Finally here!

I am proud to announce the birth of my little girl, Lilybelle Elena Hernandez.  Born on a Sunday, July 1st, 2012 at 2:31pm. Weighed 7lbs 11 1/2 oz, measured 20 inches long.

Small details about her labor process:
-2 days with contractions

-Water leaked while walking to the car then rode to the hospital

-I withstood more pain than I thought, reached 1 minute contractions without feeling like dying, but was persuaded to get the epidural (I really wanted to try, but people were freaking me out)

-After epidural, body relaxed and contractions subsided to 4 minutes apart. 10 hours of epidural later, I was dilated to 10cm. Read about it's effects HERE.
-15 hours total at the Kaiser Permanente hospital to deliver. The staff was wonderful! Had my mom with me as my husband slept, my son stayed with family.

-30 minutes pushing time, no cut nor tearing "down there."  The relaxation breathing techniques REALLY worked to relax my body. Easy to find on YouTube or click HERE.

-Lilybelle breastfed like a champ within 10 minutes from arriving, and big bro finally came to see her 2 hours later...told her he loved her a lot (still tells her that daily).

So that was the short of it all. I want to keep blogging really soon, but I need to focus on the baby, which is very demanding since she only breastfeeds...resulting in 14 feeds per day (through the night included). That's besides taking care of my toddler, feeding the family, cleaning, etc.  So you can imagine it can get super busy. I'll be writing soon about what nursing on demand is compared to scheduled nursing, tips, and sacrifices that come along with it to give your baby the best possible from birth.

See her newborn photo shoot at MariaElenaPhotography.com

So happy to be a new mommy all over again 

Toddler Birthday Party Ideas: 3rd Birthday

Theme: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

My boy's third birthday just recently passed and he enjoyed it so much he kept talking about it for days.  I think the best thing you can do as a parent is to wear your heart on your sleeve for your kids.  Never be afraid of showing them your love and excitement.  They'll know without a doubt that you love them and it won't matter how much you spend to make them happy if in the end you don't give them the time and attention they deserve.

For birthdays, I suggest asking the BIRTHDAY BOY/GIRL what they want.  Show them 3-5 options for themes and let them narrow it down.  My kid actually wanted Star Wars as his #1 pick and Caterpillar as his 2nd.  I thought of how unpredictable toddlers are and so the idea of having light sabers being gashed in people's faces wasn't very appealing.  I read him his fave book (The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle) to really convince him otherwise.  He agreed to having both, which didn't work out for me, so I surprised him with the Caterpillar theme, which he adored and helped out with too.

Here are some samples of what we did.

 The invitations were simple and just showed the birthday boy from the most recent photoshoot he went through 3 weeks before his birthday.

 The number 3 was mosiac in his favorite style too and the caterpillar was holepunched and then hand-drawn.

 The leaf inside had 3 holes to represent his 3rd birthday.

 These centerpieces were made by my mother.

 The cake was provided by my dad.

 The party favors were labeled with "Caterpillar Food", tied with bright green ribbon, and inside were  colorful M&Ms.

 My family made balloon caterpillars to hand from trees.

The craft project was finger caterpillars with washable paint and then bubbles that floated like butterlies since we did all this at a nearby park.









THE BEST PART: All the kids had fun!

A beautiful family truth!

Here's 2 quotes I found that I absolutely love, which I dedicate to my supportive parents for giving me this example:


Family is what grounds you.
 - ANGELINA JOLIE, interview, Jun. 13, 2001


Focus on your marriage. Because that's the nucleus of the home, whatever you do to restore its health and strength will naturally restore what's broken among the other relationships. If you have no children yet, this will make a comfortable nest for them to begin life well. If you have children, the changes you make in your marriage will affect the rest of the household more quickly and dramatically than you think. 
 -CHARLES R. SWINDOLL, Marriage: From Surviving to Thriving

I have parents that love each other, like for real! They love us (their children) and they support me in my endeavors and let me fall down to learn on my own...it wasn't always that way, but they too had to learn and when they learn something they act on it, not just keep it as knowledge.  They guided me and then watched me walk away into my own life, keeping to themselves and really letting me learn valuable lessons and truths that no parent can try to force into the mind of a growing child and less into a growing young adult.  I've learned of the good and the bad in life, though I have so much more to learn, I know I can say I was blessed to have parents that let me learn...they taught me to be receptive, honest, true, strong, not gossip, dedicated, just, cultivate my talents, to discover and never stop learning...and taught me important life skills that I actually use like cooking, socializing, manners, emphasis on education, cleaning, love of music and art and to have a genuine interest in the well-being of others without judgement, but to instead love, understand, and serve.

As I grew up at home, I knew that life wasn't perfect, but I knew I always had a mom and dad that loved me very much because I saw the love they had for each other.  They made it look so easy!  Yeah, they would disagree at times, but then made it a hilarious joke and would end up teasing each other at the end.  They always had date night!  We would make their patience run out, but they apologized for being frustrated and would talk to us about our lives no matter the amount of time it took out of their day.  They had/have family councils to let every member in the family express something and make plans.  I would sometimes hear them talking in their room late at night if there was an issue that needed resolving, and I would hear them pray.  They were interested in knowing who our friends were and cared to see us not get hurt.  They would cry...when we would feel alone...they knew us all to well.  When now I'm feeling down, I don't even have to tell them why, they just comfort and love...they remind me of my worth, my purpose and give me strength. To this day, I don't know how they did/do it all: 8 children, church callings (bishopric, stake, youth leader, etc), bills, teenagers, school, meetings, and they still have children in elementary that will have to go through years of growing before they can be on their own.  Just thinking about it all takes a toll on me!

