Five Years Today

Some pretty flowers along with a balloon my hubby sent me from South Carolina for our Anniversary.

Five years ago today, I married the man of my dreams. Just this year I realized that I share this special anniversary with another very regal couple that I highly look up to. Any guesses? And as nice as it is to now share this anniversary with the royal couple that just got married today, I have a different couple in mind. I'll give you some hints. They were married for 67 years. In an address after his wife passed away, he stated these very words in regards to his beloved wife and the marriage they share, of which I find very inspiring:

"There is no other arrangement that meets the divine purposes of the Almighty. Man and woman are His creations. Their duality is His design. Their complementary relationships and functions are fundamental to His purposes. One is incomplete without the other."

If you guessed The Hinckleys then you're absolutely correct. Since I just discovered that this year, it's not like I planned it. Could it be just a happy little coincidence? Perhaps. But if you know me, you know that I wouldn't think of it that way. So here's to shooting for 62 more years together and living a life and marriage the way this inspiring couple did.

I love you Alex. Happy Fifth Anniversary!

Artist Interupted

Here's to my first dance class in a long time. I don't know why I've stayed away from dance for so long. But now, that I've changed a lot of my lifestyle, I think I am now ready to return to the world of dance. When I first heard about this opportunity to attend a dance class and conference especially for Stay-at-home moms, I had to jump on it. I look back on my experience in the dance world and in college and I realize that even though I may never do the things I've always dreamed of doing with dance, I'm okay with it. I have a new goal in life. And with that goal, a new approach to what I can do with my dance education. In any case, on this particular weekend, I ran into some old friends of mine. Above I'm with the guy who taught me all about the djembe drum and dance accompaniment. Below I'm with two sweet girls who I danced with quite a bit. Both mommies now too. Lisa is a mommy of twins and was there dancing at six months pregnant. Quite the inspiration. And my good friend Lori has always been the most inspiring little dancer to me. She now has a little girl Chrysalis' age. I know, I look sweaty and gross. But it felt good to dance again. I'm really excited for this group of dancers and those who have organized it to continue. If you are a fellow dancer who hasn't heard of Artist Interupted yet, check them out on facebook. I think they're quite the inspired group of dancers putting this together.

He is Risen

Easter really is such a glorious time for me. I love holidays. But I love what this holiday represents the most. I'm not sure if this painting is in print yet, but I like it and I think it really expresses a lot. I love LDS artwork. Del Parson is one of my favorites. When I first saw it, I wondered about the whole, "Touch Me Not," part of the story. I believe this site talks about it a little. But I wonder what others' opinions are on the matter. In any case, I feel this might have been what Mary felt regardless of whether she actually touched him or not. In my opinion, it is a rather insignificant detail.

http://summalogica.com/blog/marys-elation-painting-and-description-del-parson/

In any case, I don't want my children to ever think that my main focus on Easter Day was the Easter Bunny and eggs. I want them to know of my testimony of the atonement. I know he is our older brother and that his sacrifice was made out of sincere love for all of us. That said, I do enjoy the symbolism of Easter Bunnies and eggs. A new birth. A new life. Spring time. The Savior as a risen being is just that. A new opportunity.

So here are our eggs for the year. A few weeks back, we threw a little Easter Egg "Tie" dying party. It sure was fun. I first made these a couple years back. But it is a fun and easy project that turns out beautiful eggs that look as though they've taken hours to create. The other plus side is that you don't have to deal with messy dyes. Which I love. Because I hate messy dyes. I still use them though.

Here are some of the different patterns that turned out. It's true though that the uglier the tie the prettier the egg. Oh, and if anyone tries to make these in the future, make sure the ties are made of 100% silk. Polyester does not work.

