Mommy, I know something......

I love it when Jacob starts his sentences like this. It means he's about to tell me something he has discovered all by himself. Here is what he knows.....

• Mommy, I know something....how about when we go outside we quickly close the door so the flies don't come in!!

I'm convinced that my children will engrave on my headstone, "Close the doors,
so the flies don't come in." I say this all the time. As my brother-in-law said Yucaipa should have been named Yuflypa. We have the kind that never land and if the door is left open we can get at least 25 in the house in a minute. I am not kidding.

• Mommy, I know something......how about if we put away a toy before we take out another one!!

I'm glad he thought of that because I never would've come up with that one on my own....

• Mommy, I know something......how about if we are quiet when Joshua is taking a nap!!!

Again, brilliant. Where does he come up with these things.....

Because She is a Mother

Happy Mother's Day! This is one of my favorite talks. It was given by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland at the April 1997 conference. I was about 2 weeks shy of giving birth to my first child and I was scared and excited and eager for the next chapter of my life. I remember sitting on the couch crying knowing that Heavenly Father knew that I was going to need this message soon. I have read, studied, and reread the encouraging words of Elder Holland throughout the last 11 years and they still lift me up and give me hope. I love my role as a wife and mother and I hope that we can all know of the important work we are each doing in building up the kingdom of God.

Here is an excerpt but I would encourage you to read the entire text by clicking on the title:

You can’t possibly do this alone, but you do have help. The
Master of Heaven and Earth is there to bless you—He who resolutely goes after the lost sheep, sweeps thoroughly to find the lost coin, waits everlastingly for the return of the prodigal son. Yours is the work of salvation, and therefore you will be magnified, compensated, made more than you are and better than you have ever been as you try to make honest effort, however feeble you may sometimes feel that to be.

Remember, remember all the days of your motherhood: “Ye have
not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.”

Rely on Him. Rely on Him heavily. Rely on Him forever. And
“press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope.” You are doing God’s work. You are doing it wonderfully well. He is blessing you and He will bless you, even—no, especially—when your days and your nights may be the most challenging. Like the woman who anonymously, meekly, perhaps even with hesitation and some embarrassment, fought her way through the crowd just to touch the hem of the Master’s garment, so Christ will say to the women who worry and wonder and sometimes weep over their responsibility as mothers, “Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole.” And it
will make your children whole as well.

Thank you, my dear sisters and friends, for being such

good examples to me and showing me what it is to be a mother who knows.

Look, Mommy! Blood!

Those were the first words out of Jacob's mouth when they got home from the Fathers and Sons Campout. He then proceeded to tell me that he learned that when you go up a mountain it's ok to run but when you go down a mountain you should walk. I'm glad he learned that lesson. I'm hoping there won't be anymore rocks that get in his way the next time he falls. He's a trooper!

The first words out of Brandon and Blake's mouths were, "Look, Mom. Guess how this happened!" That would be a bear. One of the two bears that were walking around their camp. The same two bears that later on climbed onto Dan's truckbed. (He took a picture with his phone but it didnt' turn out.) I'm thinking we need to reconsider the location of these campouts......Thanks, Dan, for taking care of our boys!

Today I felt like this.....

I know that for some of you this may be a typical day but for me I normally struggle just trying to figure out what we're having for dinner so I just had to post about my day......


I woke up this morning determined to get a few things done. I ground up some wheat and made 2 loaves of whole wheat bread, made a batch of chocolate chip cookies, cleaned the downstairs bathroom, mopped the kitchen floor, practiced a new song for a Stake YW meeting, sewed a baby blanket for a baby shower, made salmon, brown rice, and veggies for dinner, took Blake to his baseball game, and read my scriptures. But I'm tired now so I'm going to bed!

"Don't worry, before I joined the Church I was a drunk"

I never thought those words would be reassuring but they were. Dan and I flew to Houston this past weekend, alone! We were asked to participate in a wedding and baptism for an amazing family we met in our Spanish Branch here in California.

We got to the airport and learned that our American Airlines flight was delayed a few hours. They quickly put us on a Continental flight that departed within an hour. We were excited because it was a direct flight and put us in Houston sooner than our original flight. However, we couldn't get too excited because we were selected for additional screening. Yes, that's when you step aside and they pat you down to make sure you don't have anything that will harm the flight. Luckily I left all of my dangerous stuff at home and we were cleared to go. We arrived in Houston and picked up our rental car and drove to The Woodlands. There we had dinner at Brio Tuscan Grille. We really enjoyed this restaurant and were sad to learn that they are not located in California.

We got to the church the next morning to help decorate and set things up. The wedding was scheduled to start at 2 and the baptism was scheduled to start at 6. Dan and I joked with the sister missionaries that the wedding wouldn't start until 3:30. Well, true to Latino fashion the wedding didn't start until 3:30. I was concerned because the baptism was in another building and they still had to go and change. But apparently Dan and I were the only ones concerned with the schedule. After the wedding we learned that nobody really knew what to do with the food that had been brought. Everyone thought that somebody else was taking care of things so in the end nobody knew what to do. Luckily, I'm married to Mr. Efficient so he took it upon himself to warm the food, warm the tortillas, take out plates and stuff, and get the dinner started.

So this whole time, Dan and I were kind of unsettled with the organization of the whole wedding thing. (If I had it my way I would have made an itinerary with 15 minute increments.) We were concerned that it was getting late, the cake hadn't been cut yet, and we still needed to clean up.

The couple had brought some bottles of Martinelli's for each of the tables. However, there wasn't a bottle opener. I thought that you could just twist the caps off but that didn't help. We searched the entire kitchen for something that would open up the bottles. Then I started panicking that we were never going to be able to finish things up in time for the baptism. That's when one of the men we met earlier, while waiting for the bride to show up, came into the kitchen and said, "Don't worry, before I joined the Church I was a drunk." He then got a bread knife and hit the bottle cap with the handle, then he put the blade on the cap as if he were going to slice it in half and then he turned in clockwise and the cap flew off! Hurray! He saved the day. We quickly passed out the Martinelli's, Dan helped pass out the wedding cake, and started the clean up process. After a long search for the bride's car keys, we finally made it to the other church building. The baptism started at 6:35. Not bad.

The Escobar Family

We truly are so grateful that we got to go. Thank you, Sister Cortez, for watching our boys. Even though it was a crazy trip and I got sick, it was fun to travel without children. We were truly blessed to witness these ordinances and we look forward to next year when we'll be able to go to the temple with this amazing family.

A Little R & R.....

My sister Edna and her husband Chris spent a few days in Palm Desert and we got to watch their girls, Ryan and Reagan, for a few days. We had lots of fun! Here are a few pictures that document just how exciting these days were....

I had to take a picture of their semi-matching outfits!

Here are Joshua, Ryan, and Reagan

Joshua and Reagan

Reagan and her Evel Knievel moves....

(or her interpretation of Menudo's Subete a Mi Moto...you decide)

And no backyard play is complete without headlamps

Ryan and Jacob

Happy Birthday!

We celebrated two birthdays in April in our family. Brandon turned 11 on the 17th and Joshua turned 2 on the 28th.

We love our boys and we're so happy they're in our family. Brandon is such a great older brother and Joshua always makes us laugh. Happy Birthday!

We're still here....

We've been busy lately but just wanted to let you know that we're still here. We've had a few birthdays to celebrate, a trip to Houston, sweet nieces to take care of, and life itself. I'm sick now so I'll post in a few days. We hope you are all doing well!