3 Years ago today!

Three years ago today Berto and I were sealed for time and all eternity in the Redlands California Temple! I am so grateful to have such an honest and hardworking husband. He does so much for our little family. He works full time and has been going to school full time for almost two years! Sometimes I feel like I don't have a husband because he's so busy but I am so grateful to have him in my life! He is my support, my anchor and my love! I don't know where I would be without this man!

Happy Anniversary Berto! I love you so much!!!

California Vacation 2009!!!

Okay, so slide shows are not my favorite but I tried for two days to get my pictures to upload and was getting a little annoyed!

So we've been back from vacation for two weeks I don't know why it's taken me so long to get this done!.. Probably because I was busy reading Dan Browns "The Lost Symbol." I have my priorities! :)

We left on Tuesday September 29th and headed out to California! Oliver was great on the drive out there. He slept for only one hour of our trip but did very little whining! He was a champ! For the first half of our trip we stayed with my friend Heather and her little family! It was so good to see them and spend time with them!

On Wednesday we went to Moreno Valley and took Donnie and Lianna (my siblings) to lunch at our favorite steak place Steer N' Stein! Then we spent the day visiting friends out there. That night it just happened that our old ward was having a ward activity so we were able to crash their party and see a lot of people that time may not have permitted us to see otherwise! It was really great!

On Thursday we pretty much had a kick back day planned. Thank goodness because Heather fell and had to spend the night in the hospital. Berto spent most of the day doing homework (that's why we didn't have much planned)and I was able to help Heather's husband with the kids. My other BFF Rebecca and her son Cameron came to hang out and we bbq'd and then took all of our munchkins to the park to let them wear themselves out!

On Friday we headed to Rancho Cucamonga. We stopped by Berto's old work TEAM Physical Therapy to say hi. He worked there for 6 years so he really wanted to see everyone there and show off how big and cute Oliver is getting! It was fun to see everyone! Then we just bummed around that are for the rest of the day. We went to one of our favorite malls Victoria Gardens and let Oliver ride the "choo choo!" We also ate lunch at one of our favorite places Legends!

On Saturday we headed to Upland. We stayed the rest of our trip with our good friends Greg and Carol Ann! Pretty much the minute we arrived we backed back out of their driveway and headed over to the Upland Fire Departments open house! Of course this was a highlight for Oliver! He got to sit in a fire truck but the best part of that little adventure was the helicopter! He even got to sit in that!! Saturday night we went out to dinner with some of Berto's friends from TEAM it was a fun night!

On Sunday we watched the morning session of General Conference with Greg, Carol Ann and Greg's family! After that we headed to Pasadena to spend some time with my friend Meghan, her husband Jake and their daughter Sierra. It was so good to see them!

Monday was our big day! Our whole trip was mostly to spend time with friends and family but Monday we did go to Disneyland! We went with my brother and sister and met my dad and his fiance Ana there. Dad and Ana scored us our free tickets through Ana's son Jeff who works there. That was a definite bonus!! Thanks again guys! We had a fun time. My friend Rebecca and her son Cameron also met us there! We had a great day! Oliver LOVED every minute of it from the ride on the 'choo choo" (the tram) to the fireworks! It was a great day!

The rest of our trip was pretty low key just hanging out with Greg and Carol Ann and visiting other friends and family! One night our friend Art stopped by with his sweet little girl Katelyn! She is such a good baby! I already have the "baby bug" but playing and holding Katelyn made me want another baby SO bad! She is SUCH a good baby!

All in all it was a fun, relaxing easy vacation! It was much needed and we were so happy to see all of our loved ones!!

A sweet moment with my boy!

I wanted to hurry and post this to our family journal because it's a moment I want to remember forever!

Recently I've gotten in the habit of singing to Oliver before he goes to sleep. Usually he actually conks out after two or three songs. His favorite is the ABC's. Anyway, tonight after I sang him one song I paused to take a breath before beginning a new one and as I was taking a breath he said "more." So I asked him "do you want me to sing you another song?" and he did his characteristic pointing his fingers up in the air and shouting "yay!!!!"

