Wordless Monday...

Weight Loss Journal: Week 11

This week was very tough because of Thanksgiving and all the yummy food there was...
I, however, was able to keep up my exercise routine and had awesome self control in terms of eating and stuff...

Here are this week's stats:
OVERALL STARTING WEIGHT: 172lbs
DESIRED WEIGHT: 150lbs
Normal BMI: 18.5-24.9
Current BMI: 26.0

Exercise: Monday: 1 hour Step class + abs routine
Thursday: Walked 2 miles
Friday: Walked 1 mile
Saturday: Walked 1 mile

Current Weight: 166lbs
Total lbs lost this week: 0
No weight gained!!!

Total lbs lost so far: 6 lbs6lbs lost, 16 to go!

Welcome baby Isabel Grace!

Congrats to my wonderful friend Kim and her husband Brian on the arrival of their new bundle of joy....

Baby Isabel Grace (Izzy) was born Friday November 27th in the morning via scheduled c-section.. She was 6lbs 3oz and 18in long... she is so beautiful!

She joins her brother Caden, who I'm sure will be a great big brother...

Welcome to the world Izzy! Congrats Kim and Brian.. I love you guys!!

Jordan's 3rd birthday!

After Gaby's baptism we attended Jordan's 3rd birthday party...

As usual, the Castro family was very nice for inviting us to share this special moment with them...

There was a bouncy house and Olivia had a blast...

Jordan got tons of presents and enjoyed his party...

Happy Birthday Jordan!

Gaby's Baptism

Today we celebrated Gaby's baptism and it was a very special moment for us...
The baptism took place at St. Edward Catholic Church, where Iggy and I are members. Gaby's godparents are Iggy's cousin and brother (Gustavo and Gabriel) and my cousin and sister (Carolina and Claudia)....
Tons of family came from different places to celebrate this special occasion...the affair was an exclusive family affair...
After the church ceremony, we all went to have lunch at Macaroni Grill, where we had a wonderful time spending time together...

Here's Gaby with her godparents...

Christmas tree!!!

Today we did my favorite of all holiday things.... Christmas tree!!! yay!!
I woke up early in the morning to go to Home Depot and pick up a tree... I looked at all the different kinds and picked the one I liked the most...
We took it home and I set it up....it's blue and silver, it has lots of lights and ornaments and now the house looks so great with the tree and all the other Christmas decorations...
Olivia is absolutely fascinated with the tree and says "so pretty" every time she walks by it.. too cute!
Yay for our Christmas tree!!!

Black Friday shopping...

Iggy and I decided to go shopping at Sawgrass Mills Mall at 1am... it was so much fun...
The mall opened at midnight and my sister was nice enough to babysit for us, so we took on the adventure and went with the mob....there were very good deals all around but we only bought some clothes at Banana Republic, which was 50% off!
Later today we went to Pembroke Lakes mall to continue on our shopping spree. I bought some more clothes and cute shoes....
Happy Black Friday!!
These two pictures were taken at the mall between 2am and 3am! Crazy!!!

A night at the yacht with my friend Devi!

Last night after our Thanksgiving dinner, my friend Devi invited us to spend a while in her boyfriend Marcel's yacht, which is docked at the Ft. Lauderdale Marina...
They are currently visiting from Guatemala and she wanted to hang out... We have known each other for over 10 years and were great friends in high school...
To this day, we're still very good friends but we happen to live in different countries so every time we get the chance, we try to hang out!
We spent a nice while at the yacht, sipping wine and telling nice stories....
The weather was a little chilly but we had a wonderful time!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was awesome today but what a long day it was!! I picked up my parents, sister and niece from the airport at 8am and then I hung out at home for a while.. Around 4pm we headed to Martyna's house for Thanksgiving dinner... She prepared a ton of food and invited a bunch of friends to celebrate today...
The food was awesome and it was great to have my parents with me.... They will only be here until Monday, so I want to be with them as much as I can...

Gaby wore her Thanksgiving outfit, which was Olivia's when she was Gaby's age... Baby's 1st Thanksgiving.. too cute!

Food was yummy and the turkey was so delicious!!!

Memory Thursday...

Since we're celebrating Thanksgiving, today's post is going to be about Thanksgiving Memories... These pictures are limited to the Thanksgiving days we have celebrated together, so they start at 2005...

Here is a picture of our first Thanksgiving together... We spent it in China Town in San Francisco, where we happened to be spending our honeymoon... There wasn't much to do since everything was closed due to the holiday.. so we ended up having hot chocolate at Starbucks.. nor turkey for us that year!!

This one is from Thanksgiving 2006, which we spent in Las Vegas... I had recently found out I was pregnant with Olivia, so we decided to take a trip to Vegas with my parents since it's one of the few places not so suitable for kids... I sure wanted to get that trip out of the way! ;)

This one is from 2007 ... This was our first Thanksgiving with Olivia.. it was fun.. she was only 4 months...
I love this picture.. Olivia and her cousin Erika with matching outfits, celebrating their first Thanksgiving... good memories...

This picture is from last year... my crazy family was evidently excited about Thanksgiving... we had a lot to be thankful for that year... including my newly announced pregnancy....

This is a cute picture of us, our last Thanksgiving as a family of 3... little Gabriela was cooking already...;)

Thanksgiving lunch at Oli's school

Today I attended a special Thanksgiving celebration at Olivia's school... it was very cute and a great way to kick off the holidays!
All the kids were dressed up with fall colors and wore a handmade headband...
Parents were asked to come in and participate in the lunch...
They served turkey, corn, potatoes and some other yummy Thanksgiving food..
I got a chance to spend time with Olivia and her classmates, it was fun...
Here are some pictures...

