Ruby is 6

Ruby is 6 now!  Happy Birthday Ruby.  She had a little party after school with some friends, we celebrated at family dinner in Parker, and we went skiing as a family!  Ruby is a sweet little girl and is learning a lot in Kindergarten.  She enjoys dressing up, changing clothes throughout the day, dancing, drawing, coloring, and playing with friends.  We love Ruby! 

Eli is a Deacon

Eli was ordained with the Priesthood last night (Feb. 7, 2019) at our home.  He is an eleven year old Deacon.  President Nelson announced that starting in 2019 boys can get the Priesthood at the beginning of the year that they turn 12 and girls can be in Young Women.  Also, they can go to the temple for baptisms.  Cesar gave Eli a nice priesthood blessing and my parents were there along with Bishop Blackburn.  It was special and spiritual.

Right after his ordination, Cesar, Eli, and I attended the temple with our ward youth.  It was so great to be in the temple with Eli.  He was excited and it was great to see so many of our youth there.  There were 9 11 year olds there (girls and boys).  It was nice.

2018 in Review

2018 was pretty good.  It's now a new year, 2019!  Here is a review of the last year.

January

Ruby visited the ER again for nut allergies.  I accidentally let her have a bar with cashews in it.  I felt awful!

February

Ruby turned 5

We got free tickets for the Nuggets game and invited Ivaras, grandpa, and Dylan.

March

Diego turned 8 and was baptized!

April

a nice family hike at a State Park

May

Eli was in the school play, Into The Woods

June

City Park Ice Cream Social- my favorite summer tradition

Demo begins on my parent's bathroom (it's still a work in progress)

 July

Annual Cousin Camp

Family camping vacation to Black Canyon of the Gunnison

August

5th grade, 3rd, and Kindergarten

hiking in Castlewood Canyon

September

Trip to Seattle

 October

Eli turns 11

 November

One of my favorite winter traditions- Stapleton Winter Welcome

Granny Joyce's funeral

 December

The kids holding their sibling gifts Christmas morning

Granny Joyce

My Granny Joyce died Friday, November 23, 2018.  She was 92 years old.  She is my mom's mom.  She was sick for a week and peacefully died at home.  We went to her funeral in Logan.  This was my kids' first funeral and Joyce was my last living grandparent.  Cesar still has his 2 grandmas alive.

On the Friday morning after Thanksgiving, the day she died, I was in the temple doing an endowment session.  I like to go to the temple on Black Friday because it is my own endowment anniversary- 13 years ago I went through the temple for the first time.

Granny Joyce was always so funny and telling little jokes here and there.  I will miss seeing her and am glad that she died peacefully without much pain.  

Here are some sweet pictures from the Summer of 2017 when we saw Granny last.  

Halloween 2018

Halloween is a pretty fun holiday.  I enjoy going out and seeing all the neighbors trick-or-treating.  Cesar and I were talking about how crazy it is that some people go all out for it though and decorate for the whole month or longer and spend so much money on their costumes and sooo much candy.  We actually didn't have to buy any candy this year.  I'm kind of proud of that since we don't have much money right now anyways.  We were given some bags of candy from someone I babysat for and then we used the kids' trunk-or-treat candy to pass out on Halloween night.  They weren't very happy about that, but they forgot about it after they brought home buckets full of candy after their own trick-or-treating!
Eli went out with his friend Alex and another friend Ben.  They were gone fro about 1.5 hours.
Diego went with Ruby to our three courtyards and then met his friend Nico and his parents and stayed out a total of 2.5 hours!
Ruby went with Cesar and I.  She enjoyed it.

Also, we missed my parent's annual trick-or-treating/ costume surprise.  They were in Prague this year on Halloween visiting Janel and her family. 



We also went to Nick's Gardens again this year.  It's a tradition I guess.  We took Bernie with us, a little girl I babysit.  Doesn't she look like she could be my 4th kid?!  Also Cesar gave us all haircuts!  Don't they look great?

Eli is 11!

Eli turned 11 earlier this month.  He got to go camping with scouts the day after his birthday and loved it!  He is so social and loves spending time with friends and doing new things.  Those are great qualities to have.  He gets to go again a couple more times this year. 

The weekend after his birthday we took him and some friends swimming.  They all came over and they played video games for a little bit, sang happy birthday, and ate rice Krispie treats.  Then we drove over to Carla Madison Rec Center on Colfax and swam.  Cesar and I actually were just able to sit and watch- it's so nice to have older kids!  Ruby does pretty well in the pool, not a total swimmer yet, but getting there. 

Then we ate dinner (sandwiches and chips) outside because I found out they don't allow food inside.  It was a bit chilly, but the kids didn't seem to mind.  They had fun climbing the big boulder too.

Ruby gave Eli a water bottle for his birthday and Diego gave him a Rubik Cube- such nice siblings!  Cesar gave him a bag of Takis (his favorite spicy chips) and we also bought him several new pants that he really needed.

Happy Birthday Eli!  I love you and am so proud of the young man you are becoming!  It's a strange thing watching your kids grow up.  I can't believe this is his last year in elementary school!  It's bittersweet for sure.

Seattle in September

Cesar and I got to take our annual trip together.  This year to Seattle.  It was our first time there and we really enjoyed the city and trip!  It's always so great to get away from normal life and the kids for a few days.  We are so lucky my parents took care of the kids- thank you mom and dad!

We took our second segway tour (first one was in Washington DC).  As you can see the weather was perfect.  The first two days there we had blue sunny skies.  The second two days were cloudy and there was a little rain, but overall good weather the whole trip!

We were very impressed with the Chihuily Glass Museum.  So beautiful and colorful!

We enjoyed a Japanese Garden

Our hotel was very fancy!  The fanciest place I've stayed for sure.