Adiós 2020

2020 was without a doubt one for the books. I mean, I don’t know about you but in my 33 years of life I had not lived through a pandemic. A word wide pandemic. It’s crazy to believe all the lessons 2020 has taught us. So many happy moments as well as tears. Tears of joy, tears of misfortune, tears of gratitude. I felt so blessed at the end of 2019 and I welcomed 2020 with open arms, believing that life couldn’t get any better. Well, technically it could of but I believed to I had everything I had ever prayed for. Then 2020 come around. We all got sick. I mean really really sick. Then things started to go down hill from there. So much so that I worried. A lot! More from of fear of the unknown than anything else. Yet there were so many hidden blessings. Blessings so big yet seeming so small that you’d almost missed it. And even with the feeling of misfortune I felt so blessed. Little by little and month after month I started to put in perspective the true meaning of life. Health. Family. Comfort. Trust. Peace. Reassurance. Joy. 

Although this pandemic took so many lives, and affected as well as changed so many lives, it was also a realization to be thankful for the little things we often take for granted. I hope to never forget the lessons learned. To never lose hope. To be kind and optimistic. To reach out to those I love and care about. Most importantly to never take a single moment or person for granted. The world change so rapidly. Life can change in the blink of an eye. Tomorrow is not promised. We must appreciate everything waking and breathing moment we are allowed. But you know what’s the most importance lesson I learned? To always trust my God! I may not know what tomorrow holds, but I certainly know who holds tomorrow and his love for me, for us the human race, has no limits. 

Happy New Year friends! May your new year be peaceful and prosperous! 

Family Pictures 2020

Back in September we were able to schedule a family photo session that I was able to use for our Christmas cards this year. I love capturing the moments in which my boys are still young and innocent. Looking at the framed photos and the albums with these beautiful memories are priceless. Our oldest will soon be out of high school and heading into college which will inevitably lead to relationship, marriage, and children and well I don’t think I’m ready for all that. I intend to treasure the next several years with him and continue to capture their ages as I know they will only be little once and teenagers for a little while. 

 

 

 

  

 I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and are enjoying the Holidays with your loved ones, even if it’s a tad bit different than years past. 

Christmas 2020

It's been a while since I posted anything, yet given the time of year it's only fair I share a glimpse of our home. There are so many updates that I have and I want to share here but those will come in due time. For now I hope these pictures bring you some cheer. 

 

Did I mention we had our first snow day? Oh it was magical friends!

Only 4 more sleep till Christmas.

D

Christian is 1!

 

My sweet Christian Jeremiah I cannot believe that you’ve been with us for over a year now. Every time I look at you I’m still amazed at my reality of being a mother to three handsome boys. I feel so blessed to call you ours my sweet boy. You are full of light and love and have the most contagious smile. I love waking up in the morning to your kisses, sometimes your smacks, but I can’t even get mad at you when I look into your eyes. That being said yes you sometimes sleep with us but only because your room is far from our bedroom and I’m still not comfortable leaving you there all night. 

Ever since you were born you have had your very own bedtime routine. You expect your night time bath between 6-7pm ish or you start to get fussy. Then after some milk and cuddles you’re fast asleep. We put you in your crib, some days you wake up and that’s when I take you upstairs sometimes I just want my bed so I carry you up and pray that you don’t wake. But every time you get on my chest you just want my boobs which brings me to say that we are still breast-feeding.

I can’t believe we're still breastfeeding. It was a struggle the first time around and I only made it to six month. The second time around we made it to the 12 months mark but it was very very hard and now it's been over the one year mark and you want nothing to do with letting it go. Which is fine by me since you’re my last baby and I will never get to do this again. 

You love your brothers so much and they love you too. I am curious to see how the relationship between you all will be as the years pass being that you are all almost 7 years apart. As of right now I love the unique relationship that they have with you. Your older brother loves you very much but he is a teenager of little patience and can only handle you in doses. And your little brother he is a wild child that goes down to your level. He plays with your toys, spins you around, feeds you, cuddles you, it’s like you guys are just a couple years apart. It's so funny to watch you two play. You love him so much your face lights up every time you see him. When you’re napping and you wake up you stand in your crib and you yell for him "AJ AJ" it’s the cutest. You’re constantly calling for him, when he enters the house or when you can’t see him you call for him  until he comes for you. I think you call them both AJ but you know that the are two different persons.

You are such a good eater. You love everything from chicken to pork, steak, and beef. Quesadillas, cheese, and yogurt are your favorite. You love fruits but you don’t like the texture too much you, would prefer to have them as purées. You can tolerate bananas sometimes and watermelon but everything else you love as purée specially vegetables. We gave you spaghetti for the first time not too long ago and I was surprised to see that you liked it you kept wanting more. Bread, rice, and beans are all a plus for you. Definitively not a bad eater. You get that from your oldest brother.

You loved the pool and being in water, you are always down for a splash fight and you will not back down. You are so loved Christian! I loved not knowing the gender when you were still in my belly. Everyone loves you so much, you are one special little boy and I look forward watching you grow, seeing your personality develop, and hearing your little voice.

