Christmas came and went..

and we stayed home. It was a nice quiet Christmas for the Vasquez's, bundled up at home. We had my side of the family over a couple times, enjoyed playing games, eating and opening presents. We also went to a local E-Free church up here for Christmas Eve service that was very nice. And the kids were angels for it! We were a little surprised since we don't go to a conventional church that they behaved so well. Both of them LOVED the singing and Townes really loved the trumpet playing. His daddy and him have been playing Daddy's old trumpet lately, so he was very interested to watch someone else play.

The kids had a great time playing with their cousins, Uncles and Aunts. Bibi and Papa are always a hit as well! We really missed being with Danny's family though this year. Most of them were off in Mississippi, waiting for the arrival of baby Mena #6! Which arrived 11 days later than expected! Grammy was there for a full 2 wks when he decided to make his grand entrance. Oh how we wish we could have been there. Momma Jenny had him at home with a quick, safe delivery.

He's as cute as can be, with a head FULL of black hair!! That's a new thing for the Mena crew!! Maybe that Cuban is finally starting to show 6 babies later!! LOL

Meet Jedidiah John 9 lbs 21.5 in




We are currently missing Dadda today, work has been very slow so Danny has been home off and on for the last couple weeks. It's been great for us but we are praying for the work to pick up. IF you think about it please pray for us, along with all the other self-employed people you may know. It's been a hard year! God is good though we are trusting in Him to meet all our needs.

Also, Danny is doing a lot of photography and design. So if you have any needs that he could meet in that way, hit him up. Dannyvasquez@dannyvasquezphotography.com

Poor Townes, he almost didn't get blogged about...

HAPPY GOLDEN BIRTHDAY, TOWNES!!!!


He turned 3 on the 3rd and no one blogged about it! We had a fun filled cowboy week. Danny and I had a lot of fun decorating the house for him, the night before his birthday. He is so crazy about cowboys right now that we put, cow balloons, bandanas, cowboys and signs up all over. He LOVED it!!!!

We just LOVE him to pieces, he's so funny, entertaining and loving!! We look forward to all the new things he'll learn this year!


We had fun putting up some decor.


His face is the cutest when he came out of his room, so happy!


He was so happy... too cute! " Mama, a party for Townes!", he keep saying to me all day.


He got a new Combine and Black truck, very exciting!


Breakfast Tacos (his absolute favorite) for Birthday Breakfast!!


Danny and I had a lot of fun decorating his truck cake!


and Townes had a good time eating it!!

Finch was very excited about all the singing.


It also snowed for the first time this winter on his birthday, very fun!



Brrrr..it was a little cold. The day he was born it was 18 degrees and all week it was in the 50's until the 3rd this year. It got super cold again just for his birthday!

Finch is 8 Months!!!!!

Finch turned 8 months old yestreday! She's growing so fast, we just can't believe it. I know, I know you hear it a million times how fast time goes so I won't say it again...but really...She's around 19lbs, hitting the 66th percentage for her weight and coming in at over 29 inches, which puts her in the 80th percentage for height! She's moving all over these days. She seems to be at my feet within a matter of a few minutes, but we can always hear her coming, she's a noisy crawler. She's pulling herself up and trying to walk. My goodness, I wasn't ready for this!! Townes didn't even attempt until about a year!

She's a happy, content, smiley little love bug. She is just a delight for us all. We can't imagine life without her. She brings us all lots of laugh and smiles. She's been eating like a little champ. Again, with Townes I didn't start food until he was 12 months! So I'm a little taken back with how much such a little lady can eat. She has been eating for about 3 weeks, and now is eating bananas, cheerios, crackers all on her own. She eats ANYTHING and EVERYTHING! I have given her all kinds of squash, avocados, pears, oatmeal, peaches, payapa, peas, green beans...And she loves it all! So great to have a baby that will eat anything!! Plus, I'm having so much fun making all her food. I really like knowing exactly what's going into her little body.