This is Olivia sitting at her place, waiting for mommy to bring her food...

This is the only decent picture I got with Olivia since she was too busy playing with her friends to even acknowledge that mommy was there...

This is my friend Hugo, who is Isabella's father... Isa is Olivia's best friend... He's holding Alessandra, Isabella's little sister, born in May this year...

After lunch, the kids got to play in the classroom with their favorite toys....

...and this is the cutest picture of Isabella and Olivia...they sure act like best friends! ;)

Gaby can hold her own bottle!!!

I posted this video on my Facebook account a few days ago...but I'll put it on here now for those of you who didn't see it!
My little girl is so smart.. she can now hold her own bottle and feed herself.. cute, huh??

Reflections on marriage and divorce...

Last night I was watching the series finale of "Jon and Kate plus 8" and I got inexplicably teary eyed and downright sad..
Seeing those two people talk about their show and how it was ending because they had split up was just sad...it was weird...
Once the show ended I started to think about marriage and divorce...
As an unmarried person, I thought divorce was "ugly" and hoped that my parents or someone I knew wouldn't have to go through it... I never really analyzed it further than that...
... years later, and now a married woman, divorce really scares me... not because I have an unhappy marriage or because I'm afraid something might go wrong... but because I can't wrap my mind about the idea of two people being happy and in love one day, and hating each other and not wanting to be together another day....it's just BAD!....
The idea that even the happiest couples are vulnerable to failure is really scary... I see it as failing yourself, not being able to honor that commitment you once made with the person you love the most...
I assume that for some people, divorce may be the only option but it must be so hard to live with the thought that you were once so happy with someone and then you're not!...
Every day I thank God for my happy and wonderful marriage and pray to Him that I will always have to wisdom to honor my vows and know that with love everything is possible....
Ok..that was very random...but I needed to get it off my chest! ;)

Wordless Monday...

Weight Loss Journal: Week 10

This week was BAD! I sinned... I ate ice cream and other sweets... On top of that we had the Thanksgiving Pot Luck at work and there was way too much food...
Oh well... that's the reality of weight loss..

Here are this week's stats:
OVERALL STARTING WEIGHT: 172lbs
DESIRED WEIGHT: 150lbs
Normal BMI: 18.5-24.9
Current BMI: 26.0

Exercise: Monday: walked 2 miles Sunday: walked 2 miles

Current Weight: 166lbs
Total lbs lost this week: 0
Total lbs gained this week: 1 :(

Total lbs lost so far: 6 lbs

6lbs lost, 16 to go!

Overwhelmed... but "I can handle it".. (or so I hope)

I gotta say this past week has been very difficult in terms of mommyhood and such stuff...
My daughters are "apples and oranges", so different from each other, so hard to figure out...
Olivia was such an easy and wonderful baby, and now she is a typical two year old, although I must admit that I feel blessed with her; she does get better and more obedient every day and being in school has certainly helped when it comes to her following my commands or directions....

Gaby, on the other hand, is a handful.. literally, the baby I thought I'd never had!.. she is so difficult and for the first time, this week I felt that things were getting out of hand... She is constantly crying and wanting to be held and is such an extremely needy baby... Even in all her cuteness, sometimes I get so overwhelmed that all I want to do is run away and cry!... I know there HAVE to be other mommies in this world that feel like this, at some point... right?

Yesterday I felt like I needed to get out of the house, BY MYSELF, and enjoy some "alone" time.. I was lucky enough to meet with my friend Liz and just talk for a while, with no kids and no husband in tow... that was awesome!

As I got home I realized that things are not so bad and that babies will have bad days and so will mommies... I felt relieved to see that Iggy is so supportive and he clearly understood my need to get out and breathe!... The first thing I did when I got back was run to Gaby and hug her, kiss her and snuggle her.. it felt GREAT!...I even felt bad for leaving her for two hours!...

So... bottom line.. "it might be a crazy life.. but it's my life" and I love it!... and yes.. I can handle it!... (or so I hope!)....;)

My girls in "action"

It's video time!...Two of my favorite videos in recent days...

The first one is Gaby "talking"... I just love to hear her voice...



This one is Olivia watching "Dancing with the Stars", her favorite TV show.. too cute!

Welcome baby Samantha Emily

Congratulations to my friends Sean and Daniela White, who welcomed their first child, baby girl Sammy, earlier today. She was 7lbs 11oz and 20 in long..Both mommy and baby are doing great and they are all very happy....

Thanks God for all your blessings and I pray that you continue to guide this beautiful family as they embark in the most wonderful of all journeys! ;) Welcome to the world Samantha!

Memory Thursday...

Since yesterday was our 4-year anniversary, it's only fair that I dedicate this memory Thursday to our Anniversary Memories...
Here are some pictures...

This one was taken on November 18th, 2005 at our wedding... this was by far, the most awesome kiss ever!
This one was taken on November 18th, 2006, our first anniversary... I had recently found out I was pregnant with Olivia...

This one was on November 18th, 2007. We celebrated our 2nd anniversary at Texas De Brazil.. it was an awesome dinner...

This was was on November 18th, 2008, our third anniversary... We went to a Cirque du Soleil show in Downtown Miami.. I had just found out I was pregnant with Gaby.. awesome date!