Outfit 2

This outfit is again from Aunt Stef. Thank you!! So are the socks. Happy Halloween! More pics after the jump

Good boy, show off them socks!

TOOTH!! Can you see my tooth?!? I'm showing it to you all on my own.

Who, me???

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN WEEK!

In honor of Jarem's 1st Halloween, we are going to post a blog post each night this week (this one is a little late, sorry) with Jarem sporting one of his many Halloween outfits. We had too many for one day so we will have him do a show spread out over the course of the week with all his outfits. Some days will have outfit changes, others may not. Enjoy!! (No booing, these are too cute! Hehe)

Daddy was making Jarem laugh SO HARD! It was fun... More pics after the jump

His shirt says "I LOVE MY MUMMY". Ahhh, too cute! Thanks Auntie Steffie!!

What big eyes you have...

Gotta have the thumb...

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Despicable!

My name is Eric and I am writing this because I recently became aware of one of the most despicable things I have ever heard of. I usually don't send things around like this, but I am so appalled at what may happen in Arizona that people need to know the truth. Those who take advantage of the desperate are now lying to avoid decency. If you care about those less fortunate than you, please read this and pass it to everyone that you know.

In Arizona there is a proposition on the ballot (Proposition 200) billed as the "Payday Loan Reform Act". The ads and all of the marketing make it sound like a "yes" vote will PERMANENTLY (remember this word 'permanently') pass reforms on Payday Lenders, making it harder for them to rip off the poor and unfortunate of Arizona. They tout various payment plans, loan agreements in English and Spanish, among other "reforms" which sound like they would do good.

The truth is that "Payday Loan Reform" is sponsored by Arizona Community Financial Services Association and Payday Lenders! I repeat, PAYDAY LENDERS! Why would they want to reform themselves? They are making more than 390% interest on a 2 week loan (which will more than likely last over 1 year before the principal is paid back!)

As Arizona law states currently, In 2010 Payday Lenders will be forced to adhere to a strict 36% interest rate cap like all other consumer lenders in Arizona. Compared to 390%... are you starting to see why Payday Lenders are getting nervous?

What Payday Lenders have done with their lobbyists is create a Proposition which, masked by 'permanent reforms', will PERMANENTLY extend their unique "sweetheart deal" to lend at whatever rate they want. And no one will ever be able to challenge them to lend responsibly at a 36% maximum EVER!

As we know, Payday Loans are mostly used by lower income families who, in some cases are also "Low information voters". These types of voters are easily persuaded by the 'Reform' buzzword of this voting season. And since the Payday Lenders have virtually limitless funds (which they continue to take from these families) they are producing misleading television and radio ads to persuade their clientele. THIS IS (as my mother-in-law says) SICK and WRONG!

My wife Jamie and I were both fooled by these ads until she saw "NO on PROP 200" from US Airways Credit Union. This obviously made us do some research and we were both appalled at what these predatory lenders are trying to pull.

I know that I was fooled and unfortunately, I can't imagine that everyone will have the opportunity to find out the truth by Nov. 4th. So, the more people that we spread the word to, the more tricked "yes" votes we can cancel out. And we might just be able to keep these sleazy lenders at bay.

I ask that you pass along this email to everyone that you know so that we can get the word out. Even if you don't live in Arizona or don't know anyone in Arizona please pass this along, people you know may have family or friends in Arizona and they will appreciate your effort.

Here is the most recent flier sponsored by the Payday Lenders and here is "No On 200"s factual corrections.

If this post has in any way offended you, I personally apologize. My wife and I have no political agenda here, we are only acting on our desire to protect people who are less fortunate than we are.

Thanks,
Eric

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Quick thinking...a little shame.

Okay, so another fun story from this past week. On Wednesday my co-workers invited me to lunch at P.F. Chang's on Mill and University. I decided to go cause I had a meeting at our Corporate office right after lunch on Mill and Rio Salado Pkwy, just down the street. Anyways, trying to be cheap and not have to walk far, I decided to just park in the Jack in the Box parking lot directly across the street on the other side of Mill Ave. Well, that really was a bad idea. Sure, there were towing signs everywhere to warn me, but I assumed those were mainly for the evening when the bars and clubs are packed. I honestly didn't think too much of it since it was the middle of the afternoon. Bad move.

I parked the car, walked across the street and met my co-workers in P.F. Chang's. Our table was near the window and I could see Jack in the Box from where I sat. I glanced across the street as I sat down and our car was GONE! I'm talking ten minutes and the car was gone. I figured I was imagining things and that I just couldn't see it from my angle. I excused myself from the table and went outside to get a better look. On my way out I called Eric to let him know what was going on. No answer. I texted him instead saying, "I think I got the car towed." He called back IMMEDIATELY. He asked what was going on. I told him what I had done. He said to just go get cash, that I'd have to figure out where the towing lot was and get a ride down there to get the car back. He said it was okay, it was an accident and to call him if I needed anything. WHAT A RELIEF! He was so sweet and loving even though I had just told him how big of a mistake I'd made. He's so amazing.

