life according to the diaz's

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Happy Mother's Day!

Today is the day I am reminded of how blessed I am to be a mom. Elena has been one of the greatest gifts from God and even though I am reminded every single day how beautiful and wonderful she is, it's days like today where I see women and men from all over honor their mothers and I truly realize what a beautiful thing motherhood is. I saw this little story today and I had to share it. It's so beautiful. To all the women in my life...you are rock stars!!

Why are you crying, Mom?

"Why are you crying?" he asked his Mom. "Because I'm a
woman" she told him. "I don't understand," he said. His
Mom just hugged him and said, "And you never will"..........

Later the little boy asked his father, "Why does mother
seem to cry for no reason? "All women cry for no reason"
was all his dad could say........

The little boy grew up and became a man, still wondering
why women cry...

Finally he put in a call to GOD; when GOD got on the phone
the man said, "GOD, why do women cry so easily?"
and GOD said.......

When I made woman, she had to be special. I made her
shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the World;
yet, gentle enough to give comfort....

I gave her an inner strength to endure childbirth and the
rejection that many times comes from her children......

I gave her a hardness that allows her to keep going when
everyone else gives up and take care of her family through
sickness and fatigue without complaining......

I gave her the sensitivity to love her children under any and
all circumstances, even when her child has hurt her very
badly...

This same sensitivity helps her to make a child's boo-boo
feel better and shares in their teenagers anxieties and
fears.......

I gave her strength to carry her husband through his faults
and fashioned her from his rib to protect his heart.....

I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts
his wife, but, sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve
to stand beside him unfalteringly.....

I gave her tears to shed. They are hers to use whenever she
needs them. They are her secret strength. They make her
more like ME.....

Author Unknown

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Spring Break 2015

I say it every...single...time. It's been HOW LONG since I've made time to sit down and write a little bit about my family?! Wow, I think this is the longest I've ever gone without a blog update...going on 3 months, people. Sorry for the delay...we've just been too busy enjoying our life that I haven't wanted to stop to sit down and write about it...until now :) It's spring break, so I've got the windows open, fans on, and radio turned down really low so I can still listen to the birds sing outside. What a lovely feeling to be able to sit in some quiet, alone time to just listen and think. This happens so rarely, I believe, in anyone's life these days, so I'm soaking up every second of it. It's also nice to just go back over the last few months of what our family has been doing and the photos we've taken to capture our time together.

January...
January was just a cold month! It didn't snow too much, well, not enough to really warrant a snow day, but it was just COLD! Juan, Elena, and I went to a few Hickman Kewpie basketball games, which is always a good time...Elena just LOVES the Kewpie mascot...and popcorn too. She definitely takes after her momma there. ;) Another exciting time in January was when our favorite fast food place opened in Columbia!! Jack in the Box! It's been a treat to go there, for sure. Juan and I always say that it's a good thing it opened on the other side of town, otherwise, we'd have a serious problem on our hands...hahaha! Elena only likes their fries...what's new, right? I mean, the kid still doesn't eat much of anything. We pull through a drive thru and she asks for fries and a water with no ice...apparently ice is a horrible thing. SO high maintenance, I tell ya. We're on a steady diet of noodles (plain with a little butter is her favorite), yogurt, squeeze fruits, chips, scrambled eggs, shredded hash browns, toast, garlic bread, cheese pizza (sometimes), pancakes with syrup (but only at the babysitter's), cinnamon bread, and sometimes we can get her to eat a plain hamburger. She is one picky eater; I'm sure she gets that from me too.

February...
Another very busy month for us! We started February all in different places! I had a conference to attend in Ohio, so Juan was in Columbia, Elena was in St. Louis, and I was in Columbus for four days in February. My conference was absolutely fabulous...photos below. :) After I flew back to STL from the conference, it was a treat for Elena and I to have lunch with my sister at Adriana's on the Hill. Absolutely amazing roast beef sandwiches...I could honestly eat there everyday. We ordered Elena a cheese pizza and of course, she didn't want to eat any of it that day. I'm telling you, she has her days where she is good to eat, and others she just doesn't want anything. We've gotten to the point where if she's just getting some calories, then we have succeeded for the day...lol. When we returned home from our travels, Juan had some goodies for me since I turned 34 while away. It was just so nice to be back home! We did get some snow at the end of this month, good enough to play in and build snowmen...FINALLY!!

