December Happenings

December came and went so quickly but looking back it seems like we did so much. fede came home and was home for much of the month at least in the evenings. fun times for all.

We went up to temple square to see the tree lighting with Robert ad Peggy and Ronnie and Steve. we ran into Rhonda and Mariano and the 3 girls there as well. It was beautiful. and very crowded.

Dante loves the snow. we had quite a few good snows this month. And Dante loved playing in it.


We hit the down town parade of lights and although I hadn't prepared very well and came right when it started after it was already packed full. Fortunately some nice people let us sit in front of them and even let us use one of their chairs. since it was just dante and I we sqoze in easily.



we also went to this great "bethlehem revisited" at a church in town. It was really neat. they had it all set up like a market in Bethlehem. The angel come to the shepherds and had live animals even a camel! Dante loved it. Then you walk around and find the baby Jesus. but if you talk about him the roman shepherds yell at you. very cool.

Dante had a preschool party



and I threw a surprsie party for Fede with the help of my friends (see previous blog)

Dante talk

So here are some of the cute Dante happenings:
he came home from his friend jackson's the other night with new word-"cuz" and "sure" his figuring out how to use them still and cuz has become the new start of every sentence. it cracks me up. he also says Sure mom now when I ask him to do something.

we went sledding on Christmas and he has became the bravest kid i know and even tried copying dad and stood up on the sled (for a second at least) OK he's not the bravest kid i know he's still pretty cautious , but brave enough to seem like a different kid entirely some days.

he also thinks he's a "chung-fu master" and shows us his muscles all the time. If he can't get his shirt off by himself he comes and tells me he needs to wash his shirt its dirty. what a nut!

christmas card

Christmas was great. nice and peaceful. we spent it by ourselves here in grand junction and i cooked the first Christmas dinner since we got married and it turned out perfect! i couldn't have been more surprised. Fede was in utter amazement. ithink he even almost pigged out. We ate late andthen we did the Argentine thing and stayed up til midnight and then opened the presents under the tree. i then realized i don't like that tradition with a kid and we will go back to opening one small non exciting gift on Christmas eve next year. (definitely not transformers) But he was so cute with his new "toofunners"
christmas day fede and dante played in the snow and were adorable.
Great christmas all in all.

Christmas Time at the Leguis

Our Christmas eve was very exciting. we took the truck in for new tires since it was sliding all over the road. Then we went shopping at the mall and fede took Dante to play while I finished up. We didn't really have much to get but it was something to do. Then we went home to get dinner and hang out at home.

It was kind of fun to have a chill night. I made dinner with no pressure. And it turned out great.

Chrismas decorating

Dante had fun decorating this year. Unfortunately mama is neurotic and can't let him do the tree so I set up his own tree and even then I had trouble letting him do it. I need help!!!

Happy Birthday Federico!

For Fede's 30th I decided to throw him a surprise party. it was very fun. I was so stressed about it up until the minute everyone yelled surprise. i had only 1 week to really plan it since his job is so unpredictable. and he asked for his birthday off. good thing was he would for sure be there. bad thing was he would be there all day so i couldn't do anything to prepare the whole day. all I could do was clean and "decorate for Christmas" . I had bought all the food that day before and divvied it up among my friends. and my awesome neighbor Amelia came over and set it all up while we went to the mall to go shopping. Then i had to take Dante to the sitter's (My friend Erica) so we could go "see transporter 3"
(not so good we went and saw it for our anniversary instead, cheesy! i like the other 2 better)
I had to make up a reason for us to go home real quick but then i couldn't think of how to get him in the house...so I decided to pretend like his mom called for his b-day I called my house from the sitters to tell them we were coming and to turn off the lights, but when I got home I realized it would look weird if I went in the front door and he had already opened the garage so I went in and prepared them and on my way out to tell him his mom was on the phone he was already coming in. It freaked me out! I was sure he was on to me but then they all yelled surprise and he jumped so high. He says hit scared him to death. Our friend form Peru was really worried about his heart and made him sit down. very funny.

I was so happy and relieved it all came out fine actually more than fine. We had such a great night. Lots of good friends from many countries. It was a good time for sure. The best part was fede loved it. I was so happy that he had a great birthday. Love you Fe!

