2010 was a really good year, but I know 2011 will be even better :)

Let me see where to begin... 2010 was a pretty good year - plenty of laughs, love, happiness, family and friends and a few tears here and there.

We started 2010 with a bang! It was a great party with our family and our friends and at the end of it @12:05 am to be exact, I went home to sleep off my tequila binging... it was all in good fun with our friend's dad. He thought he could beat me! Ha! I showed him but I did have to break up with Tequila.. I woke up with the worst hangover :( but despite that I had a blast saying goodbye to 2009 and welcoming 2010.

Our family trip to San Antonio in January was awesome! It was great to have a nice mini-vacation with just our kids. The kids had a blast and even though we didn't get to do everything we wanted, we still had a great time spending time with one another and doing those few things together. We tried some cool restaurants and brought home a giant Cinnamon Roll to enjoy :) I think we should do it again in 2011!

In May, I lost my cousin Erica...she was going to be 16 a week or two before she passed. It was very sad and no matter how long she was sick and always expecting her to pass sooner than she did, no one was ready to say good-bye or let go. Seeing my uncle and her mom just tore me up inside. My heart goes out to them and I pray that this holiday won't be too sad for them, even though I know that losing your daughter and not having her there when you're supposed to be with your kids, is going to be tough.

Our Summer vacation to Arkansas was pretty awesome. It wasn't a long vacation but it was nice to go out of state and somewhere completely new. I loved it! The scenery on our way there, was just so beautiful and amazing. We did have a few bad experiences at some of the restaurants there, but we didn't let that ruin our trip. Hopefully in 2011 we can all take a trip down to the beach...Galveston or South Padre would be a good start :)

I turned 30 this year, and I have to say it's not as scary as you think it is... Being 30 has been really awesome so far. Yes I'm older, but I don't feel any different and I don't look that much older, so it's not too bad. Celebrating that big day was alot of fun. I even had my mom come over. I still don't speak to her very much or hardly at all - yes, sometimes I miss her, but other times, I'm like well she's not making any effort so why should I... I hoped that having her over for my birthday would open a door for us but apparently it didn't do very much for our relationship. It's so weird how things change like that and there's not much you can really do. I mean I could go and consistently try and speak with her, but I can't seem to find the time - I have a husband and kids that need that energy. Maybe one day we'll become close again, I just don't see it happening anytime soon.

My Lyssa danced with a boy for the very first time this year at her first school dance. She's only in 4th grade! When she told me that she danced with a boy, I cried a little bit...my baby girl is just getting so much older and is growing up at a pace that I'm not ready for or looking forward to. But I have to suck it up and go with it you know? She'll be 10 in March of this coming year and I just can't believe it! How time flies :(

My Tommy played tackle football this year...and oh my what a struggle it was. He was so excited at first but when he got hurt for the first time he wanted to quit...I couldn't let that happen. He needs to complete his commitment that he had made to his team! He played both offense and defense and at the end he did really good. He really loves football more now than he ever has! He wants to be a receiver next year so he practices just about everyday with catching passes... I told him that to be good he has to practice all the time so he can become great at it!

This year Tomas and I celebrated our 10th year anniversary. We didn't do anything big but I did get an iphone 4 and he got the iphone 3GS - woop woop! :)  We went to the Cowboys football game and went out for dinner and a movie the night before...I just had a really good time with my hubby. 10 years can be considered a long time but to us it's only the beginning :) and we can't wait to make it to our 20th! Woop Woop!

Christmas was awesome! We're working on completing our back room into a game room - a REAL one this time...I think we're going to put in a new TV back there first along with some bar stool and or pub style table :) It's going to be so awesome! Hopefully we'll be able to complete it within a couple of months if money permits (cross your fingers)!

What I hope for 2011 is well the same as I wish for every year but bigger than the last... Lots more love, happiness, laughter, and especially more time to spend with our friends, our families and with each other...Can't wait!

Christmas 2010

So Christmas 2010 has come and gone and I have to say that it was one of the bestest Christmas' we've had to date... My kids got everything they wanted and so did we... I really loved being with my kids and with Tomas and with our family. Nothing beats family especially during Christmas. It sucked a little bit just cause Tomas had to work on Christmas Eve but after that it was wonderful.

My mother in law finally got what she's been wanting for a very long time well since James was born anyway...we finally gave her the kids' portrait that we took earlier this month :) I'm just happy that none of us including the kids, spilled the beans. They did a great job at keeping it a secret for her. I think she's already put it up on her wall too! :)

I love my babe and I love our kids. I love how far we've come and I can't wait to celebrate the New Year with them! and I especially can't wait to see all the wonders that are waiting for us in 2011!

