Uboldi Thanksgiving (picture overload)

 This year we were lucky to have the Maggiora's in from Texax and Florida to celebrate our Thanksgiving Holiday.  It was a great time!!!!  I spent the majority of the day with tia Maggie and my mom to help get things ready and hang out with Los Tios.  It was wonderful!

On the highlights of my day was hanging out with El Tio Norberto.  We went to the vitamin store.  It was way more exciting that it sounds.  We laughed a lot!  He is an awesome guy :) The kids LOVE him and cousin Christian, tons!

We all had a great time chit chatting, laughing and eating.  The kids had a great time being kids....

 Marcos "scolding" Marissa.  I think she had taken Otis' binky away, not sure.  But it was cute :)

Above: Sidney and Maria relaxing after some delicious Thanksgiving meal.  Below: Joel with Chiara and Christian.  These two and my two brothers, hilarious!

Above: The boys.  Below: The older girls.  They are all getting huge!

Sisters!!!! 

Allegra and Kylie in the "mouse house" 

Tio and I.  He doesn't love to have his picture taken and its an easy way for me to tease him :) 

Above: Amy and Gabs (how cute are they?!) Below: Proud Abuelos and Chiara

At the end of the night el Tio came home with me to "help" me put the kids to bed.  Dave was out of town (AGAIN!).  After Otis had his jammas on he went up to el Tio and cuddled with him, all by himself.  SUPER SWEET!

It was a wonderful time with the family!  Family is the best and I REALLY love mine :)

House Update- woooohoooo!

The building process is not as fun as I had expected.  The waiting sucks, to put it mildly :) I have not patience.  It feels like we are on a roller coaster ride with lots of ups and downs and we JUST started!  When we started this way back in May, when we put the house of for sale and sold it, Dave and I told each other that we would not let the house stuff get between us and that we would not let it get us down.  We have been good about that.  Dave picks me up when I am down and that makes this process easier. 

After what seemed like eternity to get the permits, we finally got them, on Leah's b-day.  THEN, we were waiting on something else, i dont even remember what it was.  THEN, we had some changes with our contractor.  We loved him for day one and for some personal issues, which I will not be discussing, our builder could not do this anymore.  After some talk with him we feel blessed that his brother is taking over.  We love Justin and I am grateful he was part of our lives this year.  He is a great GREAT guy!  It was our pleasure to have done business with him.  His brother, Dave (side note: do not name your child Dave, EVER!  its over used!) is moving things along wonderfully and we feel blessed with the unwanted change, but can see God's hand through this time. 

SO, we have been digging for two weeks.  Really it has just been three days, in a two week period.  We had to wait on some survey on the lot.  Bountiful is not an easy city to build on, but it will be SO worth it in the end. 

This first photo is from the front east corner of the lot.  This is a beautiful sight to us!!! :) 

This second photo is from about halfway down on the south side of the lot.  You can see how deep it drops down.  VERY EXCITING to us!!!

The house will be a rambler style home.  The main floor will be where most of the living is done.  There will be a walk-out basement.  The yard is quite large, but it has a big incline before the flat part.  Dave has some big plans for the yard, for example, making sure the kids can snowboard down the hill in the winter.  I say, go for it!

We have yet to make decision on the paint color, but I think we have everything else pretty much figured out.  Dave is not picky and is pretty much leaving it up to me to pick things out.  We are still a ways away from having to finalize those decisions, but I am SO looking forward to it!!!

We pray for no major storms for this next week, after that I think we will be in the clear.  Our builder says we will be in no later than February 15, 2012.  I know that sounds "optimistic" to some, but now that the ball is rolling we should have no problems getting there.  Its starting that is the hard part. 

We cant believe this is really happening!!!! WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!

Otis Update

My little man is particular in who he likes and will cuddle to... However, it has been clear that Otis really likes Esteban....

 Esteban has a liking to this little man as well.  He asked me if we both die if he can have Otis, to which I replied he would have to take all or none. Otis will often cuddle with Esteban like this and its so cute and Esteban loves it!

 This little monkey has learned how to climb out of his temporary crib.  Poor baby, if I had to sleep in one of those for this many months I would learn how to climb out too.  The other day he fell as he was climbing and it was not a pleasant experience.  He hasn't done it since.  He is a monkey!

Otis and Milli go to Abuela's house every Monday for me to volunteer at school, however on this particular day I had gone to a kickboxing class with my Trevino SIL's.  When I got back to Abuela's Otis was SO tired, he feel asleep while Abuela and I chit chatted in her kitchen.  Cute baby!

On a better, not so cute note, Otis has been having some BM problems for 2.5months!  We tried and tried to figure out what was going on.  I eliminated dairy and did soy, that just seemed to make matters worse.  We thought he was teething, but that just seemed to last too long for teeth.  Tried giving him a bland diet, nothing.  I made an appt to see a GI dr and like a miracle it just stopped on its own.  After 2.5 months I am glad to change a "good" diaper.  Mylo also had this "problem" when he was a bit older than Otis is now.  It eventually fixed on its own.  However, I was concerned with Otis' weight and he growth.  He is small, but not to be concerned from a dr.'s perspective.  Glad he is getting better!!! We sure love that little stinker :)

Halloween 2011

Halloween this year was really fun!  We had a Trevino Halloween Party at Sarah and Dave's to start out our festivities.  Sarah had some delicious Deer Valley Chilli for all of us and games for the kids.  She's a great host!

