Linares Party of Five

HaPpY biRthDaY sAvaNnaH!

2012-01-27T11:18:00.000-05:00

today is my little squashed-in-the-middle-cutie-patootie's birthday! i am sure she will be anxiously awaiting her letter from hogwarts....

we love her sweet smile and her enthusiasm for life.

she doesn't always like her picture taken...

she loves her big sister and they spend hours talking about books til the wee hours of the morning, literally.

and she is helpful with her little sister, most of the time...

and she loves her daddy!

happy birthday savannah! we hope it's full of lots of fun and magic!

i am a runner...

2011-12-05T14:41:00.000-05:00

wishing i could get back out there now! hopefully only one more day of this stupid crap from being sick!!

why i've been such a slacker

2011-11-25T10:00:00.000-05:00

the blog has been sadly neglected due to forces beyond my control. well, i guess some of it has been in my control, but whatever. here are a few fun projects i've been working on for the past few weeks. (along with some others i don't have pics of)

my first hat. didn't turn out too badly.

the vultures were out to snag it, but dad was the happy recipient. it will com in handy on those 2 cold days here in florida!

and the piece de resistance (please say in a french accent.) a fantabulous gryffindor scarf!

so warm and cozy! for all the issues i had with this scarf, it was a pretty fun one to knit.

but, that could have had something to do with the cute recipient. sarah's friend janae finally received her ever so belated birthday present. (that's what happens when sarah asks me to knit it 2 days before the party.) and judging by the drool dripping off of sarah's other friends' chins, i better get started on theirs as well.

hAppY tHanKsgiVinG!!

2011-11-24T14:52:00.000-05:00

(cute little turkey provided by gracie's awesome primary teacher, sister smith.)

hAppY haLLoWeEn!

2011-10-28T23:20:00.000-04:00

photo courtesy of marci smith.

it's great to be eight!

2011-09-26T12:28:00.000-04:00

well, our baby is eight today! it's hard to believe that the last one will be baptized in a few weeks. she is definitely an irreplaceable part of our family. we love her for so many reasons but we will give you our top eight.

1. she is a little zany.

2. she is laid back, on most occasions.

3. she's still just a little girl.

4. she is a good sharer.

5. she knows how to have fun!

6. she has her own sense of style.

7. she loves her big sisters immensely.

8. she truly adds a unique dimension to our family unit.

you are a beautiful part of our family little one and we hope your birthday is everything and more!

we love you & happy birthday!

remembering...

2011-09-11T23:34:00.001-04:00

after grace and i ran our races(will post pics later) on 9-10-11 we stopped by the patriot memorial. part of it has a piece of steel from the world trade center on display. grace was really impressed by how large the piece was, but also how small it was in comparison to the entire building from which it came.

because of the way the steel was marked during construction of the WTC they were able to document where this particular piece came from.

on the other side of the steel is a fountain with an eternal flame that was lit today. (we stopped by after church to show the big girls that didn't go to the race. i didn't have my camera on me.) behind the fountain are glass panels with the names of all the victims from each location listed on them. also, a timeline of the events of that day are at the bottom of each panel. it was a good way to help grace try to understand what happened on 9-11. i was impressed with her knowledge of what happened that day and her curiosity to learn even more.

today we spent some time watching various shows about what happened on that fateful day. my girls asked me how old they were and what my memories of that day were. sarah was only 3, savannah 9 months and gracie wasn't even thought of yet. because my kids were not in school yet and we had been up late the night before celebrating my father-in-laws birthday i slept through most of the events. mauricio called and woke me up to tell me what was going on. i remember the first thing that came out of my mouth was "no way. i don't believe you." but once i turned on the t.v. it was confirmed. shortly after that, my neighbor, originally from new york, came over with her daughter. we sat there in shock for several hours in awe that something like this was actually happening. it was nice to have another person to be with while such a horrific tragedy unfurled.

i still cannot believe it has been 10 years since that day. i pray we don't take one day for granted and may we never forget.

another race for your viewing pleasure

2011-09-07T08:00:00.001-04:00

this summer wasn't filled with as many races as last year since m is training for another ironman towards the end of the year. (which is coming up before we know it!) here are a few pics from the race in melbourne, known as the space coast race. wondering if the shutting down of the space shuttle program will have any effect upon the name next year...

this part of the race is always so exciting with all the athletes prepping their gear. the girl in the photo took first place in the women's race.

i love this picture. worked out perfectly of just m standing in front of the ocean pondering the race.

this is why i love the start of the races. brutal to get up at 4:30 am, but so worth it.

getting ready...

and they're off!

he ended up finishing 1st in his age group. what a champ!

we noticed how tall these dudes were because they are as tall as m is even though he is on the highest block. especially the guy on the right. he's a giant!

only the people who placed got these bad boys.

getting some good grub after the race.

onion ring eyeballs

is that neil armstrong at the running store? is he going to do the tri in that suit?

always sleeping on the ride home.

when life gives you lemons...have a party!

2011-09-05T01:18:00.000-04:00

sarah's birthday bash went off without a hitch. we had a grand old time with her lemonade theme. it was a bit of work, but so worth it as all the girls really enjoyed and appreciated it. and most of all, they all had a fantastic time!

invites i made with this great french vintage lemon print. it's super pretty in color, but as we only have a laser printer right now we opted to print it onto yellow scrapbook paper and it turned just fine.

the centerpiece of the party snacks—the lemonade stand. idea is here. and also all of these ideas are on my lemonade pinterest board. we constructed the bones from pvc and it literally took 1 min to set them up. instead of spending a ton of mulah on fabric for the awning i scored some yellow tablecloths from the dollar store. kachow! i didn't spend very much money on the decor besides the pvc, the mason jars for the drinks, the flowers, balloon, the paper goods, and the tablecloths. everything else was taken from stuff i had around the house.

i really didn't want to spend any money on these jars, but knew they would be a good investment and i can use them for other parties and/or gifts.

yes, i painstakingly made each of these labels, but it was fun. the girls forgot to take them home, so they will be refurbished as some kind of labels for future gifts and/or bookmarks of some sort.

the yumminess in the white bowl, otherwise known as lemon buddies, can be found here. and they are gluten free! score! we had one guest who needed these and our dad also is gluten free these days.

this cake was to die for! lemonade cake with lemonade cream cheese frosting!! i added a bit more lemonade to the frosting for a little extra tartness. we served it with raspberry sherbet. do i really need to describe how it tasted?

lemon heads! and in aqua jars no less.

the cookies in the foreground were so light and fluffy they were hard to stop eating. and soooooo easy peasy! super sticky, but super yumtastic!

i so wanted to make a little sign, but it was the 11th hour and was having a major brain crisis and couldn't figure out how to do it from square paper. in all of her 7 year old wisdom grace says, "mom, just draw a triangle and then trace it on your paper and cut it out." duh?? it looked way better that way too because the triagles weren't perfectly even. super homemade, just like a lemonade stand should be. the circles of course were thanks to my fab circle cutter. i love that thing!

the little lemon drawing in the dollar store frame laying around the house was even homemade by grace. she drew a lemon on the paper and we mounted it lickety split onto some scraps of leftover paper. (do you see those candies in the dish next to it???? zots!! those were a fluke that i happened upon in walgreens one afternoon. super cheap too! the kids loved them and all their fizziness.)

pretty daisies in jars. *sigh*

lemon creme cookies and lemon drops.

i think the check out guy at costco thought i was crazy when i bought 3 huge bags of lemons. (yes, we still have some leftover. and yes, we will be using them to make some lemonade and lemon ice box graham cake.)

a no brainer, our famous lemon bars.

now before you get to thinking that i liquored up a bunch of middle schoolers, take a looky here. it's lemon facial scrub you sillies! seriously sooooo easy to make and you could literally eat it if you wanted to, but i wouldn't recommend it. we gave them as one of the party favors. containers were via the dollar store once again. (not sure if having a new one open up close to the house is really saving us any money...)

lemonade, raspberry lemonade and lemon water. i have to say the raspberry was a big hit.