Thanksgiving 2010

This year for Thanksgiving we wanted to go to my father in law's Turkey Trot marathon that he's been doing every year for maybe the last 3-5 years... we always plan to go but with all the prepping for Thanksgiving the night before we always miss it and don't remember until my father in law calls us to tell us how well he did... I didn't take alot of pictures, but I did take a couple of the kids out in the crowd...

Tommy and The Mavericks

Alyssa and Selena Gomez

On November 26th, I surprised Alyssa with the Selena Gomez concert...Here's some pics of Lyssa's first official concert...

My 30th Birthday

It started on SATURDAY, the 30^th of October where I threw myself a Halloween Birthday party…it turned out to be more of just a Halloween Party but I was totally fine with it…we had food catered, and decorated the house and outside like crazy! It was great! Okay so I finally turned the BIG 3-0 on the 1^st of this month…I have to say it was THE best birthday I’ve ever had… It was like almost a whole week celebration of well ME! J

he kids and I were dressed in different costumes and 95% of the people there were in costumes too! It was awesome. Tomas didn’t dress up which was a little of a bummer but oh well right? Feefee even had a Halloween Shirt on – she was a ghost! bhahaha!The next day we just had a nice lazy Sunday with the kids… cleaned up the house and started to get ready for the rest of the work week. But MONDAY Tomas and I took the day off to just spend some time together on my actual birthday. He took me to Texas de Brazil for lunch and then to Cheesecake factory to pick up some cheesecakes to share with the kiddos later that night… We really didn’t go out to eat for dinner since we were still really stuffed from all the meat at Lunch… so we picked the kids up some food and they sang Happy Birthday to me… Best Chocolate cheesecake ever! It took almost two weeks to finish off…

TUESDAY we had dinner at his mom’s were we had more cake! J they sang to me as soon as I walked in the door… WEDNESDAY they had birthday cake for me at work…I had to share my glory with a co-worker but that was just a minor detail – haha! This really was a great birthday…30 is not a bad age to be  - I’m really looking forward to seeing what the 30’s will bring me – but I have a feeling it’s going to be nothing less than greatness.

10 years and still going strong

Oct 6^th was our 10^th year wedding anniversary and man what a

ride it’s been… we’ve had many ups and downs but despite it all here we are…still together, still in love – more than we’ve ever been (I think anyway) and still looking forward to each new day by each other’s side. This year was a big mile stone but we still have many more ahead of us. We’ve been through so much and I’m just grateful for each day that we are together. We didn’t do anything super big or anything. We had a great weekend together – Friday night we had dinner and movie night J It was awesome! Saturday we did some shopping and having lunch/ dinner with the kiddos and Sunday we went to the Cowboys game. They lost, but we still had an amazing time! I love my Mr. Soto and we will continue to live happily ever after each and every day… T –n– M forever!  

Feefee and her cone

Okay so it’s been a while since I’ve blogged…But I’ve just been super busy at home and at work and haven’t had lots of time to blog… okay well this one is about Feefee…last month we took Feefee to get spayed. The kids knew about this day and knew that Feefee was going to be gone all day for surgery and that it was something that all puppies have to eventually have done. They asked if something was wrong with her and I told them no, she just have to get something done before she gets older.  So I went and dropped her off early on a Saturday morning – I didn’t take the kids, cause they had to start getting ready to go to Tommy’s game that day.  The game ended up being cancelled due to the rain and we all went together to pick her up in the afternoon. They were very concerned as to why we did this. So I explained that well it’s so she doesn’t have any puppies later on…and I swear Alyssa almost started crying…she said “why aren’t we letting her have puppies??? All doggies should have puppies???” I said no, I don’t think they should cause they can have a lot of them at one time and we’re not able to take care of all of them. Then Tommy jumped in and said “what if Feefee already had a baby puppy inside of her when they did the surgery?” and before I could answer his out there question Alyssa said, “That’s ridiculous…puppies can’t have babies. Like we’re kids and we can’t have kids. Right mommy?” and with a smile I said “yes, baby you’re right?” J

