Our Christmas Surprise

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope the holiday was a good one for all of you. It was nice for Jose and I--a little sad, but overall pretty good.

Maya, Heli and Me Notice the pajama pants--they were part of Alysia and Topher's present to Jose. He went to put them on in the morning but I stole them before he could. hehe They are SOOO comfy! In fact, I am wearing them right now. haha Poor Jose, one of these days I will let him wear them. : )
Jose making fun of me for crying when I read the Christmas letter he wrote for me. He really is a hopeless romantic and I love him for it!!

We were very blessed by all the presents we got from our family and friends. Thank you everyone--we love you all. [Not just because of the presents : ) ]

We almost got a pretty big Christmas surprise last night from Maya. I went into labor yesterday. We went to the hospital about nine at night and the nurses called my doctor to see if he wanted them to try to stop the contractions or if he wanted to let them keep going and let her be born. Poor Maya, she wants to come out so badly but the doctor was nervous letting her be born so early (about 35 1/2 weeks). So they kept me there in the hospital giving me injections every hour to try to stop the contractions. I was only dilated to a 1 but I was thinning out pretty quickly so although they were pretty much able to stop the contractions by about 1 AM, I am not sure how much longer we will be able to keep her in there. The nurse said that once I hit 36 weeks (in about 4 days) they most likely won't stop her from coming. The doctor wants to see her wait another 3 weeks, and Maya obviously is wanting to come out now--so we will have to see which one gets their way : ) Until then it's just a waiting and guessing game.

Long Lost Update

I haven't posted in forever. Sorry everyone. Life gets crazy. It always seems that just when you think, "if one more thing happens I know I will go insane from the stress," the Lord helps you stretch your limits a little bit more. Raising three teenage girls without the gospel and without the willingness of their mother is definitely a challenge. It hurts to see people whom you love so much go through such horrible things in their life, and know exactly what they need but not be able to help them because they won't accept it. I have learned a new respect for families who struggle with drugs and violence and what it feels like to have to betray your child in order to help them, and also what it feels like to love someone so much but at the same time be so afraid of them you have to lock them up. I have also learned how much it hurts as a parent to have to watch your child use their agency in a way that not only hurts them but many others as well and have to come to terms with the fact that they will most likely never be able to recover and you will have to continue to watch them hurt themselves, their unborn children, and your family. I do however, have a new respect for those who struggle with addiction problems. It is a horrible thing and I hope if any of you know anyone with a drug problem you will try to be a little bit less judgemental and little bit more patient.

Going through these experiences have changed my perspective as a mother drastically. It has made me much more aware, scared, nervous, and confident all at the same time. I have also learned that in moments when you think you can't possibly sink any lower, or have any more problems, or be struggling economically anymore---there is always a step lower. It can always ALWAYS get worse. So in times when I catch myself thinking that my life is too hard, I have to remind myself that it could be worse tomorrow and I should stop complaining and waiting for everything to work out and just start being grateful for the good in my life.

Speaking of good---

Some women from my parents ward threw me a baby shower a few weeks ago. It was so amazing. The food and decorations were wonderful and I was so excited to see everyone who came. Thank you so so so much to those women, as well as to all the people who came and who gave gifts. I can't explain how appreciated every gift was. We are so blessed and I know there are so many people who truly love our little family. Thank you!!!
Here is a picture of the "cake." It is made of diapers and baby shampoo and all sorts of other goodies. Isn't it amazing?!!! I was so impressed. It must have taken forever to make. I love it. Wow!!!

Another good thing that has happened lately is that Fidencio, the only other member of the church in Jose's family, received the Melchizedek priesthood. We had a dinner and game night with my family afterwards to celebrate. Congrats Fidencio! My amazing family took the week off this last week and came over to our house to help clean and organize. I am so grateful to them. I can't believe how hard they worked, inside and outside the house. Wow. They are truly incredible and I appreciate them so much. Thank you guys! I do feel really bad though because we were home almost the entire time they were here slaving away. I wish I could have spent more time with them.

Austin wearing my jacket while he cleans. haha (I not sure why) haha

Ahhh! Christmas! Jose and I bought our first Christmas Tree this year because we never ended up decorating last year. We had so much fun decorating it--and it smells so good! I bought Jose a video game set for Christmas. It was just a cheap little controller set that comes with games already installed. It has all of the old arcade video games from the '90's on it. He was so excited to use it he opened it that same day. The stinker. I told him he will have to re-wrap it to be able to open it again on Christmas. He is actually really good at all the games though and always kicks my trash on everything from Mario Bros. to Tetris.