March...
March has come and gone so fast. I mean, we're already at the first of April and Easter is just a few days away. This month has had some beautiful warm days, but quickly followed up with some cold and dreary ones. I'm SO glad that I think we've gotten over the hump of the cold days and are well on our way to spring. We have been enjoying getting back outside to play, blow bubbles, go to the park, ride bikes, and just having the windows open for fresh air has been such a treat. Juan and I have started running again, in hopes that by the summer, we will be well on our way to being in better shape. I'd like to get back to my 9-10 minute miles for a 5K, but I'm still a few minutes off for now...I'm hoping by the summer, we'll be on track! Juan and I did not have the same week, unfortunately, to be off this year for spring break, so Elena got to spend some alone time with her daddy for awhile last week and me this week! Can't believe spring break is already half over...two more days to go! I'll be enjoying every second, for sure.

So, the Diaz family has been busy, as usual...among all the happenings of our life, Juan and I are still super busy with the everyday life of teaching. Trying to fit everything we want into a day seems impossible sometimes, but with our "one day at a time" attitude, we make it all work. Elena continues to be our inspiration every day. She inspires both of us to be better people with each passing day. Elena is growing up before our very eyes and there's not a second to waste when spending time with her. She is a walking, talking "threenager". Opinions, demands, polite requests, songs, hugs, "I love you's", etc...these are all part of our "everyday" life as a family. There is absolutely nothing I would trade for this beautiful life we have. I'm thankful everyday for what I've got...it's a wonderful life!

Spending the night at "Wawa" and "Wawo's" house

Feeding her baby

Kewpie basketball!

I made a number 2!!

more popcorn...

Ready for her day at Miss Brenda's!

Ridin' in style

Being silly with MawMaw

Snow!

At the National Reading Recovery Conference! Joy Cowley!!

mmmm...cookies

I'm Mrs. Wishy Washy! (a Joy Cowley book)

Bella and Rosie (two of my favorite characters in my RR books)

Just coloring...Homer looks scary...lol

Our fav!!!

Enjoying her first Harold's Donut! Lots of sprinkles!

Making brownies...the spoon is SO good!

She has to have her elephant to sleep...His name is "Elephant"

Making Pa laugh...they had so much fun the other day...wish my finger wasn't in the picture...

Visiting our favorite candy store in Florissant, MO!

Playing in a box...

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone!! I told Juan this afternoon that I needed to sit down and catch up on our blog since I hadn't completed one in awhile. So, a football and blogging afternoon it has been. When I logged on, I couldn't believe it had been since the beginning of November since I last logged on. I remember the days right when Elena was just born that I was blogging at least once a week if not more. My how the time changes and gets filled up with so many other things like Play-Dough and watching Frozen over and over again. Since the beginning of November, our baby girl has turned into a full-on toddler. Three whole years now and she just keeps growing. Juan and I's love for her continues to grow with each passing day. She really is the most incredible thing in the world. Like I've said so many times, Juan and I will just sit back oftentimes and just watch her play, read, watch TV, or her "how-to" videos on the Ipad. Her mind is getting smarter and smarter and I often wonder how she knows some of the things she knows. We continue to work on letter sounds and counting correctly up to 20...she recognizes most of the numbers, but reciting them in order is still tricky...I blame it on only being three years old ;) This girl just loves to learn. And, having two parents who are teachers absolutely love this about her! Elena likes to try things on her own first and then yell for help...and, yes, it's usually a yell. Ha! She asked for a lot of books, puzzles, and games for her Leap Pad for her birthday and Christmas. She got all of these items, of course. Her favorite book has been her Peppa Pig book that Santa brought her. We read it over and over. She is starting to want to read it to herself too. I love watching her tell herself the story when she thinks I'm not watching. Elena has also really gotten into Cinderella. We were on a Frozen kick for a good long while, but as Christmas came and went, Cinderella was on our TV a lot. Elena even got a Cinderella doll for Christmas, which she absolutely loves. Santa also brought Elena a new BMW car for Christmas. It's been fun to watch her ride around back and forth in the living room for now. It's been too cold (or we just haven't been home) to really get outside and enjoy riding on the sidewalk. This spring and summer will be a blast watching her ride in style. Other than her birthday celebration and several Christmas celebrations with family, we haven't been filling our time with much else. We've been traveling a lot to visit with friends and family and during the "in-between" time at home here and there, we just relax, eat lots of goodies, and play/watch movies. Times have been good. It's hard to believe that our Christmas break is over and we are back to our normal routines tomorrow. I'm excited, though...it just means that the school year continues to move on, spring will be here before we know it, and we'll be on to the most fantastic time of year...summer :) I'll have to spend this evening, though, looking through my school bag to remember how to teach my little ones when I head back to school tomorrow...I feel like I've forgotten so much...hopefully my little guys at school haven't lost too much ground...YIKES!! Happy January, everyone! Pics below of all of our fantatsic times this birthday and Christmas season!