Married to a Mexican

I absolutely love being married to a Mexican.

It has changed my life and enriched it so much.

I secretely wish I was hispanic too.

I just need to perfect my amateur Spanish speaking abilities.  

The Mexican people are so warm, fun, and full of traditions. I love their history. I love that I've been to Mexico City, Cancun, Tasco, Cuernavaca, Merida, and all of the amazing ruin sites. I'm ready to add some more to that list too. I love eating at little taco stands on the street and watching all of the folkloric dances. I love hitting the local hispanic bakery and bring home Mexican pastries to share with the family. For someone who loves to celebrate and loves a good party, they offer me so many other opportunites to have fun. One of which is the Mexican Independance Day on Sept. 16th.

 A friend of ours throws a huge party in his backyard and we get to go and mingle with latinos for the evening. Everyone brings their favortie Mexican dish to share and their were probably about 400 people there. He brings in singers and folkloric dancers and then a band plays the rest of the night, so everyone can get in some good salsa dancing practice. (too bad we had to leave at 10:00 when the dancing was getting started. Max was sick and we were freezing to death). But it's fun to see my girls mingle and make friends with all the little hispanic girls. I love that they get exposed and don't get uncomfortable around spanish speaking people and are able to have experiences to embrace their cultural heritage. We love being Mexican!

Viva Mexico.....Viva!!!

Easter Weekend

So here is the recap of the rest of the week. On Saturday morning the Easter bunny arrived. It was the first time in my life that that has happened. Gabriela reminded me the day before that they had to leave their Easter baskets on the front steps outside (a tradition my mom started when I was in the hospital giving birth to Julianne...thanks mom) and she made a sign (see below) that read "NO EASTER GRASS." I guess she remembered how much I dislike Easter grass in my house, so she made the sign and stuck it on the mat in front of our house. Unfortunately it has been raining like crazy around here and the temperature was freezing that night, so I had to wake up at 5:30 in the morning to sneek them out there so we wouldn't have frozen peeps.

Good thing that Easter bunny can read the sign and he didn't disappoint.

He brought new swimsuits, puzzles, play-dough, word searches, buckets, and a little candy.

They look happy don't they

 Poor peep didn't stand a chance.

 Later that evening, I hosted an Easter egg party. We had the family over and pulled out all the art supplies and let them go at it. I can't say we ended up with any spectacular, award winning eggs, but the kids had fun in the process. It was raining, so we held the egg hunt in the basement. No my ideal egg hunt, but you just have to go with the flow sometimes and change your expectations.

 And here are our Easter morning pictures before church.

I don't think I've taken a pregnancy picture this entire pregnancy, so here you go. 37 weeks.

 And here is Julianne posing it up. (and wearing Sophia's shoes)

 Here's the sign I was telling you about. It's awesome!

 Can we say, large belly?

 Sophia was not into the whole idea of spring colors yesterday. She was insistant on wearing all black.

It was a good day. I taught my easter egg lesson in sharing time in primary. We came home, ate, slept, had the easter egg lesson again for Julianne's sake, ate dinner, made resurrection rolls, and played games together as a family. It was simple, it was relaxed, and it was good.

Mid Easter Week recap

 A while back, I had posted about trying to start some Easter traditions that were Christ centered. I am happy to report that it has been a wonderul experience. I have never in my life had such an Easter week before, and neither had Miguel for that matter. Each evening we have a devotional that focuses on the events that happened on that day during Christ's last week on Earth. On Sunday we talked about Palm Sunday and the meaning of palm trees. On Monday we went over Christ cleansing the temple. On Tuesday, we got to talk about parables and we made clay lamps (the girls are holding them in the picture) after the parable of the ten virgins. On Wednesday, we had a passover devotional, where the kids dressed up and we prepared snacks that would have been eaten at the time of Christ and watched a clip from the Ten Commandments and talked about the Last Supper and the initiation of the sacrament. Last night we talked about olive trees and the Garden of Gethsemane.

After each lesson we hang a picture on the fridge to show what happened that day and the whole family has been enriched by our small efforts this week. It feels good. I feel like I'm doing what I should be as a parent and taking the time to teach my kids important things each day. Too bad I can't keep it up all year. These lessons are super simple and there is so much room to build upon, but for right now...it is just enough and I think our Heavenly Father would be proud of us.

Stay tuned, we are not quite done yet. And I have a special Easter egg lesson prepared for the kids at primary on Sunday.

Some Great Ideas

I just thought I would share a couple of great things I've found or heard lately that might interest you. First off, I've been waiting a whole year to implement this.

You can get it here: http://deseretbook.com/Christ-Centered-Easter-Day-by-Day-Activities-Celebrate-Week-Joe-Janet-Hales/i/4253892

Last Easter, I really felt like the real meaning of Easter just wasn't emphasized enough in our home (and the world for that matter). I love traditions and teaching activities and that is just what this little book is designed to do. It gives day by day activities, scripture references and so much more for each day between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. I've been reading and getting ready and am so excited about what is to come. It is definately worth checking out.

