Brag time!

Ok people, it's brag time! And no, it's not about Kaleb....that will be for another day. =D

This time it's about my friends. I have some VERY talented friends and when I say very, I mean VERRRRRY!! I have posted some pics in the past that my friend, Liz, has taken of our family. She has captured so many wonderful times in our lives including when Kaleb was still in my belly! (gosh that seems so long ago!)



Then there is Janae, maker of ALL things crafty and cute!! This girl can do it all! I meant to give her a shout out before she sold her spectacular things at our MOPS Boutique but my lazy butt didn't get around to it. ;-/
Check out her blog and some of her items for sale....her most recent must-haves include leg and arm warmers and cute clipboards!!



And last but certainly not least is my girlfriend, Krista! She recently took some photos of our family that I am very excited to share. She is also a great writer and has a blog that is just too much fun to follow. Check it out when you get some time!!
I just LOVE these photos....doesn't Kakers look scrumptious??

The last time...

I go to MOPS every 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month. If you're not familiar with MOPS, it's an organization for moms and it stands for Mothers of Preschoolers. The meetings usually consist of mothers getting together for prayer, sharing breakfast, talking about "mom-stuff", making crafts and then we have different speakers that talk about everything from keeping your child safe around pools to how to pray with purpose for your children. To be honest, I had been a little disheartened with the our speakers over the last few meetings and I wasn't looking forward to going this past month. But I hadn't been to a meeting in a couple of weeks so I thought I would give it another try. When the woman got up and starting speaking I felt myself tuning out....again.
Then she started to talk about her own son.

She talked about how she felt when her son was young and how she looked so forward to each one of his milestones. When he was first born, she couldn't wait until he smiled, when he was 6 mo old, she couldn't wait until he crawled, then walked, then talked. And before she knew it, she was standing in her kitchen talking to her 17 year old son that was almost a foot taller than her about which college he was going to attend in the fall. She then went on to say that during that conversation with her son, her mind began to wander back over the last 17 years. She couldn't believe how quickly it had all passed. Then she had an idea.

She told her son to sit on the countertop. She approached him and told him to wrap his arms around her. She also wrapped her arms around him and then attempted to carry him across the kitchen! As she stumbled back and forth, almost losing her balance several times she managed to get him back on the countertop without a scratch on either one of them. When he was finally able to stop laughing, he asked her what that was all about.
She simply responded, "Now I'll never forget the last time I held you."

When I picked Kaleb up from the nursery that day, he was asleep on a woman's shoulder. I quickly tried to remember the last time he had fallen asleep on me.
I couldn't.

I took that woman's story to heart and since that day I have tried to slow down. I've tried to enjoy my little boy because I know I will blink my eyes and he will be my big boy.

Two days after that MOPS meeting Kaleb came down with a cold and developed an ear infection. Since he had trouble sleeping, I put him on my chest and laid on the couch. He slept on me for almost 3 hours. Even though I never like to see my baby sick, I kind of feel like God gave me that little gift.

It was wonderful.
And I will never forget it.

The last month in pictures

We have been a busy bunch in October...K and I went to Texas, I went on an all-day/all-night girls only extravaganza for my girlfriend Ashley's 30th birthday and then we have had Halloween parties and of course, Kaleb's first time at trick-or-treating!!
Here are the pics from it all...


Kaleb met this girl at my friend, Karie's wedding. It was the most adorable thing to see the way they looked at each other. They didn't know what to do so they just stood next to each other and smiled until we made them hug-so cute!!


Kaleb with Lyndi and my Dad(not pictured is Bella, their dog that K refers to as Bay-ya!)


K with my Mom


K with my brother Ross and SIL Ashley


K with my Papa, they really liked being around each other!!


Ash's 30th Birthday!! (She was still in the bathroom getting ready!)
Kim, Stephanie, Heather, Me, Julie and Liz


Ash and I at Su Vino


Liz and I thinkin' we're sassy


Alf and our Monk!!




Trick Or Treat!!

HANK!!