Then yesterday was our ward Easter egg hunt. Trying to explain to my dad that we were going on an Easter Egg Hunt was rather comical. He couldn't figure out why we were all getting ready so early to go and buy eggs. Both my sister and I explained to him a bunch of different times that it was FOR EASTER. Anyways, I know it's every mother's dream to fill up her children with candy. Not. So I'm glad I didn't buy big easter egg baskets for this event because my kids could have easily picked up more eggs than you see here. But it is also hard to take away these sweet treats from them when their little eyes light up. So as part of one of the three or four times a year that we eat candy, I let them have some. I don't know why I get so paranoid about this. Maybe it's because Orion has been having some rash breakouts on his bum lately and the doctor told us to try and stay away from yeast products and sugar because he may have candida overgrowth. Go figure. And now we're eating candy. After today, I'm seriously cutting back on the sugar.

Chrysalis was funny. She didn't know what to think of seeing so many eggs. So after collecting two, she was done. When she realized there were "treats" in each egg, she then wanted to collect more eggs.

Poor little Hinckley hangs out in the stroller and/or carseat a lot. He'll be up and about soon enough though. He's already crawling and pulling up. This kid just grows too fast.

Me and my silly babes.

Every time I tried to capture a cute pic of this girl, she turned around. So these are as good as it gets with her.

Just too occupied with the candy.

To top it off, if you happened to collect the special gold or silver eggs of which there were only a few, you got this special treat. A giant chocolatey sugary bunny.

Leave it up to my kids to each get one. But once I explained to Orion that they had "milk" chocolate and that he shouldn't have any, I asked him if he would be willing to give it to another little kid who really wanted one. He said, "Okay." Pointed out some cute little girl and walked up to her and said, "Hey girl, do you want this? I don't like it because it has milk and makes me itchy." Who's kid is this? I'm not sure. But if it had been me, I don't think I would have done this so easily. Orion is truly unique. And I love him for it.

And here are their Easter outfits from today. I had such a nice idea for a photo shoot, but after a few minutes, these kiddos were done. Why do photo shoots with kid always turn out to be the hardest things to put together? Maybe it's the timing. I suppose the upside to trying to do it after church is that they're all already dressed up. The downside: They just came home from church.

Oh well. Cute enough I guess. Hinckley was running a mild fever too. So he is a little out of it in these photos.

Can you tell?

Me and my kiddos.

And these last five pictures are what Orion decided to take. He'd been begging me to use the camera. So I figured what's the point in fighting him. He took some interesting ones. I think he might be a better photographer than I am.

Here's one of Grand Papito Pepe.

Here is one of my keys on the sidewalk.

Chrysalis blowing raspberries in the air.

And one of us with all of our heads chopped off. At least mine wasn't. Ha ha! Well, Happy Easter to all! And remember: He is Risen!

A New Little Cousin

Actually, they're second cousins. Meet Tuff Clark Purles. At least I think that's how it's spelled. But he sure is a sweet little one. And not quite so little. I believe he was over 10 lbs. And Mommy Kristin is looking as lovely as ever. Congrats Kellen and Kristin!

Funny story about this day:

My three kids, my Dad, sister Tiffany and I decided to go to the hospital to meet the new baby. On our way there, I guess my other sister Gio called Tiffany and Tiffany tells her she can't talk because she's at the hospital. Well, since she didn't tell her why, I guess Gio assumed it had something to do with my Dad (since he did recently have a stroke). And so she called my Mom to ask her what happened. I'm sure you can see where this is going. My mom fears the worst since she had no idea why we were at the hospital: Dad must have had another stroke or something. So she calls all the emergency rooms in all of Utah. She practically had a heart attack herself. I finally did get a hold of her to tell her we just went to see a new baby. She was in California at the time finalizing everything for their move out to Utah. She is now here by the way. Yay! My Dad is so much more happy now with her around. I'm just glad my workload is now a little lighter. Now I can focus my time on my kids a little more. I don't think I'm cut out to be Nurse Ligia just yet. I've developed a whole new respect for nurses.

Anyways, Welcome to the World little Tuff! April 12, 2011.

