Pre School Already!

The years have gone by too fast! The day that Trace had been looking forward to and I have been getting nauseous about came today....the first day of preschool. I know I sound like an over protective mom, and I am! It has been Trace and I all day every day for three and a half years. The only time I was ever away from him was when I was giving birth to Jersey and I dreaded that for weeks prior as well. Anyway, the day started with Joe calling us at 6:50 to make sure we were awake. He left a message on the answering machine telling us to get up its time for school. That woke Treyson up and he immediately woke up. From my room I could hear him talking, "Time for school! I need to put on my shirt and shorts and socks and hat, I'm going to preschool today!" I just lied there and smiled. Knowing he was so excited made me more at ease, I clearly would be missing him more that he missing me.

September 15, 2008

After a long and extremely exciting day filled with making a "shape book", playing on the playground, singing, making new friends and ending the day with a peanut butter and jelly "sandwish" my boy was exhausted!

Backyard Fun

We love having so my much space in the backyard. The kids have more room to play and ride around and I love just sitting outside watching them!

Enjoying the beautiful day!

Dad loves that Trace is at the age where he can play baseball and learn new fun things. Trace kept laughing when Joe would put him in the correct stance, but once he got the hang of it he was awesome!

Keep your eye on the ball, son!

He had no problem connecting the bat with the ball.

He hit it so hard that it got stuck in the top of this tree! Joe had to throw other toys up there to get it out. If you look close you can see the white ball in the top. Trey thought this was absolutely hysterical! So did I!

Home Sweet Home?

We are all moved in to the new house and for the most part we like it. I didn't realize how emotional I was going to be leaving our own home. My sweet missionaries came over one last time and we all cried and took lots of pictures. I am very upset I don't get to see those Sisters anymore, we really had a great bond with one another. We lived in a not so great neighborhood but I liked our home. Walking through the house to make sure we had everything and seeing the bare walls reminded me of when we first moved in and how excited we were. Joe has done so much work on that house over the last 5 years. I keep reminding myself that our unfortunate loss will be someone else's gain. I am hoping that someone who never though they would be able to buy a house will get ours. And they wont have to do any work to it. Anyway, the new house, it is bigger with a huge living room and backyard. The kids have more room then they know what to do with! Treyson is having a hard time, he misses his home. He looks to me and tells me "I want to go home now, Mom, to our home!" It breaks my heart. We remind him that this is out new home and how awesome it is to be here. I hope he starts to feel more comfortable soon. I know it will take us all some time but we have already started making new memories here. We play in the backyard everyday and Trace loves that. He has really started getting into playing baseball and he is pretty dang good at it too! Jeresy had rug burns on her knees from working in crawling and I am still trying to figure our where to put things. Joe, he is such a trooper, he loves this house, it has a garage...what else could a man need! It is pretty easy to keep him satisfied! So here we are, making our new home a "Sweet" one!

We're Moving!

We are finally moving back to Boulder City! We have wanted to be back in our hometown for so long and now we finally can. Funny how such hard circumstances lead to such wonderful endings. We have found a great home that is in a great neighborhood. An added bonus is that is is directly across the street form our good friend Tom Gorball and just a few houses up from my Uncle Randy. There are so many great things about us being back in Boulder. We will be putting Treyson in Tiny Tots, which is the same pre school I went too how cool is that! He can also start doing sports with the rec center. I will be close to my sisters and near all my friends again. I will feel safe walking at night and I am excited about going grocery shopping and actually seeing people I know. Joe will have to drive a bit further to work but he is fine with that. There are so many other positive things about Boulder that we love that a few extra minutes if drive time are not an issue. We are able to move in on September 1st and we are counting down the days!!

Learning to Ride

My brother, Pat, was in town last week and he gave Treyson his very first skateboard. Pat gave him his first lesson on riding in the backyard. There wasnt much room to ride but they made do with what they had.

It was so cute to watch Treyson and his Uncle Pat together. I loved watching the two of them bond.

Treyson learning for the first time something Pat has loved for many years. It was a special moment. They had lots of fun moments while Pat was here.

They only had one crash and Trace was a trooper, he wanted me to take a picture if his injury so he could see it. And for the following week it is all he talked about. Getting a booboo on his new skatebaord from his Uncle Pat!

