Halloween and Christmas

Once again time has slipped by without me really realizing it. The last time I posted it wasn't Halloween yet. Well, Halloween has come and gone already. We went as Peterpan, Tinkerbell and a lost boy for Halloween. We ended up being too tired to go trick or treating but we did go to the ward Trunk or Treat.

Every year for Christmas, Spencer's family gets together and makes tamales. I finally decided to take pictures of it this year and I didn't do a very good job of it, but I did get some.

I didn't think to take a picture of the tamale actually coming out of the machine. It basically is a machine that you put meat in and maza in and then when you crank it the tamale comes out. We then took the tamale and rolled it in the husk and then you cook them in a pan. They were quite yummy!!

On Christmas day, we opened up presents and then we went down to Pearland to spend the day with Spencer's family. Tarren actually enjoyed opening the presents. We only wrapped up Tarren's presents this year. Spencer and I got our presents early this year. He got an xbox and lots and lots of games. My present was a beautiful necklace and new Nike sunglasses. I haven't had any glasses for this year to wear at work and so they are perfect!

My co-worker's 6yr old son gave this chair to Tarren because he didn't use it anymore. Tarren LOVES it! He wanted to sit in the chair to open up his presents.

Needless to say, we had a garage sale the day after Christmas to make room for the new toys.
The funny thing is I always told myself I wasn't going to spend money on toys because kids at this age are happy playing with boxes and sticks. I gave up on that idea though when I first had Tarren. It is so much fun to buy stuff for him and eventually he does get bored with the box and then he has his toy to play with. Plus I like to play with him when he plays with his toys:)

We are looking forward to the New Year and are excited for what it will bring. We are excited to see the stages that Tarren will go through. He is starting to copycat what we say now which is funny and scary! He is wanting to become more independent with what he does and loves to follow us around. One of his favorite things to do is shower or should I say play in the water. He also LOVES to go outside even if it is cold! We bought him a potty chair and are hoping that he will pick up on it soon. :) He will be 2 in about 4 months and he is showing the signs of it aka throwing fits. We will see what the New Year brings....

Time marches on...time marches on...

I feel like we are living the song by Tracy Lawrence Time Marches on. I can not believe how fast the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months are flying by. It seems like summer just ended, but in reality that was two months ago. We have already completed one 6wks of school and are almost half way through the second. I only have 2 games left in my volleyball season. It just seems unbelievable! I know those will be over in a blink of an eye and we will be moving on to basketball season. It seems like every year school gets a little easier. I think that it because I am getting more experience and more confidence. I know my first year, I was timid. As a matter of fact, the next year when the 8th graders came to visit they told me they thought I was a student teacher. I don't know if it was because they thought I looked young or because I wasn't as confident. I think it might have been a little of both. I had a student this year tell me she thought I was only 18. I used to be bothered by this, but now that I am getting older...I take it as a compliment. Who doesn't want to look 18 again. Anyways, school is going fantastic and I truly love my work that I get to do. Here are the last 4 years of my school pictures.

Tarren is growing sooo fast. Everyday he is changing! He is sooo talkative! He loves to talk on the phone and carry on a conversation even if the person he is talking to has no idea what he is saying. He is becoming a little man! I went and had his 18 month pictures done and they turned out fantastic. These are three of my favorite!

Spencer is working as hard as ever and doing a fantastic job at it! He still is the best at remembering the small things! He comes to all of my games and stays the whole night until all 3 are done! I love him soooo much!!!!

We are excited for Halloween this year! I think Spencer and I are more excited than Tarren! We can't wait to go trick or treating! We will post pictures when that happens until then....

the only thing that stays the same is everything changes, everything changes.

Summer coming to an end...

We bought a slip'n slide at Target that was on clearance and it was for sure a cheapy item. We set it up in the front yard and Tarren seemed to like it and the neighbors across the street came over. Tarren really liked the sprinkler part of it. He is obsessed with sprinklers. When we go outside, that is the first thing he runs to.