First day of School 2010

Monday was the kids first day of school. I didn’t take the entire day off just took off in the morning for a couple of hours and left early enough  to pick them up from school. Lyssa’s in 4^th grade now and Tommy’s in 2^nd! Can you believe that? My kids are getting so big and too fast for me. I made them pancakes for breakfast and got them all cute and dolled up J Their backpacks were full of all of their supplies, well minus the Kleenex, but they can take that with them tomorrow…We got to the school and we had to try and find their teachers. We found Alyssa’s right away, but Tommy’s wasn’t outside yet. Once she came out, Tommy told me that he was in 2E and not 2F but I knew that wasn’t right, but to prove it I asked them both to see who’s roster he was on…I was right! Ha! But before I could say HA to him, we realized that we were standing on an ant pile and were getting attacked by ants! I got the worst of it, cause I wore flip flops…Alyssa shoes were covered in them though, so I took off her shoes and took off all the ants…Tommy got a few bites, but he was okay. The rest of the time he stood outside he looked down to make sure ants stayed off of him…I thought it was pretty funny. My baby was scared to get bit again…

I picked them up from school and they both said they had a good day. They didn’t like their lunch that day – Lyssa got PB & J and Tommy got a Burger… the school is still going thru some remodeling in the cafeteria and they weren’t able to make their lunches – instead they were brought in. Lyssa couldn’t believe they gave her PB & J – I was like “But you hate the J” and she said, “I know!” so she really didn’t eat lunch that day and as soon as we got home I made them dinner… chicken and veggies – their fav! While at the table they were discussing the burger that Tommy had eaten- he stated it wasn’t really good, but he ate it anyway. So Lyssa asked him, “what kind was it, was it cheeseburger, hamburger, what kind was it?” He said, “ you know the squeeshie burger…” and as he was about to continue she said “ew! And you ate it?!” he said “yes, that’s all they had and I was hungry.” She said with a disgusted look on her face, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe you ate the squeeshie burger.”  I had to interrupt and ask them what’s a squeeshie burger… they said that it’s a burger that has squeeshie bread and it’s usually cold… I said well that doesn’t sound delish…and told him I was sorry he had to that burger. He continued to eat his dinner…

Tigers Scrimmage vs Vikings

So my son Tommy decided to join Tackle Football this year…he plays for the Tigers along with his cousin Damien. For the first two weeks he just about cried at every practice. Why you ask?  It was for various reasons – his head hurt, he felt like he couldn’t breathe, he said he was hurt whenever they practiced tackling and blocking… he finally started getting better at last Friday’s practice and then went back down again in the beginning of the week. But he was getting better at doing his job while crying so it wasn’t too bad. Then his first scrimmage game came up (which was yesterday) and I really felt bad for my kid. I was scared for him cause I knew he was nervous and scared of getting hurt. His dad and I both talked to him about that and just told him to go out there and focus on doing his job for the team. We told him that it was okay if he was scared but he can’t let the other team know… he has to believe in himself and tell himself to block or to get them out of his way while he tries to get to whoever has the ball… I tried siking him up the night before and when I yelled “WHO’S THE BEST TEAM?” He said “I don’t know we haven’t even played anyone yet” I couldn’t help but want to giggle a little…my boy and he’s over thinking mind…just like his daddy… I was able to finally get him to yell that the Tigers are No. 1 and that he’s the best and that they’re going to win and I hoped that it boosted his confidence up a little bit more.

It was finally game time and he seemed a little nervous and I seriously was praying and hoping that he wouldn’t cry and that he would try his best to tackle and block the opposing players. Then at the last minute before we got there…I offered tommy money for each tackle and for each time that he got tackled and got right back up without crying… $1 for each. I’m not sure what exactly helped him do as well as he did yesterday, but now I owe my son $20 bucks and I was just so happy when I saw him complete his first tackle…and got extremely happy when the other player hit him pretty hard (you could hear the helmets hit each other) and he got right back up and got ready to do it all over again J That had to be one of my proudest moments for him. He managed to put his fear to the side and play Tackle football! GO TIGERS! Oh and he can’t wait to do it again at the next game J

HOT SPRINGS 2010

This past weekend we took a mini-vacation with our kiddos and with my husband’s family. His grandma and Uncle are in town from Mexico City and well my mother in law thought it would be good for us to go out of town – she requested somewhere North this time around. I remembered that she always mentions Arkansas and after speaking with my co-worker, Jim, about where we could go, he suggested Hot Springs, Arkansas. Jim is the thrifty travel planner of our office J

