Five Fun Facts

DECEMBER 13th!!

My baby is turning 5, so here are 5 fun facts about the birthday boy.

1) After his nap, Diego goes directly downstairs and gets 2 pop-ices out of the freezer, sits on the couch and enjoys his cold treat while he wakes up - EVERY DAY

2) It is very common to see Diego with only one sock on - he has done this ever since he could pull off a sock (one of my favorite quirks about the boy).

3) Just like his dad - he LOVES to go to the movies. Or just have a movie night at home.

4) With perfect timing and animation, Diego produces one liners seen on movies, shows and music.

5) Diego's favorite color is orange...because it is the color of cheese (no Diego has no preference for cheese - don't question the child's logic)

Family vacation

Here are some photos of our AWESOMELY fun trip to Hawaii in September. We had a great time and really enjoyed experiencing a part of America that is completely different than the Northwest.
Fearless Diego - though everyone else around him can touch, he can't - he either has too much confidence or trusts his dad who is trying to keep up behind him.


The picture below is seemingly a great photo - but the story....I wanted this picture-perfect family photo (don't you think the backdrop is beautiful). As the we are about to have a great photo I tell Jordan to put his hand down, that I want one picture without hand signs - then the other 2 in support of Jordan do the same - I get pissed off and walk out of the photo right as it is taken....Honestly, I hate that it turned out so good

I love this photo - Diego felt so left out as Julio and Jordan would go out surfing. But at the end of the last 2 days, Julio would take Diego out for a few minutes and try to "catch a wave." Diego could not stop smiling when he was out there - what a great dad.
Jordan and Julio enjoyed surfing together - even grandma got out on the waves.
Seriously - a surfer was created...all Jordan wanted to know was what our plans were for the day and when would surfing be involved. (I can't believe how grown up he looks in this photo!)
No need to explain this photo - it is just Diego looking adorable. A lady with a wagon full of birds put one on Diego's shoulder. When ever he looks at this - all he says is "his nails where pocking my skin." But he fought through the pain to gives us a great picture.

Hawaii - and the perfect storm.....

Aloha!
The family went to Hawaii for a late summer vacation! It was a lot of fun - all but my near death experience....

The older boys and grandma were having surf lessons, and I felt that Diego was feeling left out on the beach. So I paid $20 to go out for a 1 hour sail boat ride. The "skipper" told me to stay on the front of the boat, where Diego would have more....fun.
So we set off on our adventure, at first Diego was having a great time, looking through the netting to see the shallow waters.
Things got progressively worse once we hit the "dark water" as Diego said. We started hitting large waves, bouncing around. Diego declared that he wanted to go back to the beach, stating he did not like the "grumpy waves" - neither did I!!!
If you have ever watched the movie The Perfect Storm - that is what Diego and I went through --- don't let the sunny picture of Diego on the net fool you - those waves were deadly.
So we were sitting on netting - bouncing around, I was holding on to Diego, trying to calm him down while trying to stay calm myself, and my failed attempt to keep my camera and Julio's iPhone dry (can't leave valuables on the beach).



At the end of the ordeal - I got this nasty, painful, gruesome injury - rope burn. I propped my elbow on the rope to try and gain stability while saving my young son and the electronics.
I will post more pictures as my mom sends me what is on her camera - as for my camera, I posted its last picture, of Diego innocently sitting on a boat, minutes away from near death....RIP my dear camera, it was a great 9 months that we had.

Jujitsu

In July Jordan competed in his first Jujitsu tournament and got 2nd place!! Though he tried not to show it, he was very happy and proud of himself.












Diego finally got his Yellow-White belt! He has been working really hard to get a new belt.

I do have to point out however that the little man is only 4 and though he learns the same moves as the older kids (including his brother) he lacks the ability to remember and apply moves while they are practicing on each other. But regardless, he is enjoying this experience and as he gets older he will grasp on to the technique.













This picture is of Diego receiving his new belt from his his professor. He was soooo excited.

Under Construction

Obviously I haven't updated for a while. I don't know when the formatting changed but I am finding it difficult to change my formatting around - so for the time being my Blog is under construction.
Any suggestions on how to undo their template design would be much appreciated.

Battleship

Julio wiped the dust off our Battleship game to play with the boys. Jordan and Julio use to play the game all the time, then when Diego started to get mobile it became impossible to concentrate on a game.

Now Diego is older and learning his letters and numbers - so they gave it a try.

Diego did great on his letters and number and only bumped the board once sending the pegs everywhere - easily fixed surprisingly.

This first picture shows the winner(s) gloating.







Poor Jordan - as always had miss after miss. I think during the hour long game he only sank one ship. Diego on the other hand (with relatively little help from his dad) sank ship after ship.

He does love the game and I have to give him props for continually trying to sink a ship - game after game after game.