My brother rocks and so do I

okay so yesterday i really felt the truthfulness of the teach a man to fish thing. Both of my computers broke down the same day. I freaked out. the laptop we could send back to fede's work in Denver and they would fix it for free. but the desktop was a different story. the plastic screws holding inthe motherboard snapped and it fell into the casing. so i couldn't plug anythign in and the keyboard had come undone so basically the computer was useless. hte computer was working fine except for that so i thought it ouldn't be a big deal. I took it to the guy who reapaired it and he was acting like it was major surgery and would cost me $120 to fix. i said no way. I was panicking and took it to 3 different places where they were going to charge me $60-140 to "fix it" and then they wouldn't even know if it worked or not. One place said "whoa we can't touch this. your mother board is fried for sure" like it was some crazy thing that had happened. I we are in the middle of 2 loans right now and really can't be without a computer. fede and i decide dwell we'd better just see if we can fix it and go look for a new computer tomorrow. not really how we wanted to spend our Christmas money ( and more) but ox on the more right? I did not want to go shopping of r a new computer #1 i never know what to look for, #2 i hate spending the money, #3 i feel so wasteful getting rid of the old one, and #4 it just seemed so unjust. I have to admit i was feeling like God hated me and saying "why me??". (but then i remembered my friends husband who is fighting bad cancer at 28 and took it back. I'd rather deal with this i think....) i was in the parking lot of the repair shop ready to bite the bullet and just pay to see if they could fix it. and i thought i can't do this I felt really strongly like i shouldn't go in. maybe it was my own stubbornness or perhaps something more. so I called my brother Spencer and explained it to him. (I feel bad calling experts sometimes it feels wrong like asking your dentist friend to look in your mouth and see if you need to get a cavity filled or something) so anyways we all know Spencer is a super genius just like Gabe but he's also a great brother. maybe it wasn't much to him ( maybe it was a huge inconvenience) but to me it was a sanity saving thing. He told me that just seems wrong and told me i could probably do it myself. he told me what parts to get and how to fix it and mostly gave me the confidence that i would not blow up my computer. And guess what.../ I DID IT! i took apart my computer and put the mother board back in place put the parts back together and hooked it all up and TADA! it works perfectly. its a Christmas miracle!!!! I can't even thank spencer enough. I feel so elated and like I rock!! So then I felt a little guilty for resenting Heavenly father and realized if all this had not happened I would not know this much joy for just having a computer that works if this had not happened, i would not now have the confidence to fix my own computer and I would not, not feel so afraid that something will go wrong (mind you I'm not opening a repair shop or anything hahaha) . once again He is smarter than me. Score: HF-500,985,940 me -0

random shots of dante and friends and preschool

Halloween disasters

Halloween this year was interesting. 3 costumes and no photos!
Dante was so excited to find a costume. he picked out his last years chicken costume everyday. I thought oh great he will finally be into Halloween this year. ( last year we had to bribe him with candy to put on his costume) We go shopping and he picked out a dinosaur costume. We were so excited. Then he decided he wanted to be LUKE (that's Dante speak for incredible hulk). I was in no way going to buy another costume but i thought, "I can make one". I will just put my little muscle boy in old/ too small clothes and paint him green. he's already got the hair. The next morning he is so excite to go to his little music class as "LUKE". I start painting him and that's where the fun ends. Not having it! So he went to class half painted green and in torn clothes. yeah not so good. For preschool he was supposed to be the Dinosaur. hated it wouldn't wear it. ( but we had a cute Little party at my friend Megan's house decorating cookies, skull on the skeleton and fun cute little games she put together)
Then Fede tells me we were supposed to go to a Halloween party for his work and so I spend all night trying to think of what we can be with what we have on hand. Then it comes to me. we have sheets we can do togas or be greek gods or something. dante is totally obsessed with hercules (he calls him"true hero") I made little olive branch head pieces, gold ribbon belts, etc. nothing fancy but i thought it was cute and resourceful. Then fede comes home and tells me he's not dressing up. He's not so into the halloween thing. Dante hears him and he says no too. Bummer!
But i decide on Halloween if he won't be a dinosaur then he can wear his little Hercules costume. He looked so cute, a Little more like nephi than Hercules but still cute. So about a day before Halloween he decides he wants to be Aladdin. So i lied to him and told him that his Hercules costume was Aladdin. We go out to trick or treating and he looks like nephi and keeps telling everyone he is Aladdin. people are a little confused. ( especially the lady whose House he just barged into without even knocking- he got a little overzealous) But with all the costume drama we had a nice halloween. we went trick or treatign with friends form our neighborhood and then came back to our house for pizza. Dante was so cute becasue when we ran out of candy for the trick or treaters he held out his bag for them and gave away almost all his candy and hw was so excited about it. Totally redeemed himself and my Halloween by being just a cutie.

