A Soto Christmas

I can't believe how fast Christmas came and went, I wish Christmas was an all week thing so that I can get tired of it, instead it leaves me with an ache and emptiness in my heart that I want back, LOL!! I just can't wait to have a normal Christmas, with my house COMPLETE, with only cleaning and decorating to do, not last minute painting, or last minute tile hanging, I swear, this has been our life for the past...6.75 years! It'll be 7 years that we've been here and nothing has ever been complete, I don't remember a time that we were able to enjoy our house and not have something going on. There is always something and I have a feeling its always going to be that way....gggrrr. But hopefully next Christmas we'll have everything complete, our backyard too! with full deck and full play area and tree house. We've completed a lot this year and I'm very proud of Naty but again, I want to enjoy my house already! As I speak, I have 3 large Christmas containers in my living room and our fake tree as well. Naty doesn't want to move the stuff into the garage yet because he can't get to where he wants to store it because he moved a lot of things into that corner and now he's blocked out! GREAT! So I have a living room full of boxes and a big ole' tree. Oh and we can't forget the stuff he used to tile the bathroom, thats a whole other vent. I JUST WANT MY HOUSE BACK!


Ok onto our Christmas story, on Xmas Eve we went to Miguel's house to visit the kids for a bit, since we got there kind of late we didn't stay too long cause I had food in the truck that I had to take to Laura and Ruben's house. So we visited a bit, seen the cuties and then left to Ruben's house. Everyone was there and we had a good time, talking and just being with each other. The food was good the company was good, what more can you ask for!?!? Oh and it was funny cause no one knew I was pregnant so it was hard keeping it in and especially cause everyone was talking about my cousin Genna being pregnant I just kept thinking in my head, "little do you guys know!" LOL. So it was hard keeping it a secret but I did it! I was even asked about 4 times if I was going to have anymore, I kept saying, "I'm not sure." hehehe. So from there we went home and my mom and steph spent the night with us. I stood up baking cookies and treats while everyone went to bed.


The next morning we woke up at the crack of dawn because the kids couldn't WAIT to open their presents. We got up and the rest was history, the kids tore open those gifts faster than I could take pictures! hahahaha again, I was having some morning sickness that no one knew about and I had to make breakfast like that and cook the dinner too, BARF. Somehow I managed and didn't puke but it took alot of strength.





After much cooking, it was time! My grandma, Carlos, Miguel, Veronica, the kiddies, the in laws and Jesse came over, A very low key Christmas. We sat around, chatted, ate and ate and ate some more. When Miguel left, thats when Mayra and Alex showed up. Naty and I were just waiting for the perfect moment to drop the news but there never was one, LOL, it wasn't till everyone was leaving already that Naty said he had something to share, in between the craziness and the goodbyes, Naty blurted out, "We're having another kid!" LMAO! I was in shock that he said that and yelled back, "A kid? you mean a baby!" Oh man, that was classic. Well after about 5 minutes of denial from everyone, it finally sank (or sunk?) in and we got all of our congrats from everyone. I was 8 weeks by then and everyone was shocked but very happy. It turned out to be a great Christmas and I can't believe next Christmas we'll have a 4 month old baby. It's AMAZING. Thank you God, once a again!

Lots of Updating to do

I'll be updating my blog starting from December on. We've had alot going on and lots of exciting things, especially that we seen the baby and heard her/his heartbeat yesterday, it was awesome!

On Audrey's B-day we went to the mountains early in the morning and filled up the truck with snow for the kids. It was sooooo cold that we couldn't hang too long and besides it was Audrey's b-day so we wanted to get back ASAP.


When we got home the kids had fun making a snowman in our front yard and they did that while I cleaned up the house. It was also Mia's 2nd b-day and I didn't make it to her b-day party cause I had to get my baby's dinner ready but Naty took the kids while I cooked, cleaned, baked and decorated.