Learning to Listen and Speak more Slowly

A quick note on my dad's progress and a short story:

First off, I'd like to thank any and all those who have helped my family out in so many different ways and all those who are genuinely concerned about his well being and ours. Just so that people know, my dad has had a very speedy recovery. I know all prayers have been heard. The fasts that were made on his behalf I believe have allowed him to recover so much so quickly. He first came out of his stroke unable to move half his body. Now, he is almost normal. He doesn't need help going to the bathroom or anything. He showers himself. Shaves and everything. His speech and memory are the things we are working on slowly. But every day shows signs of improvement. He's speaking faster each day and is now remembering Spanish and speaking it more clearly too. Because he speaks so fast, sometimes my sister and I speak to him like we normally do and he has to constantly remind us to slow down. His comprehension is still slow. And some words still come out jumbled and backwards. But we understand one another well when we slowly communicate things.

He made an interesting observation the other day that took him about 20 minutes to explain to me but it made me think a lot. I've become quite pensive over the last couple of weeks as my mother quickly tries to move out of the house back in California to come and live in Utah. Meanwhile, I am here with my Dad and thanks to help from my two sisters, we are trying hard to make him feel relaxed and at home. Both my mother and I felt it would be highly stressful for him to deal with the matters of moving after having had a stroke. So we thought it best for him to stay in Utah with me. It's not easy though. At first, he tried leaving but had nowhere to go and no way to get there. He hasn't lost his character for sure. He's a stubborn man. And a fighter. That first day after my mother left to take care of matters in California, we spent many hours trying to explain to him that it was better for his health to stay here.

On many occasions, we've had to spend close to 2 hours to try and communicate things that would normally take 5 minutes or so. It's tough sometimes, but I think doing this has allowed me to think things through a lot more before saying them. I believe my family has poor communication skills. Because of this, we sometimes speak over one another and gradually get louder and louder so as to be heard. The irony of doing this is that no one is listening and nothing gets heard. The observation my Dad made the other day was that while my sister and I were discussing something petty, he noticed that everything we would say, we would say four or five times. He said to me later, "You say the same things. Over and over." He then asked, "Why can't you just say it once?" He then encouraged me to say things more slowly next time I get into an argument with my sister. I didn't want to hear it at first.

But later that night as I lay in bed pondering what he had said, it made sense. I do say things over and over. And then later on, I had a phone conversation with my husband and even I observed the many occasions on which he repeated the same things more than once. I did too. Our world has gotten too overly fast paced. Sometimes, I do think the world would be a better place if we just stopped for a moment, slowed down our pace, and listened more. Patience is something I've told Alex on many occasions is something I don't think I have. Funny how I am now being forced into learning it through my Dad's condition.

He gets very sensitive sometimes about thinking he might be disabled because I won't let him drive. When I quickly tried to explain to him why and for how long, so that he would calm down, he didn't understand. So I had to slow down. When I tried to explain it again at half the speed, he still didn't get it. I took a deep breath at that point. Extremely frustrated, I made one last attempt to slow things down even more. He finally understood that I didn't think his condition was permanent.

This got me thinking even more. If my Dad, who as a grown man, sometimes doesn't understand me because of his mind being in such an innocent state, I began to wonder about my own children and how maybe perhaps I don't communicate things as thoroughly as I think I am. It's like that silly LDS video clip of that child running to the corner of a street and his mother yelling for him to stop and not run to the corner. When she finally catches up to him, she's very much frustrated but quickly understands how unclear she had been because of the question that is posed to her of "Mommy, what's a corner?" I know my Heavenly Father has interesting ways of teaching us things we might not have learned otherwise. This may very well be one of those things for me.

