The many faces of Lily!

If you've been around Lily for any length of time you probably know she LOVES to make faces. She gets quite a reaction from people and I love that she does it. It makes her unique and she's so expressive! The earliest I remember her doing faces is about 6 months old. It started with her "Chucky face."This post has over 45 pictures!! It took me a while to go through over 9,800 pictures searching for them all. Yes, I take LOTS of pictures. :)

Here is the first face she started doing...her "Chucky Face"

The next is her "Smoochy face"

Her "O"face

Sad Faces 

These are pictures that I can just hear her making funny noises in!

Her most recent "Frowny Face"

Hammin' it up!

Sleeping...

She is by far the most expressive baby I've seen! She knows what she wants and doesn't hesitate to let you know! When my sister, Mariana held her for the first time after she was born she was amazed that Lily just stared at her! Even as a baby only hours out of the womb she stared intently at people. She still does it to this day. Very much so! I think people get intimidated by her. Especially on the frowny face she does! I love my kids! I'll be posting pictures of Isaias at school soon!

Erik's 28th Birthday!

January 19th my husband turned 28! He doesn't like parties for himself so I kept it really simple this year. He requested Beef Stroganoff, homemade rolls, and cheesecake. It's his favorite meal that I make! We just hung out at home and celebrated his birthday. My sister and my niece were there to celebrate.

Erik has several things that he wants so he requested money in lieu of an actual gift. I'd rather him get exactly what he wants and enjoy it, so I was happy to do it. We did spend lots of time on his card though. Isaias and Juliana each made him a card. Well, Isaias' was a card and Juliana's was more of a book. She drew several different Angry Birds, which she drew quite well for not tracing! Isaias did Mario, but he wasn't in the drawing mood so he didn't put as much effort into it.


Isaias and I also made a list of 28 things we love about you! Last year my sister and niece made a list like this for me (except it was 25 since that's the age I was turning) and I really loved it! It was very thoughtful and those are the best gifts!

Here are just a few of the things we thought up for Erik:

28 Things We Love About You!
I love...
... that you're pretty cool and like to wrestle (Isaias)
...how you always tell me I'm pretty! (Isaias, Lily)  :) 
...how you go out of your way so people won't feel dumb or less than you. (Cristina)
...that you're so helpful with the kids. (Cristina)
...when you make up special songs for us! (Isaias and Lily) 
...how hardworking you are. (Cristina)
...after 13 years you still tell me I'm beautiful! (Cristina)
I love how far you've come over the years. You continue to grow, mature, and become the man that God wants you to be through Him.


I thought I'd add a few from the list my sister and niece did for me last year.

25 Things We Love about Lovey: (Lovey is the name Erik calls me... at the moment. He'll only refer to me as Cristina, and he's always had a nickname for me)

• You love God (Mariana)
• Your curls (Mariana)
• You prepare stuff ahead of time. (Juli)
• You listen to people when they are speaking (Mariana)
• You are a bargain hunting aficionada.(Mariana)
• You are good at how to make up your own crafts. (Juli)
• You are my best friend, (Mariana) and mine too! (Juli)

Happy 28th Birthday to my wonderful hubby, Erik. I LOVE YOU!

The kids had fun jumping in mid-air while I took their picture!

This was our evening entertainment!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Sharing" with Daddy.

Mission: Organization!!

For 2012, my goal along with many others is to get organized! I've been needing to do this for a while but I don't have much time or money so I have to be frugal! I spend so much time cleaning and it's because I need to organize better.

So far here's what I've done:

1) I cleaned the laundry room!!! WOO-HOOOOOO! This is quite an accomplishment for me! There's also a bathroom/hot water heater/pantry connected to this room that I cleared out as well. I've been couponing and stocking up on items that I get great deals on. Only thing is: I have to find a place for it. I'd like to get so well stocked up that if I know somebody in need of food or toiletry items they can just come "shop" in my basement for what they need. Anywho, that's another blog post. :)

Here's my pantry area:

The toilet paper was bought for 3.99. Rice Chex 1.16, Ritz 1.50 each

The Tide was 2.99 each!!

Here's inside one of my pantry cabinets:

The cream of mushroom soups were between .29-.50 each!! They sell at Walmart for 1.32 regular price! Broths were .29 each.

My frugal can dispenser!

I found this website that shows you how to make these super easy and functional canned food organizers. I would have done the complete project but if I didn't at least do this, nothing would have gotten organized. It's a future project of mine.

Here's my laundry area:

I found this metal shelf at an estate sale a year ago for $10. We washed it up and stuck it in the basement. I used to leave piles of laundry on the floor or put the baskets on the floor. Spiders would sometimes find their way in and my hand would come WAY to close to those gross things! I hate bugs with a passion!

I added a simple tag that I made in Publisher, laminated them, tied a ribbon and voila! If you like the tags I made I'd be happy to email it to you. :)

2) My second area: My son's room! Dun dun dun!
One of my son's biggest challenges in the mornings is his clothes. He's a boy and doesn't care what he has on as long as it's, well, clothes! We've cleared most of his toys out of his room but now he just makes a huge mess with his clothes figuring out what to wear. I have to send him back to his room a lot if something doesn't match or go well. He often tries to wear shorts in the dead of Winter! I recently got this organizer at Target for $10 and put, you guessed it, tags! (I can share those as well!) On Sundays we've been laying out his clothes together. If he helps pick it out he's more likely to wear it and not change his mind in the mornings. It's been working out nicely. :)

Not the greatest picture, but you get the idea.

