Babies Need BOTH Parents

My mom left today. She took my brother with her so that he could go and see his baby girl, Alana. He's coming back tomorrow night on the bus. I honestly was scared that she wouldn't remember him. Alana is 6 weeks younger than Ella and Mitch hasn't seen her since the beginning of August. My mom told me that she hugged Mitch and he was crying. She remembered him.

That whole situation upsets me so much. I hate how Carina and Mitch didn't try hard enough for her. It's not easy. It's especially harder when you're not married. I went through it. I had a baby young just like Carina, and I was in a relationship that was HELL. I didn't give up. I knew that my son deserved both of his parents and eventually with a lot of ups and downs we'd be okay. Now, here we are married and extremely happy.

Carina and Mitch are just so young and they just don't realize how important a family is to a child. Living in a split up home is horrible and I wish that they would try. Even if they can't be together there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to be hostile to one another. There is no reason why they can't make up a plan to ensure that both of them will be strong in Alana's life.

Mitch is doing wonderfully here, but I almost wonder if he should move back to Sacramento. For some reason he makes stupid decisions there, but if he could just put his head on straight and live for Alana maybe it would work. I just feel so sad for that baby girl.

I feel especially sad that she's my niece and I don't even know her. I've seen her once when she was a newborn and that makes me so sad. I wish I could see my niece and nephew more often. I would go to Sacramento more often, but it costs so much money! Especially since we have to stay in a hotel. That's one reason why I'm sad I don't live in Sacramento, but I'm so much happier here.

Makeover!

I felt like change was needed. I've had the same blog design for a year now so a gave my blog a makeover tonight. I'll probably be changing the header picture once we get our family pictures done, but that one will do :)

I need to learn how to make buttons on the top that people can click on. I see them all over the place and want them on my blog. So, if you know how to do this let me know!!

Our Thanksgiving & Black Friday

Our Thanksgiving turned out wonderfully! It was just our little family, my mom, my brother & the missionaries. I'm happy that they wanted to spend Thanksgiving with us. They got to watch 1 football game & 1 Disney movie, so we watched Wall-E. Elder Foy, who has been her for such a long time and has become one of our favorite missionaries finds out today if he's going to be transferred. Hopefully he gets to stay a little bit longer. I'm sad that my niece Alana & my nephew Vani & my sister Jessie would've been here though.

It was a pretty relaxed day. The food was delicious and even as I type this I'm considering going in the kitchen and making myself another plate..... gotta love those leftovers! I thought about the things I'm mostly greatful for and I think first and formost I'm so thankful for the gospel in my life, my husband & children and all of my family and friends. I was thinking that last year at Thanksgiving I wasn't even thinking about the Gospel and didn't have that in my life to be thankful for..... amazing what a year does.

This morning Gino and I were up at 5:30am to hit the madness. I really didn't expect our Walmart in our little town to be as crowded as it was, but we pushed our way through and got the Blu Ray player that we wanted ($128.o0!) and then 7 1/2 hours later we were on our way home. I was exhausted, but we had fun together. It was nice just for it to be Gino and me ~ no kids with us. One thing I really wanted was deep red curtains for my kitchen sliding glass door and I found the perfect ones at Linen & Things, which is going out of business so they were cheap! Well, I get home and go to put them up and wouldn't you know it.... they fit my living room window, but they're way too short for my kitchen. So now my living room is going to have deep red curtains, because all sales are FINAL. Then I went to get Sleeping Beauty out of the Walmart bag so I can see how cool it looks on Blu Ray and we left the fricking bag at Walmart.... so, I was pretty irritated when I got home.

Tonight is the Ashland Christmas lighting festival. I'm not sure if I really want to go, but I have a feeling Gino will be dragging us all out to it.

I've been MIA from my blog for a good reason!

I haven't been blogging lately, and there's a reason! I've actually been productive. I'm on this kick to be organized all throughout the year of 2009. In order to achieve this new goal I have to start a little early. My office stuff is almost completely 100%, perfectly ORGANIZED! Huge accomplishment! This next week I'm going to be focusing on my closet and the kids' toys.

I should've taken a before picture of my office area, but I will post an after. I'll do a before & after post of everything else I accomplish ~ the big thing is going to be the garage.... it's scary.

My mom is on her way up right now and should be in here in about a half an hour. I'm excited to be able to spend time with her. It's so weird how I went from seeing her at least once a week to only seeing her a couple times a year. Jayden is REALLY excited to see his favorite Grandma. I actually asked him who his favorite Grandma was (I know, I'm terrible) and he told me my mom was. Then I asked who his favorite Grandpa was and he told me that his dad's dad was his favorite Grandpa.