Kaleb and I headed to Texas to meet my new nephew and his new cousin, HANK! We were so excited to meet him and he did not disappoint! He is such a sweet, cuddly little guy and I loved getting to babysit him while I was there! I have several photos to download from our trip (which I have yet to do) but here are a couple I took on my iPhone. Isn't he the sweetest?

Kaleb's Quirks

Kaleb has been picking up new words everyday it seems.
I promised I would write them down so I figure blogging about them is basically "writing" them down, right?
It's crazy how he went from just grunting and pointing a few months ago to repeating a lot of what I say now almost verbatim. I have to choose my words very carefully ;-)
Here are some of the cute things he says and does....(I will type in phonics so you get the idea of his baby voice, I love it!!)

He points to the cereal box and says see-we-all.
In the bath he says bub-ews.
He points to his golf clubs and says gock-kuvs or just gock.
When he hears the refrigerator make noises he yells, ice!!
He loves avocados and calls them cados.
He will take out a spatula and a frying pan and yell cook, cook!!
He will take clothes to the laundry room if I ask him to and he will say dew-tee (dirty) and smell it and say shew!! (my favorite!)
If he sees ANYTHING that is not his toys on the floor, he will yell EWWW! until I pick it up. If it is dark-colored, it's always EWWW POOP!! (he got that from playing golf in our backyard with Daddy and finding dog poop in the grass, yum!)
If he sees a dog, he calls it a ruf!
Helicopters are cop-taws.
If our dog Oli barks, he puts a finger in his face and says Hush! (that one is my fault!)
Any guy he sees playing golf is Hi-ga (Tiger).
When he likes something a lot he yells Cooo!! for cool.
Alf and I will say Holla! and he yells back How-wa!
Everytime we leave the house he walks over to where the dogs are and says Dye-Dye! and waves bye to them.

He is just so much fun...I have to say I love this age! We definitely have our challenges here and there but he makes me smile everyday.
How can you NOT smile at this face??

Oh I almost forgot!

I have been meaning to post this on my blog for awhile for those of you that are not on Facebook!! I really still can't believe that I captured this on video considering he hasn't done this since and in fact, we just put away his putting green yesterday. :-( Don't get me wrong, Kaleb still loves golf but he would rather smash the ball across the room than waste his time on putting. I have a sneaky suspicion we will have to replace our glass sliding doors at some point.

Palm Springs

It's been weeks since I have blogged so I need to get my blog on....
We went to Palm Springs with our friends Chris and Janae at the beginning of the month and although it was a little different than our previous trip out there (considering we now have a 19 mo old son and they have 6 mo old twins!) we still had a good time. I'm so upset I wasn't able to capture a pic of the whole motley crew but these pics will have to do....

Kaleb and Brayden

Me and Kinsley

All the boys

Daddy and Kaleb

Mommy and Kaleb

Da Limongelli clan

Quote

I feel the need to blog about a quote I heard yesterday b/c well, it deeply touched my soul and it got me thinking about a lot and you just can't let things like that go by without recognizing them, right?

"God determines who walks into your life....It's up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuse to let go."

It seems like such a simple statement, so matter-of-fact. To me, it's anything but simple...
There is so much pain, loss, but most of all, joy written in between those words. I have had many people walk away from me. And I, too, have made that choice at times. Those times are gone and I have to trust that I am exactly where I am meant to be.

The people you let stay are a blessing to your life, the ones you look forward to seeing and spending time with and if they were gone, you would miss them greatly.

But then there are those that you fight for and you will never stop fighting for no matter what. Those you ache for, you pray for. Those you get excited for when the garage door opens. Those you can't wait for them to wake up so you can kiss their face and tell them good morning. Those you kiss goodnight and wish them sweet dreams. Those you dance crazy with and laugh with. Those you get angry with and make up with.
Those you cry with and they hold you and tell you that they love you and suddenly you can breathe again...

To my husband of 7 years....thank you for being all of these things and refusing to let go when I almost let go of you. I promise to hold on tight from now on. I love you in a way that I never knew I was capable of loving. Pure, forgiving and deep. Thank you for teaching me that.