some pics of the cute party goers.

being silly.

can you believe i found these awesomely huge boxes of lemon heads! and on clearance for 70 cents/box! thank you walgreens! each girl got to take one home along with the paper clip bookmarks sarah made. again, super easy and cheap. big bag of yellow paper clips from the dollar store and ribbon we already had.

my lame attempt at tissue flowers. let's just say they did not look like the ones from the tutorial. sarah and i had fun giggling about them one late night while she was doing homework and i was attempting to be crafty.

present time! present time! open a present and see what's inside!

the sorting hat!

the hat came with her long awaited acceptance letter from hogwarts. (please don't tell the child that harry potter is not real.)

her own personal mini lemonade.

this gift will be played with for sure.

thumbs up on the lemonade party!

after the festivities wound down, so did the girls, in front of a great movie and plenty of lemony snacks!

rambo and the not so muddy mud bash

2011-09-02T21:53:00.000-04:00

a few months ago we went up to orlando to do a "mud bash". well, on the way our car overheated and we were stranded for about 2 hours on the turnpike in about 90 degree 80% humidity weather. did i mention we also had two kids with us? good times. we were also supposed to meet sarah coming home from girls camp on the road...we were a little late. we saw a machine shop on the other side of the fence and prayed they could help us. mauricio braved the florida brush to get us two big jugs of water! yay! it was harder than it looked apparently. that's why he's the ironman! ;)

our hero!

here we are AFTER the mud race. do you notice what is missing? it was more like a dirty water trail run. we signed up because of this. tell me that doesn't look fun. and why didn't we look like them after the race. i think we deserve a partial refund.

a rock star from outer space

2011-08-15T15:57:00.002-04:00

even though this was something grace did way back during school, i just found the pics on the camera. make fun all you want, you all know this happens to you as well. she had an assignment to craft an alien. being the hip-rock n' roll-lover that she is, she made a rock star alien. that's my girl! i gave her an empty jello box, some googly eyes, paper and feathers and she came up with this! it was her idea to add the straws.

how could you not love an alien with lips like these? so rat your hair, stick your tongues out, raise your lighters in the air and rock out!

crazy cousins

2011-08-14T15:36:00.001-04:00

during july we watched my two nephews while my sis & bro in-law went on a cruise. while they were gallivanting on the high seas, we were having fun with cristian and matthew. these two are something else!

matthew, cristian & gracie

i think matthew is still upset at me in this picture because i made him try veggies. and well, the look on cristian's face, is well, cristian.

these two were inseparable. they swam one day ALL DAY! i am not exaggerating. they ate lunch out by the pool and i had to drag them out for dinner. let's just say they slept very well that night!

i think brady was glad they were gone. poor dog had three kids chasing after him instead of just one.

these three had a great time and we hope to see them again soon!

oh pioneer!

2011-08-13T15:20:00.001-04:00

here are some fab pics of sarah before she left on her trek last month. she was so thrilled to go. can't you tell? but seriously, in florida trek should be in winter. they were rained on the entire time and were soooooo muddy and stinky when they got back. her clothes are stained and the apron we borrowed will have to be bleached.

i wonder...

2011-08-12T14:00:00.001-04:00

i wonder if all mothers feel like this the moment they realize their daughters are growing up—as if it is impossible to believe that the laundry i once folded for her was doll sized; as if i can still see her dancing in lazy pirouettes along the lip of the sandbox. wasn't it yesterday that her hand was only as big as the sand dollar she found on the beach? that same hand, the one that's holding a boy's; wasn't it just holding mine, tugging so that i might stop and see the spider web, the milkweed pod, any of a thousand moments she wanted me to freeze? time is an optical illusion—never quite as solid or strong as we think it is. —jodi picoult (excerpt from my sister's keeper)

i know this is a more serious post than the normal, but i came across this quote yesterday, the eve of sarah's 13th birthday, while cleaning and organizing the office. i had written it down years ago while reading the book, thinking that one day i would understand how this mother felt. how funny that i find it right now, as my oldest is entering teenagedom. i just wanted to share it as i am sure many of you out there with teenagers and young adult girls think the same things at any given moment in time. we must enjoy every moment with them, for it goes by far too quickly.

houston, we have a teenager in the house

2011-08-12T01:09:00.000-04:00

she might be turning 13, but she still loves lollipops!

we hope it's a happy one cutie!

may your teen years be kind to us... we love you!!!

He's an IRONMAN!!!

2011-07-28T00:54:00.002-04:00

happy mother's day/anniversary to me! this year i got an ironman!

(yes, this post is soooooo overdue.)

we are so proud of mauricio for his accomplishment in completing his first IRONMAN triathlon. he has competed in several other triathlons this past year leading up to the big full length ironman race in st. george, utah. for those of you not familiar with triathlons and all that goes with it, this is a pretty big deal. swim: 2.4 miles bike: 112 miles run: 26.2 miles. and yes, all in one day! crazy right? i know!

training in st. george before the race

he had trained so hard for this race and a few months ago started having problems with his IT band (knee) and wasn't sure how it was all going to work out. through many therapy/massage & taping sessions he was able to make it doable.

at the bike racks the day before

unfortunately, he must have contracted a virus before the race and ended up with some kind of stomach bug that day which manifested itself after he finished the swim. :/ in true ironman fashion, he pushed through and finished! what a champ! to be able to finish this kind of race being completely healthy is a feat in itself, but to do it with a stomach virus, and vomiting to the point of delirium, well that's just uber amazing! the human spirit cannot be contained when one is determined enough.

i do have to say (because you all know how i am) that a few of the pro athletes pulled out because of "not having a great swim and then my back was spasiming" or "yeah, my foot was really hurting and i didn't want to injure it more". yes, i know, they do this for a living and why injure themselves more when they have other races on the schedule, but the whole idea is to finish the race isn't it? does it matter if they place horribly? no. what matters is that they show enough respect for all the other "non pro athletes", or age groupers as they are called, to finish the race alongside them. that is the true spirit of the ironman.

the swim start. always a beautiful way to start the day even if it is at the crack of dawn, literally.

the photos, except the two taken off of the computer, are courtesy of many family members who attended and shared with us who could not be there. thanks guys for the coverage!

the beginning of the bike course.

part of the bike course appropriately named "the wall".
not only did they have to do it once, but twice!

here he is conquering the wall.

at this point he said he was not feeling so fantastic, but he dug in and kept on going. he had to at one point get off the bike and throw up, but couldn't even do that! the dry heaves. we all know how fun that is.

coming down from the last loop of the bike course cruising through
downtown st. george.

at the ironman site they offer a live feed of all their races so we were able to at least feel like we were a part of it without being there. i was diligently watching the monitor for any glimpse of him and got lucky with this one and through the magic of pausing the live feed i could snap a photo for posterity.

working his way through the marathon.

he was then off to the last leg of the race, the little thing they like to call a marathon. you know, only 26.2 miles of running. or if you are puking your guts out you walk mostly and run when you can.

i am thinking that at this point i would have thrown in the towel and said "that's all folks!" and let the medics cart me off in the ambulance, but not this champ! he said he was hiding from the officials behind the port -o- potties at one point. he was throwing up and trying to get his wits about him when they saw him and took him to the medical tent to try and recoup.

he was there for about an hour and was thinking "i gotta finish this thing." he and another athlete, who was also in the tent trying to recover, decided to leave and get going together on the rest of the marathon.

meanwhile, we were back at home waiting on pins and needles for any word of where he might be.

and by the way: "mauricio, YOU are an IRONMAN!"

ready for the next one in eight weeks??? yes, he is certifiably crazy!

the magic kingdom speedway (or in other words, the only place my kids will ever be allowed to drive.)