This was such a sweet moment for this mommy! It really made my day!

Silly Sleep and Sentences!!!

So tonight Oliver was being quite difficult to get to sleep. He insisted on having one of the throw pillows from my bed, his stuffed dog named "puppy" who he always sleeps with, a stuffed elephant AND his toy airplane all in bed with him. This is exactly how he wanted everything and would not settle himself until he felt it was just right! He looks so funny and so adorable and yes that is his airplane in his hand!

On another super adorable note Oliver said his first "sentence" today! I was showing him a book with a picture of a dragon on it. He loves dragons because of our weekly visits to the library (they have a humongous one there). I was trying to get him to say dragon because it's so cute when he says it. Anyway, I didn't get dragon but I asked "What is this?" (as I held up the book) and he said "It's a book!" I thought that was so brilliant! Can you tell I'm a doting mom? I think he needs a sibling so he doesn't get too much more spoiled! :)

Mc Donalds Toddler Zone

Last week on one of Berto's days off we were out in Chandler running errands. We decided to try to find some place indoor that Oliver could run off some energy because (even though he was being really good) he was getting pretty tired of our boring errands! So we found this brand new Mc Donalds and they had an AWESOME toddler play zone. Oliver loved it! He in fact actually ran around and played (which he usually clings to us when we take him to the one at one of our local malls I think because it is SO crowded). Anyway, he had a blast!

File Folder Games

So a few weeks ago at church I discovered "file folder games." A girl in my ward had made some for her kids and they happened to be sitting in front of us. I was completely intrigued by the idea. So I asked her about them! She invited me over to look through her books and make photo copies of some of the pages. I also found a website with some really cool ones that you can print out in color (and not have to color) or black and white if you prefer to color your own! Anyway, I made my file folder games, laminated them put the velcro on and took them to church this past Sunday. I wasn't sure if Oliver would actually use them or not. He's still kind of young. Well he has never sat still for so long! He had so much fun! One of the ones I made (as you can see) is a family tree. I used actual pictures of our family members so we can work on everyone's names. He LOVED that one! They were fun to make, and will teach him something and the ultimate goal... is to keep him quiet during Sacrament meeting... SUCCESS!!!

The books the color games came from are called File Folder Fun. And the website I found the other ones on is http://www.mormonchic.com/crafty/filefolders.asp

On a cute side note. Oliver (who hasn't seen my siblings since last Christmas) took the picture of my sister off of the family tree and gave it a kiss and then put it back! It was priceless! Such a cute boy!

Oliver's Friends

In our ward we have this cute little set of boy/girl twins! They are a little over two months older than Oliver and Oliver LOVES them! We usually sit near them during sacrament meeting and seeing their familiar faces is what I think helped his transition into nursery! The little girl is SO CUTE and is always all smiles. She likes to climb under our pew and smile at Oliver and Oliver loves to climb over our pew and smile at her! They are adorable! Yesterday when Oliver and I were walking out of church the twins were walking out with their parents and Oliver, and the twins started yelling "BYE" to each other and waving! It was the cutest thing I have EVER seen! They looked like a bunch of mini teenagers leaving their friends! It was so stinking cute! I love that he has his two little friends! Today when I went to the YMCA to workout he was not happy (to say the least) to be left in the child care. He was crying (which is unusual for him). The twins mom showed up at the class I was taking and said Oliver wasn't crying anymore but looked sad. She also told me that she pointed Oliver out to her kids! When I went to pick him up he was playing with the little Chloe. He saw me and they both came running! I was so happy he was playing with Chloe and NOT hanging around the ladies that watch the kids (which is what he usually does). He was so happy his friends were there! I love those little twins! We have a play date with them tomorrow! It should be fun!