When they got back my mom, steph, the in laws and jesse came over to celebrate little Audrey's b-day. She was so excited and thought a million people were coming over like at Bubbs' b-day party but we told her it wasn't going to be big b/c we're taking her to disneyland. She wasn't having it and was mad that she wasn't having a jumper, lol, well she got over it once she opened her presents.

Oh Christams Tree

The tree is up and the kids are happy, what more can I ask for?

We're having another busy weekend, Friday we're going with the in laws to church for the Virgin Mary celebration and then we're staying the night and making tamales for MIL's B-day. Her b-day is the 11th but we're gonna wait till the 13th to make the tamales and invite family over to celebrate with us, then we're gonna spend the night again and come home Sunday. We're hoping to make it to church Sunday morning, if not we'll go with them.

I have finals next week so I'll be taking all my study material with me. Can't wait to get this over with! almost....yayy!!!!!

The Weather is Perfect

I love the cold weather, and we were due for some. After having a late summer I thought we'd never cool down. Even though we don't get as cold as other states being in the 70's or low 80's is considered cold to us. I'm so tired of people saying we have the perfect weather, no we don't! 112 in the summer is perfect? or 98 in the fall is perfect? it's horrible and very uncomfortable!! So I tell Naty all the time that I live in the wrong state and how I can't wait to move to Colorado, that is ideal weather to me.

Moving on, on Thanksgiving night my two shoulders starting hurting me so I thought it was because of lifting and carrying the turkey but when I finally went to the urgent care that saturday the doctor said it would be impossible because it would take 2-3 days to feel the pain so it had to be something I did on either Monday or Tuesday. So she said I really pulled my trapeizus muscles and RX'd me 800mg of Motrin, 3X per day. I thought that was a little too much so I take it maybe twice a day. The problem is that no matter how much motrin I take, I'm still hurting so the doctor said it is because it has to bring down the inflammation before it can start working on the pain so I'm basically screwed, lol. I've been trying to make the best of it and trying to ignore it but its really hard too when you have to use your arms for everything.

As for thanksgiving, we had it at MIL's house and I cooked almost everything and we just ate and ate and ate and I gained 4 lbs. from that. It was really relaxing and non-stressful. I guess cause I wasn't in my own house to worry about everything, I just had to worry about the food and getting Naty and the kids ready. It was so worry free. We had a good time and especially Naty since we stood over 2 nights.

School is coming to an end, I only have 1 more week of instruction and 1 week of finals. I have 2 major papers to write and a couple of homework assignments due next week and I'm done! I've gotta do major studying for my Epidemiology class cause that test is cumulative, gonna be so hard. I'm just hoping for a B in that class.

Now we're getting ready for Christmas. We went shopping yesterday and almost finished buying all our gifts. We still need one more thing for Bubbs, Naty was thinking Rock Band since Bubbs has guitar hero but I said NO! thats too expensive, but what Naty wants, Naty gets, so its up to him.

Then Audrey's b-day is coming up on the 20th and MIL and FIL gave them $200 so that we can take them to disneyland but I don't think we'll take them till around March. Since it's Mia's b-day too they're having her a b-day party at the park so we'll go for a lil bit and then have a cake for Audrey here at the house. I'll just invite the in laws and my mom.





Right now I'm working on minor house projects like organizing and putting out the Christmas decorations. Naty wants to finish the floors and have them stained by Christmas but I say, NO! leave me alone! NO MORE STRESS, so we'll see. Well Audrey wants to make a craft so I better go......bye

Monday Mumbles

Audrey gave me this one morning and I almost lost my coffee when I read it, "LOVE U LOVE U AMEN AMEN"

I will now start the monday mumbles, where I just go off about my life....


My favorite morning treat....A MUST!

Ok, today I mostly studied and when Naty came home he walks in with a sander and wants to get straight to work. I tell him, "uuuhh, you should eat first" so he eats and gets right to work. Since our dining room was recently stained its giving him a hard time and he's been at the same spot for hours now. But believe it or not, I see a dramatic difference.