Friday I'm hitting up the Black Friday sales. I'm going to try to do it small this Christmas, which is going to be SO hard for me. Christmas is a really big thing for us, and I am going to try to bring back more of the spirit. If anybody has any ideas on some Christmas spirit things we can do please, please share with me!! I'm tired of buying a ton of stupid toys that Jayden doesn't even pay attention to just so he can have lots of presents to open. I want whatever it is that we buy them for them to appreciate it, and I don't want them to be overwhelmed with so many presents that half of it goes unnoticed. So... this year, simple for us.

Tomorrow's Thanksgiving ~ I'll try to come on and give a nice Thanksgiving post about the things I'm thankful for and how our day went. In the meantime I hope that everyone has a safe & Happy Thanksgiving.

2008's Thanksgiving with the Hurds

I didn't really take pictures yesterday, which is kinda sad. It was the annual Thanksgiving with the Hurds. Last year I got MANY pictures. Great pictures, but this year felt more like a zoo than a family.

People invited their friends - we had the hostile families that don't really get along (me kinda included in that).

Everybody drinking beer. Not too into that.

It just didn't feel like it felt last year. There were 45 people there, and it was hectic.

I really do love my Grandparents and I'm trying with my dad and I'm trying to not judge and to accept people for who they are. That really is a hard thing. I will say this though. I didn't care that people were drinking - and I was uplifting and kept a smile on my face and truly tried. It just feel like a zoo.

So, I wasn't in the picture taking mood. No pictures this year from Thanksgiving with the Hurds.

My Night With Edward.....

Was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! So, Emily and I went together and met up with Kari & baby Brady (he was such a good baby through the movie!!! YAY for Kari) and ended up seeing a few other girls from our ward there, so we all sat together. There were a few parts in the movie that I giggled, okay LAUGHED! But, all in all I really did love the movie. It moved so fast, which to me was a bit of a downfall, but I am happy with the actors, which I didn't think I would be. It was really high schoolish, but that's what the book was intended to be. Then a bunch of us old people became obsessed, forgot about that small detail and made the story into what we pictured it as... and I never pictured it being so high school. I can't wait for New Moon to come out! Tonight I'll be seeing it AGAIN with Gino. Then we can start listening to New Moon on CD ~ Gino's into the Twilight Saga ~ come on.... you know you wish your husband was involved with it to ;)

Don't mind the quality of the photo.... UGH it was taken with my crappy P&S and the quality SUCKS.... but we so had to have a picture of our night out!!

I'm in a rut - but here's an update

I haven't had much to say lately. I've been sick with a cold for over 2 weeks now. Today's the first day I woke up w/out a horrible sore throat, so that MUST mean that I'm on the road to recovery.... finally.

Next week is Thanksgiving and my mom will be coming up and bringing my niece, Alana. I am sooooooooo excited to get Alana and Ella together finally. Last year Alana was up for Thanksgiving, but they were just little babies.

I've been overwhelmed these past few days and today I've got a lot of tackling to do. It's anti-procrastination day over at Flylady.net and I'm going to stop procrastinating and get some stuff done. I just have to do a nose dive into it all.

ELLA UPDATE:

She says the following now:

What's that?
Who's that?
Love
Shoes
JJ
Jay
Jayblah
mama
dada
baba
Ben
more
all done
thank you
oh wow
princess
No No
Don't!
Mine!


I think there's more, but those are the ones that are on top of my head. She talks all day long. This girl never stops. She's climbing up on top of tables, trying to putt drawers out so she can get up on the counters. This girl is one determined and smart little cookie.

JAYDEN UPDATE:

Every night before bed HE reads me a book. He's been doing amazing with his reading... I'm so proud of him. He's been working on his Articles of Faith and has #1 done to a T, and we're on #2 this week. If he can get it down we'll move on to #3, but I have a feeling we'll be on #2 for another week. We say it at night before prayers and in the morning before prayers. He's done with soccer (I'll get pics and video up soon) and he's still doing amazing in his piano and is still working hard at Karate (or in his words Kung Foo).

I don't understand sometimes why God blessed me with the most perfect, amazing, beautiful babies. I'm so lucky and blessed to be able to be their mom.

Photography

I've been working on something lately and finally have it to a point where I'm ready to share it.

I'm doing photography now and have a photography blog. It's where I'll post my photo shoots.

There will be a link off to the side underneath MY OTHER BLOGS.

http://amandagaribayphotography.blogspot.com/

Daddy & Jayden's Little Secret

High School Musical annoys more than anything, but Jayden has loved the first 2 and really wanted to see the 3rd one. That was until it actually was in theaters. I asked Jayden if he wanted Gino to take him and he got really defensive and said, "NO WAY!" I figured that some boys must have made fun of the movie at school so he felt like he couldn't see it anymore, and that made me sad.

