Thank You Tia Carolina, Abuelita and Kids!

Maybe Someday...

On my list of things to do before I die: See Swell Season perform live. I was so close... They're performing here in SLC at the Jeanne Wagner Theater on November 28th, but sadly I will not be crossing it off my list this year. The show sold out so quickly, I never even had a chance. Someday...

Playing in the Leaves

This was just a random day during the week after work. Who could resist a big pile of freshly fallen leaves to jump into?

Random Obession: King Henry VIII and The Tudor Era

I know this sounds crazy, but I’ll explain… For a while I’ve been curious about Showtime’s “The Tudors”, secretly because I have a large crush on the actor that plays Henry (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). I’ve heard it was “just ok”, but I decided to give it an episode or two to see for myself. I was immediately hooked. I watched episodes whenever I could, which wasn’t very often. Angel had no interest, and it’s definitely not a show for Sonja. It got to a point where I just couldn’t wait between episodes anymore. I finally stayed up all night watching practically the entire 2nd season! By the time it was over, I was completely mesmerized. I continued to look online for more about King Henry and his six wives. Then I got into Queen Elizabeth, and now I want to learn all about her! My Netflix account is full of movies and documentaries about the Tudor era. It kind of spoiled the story as far as the show is concerned, but I couldn’t help myself. I’ve had dreams about it and everything. Obsess much? What will be next, Daniel Boone? Make a movie about him starring a hot actor and I’ll be all over it.

Los Donado's 2009

For those of you that didn't see this on Facebook, here's our family pictures taken this September. Stacy, you amaze me! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for capturing our family in such a beautiful way.

Happy Halloween!

We had a very busy Halloween...

Thursday, we carved pumpkins.





Friday, Sonja had a Halloween parade at school. This is what she probably had been doing throughout her whole march, until she got to us and we told her to use a different finger. Nice.


Then, we zoomed out to Tooele for Devenee's Halloween party.





Saturday afternoon, it was back to Sonja's school for a Halloween Carnival. They had storytelling, arts & crafts, a magic show, treats, and best of all... Cotton candy!!





Then, for the grand finale, we went to Chris and Breanna's for some trick-or-treating, and more festivities. Needless to say, Sunday we were couch potatoes! Happy Halloween!!


P.S. Thank you aunt Carolina for the Halloween gift card for Sonja. She used it to buy the decorations for her pumpkin and a new Halloween bag. We love you!!

Ruby's 2nd Chance

Sonja’s fish tank has been making a loud humming sound, so we decided it was time for a new one. Angel was in the process of transferring Ruby from his old tank and accidentally dropped him in the disposal side of the sink. “Jess, come quick!” Angel yelled, and I quickly ran into the kitchen. “I lost Ruby!” he said in panic. “Stick your hand down there and get him out!” I just couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t know what I was grabbing and I thought I would squish him and his guts would be dripping between my fingers. So, he got a pair of tongs tried his best to get him out, intravenously running water to try to keep him alive. After a while passed by, I told him that he was most likely gone, and we had to tell Sonja. I explained to her what happened and said, “I’m sure he found his way through the pipes and found a nice new home. You can pick a new baby fish all by yourself this weekend.” I thought that would distract her a little and she wouldn’t be too upset. Well, I was WRONG! She immediately started sobbing, “I want my fishy, he was MY red fishy!” We tried to console her by telling her Ruby was fine, and offering her some cookies. That just created a new concern, “Ruby will need food, we need to get him food!” Our hearts broke. Angel couldn’t hold it in after that and tears welled up in his eyes. He felt so awful and seeing Sonja so upset was too much to bear. All he could do was hold her and tell her he was so sorry. Then, I started to cry. Can you imagine a little beta causing so much grief? But Ruby was a gift from her Abuelita, so he was special. She finally calmed down, ate her cookies, and went to bed. An hour or two later, I was just falling asleep when Angel came upstairs to say, “Guess what… Ruby is alive!” After putting Sonja to bed, he heard Ruby flopping down the sink and decided to keep trying. He pulled out the rubber stopper and was able to reach in and grab him. Other than some damage to his long, feathery fin, he seemed to be fine. I can’t believe he was still alive after that long! I told him to wake Sonja up and tell her, but when she’s asleep, she’s ASLEEP and couldn’t care less. He took her down to see, and all she said was, "Can I go back to bed now?" The next morning she woke up so happy and excited to see Ruby at her bedside in his shiny, new tank. Daddy, you're our hero!


And Isa was very happy to have Ruby back too.