To my baby boy of 18 months (I can't believe it!)...thank you for being the light in my everyday. Your laugh makes the world good again. Your hugs and kisses are the very essence of grace, of innocence and of love. Thank you for trusting me and loving me with all of your being.

My favorite boys in the whole world. I will forever "refuse to let go..."

YoYo!

My Mom was here last month and she brought Kaleb a bunch of books...his fave! One of the books is a counting book and the last page is 10 yoyos. Last night when I read that page, he belts out plain as day- "YOOOYOOO!!"

It was just the sweetest, most innocent voice I've ever heard, so today I had to go and find my baby boy a yoyo.
It was not just ANY yoyo though, it was a Spiderman yoyo. I even sang the Spiderman theme song when I gave it to him.
YAY! He LOVED it!

Then, he broke it in 10 minutes. (sigh)
Well, that's part of being a boy I guess.


I bet you all are dying to see some recent pics of our boy so here ya go! =D
They are a little blurry but you get the idea.

Here is a recent pic of him in his Tiger Woods hat his Daddy bought him.




Here he is in Daddy's cowboy boots...a little throw back to his Texas roots! ha!

My readers have spoken....what shakes their tail feathers and mine

I remember one time I forgot my iPod at the gym and I felt like I neglected to bring one of my legs. It was the worst workout of my life...why is that??
Because music makes you MOVE!! It makes you go another 5 minutes on the treadmill, do another rep of arm curls or another set of sit-ups. Well, it does me at least. And apparently it helps most of you, too!
Here are some musicians and/or music that gets you going:

Danaly loves to kick it old school with some 80s pop: Janet, Madonna but still keeps it real with some JT and worship music.

Krista wanted to answer but ate a chocolate chip cookie instead, but if I had to guess I would say 80s pop as well...you little Madonna lover, you!!

Janae gots to have some fast movin' hippity hop. JT for sure!!

Alf-just give him some Olivia Newton John "Let's get Physical" over and over and apparently he can run marathons on just that!

Ashley says Black Eyed Peas (Kaleb says YEAH! to that one...gotta get that BOOM BOOM BOOM), Kanye, Pink, Sean Kingston and Lady Gaga-no disco sticks though-ha!

Sara says hard rock gets her moving like nothing else. Hey-hip hop ain't for everybody, people.

Here it is...my MUST-HAVE music list:

Give It To Me Timbaland featuring JT and Nelly F
This Is Me Dream
Say It Right Nelly Furtado
Only You 112
Got 2 Be Down Robin Thicke featuring Faith Evans
Back in the Day Missy Elliot featuring Jay Z
I Hate this part Pussycat Dolls
Lose my Soul tobymac featuring Kirk Franklin
Migrate Mariah
Side Effects Mariah
Stronger Kanye
The Way I Are Timbaland
This is why I'm Hot Mims
Hush LL Cool J
Anything by JT....seriously LOVE him!
Last night Diddy
Basic Instructions Burlap To Cashmere
Boondocks Little Big Town

Cool Down Tunes:
Chasing Pavements ADELE
Alright Darius Rucker
Divine Romance Phil Wickham
Hold you in my arms Ray LaMontagne
Make you feel my love ADELE
Refine Me Jennifer Knapp

There it is folks.
So load up your iPod, hit the gym and let the music MOVE YOU!!

Creepy Tale for your Saturday

****Warning: This story is not for the squeamish****

Dedicated to my friend, Krista, who I am sure shares the same disdain for these creatures as I do.

A couple of weeks back I made a remark to Alf that went a little something like this..."Wow, honey-here it is almost August and we haven't had that many scorpions in the house." That's a little something in literature that writers like to refer to as foreshadowing. Well, the Scorpion King must've overheard my statement and last weekend, he made up for his absence.

For those of you that don't live in AZ or for those of you that do live here and just have never had the pleasure of seeing one these nasty creatures, you're probably thinking-where does this girl live? What is wrong with her house?? Well, let me tell ya...when the previous sellers put "Some scorpions" on the seller disclosure form they must've been talking about the neighbors house across the street. These disgusting pests come out EVERY summer from the open lot behind our house and they come out with a vengeance. Last weekend, they did just that.

