My sweet Lulu is in a Moh Moh phase...

and I love it! Lulu (a.k.a. Claire) is all about her Aunt Moh Moh right now. Every time we are together she has to sit right next to me and talk to me and be touching me with at least a finger.

She had surgery on her leg last Friday to have a cyst removed and really wanted me to be there but we were going camping so I wasn't able to be, she told Erin that she she "wished Moh Moh could go and give pointers" (she may be under the misimpression that I am some sort of expert at either needles or surgeries). I guess as soon as the doctor stuck her with the needle to numb her up she freaked out and started crying for me.

Erin immediately got me on the phone and Lulu was in hysterics saying she needed me there. I explained that I wasn't able to come but that I would talk to her on the phone until the procedure was done.

It took about 5 minutes for her to regain her composure and I had her laughing a little while later. She said the shot hurt "real, real bad" but she knew that it wasn't going to hurt nearly as bad as my new tattoo was going to hurt. After she was all done, she told me she loved me and we hung up.

It was such a nice interaction and really made me feel good that she loves me so much and that I was able to help her feel better.

...so about that tatto, I was telling the triplets that I was going to get a tattoo with a star for me and a big moon and small moon for Oscar and Luis. The boys were asking why but Claire only cared about where they were in the tattoo. I had to do a slight modification after than conversation because she was just so sweet about it, so I added 3 little red stars (the color of their birthstone) to the design.

Here is the initial design, it might have to be modified a little depending on what the tattoo artist says, but I'm so excited to get it done tomorrow!

I finally graduated!!

So it only took 12 years (on and off), but I finally graduated with my Bachelors in Human Services on June 20th! I was so excited to get to walk and have my family in the audience...it kind of makes the student loan debt I have feel more worth it.

I was in such a great mood the entire week leading up to graduation and woke up obviously silly with excitement on Saturday morning


Here is the big moment, look at that smile...it says, OMG I can't believe I'm finally done!


Me and my boys


Donny, Luis, me and my mom



Me and the triplets


I'm not sure what Luis was doing here...but I think it's a nice picture of Erin and I



Me and my sweet sweet baby who was a huge inspiration to finish my degree (how am I going to nag him about college in 17 years if I don't have my degree?)


Lets get out of here before they realize there was some sort of mistake!

I had such a nice day and really appreciate my family for supporting me (and giving me a hard time) during these years.

Summer Fun

Luis has been mostly obsessed with water for about 6 months now and since it was so warm a couple of weeks ago I let him play with the hose in the backyard. He had so much fun watering the grass, filling the dog bowl and attempting to spray Momma. That last little gem was because he got me on accident and I screamed, he thought it was so funny that he tried to chase me into the house with the hose. I had to close the backdoor at that point, didn't want my carpet and couches getting watered too.

He also thinks it is so funny to get really close to the camera when I'm trying to take a picture, he doesn't understand how weird it makes him look but whatever. And after every picture I take he insists and seeing it on the camera and then says, "bebe?" (baby).

He has also recently figured out how to place his feet just right and pull himself up on the front door so that he can ring the doorbell. Then he yells into the house, "hello?!" He did this for about 2 hours a couple of Sundays ago.

We went to watch a couple of my co-workers practice with their Irish pipe and drum band, it was so fun. They are going to practice every couple of weeks at Wash Park when the weather is nice. The music was fun to listen to and Luis kept himself occupied by throwing his balls all over the place. He likes to "pitch" them to me (from about a foot from my face) and then I have to throw them back.

He likes to carry them all at once, which thankfully usually results in a good picture opportunity. Luis wore his pajamas to the park since it was going to be past bedtime by the time we got done, he looked a little dorky but oh well...

18 month checkup

We also finally took Luis in for his 18 month check up after we had that little swine flu scare. He is still growing right on the same track he always has been and the doctor was impressed with his 35 words.

He is still by skinny, tall boy and I'm good with that...I'm hoping he'll be at least 6' when he is older and worried he'll be 6'5" like his cousin Pepe.

Here are his stats:

34 1/4 inches tall (2'10 1/4 ")
23.7 lbs

...so he weighs as much as an "average" 1 year old and is as tall as an "average" 2 year old

Just a regular crazy month...

I don't have any recent pictures uploaded on to the computer yet, but I still thought I'd post a little about what we've been up to.

Luis can now count to 4 (about 50% of the time, but I'm counting it as success), it is so cute! He can also count to 2 in Spanish. He is obsessed with cars, it is kind of ridiculous.

I bought him a potty and I'm checking out several books from the library about potty training early. I know it is a mostly unrealistic goal but if we are possibly having another baby next summer I don't want to deal with two kids in diapers and I'd rather start trying now so I can get the failure out of the way quickly. He only sits on his potty sometimes, mostly he just shoves stuffed animals down the hole and laughs.

