Happy New Year!

Since I haven't blogged in a few months and I never got around to sending Christmas cards/newsletter, here is a short summary of the year's happening for the Cruz family.

At the end of 2009 we moved into the home that Eric and I built in the Eastwood neighborhood of Houston. Our home was featured in a historic neighborhood home tour in October of this year. We had over 400 people come through our home in two days. It was enjoyable, and it definitely forced us to finish up our never-ending home projects! It fell smack in the middle of a very busy campaign season, but we survived!

Isaac is 5 and attends kindergarten at our neighborhood school and loves every minute of it! He is very social, and thrives at school and at church. He started piano lessons this year, and has picked up on it quickly. He loves to write. He is constantly carrying around a notebook and pen, and writing little notes and stories. I kept asking him what he wanted for Christmas, and every time he replied "a notebook". (I hope his wishes are always this simple!).

Javier just turned 3 in October. He is quite the conversationalist, and loves to talk to anyone who will listen about his trains! He enjoys wrestling his brothers, playing with his trains, and being very active. He is still not potty trained :(!

Baby Benji turned 1 in October, also. He continues to enamor everyone with his head bobbling. He loves moving his head to music, and enjoys throwing balls and anything else he can get a hold of. He is not walking yet, and mommy’s arms are very strong from carrying around a 25 lb. baby!

I had quite a life-changing experience. I ran for the school board for the Houston Independent School District. I never imagined myself as a political candidate, but the inequities in the quality of public education drove me to want to fight for change. The campaign consumed our entire lives. Our extended family and close friends really stepped in and helped with the kids and volunteered hours upon hours of blockwalking and phonebanking! They made it possible to even consider running! I led on November 2 with 14 percentage points among six candidates. I went into run-off and lost by 44 votes. We were disappointed after having worked so hard, but felt that it was a huge learning experience for all of us. We were shocked at how dirty the politics got, and never expected that in a school board race. But, we held our heads and high, and ran a clean campaign. The kids enjoyed the attention and meeting so many people. Isaac asked me just yesterday if we were going to campaign again. He really enjoyed blockwalking!

Eric started a new job in the summer at Cornerstone Mortgage, which was named one of the top 10 companies to work for in Houston. He works as a report writer/database administrator. He will be taking classes next year for project management. He was very supportive of me throughout the campaign, and really helped in every aspect! I couldn't have done it without him!

My youngest sister, Esther, moved in with us in the summer. She just graduated from Texas State in social work, and is now working in Houston with Baylor’s community outreach. She is planning on starting her master's degree this year, also in social work. She, also, helped out tremendously with the kids and the campaign!

We finally got to meet our niece, Vinisha! Jen and Vinisha came for a visit to the U.S. this summer and stayed with us for almost two months. Mohan came briefly since he is busy with all of his many jobs! We were ecstatic to see them after two years and thrilled to meet our only niece! The boys had a blast playing/fighting together. Javi still calls her "Meneesha". We were all sad to see them leave and hope that they will be here soon (They say they are moving back in May!)

The boys are growing so fast, and it saddens me that they won't stay cute and little forever!!! They keep us busy and on our toes, and they remind us how precious our relationships are.

We feel extremely blessed to be surrounded by loving and supportive family and friends. We are grateful to have each of you in our lives. We hope that you had a restful and peaceful holiday season. We wish you peace, health, and happiness for 2011!

"Cabecita"

Baby Benji continues to be a little bobblehead! He enamors people wherever we go with his head dancing. He seriously does it all day long, and I still get cuted out by it! Here he is with my brother, his namesake, dancing to the beat. He is either going to be a musician, a composer, or a dancer! Or maybe all three! Its funny that my brother is also a musician!

He just turned eight months. He is sitting up, and finally eating some solids--mostly squash and banana. He is more interactive and "talkative". He moves around the floor just from wiggling, but he is not crawling yet!

Piano and Ballet Folklorico

My friend, Danae approached me about teaching her girls ballet folklorico. Although, I haven't taught kids that young before, I was up for the challenge! In exchange, she is teaching Isaac piano lessons.

The dance classroom? my garage! Here are my beautiful students: Tori, Lani, and Sienna. We also have Javier (not my Javi, a much bigger boy), but he was not here the day we took the picture!

When I filmed this video of Isaac, it was at the beginning of his lessons (about two months ago), and since then he has learned so much! He has really taken an interest in it (much more than I imagined!). So, I hope he doesn't ever lose that interest!

Isaac's First Year of School

Isaac completed an entire year of Pre-K at Lantrip Elementary. Here he is pictured with his teacher, Ms. Anna Aguilar. He got off to a rocky start, but he ended up LOVING school, his teachers, and all his buddies. He would come home everyday and re-enact his school day. He learned to read and write in Spanish, so we are working on English literacy this summer. We are excited that Isaac will be attending kindergarten at the same school but in the magnet program for environmental science: one of his favorite interests! It is ranked very high amongst all of the Houston area elementary schools, so we feel very blessed! Way to go Isaac!

