous, and another time we were listening to the Leah and Rachel story and I asked him if he would work and wait 7 years for me and he said no. :) I gave him a hard time and now he knows, because I informed him, that he would wait a life time for me. :) Notice the great crown on his head that Cariña made for him. He has been wearing it for the past 3 hours.

2nd My dad

This is my favorite picture of my dad. My dad has taught us so many good qualities which include,

Self responsibility. He never let us blame anything on others. If we didn't succeed it was our fault, and if we did do a good job we could always do better.

He is so generous. He always invited new people in town over for dinner. He is always helping us out in our time of need, like the four new tires that he bought us last year, but he has always been my example of Christ like charity.

He taught us great money management. I remember sitting down with him and balancing his checkbook. He taught us the importance of saving.

And last but not least, he is the reason why I went on a mission. I remember over hearing a conversation that was between my dad and my sister Rachel. She was asking about a new bicycle, and my dad told her that when she went on a mission he would buy her a new bicycle. It was then I decided that I would go on a mission and from then on I knew I would go.


Whenever there is a family gathering with babies, my dad loves to just hold them. We have a million pictures of my dad sitting like this with all the different grandchildren. Thanks for the extra help dad.

and 3rd but not least

Sam's dad

I have always admired Sam dad for his testimony in Christ and his faith devotion to always be better. There is a story that stands out to me. Sorry if it is not factually perfect but this is how I remember it.


We had a conversation once when he told me that when he was in college he wanted to get married, but nothing was working out for him. Then there was this girl that came along. He didn't really want to ask her out but knew that the Lord wouldn't bless him if he didn't make an effort, so he asked her out on a date. After the date he then knew that the girl was not for him, but he felt like he was blessed for trying.

I appreciated this story as I learned from Sam's dad faith and diligence that you try the roads ahead of you and the Lord will take care of the ending.

Thank you dads for all you do!

Here are some updated pictures of Xenia. Sorry if it is over kill on the pictures but I as I was looking at the pictures I could stop myself, as the pictures were too cute.


Today, just before starting the post.


Is it possible for curly hair? Who knows, but Cariña's hair didn't really get curly until about 10 months to a year, so I guess we will see.
The kids just can't stay away from their new little sister. At times there is just a little too much love in our home. Can you tell by Xenia's look.


Rachel here is the dress. I still love it!



What a cute face with the added bonus of the bow.




Here is our Easter morning shot. We spent the weekend at my sister's house. Life is always more fun with cousins. (Can you tell how lame my sister and I are when it comes to holidays!) Three easter baskets were pans. Each kid got maybe six eggs with 1 consisting of black licorice and 3 jelly beans, which we found out that the kids didn't even really like. :) Poor kids.


So now for the Easter conversation. It is the funniest thing I have heard in a long time!!!

Characters: Rune (age 11), Eli (9), Lily (6) Cariña (5), and Alma (3)

Setting: Easter morning. All the kids crammed into an over size closet, While the Uncle and Aunt(me) pretend to sleep in the bedroom while ease-dropping on the conversation.

Rune: (Entering the closet) Guys the Easter bunny came.

(All kids cheer in excitement.)

Lily: Cariña the Easter bunny isn't real.

Cariña: (defensively) I know that!

Rune: So you think you are the smartest person ever! What do you know about math!? What's 9 times 9!?

Eli: 81 Nines are so easy.

Cariña: (defensively) Well I know take aways!!!

Rune: (voice elevating) So what do you know about history? What is Eli Whitney famous for?

Cariña: (defensively) Well I know take aways!!!

Rune: The cotton gin.

Cariña: (defensively) Well I know take aways!!!

Alma ( approaching Cariña, in a serious, quiet tone) Cariña I have a hernia.

At this point I couldn't hold back my laugh. It was just to funny.

I am poor. There is no secret about that. I mean who isn't when they have a husband going to school. I found out how poor I am when I did my taxes. When I saw our gross yearly income, I was shock. I thought, there is no way we could could have made it on so little. :)

But despite our poverty there are some things I HAVE to splurge on. I just can't settle for less. :) You will notice that it is mostly food that splurge on and can't settle for less, but the list below are the more expensive things I buy. It is a reason why I can't go grocery shopping with Sam, he is always shocked, mortified, angry, dismayed, and many other adjectives, with the prices I will pay on these items. There are some of you that will also be shocked at the prices I pay, but there are also some of you who will understand my purchases and will congratulate me for being strong and willing to stick and live by my views. I have given the prices to you can feel the same way Sam does, or let me know that these prices are not that bad considering. (I hope it wasn't weird of me to post the prices, please let me know if it was. I know sometimes I can be a little too open)



Yes you read the label right. It is raw milk. This cost $6.29 a gallon. I know some places where that is the price of regular milk, but here you can easily buy processed milk for as little as 99cents. Yes that was the sale price on Saturday at the grocery store. The only reason why I am, or should say can splurge, splurging is because Helaman is allergic to milk, Cariña is not a big milk drinker, as she used to be allergic, and Sam refuses to drink it because he says it is like drinking gold. :) The reason why I splurge on it for me is because I am a nursing mother who needs extra nutrients. The truth is though, Helaman's coconut milk is more expensive like $4 for a half of gallon, so I guess that means this is cheap right? :)




This bag is sucanaut. It is a less processed sugar, hopefully with all the good things that sugar has. That is the reason why the sugar is brown. It also is not as sweet. But at $1.85 lb it is a little spendy. Anyway it is a good excuse for us to not make so many sugary treats. :)




This is extra virgin olive oil, non filtered. It is a very good quality oil and it represents all my oils. I refuse to buy substandard oils, which is all oil except the oil I make or olive oil ($8, a fantastic good deal! This oil could be easily sold for $15-$20), coconut oil ($7 for a pint, on sale), and very occasionally a very good quality sunflower oil ($9) to make mayonnaise.




This balsamic vinegar is amazing and I can't settle for less. I make my salad dressing with it and my kids practically drink it and love salads because of the dressing. It is not me by any means but the vinegar. At $9 a bottle I have tried others so I could save the money, but they just can't compare and I can't. Luckily I found out it is considered a super food!




This is Sal Suds. It is a natural soap with real pine oil in it. It is meant for all-purpose cleaning and is the best soap I have ever used. I use it in all my homemade cleaners. It smells clean and works wonders. It cost about $30 a gallon, but this gallon has lasted me almost 3 years and since I don't buy any cleaners, but make my own, I figure it really isn't a splurge. :)




This is something I wish I DIDN'T splurge on. I got caught in the mall where they shine your nails and tell you that the lotion is infused with gold, well that is what they told me. Please don't laugh at me. :) I won't tell you how much I paid for it because I am too embarrassed. I liked the product but at first the price was too high. The sales lady then told me that she had a one ime discount where she could drop the price to . . . and that she would love to give me this discount. I was refusing stating that I needed to ask my husband, but she reminded me that she only had the ONE and she couldn't guarantee that she would still have it later. Since it was valentine's day and I was pregnant I deserved to splurge on myself right? So I happily handed over my card. As soon as she scanned my card I started have second thoughts, and as soon as I walked away with my purchase I regretted it and I knew that I had been tricked. It is a good thing I couldn't afford the first price because I would have been double tricked. It was even worse when I finally caught up with Sam he showed me his shiny nail but he would have gotten everything I got, (lotion, cuticle oil, nail file, and nail buffer) for $10-$15 cheaper. I still feel sick about this purchase. :)