Back to the trip… we left Friday morning with our Feefee in tow…it was a huge concern cause we didn’t know how she would handle the LONG car ride, but she handled it pretty well. We did have to make 2 stops for her, but that wasn’t too bad. She slept the majority of the time as did the kids. Tommy fell asleep as soon as we hit Rockwall (it’s like 5-10 minutes from the house) and Alyssa fell asleep near Texarkana. They didn’t bug too much about how long the drive was or asked if we’re there yet 10 million times like you see on TV. We were also concerned because Tommy can get car sick and we were hoping he wouldn’t – we gave him some car sickness medicine and he was all good. But the winding roads in Arkansas, did get me a little dizzy and nauseated. Well we had finally got there about 1 or so and decided to try and take a nap – well that’s not quite what happened – we became daycare for our nephews  L oh well, right? We survived – I was grumpy but by the next day I was refreshed and ready to go and in a better mood J  

Saturday after a nice and yummy breakfast we headed out to the Mountain Tower. The map said about 10 minutes but I think it took about 20 minutes – traffic on the way there was awful. It goes from two lanes to just 1! But we finally made it up there and it was just a really beautiful sight. We thought it would be hot up there, well cause it was in the 100’s that day, but surprisingly it wasn’t. It was a little warm but the nice breeze helped out a lot.

Right after the Tower we went on a Duck Tour. It’s a boat with a tour guide that says “quack” after just about every sentence. The kids fell asleep during part of it and every time I turned to see them Alyssa would mouthed out “I’m hungry” while rubbing her belly J it was already like 2 or 3 so I didn’t blame her for being hungry at that time. The tour finished right after we took a nice short tour on Lake Hamilton and Lake Catherine.  It was a nice little trip and we learned a little something. Alyssa remembered some of the fun facts that were told to us on the tour J

We then went to eat dinner. His mom, dad, grandma and Uncle went to eat elsewhere, while us “young folks” and our kids went to this spot I had read about. It had good reviews and supposedly good food. Well the food was good – after waiting for 2 hours for them to bring it out to us! Yes, we had to wait that long…supposedly it was because of the Tilapia that some of us had ordered – don’t really know how fish takes two hours to cook, but what can you do, you know? We complained and we didn’t leave a tip. The food was really tasty and everyone loved it – the service is what killed our experience. That was like our one bummer for the day. We know now, that if we’re ever in Hot Springs not to go to Jason’s Burgers – Lesson learned!

Sunday we had breakfast at the Hotel as we did the day before and then started to try and figure out where to go and what to do that day. My in-laws thought about renting a boat and Jose was going to call and get all the info. I thought it would be cool to go to the Alligator farm and watch them be fed at noon – Diana and Jose thought that it would be cool to see that too, so they wanted to go with us. Irene and Rock wanted to go to the Gangster Museum. Once we got back to our rooms we had found out info on the boat – max seats is 12 and we had 15 total with Baby James. So that option was out. Then we decided to go on the Belle Dinner cruise on Lake Hamilton. I called to make reservations and then got everyone’s orders and put them in. By the time we were done with this it was almost noon- we were going to miss the  Alligator feedings so we changed plans and decided to go ride bumper boats, go –carts and play at the Arcade. Irene and Rocky decided to join us and they would do the Gangster Museum once we were done at this place. I loved this Arcade! I’ve never won so many tickets anywhere like at this place! It was awesome. Tommy won 133 tickets at one game, Damien won 200 tickets on another and RJ won 100 tickets at this other one…my poor Lyssa wasn’t as lucky as they were but she did win 40 tickets at one game…but we ended up with over 500 tickets, RJ almost 100 and Damien won over 700! We all did well there and had a fun time. It was scorching hot outside during mini – golf, but the kids had a blast. That’s what matters, right? J

We were kind of hungry and we knew that we wouldn’t be eating till after 7 so we decided to grab a “bite” to eat at Rod’s Pizza Cellar close to our hotel. Well we over did it and ate WAY too much! We were stuffed by the time we were done and would be eating again in about an hour! L We were so full…we got ready and went to the Belle… I’ve never been on a boat, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The boat didn’t move too much or anything like that, it had a great view! The kids loved sitting next to the windows to see outside. We were still full from eating an hour and a half earlier, but had a nice surprise when they brought us our food -small portions!  WOO-HOO! J  We were on the boat for about 2 hours and then headed home. The kids went swimming for the last time and we called it a night.

The ride back was kind of long and Feefee didn’t need us to stop once! She slept almost the entire time. We did stop once but it was for us humans…and we let Feefee out for that. We finally got home and all we did was lay around at home and did a few loads of laundry.

Our trip was lots of fun and I can’t wait to plan our next one!  

