Gold Medal Party!

In honor of the Olympics our Sunday School class "Built to Last" decided to get together and have ourselves a little party to watch the Opening Ceremony. We dined on Chinese food, ("to make us feel like we were there") and all dressed in our USA best! (Red, White and Blue)

Our Awesome Teachers Jay and Amy Robinson (shown above) were nice enough to open there home for the party!

Lori was the belle of the ball (If I do say so myself) She wore jeans to match Mommy and Daddy, a shirt with the Olympic rings and to "top" it all off... an Olympic sized red bow! She looked adorable!

Lori wearing a HAND STITCHED shirt...

It was mostly just an excuse to get together, but seeing as I LOVE the theme party, I felt the need to add a little extra flair to the whole event. Which is why I gathered one candy in each color of the Olympic Rings and put them in glass bowls on the table in the shape of the rings.

Dorky, yes. But oh so festive!

Not everybody from class was able to come but we did have a good turn out.

Grace and Duncan Vise has no problem "taking Lori off our hands" Until both Lori AND Duncan both got sleepy and Grace had to take Duncan home and put him to bed. :)

Our good friends Mandy and Trey Barrow helped us dream up this party! (and many more to come!)













The class "Newlyweds" Rob and Kristy Hughes. We were all really excited that they came, and have really enjoyed getting to know them over that past few months.

Jen Catano and me


Dave Catano and Jorge. The class' token Latin men.

Jen and Dave Catano are always up for most of our class events. It's always great to know we can count on them to be game for what ever we (usually Mandy and me) dream up.

Albu-quirky!

Over the 4th of July weekend Jorge and I flew with Lori to visit his mom in Albuquerque New Mexico. While there we were able to visit with the majority of Jorge's family, which as some of you know is very unique. Not the individual people necessarily but just the family in general... we had A BLAST!




Lori was surprisingly well behaved for her plane ride!
She ate and slept, like a good baby!

Lori and Jorge's mom meet for the first time!

We were able to visit with Jorge's mom, brother & sister-in-law, Jorge's niece and nephews and THEIR kids. This is where is gets somewhat quirky... Jorge's brother is 56 and has 3 kids (the oldest of which is 38 and the youngest is 32.) So Jorge has nephews that are older than him. (making them significantly older than me :) ) All of them have kids. (the oldest is 18 and the youngest is 1 month) So I am 7 years older than my great nephew! :) (are you confused yet?)

Lori and her cousin Vicky

(Jorge's sister's daughter)

Lori meets Chris, her 1st cousin...

top: Lori and her Abuela bottom: Abuela and Vicky try to figure out who Lori looks like.

Vicky and her son Giovanni (our great nephew)


The day after our 4th of July party (the 5th of July) all of us "kids" drove an hour and a half to a lake for a swim. Jorge, Lori and I did not swim but we had enjoyed hanging out, catching up and getting to know everybody better. Vicky lived with Jorge and his mom for about 7 years when they were growing up so they were able to catch up. We never really knew the rest of the "niece and nephews" all that well, if at all, so we were able to get to know them better over this long weekend.

Lori sleeping at the lake

Chris and his son, also named
Chris rough housing at the lake.

The boys at the lake
"waiting for Chuck Norris" (he never showed.)

After the lake we all went to dinner an Outback Steak house (very yummy) While we were there Lori fell asleep and then became the center of attention for our Great nieces Lola and Alexa. While Staring at her Alexa said to Lola, "She's just so pretty I can't stop looking at her." I just thought that was the cutest sweetest thing I'd heard! Those girls were so precious. (... even if Lola seemed somewhat afraid of me.)

Lola, left and Alexa, right



Lori and our nephew's baby Alea, they are 2 months apart

Our family

Back Row: Elliot (Vicky's husband), Jorge, Franky (Chris' son), Paquito (Jorge's oldest brother), Chris (Chris' oldest son), Eric (Paquito's son), Alyssa (Eric's oldest daughter) and Essence (Alyssa's friend)

Front Row: Vicky (Jorge's niece) Dana - holding Lori, Claudia (Eric's wife) - holding Alea, Helen (Paquito's wife) -holding Alexa (Eric's daughter)

A myriad of Martys

This summer has been and will continue to be super busy! We are blessed to have MANY visitors and trips to see family!

