THE GUILLEN FAMILY

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Syracuse Heritage Days 2008


Mom! It looks like Ramone!

Kaylee and Braden next to a car that looks like Luigi.

Braden Jumping in a Big SpongeBob.

Kaylee waiting for the animal train to move

Braden anxious for the train to start


This last week our small city had their Heritage Days. They do different activities during the whole week to celebrate the founding and establishment of the city. We had a competition by the name of Syracuse Idol (aka American Idol) were I had a friend participate on. She sings really good but unfortunately did not make it to the Finals. We watched her sing on Monday evening with some of the other contestants. On Saturday they had the big Carnival with booths, games, dancing and fun bouncing slides and other bouncing games for the kids, plus food and entertainment. We decided to take the kids. They had lots of fun. They also had a car show with different model cars. Braden was so excited, he loves cars and whenever their was a car that resemblanced a car from the movie "Cars" he would say mom this is Ramone or Stanley or Luigi. It was really cute that he can already know those things and associate one thing with another. We meet my parents their and my mother in law came with us too. I got a terrible sun burn, it was so hot!!! Later that evening the city had a big Firework show to end the festivities. Can't wait till next week were we are going to celebrate the 4th of July, the independence of this beautiful country.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Lazy Saturday





Yesterday we had a lazy Saturday (I just love them). In the morning we ran some errands, ate some lunch and headed home to relax. We made some dinner and rented some movies to watch with the kids. Then, I decided to bake a cake and start a project that I have been wanting to do for the past couple of days but didn't have time to. Kaylee and I started to paint some wooden blocks so that we could put some vinyl lettering on them for decoration. It's an idea that I got from The Quilted Bear store (I love that place). We recently redid our kitchen and family room and slowly but surely we have been redecorating. I think I can say that we are almost done. Just need a couple of things to finish. My next project is to change our bedroom a little and our bathroom. We've been in our house for 8 yrs now and you just start to want a change so I'am that kind of person and those are the things I've been working on lately. I will post pictures of the finished product when I'am done.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Our 9th Wedding Anniversary!!


Yesterday, June 18, 2008 was our 9th wedding anniversary. I can't believe time has flown by so quickly. We've had such a good relationship that it actually seems more time. I'am so grateful for my husband, jorge. He is world to me and much more. I found a great guy and I'am so proud of him for his accomplishments in life, work and school. He is so brave to go back to school again, eventhough he graduated with a bachelors degree in Venezuela, he is again decided about 1 1/2 ago to start attending school so that he can further his studies and have a better future for us. My mom was nice enough to babysit for us so that we could celebrate. We went out to dinner to Mimi's Cafe and went to a movie "The Happening". We had fun, were able to talk and enjoy each others company without the kids.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Family Night Activity

Yesterday was Monday therefore FHE (family home evening). We planned to go to a strawberry patch that is located very close to our house to pick berries. We arrived and immediatly noticed it was serve service. Jorge and me were talking that people here are so honest and trustworthy even with their own businesses. We also were commenting that if this was Puerto Rico or Venezuela people would just take advantage of this serve service and would take anything they wanted with them and not pay. I think its so sad that our countries are that bad when it comes to crime. Anyway we started to pick the berries and the kids helped and each had their own box and were able to experience this. This idea came to mind because Braden has a Calliou movie were he goes with some friends to a strawberry patch and picks berries and ever since Braden watched the movie he has been asking me to go to a Strawberry Patch.

Under Construction

Sorry about the messy blog. My sweet friend Jenny Helmer is building a new template for my blog, it's all ready to go but I cannot change it over to it. So I have asked her to help me, so since then it will look weird and I apologize.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Father's Day


My dad and me

I just want to share some thoughts about my dad. Since I was a little girl I can remember the type of Father that I have. He is caring, lovable, responsible,loyal, great example, good husband, good leader, hard worker, and I can go on and on. As long as I can remember he is a hard worker, he always wanted us to have evrything we needed. Eventhough he was always busy, he would take time to help us with our homework and to play with us and just spend time with us as a family. I know that when we lived in Puerto Rico and after becoming members of the church his longtime dream was to move his family to Utah, the reason being because here we could have a better future among the members of our church. He was able to achieve that on 1989, we moved to Utah and have live here ever since. I love my dad dearly and I hold dear to my heart all the memories that I have of my childhood and adulthood while I was under his fatherly care. Even now that I have a family of my own he is always there to help us with anything we need, he worried about our wellbeing and he enjoys being a granpa the most.

I love You Papi!!




Braden and Daddy


Kaylee and Daddy

Jorge is a great dad to Kaylee and Braden. He helps me out so much and he is so understanding whenever I need a break from the kids. He is the type of father that I have always dreamed of having for my kids. I'am very lucky to have him as my husband and father. This week is our anniversary so there are more things that I need to share in the coming days about Jorge. Thank you for being a good example of what a father should be. I love you!!

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Playdate with Taylor and Kai






Yesterday we had the priviledge to play with some friends that we've had for awhile. They used to live behind us for about 3 1/2 yrs. and then they sold their house and moved about 3 or 4 blocks west of us. So we are still able to see each other and have the kids play together. Jenny and me had the kids about the same time, so they are pretty much the same age. And both of us were lucky enought to have a girl and a boy. The kids always have fun when they play together and yesterday was not the exeption. They shared toys and were very good compared to other playdates we've had in the past. I think they are just getting older and can understand and play better. Jenny and me had fun talking about several things, and hopefully we can get together more often with or without the kids and even share our friendship with our husbands.