She's weighing a size 3 diaper and Medium in cloth diapers. Sleeping through the night 12 + hours, love that! Getting all 4 top teeth, poor baby!!

Well, I could ramble on for ever about our little joy. She's a delight and we are so thankful that God has entrusted us to take care of her. We are so very blessed.

Kids

Why is it that when things need to get done the kids always seem to either not nap, be crying, hungry, needy...um..gotta love that! :)

We are attempting to rearrange our basement so that Danny can have his own "office/studio" space. We are super excited to have somewhere that he can put all his things ever so nicely!! I think it will help him to feel like he really has his "own" space for all his stuff. I'll update photos along the way. We are having to paint, do electric and decorate...all with what we already have.

Another quick update on Lauren, she just had her stem cells harvested today. She's going in on friday for another 5 rounds of chemo. Please continue to pray for her fragile little body, that God would do a miracle and heal her.

Lauren's update website

Lauren's grandmother has been updating a hospital website to keep us up to date on her condition. Please check it out and continue to pray. God is showing himself faithful!!!



https://www.carepages.com/carepages/aJourneywithWilms


Also, I'm still trying to collect some money for extra expenses for the family. Please pray about how God would use you in that.

God's sufficient grace

Everyone has times of struggles. Times of pain and suffering, grief and sorrow. But for some, there are also more continual, day-to-day trials that stay with us, no matter how often we might pray that God would intervene and remove these burdens from our hearts.**

In 2 Corinthians 12:7-9, the Apostle Paul spoke of his own "thorn in the flesh," noting how he had prayed not once, but three times for it to be removed. God, however, wasn’t pleased for it to depart from him completely. Instead, He gave the assurance of His grace, when He replied, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness."
The Lord’s words in this verse have been a great source of comfort for God’s children throughout time. Without question, they have been for those who find themselves struggling with their own "thorns." **

Yesterday, my mother and I got a chance to go visit with the Ballard family at Iowa's Children's Hospital. As we walked through the gigantic hospital, I was struck with humility by "thorns" affecting so many families, especially with young children. We so often can't understand God's plans and it leaves us feelings out of control. As I walked into Lauren's home, my heart felt crushed. I again asked God why, and without a blink God seemed to answer me " Jessie, I am loving and just".

The only thing I could say over and over again, was I can't even imagine what the are going through. Most times, that phrase just ran circles in my head. To see your 3 yr old beautiful daughter laying there with tubes coming for her, most of her hair gone, he little body so frail, and the only thing that seems to comfort her is to continually moan in pain. The is nothing that can prepare you for that. We as parents send all our time protecting our children and to be completely at God's mercy..ah...again, I just can't imagine. As I thought about it though, we really aren't in control of our children's well-being, God's ultimate plan is always made complete.

James, her father, has been given the option to work 4 (10 hr) days and have Wed. off. He has been working from 4am until 1:30pm and then leaves to drive an hour to Iowa City and stay the night gets up at 2am to go back to work. The sleeping conditions are ideal. James is in the recliner in the corner, Sarah on the "couch" and baby Tre in a portable swing on the floor. God has extended a lot of grace to them right now, though at times it seems to wear thin.

As for Lauren, she continues to be on Mophrine for the pain, and her fever seems to be persisting. The doctor have her on 3 different kinds of antibiotics and have the drain tube coming from her chest. Today, Sarah said that the chemo can't start until the fever comes down and that the tumor is still producing fluid.

The prognosis from the doctors is grim. They have given her a 45% chance of survival but we know that God can provide a miracle. So we are pleading with him to spare her life and to make himself known to all those who have been taking care of her.

We ask you as dear family and friends to please pray for God's hand to heal her little body, that he would give her family strength and grace, that His mercies would be made new everyday.

Maybe you can pray about how God can use you to help this family. This week you could cut out your weekly coffee, or eat out one less time. There has been so many expenses with travel, food, meds during this time. If you would be interested please leave a comment and I'll let you know how.