Back to the car though, sure enough, the car was gone! I went back across the street and honestly was assuming it had to be stolen since it was gone so fast. There's no way they could have towed it that quickly, right?!?

Well I went inside and talked to the employees. They weren't very helpful and just told me to call the number on the towing sign outside. I went back outside and called the number, sure enough, IT HAD BEEN TOWED! The guy told me they towed it at least 15 minutes ago (NOT POSSIBLE!) and that I needed to get a ride to the towing lot and bring $120 in cash to get the car back. I hung up feeling so stupid. Just my luck! I went back inside and spoke with the employees stating that there's no way they could have towed me that fast. One of the gentlemen working there came around the counter and asked me what happened. Trying to act quickly I made up a story.

I told him that I'd eaten at P.F. Chang's the night before and had forgotten my wallet. I told him that I parked there, went across the street to pick up my wallet and was coming back to eat lunch there (at Jack in the Box) before my meeting. He said he would call the towing company for me cause it's not right that they towed me so fast. He called just to be shot down almost immediately. I asked if there was someone else who could call. He said I should try calling their Corporate Office and ask them to call the towing company. He gave me the number so I called them next. They said that this particular location is not a franchise and is privately owned so I would need to call the General Manager on his cell phone. She gave me his name and number.

I called the GM and told him my story. He started by telling me there was nothing he could do. I persisted telling him it had only been 10 minutes and that it wasn't right to tow somebody that quickly. He told me he would come review that surveillance tape and that if it was in fact 10 minutes or less he would personally take me to get my car back. He said he was on his way there.

While waiting I went back to P.F. Chang's and ate my lunch. I filled in my co-workers on my story and they told me I might as well just pay them now. They said there was no way I would get my car back without paying. Although I was more optimistic I still stopped by the ATM on my way back to Jack in the Box just in case. I called Eric again and let him know what had happened and that I was trying to get it back. He wished me luck and again told me to call him when I had an update.

The manager met me at Jack in the Box and reviewed the security camera. It was actually 14 minutes so I though I was out of luck. However, the manager told me that his agreement with the towing company was that they were supposed to wait 20 minutes before towing. He called down there, fought with them and won. We got in his car and headed down to the towing lot. I got the car back for free and even got a ride down there from the GM of Jack in the Box. All in all, I'm really not proud of the lie I came up with. I even thought twice about blogging it cause I was embarrassed to admit that I lied. But I've come to the realization that as embarrassing as it is, it's what I did. And by not sharing it with others it would eat me alive even more and cause me more shame. I've already asked God for forgiveness for my sin and also thanked Him for helping through the situation. I also thanked Him for my amazing husband and for helping Eric to choose to love me as opposed to getting mad at me. It was a pretty lucky day to say the least.
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Say, cheese!

Well, I finally got a good shot of Jarem's two teeth! I just took this video a couple hours ago with the flip. Sorry it's a little bumpy (I was home alone so I had to do taping and playing) but I get two good shots of his teeth. Enjoy! Click the jump

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Make sure you scroll down...

Well I finally had some time to catch up on blogging. Thank you Jen and Bradley for taking Jarem for me! I posted a lot of posts today so make sure you scroll all the way down and read. They automatically archive to the date I started them so keep scrolling to make sure you don't miss any. Enjoy! ... Full Post...

Who let the parents out???

Eric and I had the best night last night despite me being sick. I am avoiding the phone right now because I sound like a mix between a honking goose and a man's man. A couple days ago my throat was starting to get really dry and I had a dry cough. Well dry coughing over two days has caused me to lose my voice! I sound horrible. But lucky for me, my hubby still loves me and spoils me to pieces. I had gotten us tickets to this show a couple weeks back and we planned our first night out without Jarem. My mom picked Jarem up from daycare for us, fed him dinner, did bath time and put him to bed. She did such a great job!! Thank you grammy...

Meanwhile, Eric and I had a night out on the town. We had yet to see Batman so we found the only theatre that was still showing it and got to finally see The Dark Knight. We really enjoyed the movie and popcorn. After the movie we were walking to our car and passed a Cold Stone Creamery. Eric decided that I had to have ice cream to make my throat feel better. He burst into the store and exclaimed, "We're on a date and she needs ice cream!" The girls working behind the counter thought he was too cute for taking care of me and giggled the entire time that they helped us. I love you, E. Thanks for taking such good care of me! 

After that we went to Olive Garden for dinner. Thank you Uncle Tim and Uncle Randy for the gift card! The soup felt so good on my throat and we really had fun cuddling and talking over a private dinner. It felt like we were dating again since we were both so dressed up and excited for the evening. 

