So... It's still here?

For almost 2 years I thought that I had deleted this blog but during a search for a friends blog, I was surprised to find that my blog was still here! So much has happened in 2 years and I can't even start to recap now, so for now I'll just say that I am planning on returning regularly. I hope...

As a teaser, here are the latest pictures of the fam!

Little Miss 3 year old Gabriela

Mr. 7 Year old Julian

My handsome hubby and I!

Stay tuned!

Christmas and New Years

Christmas was so much fun now that everyone is old enough to enjoy opening gifts

New Years was spent in Niagara falls. It was our first family road trip.

How the party animals welcomed in the new year

Last fall!

Last fall, Julian started preschool. No more daycare for Julian.

First day of school

Same school as his cousin Siannie

Mommy was sad.

Daddy....not so much

Gabby just keeps growing and growing



Lost but not forgotten...

On a trip to Daytona Beach, Florida when Julian was six months old, we did the worst thing a new parent could do. We forgot the pacifier. On that trip, with nothing to comfort him, Julian took a liking to a blue striped blanket. That was when the friendship began. He carried that blanket everywhere and refused to separate from it even for a wash. That blanket was affectionately called Stinky. Four years later, Stinky was lost. Coincidentally it was on a trip to Florida. Julian was devasted by its loss and cried for hours. He was inconsolable for hours. As a mom, that broke my heart. Stinky will be remembered fondly, not just for being a good friend to Julian but for keeping him quiet for mommy.

 

Stinky, wherever you are, we'll miss you...

Worst Blogger Ever!

Well, it's been almost a year since my last blog post. This means that I either have been so incredibly busy that it was nearly impossible to give a blog update or I am the worst blogger ever. I leaning towards the latter.

So in an effort to catch up, I will be posting a few pictures soon of everything that's been going on this past year. Stay tuned...

Family Vacation!

Julio and I are riding in the car and the song, “Un largo viaje” by Marcela Gandara comes on.

♪A sido largo el viaje pero al fin llegue ♫

As soon as we heard those lyrics we looked at each other and started laughing out loud. It definitely was a loooong week.

Sunday, we got up to finish packing, clean up, and wait for Julio’s parents to give us a ride to the airport. Julian had spent the weekend with them so our family vacation trip to Florida was a surprise for him. Our flight was very good. Julian behaved and Gabby slept for most of it. We picked up a rental car and got to the resort. We immediately had to change and go to the beach. The water was warm and the weather was amazing.

Monday, we started to realize that the resort was not like what the websites had pictured. It was old and the room, when looked at closely, looked as if it had sustained water damage from a hurricane or flood. We didn’t care too much because we were spending most of the time in the pool or in the beach.

 

Tuesday, I started getting annoyed because the service people would come to clean but the rugs were never vacuumed. We kept tracking in a lot of sand. I still didn’t complain because we were having too much fun. Julian and Gabby were fish. They loved the water and didn’t want to leave. I also started to LOVE our family naptime. We all napped at the same time. I love to sleep so this was one of the highlights of our vacation.

Wednesday, another day of fun. We went to this great restaurant called The Island Cow. I loved the food, the décor and the service. We spent our regularly scheduled times on the beach, in the pool and our family naptime. Gabby had been hard at work taking steps and finally walked about 14 steps across the room without just taking a stroll. I was so proud.

Thursday, I was fed up with the room service. I had to complain about the cleanliness of the room and they immediately remedied the situation. To make matters worse, it rained the WHOLE day. If you have kids then you know how hard it is to manage two restless kids in a tiny room for several hours. We found a movie theater nearby and decided to try getting the kids to watch the new Cars movie. BIG MISTAKE. Julio stayed and watched the movie with Julian but I had to stay in the car with Gabby for a whole hour. That night had an extremely early bedtime.

There really wasnt anything else to do...

Friday, we had breakfast and were going to meet some friends that were driving four hours to see us. All of the sudden, Julio gets a phone call and starts scrambling around. He turns around with eyes wide open and tells me that he got the dates wrong and that our plane was leaving in two hours!!! Without saying a word, I took out all the suitcases and started shoving them with all of our stuff. I got everything packed in 15 minutes. That had to be a record! To reschedule the flight and stay another night would have cost us a fortune so off we went. We checked out and Julio drove 90mph to return the rental car. We got to the airport just in the nick of time. Because we hadn’t worked out our nap schedules, the kids did not want to nap during the flight so we became “those” people with the loud kids on the plane. It was also delayed an hour due to thunderstorms. My parents picked us up and were delivered to my house. Home sweet home.

Looking back, overall we had a good time. The kids had fun; we relaxed, and were together. One big happy family.

Two lessons learned:

1.) It doesn’t matter the situation you are in. What matters is how you handle it. I could have thrown a fit over the bad parts but I just went with the flow and it all turned into a funny, crazy, memory….

2.) Never let your husband plan a vacation alone…

The Climb for Air!

Today, Julio participated in the American Lung Association's Climb for Air. Many firefighters from all over the area joined together to climb 50 floors to raise donations for the American Lung Association. We all went down to Three Logan Square for the event. Everything was a wonderful success. I am so proud of my hubby. Here are a few pictures:

The building...

Daddy and Gabby

 

Julian dressed in his gear too!

Getting ready... 

Julio and the guys...

 Group shot (this is only Philly fire team)...

Somehow Julian was included in the team picture...lol...

 About to go up...

 Ready, set, go...

Julian was upset he couldn't climb with dad... 

Finally done!

I want to send special thanks to our family and friends that helped support this cause!

THANK YOU!!!!!