Anyways, other than our communication issues, we are all well. And my Dad is progressing very well. We are seeing a naturopathic doctor and we also have an appointment with a new cardiologist to see what we can do about reducing his prescriptions to zero. Maybe not all at once. But slowly, I think my Dad can regain his health if he is willing to try more natural approaches. He doesn't like the wheatgrass much. But he grudgingly takes it. We've eliminated his diabetes medications because his blood sugar actually became too low at one point. This is something that we didn't know was possible to reverse. But with all the fresh juices and green smoothies I've been making him for the past three weeks now, he may very well never need diabetes medications again. At least we're hoping for that. I strongly believe that prescription meds do indeed save lives, but I also believe that they are not something we have to live with forever.

Just two days ago, with the help of the doctor, we were able to eliminate two more pills and replaced them with a milder herb that we're hopeful he won't need for life. His vitals are pretty strong and just yesterday, he said some speech began to make more sense to him while hearing it. He's addicted to the television show 24. So I guess, that's how he's learning for now. I don't mind so much. But ask Alex sometime why I don't really like that show. I'm trying really hard not to roll my eyes.

Well, that's all for now. I need to get some rest. Just thought I'd get that all off my chest.

Salmon

I know this probably only means a lot to me. But on this occasion, I began to notice how much Orion seems to be coloring more within the lines of a picture. Instead of all over the paper. He has specifically designated that the top two fish are "brown" and the bottom two are "salmon." I asked him, "you mean pink?" He said, "Yea Mom, salmon are pink." Well Duh. I knew that. I just had no idea he did. Apparently he does. How? I may never know. I'm sure this paper will get lost someday and/or thrown away, so documenting kid art on the blog is a great way for me not to feel guilty about losing his precious artwork later in life. It probably won't even phase him in the future. But I know these are things I will treasure when he is grown up and married one day. My own mother talks a lot about her son who is currently serving a mission. All too often, I wish my kids would grow up faster, but I know it will be here quicker than I can imagine. My time with them is short. <<< Sigh >>>

To Spring

One thing I've actually grown to love about Utah is the seasons. There really are four very distinct seasons. It's quite beautiful. Something I never grew up with in Sunny Southern California. On some random walk, I had my camera with me and noticed this tree just in front of our place had a nest in it. Must have been from before as it was still too cold for birds to already be building their nests. But it was a pleasant sight. To think about some little bird that nested her young there and perhaps some future little bird that will find it a suitable place this upcoming spring. I look forward to it. So I decided to capture this moment on camera. I'm sure it won't be as noticeable once the blossoms begin and then the trees are covered in beautiful green leaves.

So here's to spring. Even if it seems to be slow in coming this year.

Happy Birthday Auntie Gio!

March 23, 2011: Gio's Birthday! Nothing like a good old Bombay House Dinner to celebrate your sister's birthday. Here's Auntie Gio with Chrys and Orion and my cousins in the back Caesar and Romina.

Here's a picture of me and my little big sister. Little because she's younger. Big because I'll always be the shorter of the two. Happy 26th Birthday G. You know I'll always look up to you. Ha ha!

Quilts for Japan

This cute lady first introduced me to Hypnobirthing and natural childbirth. Her cute daughter organized this service project that I couldn't pass up. So on March 19th, I gathered my chickens and took them over to this chapel in Orem to help out with putting together quilts to send to Japan shortly after the tsunami took place.

It sure feels good to be a part of something you know will help someone many miles across the earth. I even had my older two do a couple of knots so that they could contribute too. Orion kept asking me why? So I explained to him that people had lost their homes and everything including blankets and he said, "Yea, people need blankets to stay warm."

I wish I had taken more photos to show how many were there. When I walked out of there, there was a huge pile of about 20-30 quilts or so. It truly was quite the mountain of quilts. It's amazing to me how a gathering of hands can do so much in just a few hours.

Here's one I worked on. While working on it, I met a woman who was actually from Japan who talked about how even though her family was okay, she knew the area well that is now under water. She was the sweetest lady to talk to. Amazing the people you meet at things like this. Again, I wish I had taken more pictures. The Japanese are truly a graceful people. I love getting to know about different cultures. It's almost like traveling to these places. Time and time again, I come across people from many different walks of life who truly inspire me. This is just one more experience to add to that collection of memories that make me a more grateful person for the blessed life I have indeed.