The week before we had a branch party cutting pumpkins. many of the kids had not cut jack o lanterns before, it was fun. It was kind of just thrown together and fede and i were a Little nervous when we showed up 15 mins late and no one was there yet. about 30-45 mins later everyone showed up and it was really fun. we had to leave a little early and everyone asked why we were leaving soo early. It cracks me up b/c we had been there almost 2 hrs.

seinfeild dance

ok so I was uploading videos and i found this one that proves my son has serious dancing skills.


anyone remember the episode of seinfeild where eileen shows off her dancing moves???

preschool escapades

I love dante's little preschool group. We have so much fun. here are some cute dance videos.
They love to dance but it gets a little rough.

I discovered that moshing is in inherent boy characteristic. they just can't help themselves.

livin la vida sola

Ok so they say you marry someone like your dad. I had no idea i would be living the life my mom has lived for so long. My dad traveled(s) alot and now so does my hubby. Being alone all the time is not fun. Sometimes its cool for a little while but 2-3 weeks out of the month not so cool. but then its such a little thing why complain. because that's what i do! Just kidding. not really. anyways. Just bored and lonely so i thought i'd talk to myself..
so anyways.. I like being alone in general. But it gets old real fast. Especially when everyone else has families and husbands to go home to. Dante and i work it out though. but i realized today its not just being alone its that is hard. its not having the person you share your life with there to be a part of it. Its so silly that I feel sorry for myself because things can be worse believe me i know. but what about poor fede- at least I have Dante and friends and church. IT breaks my heart sometimes when Dante won't talk to him on the phone (he's been better about it now and won't let me talk to him he hogs the phone) but its so heartbreaking when he gets hurt or something ans says "I need my papa". Good thing out of all this..we really appreciate Fede more. And oh yeah having a job is quite a blessing as well. no more complaining. (tonight) Life is good. 3 more days!

Sweetness...

Why do sleeping babies smell like they would taste delicious? At least the freshly bathed ones. I think one of my favorite things in life has become snuggle time. Once we get pas the which pajamas to wear , no lotion on my face one book or 5 issues...then we just snuggle. Sometimes its a little uncomfortable when spider man, woody, or 10 race cars are invited as well but its still nice.
With fede gone so much Dante and I have a lot of time together. Most of it seems to be running at top speed. But every night I shut it all down for a few minutes and snuggle with my baby. he drags it out as long as possible. And sometimes I get anxious to get back to my to do list before bed time but tonight as he fell asleep in my arms I was just overwhelmed with love for him. Why is it that a child falling asleep in your arms makes you feel so good. and not just happy but good. Like you are needed and capable and loved. Sometimes his neediness with his Papi gone is too much for me. I need a break. (I can't tell you how many times a day I turn around and trip over him not realizing he is right on my heels, quiet as a mouse.)

But I didn't realize until tonight that a little snuggle time can be just the pick me up I need.

Dante's first day of Preschool

We started a little coop preschool with the some girls from my English speaking Ward. Dante loves it! he asks to go everyday unfortuealty it is only 2 days a week. When its down the street he even gets to ride his bike and he loves that. They are all 3 and there is just one little girls so the boys are just having a blast. Thier favorite thing is the Pledge of allegiance. Its so cute they all try to say all the big words and they do pretty good.

Preschool at our house...
he's really into reading lately it cracks me up...He had to read every single one last night. He says" the cat and the bear and the boy..." turns the page, "the house and the car...." its adorable.