I came in one night and saw him playing Duck Hunt but he had set himself up a little shooting range with the piano seat to make it more interesting he said. Haha I love him. He is so cute.

News on the baby....

I haven't been able to sleep well for a few weeks because of all the stress I have had. Sometimes I go a couple of days without even sleeping at all. The stress has also made it hard to eat. I have been throwing up almost everything. So when I went to the doctor I told him I was worried that maybe it was affecting the baby. He did some tests and found that the baby's heartbeat was beating irregularly and said that it was related to my stress level. So he said that I can't keep going like this and think that the baby is going to be ok and I have to find a way to get rid of as much stress in my life as possible. Ugh. That made me even more stressed. Jose has stayed home from work for the last couple days trying to take care of me and make me laugh and just generally loving me. He is amazing and loves me and Maya so much.

So that is the life and baby update. In case I don't post again before Christmas--Merry Christmas everyone!!!

I went to the Doctor this Morning...

This last week has been a really rough one for me. I have had quite a bit of pain and quite frequent and regular contractions, then this morning I started bleeding. I went to the doctor and he seemed to be a bit worried with the all the contractions and the bleeding so he checked everything out and said it all looks good but sentenced me to strict bed rest. Blah. He wanted to put me on a medication that would stop the contractions but quite frankly it scares me to be taking medication of any sort while I am pregnant so I asked if there was another option and he said that if I would take the bed rest seriously then he would see how I am doing at my next appointment to see if I need to get on the medication.

We also talked about when we could plan to deliver the baby. I wanted to deliver it at the end of 36 weeks but he was nervous that her lungs wouldn't be developed by then so he said he wants to see me every week to do a full check on everything--if there looks like anything is wrong he will deliver the baby starting at my next appointment. If everything looks good at all my appointments, and I haven't started into labor on my own, he will start me at 38 weeks which means anytime in between Jan. 8 and Jan. 15.

I am glad he will be doing so many checks and tests on everything during these last few weeks because I am definitely very nervous, to say the least. And I am also glad that we have finally set a date, more or less, so I can start planning.

Moving Day

No, we aren't moving again, but Jose's family moved out of our house so it's sort of like we have a whole new house. I realized I haven't even posted any pictures of our house since we moved last November to Clinton and most of you haven't seen it yet so I thought I would post a pic of the outside, there are also some pictures taken from the inside further down in the post. We absolutely love it here. Clinton is so beautiful and peaceful--lots of farms and young families. We love our house too. It has been such a blessing for us and I know the Lord definitely helped us find and buy it (thanks to Alysia and her family!). We began to remodel it to be more "ours" last Feb. but the projects got put on hold when Jose's family moved in and nothing got finished. Now that we have less bodies in the house we have started the projects back up and are trying to finish everything little by little. I told Jose I want everything (inside and out) done by the time Almaya is born but I think that's quite a lofty goal. : )

This Halloween was Almaya's first Halloween (well sort of). I figured I'd better dress her up as something and the only thing she really looks like right now is a pumpkin so that's what she was...

Since my belly button sticks out so far I figured in would make a great Jack-o-lantern nose. hehe Here is one of just Maya... (isn't she adorable? haha j/k)

Ever Growing

Well, I have gotten to the point in my pregnancy where people have begun to ask me how many babies I am carrying. It happened last pregnancy, but it's still depressing. It's fine to hear about how freakishly huge I am the first 200 times, but it gets old after that and is starting to chip away at my self esteem. Also, my belly button never popped back in after the birth of Helaman so now it sticks out so far that you can still see it even when I am wearing four layers--I guess that tricks people because they always think that means I'm about to give birth. Here is a picture of me this last week at 27 weeks...

While I have been ever growing so has Almaya...she has gotten so much more active these last couple of weeks. Her eyes have opened this last week or so and her ears have finished developing. I have definitely noticed a change in her behavior since these two things have happened. She is much more consistent to how she reacts to things happening both inside and outside her little utero world. She seems to be experimenting a lot more with her body and new-found control over it. I know this is happening at a usually pace, but it still seems really late because Helaman was developing these skills much much earlier.