Alf and I usually stay up later on the weekends b/c one of us gets up with Kaleb and lets the other one sleep in. So last Friday night about 11pm we were headed off to bed and of course as soon as I lay my head on the pillow, mother nature came a knockin'. I got up to go to the bathroom and usually I just turn on the closet light b/c it isn't as bright. But on that particular night I turn on the bathroom light so it's much brighter in the bathroom. Since I had already gotten into bed, I didn't have my glasses on so I could only see probably about 1 ft in front of me. I am sitting on the toilet and I look back on a shelf behind the toilet for the toilet paper. (We have to put the roll up high or else Kaleb can unroll the entire thing in about 30 seconds flat) The toilet paper wasn't there so I look beside me and see the roll sitting on top of the dispenser. As I go to grab the toilet paper I notice something moving on it. Since I can't see anything...I lean in to take a closer look and a scorpion is perched on the first sheet of paper with his stinger ready to strike!! (pause for gasps)
My first reaction was to scream but then for some strange reason I thought it would make it like leap out at me or something (scorpions can't leap by the way) but like I was thinking rationally at this point. So I just freeze. I call for Alf in a surprisingly calm voice and I tell him I need his help. I am sure he's thinking...help you, how? Off the toilet??
I quietly tell him there is a scoprion on the toilet paper and when I stand up I need him to take the paper and flush it down the toilet. In true Alf form, the scorpion killer that he is...he does just that and acts like it's as benign as blowing his nose. I, on the other hand, am a total wreck at this point and I start playing the "what if" game. What if I hadn't turned on the bright light? What if the toilet paper had never been taken off the dispenser? I probably would've never even LOOKED at it before I grabbed it. What if it didn't sting my hand, but stayed on the paper and ended up stinging me somewhere else?? Yeouch.
As I am asking Alf a million questions, I see him move his eyes toward the ceiling. "NO!" I scream as I run out of the bathroom. Yep, it's another one. Taunting us from up high, Alf leaves to get a broom to knock it down into our bathtub. As soon as it hits the tub, it starts crawling around like a crazy person. Alf smashes it and washes it down the drain never to be seen again.
I didn't sleep a wink that night. Every little movement felt like a scorpion crawling on me. I was so freaked out and disgusted. Then I started to get mad. REALLY mad!!
So I've decided to send this little message to the Scorpion King, wherever he may be:

How dare you come into MY house and make me feel this way. How dare you threaten me and my family with your venomous stinger and your freaky quickness.
You may have sent your little minions to start this battle, but you will never win the war. With black light and blow torch in hand, we WILL find you and we WILL burn you alive. Then we will take your ashes and spread them all around our property so that others will know if they try to breach our walls, they too, will meet the same fate.
The Garcias have SPOKEN!

(Ahem) Woah, got a little carried away there. Can you tell I don't like scorpions?
So tonight when you go to the bathroom, I hope you'll think of me.
And always, always make sure to look before you pee!!

Splish Splash Pad

Kaleb and I met my friend Ashley and her son Gavin today at the splash pad and they had a blast together. Even though it was supposed to be a high of 105 today, it was actually soo nice b/c the whole area was covered and get this-THE WIND was blowing a COOL breeze. I know! Kaleb would come to me to dry him off with goosebumps on his arms and his bottom lip quivering!! ha!

For those of you that have never been to a splash pad before, they usually have water spouts that shoot up water from the ground at various times. Whenever the water would disappear back into the ground Kaleb would yell, "UH OH!" and put his hands up like...where did it go? funny boy.
Here are some pics of the kiddos.

My BellaBows on Etsy

I first heard about Etsy a few months ago from my friend Krista. Now, I can't stop looking at all the great stuff people have created!! Everything is handmade and the talent is outstanding!
If you have never checked it out, you MUST!!
I just found out that one of my favorite sellers, My BellaBows is having a moving sale!!
She sells the most amazingly adorable bows and other items.
Check out some of her things!!




photos courtesy of My BellaBows

Also, they are doing a grand prize giveaway on the 31st!!
If you buy one item, you get 1 entry in the drawing, buy 2, you get two entries and so on.
If you blog about the sale and giveaway on your blog or twitter about them you also receive 2 entries for each!
Don't miss this sale and the opportunity to win the grandprize! I know I won't!!

