Christmas 2008

Christmas this year started out like all the rest. We decorate the house, have a Christmas party, buy the gifts, send out the cards, and anticipate the arrival of loved ones. The only element we did not expect was Grandma Melendez (Abuela) having surgery. The family was told she would need to have surgery and the date was set. We went about our normal holiday behaviors. Although we anticipated some complications due to her age, we all expected her to come through. The lights are lit, the packages are wrapped, the family is arriving and hearts are full. During this time of celebrating the birth of hope-Jesus Christ, we hear that our precious Abuela is not doing so well. We move forward and keep praying for her recovery from multiple surgeries. We attended a beautiful Christmas Eve service at our church. We joyfully received my parents who drove on Christmas Eve to see us. Our time together was perfect. Abuela was even improving. We woke up on Christmas morning, took showers, made breakfast, and opened our presents. Katie had so much fun. She didn't realize what was coming so we didn't have to hurry through the morning. But after one gift was opened it was all over. Her favorite gift of the day was a candle I got my mom. Who knew? Christmas morning was perfect. Around 11:30 am, we were told that Abuela was not doing well. The family was on their way to go see her. We continued cooking and preparing Christmas dinner. Then we got THE phone call. The phone call that brought tears to my husband's eyes. The phone call that told us that Abuela is gone. It was incredibly hard to hear. It was even harder to see my husband experience such pain. We all cried, hugged, and prayed. We know that Abuela is in a better place. She knew the Lord in a very real way. She is in the presence of her Savior, her Lord. There is no more pain or suffering for her. Christmas dinner was different for us this year. We still ate. We still enjoyed our meal, but our hearts were heavy. I thought about her a lot during that meal. I remembered when I would see her and she would look so happy to see me. She adored my daughter. She asked about my parents often and told me to send her love to them. For now on Christmas will be special for 2 reasons. We will not forget the reason for this day. Jesus was born. He is our hope and our future. We now have a 2nd reason to celebrate the 25th of December. It is the day that our Abuela went home to be with her Savior. She will forever be a part of our holiday celebrations. We will of course miss her, but we can truly rejoice because she is in the best place of all...in the arms of her Savior.

Merry Christmas.......The holidays are here!!!

It is official...the holidays are here. We are kicking off the celebrations with our traditional Christmas party. We are excited to have our friends and family over this weekend. I have spent a lot of time preparing. I have a room.....a craft room. Its been named the scary room for the past 2 years. This homemaker has a few too many hobbies that require an accumulation of STUFF! I enjoy learning the art of organization. That must be why God made me so unorganized by nature. The simple skill of putting things back is not something that comes natural to me at all. I, unlike my organized friends and family members have not been blessed with the ability to be tidy. I do however know how to clean for hours and make a mess disappear. So, I started thinking about my plan of attack in cleaning .....deep serious cleaning in preparation for this party a few weeks back. Since I have 2 kiddos here during the day I had to develop a plan in order to fit it all in. The scary room is not scary ......at the moment. I did get rid of some extra stuff and reorganized the rest. It may be renamed the craft room or the tidy room, but it will take time to see if this pleasantly clean organized room will last through the holidays. This is the time of the year that we accumulate more STUFF. We get stuff we want in the form of gifts from friends and family members for Christmas and then we go buy the stuff we didn't get. Oh and we have a 2 year old...so she gets stuff. Stuff we want and some surprises that we happily find a place for. Now I love stuff and thoroughly enjoy it, but as I mentioned earlier I am not gifted in knowing where it all should go. If the not-so-scary-room can make it through the holidays I may have an organized craft room in 2009. In addition to organizing the room, I have deep cleaned. Its good to do this once in a while. I love that I made time to dust the baseboards and china cabinet. It is refreshing to know that its done now. Now that the house is cleaned the baking can start. I plan to bake and cook for the next 48 hours and in the end produce an array of delicious and festive foods. Hope to see you at the party. Gotta go make the treats!!!!! Krista

Katie Update!