Thank you for your love and concern for this young family.

Psalm 9:9 The Lord is a shelter for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble

**keptbygrace.com info

Prayer for Lauren

Hi friends and family,

I have emailed before asking for prayer and here I am again asking for LOTS of prayer. Sarah (a good friend for High School) has a little girl named Lauren, she's 3 1/2. This last year she was diagnosed with Wilms Tumor, a childhood cancer. She has spent the last 6-8 months in and out of the hospital with surgeries, chemo and radiation. She has really been fighting it hard, God bless her. During this time Sarah and her Husband James, found out their were expecting. They just were coming up on the end of treatments for Lauren when Sarah had their new baby, Tre. He is 3 weeks old now. On friday Lauren was complaining of stomach pain, they took her in and after going through some testing until 1am, the doctors discovered that another tumor had grown on her lungs. She was having a lot of pain, the tumor had collapsed one of her lungs and filled it with fluid. They also took a biopsy of the tumor and are starting chemo again this week. Right now, the doctors don't know what to tell them. This should never have happened while in Chemo.

Please pray for strength and healing for Lauren,for God's grace for the immediate and extended families, and for special strength for Sarah as she stays in Iowa City (a good hour from their home) w/out her husband with a sick child and a newborn.

After spending much of the last year in the hospital, they have some significant bills. they absolutely didn't expect this to be happening again. Please pray about how God could use you to minister to this young, hurting family.

NEEDS:
PRAYER
GAS GIFTS CARDS
GIFT CARDS FOR FOOD AT HOSPITAL( the link below will take you to the hospitals website where you can purchase cards to be sent to their room) Just tell them it's for Lauren Ballard (parents Sarah and James Ballard)
http://www.uihealthcare.com/depts/uichildrenshospital/sendasmile.html
GET WELL CARDS
ANY KIND OF FINANCIAL HELP

THINGS FOR LAUREN:
Stuffed animals of any kind
Books
Puzzles
She loves Pink and Purple

Please forward this to anyone that you know. We could use all God's saints praying for her precious life. If you'd like to help with any of the momentary gifts please let me know via email and I can tell you where to send it. PLEASE share this with anyone you can.

Fun information!

Awesome new website for those of us that don't want to drag our children to the store to get the house essentials. The prices are great, lower than target and even some of the walmart prices. BEST of all, FREE SHIPPING! They have you sign up so they can remind you every 6 wks or sooner that you might need more. Check it out! Jenny Mena, you'll love it!

www.alice.com

Ok, another one for the coupon junkies or the want to be coupon junkies! There is a cost, free trial, then $10 every 8 wks. A great service that does all the work for you.

www.thegrocerygame.com

On advice of a well studied nutrition guru, winter in Iowa can bring about deprivation in Vit D ( lack of sun) bummer for us!
He recommends the following for children and adults, I've been giving it to the kids on top of staying clear of anything that might breath sickness!!! And so far so good, we keep praying.

Vitamin D3 2000 IU (for nursing child, from mother's milk) + sunlight

More vitamin D when ill

Vitamin C 500 mg

Fish oil 1000 mg for young kids under age 2, everyone else 2000 mg per day

Just a little information for ya, if you're interested!

Ephesians 6:4

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

I have been so concerned with getting Townes to obey us..Eph. 6:1 " Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right" that I didn't continue on to read about exasperating him. Ah, it's a good reminder that God has lots of lessons for me.

Family Vacation

FYI: I "stole" Jody's picts! Thanks Jody. If I add my own I'll never get this post up!!

I have been searching for months for good tickets to LA. Most of Danny's family is out there, and it was time for a visit. God provided us with awesome tickets! A friend recommended a new airline out of Des Moines, low and behold, we found tickets for under $200 each!! We were stoked! On top of that it was a direct flight, praise the Lord, that was so great!!!!!