Abuelito's Visit

My eighty-seven year old grandfather came to visit in April and stayed for six weeks. The boys got attached to him, especially Javi, who followed him everywhere! He made a kite for the boys, which we were able to fly a couple of times before it got stuck in a very tall tree! We really enjoyed his visit and we hope we can go to Guatemala to visit him soon!

First Father/Son Camping Trip

Our stake (church organization) had a father/son camp-out the last weekend in April. Eric was really excited to take the boys since they all love camping. Isaac has been asking to go for a while. We were a little hesitant to send Javi since he has been a total mama's boy since the baby was born, but he did just fine. Eric said he only asked for me once when he woke up in the middle of the night. The rest of the time he was having too much fun to remember me! There were several people from our ward there, so the boys had lots of buddies to hang out with. Eric also took one of the youth in our ward, Aaron. They said they got super hot in the middle of the night, and thankfully it stopped raining the night before, so they had great weather otherwise! They tried to go fishing, but got lost trying to find the lake since they didn't have a map!

My First Baseball Game

All the boys in the family went to an Astros game. My Abuelito was here from Guatemala for a few weeks, and he is an absolute baseball fanatic, so they took him and all the boys (four generations!) to the game. It was also a belated celebration for my dad's birthday. This was Isaac's first baseball game and he loved it! We weren't sure if he was going to get bored if the game got too long, but he seemed interested the whole time. I think his favorite part was when a home run was hit, and the train lit up with firecrackers (what little boy wouldn't love this?). Out of all the sports, baseball seems to be the one Isaac shows the most interest in. He will start t-ball in the fall. He keeps asking me to go an Astros game especially when we drive by Minute Maid Park. He starts chanting, "Go, go astros, let's go!" So, hopefully we will be taking more often, especially since we live only five minutes from the ball park!!!!

Books!

These boys love to read books! They read in bed, on the couch, on the floor, in the car, and even on the potty! Their absolute favorite book is "My Big Train Book". They both have it memorized, literally! I need to get them on video reading it!

Bobblehead

Benji wobbles his head back and forth all day long--its too cute!

6 months and growing

Little Benji is our chunky baby! He is so cute and easy going!!! He is always happy, not fussy! :) He turns over from his back to tummy. He enjoys his bouncy chair, loves to be outside, and he is very wiggly!

He turned six months on the 17th, so we gave him his first bite of solid food--banana. He gagged and spit it up! So, I tried again, and the same thing happened. I don't think he's ready for solids yet!

Manamana and Huga Wuga

My brother, Tio Mincho, loves to entertain the boys with you tube videos. He found some muppets videos that they just love! They sing along with them everytime they watch them. You can watch them here and here. They are old school and hilarious!

A couple of months ago, my other brother, Tio DJ, bought them these monsters from the characters of "Where the Wild Things Are". To tell the truth, Isaac was quite scared and didn't want his monster. They are kinda scary looking, aren't they? So, my dad told him that their names were Huga Wuga and Manamana. Well, that made him warm up to the monsters quite quickly. So, the first few days Isaac was inseperable from his monster, Huga Wuga. So, Javi's monster became Manamana. Both boys have to have their monsters to go to sleep! They have never been attached to a particular stuffed animal, so its funny that they are attached to their monsters!

My adorable boys!

Train Watching

So, as Javi is obsessed with trains, and Isaac has always enjoyed them, the boys love to watch the train that comes through our neighborhood. (Yes, its pretty loud, but you get so used to it you tune it out). They can see it between the houses across the street. Everytime they hear the horn blow, they RUN to the window and yell, "Train!!!!". I mean everytime, day or night. The night ones they usually sleep through, but every once in a while at three in the morning, they will come running to our room to see the train.

I had to take a picture of them because this is their favorite hobby--train watching--have you ever heard of such a thing?

If you look hard enough in the picture, you can actually see the train!

My "Mio"

So, when I was a toddler, I had a security blanket (it was actually my mom's silky blue bath robe) that I used to call my "mio". I didn't part with it until I was about four or five. I used to suck my thumb as I ran the silky material through my fingers.

Well, Javi stopped nursing (that used to be his security blanket) about three months before Benji was born. When he would get upset, nothing could comfort him. When he wanted to go to sleep, he didn't have anything to comfort him. So my mom decided he needed a "mio", so she sewed together some silky scraps of cloth and that became Javi's "mio". He can't go to sleep without it! Thanks, Abuela for making it!

(He just woke up in this picture, so he is looking a little grouchy!)

Sick Days and Green Days

So, it seems since Benji was born we have been so sickly! Javi and I got sick at least once a month since October from stomach viruses to colds. We had quite the scare when Baby Benji got croup back in January. My kids always seem to get sick on weekends, and I really hate to take them to an emergency room for something minor! So, we waited it out with Benji. His breathing was labored, but he was happy the whole time. He wasn't blue or anything, so we knew they wouldn't give him steroids in his condition. That Saturday night seemed like the longest night of my life! Eric and I took turns holding him all night with the hot shower running to create steam, alternating with the cool mist humidifier. We wanted him to be as comfortable as possible, and we were scared to death to fall asleep since his breathing was so labored. By Sunday evening his breathing was back to normal, just had that horrible cough. When I took him to the doctor on Monday, she couldn't believe he had croup (until she heard him cough). He got over it so quickly--I attribute it to nature's best baby medicine--breastmilk!!! So, while Benji had croup, Javi and I also had some sort of cold. Those days seemed slow and eternal!