My stud muffins

Dante is way into glasses lately. HE loves going to the store and trying them on. its so cute but all my sun glasses have little finger pritns all over them now.

Fede got the idea that dante needed a ponytail. At first he thought it was funny then he saw himself in the mirror and got upset and said I not a girl! I "tante".

"i a chicken mama"

I've been tagged!

My sister Michelle tagged me...
This is what I'm supposed to do. List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 surprising facts and then tag 5 other people. Leave a comment for the people you tag so they know they have been tagged. So here it goes:

3 joys-
1) Watching Dante play by himself and talk to himself. It cracks me up he gets his cars in has hands and they talk to each other. He gets mad when he catches me watching. He says things like "don't crash me 'kay" its so cute.
2) snuggling with Dante. he's so soft and cute and loves to snuggle. he comes up to me throughout the day and says " I wanna snuggle por 1 minute 'kay"
3) Watching Dante sleep. He falls asleep by himself after playing for some time and we go in to check on him and all his cars are lined up on his bed and he's curled around them.

Current obsessions: (I have way more than 3- I get obsessed easily)
1) TV via internet. I've always been a big TV fan so I never thought I'd be one to cancel cable. but I like watching TV on Fede's laptop instead. Favorites? Dancing with the stars (Dante like to imitate the dancers) pushing daisies, I'm also back in love with lost, burn notice, my boys, army wives, I'm really not picky. sad but true.
2) always organizing- I just did half of my garage.all by myself i put up an organization system that holds our bikes and gardening tools. I'm very excited about it.
3) I'm embarrassed to say the Twilight series. didn't think I'd be into it but i got sucked in. ( bad pun) anyways I've been loving good vampires lately. I was never r into Buffy (the series at least LOVED the movie) so me and all the teenagers we'll be at the movie come January oh yeah...

(others- melalueca cleaning products- loooove them! , chunky monkey ice cream, scrapbooking, decorating, ...........)

3 surprising facts-
I talk too much so I'm not sure there are any surprises and if there were it would be because i don't want anyone to know that about me. I think this is always my least favorite question because what if i say something and then everyone is like um no sorry that is not a surprise we knew you were secretly bizarre or something. Or worse man you are totally boring which is probaly close r to the truth. anyways I'm not going to answer that question so the end.

Argentina beats Brazil 3-0

well things are happy at our house if Argetnina can pull off another olympic Gold in soccer this week. They play nigeria. But all that really matters is they beat Brazil!

• Gano Argentina!
  

$2000 WHAT?!

So I come home from work one day and there was a fed ex envelope on our doorstep. When I opened it up there was official looking papers saying I had "potentially" won the Great Mornings Sweepstakes from Parents Magazine, Quaker Oatmeal and Pottery Barn. The prize is a bunch of oatmeal and A $2000 gift card to Pottery barn. I wasn't sure what it meant by "potential winner" so I called the number to make sure it was real. (mind you I didn't think it would come in a fed ex pkg if it wasn't but you never know and it seemed too good to be true) When I called they told me to get the enclosed publicity releases notarized and sent back and that it was indeed real. "But I never win anything" said I. "Everyone says that" said she. She also told me that they could possibly send us a check instead of a gift card. I must say I was excited about pottery barn furniture but then I started to wonder how much further I could stretch the money ....
So I went to Fede's work and got it notarized and waited to hear back. Then one day a box shows up from them. I am so excited and rip it open and whats inside? 6 boxes of maple and brown sugar oatmeal and....
nothing else. I must say I was a little disappointed. More than a little. I called the sweepstakes and left a message asking if there was some sort of mistake. I was so bummed. But then a few days later the check came in the mail. I had to call back and say I did get the check and I was very excited about the oatmeal as well. (not so much but whatever. I didn't want to seem ungrateful)
So immediately I went to work planning out every dollar and I am pleased to say I have furnished 2 rooms instead of one. It was just the right catalyst that we needed to let Dante grow up finally and get a him a bed. Time to move out of the crib chuchi! I thought he would fight it but he wants nothing to do with his crib now. It's all about his big bed. Plus he likes that mama can lie down next to him to read and snuggle.