You say words like hi, bye-bye, daddy, mama, thank you and gracias. Teta and leche are big ones. As of lately you've been saying more, no, and stop. You’vebeen walking around calling me mom. You just randomly walk into the kitchen saying "mom mom" and all I can do is laughed because that’s what your brothers call me and I think you’re picking up after them. You play peekaboo and have learned a few body parts, more specifically in your face. You started to walk right at 11 months and now you can go up and down the stairs and get up and down from the couch and AJs bed. You love climbing and doing anything that I would prefer you don't do. Quite the temperament that you already little one. 

You are our last baby and I truly couldn’t have asked for anyone better than you my littlest boy. We love you far beyond the moon baby boy, welcome to toddlerhood. 

Entryway Reveal

 

 It's been a long time coming friends. A look into our home room by room. I am so proud of all that we have been able to get done in this home since moving in. Believe it or not when we first moved in I had no idea this would be the final look. I surprised myself with this little space and the other spaces we have completed so far.

This post will only include the entryway as there are some little details that I love and wanted to share. Funny story. We had friends over several weeks ago and she mentioned that our home was "such an Etsy home". I laugh just thinking about it because days later I thought to myself, maybe she should have said a Pinterest home since that's where all my ideas came from lol. I just happened to purchased some things from Etsy :)

Both wooden signs hubby and I made at home. I kept seeing the wooden sign with large hooks all over Pinterest but no link to purchase it from and one day I thought well maybe I can just make it. I searched Amazon for the hooks and found the exact ones I wanted. Hubby picked up some boards for me, then I stained it by mixing two stain colors, and he added the hooks. 

Something I have learned about hubby since moving in is that he's very precise when doing things, especially things with measurements. I love that and I love watching him work. 

This little board I saw on Etsy but I wanted to keep the same to very similar stain color theme throughout the house. I had my mother-in-law make the words in her Circuit machine, we picked up hooks at Home Depot, and again I stained and hubby added the hooks for me. Right before hanging it Hubby's stepdad rounded the edge for me and I loved the way it turned out. I want him to do that to the bigger board as well eventually. 

Every piece here was thoughtfully chosen but my absolute favorite piece here is the lumbar pillow with the coordinates. I love thoughtful, personalized details and this was the perfect piece to finish this area. I look forward to dressing this area for the seasons :). 

Across from the bench is a closet with sliding doors. I want to change the doors eventually to give it more of a rustic feel but for now it's just plain white doors to a coat closet. 

Directly pass the entryway is the formal sitting area, aka #mommystimeoutroom as I joke to the kids. This room just need some wall decor before it gets blogged but here's a little sneak peak ;)

Home Sweet Home

Let’s talk home updates.  

It’s been just about seven months since we moved into our home. When we first saw the home we fell in love and now that I’m thinking about it I don’t really know why. Maybe because they had it nicely decorated? For their own taste of course but it was definitely an eye catcher. Maybe it was the layout? Or better yet the nice patio, large yard, and most prettiest landscape. They knew exactly how to suck us in. If I am being honest, with all the updates we’ve done to this home I wonder what was it that made us love it so much when we first saw it. 

Our home was built in the 70s and had only been occupied by the original owners. We loved knowing that they were the only owners that’s for sure. Yet as the months pass by and we see all the DIY projects they did that were pretty much shitty work we wonder how we didn’t see it on the first look. Or the inspection day. Or the walk through. I just don’t know what we were thinking. My only guess is that it was simply meant to be.

It was listed as a move in ready. Which it was. We knew we’d be changing wall colors and replacing a reddish/burgundy carpet that was in one of the bedrooms, updating the bathrooms one in particular as soon as possible, and further down the road doing a kitchen renovation to make it more modern and functional. But we never  thought that something as simple as removing a carpet would lead to finding rotted floors caused by prior water damage that was not fixed correctly which would very rapidly increase our "carpet changing budget". Ever since then I feel like every room we update is more than “just a wall color change or adding trimming”. 

I plan on going room by room to show a before and after picture but this post in particular I will be showing y’all our (or rather my) mood board with our plans for certain areas of the house. We started with the family room, dinning room, and what I call the little boys bathroom. Just some paint, a brick wall whitewash, and some decor so stay tune for that! 

For several weeks now we’ve been updating our entryway and formal living room. That’s almost complete. We just have to finish the painting, some minor touches, and then furnish it. I look forward on sharing that space and what we decided to do with it. Now we’re moving on to the bathroom located in the formal living room area which is also connected to my oldest bedroom. That bathroom is a pretty nice size so we’re planning on dividing it into a small powder room in the front with its entrance located right in the living room and keeping the back part as an en suite to our oldest bedroom. Spoil much? He’s pretty excited about it because our original plans were to close off the entrance from his bedroom and just this week we decided to leave him his personal bathroom. 

In between all of this hubby and I are giving my oldest bedroom a facelift. His room is going to be pretty cool I tell you but you’ll have to keep checking back to read about our plans for his bedroom 😉. 

Here are our mood boards for the entryway and powder room. 