New Layout Alert and Poll questions

So I got tired of our old blog because it had no character and just plain needed a change!! I'm curious...Whaddaya think??

I created a poll to the side, so vote yes if you likey and no if you no likey.

Since this is my blog and I can do want I wanna, I'm gonna toot my own horn for a second so please bear with me. ;-)

I am so proud of myself!! WHY you ask? Well, hold your britches (as they say in TX) I'm gonna tell ya!

I have been working out 3 days a week for the last month!!
ONE WHOLE MONTH!!
For some of you, this is NOT a big deal, but for me it is a VERY BIG DEAL!!
I'll be the first to admit...I am lazy. I LOVE to sleep, watch TV and just hang around doing nothing. It's really what I'm best at...but lately I have been inspired. I wanted to get back that feeling of taking care of every aspect of my being. Physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Each piece is key to this girl's well-being and not one can be set aside. Since I've had Kaleb that is definitely one piece I have let slide.
And now, I feel great. I am starting to see some changes in my muscle tone and I also feel a lot less stressed overall b/c I am getting some of that energy out that I store up from being inside all day with a 17 month old.
Who wants to hang out outside when it's 115 degrees outside, really?

When I was at the gym today doing my thang on the eliptical, I started looking around at all the fellow gym-goers and I noticed something....EVERYONE had an iPod and I mean EVERYONE. Old, young, hefty and slim-they were all jammin' out to their own music.
It got me thinking: I wonder what they are all listening to?? I almost wanted to stop what I was doing and just poll the room.
So instead, I am going to ask all of you: What song/songs get you to move your feet??
Make a comment and leave me your MUST-HAVE MUSIC LIST.
Make it good b/c I will copy your comment and post it here (don't be shy!) along with my list on the next post.
So go through your iPod and tell, tell tell....this will be fun! Enjoy!

(oh and btw, I know some of you read my blog on a regular basis and you never leave comments-shame on you!) ;-)

They just wanna, they just wannaaaaaa

Obviously by my blog, you can see that most of my time is spent with my two most favorite boys in the whole wide world. BUT....a girl needs MORE!!
I have been so blessed to find such amazing girlfriends out here! Not only are they a blast to be around, but they are as real as they come.
We make an effort to have girls nights out whenever we can.
Here are some of my favorite pics of just such nights:

Gettin' our groove on...

My feet hurt that night!!

Lovin' me some Deni.

Bday celebration!







PF Changs dinner. not sure why this is so small:(

My Best Darn Mama's!!


LOVE ALL YOU HOT MAMAS MORE THAN YOU KNOW!! MUAH!

He's giving me good vibrations...

A little something for all you non-Facebookers...

Kaleb is obsessed with many things...our vacuum, our iPhones, balloons, bananas and the list goes on and on. But NOTHING makes him laugh as hard as getting to attack Daddy with his Sonicare toothbrush.

Recent Denver Trip!!

We headed to Colorado a couple of weeks ago...sorry to my Denver friends that I didn't get in touch with but we were there to see Alf's family and it was very quick trip! Next time, I would love to see you all though!!
It made me miss Colorado SOOO BAD! I honestly didn't think I would feel that way, but wow-it's so beautiful there! The trees, EVERYTHING is green and lush and ahhhh. I totally took it for granted while I was there.
Here are some pics from our trip!

Texas trip...

We went to Texas a few months ago to see my family again and as always....we had a blast! Some of the highlights for Kaleb were getting to see his Uncle Ross' fire station and get in the truck, watering Grandma's plants until they flooded and playing with Bella at Dad and Lyndi's.
Here are some pics:


Aunt Ash, Uncle Ross, K and Lucy


Lyndi, Bella, K and Grandpa Harvey


I wouldn't stop telling Kaleb to smile so this is what he gave me! ha!


At fire station, trying on his Uncle's boots.


Checking out the truck.

Just having fun...

Watering....

And now flooding.....;-)