2011-03-06T16:55:00.000-05:00

during our visit at the magic kingdom, our girls logged many hours on the speedway. i think the chance to get behind the wheel and let their hair fly in the wind at 5 mph was very appealing to them. mauricio and i had to opt out after 234 times around the track as our legs could not hold the gas pedal down any longer. thank goodness for grandstands that we could sit on and rest our weary bones.

savannah: "can you believe we suckered them into letting us drive?"

sarah: "i know, right? now step on it before they change their minds!"

i am pretty sure the mickey mouse driver's license that grace received at the end of her driving experience is what should be in the wallets of many a florida driver.

Minnie mouse was rockin' the house

2011-02-23T10:00:00.002-05:00

from the minute we walked into Disney world Gracie knew exactly what she wanted as a souvenir. a stuffed Minnie mouse doll. Mauricio and i have a Minnie and mickey from our last trip about 5 years ago and she is FOREVER playing with them, so i kinda knew it was coming. she and Minnie became fast pals.

minnie went everywhere with her. when we got on a ride sometimes she was tucked into the backpack for safe keeping. mostly, though, she was tucked right under gracie's arm.

the next day she moved in for the kill with her daddy; minnie mouse ears! how does a grown man say no to a little 7 year old who has been looking forward to disney for her entire life? he doesn't. he just says, "which ones do you want sweetie?" she had to have the ones that looked "just like minnie's".

and as you can see, those went everywhere too!

seriously, we got super lucky with this one. apparently minnie does not hang out with mickey all day in his tent! what????? she spends most of her time in epcot or mgm. (at least that's what the "cast members" told us anyway.) thank goodness when we went to see mickey she happened to step in for a bit and boy did that make gracie's day. i was glad we did not have to walk away with a crying and disappointed little girl. she had even spent her own money to buy a minnie mouse autograph book and pen! she was determined to see minnie mouse if it killed her!

and, as always, meeting your favorite character at disney world is never a disappointment. thanks minnie. you rock!

and can guess what grace said on our last day? "mom, i think next time we come i need to get a mickey stuffed doll so minnie won't be lonely." i knew it was coming! she already got her foot in the door and prepared me for the next time. she's a clever one she is.

cinderelly, cinderelly, i love what you've done with the place

2011-02-21T17:25:00.000-05:00

How can you not love to just gaze at cinderella's castle when you are hanging around disney world. it is just gor-geous! i guess i am just a little girl at heart.

the best time to castle gawk is definitely at dusk.

i guess you could say another great time is during the holidays at night! as always, disney makes it super magical.

this is one of my favorite pictures. its reflection in the moat.

i'm thinkin' i need to get the number of cinderella's decorator and have them do my lights this christmas. or do you think it was the mice and birds who hung all those bad boys?

knock, knock! cinderella are you home?????

yay! now it's pink!

it's a small world, dumbo!

2011-02-21T15:42:00.001-05:00

it's a small world was gracie's favorite ride. that was always one of my faves as a kid too.

and all of us who have ridden this ride love the creepy little animatronic dolls that sing and dance.

here's grace at the end with all the signs that say good-bye in many different languages. in our house we say it "sionara suckas!"

no matter how many times you've been to disney or how old you become, you gotta go on the dumbo ride.

who knew frontierland could be so scary and fun at the same time?

2011-02-03T10:00:00.001-05:00

from this picture you would never know that the little ones are scared to get on splash mountain. sarah, she's just scared about getting her hair wet.

now the fear comes out!

(if you think that's scary, wait til you see the next picture!)

don't say i didn't warn ya pardner!

be on the look out for them thare injuns!

don't let their pretty faces fool you.
these natives are pretty vicious too.

riverboat ride

this one's for you brady, since you are the sheriff in dog town.

the happiest place on earth-the arrival

2011-02-02T13:56:00.001-05:00

okay, so now the massive disney/universal vacation pictures download begins! aren't you all just jumping for joy??

the anticipation of waiting for the monorail.

grace finally made it to cinderella's castle! she has been literally having dreams about going to this castle since she was like four! how could we not take her??

that's all for now! did you actually think i was going to make you look at all 5,678 pictures at once??

what to do when #2 is in double digits

2011-01-27T00:35:00.000-05:00

in honor of savannah's 10th birthday i thought i would give you the top 10 reasons why we love her and have kept her around this long

#10- she is thoughtful

#9 - she is quick witted

#8 - she is an extraordinary writer

#7 - she has an incredible memory (well, at least for things unrelated to parental requests)

#6 - she is freakishly strong for a child

#5 - she has a vivid imagination

#4 - she is still our little girl who needs us when she's scared (especially on the scary rides at disney ;)

#3 - she is a bit of a cynic and a tad bit on the sarcastic side (hmmmm.....where does that come from?)

#2 - she is so DANG cute!

and the #1 reason is because she is definitely one of a kind!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAVANNAH! WE HOPE IT IS A MAGICAL ONE!

WE LOVE YOU!!!

ciderella's castle it is not

2011-01-17T16:35:00.001-05:00

i have some serious pictures to upload of our family trip to disney and universal in november. yeah, yeah, yeah, it's been a while since we went but they are gettin' posted anyway!

we drove into orlando at night and crashed. the next morning when we woke up we looked out the window and saw universal studios right across the street, which was pretty fun. we were quite a way from disney, but we saw something off in the distance and mauricio says, "hey! it's cinderella's castle!" to which savannah quickly replied, "um, dad that's the angel moroni on top of that building, so i think that's the temple." HA! she was right! we could totally see the temple from our window!

i'll post more pics soon. so stick around if you want to see a boatload of goofy family vacation pictures from us. it's mostly for our enjoyment and we understand if you decide to pass on the family slide show. we won't even be offended. ;)

it's still christmas right?

2011-01-11T12:24:00.002-05:00

well, hey! i know we're already halfway through january and all, but who doesn't like to extend the holidays a little? and besides, all my decorations are STILL up! so it still feels like christmas?

we had a blast this christmas. my parents, brother and natalia, a friend of theirs from ecuador, came down to celebrate with us. everyone received wonderful gifts and some in the family some not so fun gifts. (you know the kind that involves puking your guts out for a day or two.) but we survived and enjoyed ourselves in spite of 5 out of the 8 of us getting sick. we bought and opened gifts, ate candy, had yummy turkey and all the fixings, watched a ton of movies, went to some fun places (pics to follow later.), and had a grand old time just spending time together.

grace got her bell from santa's sleigh this year.

and grandpa got a really fun toy too!

what makes a 12 year old movie buff more excited than a new blue ray? two new blue rays! santa, oh how we love thee.

grace really wanted to get EVERYONE in the family a gift. including brady. even if the toy is almost as big as he is!

this barbie was uber special because it is an older version, so the elves had to break out the mold from storage to make it just for grace. she almost thought she'd have to wait til next year. santa you rock dude!

for the sewing buff. two super cute purple bears to make herself.

grace, already using one of her gifts. anyone for play-doh cake?? yum.

and of course it wouldn't be christmas without a BIG OL PILE of trash!

a little christmas cheer

2010-12-30T21:57:00.000-05:00

grace had her fun polar express day at school. jammies and cocoa in class. what more could a 1st grader ask for?

and as a mom i cannot thank the teacher enough for not using the full sized box for the train cars. mrs. mcgrath you rock! (and for the record, the smoke stack was entirely her idea. little creative bugger.)

looking for the perfect tree.

we were so excited that it was chilly the night we went christmas tree shopping! it made for a definitely festive trip.

the annual christmas concert. (thank goodness there was only one.)

visit to the big guy in the red suit.

sarah the sullen pre-teen.

unfortunately for my kids, the only way they will ever see snow in south florida is when we visit the snow globe in the mall.

construction zone: hard hat required

2010-12-30T14:36:00.001-05:00

another reason we have been busy these past few weeks; i had a great idea to start doing gracie's room! of course 2 weeks before christmas is THE best time for this project don't ya know?!?!

while ~~getting high off paint fumes~~ lovingly painting a gorgeous butter yellow on her walls i came out for a breather and stumbled upon this sign. and seriously, earlier in the day she asked me to glue the stick onto the paper and i didn't even pay attention to the sign. focused? yeah, let's go with that.

as soon as it is even close to being done, i'll post some pictures. but she does have a great dress up station courtesy of a couple of ikea expedit bookcases and a shower curtain rod. and don't you worry your pretty little heads about that lovely white bookcase being unloved. it has already been put to good use this year.

our stockings were hung on the bookcase with care....

i love that it gave me an extra surface to decorate this year. had to find a place to display all these great gifts and thrift store finds.

and the command adhesive hooks held just fine for santa!

you want fries with that?