Photoshop Skillz

My mom has given me some photos to experiment with, and it has been great practice for working with color. I still don't feel like I have an eye for it. Next, I'm going to try restoring some old damaged photos.

Before

After

Before

After

How could I forget?

These are just some cute pics I forgot to include in my last post.


These are from the 24th of July at Chris and Breanna’s house. Rock on, Sonja!









This is Sonja with AJ and Leona’s girls at Yvonne’s wedding. Oh so pretty... They have a few years on Sonja, but she has no trouble keeping up. They always have a great time together.

Again with the Recaps

Sorry! Digital season at work was no picnic! But, it’s over now and back to normal 9-hour days, and finally, an updated blog.




Tyson and Kayla were married a few weeks ago, and Kayla looked gorgeous in her Sottero & Midgley gown! (Tyson, you looked so handsome too.) Junior Herrera was the DJ (same DJ at our wedding) and he is, hands-down, THE BEST! Awesome music, dancing, and such a great time!





Yvonne was married last weekend, and… SONJA CAUGHT THE BOUQUET! It was hilarious! At the last minute, I shuffled the girls over towards the commotion, and told them to go see if they could catch it, not thinking in a million years any of them would, let alone Sonja. Sure enough, it went right to her and she caught it like it was a football and she was the quarterback!! She was so proud, going up to complete strangers and raising it in the air like the Statue of Liberty saying, “I caught the bouquet-ay, I caught the bouquet-ay!” Uh-oh…





That Sunday, we took Sonja to ride her “birthday bike” at Liberty Park, and ended up visiting Tracy Aviary. Sonja saw the peacocks through the fence, and just HAD to go!! (She loves peacocks because mommy does.)






My mom came to stay with me last weekend and we situated my tornado of a basement. It took ALL DAY to go through everything. The amount of Sonja’s clothes was unbelievable! That night we had a Dexter marathon because, yes, I got my mom hooked! We could only stay awake for 4 episodes, but hopefully I can get her to stay with me again to watch more before season 4 starts. I CAN’T WAIT!! It’s gonna be another fall full of our favorite shows. Dexter, So You Think You Can Dance, Heroes, Big Love… And to add to the list, I recently got myself hooked on Californication and Project Runway. We better break down and get DVR so we don’t neglect our child!

The Big 3-0

The big Wendover Bash was a big hit! Angel and Chris didn’t suspect a thing! For those of you that don’t know, for their 30th birthday party the 4 of us were going out to Wendover to gamble and relax in a nice suite at the Peppermill. What they didn’t know was that all their homies were going to be there to party with them! And the BIGGEST surprise of the night was that Zach and Nikki came all the way from Kansas! When we showed up (almost 2 hours late) Wes and Casey had the room all decorated and everyone was waiting. Angel and Chris took off to the liquor store, so Breanna and I had time to greet everyone and get ready for the big SURPRISE! When the boys got up to the room, everyone hid, and as Chris rounded the corner, they all jumped out. They were a little confused and shocked at first, but then Zach came out from way in the back and they were jumping around and screaming like little boys. It was so great! Breanna and I hooked up a pretty unforgettable night I think.

Again, thank you to Wes, Casey, and everyone that helped out and to everyone that came. And a very special thank you to Zach and Nikki for coming all that way to celebrate with your boys.







MORE PICTURES COMING SOON!!

Sunday BBQ

AJ and Leona had us over for a BBQ on Sunday afternoon. It was so nice to just chill and relax after the craziness from Sonja’s party the day before. Thanks for having us guys!

Our Sweet Sonja Turns 4!

Sonja has wanted a Little Mermaid birthday party since last year’s My Little Pony party, and that’s what she got! She was dressed as Little Mermaid, had Little Mermaid decorations, a Little Mermaid cake, and got lots and lots of Little Mermaid presents! We are always humbled by how many amazing friends and family we have, and we would like to thank everyone for coming and a special thank you to those of you that helped me put it all together. I couldn’t have done it without you.

We love you Sonja, our Mamacitas, Monkey-loos, Lu-Lees! You are our beating heart, and you delight and amaze us everyday!

Happy 4th!

We had a great time at “Beam Boulevard” for the 4th this year! Even though Sonja didn’t have Greenlie to play with, she stayed her little busy-bee self and had a great time! She danced the Robot and made my dad laugh non-stop! Angel and Jason developed quite the bro-mance (he’s totally cheating on Wes and Chris). We rode Tyson’s quad, played horseshoes, threw the football, golfed (not me), etc. The night of the 4th we had a little fireworks show and went to bed early.