wishes

Sending you big warm hugs and the best wishes for 2016. 

Love,

The Aguilars

Tweet

little munchkin

Ok Emma time for your 10 month old photo stay still ok? pretty please?

pretty...pretty please???

say cheese!

Well she does not stay still for long now!  Very active little munchkin.  

She can't go far yet but is very insistent!  

Happy 10 months baby Emma you've changed our world.

Tweet

Bookworm

Sophia is a bookworm!  She really devours books.  I am really amazed at how much she loves reading!  I told her that every time she reads a book and there is a movie about it I would watch the movie with her.  I think it's fun to compare the book to the movie even though I don't read the books.  For me it's certainly faster and more convenient at this time...by the way I still have to watch the movie The Lover..

Every couple of weeks or so she has a list of books to check out from the public Library.  Among one of her recent reads was Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.  The story is about a high school senior and a dying girl that trough friendship become inseparable.  Although the story is sad I enjoyed very much this drama-comedy movie very colorful and creative.

She also read To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee a classic book that deals with the aspect of history in reference to the Southern US in the 1930s. 

Once she finished the book we watched the movie we actually had to wait a couple of weeks for it because it had been checked out and it was on the hold list for me. The kids were discouraged at the beginning because of the fact that the movie was black and white...well I do have to confess that  I was a bit discouraged too.  According to Sophia there was a character in the book that was not in the movie and her and my favorite character was Scout that little innocent girl in the story.  I was surprised that Javier knew Gregory Peck who plays the fictional character of Atticus Finch the lawyer hero of the story.   In this story there is no vindication at the end towards African-Americans who were looked down upon and considered unequal so that makes it a sad ending  and a sad truth.

Classic book classic movie right? with this movie I cross watching a classic movie on my 45 by 45 list.  I wonder what's on Sophia's reading list next?

Oh and talking about Sophia she officially told me she's not wearing dresses until warmer weather!
Can't blame the girl!

Tweet

brushes and color

I've never been a make up kind of girl.  Eye liner and mascara is enough for me.  I use eye shadow, powder and blush on special occasions. Maybe twice a year  :/ 

I know that make up can do wonders but I also know it's a lot of work and it takes time. I am 13 years older than my sister and I saw her outgrown me on the makeup issue.   I was fine with that.

She is the pretty one I am the crafty one! 

 I love seeing girls on TV with flawless faces perfectly colored.  

Last week I felt sort of, kind of, kind of...very very stupid! I found myself watching youtube videos on how to apply eye shadow.  I was feeling like "Claudia you should have done this 25 years ago"

I knew there was a bunch of special brushes but never knew their specific purpose. I've always used that little applicator that comes with the eye shadow kit. Online I found an eye brush glossary which I found had too much info for a first timer, but with it and the youtube tutorial I was able to find out the basic brushes, get some ideas and inspiration for the beginner that I am. 

I went out and spend 10 whole dollars on a few brushes and a new glittery eye shadow (please read the sarcasm between the lines on that last sentence).  Sophia and I tried them.  I was surprised that she has more make up than I do from past Christmases gifts.  She is not that much into make up either. She told me I can play with her eye shadows whenever I want to. I am excited!  thank you daughter!

On my 45 by 45 list I have this item to fulfill which is to try out liquid eyeliner, oh well ... I've always been a late bloomer. For now the tickle of doubt about eye shadow and eye brushes is gone now nothing left but practice practice!!  

I hope your week started off with the right foot today!

Tweet

What She Wore

Last Saturday we enjoyed our city's Christmas parade.  It was fun we all liked it and so did Emma although she took a nap right in the middle of it and nothing really bothered her.  I really like it when she can sleep over any noise.  Later she woke up and enjoyed it some more.

Sophia is not a sports person, she does not like any sports at all or physical activities whatsoever music is her thing. Lately she's been toying with the idea of joining a dance studio.  There were various dance studios at the parade.  So this week we finally went in and inquired about the classes.  It's almost the end of the year and the classes are getting ready to perform at various events therefore Sophia will get to take a free class on Thursday December 17 to get a feel for it and if she likes it we will register her to start classes in January.  Yay!  more after school activities to make the day even shorter :/  

Maybe she will be in the next Christmas parade!

This is our weeks photo shoot. 

dress: thrifted

this post was linked to

the pleated poppy

Thanks for stopping by!  I am hoping your week is going fantastic :)

Tweet

the bully

I repeatedly tell Sophie she should join the drama club...often I hear her say:

"Mom Emma bullies me, she pulls my hair, spits on my face while blowing raspberries.  She takes my glasses off and drops them on the floor, she scratches my face and neck, she wants everything that's on my hands only to drop it, rip it or destroy it...she likes stepping all over me.  I am doing all I can but this relationship just isn't working"

I giggle at the sound of her 'complaints' about Emma!