My progress won't be much each week since I only have 2 hours (during nap time) to get things done. I know people think stay-at-home moms have ALL this free time. I assure you we don't. Between getting kids to school (my son and niece), cooking, laundry, dishes, bills, couponing, grocery shopping, appointments, and anything else I keep pretty busy! However, I love being able to stay home and am super blessed God has provided me to do so. :) I'll update you on my future organizing!

The little things

This morning after I dropped my son and niece off at school, I headed over to Dillons since we were all out of eggs. Lily and I eat eggs every morning for breakfast. It's one thing she generally eats since she's not a big eater.

As I was putting Lily in her car seat to leave I had seen an older man getting out of his car. He was probably in his 80's and had a cane. He said, "ma'am, can you give this to..." He was walking REALLY slow and had something in his hand. I figured he needed some help getting something to someone since he was having a slow time getting around. I wasn't going to refuse helping him either. I was happy to help out!

As I made my way over he reached out his hand with something in it and said, "Here, this is for your daughter, I saw you putting her in over there. You can put it in her savings." It was a dollar coin. Now, many people might say it's only a dollar, or it's not even worth it, but I on the other hand was so blessed by it! It was the generous thought and gesture that made it so special too. He reminded me of my grandpa who passed away just in October. I miss him.

This afternoon I got a call from my dad and as were were talking he asked me, "Well, what's some good news?" Those type of questions throw me a little. I usually have a hard time coming up with things. Mine are always so generic. I have a good friend who started writing down 3 things each day that she was thankful for. No repeats! I think it's a GREAT idea! Plus, sometimes we miss the great things that God does for us because we're looking for something too large. Especially when he does little things all the time that make a HUGE difference, but we miss them. Well, today I had something to share! I told him the story and he said said he had just had a prayer meeting last night and the verse that came up was this:

Who dares despise the day of small things....
Zechariah 4:10


Even though it was a small gesture, it was still huge! Thanks God for the little things!

Happy 1st Birthday Lily!

I couldn't believe Lily's 1st birthday came so quickly! It took 3 long years of waiting before we were able to hold her in our arms and now she was turning 1! (I blogged about my struggle here!)

For her actual birthday day, it was just the four of us. I made her a cake and sang "Happy Birthday." She got to open one of her presents that evening.

We found out she doesn't like fire! 

It took her a bit before she thought it was funny to play in it. She didn't really care to eat any though.

Oh the faces she makes. :)

After a bath she opened her present...

...with help from Isaias. :)

Her party was just a few days later. We invited some of Erik's family and some of mine. I had fun making her first tutu for it! I know it's not everybody's style or taste, but, guess what? It's OK!!! :)
Here are a few pictures from her party!

Her adorable hat Grandma Janet and Grandpa Quico got her!

Grandma Janet and Grandpa Quico

Since she cried after we lit her candle, we just set her on the table to make a mess!

I kept it simple this year. I would have liked to have made a Lily for each cupcake, but I'd never done it and didn't feel like getting frustrated.

Juliana (Lily's cousin)

Here are Lily's 1st birthday pictures!

I can look at her expressions and just hear the sound she is making in my head!

Here was a recent one I couldn't resist adding!

Fat Cristina

I know, the title seems silly, right? When I began tracking my weight loss and looked back at pictures, there was one I titled "Fat Cristina," and I saved it to my computer that way. Erik thought it was hilarious! So...it seemed like a good title. :)

Since March of this year, and 4 months after giving birth to my daughter, I decided to start losing weight. I was squeezing myself into jeans that were a size I'd NEVER been in before. I was unhealthy, obese, and felt horrible about myself.

My goal is realistic. To get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. That will take another 15-18 pounds. Oh, and to exercise a little more! I've lost 26 pounds since March! That's a total weight loss goal of at least 40 pounds and I'm OVER halfway there!

I posted the picture below to facebook and I was almost embarrassed to. I looked pretty bad before! Why is it that nobody tells you you've got a muffin top? Oh, wait! Somebody did. It really hurt my feelings and took a blow to my self-esteem. You know what though? It helped motivate me.

How did I begin? Portion control! I stopped snacking so much and started eating 3 meals a day. I limited sugar, some carbs, and started adding a bit more protein. I reduced my portions probably in half. My biggest thing to comfort me is food. What do we spend all our extra money on? Eating out! We LOVE to eat out! Plus, I don't like cooking. We try to only eat out about two times a week now. To some that may be a lot, but for us it's pretty good. Wednesday nights we like to eat out and Sunday after church.

Another thing we started was Visalus shakes. Its a meal replacement that we started taking. It's really the best weight loss shake I've had! Not only that but it has vitamins and fiber in it as well. I do sell it, and if you want more info, here's the link. I'm adding it just in case you're interested. I've had some people ask about it after posting on Facebook. I'm not a very good sales person and the type that if you want it, you'll let me know. I don't like to be pushy at all.

Here's "Fat Cristina," and I should have titled the other one "halfway there" instead of "after." :)

If you notice, Erik has lost weight too! 18 pounds now!