My boy is 7!

Yesterday was my baby boy’s 7^th birthday. We didn’t do anything big, because we are going out of town this weekend and included that as part of his birthday celebration. Plus Tomas is on call this week and he had to work on Sunday L It was a bit of a bummer but we did decide to do something with him today and hope that Tomas could meet up with us at some point, which he did.  We took him, his sister and his two cousins out to have some fun. We went to Pluckers to have a late lunch – the kids loved it! J Then we were off to Main Event to play laser tag, some bowling and some glow in the dark mini-golf… but apparently the location we went to did not have mini-golf, so we replaced it with video games J I took tons of pictures, which I will upload a bit later today once I get home… They had so much fun…the laser tag was the best part for them I think – they really enjoyed it! RJ beat us with 7400+ hits, I came in second at 7400 exactly and Damien, Alyssa & Tommy all were in the 2000 range…that’s pretty good compared to the last time we did it… we had way less hits. It was a fun day and to top it off – ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins with the rest of the fam…It was delish!

I still can’t believe my son is 7 already…I still remember when he was a baby learning to crawl and tping the bathroom JYes, he teepeed the bathroom when he was like 1…we caught him doing it like 3 times…I’ll have to post a pic of that up too.  I see him now and I can’t help but tear up a little bit. He’s my baby – who’s not such a baby anymore. He’s so funny, witty and charming… he’s super handsome and just has a smile that will brighten up the worst day you’ve ever had… I love my Tommy and I’m so proud to be his mommy. He really does make each and every day a whole lot better and something new to look forward to- cause Tommy is always doing something new and hilarious… he’s just awesome, what can I say, he’s awesome Tommy and he knows it too, which makes it even awesome J  I love my Tommy!!!!

FE-FE CARLY SOTO

We picked up our new member of the family yesterday after work. Her name is Fe-fe which is what the kids decided fit her best :) She's 9 wks old and is a pretty good puppy...she bites still, but that's normal...we're working on potty training and getting her on a regular eating schedule...other than that she's pretty awesome...I don't think Tomas wants to admit it, but he really likes her :) She likes him too. She snuggled up to him before the rest of us..

Reality is sinking in....

this is Alyssa when she was about 6.... so little :)

This is Alyssa January of 2010

Okay, so yesterday Lyssa gave us the great news….she passed the TAKS!!!! She’ll be going to 4^th grade next year! We are so happy and excited for her… and now we have to get her a puppy J cause well that was our deal and to help her get seriously motivated to pass this test…

I was talking with Tomas about it over the phone and started to come to the realization that just in 2 years, my little girl will be going to Middle School and will become a teenager! L As much as I am happy to see her grow up…I’m also saddened with the idea that my daughter, my Lyssa won’t be my little girl for much longer…I’m not looking forward to her wanting her independence…

I know it seems like 2 years is still far away, but not that far…the years go by so fast L I can still remember when she was born like it were yesterday…and when she started walking and crawling and talking her baby talk (gibberish) that I had to try and guess what she was saying… I remember all that and more…9 years have gone by so fast! L

Music Memory 2010

Lyssa’s team won 1^st Place!!!  WOOP WOOP! Congrats to her and her team mates! She brought home a blue medal and their trophy will be displayed at their school J So proud of you baby girl…

FUNFEST 2010

Alyssa had her choir competition last Wednesday at Sandy Lake Park. I showed up around 1:30 and found them practicing their songs and their choreography. Soon after they performed their two songs…I’m not sure what they were called, but they did really good.  Alyssa was on the front row, doing her thing and she didn’t miss a beat. Neither did the other kids – it was really great to see them do so well!   We were all super proud of them regardless if they had won or not…but when they called their name and said that they placed at No. 1 – we all cheered and were even more proud of them. They worked so hard and even though they didn’t show us how prepared they were during practice, they really nailed it when it came to the real thing!

Tommy and his cast

Okay, so it turned out that Tommy needed a cast after all L He was all excited just because he was able to pick out the color – what color you ask? Well Red of course! That’s his and my favorite color J

It turned out that he has an elbow fracture and it didn’t need surgery or pins, so I was very happy about that! He only has to wear it for 3 weeks so he should be good as new by June 1^st!

We started signing it yesterday and it’s almost covered up! I’m sure he’ll have more signatures on there when he gets home from school today. I’m just happy it wasn’t anything more serious than this. Hopefully this will be the last time he’ll crack or break anything…but I won’t get my hopes up too high…this is Tommy we’re talking about J