After dinner we went to the show. We went to Late Nite Catechism III: Til death do us part. (http://phoenix.about.com/cs/enter/a/catechism.htm) We had so much fun! My throat really hurts today after laughing so much. The theatre is very cozy and the show was more than hilarious! One couple admitted to the sister that he proposed to her in the bathtub. Boy, what a mistake! We never heard the end of jokes about that one. All in all, it was such a fun show! 

To top off the date, we decided to go dancing for a little bit. The show was at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts and all the clubs are right down the street from there. I called a couple days ago and got us on the VIP list so we didn't even have to pay a cover charge. We went to Axis Radius and realized that we hadn't been there since our joint Bachelor/Bachelorette party. We didn't stay very long, mainly cause we were tired and my throat was really starting to hurt. But we stayed long enough to sweat a little and fall in love all over again. Dancing together brings back so many memories! I love reminiscing about how we met and how much fun we have when we're on the dance floor. We were really like love birds and although we missed Jarem, I have to admit that we felt just fine on our first night out. We knew he was in good hands with grammy and that we could just enjoy ourselves and our time together. Poor Eric had to work this morning so I'm sure he's tired today. But at least he has some good memories that made it all worth it. What a night!! Movie, dinner, show and dancing. We did good...

One other note, Eric broke his finger. He played football a couple weeks ago and thought he jammed it. Well he went to the doctor yesterday and it's broken. He's pretty sad cause this is his first ever broken bone. Luckily it's the top digit on his ring finger so it's not too inconvenient (other than when he has to type) but he has to wear a splint for a couple weeks and get an x-ray next week to make sure there's no further damage. He's such a tough guy that he never complains about it and really didn't think his injury was serious. I'm happy he got it checked. I'll be sure to give his finger extra kisses to heal as fast as possible.

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Solids!!

Well, this should be no surprise, but Jarem loves food! Our little piggy eats anything we put in front of him. We've tried carrots, peas, string beans, squash and sweet potatoes. He's devoured all of them with no problems. We are so lucky to have such a good eater! He already eats a larger variety of vegetables than I do. He's so amazing! Thought I'd share some messy pics from a few of his meals. It's so much fun to watch him eat! I'll try to post a video of it soon. He sucks his thumb in between bites so his hand gets dirty which then dirties everything else he touches. We really do know where his mouth is. I promise we don't purposefully place the food all over his face. That's all him...
More pics after the jump

Yummy carrots! You can see his tooth in this picture. He has two teeth now. What a big boy!

Look at me, I'm so big I'm holding my own spoon! 

Yummy peas...

Have you seen how big my feet are? Let me show you...

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PPPPBTPBTPBTPBTPBTPBT!

Everybody loves... RASPBERRIES!!!

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FLIP!!!

First.... Sorry for taking so long to post!  I promise that I'll work on getting better!!! 

Well 3 cheers for Grandma who sent over a FLIP video recorder (www.theFlip.com) this week. "What does this mean?" you ask? Well for starters, this is the coolest and quickest way to capture video and post it online! After all of the frustration with our DVD camcorder that (for some reason) doesn't play nice with our computer, and all of the grainy videos that I shot with my phone or our digital camera, we were ready for a change... and apparently so was Grandma!

Video after the JUMP!
So today Jamie and I walk into Kindercare and Jarem's teacher "Miss Jamie" had him on his tummy in front of the mirror. Well since I know that he's a really strong boy and the mirror had a cool little ballet bar in front of it for him to hang on to, I gave him a little chance to show off. Masculinity issues? NOPE! All of the best football players took dance classes to help them with their footwork. PLUS with as much as Jamie and I dance, do you think that we're going to be able to keep this kid away from dancing? This time, he's dancing without my clever PhotoShopping skills. Speaking of dancing Mommy and I are going on our first real date in over 5 months! I'd better get rested up for tomorrow night.

Enjoy the video (it's short, but really cute - plus it's a hint of what's to come)... Goodnight!

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Hot Dog Eating Contest

Mmm...now that's an attractive picture! :) My company is doing our United Way Campaign fundraisers all this month and next month. I am on the committee that is planning and organizing all the events. We had our kickoff party which included a free meal for all employees. We made hot dogs, chips, cookies, beans and a drink for the menu. However, we really overestimated how many people would show up for free food. As a result, we were left with an extra 480 hot dogs and weren't sure how to get rid of them. Well, one of my co-workers had the marvelous idea of hosting a hot dog eating contest. It turned out to be the 1st annual because they now want to do this every year since it was such a big hit!! Just before the contest started, we found that we had a couple extra spaces available for last minute contestants to join. The girl next to me jumped in there with all the boys to compete. I had said all along that I thought it would be fun to join and see how many hot dogs I could eat in 5 minutes. But I was embarrassed to be the only girl up there. I looked for other girls to join with me but had no luck. As soon as I saw this girl join in I was up on stage in a heartbeat. My competitive side came out and even though I had just eaten lunch (a hot dog, a bag of chips and a drink) I decided to join in anyways. Here's the proof! See the video after the jump