Today Gino and Jayden got up really early to go see Madagascar 2. They were having a special showing at 9:30am for a local boy that was recently diagnosed with an aggresive form of brain cancer. All proceeds from the movie would go to his family to help with travel costs back and forth from Portland where the 7 year old boy is getting treatment.

Well, they got to the movies and it was sold out. Jayden was so upset. They had opened up another movie to support this boy and the movie was High School Musical 3. Jayden was mad and wanted to go home. He told Gino, "That movie is for girls!" Gino knew that Jayden really wanted to see it, so he told Jayden, "J, it's okay. We can go and see it and it will be our little secret...I won't tell anybody." And Jayden smiled and agreed and danced all through the movie LOL.

Patience

Love is patient.

I read that and almost cringed. Patient???? I am not very patient. I am not very patient at all, but I love. I love my children with all my heart and soul. I love my husband. Yet, I am not extremely patient with them, and that makes me sad. The people that I love the most in this world are the people that I should be most patient with.

In prayers every night I pray that I might have more patience for my children. I've never thought to ask for patience with my husband, but I have realized that I should. He deserves it just as much as my precious children do. I've noticed ever since I've asked for help in this area that I've dramatically changed. I have much more patience than I had before with the kids.

I want the people I love to feel loved, so I guess I start with patience.

I got tagged by Rachel

1. What is your husband's name? Gino
2. Who eats more? Gino
3. Who said, "I love you" first? I did on accident getting off the phone.
4. Who is taller? Gino
5. Who is smarter? Um... ME!
6. Who is more sensitive? Me
7. Who does the laundry? For the most part me - but if needs laundry done he'll do it.
8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? If you're standing in front looking at the bed I'm on the right
9. Who pays the bills? Me.
10. Who cooks more? Me. Gino used to cook every night, but now I'm the cook.
11. Who is more stubborn? I think me.
12. Who is the first to admit they are wrong? I don't think we ever admit that we're wrong... it's an issue.
13. Who has more siblings? We have the same amount - I have 4 sisters 1 brother & Gino has 2 sisters 3 brothers.
14. Who wears the pants in the relationship? I think I do.. but Gino probably thinks he does.
15. What do you like to do together? Gossip and watch movies
16. Who eats more sweets? I think we're about even on this ~ we both don't eat too much sweets
17. Guilty Pleasures? Picture frames, candles & bath stuff - oh! and clothes ~ for Gino hands down video games and clothes
18. How did you meet? at my mom's work
19. Who asked whom out first? Um... we just sortof hung out as friends and then it escalted
20. Who kissed who first? Gino kissed me out front of Mountain Mikes in Jackson
21. Who proposed? Gino. And the word shit was involved.... he was nervous
22. His best features and qualities? His smile, his commitment to his family, his love for us, his eyes, and how he can cook... and I too, Rachel, love that Gino can open up jars for me LOL

I am tagging ~ Aimee @ Momzoo, Kimberlee, Tammy & Emily

Ella Video

Sorry it's a little shaky, but here's a video of Ella.

Ella

Negativity

I have worked so hard on not being negative and it really is hard when I'm hit hard with it. I understand that situations can be hard, stressful and it's hard to see a positive aspect on it. I understand that so much. However, what I don't understand is when people create negativity for themselves and try to pull everyone in the negativity pool with them.

Instead of freaking out and causing havoc in everyone's life around you, why don't you just stop, take a deep breath and work on solving the problem. Let's not create more problems, let's fix the problems we have. This is totally work related, and I'm having a tough time dealing with negativity coming from it. We are in a sticky situation and it's hard.

I am trying so hard to remain positive and find solutions for the problems this company is having right now, but when the head of it is so negative it's hard to remain positive.

Deep breath....... I can do this.

Our First Baptisms

I know that I have readers that are not LDS, so I wanted to explain something before I talk about what happened last night.

If you believe in God and you believe that the bible is true, then you probably believe that in order to return to our Heavenly Father you have to be baptized. What about the people that didn't get a chance? Do you really think that our Heavenly Father would be so unjust that he wouldn't ensure that eveyone had an opportunity to receive that important ordinance of baptism? I believe this church to be true. I believe that the fullness of the gospel was taken from the earth many years ago, and that through Joseph Smith the fullness of the gospel was restored. I believe that during the time that the gospel was not on this earth that the priesthood, who has the authority to baptize was also not on this earth.

If you're not LDS I understand that you don't believe this, but I do and just want to clarify all of this before I elaborate on last night.

I had a friend once explain to Gino about being baptized by the proper priesthood authority like this.... Basically, let's say you want to get a driver's license and you decide to go and get it from this guy who makes them in Oak Park (I'm from Sac... it's ghetto there LOL) instead of going to the DMV and get the proper one. So, you have your license and your driving around, but it's not a true drivers license... right? It's the same we think about baptism. So, that's why Gino got baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints even though he was already baptized once in the Catholic church. He needed to get baptized by someone who had the proper priesthood authority, and on October 11, 2008 he did just that.