The kids are watching TV and they all looked so cute


Taylor and Kaylee sun bathing

Play Date #1

On Thursday kim, arianna, and me went to have lunch at Artic Cirle with the kids. We planned this playdate because arianna is moving to Rugby, Idaho. Kim and Arianna live in my neighborhood and we go to the same ward and we have become good friends. We all have kids with the same age so they get along and play well. We were able to talk and watch the kids play and take pictures. We are going to miss arianna and her kids (Forrest, Nadia and Baby Marek).

Thursday, June 12, 2008

New Laptop




It was about time that we got a laptop. I have been telling Jorge for awhile now until about 1 week ago we got one. It is great, I love it so much. We decided to get one when our home computer ran out of memory. We've had it for about 7 yrs now and it ws getting slow. so it still works and the kids use it to play games and we still use it to print and do other stuff, but the laptop is more practical and faster for my blogging purposes. Thanks honey for getting it for me.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Jorge's Birthday Part 2

Yesterday we got together with family to celebrate jorge's b-day. First we ate dinner, his mom made him Curry Chicken with rice, then he opened presents and sang the birthday song and then we ate cheesecake, it turned out really good (thanks to me). We had a great time visiting with the family.Here is video of the pictures that I took, Enjoy!!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Water Games



Today my sister invited me to go to the clearfreld aquatic center. We packed up the kids in her new Durango and we left at about 12:30pm. We had tons of fun in the pools.




We were there for about an hour not too much. But I'am thinking of putting the kids in swimming lessons in about a couple of weeks so that they can learn and be more independent. They were really good about keeping their floaties on and staying close to me.

Jorge's Birthday Today!!!


Today my dear husband is turning a year older. He will be 34 yrs old. Today I decided to buy him some ballons and I put them in his car so that when he arrived from his carpool he could be surprised. I'am making him a cheesecake and his mom is cooking him his favorite dish and we will have some family over to sing happy birthday to him. About 2 weeks ago I gave him a new guitar for his birhtday (it was an early present). He loves to play, and he is very talented. He already owns 2 electric guitars, 1 acostic guitar plus the one he got and a set of drums and 2 amplifiers plus other equipment to go with all this. He loves music and is good at playing and singing.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Fun in the Sun





Today decided to get the kids a pool for the backyard. Toys R Us has a sale on their pools so we went there today to buy the pool. My mom came with us and we made a date out of this outing. My mom just recently came back from Puerto Rico. She ended up going because my granpa fell and fractured his Femur so they needed her help for about 3 weeks. But now because of his injuries they are going to move here and live with my parents, so that my mom can help them with whatever they need. Anyway, back to our day. We bought the pool and the kids ofcourse had to see every single toy in the store, afterwards we were hungry so we ate lunch at the mall. We got home and started inflating the pool, it took about an hour to do. So the kids ended up going in around 4pm. So I decided to make some hamburgers for dinner on the grill and we ate outside on our patio table and made a family night out of this whole evening.

Great Friends

Yesterday we had dinner with Spencer and arianna Uminski. They are moving to Idaho this coming weekend and decided to get together one last time in their house before moving. We have become good friends with this family. They live in our subdivision and therefore go to our ward. Spencer and Jorge are in the Sunday School presidency and they play soccer together. We are going to miss them alot. We are looking at going down to Idaho for the 4th of july to spend time with them and to see some great Fireworks in Idaho Falls (that's what arianna tells me). I wish we had pictures of them but i don't. Arianna took some pictures of the kids so hopefully she will give me some copies.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Castle Park




Yesterday I decided to take the kids to a park that's located in the city of Kaysville. It's a public park but the cool thing is that its a castle, with swings, slides, and bridges to climb and alot of fun things to do. The kids really had lots of fun. We even invited my niece Daniela to come with us. After the park we went to buy some donuts at Bowmans Market, I think they have the best supermarket donuts. But it was a not so hot day to have fun in the park.

Memorial Day 2008


On Memorial day it was raining. We didn't have any big plans, but we were thinking whoever had plans for this weekend, they were ruined. I don't remember if we have ever had a rainy memorial day weekend until this year. Anyways, we have a tradition just like almost any american of going to the cemetery and take flowers to our family members that have died. The only family member that we have here is our precious Brianna. Brianna was my first baby that I lost 6 yrs ago in August of 2002. So we bought her some pretty purple mums and took them to her graveside.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

I'am still here


Hello there!! I have neglected all of you. Sorry about that. Well, new posts are coming soon. We have been in a lazy stage. Now that summer is starting (not oficially) but we are close to summer we are getting the hang of things. With Kaylee now home with us everyday, I need to start my creative side of the brain. I started working early in the mornings so that I can have the rest of the days free with the kids. So by the time 12 noon comes around I'am tired. But hopefully my body can get use to the time change since now I'am waking up at 5:30am and I used to wake up at 7:30am. But it's all good. So if you guys have any suggestions about inexpensive places that I can take my kids to, let me know please in the comment section of this post. Love you all. Take care.