Our latest Oliverism

So my sweet son is finally starting to talk more and more. This is very exciting for me! I love the cute things he says (usually related to asking for some "teese" (Cheese) or "cookie, cookie." But lately he has been doing THE CUTEST thing ever. He'll ask for something and when we figure out what he's asking for he raises his hand in the air, points his finger and says "WAHOO!!" He does it with such excitement as if it were the best thing that has ever happened to him in his entire 21 months of life. I have to say it is so stinking adorable! I don't know where he learned the word "wahoo" but, it is so cute. He will not say yes, he prefers "wahoo" and I LOVE it!

Swimming lessons, Culver's and no we haven't dropped off the face of the earth!

Okay, so I have not blogged in FOREVER. I don't know what my problem has been but I have not been in the blogging mood. Maybe because we haven't had anything blog worthy I don't know... but last week we had some fun times and I finally decided to get back on the blog!

We started Oliver in swimming lessons last week. He is fearless in the water so we thought swimming lessons would be good for our peace of mind. Oliver hasn't quite caught on to the kicking yet but he has holding his breath and "putting his eyes in" down pat. His favorite is jumping in! It's so fun to watch. A girl in our ward teaches the lessons and it's just Oliver and one other boy which I love. He loves swimming lessons, when I'm getting him ready to go he starts saying "water, water." It's so cute!

In other news. On one of Berto's days off last week we went to lunch and a movie and while we were out we went to Culver's!!!!! For those of you who have not been fortunate enough to experience Culver's it is AMAZING. It's something I was introduced to as a missionary in good ol' Wisconsin. A few weeks ago we found out we have a few here in Arizona. I'm just thankful the nearest one is a 40 minute drive... actually my hips are lucky! Culver's has okay food but the highlight of the Culver's experience is their frozen custard. Frozen custard is this super fattening, creamy, smooth delicious ice cream! For my missionary friends I've included a couple of pictures to make you drool!

The other random picture is just an adorable (in this mommies opinion) picture of my little Oliver fast asleep in his carseat. His lap is full of his favorite little animal toys and a water bottle and he has a pretzel in his hand that he was apparently saving for later! It was such a cute photo moment I couldn't resist!
Nothing too exciting in the Galindo world but we're going to get back into our blog.... again! :)

Cabin Fever Cures

Okay, so Oliver and I are suffering from "Cabin Fever." It has been (in my opinion) too hot to do too much playing outside and we don't have a car all that often these days and I have been feeling like all I do is let Oliver watch movies and play with his toys... and we're both getting bored! I've resorted to emailing a friend begging for suggestions which she was kind enough to oblige! (Thank you, Thank You again Tenille!)

This evening while I was looking on Sugar Doodle for some extras for my primary lesson I came across a section called "Boredom Busters." They have some cute suggestions to help inspire creativity to keep your kids occupied during (in our case) the summer and even the winter months (in other parts of the country) when it's not convenient to go outside! I'm so glad I came across this!!

Baseball Game/ Soccer Star

Last Friday we went to the Diamond vs Angels game at Chase Field! We had so much fun! Chase field is awesome! Up on the level where the cheap seats are they have a toddler playground, a bigger playground and a little baseball diamond where the little kids can go and try to hit a ball and run the bases. It is so cute! Oliver lasted the whole game and through the fireworks which was AMAZING. He is usually so set on his schedule that we were sure we'd end up leaving early with a screaming tired toddler. But he did great and had so much fun! We had a blast! Oliver seemed to be unimpressed by the fireworks show. I thought he'd really like them but he just sat there... and maybe he was just really tired. But at least he wasn't scared.

The other picture is of Oliver playing soccer through the house with Berto. He is such a good little soccer player already! I know this sounds like a slight exaggeration BUT seriously the day Oliver started walking he started kicking a soccer ball around. He can dribble it and everything and has really good control of the ball. It is so cute to watch! I love it!