This picture illustrates the joy Diego had yelling, "MISS SUCKA!"

Say Cheese!

I have a new found respect for good photographers!
We spent a good chunk of the afternoon at a local park/creek taking pictures. My mom has been asking for pictures of the boys for some time, and I thought it would be a nice Mother's Day gift to send her a bunch of together and solo pictures for her to chose from....but I only get a few.

To get one with both of the boys even looking at me was a nightmare! Jordan tried - I will give him that, unfortunately he has a tendency of closing his eyes right before the flash (or just when he thinks there will be a flash). Then Diego....I had to keep reminding him to "look up" or "look at me". Then he would close his eyes and grin.
This is one shot that Jordan wasn't expecting. He was fine with pictures with Diego, but he refused to smile - or even look happy solo. So I had to do a lot of surprise shots. This is one - he had just climbed a tree and was marveling at his awesomeness when he looked down at me and SNAP!







This might just go in my all time favorites of Diego. Both of my good shots of the boys solo are completely candid. I know those make the best shots, but I just am not good at catching the "moment". That and they make me feel like I am ruining the fun when I carry my camera everywhere...ugh.

Anyways, here are just a few of the photos - the boys tried, I tried - more practice needed.

Chicken Little

Diego and I had a great time in Utah and Idaho for an extended spring break! Such great family and friends!

Diego's high point was when grandpa decided to buy baby chicks a couple of days before Easter.

In typically Diego class - everyone he tells the story of the chicks to, he always ends it with, "Yeah, in a couple of weeks, grandpa is going to butcher them and eat them." I really don't think he puts the words with reality.

Jordan the tween.....

I recently took Jordan to a "new client" doctor's appointment (waste of time and money - but it was a "requirement" - to take my money). As enthused as ever, Jordan was staying silent and staring at the wall so the nurse wouldn't talk to him. However, she was doing her job so she tried to strike up a conversation.
Jordan was wearing a Yoda shirt and the nurse asked if he liked Star Wars. He replied "yep" without making eye contact. She proceeded to explain that her husband was a huge Star Wars fan and that he had "the stuff" everywhere in her house. She then asked, "Who is your favorite character?" Jordan responded, "Darth Maul." The nurse stood there for a second and said she had never heard of that character and then we went back to silence.
The second she left the room, Jordan said, "Does she really think that I would be wearing a Star Wars shirt if I didn't like Star Wars? I said Darth Maul just because I knew she didn't know who he was and I wanted her to shut up."

From personal accounts I understand that this will only get worse once the 'teens' set in....
Good thing for my quick and stealthy reflects, I really think this rare photo of the tween says it all.

Feb. '10

I really don't know why I never take pictures anymore - and thus I feel I can't update my blog because everyone loves pictures.
Anyhoo - we have been somewhat busy since the last post - nothing exciting but still.

Jordan is adjusting great to Middle School! And he is becoming a young man, still very serious, but I know that it is just his personality. Height wise, the top of his head is about to my ear! I know I am short, but still - he is getting so big. We have taken a couple trips to Seattle and he has really enjoyed meeting up with his friend. However, here in Yakima he hasn't rushed to find new peers, sometimes too serious and cautious. His P.E. class has started their basketball unit and he practices his dribbling outside every night, I am hoping it will become an athletic interest for him. He is at the age of video games, and he and his father have taken up Madden - thus that is the majority of the weekends.

Diego is loving preschool and jujitsu, this week he got his first strip on his belt and he was on cloud 9! A couple of weeks ago he got a chest cold and right when I thought it was gone his asthma flared up and we got to make our first trip to the Yakima ER. Everything was fine, it was a matter of getting the "strong stuff" to get his lungs open. All is good now, and once again there are no signs of asthma, just occasionally when he gets sick.

Julio and I are good also, not a lot to report on with us - sometimes it seems we are living for the boys, which for us is fun and exciting. At the beginning of the year we joined a gym and it has been a nice break from "family" to focus on the individual.

At the end of March Diego and I are going to be making a trip to Idaho for a couple of weeks to visit family - it is all Diego talks about. By now I should have learned my lesson to wait until the week of an event to tell a young child anything.

The boy was born for this....

We knew upon arrival to Yakima that Diego needed some activities during the winter months and when we saw a "Brazilian Jujitsu" sign a few miles down the road we knew Diego was meant to be a student.

As shown in the picture, Diego is this serious during most of his lessons, he thinks he is the coolest thing that has ever came along. His one issue is that he has to partner up with another 4 year old - a girl. It is too cute, while sparring he will throw her down, but won't 'finish' her off by pinning her. Below is one of his first classes where he got to spar with another boy, who was 7.



And it was during this sparring that Diego was giving the nickname, Spit Fire.