our little picasso

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

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

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

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

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?

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!!!