2010-12-30T10:04:00.000-05:00

i have to say that grace has come up with a lot of different things with her play-do creations, but this was the best; a happy meal.

when i told her to clean up, i guess i was putting her little shop out of business. i walked through later on that night and found this sign taped to the wall: "closed down".

dad can't have all the fun

2010-12-30T09:47:00.000-05:00

we girls can't let our dad have ALL the fitness fun. the girls and i have participated in a few races this year as well. they may not have been as tough, but they were just as fun.

Here we are in our first race ever. I did a 5k and the girls did a 1k.

all i have to say is that i think we will opt out of any races that take place in JULY next year! it was H-O-T!

sarah and savannah checking out the competition. seriously girls, i think you take him.

grace coming in for her photo finish. the thing that is great about this girl is even when she gets tired, she. does. not. stop!

and a race would not be complete without the viking man!

if you look closely you will even see the nipple ring! (he surfaced again at one of m's races later in the year, but no pic that time.)

or some random dude with a speedo. (this one's for you rebecca. ;)

here we are at the fire fighter's 5k. grace and i were the only participants this time.

this race was super fun with all the firemen. one was even racing in full gear. the race is a memorial to a firefighter who died, but while he was alive he loved running. this ladder truck was at the entrance to the race with the big flag blowing in the wind. nice touch.

the last race of the year was the pumpkin run. we entered with a few friends and their kids too. savannah and grace did the 1k, and the rest of us did the 5k. sarah and her friend, katie, beat me by 20 seconds! i'll get you next time girls! matt (on the right end) beat everyone. he's a little speed demon!

a season of triathlons

2010-12-29T13:57:00.001-05:00

even though it is difficult to arise at 4:30 a.m. on race days, nothing beats the calm of the beach or the excitement before the starting gun. this post consists of photos from three different races, so you guessed it; it's picture heavy. have fun!

south beach in the a.m.

(seriously saw some people still up from partying when we arrived CA-RA-ZY!)

for one of mauricio's races we were lucky enough to have his dad visiting. he was super excited to share this part of his life with him since his dad has been in utah for the entire year.

the ever faithful spectators.

hey zach! can you actually SEE ANYTHING?

neal, m's brother joined him for a few races this year too. he's below coming in for a nice finish.

and a race on south beach wouldn't be complete without the vlasic pickle dude.

maybe one day they will be excited for a race. (i won't hold my breath.)

feeling the pain.

what a stud on the bike to the left.

and sometimes you get to stand on the podium!

2nd place in his age group. he did win the master's division, but a bike penalty knocked him down.

the following photos were taken during the escape to miami race where the athletes had to start on an island in biscayne bay. here it is the day before the race.

and here it is on race morning.

the causeway he had to bike over.

one of my other favorite parts of the race also takes place in the morning at the bike racks. everyone is preparing themselves and all of their equipment; lots of good energy and hopes of a good race abounds. not a lot of chit-chat, just a lot of focused athletes.

all the athletes boarding the ferry to get to the island.

grace was the only one who got up with me for the start of this race. we watched it from our hotel.

not a bad view right?

these two photos were taken at two different races, but i thought it was funny as they are sitting in the same order.

feeling good starting the run.

even though he bonked on the run he still finished strong and we were proud of him! what a champ!

when publix is the sponsor you can expect not only good food, but also pretty food. and let's face it folks, we only go to these things for the free food. ;)

why is there always a sign like this at all the races?

these pics are from the last race of the season which was the miami man half- iron. 70.4 miles total. we couldn't get very close for the start of this race so i randomly took some pics of the start and kind of got m in the shot. he is the guy in the middle bending over stretching. lucky shot.

the duckie wanted to enter the race too!

thanks to savannah's great eagle eyes, we were able to get some good shots of m swimming. this was the best. the cap is classic.

the ironman dude got tired.

since this was his first half- iron, we've never seen the racks look so empty mid race before. weird.

coming up on the finish of the first loop of the half marathon.

grace couldn't wait and fell asleep at the finish line.

coming in strong!!

here's a shot of the super athlete with april. (yes, he named his bike.)

catching up with school stuff

2010-12-28T15:37:00.000-05:00

i know these are really old, but who cares. i wanted to get them up mostly for me and the girls' benefit. a few of the school happenings from last school year and the first day of school this year.

savannah had her 3rd grade recycled fashion show and my girlfriend, jennie, helped her make a skirt out of a man's dress shirt. looked so great that she wore it to church until recently when she outgrew it. super cute. and they even made scrunchies from the cuffs! i wanted to put the pics of the process up but haven't been able to get the pics from her yet and i just want to post this stuff.

gracie with her end of the year happenings. her class did a mother's day luau and for the end of the year they always do a cute concert and then an awards ceremony and picnic reading afterwards. we get to sit outside and read the things they have written throughout the year. super cute and fun.

gracie with all of her buddies. so cute!

first day of school 2010

it's hard to believe that this one is in 7th grade already! where does the time go?

on to first grade for grace.

savannah is the fantastic fourth grader!!!

new shoes for the first day!

no more tables. she's a big girl with a desk now!

savannah with one of the best 4th grade teacher in the world! sarah had her as well. we love mrs. ball!

sarah had to go with us to see her teachers from grades gone by. one of the best 5th grade teachers EVEH!!

christmas home tour 2010

2010-12-15T00:11:00.001-05:00

i've always had fun perusing all of those fantastic blogs out there with all of the fabulous christmas decorations in everyone else's houses. this year i wanted to finally participate. now, having said that, my house looks like charlie brown christmas compared to everyone else's but, i. don't. care. we enjoy it and that is all that matters. so from our home to yours: enjoy and merry christmas!

(just so you know, some of this is my doing and some is thanks to my good friend, jennie, who has a knack for all things crafty and decorating! thanks girlfriend!)

i may not have one of those ginormous christmas villages, but i love how it fits on top of the piano. my little one adores it and loves to play with the little people in it.

my favorite piece in the house: the main nativity. and seriously, i got it at the dollar store! i have always wanted one of those really nice expensive lladro porcelain set ups, but i think i like my $8 ceramic one much better.

mary's not bad looking for a buck right?

another nativity. a little cheesy with the quilt batting, but hey! i used what i had on hand!

this little gem of a nativity was the first one i bought when we were first married. i found it in a little candy shop in oxford, ms where my parents live.

these next two are displayed in the family room. i definitely have to say i love them the most, because after everyone is in bed i like to sit with some hot cocoa and watch a cheesy hallmark christmas movie with all the lights, except these, turned off.

we love books, so why not display some christmas ones during the holidays?

i'm not a huge fan of the country motif anymore, but i still love me this cute little snowman family i found at a craft fair years ago. i will have you know all the pine cones are either from our yard or collected throughout the years, no store bought ones here! (but if you have that kind i won't judge.....too harshly ;) )

this mug is one of my favorites. it was made by my grandmother when i was a child and mrs. claus is on the opposite side. (should have snapped a shot of her too.)

merry christmas!

if you want to see the other 5 bajillion other posts go here.

kings and serfs

2010-12-14T08:36:00.000-05:00

as i mentioned in the last post, we have the rosebroughs to thank for introducing us to the fab game of "kings & serfs". here are marybeth and myself as the king and queen. i have to say they have more creative hats than us!

mauricio as my queen ;) we all knew he would show his true colors eventually.

ha ha ha! i am the king!!!!

linda and marybeth as the lowly serfs.

trouble making serfs.

king marybeth enjoying her reign.

the most handsome serf of the evening. sorry zach, i am referring to the guy above.

although the rosebroughs have great hats, our impromptu serf gear at the hotel was pretty fantastic.