One new joy that Maya has found is bouncing. A few days ago she discovered that when I lay down to go to sleep on my side she can turn sideways, put her feet against my belly so she can touch the surface of the bed, and kick off the bed as hard as she can with both feet. This will make her bounce which will in turn make her head hit the other side of my uterus. I am not sure why she enjoys this sensation, but she absolutely loves it. She will do it over and over and over for hours. Needless to say, I haven't slept in almost a week. It's cute, and funny to see from the outside because you can see the bed bounce as she kicks off it then her head hit the other side of my belly, but it's not very comfortable for me. : )

As for me...I am doing ok. I am getting very tired of being pregnant, although I still have quite a ways to go. I don't have as many charlie-horses in my legs as I did with Helaman but I have more in my back. The number of daily contractions has stayed about the same so I am grateful that they haven't worsened, but my legs and feet get swollen so fast that it's hard for me to be out of bed for very long. Jose, bless his heart, is being so incredible. I have been so emotional these last few weeks, between the physical pain and discomfort to the daily stress of life and the strong bitter-sweet memories of last Holiday Season ever looming near, it's been hard to handle all at once. But he has been so patient and always making me laugh even when all I want to do is cry.

That's pretty much it on the updates. I am still not sure on the exact due date. The doctor says we will have to wait and see how Almaya continues to develop. So we will both just keep growing and waiting...

Almaya's Daddy

This year has been a particularly difficult one for Jose and me. We have had to face losing a child, raising Jose's family--with the particular strain of 3 teenage girls--trying to buy two houses and building a life for our own family as well as Jose's family, losing our source of income, and dealing with the strains of a new marriage. Though I know there are many others in the world that deal with many more difficulties than these, it has been particularly challenging for me. However, among all the trials the Lord has blessed us and taught us to find refuge in our temple marriage. I can honestly say that as I have learned this I have never been more content in my life. Every time I just want to break down and give up, Jose is always there for me and always loving me, no matter what. I have been thinking a lot about him and our marriage over the last few months and I thought I'd post a quick thought about him and how grateful I am for him in my life...

I never really realized how truly lucky I was to find him when we first started dating. He has made my life happier and fuller than I had ever imagined. I honestly can never think of a single time when he has yelled at me or refused to do something for me--in fact, most of the time he does everything before I even have to ask him. I am not sure why he stays with me because I definitely don't treat him as good as he treats me [I think the Lord has blessed him with a blind love for me : ) ]

His life has never been easy, nor is it an easy burden now to provide emotionally and economically for 24 people, but he never complains--ever. Whether it's buying back-to-school supplies or a dress for a party, struggling with eating disorders or other health issues, or disciplining someone for ditching school or staying out too late; he is always there for his family as a father, a son, and a best friend. I have seen how much his family looks up to him, although they would never admit their gratitude to him. Many of them have never really known any other father than him and I know they love and respect him even though they don't voice it.

With having his hands so full of juggling work and the emotional and financial needs of so many I know it is incredibly hard for him to make time for his own little family--but he always manages to give me and the baby his undivided attention. He is so in love with Maya and talks to her and plays with her constantly. He is already completely wrapped around her finger. She is "Daddy's Little Girl" and has completely stolen his heart (hence the Tim McGraw song dedication on this blog). I know he worries about being the best father possible to her while still being the father of so many others in his family, but I have no doubt he will find a way to take care of everyone, as he always has. He has such a pure love for all those around him, not just in word but in deed as well. His life is more than discouraging as he tries to teach his family about the blessings of the gospel and prudent living--which almost always seems to be a failed attempt, but he keeps trucking on with an undying faith that the Lord with provide.

I know I don't make his trials any easier either. There are so many times when I just break down and want to get away from the responsibility of so many people. In those moments I can see the pain in his eyes as he is torn between wanting to give me and his children the best life possible and still having the responsibility of his family weighing on his conscious. I wish I could be as strong as him. So many times I hear husbands talk about their wives as their strength and rock--I wish I could be that for him, but he is definitely the one who plays that role in our marriage and I am so grateful for his perfect faith in Christ, his quiet patience in life, and his never failing kindness towards me.

I appreciate Jose in my life and look to him as an example of how I want to be someday. I am grateful for the love he has for "his little girl," his precious son Helaman, me, and the rest of his family. He strengthens me each and every day and I will always love and admire him for that.

Belly Update

After posting all those pictures of Almaya I figured I'd better post one of what she looks like from the outside since I have pretty much been a hermit and none of you have seen me lately.Here I am at 22 weeks. I am currently in my 23rd week and ever expanding. : )

To answer some questions...