This Saturday is Bubbs last baseball game and then we're going to shakeys for some pizza and beer (not me, I don't do beer). Then some of our baseball buddies are coming over so I'm gonna have appetizers and drinks for us. So nothing major going on this weekend, just relaxing, its a good way to unwind for our 1 week vacation.

This year, we're having thanksgiving at the in laws house. My MIL asked if I wanted to have it at her house, I guess cause I always hog it and I ran with the idea. The only bad thing is that it'll be more work for me cause I've gotta drag everything over to her house and make sure everything makes it there, like bowls, dishes, utensils and all the food we'll be cooking, including desserts. WOW! sounds stressful already. So we'll be spending the night on Wed. and Thurs. Then we'll probably hang out all friday till they get tired of us. We'll make sure to bring lots of movies and entertainment, including Bubbs' new guitar hero (he bought it with his b-day money).

Anyway, I better get these kids in the shower, its only 7:30pm and it feels soooooo late, I better do this now so I can relax and baby Naty into better health, he's acting like a big wuss right now cause he has a cold, lol.

(P.S. I love TLC, did you guys see the new commercial? I think Jeremy is so handsome now and is gonna be a mega heartbreaker)

PEACE OUT!!

Family night commercial

Medical Update and other stuff

I had my yearly ob/gyn visit last thursday and saw my favorite doc, Dr. King in the newly updated and super nice Kaiser Medical facility in Redlands. I just had to follow him from Fontana to Redlands, I can't see myself starting this whole process all over with a new doctor. Dr. King already knows everything thats going on with me and has been great so far and patient, to say the least. So I thought I'd see him at his new medical office and give him a quick review of my aches and pains. I told him how I went almost the whole summer with no pain and once September came, the pain came too. The pain has been off and on, which is good, I'm glad its not a constant thing cause thats when I would have ripped out my insides myself. So asked about possibly seperating my uterus and stomach instead of doing the hysterectomy and he said he didn't think that was a good idea since my scar tissue is in very thick bands and because the success rate isn't that great since the scar tissue can just grow back. He's told me a million times that I'm just prone to scar tissue and it just depends on the person's body. So basically, if I don't want the hysterectomy then theres nothing he can do for me, just pain management. Since I'm not 100% on kids for the future I don't want to have the hysterectomy till I'm 100% sure. I still want the option to have more kids if I wanted. So Dr. King didn't know how to lay this on me but he said, "since you don't want the hysterectomy then I can't do anything for you, but if you were 100% then we'd be heading out for surgery soon." Oh well, its my own fault, I know the hysterectomy would benefit me a lot and take most of the pain away but I just can't do that right now, unless it was medically nesecary then I'd jump on it but its just pain. I kind of stopped complaining to Naty cause I know what to do to end this but its kind of hard sometimes, trying to act like I'm ok when I can't bare the feeling.

Moving on....today I had a presentation to do in class and I was so scared and nervous to get in front of the class so I did a prayer and asked God to PLEASE take the nervousness and anxiety away and guess what?????? I had my prayer answered, of course when I went up there I thought I was gonna pass out but then out of no where I calmed down and felt nothing. WoW! does God answer prayers! I've always wanted to pass out when I've done previous presentations and this time I thought it was over, I'm going down, before I even went up there! LOL thats how ridiculous I am! hahaha But soon it was over and I was happy again.

Forgot to mention! Naty started a new job with the district of water and power (DWP) and he's loving it, this was his first week and they're already loving him. He's such a hard and good worker that people just flock to him and want to be his best friend. He's already carpooling and saving tons of money and making $7 more an hour. I'm really happy that he's loving it this much. Oh and he's already been asked to work sunday which is double time! He deserves all this, he's such a good person and works hard. I'm glad that God is blessing him and making his dreams come true.