Spencer took a turn on it and so it was my turn. I did it like I would have always done it...BIG mistake. I forgot I have a c-section scar and when I stood up it was throbbing. It has been 15 months since I got it but I don't think it can handle slip'n slides. I guess throwing your body on the ground while you are running isn't probably the smartest idea. It started to feel better, but even this morning when I got up it is still sore. Hopefully, it is just the scar tissue underneath that is irritated and not something else. I guess if it was more serious I would be in a lot of pain. Anyways, I did learn not to do a slip'n slide on my tummy.

I still can't believe how fast summer went this year. It is pretty much over for me. I start back at work(school) on August 12th. We have a lot of trainings to go to before actual school starts on the 24th. It was a fun and relaxing summer!

FREE ON FRIDAY: The Providence Essential Two Person 72 hour Kit Giveway

The winner of this great prize will be ready to go with items like an AM/FM radio, a tube tent, sleeping bags, ponchos, water, and a deluxe first aid kit. You can check out the entire list of included items by clicking here. The pack is valued at $119.99. A great thing about this kit is that it’s designed for a quick getaway. It would be great to keep in the trunk of your car or in a closet by the front door, where it can be easily accessed in an emergency.
Enough chit-chat! Keep reading to learn about giveaway rules and how you can enter to win the Providence Essential 72-Hour Kit!
Each person is eligible for up to 3 entries. Each entry must be listed in a separate comment.
Entry #1 - Leave a comment and tell us which item in the Providence Essential 72-Hour Kit you think is the most useful and necessary to have in an emergency.
Entry #2 - Subscribe to this blog by clicking one of the “Subcribe to our Blog” icons, found in the right sidebar of this page.
Entry #3 - Post about this giveaway on your personal blog. The post must include a link back to the Shelf Reliance blog. In order to verify these entries, we require that you leave the address of your blog within the body of your comment OR in the blank that says “Website” in the commenting form.
The giveaway will be closed and the winner will be chosen at noon (12 pm) MST on Friday, July 24th. We will contact the winner via e-mail; he or she will have a week to respond to the e-mail and accept the prize. If the first winner does not accept the prize, a new winner will be chosen.
Only those in the continental U.S. are eligible to win. Offer excludes dealers and Shelf Reliance employees. The winner will be chosen randomly. Any entries that aren’t in accordance with the giveaway rules will be disqualified and removed.

www.shelfreliance.com/blog

Anniversary Celebration and Anguiano Family Reunion

We celebrated our 3yr anniversary this year by going to San Antonio for 3 days. Technically our anniversary date was May 27th, but I was till in school so we just celebrated June 6th- June 9th. Spencer's mom watched Tarren for us so we could have some alone time. We dropped him off on Saturday evening and headed to San Antonio. I reserved a hotel and had already paid for it online. When we got to our hotel at midnight, we found out that they had double booked our room and had already given it away. All they had left was a room with two standard beds. We had booked a king size. They agreed to call one of their sister hotels and see if they had any available. They said they did and so we were off to another hotel about 6 miles away from where we originally wanted to stay. When we got to that hotel, they checked us in and we went to find our room. Thank goodness we didn't unpack yet because it had 2 double beds in it. Spencer went back to the office and the worker called another hotel to see if they had it. They said they did and so we were off to another hotel that was probably 6 more miles from this hotel. So, we were getting further and further from downtown where we wanted to be. It was starting to get quite frustrating. We got to the last hotel and it was finally a king. I guess we could have pushed the beds together, but I really didn't want to roll over and feel the crack of the bed. I just don't see what is the point of making a reservation if when you get there it isn't there anymore. Anyways, the third hotel ended up being nicer than the original so it work out in that way. We had a blast while we were there. We went and played tennis, swam in the pool, went to the movies and saw TAKEN, and we went to fiesta texas six flags. I realized that my stomach has gotten much weaker since I have gotten older. There were quite a few times I thought I was going to lose my breakfast. We got our caricature done and it turned out pretty good. We try and get one done every anniversary.