you can't beat a disposable hotel shower cap and a leftover plastic cookie package! sarah is such a good sport.

birthday mania

2010-12-11T21:52:00.000-05:00

we celebrated a few birthdays in the last few months. this year was a little different because we didn't have the traditional birthday partys for the girls. things got hectic and we celebrated in other ways.

although not pictured, sarah opted for an awesome new phone for her birthday instead of a party. as she so cleverly stated: "it's a party in my hand." BUT, that fancy new phone came with some strings attached; like the fact that she sold her soul to her father! she has to participate in triathlons and 5ks for the 2 year contract she has on the phone. they even wrote up and signed a contract and everything. she's done one 5k so far and many more will be on the agenda!

we were lucky enough to have mauricio's dad in town during his birthday. it was a particularly exciting one because as some of you may know, he was diagnosed last year with stage 4 colon cancer. thanks to the wonderful treatment he received in salt lake over the past year he is still with us. we are waiting for the last tests to be conducted and then we hopefully will be able to consider him a cancer survivor.

i love this shot with all the smoke!

after cake and ice cream we all played a rousing game of kings and serfs. thanks to the rosebroughs for introducing us to this great game! and just so we're clear; yes, the hats are part of the game.

zachary, my nephew, was a little shy about having his picture taken in one of my hats. i don't get it. it's a great hat! could it be because he is just too cool? or just that he is 14? or both? this was the best photo i could get. i am sure he will deny fiercely that it is him. ;)

gracie turned 7 this year. one of mauricio's races fell on her birthday, so we decided to take an extra day and go early to hang out in the hotel to celebrate. it was a lot of fun. we ate room service, swam in the HUGE cloverleaf shaped spa and ventured around the area. it is located on biscayne bay and has a fantastic ambiance. instead of birthday cake we got yummy cheesecake, chocolate cake and chocolate mousse from the great little deli downstairs.

we were robbed! literally.

2010-12-10T18:33:00.001-05:00

i came across this post that i had started a few months ago. i had wanted to blog about what happened to us for venting sake, but never finished it. i was going to delete it and not post it, but decided that i wanted finish it and post it anyway. this blog is not only for other's enjoyment, but also for a journal or scrapbook of sorts. and although it has been over two months since our house was broken into, i am posting anyway. so read it or not, but it is here for me and family and anyone else who is interested in this novel of a post.

this is not a fun post, but i feel the need to write about it. on september 26th, shortly before 2 a.m we were awakened by grace telling us that someone had taken my laptop and ran out of the house with it. of course my first thought was that she had had a bad dream and that our "checking" would bring peace of mind to her and sleep back to us. that was not the case. when i came into the kitchen, where i had left the laptop charging, and found no laptop-- my heart sank. it was surreal. the bag, which contained several chargers for various electronics, my ipod and some of gracie's birthday presents she had just received the day before from us, was also taken.

i immediately asked her what happened and she proceeded to explain that she got up for a drink of water and saw someone, who she thought was me, standing in the kitchen with my computer. when the person took it and ran out of the house she ran into our room to check for me in the bed. when she realized i was in the bed she figured out that someone had been in our house and had robbed us. she was very calm, but felt violated as the first thing she said was "they took your computer and your bag with all my presents in it."

she was very brave and very calm and gave us the best description that she could. of our three children to witness this, gracie is the best of the three as she is super observant and pays attention to the details that the rest of us don't. she didn't see the person's face nor could she tell us if it was a male or female, but she knew the color of the pants he/she was wearing and that it was a white person because she said she saw the thief's arms.

they got into one of our cars and used the garage door opener to open the garage half way and came in through the back door that was unlocked. we had all of our defenses down. the gate was broken so the dogs were on the back patio. we forgot to leave the porch light on so it was pitch black outside and basically inside as well. brady had fleas so he was on the back porch with the other dogs and not inside. and we failed to lock one of the cars and the back door leading to the garage. crazy!

obviously my first reactions were that of shock and gratitude. shock that someone came into our house and was creeping around while we were sleeping. and more shock that my little 7 yr. old daughter woke up and walked in on the person and was standing 10 feet from him! and gratitude that she and the rest of us were safe. what if they had decided to hurt her because she had seen one of them? (we are convinced that it had to be more than one person.) or worse--take her!!

then i began to get angry! my neighbor, who was robbed last year, told me to prepare for this reaction. it was eating me up! how dare someone come into MY house and take MY stuff that we have worked hard for! what gives them the right? and how dare they take away my sense of security within my OWN house! because i had to work that week it was a HUGE inconvenience since my laptop was gone. every time i wanted to workout i had no music because my ipod was gone too! i still have fantasies of me being awake that night and releasing the hounds on their skinny little butts, watching in pleasure as they chase them down the street ripping at their clothing and flesh. THEY would have been calling the police instead of us!

i keep rethinking that night before we went to bed. if we had done this or that... maybe some things wouldn't have been taken. if we had fixed the gate, the dogs would have been in the yard to deter them. if we had taken care of our little dog's fleas he would have been in the house and not on the back patio and would have barked and startled them and woken us up, etc.... but mauricio wisely stated, "it doesn't matter what we should have done, THEY should NOT have been in OUR house. it's not our fault."

the gate was fixed immediately and the dogs are back on duty. brady got his flea treatment and is back in the house. we are now more uber cautious about locking up and we leave several lights on in the house at night now. mauricio is just now feeling comfortable enough to sleep in our room and not on the couch near the girls' rooms (with a hunting knife close by).

we did find more stuff missing from our garage a few days later. two 5 gallon water jugs. weird. maybe they got thirsty on the job? and just recently we discovered a box of electronic cables and a computer monitor, which we were not obviously using, were also missing. hopefully we don't run into anymore missing items. it just opens the wounds all over again.

it took some time for me to get over it because we all know that things are replaceable. but they are not cheap and they were big splurges for us. so little by little we are buying them back. unfortunately, i am stuck with mauricio's dinosaur of a laptop, but it's better than nothing right now. and i have been downgraded to a borrowed ipod

since this happened, a number of people have been robbed in our area and the local police even had a big electronic sign stationed on one of the main roads that read something like: "be careful. lock your doors. several robberies have taken place in the area." so it goes to show that we are not alone, but it still doesn't make it suck any less.

if anything has come from this (besides us being short a few thousand dollars worth of stuff and feeling totally violated), at least i have a few friends who tell me they now lock their back doors leading to their garages where they didn't before. i am also thankful that i decided to move my brand new cell phone from the kitchen, next to my laptop, to my bathroom. and i am also grateful that i did not leave my purse in its usual spot on the kitchen counter with all the other stuff that was taken. and, of course i am most grateful for the obvious; that we are all safe. so, learn from our mistakes, and lock up a little tighter!

i'm baaaaaaaaaaaack!

2010-12-08T10:26:00.000-05:00

yeah, i am sure all of you out there in bloggerville missed me immensely right???? well, first it was the excuse of not having the time or energy to post, then we were robbed and my laptop was stolen, along with the cable to connect the camera to the computer. so all the recent photos were either on my laptop (still trying to see if we can find them on our server from the hard drive recovery we conducted over the summer.) or on the camera. we couldn't even charge it since the battery charger was stolen as well.

well, we finally resolved those issues and i have no more excuses except work, vacation, organizing and laziness. hopefully i will get some pics up this week. they will be old, but hey! it's my blog and i can post what i want. right? hope everyone had a fantastic thanksgiving!

surfin usa

2010-07-26T16:46:00.000-04:00

well, we didn't surf, but the waves were pretty big for south florida. (hurricane waves exempt.)

we had a fantastic afternoon at the beach with some fabulous friends!

these two have been bffs for 11 years!

oh how i love sandy feet at the beach. sarah was going for the grunge look here.

while katie was a bit more on the patriotic side.

having some picnik fun.

we have a particular habit of closing down most parks/beaches when out with these friends. this trip was no exception. at the last minute katie discovered her glasses missing. we went back to see if we could find them by some miracle. christine (katie's mom) offered a $5 reward for the person who could find the glasses. sarah was the lucky treasure hunter and found herself $5 richer that evening. (below she is showing off her find.) and don't think the night was over just because the beach closed. afterward we all headed to denny's for some midnight snaking!

soggy fireworks

2010-07-08T12:14:00.000-04:00

we had rainy fireworks this year. it usually threatens to rain and then never does, but this year it was more than threats. it was kinda fun though, watching the fireworks from under the umbrella. they were still as beautiful as ever.

here is our view out from underneath the umbrella

sarah trying to ignore me taking her picture

home for flag cake. this year we added a layer of banana and vanilla pudding. yum-o!

what's with the british flag shirt sarah? we are celebrating our freedom FROM them you goof!

fruit salad, yummy, yummy!