Now the house, its coming along! On tuesday we went to practice baseball with the kids at the park and then decided to start painting out of no where. I just told Naty, "let's go get the white paint for the ceiling" and he said, "OK" so we did that and came back and went straight to work. We took all afternoon and evening to do the dining room, hallway and Living room. We're so proud of what we did and so happy that its getting closer and closer to being finished! yayy! We had some leftover paint so I started painting the nasty yellow in the kitchen (what was i thinking?) so far I've done 1 wall and it looks really good! I know the cupboards are gonna be super hard so hopefully I can get Steph to help me.

ok, I better get to bed, I'm not having such a good night. anyway, goodnight and see you soon.

Winterball

Naty and I are on the board now and I'm the Safety Officer and Naty is the Chief Umpire, oh are we gonna be busy this year, sigh... So far we've had 2 board meetings and I had to go help out a little but once the season starts....oh vey. As for Bubbs he's playing winterball and I managed to get a couple of pictures of him, I still don't know how to use my new camera so they aren't that great, soon I'll have this blog full of pics, hehe.

At church

Here are some pictures of our family at church this past sunday. I wanted to take more but Naty never has patience for pictures, he was dragging us out of there. Enjoy.

A hiking we will go

So last minute Naty decided that we were going to the mountains after church this past sunday, which totally cool with me. So we all get up there and find a trial and decide to go down it, well it was easy going down but on the way up.....YIKES, I couldn't breathe, my heart was coming out of my chest and I was just totally out of shape, duh! Since my last post I've lost 6 lbs. more which makes it a total of 21 lbs. lost to date but I'm kind of upset cause I wanted to take Christmas pictures this year, not gonna happen with this big face of mine. Naty took some pics of me and the kids and I was in disbelief, I guess I've gotta lose another 21 lbs. to start seeing it in my face, so discouraging.




So we've decided to go hiking every sunday from now on after mass. We live so close to the mountains and I hate that we don't go as often as we should! Before we even came this time I had told Naty that we're going to the mountains at least 5 times before the year ends, he said ok but now we need snow gear cause without it you won't survive more than an hour, especially when your pants get all wet so I'm gonna hit up the thrift store for the kids and I'll be fine with some windbreakers and boots. Hopefully the snow will come in soon and we'll be able to enjoy it with the kids, they LOVE the snow. I think we only went twice last year and both times we brought back snow and put it on our front lawn, LOL! we had a snowman for a week till it slowly melted away.

Next time we go for a hike, we're def. bring water!

Bubbs' 8th Birthday

Wow was that crazy! We were painting the day before and cleaning minutes before the party. But it was all worth it, we had a good time and my baby turned 8 years old. We thought we'd combine halloween and his b-day to make it a little more fun again (like last year) and it all worked out. We had a lot of fun and hopefully we'll keep on the tradition (won't tell Naty that one yet). I had to get some pictures from other people cause my camera went out and I wasn't about to search for batteries, so instead I stole some from family.



Then on his official b-day was on a monday so I made him a lasagna and bought him a cake. My mom, steph, michelle and baby felipe and Jesse came over with us, it was relaxing and fun.



For Audrey's b-day, we're taking her somewhere cause I don't feel like going all out on a party again. We still have hay all over our backyard and its gonna take days to pick that up. (any volunteers?). The good thing about the hay is that its protecting our new grass from the sun and we're growing grass everywhere! So I told Naty that every week we'll fill up the green waste bin till we finish picking it up, its no biggie.



I've decided to keep up my blog from now on and try to update everything that has been going on in our lives. I'm mostly doing this for our family and trying to keep the memories from fading....lol

See you next time....

The Kid's Garden

when we were planting flowers in our flower bed the kids got a hold of my zucchinni seeds that I wanted to plant in the backyard and planted them in the flower bed! every time I came out to water it I noticed some leaves coming out of the dirt that didn't look like weeds so I left them. As time went on my MIL came over and said, "oh you're growing zucchinnies!" At first I was like WTH? but then it all made sense. I could not find those seeds for the longest and I finally knew what happened to them! the kids got a hold of them! So after asking them both about the seeds, Bubbs finally confessed and said, " I didn't know they would grow!" LMAO! its ok though, we have fresh veggies and its just growing and growing.

besides the zukes we also have tomatoes, chilies and pumpkins growing! can't wait to see a ball come out of that plant.