Well, needless to say, travel with two small children is never easy. 2 huge bags, 2 car seats, a double stroller, 4 carry ons...and security check...come on. Taking the kids out of stroller, de-clothing them, sending stroller through x-ray...ok not an easy task. All of which at the Des Moines airport isn't that huge of a deal, but try doing it at LAX when your kids haven't sleep well in 9 days!

Our flight was a 8:20pm which seemed like a great idea, until our 2 yr old didn't sleep the whole time. We get into LAX( the craziest airport) around 11:30pm(pacific time) or time it's 1:30am!! Yes, he's still awake. We have to take our 100 bags outside the airport, get in onto the shuttle to go get our rental car. Are you kidding me? We were about ready to get back on the plane to head home. The shuttle bus took over 30 min to get there. Once he got there I asked him to just help me get the stroller(loaded with kids) on the shuttle. After a 10 minute stop and go ride to the rental place, we try to get all our stuff into the place, finally Danny gets in line. We are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel....until Townes starts THROWING UP!! Yes, throwing up! Finch was screaming at this point, Townes throwing up into his sweatshirt and I'm trying to get Danny's attention to hurry up!

So now it's about 12:15am and our kids are wrecks, and Danny comes back over to me ( which I thought ok it's time to go) Not so fast...we had a problem with our card. ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW! Little did I know you have to have x amount of dollars in your account in order to be able to rent the car. Why did you not tell me this when I rented the car! argh!!!


Poor Kids, Townes was absolutely GREEN! I think he was overtired and got air sick too!!

It's now 2:15am our time, Townes is still throwing up, finch still screaming...both are completely exhausted and so are we. We have no idea what to do. Jody (Danny's sister) didn't pick up the phone to come get us, which she's at least 45 mins away anyways. My big idea is call DAD, he always comes to the rescue.. after about 15 phone calls to wait him up...he answers in a frenzy. "Dad I'm sorry to wake you up, but Townes is pucking, as you can hear Finch is screaming, we can't get a car, we are stuck and they are going to close"....." I already tried transferring money for my savings account, but my cell phone is going to die". Dad says " no problem, I get some money to to fix it"...a few tears, an hour, and a new online banking account..we are ready to go. So we get our tiny little car, barely fit everything in it, and head to Jody's at 1:15am ummmm which is 3:15am our time. Finally, as we are getting into the car, both kids pass out!!

We get in, put the kids down and head to bed. With a wake up call from our little monkey's at 5:45am!! The sleep for 4 hours! What are you crazy, is this how the whole trip is going to be! I was very worried to say the least. But God has a great way of answering lots of prayers!!!

We had a rough first couple days getting into the swing of a new schedule and getting over our initial night. We had a lot of 5:45am wake ups, and 11am crashes but overall they did AMAZING! We were so thankful that God was not only providing the trip but helping the kids with little sleep and eating out most meals(which means not the healthiest choices)!

We spent our first weekend at Jody's house in Upland, CA. A very cute cozy home, that Jody has decorated via thrift stores. I tell you that girl can shop! She's looking for a job to support her habit!:) Thanks Jody for opening up your house, we had a great time!! Bev (Danny's mom) came down from WA and stayed at Jody's too, so we got some time with her as well. Which it's always great to spend time with Grammy

. We were a little worried about the no A/C with 100 degree temps out, but we survived it with a couple sweaty nights. Then the temps were perfect! We got to spend a lot of time with both Danny's paternal and maternal grandparents, and also extended family members. Everyone got to meet Finch for the first time, and see how much Townes had grown.




Monday we headed down to San Diego for a little family vacation. It was great, we had an amazing 4 star hotel, with a view of the pacific. Wow, thank goodness for hotwire! We stopped by Grandpa and Grandma Hyde's on the way and got some In n Out with them. The kids really enjoyed being around them. It was so wonderful to spend that time together. We have memories will cherish for a lifetime. Grandma, hasn't been doing well lately, but she was so delighted to hold Finch in her lap. You would have thought someone gave her a million dollars, oh, she was so happy sitting there holding her. Finch just fell in love with her. Kids really do have a way of understanding how people are feeling, they are very sensitive to that.