Now, as a mother and wife I have only but to apply what I've been taught.  Life is harder than when you're living at home with your parents.  Life is challenging, yet lovely.  It can break you and you have to learn to rebuild yourself without a soul to comfort you at times.   Sometimes I give into the small things in life that others may take lightly, but then I feel horrible inside and have to quickly re-adjust because...I should know better.  I guess I can be hard on myself, but I recognize I'm human with weaknesses, but that's no excuse to not do the right thing.  My comfort comes from only relying on my Heavenly Father.  I know He loves me and He helps me.  That's also something that my parents let me learn on my own and so I have a burning testimony that it's true.

I'm not ashamed to let the world know I love my Mami and Papi.  Afterall, they gave a lot of themselves for me :-)

Job updates for our FaMiLy

So, as I said earlier in some posts, Hugo is now sitting in a banker position at work.  He has been approved recently for another raise as well.  He has managed to be one of the top salesmen in his district and I'm proud of him! 

Most recently also, we all found out my family was moving back to California, the sunshine state.  Why?  Well, my father is a mechanic and he wasn't making as much as he needed to make here in Utah, with only most jobs being pure commission.  You have to know that I come from a family of 10 people!  I was the eldest of eight children and the youngest is now 4 years old.  That being said, my father got a call from his old boss in California offering him his old position back, no sales, no commission, just hourly pay and full benefits.  Of course, my father seized the opportunity and said YES.

Now, I tell the story of my family after talking about my husband because they are most definitely related since now we are considering moving out to California as well.  We are both Californians anyway, and I would love to live near the pacific ocean again!  I'm not too fond of living in winter snow and I've been in it for the past 4 1/2 years now.  I love my family too and having their loving support as I venture into motherhood and homemaking is beneficial and I get one-on-one advice on being wiser too.  There's no substitute for the friendship a mother can bring to a daughter learning about life.  So, Hugo has been applying for jobs in California as a transfer employee.  Not much success so far, considering all the applications he's submitted, but all of the reasons were because he doesn't live close now.  Most recently, he received an offer which he needs to go in person for an interview.  I'm exited, but since we have to work around what money we have available, we've decided on taking a small break to California until May.  I'm ecstatic!!!!  I can't even wipe the smile off my face thinking about it!  I hope everything works out well and that we just get what we need.

Oh, since I'm already on here: I will be posting simplified and healthy recipes every week.  I cook often, but posting daily would be very time consuming, and I tend to post only when my child is still sleeping or napping just so I can focus 100% :-)  I'm honestly just happy to be sharing with whomever wants to learn!

Unexpected and real

Yesterday, Sunday, Hugo and I went to church and ate at my parents and then drove home. There was a lot of snow coming down, it was dark already, but not late. As we pulled up in front of our fourplex, Hugo opens the door with the car still on and tells me to stay inside. He acts as though he's about to pick up something from home so we can head out again! Or so I thought. He says,"Stay inside, just hold on!" I thought to myself, why? Why stay in this car with the heater on and with the baby when we need to be in the comfort of our much warmer home? Well, I stay in and I'm already mad at him. I look through the windows and he's walking towards our neighbor's door! What?! What's he doing?! Why am I still in here? He reaches for their snow shovel and starts to clear out all the fallen snow, while still more keeps falling. I'm perplexed. He keeps going real fast. Keep in mind he's wearing only his thin church pants and shirt with a very light sweater on top. The snow keeps falling on his sweet head and gets wet. My eyes start to glaze. He shovels and shovels. Clears our sidewalk, then the entrances to the stairs, each apartment and the path that leads into the parking stalls. It's so warm inside the car that the windows fog up and start to drip. I stare at the hazzy figure of my husband out in the snow. Hugo's still going. He clears up the steps, he even clears up the grass I'll eventually step on to get out of the car. He can't beat the falling snow, I watch him go over all the paths again. Clearing them out, more cold snow on his hair. He does this for 12 minutes straight nonstop. I'm in tears. He comes around my door and signals me to come with him home. I step out with the baby covered. He grabs all my church bags and baby's bag. He's sniffling a little. I bet it's the cold, poor man. He doesn't seem to care. His shoes are wet, and so we head to our door. As we walk in my guilt sinks in lower into my stomach. I lay the baby down and he's still sleeping. I felt bad. I reach to hug Hugo and he's already gathering the trash to take it out. As I hug him, I am overwhelmed with appreciation. Something so small, so easy, but so important about the kind of man he is. "Thank you," was all I could muster up to whisper. My tears start to roll out. He looks into my face and smiles. "Ah, no problem," he says and picks up the trash bags and steps out again.

It's incredible how the small things someone I love can do and yet they mean the world to me! I'm happy to be married to him.