2010-07-07T16:29:00.000-04:00

this is what we've been enjoying this summer.

happy summer all!

what were you doing at 4 am on the fourth of july?

2010-07-07T02:23:00.000-04:00

we were waking up to go cheer on our dad for his first triathlon. mauricio has been training hard since january and this past weekend he participated in his first of many races. he did very well and we are very proud of him. he, his brother and our brother-in-law all participated. just fyi - this is a photo heavy post.

here are the boys getting ready.

hmmmm....do you think they know about this?

neal on the bike transition.

m on the bike transition. ooooooo! look at those muscles!

because why wouldn't you have a bird on your head at an athletic event?

and because there has to be a speedo in every crowd.

way to go guys! a job well done.

the girls are ready to go. it was soooooo HOT (and it was only 9am when i took this.)

a ladybug to brighten our day.

crashed on the way home.

a man and his bike.

get on your boots

2010-07-07T01:30:00.000-04:00

not sure if it's world cup fever or the fact that this post was started a few weeks ago....but here are OUR resident soccer stars.

sarah the "spider"

she was given this nickname by her coaches because she was EVERYWHERE on defense. her AND her elbows.

fraternizing with the enemy

i love this one of her. total concentration.

two of the best coaches ever!

i love how the coach is in the corner all serious and they are all giggly on the bench.

the other two best coaches.

our little picasso

2010-05-28T23:38:00.000-04:00

apparently we have a budding artist in the family. this is a funny story worth telling. (well, i think so and since it's my blog i can.)

gracie came home one day after school and said she had a special paper for art. me, being busy in the kitchen said "good for you honey. go put it in your special folder so you don't lose it."

about a week later we are leaving the school and as i am signing out she says "mom, my picture is hanging up on the wall." and lo and behold there she hung! of course i had my camera like the ~~crazy, obsessed~~ good parent i am.

fast-forward a few weeks and i am reading every inch of the school newsletter like i do faithfully every month. don't you? anyhoo, i was looking over the art news and saw the little blip about the artists around town and noticed the kindergarten section with her classmate's name and then saw hers right underneath! the article said the students were sent home with a note telling the family where the art was displayed. um.....yeah, i am sure you can guess what i went looking for right?

the top drawing is her self-portrait displayed at a local bank of america.

a few weeks later we were cordially invited to a "milk and cookies reception" to view her displayed art in the front office. she was so excited and we were enormously proud of her. in retrospect, i vowed to pay a bit more attention to things she brings home from school. i should have seen this coming as she is extremely creative and LOVES drawing, crafting and making things. she even saved the foil wrapper from her chocolate easter bunny and drew a scene and pasted it on to the scene. 3d AND she is totally with the trend of recycled art!

ramdom coolness

2010-05-25T08:11:00.000-04:00

a friend of mine, who lives in texas, was driving around looking for an address and lookie what she found. how cool is that?

bad news and good news

2010-05-24T10:14:00.001-04:00

looking back at all that has happened in the past 5 months i came across these photos that i had forgotten we had taken. back in december my father-in-law was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. not good. after weighing their options my in-laws decided to head out to salt lake city to the huntsman cancer center. that was the bad news.

the good news is that after months of chemotherapy his cancer is pretty much gone. truly a blessing from above. we look forward to their scheduled return in july and are glad that we will have many more years with "nono".

mauricio and i are especially looking forward to giving them their two dogs back. they are a bit mischievous, to say the least. that is a whole different post the title of which would be "chows gone wild!" let's just say it involved the neighbors goat and me crawling/running around a horse paddock trying to catch them. all that while the neighbor was yelling profanities at me. good times.

savannah's big 9th birthday bash

2010-05-23T17:38:00.000-04:00

even though savannah's birthday was WAY back in january, i wanted to post the pics from her bash. she had a sleepover with some crazy chicas. it would have been more fun had i NOT BEEN SICK, but i muscled through. we did however have to cancel her family/family friend bash scheduled for the next day b/c i was sick, mauricio was sick and so was his brother and my nephew. that was pretty much 3/4 of the party right there. but since she had had her buddies over the night before she was okay with it.

of course i have to show off my awesome creation first; cute girls after. i have always loved all the cupcake towers i see out there in blogland and finally made one of my own. now i can just change out the ribbon and paper when i need to. i thought it turned out cute, and sarah actually used it for a project at school. (we added different ribbon and changed out the birthday stuff in the front.)

i was extremely excited to use this stamp. i have to admit it was fresh rubber that i bought, well, let's just say it's been a while. it was perfect because it reminds me of savannah with her long brown hair. and can you guess what her favorite color is?

my girlfriend made these cute "dollypops" for savannah. best. present. ever.

the model shot.

a visit from the tooth fairy

2010-05-21T13:23:00.000-04:00

well, the last of the linares girls has lost her first tooth. excitement does not begin to describe her feelings upon discovering it was loose a few weeks ago.

so, saturday as we were ~~sweating buckets~~ having fun at sarah's soccer game, she asked me to check on the progress of its looseness. i obliged like the good mother that i am and it came right out!

she was a bit nervous that the tooth fairy wouldn't accept it because she had to borrow her sister's tooth fairy pillow since her ~~lazy~~ very busy mom couldn't get it done in time. she was awarded $2 and a nice note from the tooth fairy explaining that it was okay to use savannah's pillow. it also said some other stuff that i was a bit puzzled about. one sentence read: "that book you are reading sounds interesting, i'll have to check the bookstore for it", "i am not of any particular nationality", and "p.s. i do like your sister savannah." hmmmm.....what was IN that note she left the tooth fairy?

clearly she had been doing some crafting with blue markers.

hello? is anybody still out there?

2010-05-21T10:04:00.001-04:00

hello to all of you out there in bloggerville! no, i did not fall off the face of the planet. really and truly there are no valid excuses for my lack of blogging for the past 5 months. just pure laziness and too much farmville on facebook. (go ahead and make your sarcastic comments! i don't care!!)

when sarah posts on the comments that i need to update and mauricio says something it must be time. but the straw that broke the camel's back was when sarah's friend even mentioned that i haven't posted in a while. (that is just sad. no, pathetic.)

i guess one excuse is that for the past few months i have been working out because i just couldn't stand feeling so "blah" all the time. now i am just tired for all new reasons. i joined a gym and that has been a lifesaver in the motivational department. i just can't seem to get around to doing a workout at home, and let's face it, i HATE working out outside in the florida heat and humidity. i would rather do laundry or poke my eye with a stick than workout at home for any length of time. like right now i have the p90x dvd in and need to get going with that, but i need to do the blog first right?

i have really gotten into yoga and find that it does help to alleviate any stress surrounding me. (well, at least for a few minutes until i pick up the kids from the kids club.) i wish i would have tried it 20 years ago, but alas, such is life. the funny thing is that i am on the younger scale in most of the classes. those seniors could kick my butt in the flexibility department. "no, yoga instructor who is 15 years older than me, i cannot wrap my ankle around my head like you are doing right now." (showoff.)

i will be posting a few things that have been happening with us for the past few months, so either check it out and enjoy or not. i will be doing these next few posts for my own benefit and for the benefit of the extended family who live far away. plus i actually got creative with savannah's birthday and we made fun cards for valentine's day and i want to be a showoff myself. i took pictures and everything and never posted them. (maybe those will be saved for next year. we'll see.)