Monday night we swam, walked out on Seaport Village just had a wonderful time bonding as a family.

Tuesday we went to the World's famous San Diego Zoo! Boy, that was cool. It was perfect weather, we had jackets on. The kids loved it, the polar bears swimming was our favorite. We got back to the hotel( with a quick stop off at the ocean) exhausted after 8 hrs of walking the hills of the zoo! Ordered a yummy veggie pizza and watched a movie! Fun!

Wednesday we spent the morning at the ocean, ah man, did the kids LOVE that. Townes was crying so hard when it was time to go. I think Danny was too! He really missed surfing and being near the water. We should have just made our whole trip to the ocean! We stopped by quickly again at the Grandparents house, then headed to Covina to see Grandma Vasquez. Some of you may know that Grandpa Vasquez died right before Finch was born so we didn't' get to go to the funeral. It was an unexpected death, that has been very difficult for everyone. Grandma brought a guitar to Grandpa's grave site for Danny to play a song he had written, that they played at Grandpa's funeral. It was beautiful. We also visited Danny's dads grave site and had Townes and Finch take some photos with Papa's gravestone.



Thursday was DISNEYLAND! Danny's cousin Donnie works there, and got us in for FREE!!! Yeah, thanks again Donnie!!! It was so great, oh man, we underestimated how much Townes was going to love it there. He's been watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on occasion at Bibi and Papa's house and so he know who everyone was. He stood perfectly in all the lines, waiting to hug them. He would say " mama, I hug him". It was so sweet! Finch loved them from far away but close up she'd start crying! Townes was over the 40" mark for the rides so he got to go on some pretty cool rides. He totally didn't mind standing in lines either. He has his first roller coaster ride, which scared him a little and me alot!!!!
We had a wonderful day there with Jody and Grammy!! Thanks girls for coming along, it was so fun!!















Friday morning we headed to LAX to come home. Not much excitement, which we are thankful for! I thought of the genius plan to drop Finch and I off with the luggage at the airport, then return the car! Oh man, that saved a lot of headache. We got through security fast, due to have a stroller! amen!! and the kids actually slept most of the way home. Thanks to Calms Forte for kids!!! Love that stuff!

We have been trying to get back into the groove this week. Most mornings it's been 10am before anything gets done. Today was pj day until about 2:30pm. Yes, so we have a couple more days then I'll get back into it. I figure it took a week to screw up the schedule, it will take a week to get back!

Happy 30th to me, I think..

Funny thing when you have kids...your birthday becomes your kids and their friends birthday! I turned 235, those are the only candles my mom had I guess, they sang happy birthday to the kids, the kids got to blow out the candles...um, I thought it was my birthday.

Oh well, they had way more fun then I would have had blowing(spitting) the candles out!

Do you really have time to post?

Ok, so I love the idea about blogging. I think it's a great way for people to stay connected with your family, but finding the time to do it, no way! It's frankly stresses me out.

I could spend hours reading about how all these susie homemakers live, cook, clean, craft, scrapbook, knit, make their own...well everything. And after i'm done reading them, I find that I'm not inspired to become more like that, I just find myself feeling like crap. Man, if I could only be like so and so...

I decided that reading blogs may someday be beneficial to me but right now with 2 kids 2 and under, i'm going to stick to what I do best...cleaning up poop and feeling good about it! LOL

I'll send out a shout out here and there, but I'm no longer going to STRESS about being a mama who can do it all. BTW, does anyone even read this thing?!

House Before and After

The inside of our house has taken us over a year to finish and there's still somethings to do, but it was time to get to the outside.



After months of colors swatches all over the house, Danny picked these colors(with a little help from me). He's really good with colors..maybe it's the Art degree!