But my heart melts when I hear her say:

"Emma you are the love of my life, I love you!"

*ps I love the very last picture on the right, Emma's little mischief look.

Tweet

What She Wore

It's been in the mid 40's in the morning these past few days...very cold for us Californias that always complain about the heat and cold.

As I started to write this post I remembered that last year I came across this meme on Facebook and shared it on my feed.  I just had to go and dig it in order to share it with you guys.  

via

Anyways, the weather is basically the reason why Sophie has not wore a dress these past few weeks. Last Sunday she bought this dress.  I guess she was eager to wear it for the first time because she said "I know my fans are waiting so let's do a photo-shoot!..." ay Sophie!!

and then there I go overboard with the pictures but honestly I loved all the pop of colors in this session!

Hope you enjoy it as well! 

dress: thrifted

cardigan: Target

This post was linked to

the pleated poppy

How is is the weather in your neck of the woods?  Hope you have been enjoying it!

Tweet

give thanks

Whether we have a big feast or a small gathering

be it less or more

modest or elegant

Let us be Happy, be Thankful and Give...and of course count our blessings!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tweet

full of energy

She's growing way too fast!  Emma is nine months now.

She won't stay still in my arms now, she is full of energy!
It's like she just drank one of those energetic drinks

...oh and she wants to be in charge of the photo sessions!  gotta keep up with her!

Tweet

Happy post

Yes my friends today is a happy post!  Full of positive things!!

My husband changed the hard drive on this old computer and things run faster and smother! but not without a bit of frustration at first until I figured out how to do things on this 'old new computer' sigh...

Next, after almost two years of job hunting, frustration and disappointments Javier finally landed a job close to home!  No more 1 1/2 hours commute or having to stay down in San Diego a few days during the weekday. I will again have a full time husband that comes home every night!!  Now he can help me with Emma in the evenings, feed the dogs clean their poop of course, he can wake up in the middle of the night when the dogs are barking, take the trash bin out on Tuesdays and bring it back inside on Wednesdays, take Xavi to soccer practice (I will probably tag along on this one still because being at the park is relaxing really) referee Sophie and Xavi when they argue and many more things...welcome home honey we missed you!  But in all truth it's certainly wonderful that he will be at home!

Talking about soccer and practices Xavi's team has won 9 out of 10 games and tied one.  

So next week they are playing semi finals and we are hoping for the best! 

More good news!  I completed one more task on my 45 by 45 list.
Item number 4 which is knit a pair of gloves. 

I wanted to do a trial and was not going to invest a lot of money so I bought a couple of sets of double pointed metallic needles for a few bucks at a thrift shop and used my yarn scraps.

It was a success!  I was able to read the pattern and finish it.  You don't know how afraid I was of decreasing stitches :/  I used two different size needles therefore the two different colors I also was eager to finish the little project and tackle those decreases that I didn't it make it long enough that's why the mitten looks like an elf's hat or something weird I know :/

I learned a few things watching youtube videos:

• Using double pointed needles is not that hard, it's similar to using a circular needle (which I've used before) you just have to get used to managing 4 needles at a time instead of two.  A bit intimidating at first I must confess.  I saw in a tutorial that using wooden needles instead of metallic ones is better as the stitches will slip off the metallic needles if you aren't careful enough.  Lesson learned 
• When reading patterns you have to be very  VERY careful. (k stands for knit, p stands for purl and tog stands for together) Because how can you  k2tog p2tog? when the pattern asks you to k2 k2tog then you will end up with 9 stitches instead of 15 what the?? yea read carefully! 
• It's difficult when you start a project with only a few stitches, then it gets easier as you go by, because the project stretches a bit but by the end of the project if you start decreasing it gets difficult again. 

 But please don't let my word discourage you.   Knitting is fun and very rewarding! 

Here are some pictures for your delight or shall I say mine?

You should know that I  choose Emma because she is a smaller model  and I know what you must be thinking mittens or gloves? but please be easy on me.  I did little mittens :/  Let's just say I am being flexible with my list now.  My main thing was the challenge of reading the pattern as I am a beginner at that, using 4 double pointed needles was also a challenge as I have never used them before and of course finishing the task was another challenge in itself!  Please give me credit for this one.

I took these pictures as soon as I finished the first one.  I just couldn't wait to try it on her and of course and I just couldn't resist to take the pictures then.  A couple of days later I did the second one.
The final result and my little model hair undone are so cute! 

Still on my list I have to knit a hat and some socks ay Claudia!  

I also want to give the gloves a try but I am not putting that one in writing again ha ha ha!