This last bug I got, it took me a good week to get over it. I was going on very little sleep the week before doing stuff for my sister-in-law's upcoming wedding. After getting sick this last week, I told myself, I have to go to bed early. I can't stay up late no matter what! Its so tempting to clean and do personal things while the kids sleep, but my health is more important! I can't pull all-nighters anymore--I'm not 20 anymore! I only wish I could call in sick, but no such thing for a mommy of three!

So, it seemed like a super long winter to me. Not only was it cold and gloomy, but because we were always sick, we hardly left the house! So, now we are healthy and spring is here!

On a happier note, Isaac has been getting "green" every day at school. They give him a color (red, yellow, green) depending on his behavior. He hasn't been super naughty, but he is a talker and loves to socialize! But, I think he has FINALLY caught on to the structure of school and what is and isn't appropriate behavior.

Baby Benji aka Minchito

Here is little Benji who is now five months old! I've hardly posted pictures since we have been so busy and sickly lately! And I haven't had a camera (this picture I took with my dad's camera), but I just ordered one online, so watch out, I might go blog crazy!

He is a VERY happy, easy-going baby, and he is also quite big!!! He is already 20 lbs. and wearing 12 mo. clothing. To say the least, my arms are strong! He is very wiggly, so I think he is going to be an active little boy! We call him Minchito because the nickname in Guatemala for Benji is Mincho.

Our First Home

So, the townhome finally sold. First and foremost, a big shout out to our dear friend, Dulce, who was our realtor. She was very patient, especially dealing with the buyers and their realtor. We went back and forth so many times. We almost backed out, they actually did back out of the contract, but then we came back and negotiated one more time!

We feel very blessed that it sold because we could not afford to pay two mortgages! There were six townhomes (including ours) for sale in our complex, so when ours got the first offer, I knew God was looking out for us! However, we are sad only because it was our first home and we have so many memories there. I have to admit, I DON'T miss the kitchen in it! But, it was time to have more space for our growing family, and we LOVE our new house! So, alas the end of an era.

Christmas and More 2009

We had a very busy and fun holiday this past season. It started with me making cakes--not the typical holiday baking, just the timing. I made a cake for my cousin's daughter's birthday and then I made a cake for my sister-in-law, Sarai's bridal shower. I (and Eric, my assistant) stayed up very late too many nights in a row making these cakes. They turned out pretty good and as stressful as it was, it was fun, too!

Then, we had a bridal shower for Sarai two days before Christmas since she was only in town for a few days. So, lots of preparation and a houseful of people, but I think she enjoyed it as did we all (especially the food--thanks Sam and Annette!). The day after the shower, my mom and I were supposed to make Guatemalan tamales, which is a very lengthy and tedious process. So, when she called me in the morning to make plans, she realized how exhausted I was and said she was too, so we decided not to make them after all. I was relieved, but also disappointed because its a tradition in the Jacob family to make them every Christmas, so it felt like something was missing this year. So, instead we bought homemade Salvadorean and Mexican tamales!

We spent the 23rd and the 24th with my family. We made a gingerbread house with the boys. It was fun because everyone participated and made a huge, sugary mess! My dad and Isaac baked the actual house. :) We ate our tamale dinner (accompanied by my mom's yummy waissal) at midnight, then we had our traditional christmas program. Its definitely gotten simpler over the years. We used to act out the Nativity and everything, but now we just read Luke 2 and sing some Christmas carols. Then, we open the gifts, so by the time its all over, its usually super late. The boys stayed up until 2AM!

We spent the 25th with Eric's family, and we celebrated in our new home! My mother-in-law, Sarai, Sam and Annette made the traditional tamales and we ate more and more (I ate way too much during the holidays!). The boys got tons of gifts from both families and continue to be super spoiled. They got several trains to add to their collection, what could make them happier? Javi's favorite was the train whistle from his Tio Mincho. When I first blew on it, he stopped everything he was doing, he thought it was a real train! He has almost figured out how to blow the whistle himself!

We attended several holiday parties and my cousins were in town from Idaho so we spent some time with them as well. We were exhausted by the new year, but enjoyed spending time with family and friends!

(I dont' have any pics of Christmas with Eric's family yet--I have to rely on everyone else since my camera pooped out a couple of months ago!)

Baby Benjamin--Photo Shoot

My sister-in-law, Julie, wanted to take pictures of Benjamin, and I've always wanted to have newborn pics of my babies! He was a great model, and lasted through many outfits and positions without getting fussy. I think we only took one nursing break. There were many pictures, but these are some of my favorites! These were taken when he was one week old at the end of October.