I am doing fine so far as the bed rest. I just try to stay calm and I am usually fine. In fact, the last week or so I haven't had hardly any contractions so I think things are looking up.

The pronunciation of Maya's name is Alma (like the name in the Book of Mormon) mixed with Maya (like the fairly popular girl's name). For those who speak Spanish it has the same kind of ending as "playa" or beach.

Some updates on the pregnancy...Maya is still doing great. She is getting a lot more active the bigger she gets. She definitely doesn't like loud noises. I think they scare her. I am coaching volleyball for the Young Woman in my branch and she always gets so scared when everyone starts cheering. It makes me sad because I just want to cuddle her and cover her ears. We have our first big game today so we will see how Almaya reacts to even more cheering. : )

Oh, by the way, I added a "Followers Gadget" to the top right-hand side of the blog. Make sure to click on the "become a follower" button so I can see who all reads the blog. I know there are a lot of you out there that drop in from time to time but never leave comments so I never even know you were here. Also, those of you who have Blogs, I highly suggest setting up a following, it's really fun and makes it so much easier to keep track of your loved one's blogs. By the way, who else has blogs that I don't know about? Do you have one Amy? How about Alli? Anyone else? I love reading everyone's blogs and keeping up on what you are all doing. Sorry I hardly ever leave comments but know that I read them often!!

It's a Girl!!!

We got the ultrasound done yesterday and found out that we are going to have a little girl! I must admit I was hoping for a boy but a girl is good too! Jose was soooooo badly wanting a girl. I have never seen him happier or prouder. He has been on cloud nine since yesterday. He is already planning daddy-daughter dates and wanting to buy every pink think we see. : ) His excitement is starting to rub off on me--I even changed my background to pink in honor of our little baby girl!! He is such an amazing dad and husband I feel so blessed to be married to him. It gives me so much strength knowing how much he loves this baby and how much he loves me.

The baby is growing fine and everything looks normal. The official due date is the 29th of Jan. but the ultrasound date is the 4th of Feb. The doctor originally planned on letting me induce the 36th week of pregnancy which ends the 1st day of Jan. but we will have to see how the baby continues to grow during the last trimester.

We have decided to name her Almaya Paulina de la Luz Sanchez. Almaya is a name that I made up because I always wanted to have a boy named Alma but then I discovered that Alma is a very popular girl's name in Mexico so there is no way I could name one of my boys that, and to me, Alma is a boy's name so there is no way that I could name one of my girls that---so I created a new name in honor of Alma. Paulina is, of course, after me grandma Talbot, and Luz is after Jose's amazingly loving and christ-like older sister Maria de la Luz. I do realize poor Almaya will have quite a long name but she is, after all, half Mexican so that makes it ok. : ) : ) : )

Almaya is definitely smaller than Helaman. Helaman was always bigger than normal in his ultrasounds so it's been surprising to us and the doctor that Almaya has been smaller than average in all her appointments until now. She has finally had a growth spurt and caught up to the average size and weight. I am hoping she continues to grow quickly so we can deliver at 36 weeks, but what ever her timeline is we will be happy.

Almaya has very small feet. I guess they are normal for a baby, but Helaman always had such huge feet that when I compare the ultrasounds it makes her look like she has elf feet. : ) Here are her two tiny little feet side by side (how cute is that?!) and here are her feet while she is crossing her ankles...She is definitely different from Helaman in almost every way possible. She is very calm, rarely gets upset, and is not easily provoked. If you poke her, she will just patiently endure it (unlike Helaman who would poke you back even harder). She never gets mad at how I am positioned. With Helaman if I was sitting and he was uncomfortable he would kick me until I would move. I barely slept my entire pregnancy with him because he hated me laying down if he wanted to be up and moving. Almaya, however, is so patient. She lets me be however I want to be, and if she is uncomfortable SHE moves until she finds a more comfortable position. I never knew pregnancies could be this bearable! : )

I do, however, miss all the interaction that I had with Helaman. I always knew exactly how he was feeling and what he was doing. Almaya, on the otherhand, is so go-with-the-flow that it is hard to know what she is up to. She only actively responds to two things...soft, calming music, and her daddy's voice. She seems to be scared of any kind of music with strong beats or rhythms. She LOVES hymns and gets upset during church when we stop singing. She LOVES when her daddy reads to her and gets upset if she feels like it's been too long that she hasn't had attention from him. If she hears his voice after a while of not hearing him, and he doesn't come over immediately to talk to her, she gets jealous. I suppose she gets that from me. : )