We've had complete strangers stopping by to say how beautiful it is, that it looks like it was meant to be these colors. Our wonderful 95 yr old neighbor, Irv, said " thank you, the white was blinding me!" He cracks me up! We really love how it turned out. Danny worked tirelessly on it for several days, still a little to finish but overall it's done.

Let me know what you think!



Thought I'd throw one in there of us over the weekend in MN. Townes stayed with Bebe and Papa(we missed him like crazy) and we headed to the cities, had a great time!

5 months already!

Finch Adalene, you are such a beautiful, happy baby! You've brought so much joy to our lives. We love to watch you smile,giggle, watch your big brother, snuggle you. As you grow older, we pray that you will be a women of excellence, that has a heart for the Lord. We are so thankful for God's blessing to us in you! We love you so much!




Finchy Bear is her nickname given to her by her big brother. Oh it's just the cutest thing... "Mama, where's bear at?, oh yeah, sleepin."

Surprise for Mama

On Sunday, Finch and I along with my parents decided to go to Waterloo to visit my 95 year old grandpa. Finch was a little sweetheart, was a happy girl the whole day. I spent most of the day "getting to know" my grandpa.

He was born in 1915, lived without running water or electricity until the age of 27 when he joined to Army. He grew up on a farm, selling their "pesticide free" produce to the local mercantile in exchange for groceries.

He said " you know back then they only had one kind of everything, you didn't have all these choices, I think Millie(my grandma) was right we live in a different world." When he'd ask for peanut butter, they take a wooden boat cover it with wax paper and scoop up some PB, hand it over in the wax paper and off you go. Many times I wish things were still simple, though much more difficult.

We talked about the weekly wash, Mondays were wash days, Tues ironing day.. First off, the saved the rain water, they used it for washing clothes and hair. It supposedly was soft water, they boiled it then used it. And in the winter they'd go collect the cleanest snow and melt that. And the work goes on from there...

Ok, I'll never complain about doing my laundry again, and the only reason I have so much stinkin laundry is b/c we have too many clothes! They wore the same outfit most of the week he says, unless he says" I fell in the mud or something like that."

Needless to say, I think we all should spend a little more time learning about how are ancestors lived, maybe we'd appreciate what we have more.

While, I was finding more out about how Grandpa Williams lived, Danny and Townes were doing a surprise for Mama!

Danny took some amazing photos of Townes!

Closer, Closer, Closer...

Photographing two kids isn't an easy task. Decided to leave the photo taking up to Daddy. I keep telling Townes be closer to her, no closer...he was a little distracted with his tractor. well this is what we got. eat your heart out. Don't they look alike?












JUST FOR KICKS!

FInch was the same size as the goat in her bed when she was born, oh man, they grow fast!

Please pray for Stellan

Park time

Finch has the longest little legs ever, our little sweetie.

He loves to swing! What a precious smile!!

Happy little man, the joy of our lives.
We had a family outing to go get Townes a bat and ball! Wow, was he so excited!! He walked around Target yelling," Bat n Ball", for about 30 min. It was very funny! Then we headed to the park, Daddy and him played, which he is surprising very good at. We love watching him , and he loves to have us watch! He hits like a champ. Then the kids got to swing for a little bit, it was a late night but we have to do that every once in a while.

Summer Fun..

This is Townes' little place on our counters, he loves to help me get veggies and fruit ready. He's a big helper! He ate a whole cucumber sitting here!

Danny taught him how to eat strawberry shortcake with his mouth, mama didn't like that idea...he wasn't to fond of it either.

Finch is loving the jumperoo, can't believe she's big enough for it!

Not many kids like to DUMP water on their heads, but this one does!

The funniest thing i've seen in a long time, "the floatation device". I couldn't get the darn thing off, we were laughing so hard. Poor kid! We are selling this thing at the garage sale!
We have been having lots of fun this summer..inside and out. Have lots more fun photos..i'll upload more after I recharge my battery!