here's to a better blogging summer!!!

merry and bright

2009-12-29T00:35:00.001-05:00

merry christmas! i hope everyone's christmas was merry and bright. here are a few highlights.

savannah received a bell from santa's sleigh just like she asked for in her letter. (and yes, we all could hear it ringing.)

sarah was hooked up with a fabulous scooter from the big guy. savannah liked it better than the one she has because of some fancy new bar on the back to help the rider do tricks. i told her it's because it's newer than hers and she promptly corrected me and said "no it's because it was made special by the elves, mom."

and gracie was treated to a new bike by her loving parents. (she forgot to ask santa so we kindly obliged. the poor child deserved it. she has never had a new bike and is using one that her two older sisters already went through. and the dogs might have chewed on it a little and it's WAY too small for her.)

santa satisfied the selena gomez obsession.

i couldn't resist this one because i LOVE her face when she was opening it. clothes just brighten a girl's day at any age.

this one was saved for last. we have logged many hours on this thing already. mom and dad scored with this gift!

and then the aftermath, that was, believe it or not, just cleaned up tonight.

christmas eve

2009-12-28T13:21:00.000-05:00

we headed down to my in-laws for the traditional christmas eve celebration. a good time was had by all.

girls in their christmas jammies.

cousins!

nice and sweaty after running around outside.

houston we have a decorated tree. finally!

2009-12-20T18:56:00.001-05:00

our tree has been decorated for a few days now, but just getting things posted from this last week. it's been one CA-RAY-ZY week! why schools deem in necessary to do EVERY activity for the month of december during the last week of school is beyond me! but we did survive. here is our GORG tree. we almost got a shorter one, but sooooo glad we rethought it. it would have looked dwarfed in our living room.

*warning: lots of pictures.

every year we give the girls a new ornament. this year we found the perfect ones.

here is sarah's cell phone one. and it's even the color of her phone. thank you target.

savannah's is a piano since she started lessons this year.

gracie's is fitting as she started kindergarten this year.

here are a few of our other faves.

this one sarah's bff, katie, gave her one year when they were super little.

savannah loves and wants a cat sooooooo badly. this is as close as she'll get right now. i love how the lady put her name on the tail. super cute.

i love these dainty ornaments we gave them one year.

this one was even named "grace". how perfect is that?

notice anything missing? poor ballerina's arm was amputated when the tree fell on dad in 2007. grace was also hit by the flying angel. it was a christmas to remember and we always will with this little reminder. it used to really bug me, but now serves as a fond and funny (now) christmas memory.

i painted these little gems one year for the girls for their ornaments. how can you resist that face?

these homemade ones are, by far, some of my faves. every year i always get to add a few.

this one we ALL love and everyone always wants to hang it. it is quite heavy so, for now, it must be hung high and needs to be done by me or mauricio. (another year with a squabble avoided) we love it because it looks just like us as we head home with the tree on top of our big red car with all of us inside.

and we always love to look at these as we hang them and everytime have to say "wow! you are sooooo big now!" time goes by way too fast.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

more crafty goodness

2009-12-20T11:43:00.000-05:00

i am just a crafting machine this christmas season! don't anyone fall out of your chair reading this post. actually i love to craft i just feel i have no brain power for the creative part of it. so i just steal other's ideas or just pick their brains. my fab girlfriend, marybeth, suggested we do key fobs for teacher gifts this year. genius! it was so fun to make them. after christmas we are going to make more stuff for next christmas! i'm smelling some ornaments and maybe jewelry comin on.

all we did was stamp out some really cool initials onto fimo clay, poked a hole in the top for the keychain, rubbed on some paint after they had been baked and VOILA! instant personalized teacher gifts! she let us use her fimo and i found key chains at the dollar store 12/$1. you can't get any cheaper than that! (okay free is cheaper, but come on!)

i love how they look all vintage-y.

add a cute saying with a key shaped die cut no less.

tie them onto some tasty homemade treats.

and you have a fabulous teacher gift that they will LOVE. (for the girl teachers with long hair we also included some of the pony tail holders.)

watch out! i'm about to get all martha on your butt!

2009-12-19T18:52:00.000-05:00

i had to blog about this momentous occassion because i actually did some really cute crafting that didn't involve recycling another child's previous class project or it didn't take me like a bazillion years to actually complete. and when i say CAUUUUTE i mean CAUUUUUTE!
i must preface this post by saying that i cannot take the credit for the idea. my girlfriend, heidi, gave it to me when i desperately emailed her in dire need of an ~~cheap~~ inexpensive and ~~lazy~~ effortless gift for my girlie girls' girlfriends. follow? anyhoo. it had to be something that i didn't have to whip out the sewing machine for because, well.....i'm not sure i actually remember how to even thread the thing. (if you don't already know. i HATE sewing!)

this is a BIG thing for me to make something and have it turn out so cute. heidi made these last year for her daughter's friends/teammates (i think that was the case. don't ask me to remember that kind of detail. i barely remember where i live). She probably makes these things in her sleep considering she is a huge sewer (is that right?)/quilter/martha stewart prodigy. for me....this is an occassion worth blogging about.

get yourself some of these from the dollar store,

some of these shiny things with a 40% off coupon at joanne's, (don't be afraid to use your kids so you can get multiple packs at once.)

and some of this pretty stuff.

then you end up with these CAUUUUUTE thingies.

it became quite addicting and i got a little obsessed with the endless possibilities.

we made big ones.

and cute little bitty ones.

and even a twin pair for "pinkie tails".

this is one of my faves because of the color combination.

how sweet is this little birdie?

then tie them onto some yummy homemade snack mix and kachow! you have a fab gift for cute little girls.

thanks again heidi for the great idea. they were a big hit!

2009-12-19T14:52:00.000-05:00

today's chilly weather is about as close as we are gonna get in south florida to a snow day. i feel some hot cocoa commin' on. hope you all are nice and toasty wherever you may be.

thanksgiving weekend part 3 (gone to the dogs)

2009-12-12T22:04:00.001-05:00

yeah, yeah, yeah, i know. it's a bit late. this thing has been sitting in my drafts for a week. so here it is.

the last day of our grand celebration we all, minus mauricio's brother, went for a walk with ALL the dogs! including my in-law's dogs. that makes 7! i had to take my camera along to capture that parade.

celena modeling the latest in workout gear.

celena wanted a picture with all our dogs. let's just say, cesar milan mauricio is not. it actually looks like he is trying to take a ride. whoa there! cowboy!

thanksgiving weekend part 2 (cityplace)

2009-12-04T16:37:00.023-05:00

the day after thanksgiving we all had a great day. went to the track in the morning and cityplace in the afternoon/evening. we saw "a christmas carol" at the imax. it was a bit intense for gracie and she was a bit intense for me. in my opinion, it was an "ok" movie. but the company was great.after the movie we sauntered around cityplace a bit. there was a ballet group performing the nutcracker, so we watched for a little while. savannah had the best seat in the house.

tell me she's not the cauuutest!we did a little window shopping and wandered into a really fab store: restoration hardware. do you think they would mind if i just sat in their big comfy couches all day with my laptop? seriously, i want to live there! do you see what i mean?then we went into all the overpriced, but fun, boutiques and i think we may have made a few of the sales ladies annoyed and a bit nervous. but we just ignored them. tell me this girl isn't tres chic!and this one is totally hip. and this clock is way fun. it has a bell tower to go with. love it!love it even more at night.merry christmas!

thanksgiving weekend bash (part one)

2009-12-03T20:51:00.005-05:00

i hope your thanksgiving didn't look like this. we had a fantastic thanksgiving weekend! mauricio's parents and brother came up from miami and one of his sisters came out from utah. everyone gathered at our house for the big feast. we fired up the pool heater so we could swim, we watched A TON of movies, did crafts, went to city place, went walking and ate LOTS of food. a good time was had by all.