So there you have it!  Too many good things that I had had to share with you all!

Hope you have an excellent week my friends!

Tweet

What She Wore

Well I have been out, not fishing though.  It took five days of eye drops for Xavi's eye to get better soon after Sophie started with cold symptoms and an asthma flare up.  Then after that Emma started with mild cold symptoms as well, she still is coughing a bit but is much better now. 

We took these pictures on the last week of October but I just could not find the time to put the post together let alone publish it :(  Long story short our laptop is dead.  Long gone by now I only have a desktop computer which is very very sloooow and it takes me forever to download pictures :(  time is precious and I really hate it that it takes so long.  Oh well, sigh.

Anyways, for this session we decided to take pictures right in our front porch.  Why not?  it was very convenient.  Xavi didn't know about the What She Wore series so he was like what are you guys up to??  that's why I let him in in a couple of pictures.  Since they were all wearing red for Red Ribbon Week why not get them all together?  So there they all all three of my kiddos in the very last picture.  I feel I have my hands full all the time with them but I know that I am blessed! 

dress:  thrifted

cardigan: forever 21

this post was linked to 

the pleated poppy

Now my friends I hope you have a great rest of the week!

Tweet

not my day...

Last week specifically on Thursday I had a not so good kind of a day.  The planetary alignment wasn't on my side. Thing after thing just happened...at the end of the day after reviewing it I tried to look for positive things in between.  Here is a review of what happened:

Xavi woke up with pink eye.  After 13 years of mothering I know what pink eye looks like and for sure know that the school was going to send him back home.

I called the doctor's and was able to get an early appointment at 9:15 yay!

After dropping Sophie at School I needed gas so we stopped at the gas station and the gas tank door wouldn't open ugggh! old truck :( so there I was 5-7 mins trying to open it asking God to please don't let me break the key because then I really would be stranded!  I really could not drive on low gas. Those 5-7 minutes felt an eternity as I had to drive 35 minutes to get to the doctor's on time! So I called Javier only to complain really because what can the poor man do on the phone for me?  it finally opened!  but the gas was pumping soooo slow or so it seemed to me!

After the gas station ordeal, there I was driving carefully but fast.  We made it to the doctor's barely on time to check in and there was an unbelievable long line to check in.  Oh yeah the self check-in kiosk!! Nope broken! Get in line!  How can the receptionists be so chatty chatty with each and every patient?? 

We finally checked in and Emma started giggling and having a conversation with everyone around her. that was cute!  de-stresser for sure.  We saw the doctor,  Xavi got his eye drops and we were out! 

easy peasy there.

OK we got the rest of the day to relax before we pick up Sophie.  Before the pink eye situation I had planned to go thrifthing that day so now Xavi had to come along.  So there we were Emma was fussing by now Xavi and I were starting to get hungry so things were a bit rushed.  I was able to find a few pieces of clothing for my etsy shop.  Time to go home really!  We stopped for a cheeseburger, that later raised my blood glucose levels :(

When I find pieces of clothing for my shop I always do research on etsy to search for the brand, figure out what people are selling and how much are they selling them for.  Wow what are the chances that I find on etsy a vintage skirt 100% silk identical as the one I bought at the thrift shop earlier? only a smaller size...and they are selling it for $46  As I was full of excitement telling Xavi about my find, he started playing around with it and stepped on it and ripped it!  Well there goes my potential profit :( 

Later I checked and had made an etsy sale that was a good thing right??  it was!! as I was packing my sale I ran out of tape, not good! that meant that the following day I either had to go buy some tape or ask the people at the post office to let me use theirs (luckily I know they are nice) so I choose the second option just to save me a trip to the store the next morning.

When we got back home from picking up Sophie from School I was shaking.  I checked my blood sugar levels and were very low.  So I ate and later refused to check it again in fear that it was too high :/ Can something else top that?

Our day ended at the park at Xavi's soccer practice with nobody being hurt which would have been the ultimate and worst thing!  I had a little time there to lay in the grass and meditate on how the day went. 

(I didn't have my camera with me to take a picture of me meditating 

so that's why I share my bird of paradise with you)

Back to the park, that's when I had to look hard to find the positive little things.  

What did I do wrong? nothing really I guess those kind of days happen right?  

Tweet

What She Wore

For today's post we decided to take pictures right outside a cute little church in Winchester right across from the Post Office. We had tried this location earlier but as soon as I tried to take picture number two my batteries died :/  Anyways, I hope you are enjoying these series because Sophia and I really are!  

Dress: thrifted 

flannel shirt: thrifted 

This post was linked to:

the pleated poppy

Thanks for visiting my blog today friends.

Tweet