Oliver is becoming quite the little chatter box. FINALLY! It is getting so fun to listen to his little conversations with himself. I'm still trying to figure out what the heck he's saying most of the time but we're getting there!

I love being this little boys mommy. He is so sweet and so much fun to be with! I feel so blessed to have been given the opportunity to be Oliver's mommy! I'm one lucky girl!

My Dad is the BEST! By Oliver Cole Galindo

Hi Everybody:
My mom is finally not hogging the computer. I've been dying to get on so I can tell you all what a great dad I have! He's the best. He works so hard for me and my mom. He works late at night and still gets up really early when I wake my parents up because I'm ready to play. He also is ALWAYS doing homework. Sometimes I wish he didn't have to do homework all the time... but mom says it won't be forever and once he's done with school it will be better for our future... whatever that means! Seriously though.. my dad is the best. He's fun to wrestle with, sit on, play soccer with and I especially love just hanging out on the couch watching my favorite movies with him! I am so lucky to have such a special dad! Mom and me decided to get him something really simple this year... mom stole the idea from Katrina Parker... she told me to make sure I mentioned that it was her idea.. grown ups are so weird! (Thanks for the idea Katrina). Anyway, we made him a bouquet of candy in a special mug just for him! The mug says "The greatest gift I ever had came from Heaven I call him Dad." I'm really glad that I have such a great dad! I hope he will always know how lucky we are to have him in our life! He's a really special guy!

Love you Dad!

Love,
Oliver

And we're back!

Okay, so I haven't blogged in forever! I just haven't been in the mood! Quick update on the nursery saga. Oliver is doing much better! Thank you to my mom and all of my mommy friends who helped talk me down off of my ledge! :) Two weeks ago he only fell asleep for a little while and then woke up and played and was not a wreck when I picked him up. And then the last Sunday he stayed awake the entire time and played with the toys and the kids! YAY!! Progress!
So we haven't been up to much lately. Here are a couple of pics. On is of Oliver and his Cousin Vandana on my sister in law Terry and Vandana's last morning here before they headed to their final destination before flying back to Spain. Oliver and Vandana had a fun time together while they were here! In this picture they were wrestling with a giant panda bear!
Yesterday we took Oliver to kids club at the mall. One of the perks is a free Carousel ride on the malls double decker carousel! Oliver LOVES the carousel! After we left the mall we headed over to the LDS distribution center to pick up a couple of things and while we were in the area we decided to walk around the grounds of the Mesa, AZ Temple. It was nice!
So all in all things are good with us! We hope everyone is doing well!
P.S. I started this post on Friday… it’s taken me FOREVER to get my pics uploaded. I don’t know what was going on but every time I tried to upload my internet would get knocked out… LAME!

Naptime Update

Okay, so as of today it has been three weeks of no nursing at naptime! We are in a routine again and Oliver doesn't even try to nurse at naptime at all anymore! YAY! After the first couple of days he doesn't even cry anymore (except on a very rare occasion)! I haven't started weaning him from his final before bedtime feeding yet. It's been a little hectic with my sister in law visiting and we're all a little out of whack. I will be starting that after she leaves in a little over a week.. wish me luck it's going to be a little harder than naptime I think! I'm really proud of my little man!

Nusery Time... the novel!