Another thing I read while waiting at the doctor's office (I'm doing that a lot lately) is the idea of a world travel "staycation." That's right,  you never have to leave your home, but to keep the kiddos occupied or to give you some focus over the summer, you get out a great big map and ask the kids where they want to go. Each week takes on another country somewhere in the world and you plan activites to go along with that country. I think this is such a great idea since we can loose focus over the summer and kind of meander throught it. We can try new foods, make crafts, try new restaurants, watch educational videos, take fieldtrips and who knows what else.

Here are a couple of sights with some good ideas:
http://family.go.com/travel/pkg-vacation-ideas-staycation/

http://www.makeitbetter.net/entertainment/outings-a-travel/1190-spring-break-staycation-an-around-the-world-adventure-in-our-backyard (this one comes from Chicago, but you get the idea)

http://www.bookstorepeople.com/2010/06/staycation-this-year-travel-the-world-from-home-with-the-magic-tree-house-series/ (another really cute idea)

I hope you enjoy these.

As of the Ruiz household, we are surviving with our heads above water. We are eating (probably not the best meals we've had), the house is presentable (probably not the cleanest it's been), and we are civil to one another (mom's just not as nice as she's been), but I guess that is all to be expected when we are just 5 1/2 weeks away from having a BABY!!! I actually paniced last night when I looked at the calendar and how busy we are for the next couple of weeks. I've really got to hunker down and get some things done. But I figure it's better than being bored.

I really should go and try to clean something, so adios mi amigos!

Oh, St. Patrick's Day!

Dear St. Patrick's Day,

I don't think I really like you. Nor do my children. You see we've never given you any attention before and we've been just fine here in our home. However, I got a wild idea and decided to teach my children about you this year and all of your mischief and magical people. We talked about leprachauns and their sneaky ways and if we catch one, we can get a wish. All of which was highly reinforced by Gabriela's Kindergarten teacher who set her own trap in the classroom. Gabriela came home singing songs and bringing home leprechauns of her own.

 Well here is what our leprechaun left us that night.

Gabriela was the first one up that morning and when I reminded her about the trap, she all of a sudden got a look of horror on her face and told me she was too afraid to check it. She peeked into the kitchen and said she saw footprints and told me to go look. I played along and eased her fears when I said he wasn't in the trap. She then came in and discovered the chocolate coins he left behind. All of which were consumed by the kids before breakfast.

Later she declared, "Mom, I know why he didn't mess up our rooms or our house...it's because it was already a mess!"   NICE, but she's probably right.

I guess at school during recess a leprechaun made his way into her classroom and messed up everything, turned the milk green, and created havoc all over.

So later on that week we had babysitting group at our house and all of the other children started talking about leprechauns and told Gabriela that they saw one in her room. Next thing we know she comes to us crying and shaking in fear that there really was something in her room. We've never taught our kids to fear and it was strange to see her so terrified. She truly believed in those little things and I don't think she had a friendly image in her mind. I tried to convince her that nothing was in the house, but she wasn't buying it, so I finally, against my gut instinct, had to tell her the truth. There are no real leprechauns. I felt like I was going to crush all of her other beliefs with this sinking ship. She looked at me strange, and said, "yes they are. What about the green milk, and the footprints?" I told her that Mommy and Papi were the leprechauns, and she said, "why would you do that?" I had to tell her it was all for fun, but that it was our secret and don't ruin the fun for all the other kids.
Even after our pep talk, she still wouldn't sleep in her own bed for a few nights.

So St. Patrick's Day...the heck with you. It wasn't that fun and we would rather love and celebrate Cinco de Mayo anyday.

Adios

Celebrating a Birthday "FANCY NANCY" style

Yesterday was Gabriela's sixth birthday. We decided it would be fun to celebrate like Fancy Nancy, one of my girls favorite books. If you don't know her look her up. She's always dolled up in her dress ups and everything has to be fancy. She has curly hair, so we put everyones hair in sponge rollers the night before to get ready for the big day.

Gabriela had her usual birthday breakfast of pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream. But we made it fancy by pulling out the green goblets.

 Sophia's hair turned out perfect and I just kept admiring her cuteness all day!

 And here is the epitomy of Fancy Nancy herself. Don't you just want to squeeze her? I do!!! While Sophia was at preschool, Julianne and I went to Gabriela's class to do a demo on green smoothies. Her school has a welness policy so you can't bring cupcakes for your child's birthday, so we decided to teach them a healthy new habit. The kids loved it and drank it up beautifully along with the muffins I made. Julianne freaked out when we had to leave, but one last muffin seemed to settle her down in the car. Oh, and yes, she did wear that whole get up to the school.

 Once Gabriela got home, we started preparing for the big lunch date. In Fancy's book the kids get the adults dressed up and they go out to eat. Everyone thinks they are "movie stars!" So I got these crowns for the girls to decorate to go along with their ensembles.

 And here is the final product!!! Soooo Fancy!

 Grandma and Grandpa even came to celebrate with us. I think they missed the fancy memo, but that's o.k.

 Gabriela just gave Grandpa someone elses crown.

 I could eat this child alive, I'm telling you.

 Gabriela sat next too me and insisted that I eat every bite of my food with my pinky up like this.