 Oak Hill Elementary has a Halloween Parade every year.  It was fun to see all the fun costumes.  I slacked on the picture taking and the parade was moving so fast it was hard to snap a good picture.  However, I do like how Mylo is in focus and everything else is not :)

At Sarah and Daves.... Megan (green crayon), Max (Justin Beiber), Eliah (looloola doll?), Maddie (beauty queen), Leah (Liv Doll, more on that later), Jake (some masked guy with lots of blood),  Nicholas (swat team guy), Alex (fireman), Ryan (puffle, from club penguin), Mylo (Bobafet), Chloe (Rapunzel), Jace (giraffe), Alli (Tiana, from princess and the frog), Otis (pumpkin), Milli (princess), Xanti (astronaunt), Rylie (frog). Not pictured, Dave P. (hippie)

 Milli and a little friend, Lucia on Halloween.  They loved getting in and out of the wagon all night.

 Leah, Mylo and their friends Lila and Liam.  These kids ran from door to door and we had to practically chase after them!  That is what Halloween is about, right?  They had a GREAT night!!!!

We also went to Mike and Mary's and they spoiled the kids, as usual! Its always fun to see them :)

The morning of Halloween a few of us running gals got together, in costume, and ran 3-5 miles.  It was really fun! All of these ladies are awesome and great sports :)  I am looking forward to doing it again next year. I have another costume in mind.

It was a great day!!!

Educational Saturday

Me, Ameli (Om) and Crissy

Two weeks ago, Crissy gave me a call and said she would be in town for just ONE day.  She lives in Las Vegas, so clearly we dont get to hang out all the time.  She had some very important "business" to take care of at IKEA.  I quickly jumped on board for the adventure.  

Ameli, who is extemly busy, was able to surprise Crissy, when we picked her up at the airport.  We hung out at IKEA and chit chatted like the good ol days.  

We have been friends for a VERY long time now.  We met in the married student ward, way back in 2002.  We have been able to stay in touch through our moves and increased family responsibility.  Life is good when you have friends like these girls.  

Crissy is one of the very smartest people I know. She has incredible amounts of knowledge and she shares it with the not so totally smart (ie. Om and I).  On this particular, fabulous Saturday, Crissy's TOTALLY AWESOME parents met up with us at IKEA and we had lunch together.  Crissy's mom is one amazing woman, I can see the apple does not fall far from the tree.  I had known that for a long time.  However, I had not had the plessure of getting to know Ben, Crissy's dad very well in the past.  OH MY GOODNESS, no wonder Crissy is as wonderful as she is!!! Her parents are fun, caring, funny, passionate and extremely knowledgeable in any subject.  Crissy has had some amazing examples.  

This particular lunch was so educational.  We learned so much from the Crandall's!  I guess, I never realized how much a friendship can so fully bless my life.  I love these girls (Alyssa, should have been there too, to make this a complete weekend, but San Diego is kinda far)! I feel so incredibly blessed to "count" them amongst some of my dearest and closest friends.  LIFE IS GOOD!!!!! 

An Angel In My Path

A few Sundays ago, Dave was out of town.  This is a very typical occurance.  Unfortunately, Dave has to travel a lot and most of his travel is on the weekends.  Needless to say, Sundays are SUPER hard for me.

On this particular Sunday I was wrestling four kids, by myself.  I was trying really hard to stay cool, calm and collected.  Both Milli and Otis wanted to sit on my lap and neither wanted to share "the" lap.  Leah and Mylo were being great.  They were coloring or reading the Friend.

When I finally convinced Milli to sit for a second or two, Otis took off.  As I stood up to chase after him, this wonderful brother, stopped me as I was about to go through the door.  He asked me to sit down and enjoy, while he watched Otis for me.

I was SO touched by cute Brother Thompson's kind act!  Tears ran down my cheeks as I felt the love of my Father in Heaven through this "angel in my path."  Bro. Thompson doesn't necessarily know me or Otis.  However, what touched me even more was when I turned around after the first speaker had finished their talk, to see if Otis was back in the room.  There was Bro. Thompson and Otis sitting happily on his lap.  Bro. Thompson was reading Otis a book and stroking my arm ever so gently.  I quickly turned around, seeing that all was in control.  After the second speaker I turned around, again.  That is when I found Otis, fast asleep on the arms of "the angel in my path."

I am so grateful for this sweet act of kindness and love, from what is truly no more than a man from church.  It was such a nice sacrament meeting with one less kid climbing on me.  I hope that I learn from Bro. Thompson's example!

I am also grateful for Heavenly Father looking out for me with angels in my path!