Also, we baptized our nephew miguel and here's a pic.


And we've been working on the bathroom and here's an in progress pic, all we need now is the tile, everything else is done.

Summer Update

We've been home this whole time just working on workbooks and projects for the kids. We haven't really gone anywhere but since my last post I've lost about 15lbs. I'm doing it at a slow pace cause I don't want to set myself up. I'm still enjoying the foods I love and pigging out here and there but I make sure to get back on track. I really want to lose 25 lbs. more before xmas. To finally take our christmas portrait! I keep saying that every year and never get to cause I don't want a fat picture but I can't do that anymore, I need our family portrait.

Naty is still working at my old school and working on the inside of the house. He tore out the whole bathroom and just re-did the pipes, all new copper pipes now. We also bought our jacuzzi tub that goes in next. As soon as he puts in the toilet, sink and tub we'll be able to buy our tile! that will be fun.

Audrey and I go back to school on Aug. 26th and Bubbs goes back on the 25th.

I couldn't wait to be out but now I can't wait to go back. I swear I'm losing my mind in this box of mine, lol.

Let's see, we plan to have our bathroom, walls and kids playhouse done with by xmas. we'll see......hhhmmm

Big Girl on a Diet

That's me! Once again I'm attempting to get this extra baggage off me. I hate this off and on crap but hey, if I didn't do it I'd be a lot bigger. I think because I lose a lot of weight, then gain it back, then lose it again and so forth that it has saved me from going any bigger. I won't tell you how much I weigh but so far I'm down 9 lbs. The first 7 were from watching what I ate and taking it easy and the other 2 from my first week on weight watchers. I didn't do as good as I wanted but it'll do for now. We had a big BBQ for bubbs baseball closing ceremonies and I ate small portions but it was all bad choice foods. It's really hard for me to keep track of my food on the weekends so I'm thinking of holding a notebook with me instead of depending on my Laptop. I'm usually out and about and never on my laptop on the weekends so I think that'll work out better. I want to be at least 10 lbs. lighter by July 13th. Thats the day we baptize my nephew and I don't want to squeeze into a dress, I want it to fit perfectly.

As for the kids, Bubbs is still in school but he's getting out June 26th and I'm going on a fieldtrip with Bubbs school this friday. I'm dreading it but Bubbs is so excited about it.

Audrey, on the other hand. Is bored out of her mind and out of school still. WE don't go back till August so i'm gonna have to come up with something fun for them. Like library, park, walks, crafts etc. etc.

Our anniversary is coming up on July 19th so I've gotta make plans for it now. I'm hoping he'll be up to doing whatever but with gas prices we won't be going too far. Maybe TJ to get our tile for our bathroom but as far as anywhere else, its out of the question.

Audrey and I need to go to the market so I'll see u later. peace

Happy Mother's Day

to me! We had a good day. We started it off with church at 8am, then breakfast with me, naty, the kids, the in laws, jesse, miguel, veronica and the babies. From there we went to costco to buy our steaks, then to get a refill for the propane tank, drop off water and soda at the church and back home. Then around 1pm my mom, grandma and steph came over for dinner. We made ribeye steaks, sausages, baked potatoes, buttered mushrooms, steamed veggies, garlic bread and pasta salad. YUMMMMMM we had a feast. Oh and I have flowers all over my house and Naty got me a stainless steel toaster that I wanted, hahahahahahaha. That's what I wanted so I was happy.

As for the house...........the stone is DONE!!!!!! and it looks awesoooooooome. People keep stopping by and saying how nice it is and asking a million and one questions. We're really proud of our hard work! Thank you Jesus!