Miracle!

I've got my wallet back! It was found (minus the $50 cash) in one of those big blue post office mailbox things that are on main street corners and stuff. Even though I had all the hassle of canceling cards and changing accounts and getting a new driver's license and freezing my credit etc., at least I have my stuff back in my hands, you know? I feel very blessed and so grateful that I have my wallet back!

Baby Shower!

Baby Micah we are ready for you! Yes we are going to name our baby boy Micah Kenneth Boyer! We are so excited for him to come - only 3 weeks left!
On Saturday Feb. 21st, my friends Evelyn and Elissa threw me a baby shower! It was so much fun! Any excuse for a party!

Mom and Lea came bearing gifts!

Lea and Elissa's daughter Zada passed the gifts to me to open! Seeing all the cute baby stuff made me super excited to have this little one come!!!

Good friends + Good Food = Great Time

Aunt Karen, Aunt Cheryl, Cousins - Angie, Elizabeth, and Renda, and my Grandma Urrutia came to support me too!

This picture above has Elissa on the left, Sabra, and Judy! Friends!

We didn't seem to get any great pics of me but here I am opening more gifts! Yay!

Fire Station Feild Trip

Here are some of the cute kids from preschool just outside the fire station.

Silly Faces!

Lea driving the fire truck!

Looking out from inside the fire truck.

Jonah - future fireman!

The fire fighters showed us the full extension of the ladder! It was cool!

All the little fire fighters by the pole!

Violated

So, today started as a wonderful day. In the morning I took the kids to the fire station for a preschool field trip. The weather was perfect. After several rainy days it was sunny. Then we played at the park and went home for lunch. The kids played in the back yard and I got some bills paid, then we watched an episode of scooby doo while I took out a sliver from Jonah's finger. We went to the grocery store and Lea and Jonah were very good. Amazingly they didn't whine or beg for anything. We paid for our groceries and bagged everything up and took our stuff to the car when I realized that I didn't have my wallet. I went back inside the store to the cashier at the cash register and asked if he had seen a wallet. I looked all over, went back to my car to check the grocery bags - no wallet. After the manager reviewed the video tape from that regisster, it turns out a woman 2 people behind me stole my wallet. It was very obvious that she was being sneaky about it and stole it. This was no accident. So of course I feel violated and vulnerable. All of my credit cards, debit cards, $50 cash, drivers liscence, a bank card with my checking account number, Lea and Jonah's birth certificates, my insurance cards, everything was in my wallet! I feel terrible! What a horrible ending to a great day. The police have the lady's name and liscence plate number and she is caught on tape. I am just so sad that she made that bad decision. It really hurt my peace of mind! I don't know if I'll get my wallet back, but it really stinks!

Valentines Day

Valentines Day started with a yummy heart-pancake breakfast!

Lea and Jonah really liked these!

We exchanged Valentines and Lea and Jonah got cute little Teddy Bears that they haven't let out of their sight!

This TV for the kitchen was the Valentine's gift for Dan and I from each other. This will come in handy because I love to cook and bake and now I can watch TV while I'm doing it. Before this we only had one TV in our bedroom so now this one is downstairs for us to enjoy.

My mom took Lea and Jonah to visit my Grandma in the afternoon and early evening, so Dan took me to The Olive Garden (our favorite restaurant) and a movie (He's Just Not That Into You). We enjoyed our time together and Daniel gave me these beautiful roses. We spent the night at my mom's house to play games with her after the kids went to sleep and all in all it was a fabulous Valentines Day.

I Remember

I remember sitting in a pew and watching you with longing eyes as you took a seat in front of me. You moved with confidence and pose that was so very attractive. Your hair was summer blond from summer activity, adorning your slight frame asking to be played with. I remember thinking I ought to approach you. I mustered up a reserve of attitude and forced myself forward. You looked at me as I stammered a confusing, “can you scoot over?” From there, it was a smilefest. I could not stop smiling as we flirted, taunted and jousted our way through ridiculous conversation. It’s about intent, not content, right? Well, with every easy laugh you delivered a measure of confidence I have never felt before. I let myself go; it was easy to be me with you. Comfortable. You were to my self confidence like a renewal of self when self wasn’t questioned, just assumed as wonderful. This time of self assuredness is had for most functional children from birth to about five or six. I was five again and prancing about, showing off my charm, willing to believe that I could not go wrong. You smiled, you laughed. You teased and prodded. I felt the slow, slinking feeling of a willing heart being hijacked. It really did feel like a hijacking. Well, actually, I have no idea if that's true, but it definitely feels like control of emotion was transferred; that wonderfully scary initial stage of love when nothing is known and all is hoped for. The next couple of weeks, we nary missed a night of kidding, cuddling, inquiry and discovery. I remember thinking I was playing it cool, keeping kissing out of our daily content. I was wrong, and loved you for showing me so when you sent a machine gun spattering of questions at me.
“So Dan, what’s the deal? Am I like a sister to you? Are you gay? Why haven’t you kissed me yet?”
The honesty in this approach was so refreshing. This girl wants me to kiss, well, okay, I want to kiss her. There was never much of a guessing game with you.

Through our courtship and almost seven years of marriage, this transparency has enabled our relationship and understanding of our love to master change, change and more change, through communication of thought, feeling and desire. To love is to show, in the act is to know. I know you love me, because you give up the “me” in you as you give of yourself to me, you know what I mean? To say why I love you is actually to define how you show me your love.
You care for my thoughts. You show this with your piercing eyed inquiries, seeking me to relay and expound the detail of my day, my passions and dreams, ideas and esteems.
You care for my comfort, shown as you magnify your expertise in the monotony that is domestic engineering. It has joys I know, but paramount in your day is service to me and soon to be, our little ones, three.
You care for my ego; ergo you carefully construct your loving compliments that can tend to deny what reality replies.
You care for my joy, shown by sending me free on dangerous days of rivers raging, or staging serendipitous delights of activities in spite of personal desire.
You care for my Soul, through careful reminders to remember our Savior in saving our souls from the tolls of our trials and sins.

I love you Aleena, I hope I can show you so.

To My Dearest Love...

Today is Valentine's Day and I wanted to write a special ode to my amazing husband Daniel! Not only is he a great, captivating, and eloquent writer, he is also a patient partner, a good listener, a dynamic and generous lover, a confidant, a creative and spontaneous activity planner, a man with good ideas, a cozy cuddle-buddy, a sympathetic shoulder to cry on, a confidence booster, a fun and loving father, a competitive athlete, an awesome kisser, a strong protector, an excellent provider, a dedicated family-man, an empowering leader, a sincere person, a persistent idea promoter, an adventure seeker, a respecter of people, a natural with animals, a nature man and river runner, a spiritual strength, and a forgiving and understanding friend. There are many more wonderful qualities that he possesses that make me love him SO MUCH! Thank you Daniel for making me the happiest woman in the world. I wouldn't change a thing about you and I truly and eternally LOVE YOU! Happy Valentines Day!