Hello all, I have sure slacked off in the blogging department. Let me just start by saying.....I've been busy. So much has happened, but the 2 biggest things are that Katie turned 2 and Baby Eli is here. During the past few months, my baby girl has grown into a big girl. She has many new tricks including counting to 10 (sometimes skipping 9), identifying her colors and most animals, talking in complete sentences, wearing big girl panties (no accidents in weeks), sleeping in her big girl bed, playing with play-doh, and coloring. We also started a sticker book for her. She will sit for 20 minutes and put stickers in her sticker book. She loves it. She has also learned how to climb into "OUR" bed. It's pretty high, but she can climb right up now. She enjoys having her friend Hayley come and play with her everyday. She tells me everyday, "Hayley's coming tomorrow". It's very cute. She runs to the door in the morning yelling, "Hayley's here! Hayley's here!" In one of the pictures Katie and Hayley are sitting at Katie's newly painted play table. They were looking at animal cards. So not only has Katie learned a few new tricks, but now she really is the big girl because there is a new kid on the block and he's the baby of family now. Weighing in at a perfect 7lbs 7oz. Eli Melendez has been warmly welcomed to the world. Since early this year we have awaited his arrival and we are pleased to meet him. He is a precious little guy who only fusses for 2 reasons I've noticed: a bath and when its time to eat. My sister-in-law is doing well and recovering from the delivery. Our whole family is just beaming with excitement. Katie has always loved her baby dolls, but now she is quite obsessed with babies. Her baby has been renamed baby Eli. She tells me not to drop the baby or he will cry. Okay so the funny thing she did this week is the top picture in the bunch. She went and got her suitcase that is for going to Grandma's house. She opened it up and sat inside. She grabbed the straps and buckled herself in. I asked her where she was going and first she said to see Baby Eli (for real). Then I asked her about visiting her grandparents and yes of course she is ready to go. We are having tons of fun over here in the Melendez home. I am looking forward to the holidays and spending time with family and friends. I hope you enjoy catching up with us.

Busch Gardens Blast!

This past weekend our life group went to Busch Gardens! We took the 4 kiddos and trekked through the park enjoying the sight of animals and lush landscape. We took turns riding rides. The day was just about free for all of us due to our amazing, dedicated, hard-working, teachers. Busch Gardens hosted a teacher day. Each teacher was given free entrance, parking, and lunch. If that was not enough they were also able to bring a friend! We had just the right number of teachers to get us all in FREE!!!! Some of us broke down and bought frozen lemonade at the end of the very hot and humid day. We had such a nice time together. The kids had fun too! They enjoyed a ride on the train looking at animals. Throughout the day we saw fish, hippos, giraffes, zebras, lions, tigers, a Kimodo dragon, and gators! The kids did so well, no one really fussed. They all took naps as needed. By the end of the day the parents all wanted naps and we earned them. My request after getting home was a shower! Which I got! Thank you Eliud!!! Katie loved seeing the animals. It was a great adventure for our family and friends! Krista

Katie at 23 months

Well this post is all about my amazing little Katie. Each day that passes takes with it the new things that my baby has learned. I must record these small yet big steps so I won't forget. I need to be able to tell my precious baby when she learned to color and say special words. Today she looked at me and strongly said, "Mommy, Katie do it!" She is such a big girl. We are working on potty training. I say working on it for 2 reasons; firstly because it is a process and it is not acheived overnight and also because I AM WORKING so hard. It reminds me of having a newborn with the always running and not relaxing...... I do get to sleep so it is better. We went to Publix today. This "we" includes myself, Katie and Hayley. It didn't hit until we were checking out that, my baby girl who is wearing big girl panties, hadn't gone to the bathroom in a while. I prayed....yes honestly prayed that we would make it through checkout without a "Mommy, pee pee potty!!!" Well, my prayers were answered and no alarming potty talk, but I knew we had to try before we left the store to go home. So, I parked the shopping cart full of paid for groceries. I carried Hayley, held Katie's hand and quickly trotted to the bathroom. Let's just say things went much better than it sounds, but wow 2 under 2 in a handicapped bathroom stall was interesting. I really don't know how mothers of 3 and more do it. Anyway, Katie tinkled and we washed hands while Hayley calming waited. So that was my morning. The rest of the day was not quite as eventful, but sweet. Katie loves to give hugs to Hayley. She is learning how to be soft and gentle. Sometimes Hayley gets annoyed so I intervene before anyone gets upset. Katie is very excited each day that Hayley is coming. Everyday, all day long Katie tells me that someone is coming. "Rochel is coming!" "Mommy, Aden is coming" Tonight I taught her the word tomorrow. Now she knows that Hayley is coming "tomorrow". Before bed tonight Katie wanted to read books. Now that sounds like normal 2 year old behavior, but she wanted to "READ" books. She gave me books and said, "Katie read books". At first I didn't get it, but soon I figured it out. As I read slowly she repeated after me. I showed her the words as I read them and she copied me. She actually learned the word "up" and every page that had the word "up" on it she read it to me. I'm not sure if she really learned to read the word "up", but it sure seemed like it. I'll try again tomorrow and see if she remembers. But I want her to know and I don't want to forget that she read the word "up" at 23 months. My amazing little Katie.....I love you!"