There is a new obsession with naked time after showers as well in our house, he runs out of the bathroom and rips off his towel and dances around naked. He will hang out on our bed for about 15 or 20 minutes before I insist that he get dressed. We haven't had any accidents yet, so maybe potty training isn't ridiculous.

He also says, "cheeeeweeeee" when he is poopy or too wet and it makes me giggle nearly every time.

Oscar and I are trying hard to landscape our yard but the previous home owners really made our lives hell by not keeping up with the previous landscape. I am going to try to put down the rest of the weed blocking fabric this weekend and then we are going to get our free mulch on Sunday...can't wait! 1 project down, 99 to go!!

Mexico 2009

So we went to Mexico for 12 days and had a very fun filled and exciting time. Our trip started with Frida's quinceañera where Oscar and I were her God parents. The mass was nice, but the party was amazing! It didn't start until 8:00 p.m. though so Luis was sound asleep by 10:00 p.m., it ended at 2:00 a.m. but I was already back at Rosie's sleeping because I just can't hang with those crazy folk.


After the party weekend in Mexico City we went to Zacatlán to start getting ready for Luis' baptism. Oscar's mom had made a ton of beautiful decorations and I was very impressed with the effort she put in. My mom, Don, Erin, Doug, Claire, Parker and Kade arrived on Thursday night so on Friday I walked them all over town so they could see why I love Zacatlán so much.

They all loved the market that sets up on Fridays and Sundays and Doug and Don were out there a lot just checking stuff out.

Our friend Jason came on Friday morning as well and it was so nice to see him. He had a heck of a time getting to Zacatlán but we were so happy once he found Oscar's mom's house.

Saturday was the big day, everyone looked very nice.


The church was crazy with kids getting baptized and my family and I stuck out like a sore thumb because we were so amazingly white :O) Luis was so good until I had to lower him to get his head wet, then he was ticked! He looked so handsome in his suit though and Oscar's dad got him a beautiful cross to have blessed during the baptism.

Our priest was kind of funny so I need to find a good picture of him, but he had on these really dark sunglasses like he was just too cool for all of us.




Rosie's boyfriend Adrian had these amazing bottles made for the occassion and gave us 30 bottles of tequila to fill them with (which I might add was not near enough).

Rosie's gift to us was 2 hours of a mariachi band, they were awesome!!! I got a little excited when I saw them coming just because I knew it was going to be so much fun. One of the triplets said it was too loud and I yelled in response, "Its not loud enough!!!"

The location of the reception was awesome, there were two trampolines, several little kid play set-ups and a huge inflatible mountain that they could climb on. It was so perfect because the adults were able to party it up while the kids kept themselves busy.

After a fun time in Zacatlán we headed back to Mexico City just in time for the swine flu. We of course were cocky Americans and decided we didn't need to wear masks, thankfully none of us ended up sick when we got home.

Luis and I stayed in the hotel with the family and on Monday we walked around the Zocolo but weren't able to go in to several of the sites because they were closed for fear of the flu. The kids all had awesome shirts that Oscar's friend made that said Manzanitas en Mexico (since we call the triplets the manzanitas, little apples).

Luis loved to look out the balcony and fully expose himself to the flu :O) While we were in the city there was also an earthquake. Don and Doug are the only ones who felt it, so I totally missed my first ever earthquake.

While we were walking around the city I was interviewed for a radio and television show because I was a tourist in the city, they wanted to know what I thought about the flu and if I was worried. I talked the big talk and said no, which of course changed when we got home and had a scare with Luis...his tests were negative though. I wonder how they knew the white, white, blond haired, blue eyed woman was a tourist??

We had a great trip and I am so thankful to my family for making the effort to get down there for such an important event. Now we can do it all over again in a couple of years hopefully when we have a #2 that needs baptizing.

I am also so amazed at the effort that Oscar's mom put in to everything, she did an amazing job and it was 1,000 times better than I ever could have imagined. I have a lot more pictures to share but they are on Erin's camera and she hasn't uploaded them yet...I'll continue to harass her daily.

This face of Luis pretty much sums up the end of the trip for us, we were all ready to get home. I was tired of having a 23 lb stinker attached to me for 12 days (because he was tired of everyone harassing him and of course he wanted nothing to do with Oscar). I love that baby but wow did I need a little alone time after sleeping in the same bed with him every night.

I love Mexico and can't wait to go back, I just have to convince my family that there won't be any flu, earthquakes, or bed bugs this next go around.

He's a Mexican

We took Luis to the Mexican Consulate yesterday so he is now officially a Mexican. This really doesn't have a huge affect on anything, but he'll have two passports and have to decide when he is 18 which country he wants to be a citizen of.

...if he doesn't chose the U.S. you better believe he is going to be in HUGE trouble :O)

Oscar and I went to our baptism class last night and got an official certificate saying we went and know "what we are getting ourselves in to" by baptising Luis Catholic. The class wasn't too painful except that it was all in Spanish, guess it was good practice for our trip next week.