The other thing I have learned is how much she loves to cuddle. My uterus has always grown much larger than normal which gives my babies much more space than most other babies. Helaman loved that and took advantage of it. He was always stretched straight out and never wanted to be squished. Almaya, on the other hand, is always curled up in a little ball snuggled tight against anything she can find. In fact, the doctor is always surprised and can never find her because she has this huge uterus to roam in but is always curled up in a far off corner. She recently got too big to snuggle between my pelvis bone and has finally moved up. I was so excited the day that she finally moved up because it was getting really hard to carry her with her being so low. But she couldn't find anything to snuggle against so she moved up even higher and has now discovered my lungs and spine. It is incredibly uncomfortable when she wedges herself between my spine and lungs, but she is a sweetheart and just loves to feel safe and warm. The first ultrasound photo that I posted of her profile was the most stretched out the nurse could get her. The nurse had kind of a hard time checking all of her organs and things because she was so tightly curled up and didn't want to move. In fact, when the nurse was trying to check and measure her upper lip Almaya was grabbing it with her hand so it took the nurse a while to get her to move her hand. (what a cutie right?!)

Other than those three things, however, I haven't been able to figure out much else about her personality. We are so excited to have her join our family and get to know her even more and we feel so incredibly blessed to have her in our lives. She has already blessed the lives of Jose and I and our marriage so much!!

Doctor's Orders: 1 Long, Hard Laugh 5 Times Daily

Life has definitely been crazy and stressful for Jose and I for the last few months (or years haha) so I figured it was high time we had a good laugh. My go-to-guy (after Jose, of course!) for a good laugh would definitely have to be Brian Regan.

Between Jose, me, and his family, I tend to be going to the Emergency Room quite frequently for various construction accidents, etc. but I haven’t been to the hospital in quite a while. I can’t say I have missed it but I figured I would post an ode to hospital visits anyway. : )

I couldn't find any single file that had the whole clip that I wanted so the first video has the first half and the second video has the last half. (There is also a few seconds overlap--sorry about that). I hope you all enjoy it and it gives everyone a good laugh for the day!!! And remember…SAY 8!!!!!!!!!!!!! haha

No I Have Not Fallen Off the Edge of the Planet

Wow...It has been an eternity since I last posted. Man, sorry everyone. Life has been really crazy. So here a run down of what has been going on in the Sanchez family for the last two months........

First of all, I am pregnant again. Don't feel bad if you are finding this out for the first time through the blog. I haven't told anyone yet. I'm not quite ready to tell people yet, but ready or not people will know the second they see me. I know it's really tacky to tell everyone through the blog. Sorry. I have been a lot sicker this pregnancy than my last, which I didn't think was possible but apparently it is. I haven't been going anywhere or talking to anyone. So I figured it was better to write it in the blog than not tell anyone at all.

Jose is so excited!!! Oh my gosh. He's such a proud father, and he does EVERYTHING for me. I haven't washed a single plate or picked up anything since I got pregnant. He's really worried about me so he is over zealous when it comes to babying me---and I love it! Neither of us see this baby as replacing Helaman. We would never want to replace Heli--this baby is a wonderful addition to our already blessed family.

I am 13 weeks along and everything is looking really good. I am definately very scared with this pregnancy but my doctor is taking good care of me. In fact, he is demanding that I have an appointment with him every week as soon as I hit 30 weeks to do a bunch of tests to make sure everything is going to be fine. The super nice thing about this pregnancy is that my doctor is allowing me to chose when I want the baby to be born. The baby is due the end of Janurary but he said as long as the tests look good he will let me decide to get started the end or middle of December. It's nice to count down eight months instead of nine. It makes it seem so much shorter!

Here is a pic of the ultrasound at eight weeks

And here is a pic of me at eight weeks...the ultrasound is a lot cuter. : )

Here is a pic of me at 13 weeks. I have lost a lot of weight in the last few weeks (about 17 pounds) because I haven't been able to eat anything. I've been trying to force-feed myself but I just throw it up. I was getting really worried but the doctor says the baby looks good so I don't might losing the extra weight. It's the closest to my pre-Helaman weight I've been!!
Ahh, that brings me to my next topic...I got a hair cut! Holy cow I was so scared. But Anni cut her hair and it turned SOOOO cute and I really needed a change and needed to do something for myself at this point in my life so I chopped off all my hair!! It's so different and really hard to get used to but I love it. It's nice to feel a little put together after so much time of feeling like a bloated whale.