On June 19th Aunt Cindy and Uncle Alan Marty came in to town and we were able to have a nice pizza dinner over at the ferguson's house where they were able to meet Lori.

Lori and Aunt Karley

The next day their daughter, who Lori will be calling Aunt Karley, came to spend the weekend and brought her boyfriend Jay for Jorge and I to meet as well. (no score cards on this one... sorry Popsie) We had such a good time! Obviously being new parents we weren't able to go out and show them the town as much as we would have liked but we were able to visit, go out to dinner and get them to watch a few movies that they hadn't seen yet. (Transformers!) But most importantly we were able to meet Jay and they were able to meet Lori!

Lori, Jay and Aunt Karley!

I LOVED watching both Karley and Jay hold and love on Lori. It made me feel loved watching them love her!

Jay did have to put Lori in line from time to time... :)

But there were no hard feelings

He even won her a presentfrom a claw machine!

... She's still getting used to it. :)

Happy Father's Day Jorge!

For Father's Day Lori got her Daddy a Chicago Cubs tie! I thought the presentation was priceless! (If I do say so myself)

Aunt Megan and Uncle Ryan come to visit!

(On our way to the airport to pick up Megan and Ryan)

After 6 LONG weeks the wait is finally over and Lori was introduced to her Aunt Megan and Uncle Ryan! Though Lori LOVED meeting them, she did NOT love the ride home from the airport during which she insisted on screaming bloody murder! Despite that I really think that Lori really hit it off with her favorite Aunt and Uncle! (Seeing as her favorite pastime is snuggling and that both Megan and Ryan were happy to accommodate)

Lori felt SO comfortable with her Uncle Ryan that was finally able to poop... on two separate occasions. Way to go Uncle Ryan!






Lori was able to attend her first VBS this year largely in part to her Aunt Megan who held her while I led worship! She behaved WONDERFULLY during the long and LOUD days until Friday, the day that Megan WASN'T there to hold her... apparently she missed her Aunt Megan, and wanted to let the world know.

Loretta Joy!

Here she is!

Loretta Joy Hernandez
Born April 24, 2008
10:29 am
4 lbs 14 oz
17 3/4 inches

As you can see by the picture it's been a few weeks, 6 to be exact, and she's growing like a WEED! (A very cute weed but a weed all the same) She is rapidly approaching the 8 pound mark! (WOO HOO)
She continues to amaze us every day. So far her personality is still forming but from the looks of it she's a pretty good mix of the two of us. Jorge's calm easy going spirit and love for sleep at inopportune times and my love for music and dancing (i.e: standing her up on her feet and watching her wobble to the sound track of a cheesy commercial.) and my inability to sit still.

She is currently suffering from infant pattern baldness (Dr. Phil eat your heart out!) which I am convinced is due in large part to the fact that I couldn't keep my hands off her thick head of super soft black hair. I have it on good authority that it will grow back. Here's hoping!

Home Sweet Home!

We just bought our first house at the end of March and have been most, if not all, of our free time fixing it up and making it ours! I've really enjoyed not having to worry about neighbors or a landlord. I can paint and hang pictures and not worry about the deposit. The cat has enjoyed this new found freedom as well... barfing many times on our new carpet. See... home ownership, fun for the whole family.
Our last apartment we lived next door to smokers and we could smell the cigarette smoke constantly. Somedays it would get so bad that before I realized that it was our neighbors, I actually thought that the people who lived in our apartment before us had been smokers and that it was coming through the paint or something. It was horrible! I'm very glad to not have to worry about waking the neighbors, bothering the neighbors or smelling the neighbors ever again! Hurray!
Last night I was watching the news and saw this story about a Colorado couple that is NOT ALLOWED to smoke in their town home any more because the neighbors could smell it. As silly as it may sound I can completely understand and respect the judges ruling!
click here for the whole story