aunt celena brought a fun kit to make christmas ornaments. the girls adore their aunt celena.

sarah the cover girl.

one little, two little, three little indians

2009-12-02T20:19:00.006-05:00

every year at the girls' elementary school they have a kindergarten indian pow-wow. this year it was gracie's turn. they make a vest and head bands and practice their thanksgiving songs to perform for the parents.

since i am all about ~~being lazy~~ time efficiency, we used savannah's from three years ago. (that she also used in preschool. dang! i should be a poster child for a reusing campaign.) we did add a few more "indian" drawings and her hand print. it was very cute and they were adorable as always.

rock star indian.

all hail the honor student

2009-12-02T09:54:00.004-05:00

this was sarah's 1st, and hopefully not last, honor roll assembly for middle school. this is her first one ever for that matter. they don't do them in our elementary school here. (whatever!)

anyhoo, the story behind this is that she set a goal to make straight a's this quarter. the week of finals she had almost all a's except a few b's in a couple of classes. of course she was sick finals week and had to really hussle to get those last few assignments done to bring up her grades. she did bring up 2 out of the 3 b's, but we wouldn't know for sure with math until she made up the final she missed while out sick. so she takes the test and totally aces it! yahoo!

to get an a you have to have 89.5% or above. guess what she ended up with?????? 89.3%!!!! are you kidding me????? i asked her if she asked her teacher for a quick extra credit. no! hopefully she will be more aggressive with that next time if she needs to be.

we are proud of her nonetheless. keep your fingers crossed for this quarter. so far, so good.

as you can see she really likes being in front of large audiences. the nerdettes.

an evening at the beach

2009-12-01T22:28:00.004-05:00

one evening after dropping mauricio's mom at the train station we decided to take a detour and ended up at the beach. it was a perfect evening. i LOVE the beach when it's chilly and windy. believe it or not though, there were some people actually IN the water. crazy tourists!

not as big as the ones in california but still beautiful.

gazing at the waves is always a breathtaking experience no matter how young or old you are.

nothing like a girl and her dog.

the wedding of the century

2009-12-01T12:02:00.006-05:00

dum-dum-de-dum!

in the kindergarten this year there was a wedding. yes, i said a wedding in kindergarten. it was to bind forever in holy matrimony the letters q & u. it was adorable. all of kindergarten attended in their best attire and since one of gracie's teachers was in charge of it, her class was able to participate. gracie was one of the bridesmaids! isn't that a hoot?

here is the principal presiding over the ceremony.

there was even a wedding cake!

everyone had to bring a "gift" for show & tell that started with "qu". gracie brought a "quillow". if you don't know what that is please try to figure it out by the context clues and picture.

here she is with just a few members of her posse at the "reception".

one of the top ten reasons why south florida is sooo grand

2009-12-01T11:34:00.003-05:00

i took the little girls to the park one day during the 2 hours we have between school dismissal times and lookie what we saw. these were taken in mid-november. south florida does have it's perks. (you know, besides fabulous winter weather and me lounging by the pool all day sipping on dr. pepper.)

thank goodness this joan of arc didn't get burned at the stake

2009-12-01T10:16:00.003-05:00

this year savannah's class had to do an oral biography report on someone famous in history. and they had to dress the part while presenting. she originally wanted to do j.k. rowling, but because of some misunderstanding (don't even ask. it's a long story.) she ended up choosing joan of arc. which, quite frankly, was much more fun to dress up for.

most everything was borrowed from my good friend, MaryBeth, who has EVERYTHING. the helmet, with a few coats of silver spray paint, came courtesy of my other good friend, jenny, who has EVERYTHING else. and good ole dad even chipped in by making the breastplate. i did all the borrowing and spray painting and putting together. that counts right?

and did i mention this was due the day before halloween?????? is this some kind of ploy by the teachers to make our lives even more out of control than they are? four costumes for three kids in one week!

joan of arc off to battle barefoot. =)

and now the fall festival of all fall festivals

2009-11-30T22:16:00.004-05:00

how can you go wrong with a kindergarten fall festival? it's a win-win-win situation! gracie's was really fun. thank goodness she decided to be the same thing for halloween so we only had to do one costume for her.

she had to bring in a decorated pumpkin and of course she went with the princess theme. her official name was "penelope the pumpkin princess". and seriously the only thing i did on it was cut the yarn for the hair and pierce the ears. she is quite the creative girlie girl.

halloween in november?

2009-11-30T10:28:00.005-05:00

yes, i am well aware that halloween has long since come and gone, but i know you all have been dying to see how the wild banshees dressed up this year. well, now the wait is over!

pumpkins, ghosts and goblins! oh my!

i am officially addicted to this site. (thanks to heidi.)

here is little red riding hood. bellatrix lestrange
le chef
here the girls are with some buddies the night before for the trunk or treat at church. this is when sarah decided against being a tree when someone called her "leaf girl" and "magical fruit girl."

never again will i make THAT many leaves for a child unless i get it in blood that they will wear the dang costume! and for the record, i tried to get her to do leaves all over her head and a few branches, but she wasn't going for it. whatever!

at least she was creative and came up with the chef thing in like 5 mintues. work it girlfriend.

sarah the sassy science nerd

2009-11-30T02:07:00.003-05:00

i couldn't go without posting the pics from sarah's science project this year. we got an A on the display board. i did let her pick out the colors and do some gluing, so i wasn't a complete layout hog. the poor child has been cursed with an ocd scrapbooking mother. what can i say? i will say that she did the ENTIRE experiment on her own. and her dad did do the fancy graphs for her. see, i let go a little! and look at that sun would you! doesn't it rock? good thing i decided not to throw out that paper crimper.

and just for the record, i made her turn it in even though she was not feeling well and this was the first day of her being out for an ENTIRE week from school!!! what dedication.

the pumpkin patch

2009-11-17T22:34:00.017-05:00

here are a few pics from our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. i know. i know. it's past thanksgiving. but hey! better late than never right? plus it's still november and pumpkins are still festive till dec 1st. and enjoy my fancy schmancy effects. (thanks to heidi for the tip about picnik.)savannah picked a white one this year. super cool! there were tons of fantastically shaped and multi-colored pumpkins this year. i couldn't resist snapping a few extra pics.

gracie's grand 6th celebration

2009-11-16T19:00:00.004-05:00

our baby turned 6 this year! wow how time has flown! i brought a few fun treats into her classroom that week and she LOVED that. and then we celebrated at the house with a few family and friends. good times.

the diva in all her glory.gracie wanted cupcakes this year and i was happy to oblige. much faster and easier to make and decorate than a cake. okay so the martha is really coming out in me this year. i am soooooo tired of those store bought plastic goody bags that cost a FORTUNE and you only get like 2! so we happened to have some white lunch bags on hand that only cost like $2 for about 50 gazillion. (i am sure i purchased them back in the year 2000.) a few pretty markers and a butterfly stamp later and voila! cauuuute goody bags! and filled with what every kid loves and every parent hates: CANDY! okay i did throw in a bouncy ball, a pencil and an eraser. (they were cheap at target and i used them for sarah's as well. there were like 80 gazillion in the package. i think we might still have some left.)

so we have these great friends who happen to have horses. and gracie happens to LOVE horses! (the girls took a few riding lessons from her over the summer in exchange for mucking out stalls and cleaning up a bit.) so, my brilliant friend asked if it would be a good gift to have gracie ride from her house to ours. (about 2 miles maybe) and then have the pony there for the kids at the party to ride. gee...um......let me think about that one. HELLO! what a great idea! i thought it was THE BEST GIFT EVER! and so did gracie. she was beside herself when she found out that afternoon. (i didn't dare tell her any sooner because i knew she would bug me for days.) gracie and diva

this picture is fabulous because it has all of gracie's little girlfriends and savannah. savannah was THE BEST little helper at the party. she helped the girls with the craft and set up the toys for them to play with and was SUPER nice to all the little girls that are 2-3 yrs younger than her. and did i mention she did most of this without being asked. she is such a good big sister!