Speaking of hair cuts I also cut Jose's hair a couple of days ago. I told him we needed to take a few headshots for the blog. I guess it got lost somewhere in translation because they turned out to be mugshots. Hrm. Go figure.

hahahahahahah I love it!!!!

In his pre-criminal days Jose took Meg to a daddy-daughter date while my parents were out of town. He had such a blast and it made him even more excited to have a little girl (I think that's what he's hope for with this pregnancy).

It was a dance so Jose had to brush up on his sweet moves
Jose also knew that a nice pot-belly is an essential pre-requisite to being a good father.

Jose is so amazing as soon as he got home he went right to work cleaning to house while we chilled out. I have no idea how I found such a perfect guy. I'm keeping my eye on him so he can't escape!!

Ahh, in other news look at my car!!!!! Jose was going over some train tracks and ran over something that was on the tracks which deployed all the air bags and shattered the windshield. Can you believe it!!! Jose is fine though, just a little started. It's kinda funny now though.

Last news of the night......for those of you who are still actually reading this post. Wow, it's turned out long. Sorry : )

We are buying a house for Jose's family so there are staying with us until we can close the contract or until we find a place for them to rent.

It has been so nice having them stay with us right now. I can't believe how much they clean! Everything is spotless. Jose's mom even washed all of my clothes which I hadn't washed since I got pregnant. In fact, I think she's still washing them all and it's been over a week! She is an angel. I am so grateful for all the help she has given me.

LA AMO TAN MUCHISIMO MAMA!!!!! GRACIAS POR TODO!!!!!!!!!!

Here are some pictures of my beautiful in-laws...

Pepe doing some sweet breakdance moves Miri playing games or watching Telenovelas

Pepe surfing the web. We finally got all their stuff unpacked from the moving van and thank goodness we found their computer. At my house with no Wii there are pretty much only two things to do: watch telenovelas and play on the computer. With seven people and only my one lap-top there were quite a few fights. We had an hourly schedule worked out to pass the computer from person to person to try to keep some peace. Thank goodness now there's two computer and three TV's. Yay! haha Here is the beautiful Karina who, by the way, is having her quincianera this September. It's going to be a blast and a great party for all those of you who want to come!!

For those few of you who have seen my house you know the guest room was just our excuse for another storage room. We had everything in there just thrown where ever we could fit it. I walked past the door the second day Jose's family was here and had to do a double take. Everything was organized, all the boxes were put away, the beds were made, and apparently that room actually has a floor, which up until now, we haven't seen yet! : ) Jose's family is amazing. Muchas Gracias a todos!!!!

I don't have hardly any photos of Jose's family here on the blog so here is one of the whole gang...almost

Well if you have made it all the way down to the bottom of this post congratulations!! and I promise my next one will be much sooner this time!!

My Birthday Prince!!

HAPPY 23 BIRTHDAY JOSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jose's birthday was the 23 of May. His golden year. Thank you to all those of you who sent cards, letters, and presents. We love and appreciate you all.

I was so excited for Jose's birthday this year. I really wanted to do something special because he does so much for me all the time, so I had been planning a surprise birthday party for him for months. Well, I suppose not much for a party because there was no one there for me and him, but it was a blast for us.

I waited until he fell asleep on Thurs. then I got out of bed and spent all night decorating the house then snuck back into bed so he wouldn't suspect anything when he woke up. It was so much fun! When he woke up he was totally surprised!

The theme was Prince Charming because he is definitely my Prince Charming. He even had a little cardboard crown.

I gave him a phone and "National Treasure," and Heli gave him a soccer ball.

After that we went out to dinner and a movie. It was awesome just to be together. I love him so much.

After our little private party on Friday we went to my parents house on Sat. where they had planned a "Jose's AmaSing Olympics." haha It was so much fun! (Note: I would have taken the gold but I just didn't want you all to feel bad) haha Austin won by a landslide!!!

Jose got a brand new table saw and I can remember what the other thing is called but you use it to measure and cut things (haha I'm not sure exactly what they all do, but Jose was pretty stoked) from my parents and siblings, and a guitar and face cover (as previously mentioned) from Alysia and Topher. He absolutely loved all of it so thank you everyone!

Then we celebrated with Jose's family on Sunday with a dinner, playing on the tramp, and a very spirited game of baseball.

It was a great birthday. Thank you everyone (especially Jose for being born in the first place) hehe.