My Gift

Yesterday was my birthday and I received the greatest gift. I will touch on that later. The day started like a normal day in the Ortega household. Breakfast for the kids, changing clothes, naps, and so on. We bbq's ribs for dinner and had strawberry shortcake for our dessert ( a great weight watchers friendly idea!) We are in the middle of trying to find a new home and I told my folks and Joe I needed nothing for my birthday, just to know they were thinking of me was gift enough. Although Joe did treat me to a pedicure and getting my nails back on this weekend! As the night went on, Joe headed to bed and I spent my time with the kids before settling them in their beds as well. This is now when my "me" time begins. My friend Tiffany had blogged about another blog spot called A Daily Scoop, I have been looking at it for the past few day but tonight I started at the beginning and read the whole thing. I laughed and cried, and at some points sobbed while reading this blog. I recommend checking it out for sure. I drew so much inspirations from Stephanie's words. I only know her through her blog and she has already taught me so much. She suffered the ultimate loss, the loss of a child. I can not even imagine the feelings the has experienced in the past two months. I know her faith and close relationship with The Lord has gotten her through this. I have not been active in the church since I was 16, so 12 years now. I do have a relationship with my Heavenly Father and I pray every night, with my kids and alone. Recently my home teachers have begun to come over as well as my lovely missionaries who I adore! I feel I am getting closer to where I need to be but I still have a long way to go for sure. I do have a testimony and I hope it keeps growing with everyday. After reading Stephanie's words and realizing how strong she is, I have been inspired. Inspired to be a better Mom, sister, daughter, wife and friend. I cherish my life and everyday I have here, but she has reminded me to enjoy the small things even the annoying things in my hardest of days. Days when It is hard to smile and I have crying kids who wont obey. She has opened my eyes to things I thought I already knew. When I was done reading I went into Jersey's room and picked her up out of her crib and held her tightly in my arms as I rocked her. The nonstop flow of tears wet the top of her precious head and I had no control. A mothers love is like no other. I held her for an hour taking in each moment, each soft breath she took, each squeeze of her hand on my chest, each time she snuggled her head into my neck. I inhaled the sweet smell of my baby girl while having a broken heart for all those mothers who have lost their babies. I know it is all part of a master plan which we have no control over but I still wept for them. After I could finally pull myself together and lay her back to sleep in her bed, I moved on to Treyson's room. I watched him for a moment sleeping in his big boy bed the wrong direction and surrounded by pillows. I ran my fingers through his curly hair and told him how much I love him and how he has changed my life. How it makes me feel so good when he tells me he loves me, and how his humor brings me such joy in my life. I felt as though I couldn't leave the room again. I wanted to craw into bed with him and just snuggle him. I want my babies to always know how much I love them and how special they are to me. I then had to go to my room to my sleeping husband. He is my rock, my best friend, he is without a doubt my everything. I watched him sleep and the tears began to roll again. I am so blessed in my life. I am so in love and so happy. This my my great gift, a gift of thought. Time to recognize all I have in my kids and husband. This night was by far the most emotional one I have had in years. My heart swells today as I think about last night. The thought will stay in my heart and head for ever. I have learned so much about others and mostly myself lately. I am a work in progress but the final outcome will be awesome.

Ant Attack!

A few nights ago we were out in the backyard watering the lawn. It is part of our normal nightly routine. At about 7 we put Jersey in her walker an stick her on the patio to cruise around and Trace helps me water. This night he wanted to just play which was perfectly fine. he was sitting on some stepping stones and I could tell he was messing with something in the sand. After asking him what he was doing he told me there was an ant. Of course I told him yo leave it alone because ants can bite us. He was a good boy an immediately joined me on the grass. But then not even a minute later my boy was screaming, "Mommy, Help me, Help Me!!!" I looked over at him and both of his little legs were covered in baby red ants. I rushed over and with hose in hand started spraying him down and rubbing the ants off with the other hand. He clutched on to my shoulders and I soaked his whole body. I stripped him down to be sure no ants had made it up past his shorts. I then carried him over to the patio and he just hugged me, I assured him he was OK and we wold take care of all his bites. He stood there naked holding onto me and one of my hands was cradling his bum. My adrenaline rush was settling and I was taking my much needed deep breaths when he spoke these words...."Mommy, can you get your hand off my booty?" I just laughed, which then made him laugh. He was fine after that, just a bit itchy but by the next morning all bites were healed. I laugh everytime I think of his "booty" comment. He is my son for sure!