The latest

Okay so I am finally doing our family update. Every since we got back from Cali it seems like things have been going non stop.
We had a great time at my mom's celebrating Dante's 3rd b-day, even though fede couldn't come and had to get Dante in free for the last time to all the parks.. we went sailing with the Johnsons, Disney with my friend Mindy, the wild animal park with Becky and the zoo with our family. so much stuff. also Becky took some portraits and did a good job even though Dante pouted the whole time. Dante loved Barigit and talks about her all the time now. He recognizes all the Cali cousins in pictures now and talks about Luke and jack and max randomly. it cracks me up.

Fede's work has kept him very busy. He travels more than he's home. It has its good and bad. I like being alone and reading but do get bored sometimes. And I like not having to cook dinner or at least worry about it. But we miss him so and then when he gets home he's too tiered to do much and has to get ready for the next trip. Its not much of a life for him. But hopefully it won't be like this for long.
Dante misses him like crazy and wakes up every morning saying "wheres papa?" and then answers his own question, resigned, "papa working." I have had to take over the wrestling time every night but I'm learning to love it.

Dante just had surgery on Wednesday July 2nd to remove his tonsils. We took him in to the ENT after we got back. We've been contemplating it for sometimes since after his last ear infection the doctor thought we should check out his tonsils since they had swollen almost shut. He snores like he's choking and wakes up and then I finally saw his tonsil one day and they are as my sister in-law Ronnie would say, huge hairy monsters in his throat. so when we took him to the ENT he said lets get him in pretty soon. So we scheduled it for the next week. The ENT is the husband of one of my closet design clients and I think we just paid him back everything I earned from them (probably more)
He did pretty good. He wasn't too cooperative when they tried to get him ready but as long as he could watch TV he was fine (just don't make him put the gown or hat on.) Afterwards the doctor called us in and said everything went well and that his adenoids were worse than his tonsils and after he's better we should notice a huge difference. I hope so! Shortly after we heard someone screaming bloody murder and knew just who it was. They called us into him right away. He'd woken up pretty startled and it took 4 nurses to hold him down. I guess I should have warned them. It took him awhile before he''d settle into my arms also. I think he's doing okay. He felt better the first day then he has these past 2 days. I let him sleep instead of waking him up for his medicine and he woke up in so much pain and upset and feverish. but after we wrestled him down and got some medicine in him he felt better. Fede got called into work so now i have to hold him down on my own. he''s so strong any tips.? I had to put his legs under my legs today and hold both his hands and he still got one out and grabbed the syringe and threw it across the room. crazy kid. I just feel bad for him. He came up to me just now and said "I better all my self!" I guess he thinks he doesn't need any more medicine. poor kid


The day before the surgery I decided to shampoo the carpets while I was redecorating his room and moving furniture. What was I thinking! And then we fed the missionaries for dinner that night. Am I insane? It turned out ok but it was crazy. SO... now we are being extremely lazy and slowly putting his room together (I'm posting pics as well.) and snuggles and watching movies. You can tell when he feels better b/c he talks and sings a little. When he's hurting he keeps his mouth closed b/c he can't swallow and its full of saliva. I think his voice is changing...





As for me I am busy decorating with the sweepstakes money we won. $2000 from Parents magazine. We went to IKEA in Draper and got so much cute stuff. I am working hard on getting our ward into emergency preparedness and myself as well of course. I read lot when Fede's gone and have been into English novels and movies like Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, and Wives and Daughters. I love the BBC!

My little Superhero!

I am in love with this little boy! He cracks me up everyday. Right now he loves his "spiderman glasses" (I convinced him they were so he'd leave them on) and his superman cape. He flies around the house and throws spider webs everywhere. How he knows about these guys as he has yet to see any superhero movies more than the Incredibles. he gets the funniest look on his face right before he flies off to save someone or fight the bad guys. I am a little concerned about his obsession with the black spiderman. Stay on the good side little boy.

Panqueques

Dante loves pancakes and he loves cooking them just as much as eating them. This is his first pancake he did by himself pouring and fipping at least.

We spent the morning one day finger painting and Dante made masterpiece after masterpiece. My favorites were the hand prints but most turned into black goo. We had great fun.