Beach Getaway!

This past weekend we had the pleasure of going to the beach. We stayed with Eliud's parents who went there for the week to celebrate their 40th Wedding anniversary. Ruth's idea of vacation though is still not very relaxing as she continued to cook meals and entertain her guests. We had a nice time. We spent the night Saturday night and left on Sunday. We went to the pool and walked on the beach. We were able to spend time with family and we even played some games. It was a good time. It was also really relaxing. Even though I had Katie, I still felt relaxed because I had so much help from family. Katie had a blast. She loves the beach. Oh and the birds!!!! She loved chasing the "burdies". The way she says it just melts your heart. Even as we were leaving she insisted that we needed to go see the water, beach, and burdies!

Three's a crowd!

Last Friday I had Hayley, Aden, and Katie at my house. Boy, did we have fun. The kids certainly kept me on my toes. Having a 12 month old, 20 month old, and a 22 month old helped me see why God put 9 months between births! It was truly an adventure! Everywhere I went I had 3 sets of little feet tottling behind me. Adorable.... and a little scary at times. Bathroom breaks for me and Katie were a party of 4. The highlight of the day was naptime. This is the time of the day when little kiddos close their eyes and look like angels. They want for nothing and are completely satisfied. Therefore mommies also love this time, because everyone is happy. A miracle happened that day.....all three babies were sleeping at the same time for about 15 minutes. I didn't expect it, but God knows what His children need. I am not discouraged from having 3 kids one day....I actually think it would be nice, but I'll take them one at a time with a few years between them. Hayley, Aden, and Katie had a great time playing, dancing to sillly music, and reading books. They will never know how much they kept me on my toes. That is the art of being a mom.....never let them see you sweat,........cry or beg for mercy! But seriously, I had fun with these little guys!!!!!

My first blog: "This is me!"

My dear sister-in-law Rochel sent me her first blog and I was inspired to start my own. Not so much because I need an audience, but simply to record time as it goes by. I often tell myself "oh, go write that down so you won't forget". I get busy and don't write it down and sure enough it is forgotten. Another added benefit to being a blogger is I can't lose this blog. I am certain I have started journaling in various journals just to continue in the wrong one and then who knows where I left off. This can't be misplaced or disorganized. This is a safe place to record the exciting happenings in my daily life. And believe me being a stay-at-home mom (AKA )homemaker is quite exciting. Soon I will be watching my friend's one year old daughter. Soon being....I start tomorrow. So, this blog will include details about Katie my precious baby girl who is 22 months old and Hayley a sweet 12 month old who will come and play with us each day. I also have quite an extensive amount of hobbies that consume my time. I sell on Ebay from my store Paisleygoose Baby Boutique. This job keeps me busy doing what I do best.....shopping. So therefore I must shop! My shopping will be reduced since I will be toting 2 kiddos instead of one. Which Eliud- my husband - will be pleased with. I also enjoy sewing. I sew with a good friend named Hollie. We make baby stuff! From blankets to pillows, from burp cloths to boo-boo bags we are quite the sewing duo. She works full-time as a teacher so our sewing time is in the evenings. As if I wasn't busy enough with Katie, Ebay, Shopping, and sewing; I also like baking. I started taking the Wilton Cake decorating class in June and we start our next class level 2 tonight. I am doing this fun activity with my sister-in-law Rochel. She is 6 months pregnant and determined to get all these cake classes in before baby Eli arrives in November. I also have a great friend named Maranatha. We love to hang out and chat about kids and Ebay. She also sells on Ebay at Jasmine's Laundry. Now you know the primary names you will read about in almost every blog. I will also be recording anything amazing that Katie accomplishes so I can keep family and friends up to date. It is crazy how fast these little people change and grow. Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed it! Krista