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

I ended up eating 3 whole hot dogs and buns in 5 minutes, on top of my hot dog, chips and drink that I had already finished about ten minutes before the contest started. Not too shabby! I didn't win but I was right there with most of the contestants. I didn't dunk in water and I used ketchup for added flavor. The winner ate 8 hot dogs and buns in 5 minutes. WOW! Overall, it was so much fun and I'm very happy that I did it. Thanks to all my fans who cheered me on! hehe Many people have asked and just to be clear, no, I didn't get sick afterwards. I even ate dinner that night. If Jarem grows up with a strong passion or aversion to hot dogs, I guess we all know why. :)
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I was right...it is fall

Man did fall get here fast! I'm not a fan of the cold and it's 45 degrees when we leave the house in the morning. Brrr...

We had to use Jarem's sweatshirt this weekend and he looks so cute in it!! It's definitely time to pull out all the winter clothes. In honor of fall, we did a photo shoot this weekend at the Padillas' house. I bought the supplies and they provided the backdrop. Check out our little farmer and what he harvested!
Jarem wasn't feeling so good but he was a trooper and really had fun playing with the pumpkins and leaves. He is such an explorer. He is sitting up all on his own now. He is also teething like crazy. We still haven't been able to get a good picture of his one tooth. He hates to show it to us. However, he loves chewing on our fingers to help soothe his poor gums. We love taking pictures of Jarem and got some really good ones at Jen's house last night. We'll try to post them when we get them from her. The cousins are so cute together! Jarem fell over last night while sitting by himself and when he started to cry Braden left the room. He was deeply concerned for Jarem and cared about him so much that he didn't want to see him cry. He's such a sweetheart and loves his little boy cousin. He shows Jarem every toy and shares so well. Braden loves teaching Jarem about the way the world works and even serenaded Jarem with a guitar last night. Thanks Bray!!

Miss Emma boo is so maternal. She always wants to hold baby Jarem (it's so cute to hear her say his name!) She loves helping with baby Jarem. Any of his toys and especially his car seat are great distractions for Miss Emma. She inspects them and then brings them to us and says, "Baby Jawem's toy". Too cute... Needless to say, we love seeing them with Jarem and watching them all play together. Jarem is lucky to have such good big cousins to look after him!

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I love my boys!

This post doesn't need a lot of words. Just enjoy these pictures! What handsome boys! I am such a lucky mommy and wife. I love you two!! Click the link to see more pictures of baby Jarem...TOO CUTE!


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Fall is here

Arizona is so amazing! I know it's hot in the summer but I love the heat and how good it feels on my skin. The same goes for the fall. We may not get to see the turning of the leaves or lots of the other fun fall things here. But there's plenty of beauty to be found in such a beautiful state. While driving home one day last weekend I passed this beautiful corn field. You may be thinking, beautiful corn field??? What's so different about this corn field from every other? Well maybe it was the lighting, the red tops on the husks, or just where my mind was at but this field struck me as beautiful and I wanted to get family pictures in front of it. I called Uriel and asked if after church on Sunday we could sneak in a few family pictures. The sun was setting fast so it was hard to get them perfect but I was still impressed with this beautiful field!

We're planning on going back one day this week or weekend to try again with better lighting to get more pictures. I know it's simple but it's my new desktop picture. We're going to decorate our house for Halloween this weekend and maybe try to take some pictures of Jarem in his costume. He's going to look so cute I bet!

If you have the time, the weather is perfect. Take a walk when you get home from work today. It's so calming at the end of the day. Take in the flowers in your yard, the green grass in a neighbor's yard, or the beautiful buttes that surround us here in the desert of the sun. It's an amazing time of year...

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Warning this could get messy!

There comes a time in every man's life when he must make a tough decision about the future... Baby J is 5 months old now and had to decide if he was going to continue eating, er... the way he has his whole life, or learn to eat like a man.

In fact, as I write this entry, Jarem is in his swing, drooling and singing the almost famous New Edition song from 1983 (ironically the year mommy was born - MAN he's good), "Momma told me one day it was going to happen, but she never told me when... She told me it would happen when I was much older, I wish it would have happened then."

Check out the coming-of-age video after the Jump
Okay, jokes aside... this is the FIRST time Jarem has ever tried solid foods, the first time he has ever tried to eat off of a spoon, AND the first time that he's ever looked so cute! Obviously, since the video was taken, he's out-cuted himself quite a few times.

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