Okay, so I know I need to just chill out... but I'm so concerned for my little Oliver. Once again he slept through nursery. Last Sunday our ward was realigned and we switched schedules so now we start at noon. I put Oliver down for a nap for a little over an hour before we left for church hoping that he would stay awake. Berto can't attend church with us for a few months until he gets a different schedule so I'm on my own at church with Oliver and our primary class. (I'm most likely going to be released soon... ) So I took Oliver into the nursery before I went to primary and was having trouble sneaking away. He's usually fine if he doesn't see me leave the room. (No matter where we are at home, or church or anywhere I have to sneak away) So I had him playing with toys and kept heading to the door and just as I would get to the door he'd come running behind me to pull me back to whatever he was playing with. Finally I was almost out and he came running but I just kept going. Another mom was in there with her daughter (and she happens to be one of the moms of one of the kids in my class so she tried distracting him) apparently it worked for a little while and he was kicking the balls around and playing with dinosaurs. Then he did his usual and climbed up on a chair and just observed. Apparently he started dozing off while sitting on the chair so the nursery leader laid him down on the floor. At one point my class needed a potty break and the bathroom is right near where the nursery is so while they were going to the bathroom I peaked in on Oliver and that's when I found out he had been asleep. Well he slept for most of the time and woke up hysterical a few minutes before I came to pick him up. He never sleeps like this at home. I really worried that this is some kind of defense mechanism he has and that he's under so much stress being in nursery that his body just shuts itself down and goes to sleep. I know the nursery leaders are glad he's not one of the ones that cries and cries the whole time they're in the nursery... but I'm so worried for my baby boy. I worry about his social skills... but also about what's going on in the inside... am I traumatizing him?? I wonder if I had play dates with some of the other little kids if he'd recognize them and have an easier time? We still haven't gotten to know too many people and him and I pretty much spend our days together with no one else. I know I probably shouldn't read so much into all of this but it's really upsetting to me. I would love any helpful tips our outlooks from you other mommies... I'm such a basket case right now...

Imagination Avenue

Yesterday we wanted to do something on Berto's last day off that would be fun and inexpensive... and would entertain Oliver. I was doing some research online since we still don't really know the area to well and found this place called Imagination Avenue. It sounded like it would be really fun... and it was... just not exactly what we expected. It was definitely worth a one time experience but was on the way west side of Phoenix so it was a pretty far drive for us. Oliver had a blast playing with all the different toys and cars and in the different rooms. It was a fun time!

Papa Jose

Last night Berto's family got some upsetting news. My mother in laws father passed away. He was a man that loved to work. He was in his 90's and still the family would pool their money together to help him have a property to build a house on. House building was his hobby. His wish was to pass away on his property and that is what he did. As of right now they don't know the cause of death and don't know if an autopsy will be performed. We're hoping there will be one so the family can have closure. He lived a long life and left behind quite a legacy. Him and his wife had twelve of their own children and took in a thirteenth. They have a lot of grandchildren and great grandchildren. I was never privileged to meet Papa Jose. Since Berto and I have been together we haven't been able to afford a trip to Guadalajara, Mexico. Berto is sad that his grandpa passed away but we know he's in a better place. I'm so grateful for my husband and his sacrifices for our family. His parents, aunt and sister hopped on a plane early this morning to Guadalajara in order to make sure they were there for the funeral. Berto is not able to go because bereavement isn't paid at his work and we wouldn't be able to pay our bills if he took any unpaid days. I'm grateful to him for letting me stay home with Oliver especially during this time when I know if I were working he'd probably be able to be with his family during this time. He is such a great man. I am truly blessed.

Papa Jose will be greatly missed by his family. I wish I could have at least met this great man. I know I will someday and I will thank him for raising such a strong family that helped to mold my sweet husband.

The picture above is Papa Jose and his wife Mama Chayo on their 70th anniversary several years ago.

Pictures with Cousin V

My sister in law Terry and niece Vandana are visiting for the next three weeks from Spain. During their visit last year we started a tradition of having Oliver and Vandana's pictures taken together. Today was the day. We all survived... my sweet hubby ran himself ragged running back and forth through JC Penney's with Oliver while we took our sweet time picking out the shots we wanted to order. There were so many adorable ones. I'm just posting a few from the day. We got the "smiles by wire" service this time so we could save them to our computers and all that fun stuff. So we didn't actually order all of the ones I'm posting... but anyway they are so cute!