We played the arcade at the movies.

REUNION

We had reunion on June 12th-14th. We went to Pearland on Friday and we played paintball. It was pretty hot, but it was lots of fun. Spencer and I went one on one and he kicked my butt. He shot me twice in the back, but I got him 3 times in the arm. It was pretty painful. I have some pretty good size bruises to show for it. After paintball, we went to pick up Tarren at puttputt. He was with Spencer's mom.

We went to stay at Heath's, Spencer's brother, in Lake Jackson. On Saturday, everyone came to Lake Jackson and we went to this awesome rec center. It had a sweet water slide and lots of little water toys for kids. After that, we went and had brisket, chicken, ribs and pork that Heath smoked at a park. It was sooooo good!!! Tarren had a blast on the swings and with all of his cousins. There were five babies that were between the ages of 16 months and 1 yr.

Carrigan, who was born on the same day as Tarren, was trying to push Tarren around. It was so cute. Then on Sunday, she was going around giving kisses. She gave one to Tarren and then would walk away and come back to give him another one. WAY CUTE!!!

It was an exciting weekend! We had lots of fun! Next year it will be our turn to be in charge of reunion. It should be interesting.

Memorial Day

Spencer's cousin Jacob and his wife Lexi came over for Memorial Day. They have an 8 month old boy(Dom). Tarren was sooooo excited to see another baby. It was really cute to see them play together. They were following each other around the house.

Tarren hasn't quite gotten the fact that he needs to share his toys. He wasn't completely greedy, but there were a couple of times he decided he liked the toy that Dom had instead of the one he had.

We took them outside to ride in the wagon. They seemed to like it for the most part until Tarren thought he could ride without holding on to the side. He eventually just laid down.

After they rode in the wagon, we got the water hose out and a small pool.

Tarren was a little thirsty and tried to drink water out of the hose.

We had lots of fun and look forward to the next time they come to visit! On another note, I can't believe how fast Tarren is growing up. He is officially walking, but he still drops and decides to crawl a lot. He is able to almost reach the lock on the door handle and I got a picture of it before I told him not to touch it. I just can't believe how FAST they grow!

Tarren's 1st Birthday

Tarren turned 1 on Friday April 24th. We decided to have his party on Saturday. We went to the same park that we used to have my birthday partys at when I was a kid. I decided to get the main cake made at Wal-mart and they did a really good job. For Tarren's birthday cake, I made him a small Elmo. It turned out pretty good.

Heath, Spencer's brother, came down Friday night and brought his big smoker. He smoked chicken, pork and brisket. They were up all night cooking it. It was sooooo good!!! We started setting up for the party and had everything almost ready when a family showed up with their grill. They came and asked us if we rented this spot. We told them no. We never rented it growing up. They said they had to pay $200 for this spot. We were floored. I told them we would move into the grass. They said their party didn't start until 5:30 and that we were fine. I think the reason they had to pay was because they wanted to use the inside of the facility. We were just using the covered outside part. We ate lots of food, talked and then we were ready for the cake. Tarren was a little grumpy because he did not get a good nap all day. He was not to keen about sticking his hand in the cake and eating it. He did touch it with one hand, but he did not want to get anything else dirty. Spencer tried to hlep him by putting his other hand in it. He did not like that at all. We decided half way through that we should take his clothes off. Yeah...that wasn't the best idea. Spencer had icing all over him and then when I tried to clean Tarren off I got my share of icing.

We went and played on the playground for a little bit and then we started to open up presents. Tarren got some pretty cool toys. He got a little bit of everything...clothes, toys, books and even a gift card. He did get a really cool riding toy.

It turned out to be a beautiful day and we had a fantastic party!! I think Tarren enjoyed himself. He expressed himself with a kiss for his daddy. :)