Europe Babymoon: Barcelona

When I decided to make our Europe trip a two country trip I was very hesitant to book Barcelona. I didn’t know much about it. It didn’t seem that there were many places that hubby would enjoy visiting and honestly nothing seemed as interesting to me. However, I am so glad I took a leap of faith and booked it. Barcelona was amazing in its own way. We fell in love from the moment we landed. 

Our flight from Paris was from the Ory Airport and it was approximately 1.5 hours. This flight however was delayed almost five hours. We were schedule to flight out at 3pm and we didn’t leave till after 7pm. It was very frustrating spending all that time in the airport but the airline did provide food vouchers while we waited so that was nice. 

The airport in Barcelona was so easy to get through and the taxi system was so straightforward to utilize. Seriously that right there had me so happy because I know how it is in the Caribbean and Mexico and it is pure chaos. On that night there was a big soccer game, Barcelona vs Madrid and everything was pretty much shut down. Is funny because I contemplated getting tickets for this game as our big splurge for this part of the trip and boy am I glad I didn’t get those tickets. One of my concerns was in fact if we would have had a delay and we sure did so not getting those pricey tickets was the right decision.

We stayed at the Barcelona Hotel Colonial and it was beautiful. The location was great we were only about a fifteen minute walk from La Ramblas and we had many restaurants and eateries near by. There were bus stops a few steps away from the hotel as well as a train station. We didn’t utilized the train but the bus was easy to figure out. It also helped that we understood the language so I would just tell the driver upon entering where we were heading and if he would signal us when we should get off. For this to work you must stay closer to the front of the bus so that the driver don’t forget about you :). 

Attractions that we visited in Barcelona included:

Las Ramblas/Boqueria Market: This was hubby favorite place, more so the market. It was like having a child stroll through a huge candy store. I have to admit, so many food to try and the natural juices were so good! However due to my pregnant state at the time I didn’t dare to try everything he did. And the prices were very reasonable as well. 

Casa Batllo + Casa Mila (La Pedrera): We visited both of these location on the same day. I personally enjoyed Casa Mila the most as their audio tour was very informative and I was able to see the world through Gaudi’s eyes. It was an amazing experience and the sights from the very top were beautiful. I enjoyed our time in Casa Batllo but it was under construction and although very nice and different from the other site it didn’t give me the warm fuzzy feeling Casa Mila gave me. 

Gothic Quarter: Such an adorable area. We didn’t really venture deep into the gothic quarter but the little bit that we did see we loved. There were so many hidden gems. From restaurants to bar to shopping. Is easy to get lost as you’re wondering through but it feels so nice to walk through the narrow streets and take it all in. It was so different from what we are used to in the states. 

Sagrada Familia: My favorite attraction of the trip. Guys this is a must do. Must see. Must tour. It was so easy to get in, meaning there were no set backs or no issues. You have to pass through security and a checkpoint but as long as you are complying with their rules you shouldn’t have any issue getting in and the line moved pretty fast. I have no regrets. Except I should have gotten the tickets that gave us a tour of the top as well. 

Barceloneta Beach: We took several strolls on the beach but since we went in the spring time the weather was not beach weather. I think we had one good day where the temperature was in the high 70s but we were far from the beach for the day. 

We didn’t get to visit all the attractions on our itinerary because we decided to go at a slower pace this time around. I feel like Barcelona, or maybe even Spain as a whole, moves at a slower pace. The time seemed to somewhat drag a little and nothing ever felt rushed. It was a very weird feeling but much appreciated. We would always be back at our hotel by 6/7ish at night and we would just rest or go down to the lobby area. Then we would go out for a night stroll, late dinner, and pick up midnight snacks. I would always get hungry around 11pm which would be dinner time in the states so it made sense. 

Can I just say that Tapas in Spain are to die for! Gosh we ate so much and enjoyed everything we ordered. There was nothing we didn’t like. We tried pretty much all types of Paellas. And the simple things like bread with a tomato spread and olive oil was just so delicious. Hubby was loving all the seafood, especially in the market. We had a very nice breakfast one morning in the Gothic Quarter that was beyond amazing and we had a very late dinner at this hidden gem that although was the tiniest place their dishes were definitely gourmet. Honestly most of our budget was used up on food. We spent a lot less then expected in Paris so we had a lot more spending money here. One thing I would tell you is to compare prices on money changing places before doing so and better yet avoid it all together. We would use card card to pay for almost everything but it was pointless to pay for just a water or something small and that's where having local currency comes in. We changed the same amount at two different location and one beat us on “fees”.  When we tried changing our dollars the second time they literally took almost half of our American money after it was all finalized and there was nothing we could do about it. 

When we return to Barcelona I would love to make it to Park Guell and to the Montjuic Hill Attractions, specifically the magic fountain. I was hoping to see the sound and light show but that too was happening on the day that we arrived and we were not going to make it on time plus we weren’t up to the adventure late at night without knowing the area at all. 

Overall, this baby moon was a dream come true. A year later and I remember those moments so vividly and I am so thankful for the experience, specially with all of this Social Distancing. I look forward to planning our next trip, God willing with our boys, and visiting more of Europe.