Okay... so back to the people that never had a chance to get baptized by the proper authority. That is one of the beautiful things about our temples. We as members can go and get baptized for our ancestor's who have passed away that never had the opportunity to get baptized. That is what baptisms for the dead are all about.

Last night Gino the honor and priveledge to get baptized for 2 of his uncles that passed away. These uncles were uncles that he was very close to. Last night Gino walked down the steps to the baptisimal font and for his first time ever baptisms for the dead was baptized for Tim & Jorge Garibay. After Gino came out of the water and sat down to get them confirmed and to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, the emotions were strong... even our Bishop stopped because he was starting to cry. It was an amazing.

I had the honor and priveledge to get baptized for a dear friend of mine that was murdered. Melody Hawkins was a close friend to our entire family, and I am so happy that I was able to get baptized for somebody that was truly a special soul.

I'm excited to be able to work on our genaeology and start doing all the work for our ancestor's who never had the opportunity to receive the ordinace of baptism.

Thank You

Yesterday I handed Ella something and she actually said, "Thank you." It wasn't a perfect Thank you, but you could tell that's what she was saying.

Man, she sure is growing up fast!

Tuesday Babblings....

These past few days I've felt great. I'm up at the crack of dawn and motivated. I'm loving it!!! I just hope that this motivation sticks around.

Thanksgiving is coming up so soon! I'm just anxious for the day after Thanksgiving sales. I need to go online and start mapping out my day LOL. The plan is that my Grandma will be bringing my Great-grandma Louise and my mom should be coming up as well. That will be 5 generations of girls all together. I hope my Grandma Louise is up to it ~ I don't think she's been feeling very well lately. I REALLY want to get pictures done with all of us girls.

Tomorrow Gino and I are going to the temple to do baptisms. I am so excited!!!!!! I have a friend who was murdered a few years ago and I got permission from her father today to be able to do her temple work. I feel honored, because Melody was a very special person to me. I'm sad at what happened to her, and feel happy that I get to do this for her. Gino is going to be doing his uncle's temple work and I know that's something special for him.

My Church Girl

My Ella is such a little smarty. On Sunday I got Ella dressed in her tights and her pretty little dress. I was already dressed in my church outfit and ran upstairs for something. I could hear her whining downstairs and when I went down what I saw melted my heart. She was wandering, looking for me, holding her church shoes. I didn't have them out, so she went to the shoe area and found them and was sad thinking I left without her. She had a big smile on her face as I put her pretty, little shoes on her feet.

It amazed me that she put 2 and 2 together that those were the shoes that she was going to wear. It's like she knew it was Sunday.... she knew she was going to church.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SYDNI

My cousin has turned 12 today. I'm sad, because we live so far apart and we never get to see each other. I just wanted to wish her a very Happy Birthday and I hope that it's everything you've wished for.

Here's a picture of Sydni and all her siblings (my other wonderful cousins) We'll start from the back row on the left. Sydni (birthday girl), then Ryli holding my baby cousin Karson and then in the front on the left is my cousin Seth and Conner!!

I'm really hoping to make it up there to see them soon! I feel so bad that I live so far away!

Gloomy, Beautiful Saturday!

It's Saturday today, and strangely it actually FEELS like a Saturday. We woke up early (thanks to Ella) and I've been doing laundry ever since my feet hit the floor. I'm sure the flylady would love that.

The weather outside is gloomy. Not raining, just a little overcast and peaceful. I love that. It makes me feel like I can have an inside, accomplishing day and not feel guilty about it.

We're all feeling better and the house has been sanitized, so hopefully this icky bug is out of our lives for good!

Our Halloween was awesome. I'll be uploading pics & video a little later today. If I start working on pictures it'll take over my day. I have goals for today and so far I think I'm going to accomplish them.

1) Filing - I want it ALL DONE TODAY!!! I'm doing quite well on this goal.

2) Laundry - This I also want all done today, but let's get real here ~ probably not going to happen. However, I've already done 4 loads and am not planning on stopping until tonight. My laundry is out of control, and that in turn makes my life out of control. So, if I don't accomplish it all, then at least I can make a nice dent!

and those are my goals for this gloomy, wonderful Saturday! I think it's so wonderful because it's the first day in a really long time (besides our sick days) that I don't HAVE to leave the house. Jayden's done with soccer (pictures and video to come on this as well) and Gino works, so it's kinda like a my day in a weird way.

Also ~ it's Digital Scrapbooking Day so, if you're in to Digital Scrapbooking I'd be high tailing it over to Ikea Godess (CLICK HERE), because there's a TON of freebies going on. That'll be my fun evening downloading as much as I can.