 She even got an ice cream parfait at the end, just like Fancy, but she didn't drop hers on the ground, thank goodness. Oh, but trouble was abruing when she went to the bathroom and Julianne jumped in her chair and cleaned out the bowl. Let's just say, that didn't go over so well.

 We came home and opened the box that Gigi sent. They pulled out all kinds of wonderful clothes, but the immediate hit was the new princess gowns. They all looked beautiful and proceeded to dance around the living room to primary music.

(Is this not the atypical youngest child photo. We asked her to stand next to her sisters, but refused, but at the last second ran in front of them and did this. Miguel and I just laughed, while the other two were probably rolling thier eyes.)

 After naps and dinner, we finally made it to the cake and ice cream part of the day. We went with a small cake, because I'm making one for a family party for her and Julianne this weekend, but everyone needs a little cake on their birthday.

Little do these two know, they are getting a trampoline this weekend. They are going to be so excited!

So here is a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my BIG GIRL GABRIELA.

We sure love her and it has been so fun to watch her grow and learn and become a little lady.

Just the latest...

It's been a while since I've updated, and I've thought of a million things I could write about, but I'll just keep it to the basics. I'm happy that our Valentine's Day turned out better than I thought it was going to be. I've been wanting to start a breakfast tradition for a couple of years, but this year it finally worked out. We had all been sick that week and I didn't have time to get to the store to get the girls some Valentines, however my mom did come through for me. She had gotten the girls some really cute outfits when I was there visiting and I was going to wrap them up as a Valentine from her, but she let me just let them be annonimous and so the girls had something waiting for them that morning. We had a really yummy breakfast and we all sat around the table together at 6:30 in the morning. I turned the camera off while we ate so I could be more in the moment and it was lovely. We went around and told things we loved about each other and fun just being together. The tradition is definately sticking around.

 Over the weekend, Gabriela had her first dance competition. We had to go up to the Salt Palace for it and she was pretty excited about it. She got to perform her new lyrical number and they wear these little princess dresses. She did really well and doesn't seem to get nervous at all. But after spending our whole afternoon up there, I think we are both done with this dance thing. It's taking over our lives and our family's. Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to drop in and watch her second number.

 And these two little rugrats hung in there for the five hours that we were there. I spent most of my time chasing and trying to find them as they ran around the convention center. That Sophia is a fast one! The picture is really bad, I know, but those are the outfits they got in their valentines and they refuse to wear anything else these days.

 Oh, and everyone had to get in on the makeup action. Bright red lipstick included. And for some reason, Sophia insisted she wear this ginormous bow on her head all day.

In other news, we went to an RV expo...don't ask how we ended up there...on Thursday and we found the perfect one for us. We've been thinking about one for a while and how nice it would be to take to GA every year since we can't fly anymore (too $$$). The girls wore themselves out going in all 1000 or so RV's in that place. I thought I was going to have this baby right their on the expo floor from all the walking. I was having major contractions that night, but we survived it.

Life is good. It's been busy. Just looking forward to hanging around in my sweatpants today and not doing anything. Thank you President's Day. Oh wait, I never did have time to go to the grocery store on Saturday. I guess I better get to that since we have nothing in the fridge or pantry.

Los Reyes Magos

Yesterday was the Day of the Kings in the Hispanic community. This is one of our families favorite traditions. Gabriela woke up in the morning, so excited, and proclaiming, "today is the day we get to find baby Jesus!!!" Yes it was. In the hispanic community, Santa doesn't come on Christmas Eve. The children wait until Jan. 6 and then the three wise men bring them gifts. Well we mix the two traditions. Santa comes to our house just like everyone else, but the wise men leave them a little something on the sixth as well.

This is the hightlight of the night. The Rosca de Reyes. You can get them at the little Mexican shops around town. It is a large circular bread that has little plastic babies hidden inside. You know, the wise men were seeking baby Jesus and you are seeking him out of the bread.There is usually a prize associated with finding one of the babies. But in our house we like to make it interesting. Last year, you had to wash the toilet if you found it. Gabriela really liked the idea of a punishment or chore because that meant she wasn't sad when she didn't find one. Miguel suggested we give a prize this year instead and she refused saying, "No, then everyone will want it!" So we decided on a chore and a prize.

If you find it you have to wash the toilet and you get a date!

Miguel bought the biggest one he could find, crazy guy. This thing was enormous. It's shaped into the crown of one of the wise men, or maybe the thing that holds the turbon on.

 We went to Grandma's house to share the tradition and she made a yummy pot of homemade hot chocolate to go with it.

 So, you get to tell Papi where you want him to cut.

 And can you believe it. Julianne got one on her first try!

Yeah, Gabriela found one too. She was not happy about it and pouted until she gave it away to Sophia.

That's o.k., it just means that Julianne, Sophia, and Mami will go out for ice cream sometime....after we wash the toilet together.

At night, the girls leave one of their shoes out and in the morning they get new books from the Wise Men. In our house, "the wise men make you wise." So this is our kitchen table this morning with the kids enjoying waffles, green smoothies, and their new books!