Board exam

Finally the big day after Graduation, was the next Friday Sept 2th, when Tom had to take the board exam in San Diego. He drove on Thursday afternoon and stayed with a family that I met during my missionary time in Escondido, CA (Carlsbad mission), who live really close to the testing center. After the test he drove back, and we wanted to WELCOME him when he got home, (we couldn't do anything in Phoenix so this was a great excuse to keep celebrating).
We are very happy and proud of Thomas for all his dedication and hard work during this time, we wanted to recognize him for all that and more, although we were requiring lots of attention and time.

Cheers!!!

Graduation

On August 25th, we drove around 7am to get to the Banquet in Phoenix at the Arrowhead Country Club, which is a very nice place (I wished I could take more pictures but it was really hot that I forgot to take some pictures of the facilities outside and  busy with Joel running around inside).

We were a little late trying to find the right entrance, so by the time we were there they celebration started, but we were there just in time for lunch and for the rest of the program, where Tom got to have a recognition (and couldn't take a picture of that moment because Joel fell down and started crying so I had to leave the room).

It was a long program, so after Joel calmed down the lady at the reception asked me about how old he was and about when he started walking, then she told me the club has a play room (which is a day care for all the members) where I could take him, by that time I wasn't sure if I should take him or not because the program was about to finish, but I told Tom and he said he could find us there, so we went to our new adventure. It was a very nice day care that the country club has next to the gym, they even have cribs for babies to take their naps (I wished I knew that before because Joel didn't take a nap and it was close to 3pm without sleeping since 6am) anyway! He was very excited to be in a different place, especially with lots of toys to play with and more baby friendly, he definitely had a good time for the 20 minutes that we were there till daddy picked us up.

Next day August 26th, we were thinking if we should go to the Graduation Ceremony, but after talking about Joel's naps and rest, we decided to let daddy go by himself, especially because he had to be there two hours before the ceremony and that meant nap time for Joel (who didn't have enough rest the day before) and a long day for him again. We just said bye bye to daddy before he left, we had mixed feelings because we wanted to be with him but the schedule and weather (lots of heat - over 110 degrees) didn't help us.

After daddy's Graduation Ceremony we went to celebrate at Peter Piper Pizza; little Joel had some time in the carousel and other baby games. After that we drove around a little bit because we didn't want to get out of the car. We wanted to visit couple friends but we changed our minds, summer time during the day is not a good time to socialize!

We drove by the site where the Phoenix Temple is being built after lots of disagreement with neighbors and changes to the layout (and it is just 10 mins away from the first place we used to live back there), through all this we just remember what the Standard of Truth says: "...no unhallowed hand can't stop the work from progressing.."  and one more time we see it fulfilled!!  We can't wait to come back for the open house, probably in 2 years or so.  It's going to be a beautiful structure.

Birthday boys

Before the big day we just took a quick trip to Party City, I like that they had lots of things for different themes. We found the aisle with all you could wish to buy to celebrate your baby's first year, I wanted to get everything to throw a big party, we were only window shopping and wanted to take a few pictures with some hats for the first year birthday boy, he wasn't as excited as I was, but here is our little model.

Obviously he didn't want to stay sitting in the cart, as usual he wanted to push it, but if you have ever tried to hold him so he can push the cart you know it's really hard to do that, because he's not a feather!  We chose to put him inside the cart basket so he could a get a ride, which he liked.  I know it's not very safe but it helped to make him happy and distracted for a little bit.

On his Birthday, we took Joel to the library, he was very happy to be able to go out and be free with more room around to explore, he likes to play with LEGO's which right now means throw them away, not interested in building anything yet, also to be walking every where he can...

Even though it was Tuesday, we made a little celebration for the two Birthday boys which are the LOVE of my life, wish we could have something super fun but it wasn't possible this time, we had lots of things going on during the last two weeks of the month.

Can't believe how fast a year has gone, and now I can see how much more we have grown.

Joel is our little angel, we are so blessed to have him in our home, he makes every day even better, he helps us to be better and try our best, he is always making our day the happiest of all, because we can see through him the LOVE and trust that our Heavenly Father has in us, and because sometimes we are more tired than him, we are trying to figure out where all that energy comes from if he doesn't like to sleep as we thought babies would do, because we love to sleep, we'll see when he is a teenager and has to go to seminary how that goes.

1. Joel weights around 30 lbs., height is around 33 inches -which is in the 99 percentile of his age-, size of shoes is 6, as of today.  But they fit pretty tight.
2. He started going a few steps by himself before he turned one, and started walking like a pro two days later.
3. He likes when we sing:  "The wheels on the bus", "Head, shoulders, knees and toes", If you are happy", "Patty cake". 
4. Some times it takes him a little while to feel comfortable with some one, (I think it is this stage) because before he was celebrating everybody around, when you know him you realize that he likes to make funny faces, likes to laugh a lot besides that he's very ticklish like his dad.
5. Since he was a baby he loved books, so now he enjoys to sit down and go through his books by himself if we are not around to do some story time.
6. He likes technology (computers, mouses, cellphones -that work-, remote controls, play the key board among the top ones, and I want to mention that he's very good at finding buttons that we never figure out before or that they exist ahhaha!) probably all babies now are born with a special chip; he also likes to play with everything that belongs to dad, like his belt, shoes, name tag, pen, little notebook, and of course with him.
7. He also likes to play with simple things like a box of cereal, empty gallons of milk, bottle of water, bottle of shampoo -during bath time-, blankets and pillows. (When we were preparing our 72 hr kit, we were thinking about taking some toys but we realized that he will be happy playing with a few things around, so a couple books are the only ones we will take).  
8. He's our little explorer, likes to find new things in every room where he is.
9. He likes to make faces like shaking his head, rolling his eyes up, and flexing his neck muscles.
10. We love him so much, he has a great spirit in a little body, he's smart, sweet and huggable!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY our little one!!

JOEL FIRST YEAR!!!!!

Our little family -Together Forever-

Celebrating Daddy's  Birthday!!!!!

What can we say about our dear and loving head of our sweet home, he is a very dedicated man, husband and dad. He is a very hard worker, caring for family, friends and people around, always willing to serve and share, good example, honest, faithful, humble, smart and loving.

Joel and his first piece of cake!!!

To tell you the truth, he wasn't very impressed and attracted to it, instead of eating it, he was just smashing and playing with it, we had to put a little piece in his mouth to see his reaction, but he didn't care that much, even though we love it!

We had a good time, we made a homemade pizza because we know that one of the Birthday boys will love it, and the other one will learn very soon.

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR........

Busy bee

Some of the things we have been doing is just going to the library to spend some time there even though there is no story time right now, he likes to explore every corner, he feels happy being able to go out once in a while.  Sometimes it seems he can't get out enough.

This is how Joel used to watch his video, being very comfortable and relaxed (and it was great because I had some time to get a few things done). Things have changed now, he just stays watching it for a little bit and keeps playing with something different, or just goes to another room to see what he is able to reach, and then come back to watch a little bit more.

 Here it was one of those not as hot afternoons (or at least it didn't feel that hot, even though the whole summer has been over 100) when we were able to go to the park.

 Joel loves to swing

 One time he was looking at the sky while swinging, calmly enjoying the beauty of the skies