Vandana is such a sweet little girl and she LOVES her cousin Ollie. We're pretty sure he likes her too but one can never be sure! :) They are really cute together and standing right next to each other Oliver is just maybe an inch shorter than his almost 3 year old cousin! In the pics he looks a little shorter than that but he really is almost as tall. It has been so much fun with V this year. She's really talkative and SO cute! And every time (no matter what time of day or night) she comes downstairs or into a new room she says "Good Morning" or sings a good morning to you song. So funny and cute! She has a really sweet personality!

Anyway, enjoy the pictures!

Sleepy Head...

So today was kind of a wacky day. Oliver decided he needed to wake up at 5:30 am (yuck). Also, my sister in law and niece flew in from Spain last night so Oliver has been busy playing with his older cousin Vandana. I also took him for a haircut and when we got back (right at naptime) we decided to hop in the car and go to the store with my mother in law, father in law, sister in law and niece. Oliver dozed off in the car during the five minute drive there and I woke him up when we got to the store because I wanted him to take a nap in his bed when we got home. Well that didn't happen. Apparently his five minute nap was enough of to keep him going. Well, we had a birthday party to go to for our neighbors son. Oliver was needless to say CRANKY and only wanted to go outside in the blazing 104 degree heat. So he had many a meltdown during the hour we lasted at the party. We came home and I turned on the Lion King his current favorite flick and pumped him full of water, ice and yogurt. (the water and ice were for the heat and the yogurt was to fill his tummy since he refused to eat dinner while we were at the party). Anyway, once he had calmed down had a little snack and cooled off we were up to the bath tub. Once we finished that I had him on the changing table and was doing our usual routine of toothbrushing, lotion, diaper and pj's. Well before I even got his pajama shorts pulled up he was fast asleep. This is quite unusual for my little one. He's never been easy to put down to sleep. I even put his shorts the rest of the way, his t-shirt and moved him onto his bed without him even stirring... now it's only 7:06 pm and that is quite an early bedtime... I'm really hoping we don't have another 5:30 am wake up call I was really trying to get him to stay awake at lest until 7:00 pm... he made it to 10 till. I felt so bad that he was THAT tired. Too funny though!

Weaning Update... Days 2-5

I'm sorry if you follow our blog and fin this to be completely boring. This is also our little family journal so I want to record these things so Oliver knows what he put me through (jk) ... but really so we can look back and see what I did when we have other kids.

Anyway, so last Saturday was day two. We had another two hour event. It wasn't quite as bad as the first day. He didn't cry hysterically but did do quite a bit of screaming and after two hours was not going to sleep. So I decided to stick him in the car and go for a ride. I could feel myself losing steam so I decided it would be a good idea since we were going to be going out anyway we picked up my mom and headed out.

On Sunday Oliver took a nap during nursery at church. (see the post below) He hasn't been taking two naps lately no matter how hard I try but because he took such an early nap I thought he might be a little tired. I didn't have a fight in me on Sunday and I certainly didn't think I'd make it through two hours again so we decided to go ahead and hop in the car and take a drive. Which was nice anyway.

On Monday day four we went up at noon and turned on a movie. I laid him on his bed and was prepared for a screaming fit. Well he screamed for about a minute and within five minutes he was fast asleep. Yes I felt a wave of relief and was so proud of him and me for sticking to it.

Today (Tuesday day five) was not quite as easy. This morning we went to run an errand in the morning and he dozed off in the car for about ten minutes. I think this kind of threw us off. I didn't try putting him down until 12:30 pm but I think he was still not quite ready because of his little power nap. In any case he didn't cry he just had a few intermitent screaming fits and then a little over an hour later he was asleep.

Monday was such a miracle. I thought for sure it would be at least a week before anything got that easy. Today was a little set back but I know now to wait even longer if he has a little mini nap. I've been putting of the weaning because I just didn't think I had the fight in me. I'm proving to myself that I do but also Oliver is learning to be more independent which is good for him. I'm so proud of both of us. I'm really praying that tomorrow will go smoothly and we'll be able to have a smooth nap time.

Wish us luck!