Milestones

In all of the chaos that is going on around my place (raising three kids while their dad is away for six months and watching over my dad at the same time) I don't want to forget to document the little things about Hinckley that I know I will one day miss.

Like the first day he began sucking his toes. What mother doesn't love this one? March 13th, 2011.

Or the day he had his first tastes of wheatgrass and green smoothie. March 18th, 2011.

He loved it and seems eager for more. Not that I didn't enjoy nursing my other two kids, but with Hinckley, I have not been in any rush to wean him. I get slightly sad to think of how fast he is growing. And I have very much enjoyed our connection together this time. More so than I remember with my first two. Don't get me wrong. I have very fond memories of nursing the other two, but I think my mind was always somewhere else. I greatly anticipated the day I wouldn't have to nurse them anymore. I turn around for one second with Hinckley and he's already doing something new. It seems to all happen so much faster when you're occupied with two others already. Which is why I feel this time around, I am enjoying my time with him and in no hurry to finish with the nursing phase. Who knows. I may shoot for two years. Maybe not. But I've read it doesn't hurt. We'll see. But here's some Hinckley footage for you to enjoy.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I feel as though I'm trying to catch up on some of the things that have been happening around here since I haven't had a lot of time to post much. So this was obviously March 17, 2011 here. I'm a little behind. But I wanted to capture the kids in their green shirts.

I began to get curious as to why St. Patrick's Day is celebrated and since it's one of those things I've never researched before, I decided to find out where it came from. I found out some interesting things. There once was a catholic saint who went about teaching in Europe about the trinity. He went around all over the place, but I guess he became most loved by the Irish. Apparently, he used a three-leafed shamrock to show that the Godhead consisted of The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and that they were indeed one being. I thought that was a rather interesting piece of history I never stopped to think about before. But because I don't agree with St. Patrick, I think I will steal his clever idea to teach my children that there truly are three separate beings that are one in purpose. Where the pot of gold and rainbow came from, I'm not sure. And the big parades I'm certain arose from people wanting to celebrate one more holiday. But I suppose learning about God brought the Irish a lot of happiness and a bit of better luck. Anyone out there know why we get pinched for not wearing green? I still can't figure that one out.

In any case, Happy late St. Patrick's Day!

A Different Approach

Okay, so you're probably wondering why you're seeing a doll made to look as though she went potty on her chair. Well, Orion's potty training was absolute torture for me. Alex would probably say the same thing. So with Chrysalis, we figured it couldn't hurt to try a different approach. I first noticed the "Potty Train your Child in Just One Day" book in the baby section at walmart and didn't think much of it and am now wishing I had. After reading Alex's cousin's experience with her little boy, I decided we at least needed to give this a shot.

So what you're actually seeing here is Peanut Butter and chocolate with mustard. I guess the idea is that you want to throw the most exciting party for your child ever and then fill them up with juices and fluids so that they have more times to practice throughout the day. You give them treats and make a big deal out of every time they get it right. You also use a doll and pretend that it pees and poops also. And every time the doll gets it right, you praise the doll too. Or reprimand the doll for having accidents. I was surprisingly shocked at how well Chrysalis took this. She actually looked disgusted every time she thought Leah had an accident. Leah is one of her favorite dolls.

I even whipped out a pair of underwear for Leah to get wet and dirty. It kept falling apart. But it worked sufficiently enough. I need to get a picture of the potty trained girl who is now permanently in her underwear. Did it work like a charm? If I am being honest, it took her about a couple weeks. On very rare occasions does she have accidents now. All in all though, it was by far a much better approach than the one we had with Orion. Don't even ask me how we managed to get that boy potty trained. But the good news is, we have two out of three out of diapers now. Chrysalis is officially potty trained. Hooray! Thanks Leah, for showing Chrysalis how it's done.