A Little of This and That.....

First, an update on Corban...Most of you who are keeping up via facebook know that Corban, Momma, and Daddy are HOME in San Angelo!! And now those of you who didn't know...do! Just a few days ago, they weren't sure they would make it home before Christmas, but once they removed all his tubes and he started eating from a bottle, he flourished! So much so, that it amazed the doctors and nurses who say that a baby with this condition has never done as well as Corban has! Praise God and glory be only to Him who healed that sweet baby boy!! Anyway, they are home now and finally able to enjoy their little one round the clock!! He is absolutely beautiful!!! For some reason I am having trouble posting a picture of him, so I will work on that!

On to other things...
I haven't really updated on MY family in awhile ;) We are all great! We are visiting my mom's this weekend to have Christmas here and with my extended family...always a blast! The boys love it here and it is always so relaxing for Micah and I! My brother, his fiance (Anna), and her little boy are here today and I am super excited about hanging out with them! Anna's son is just a little older than Seth, so they are having a blast! They are even letting Aiden in on all the fun! They also brought their 2 dogs so it's been a full house with 6 adults, 3 little boys under the age of 4, and 5 dogs!!! It definitely reminds me of Christmas time at my grandmas when I was little because there were all the adults plus 11 cousins! I always wondered why the adults always kept "urging" us to play outside and now I think I finally understand. I just absolutely love Christmas with all of it's nostalgic memories and traditions. But of course most of all I cherish the time we celebrate the birth of our Savior who was given to us in the form of an infant and grew into the man who gave his very life for our salvation!

Not much else has really taken the spotlight in our family! Micah has been home most of December, which is great for us spending family time, but not so good as ministry is what Micah loves and so it's been a long month for him. He actually leaves the day after Christmas for a Winter Retreat at HEB camp, and that is always a highlight for him! I, on the other hand, am left with the aftermath of Christmas which is not so much a highlight for me!! Oh well! The spring looks a lot more promising and Micah's already got 3 events in January! Yahoo!

By the way, earlier this month Dennis Trujillo took our family photos and he did an INCREDIBLE job! Here are just a few....

Surgery Was a Success!

Sweet little Corban's surgery was successful!!! They were able to attach the trachea to the esophagus!!! Recovery will take about 2-4 weeks! Ryan and Kira and Corban will be here in San Antonio until he can go home. Ryan and Kira have a room at the Ronald McDonald house starting tonight until they can come home!!! Thank you for all your prayers and please continue to pray for baby Corban as he heals and Ryan & Kira as they still have to be away from the comfort of their home!

Here is a video of the precious boy!

Praying for Baby Connel

Hello all! Most of you probably already know, but in case you don't, one of my best friends- Kira Connel- had an incredibly precious baby boy named John "Corban" Connel on Dec. 5. He is a healthy almost 9 pound, 21 inch cutie! However, right after he was born, they detected a problem and later determined that there was a problem with his esophagus. They immediately air lifted him to San Antonio to Methodist Children's hospital. There they determined more specifically that he has a separation somewhere between his esophagus and trachea. Basically this means that food cannot directly reach his tummy and air leaks into the tummy as well; I think the technical term is called fistula. He is in surgery RIGHT now (7:30am, dec. 8) and the doctor was pretty confident he could stretch the tissue to connect the separation. Obviously, this is the most desired outcome, but they will not know for sure until they get in there and see how much they have to work with. If they are successful with the attachment, they will place a tube through the mouth to the tummy so he can be fed, until the esophagus heals. The recovery is roughly 2-4 weeks and Kira, Ryan, & Corban will stay in San Antonio during that time. If they are not able to attach it, then they will have to wait for Corban to grow some and will have to stay here 3-4 months. Please pray for sweet Corban, Ryan, and Kira! I know they will appreciate your prayers immensely! I will post an update later this afternoon with details from the surgery :)

Sorry I don't have any pics of him...i will work on that!

Dino-MIte!!

This past Saturday we had Seth's 3rd birthday party and it was a blast! Love is not a strong enough word for how he feels about dinosaurs, so needless to say...we had a dino party! My super talented chef extraordinaire mother-in-law made a volcano cake and my super creative sister-in-law decorated the cake! Thank goodness, because originally I thought for some strange reason that I could pull it off (having never made a cake like that in my life)...I guess it looked doable because Sandra Lee from the Food Network made it seem effortless ;) I must start reminding myself that those people are professionals! Anyway, the cake was complete with "smoke" via Micah, rubber gloves, & dry ice; it was spectacular!! (Pics are below, of course!) We also braved the infamous pinata, which made us all nervous as 2-4 year olds swung aimlessly with bat in hand!! Luckily, no one was injured and when big boy Micah had his turn with the pinata, everyone scrambled to grab the goods!
Seth did an amazing job sharing all of his toys and taking turns with everyone except...his brother...go figure ;) I can't believe he is 3 already...where does the time go? I am so lucky to have such a wonderful, exciting, full-of-life Sethers and he is such a blessing to us all!

Much thanks goes to my momma for supplying all the fun dino party favors and all who helped me scramble around at the last minute to get everything ready! And a super super thanks to Mrs. Kari Perritte who is the master of invitations! I will see if I can post a copy of one later (i'm too tired to figure it out right now ;) )

One of THOSE Days...

I had "One of THOSE" days today...and by that I mean, not a good one :( You know, one of those days you definitely wake up on the wrong side of the bed and then everything seems on the wrong side after that?!?! Those days that you wish would start over...a million times?? Those days when your only sanity comes from the grace and mercy of the Lord sneaking in and calming your soul??! You know....those days??

Both the boys woke up cranky today, and oh man...did it continue! Everything was a larger than life issue today, with meltdown after meltdown over the most ridiculous things...like blocks being the wrong color and cars not going down the track fast enough! So of course, the big issues of sharing and being nice, were off the charts today!! I seriously started to question my parenting abilities when ROUND 4 of time outs happened before 10am!! It was CRAZY today...neither one of them would even be still long enough to listen to "instruction" let alone obey it!! AHHHHHGHGHGHG! By the time I finally got one semi-seated in time out, the other one was into some sort of mischief and by the time I dealt with that, the "time-outed" one was up and into something else!! Poor Micah, he was sick & trying to rest in the midst of screaming, crying, and the constant sound of my stern voice! I think I even stuck my head in the bedroom once on the verge of some major tears and said, "I am a TERRIBLE mother!!" Of course, he sweetly encouraged me and assured me that I wasn't...but it didn't matter at that point, ya know? My children wouldn't heed to one word I said and couldn't be reasoned with in any form or fashion! I even had to "drag" them to time out (most of the time, they reluctantly go, but at least they go!) Anyway, I felt like a complete failure as a mom and disciplinarian today...big bummer! One bright spot of the day- I kept my friend's little girl today and she was absolutely wonderful and well behaved! Now that I think about it, maybe she was just in shock from all the hooplah with the boys...she was probably scared to death!! Sorry little one!! Oh well- tomorrow is a new day! Right???


Could you imagine these 2 could ever act in such a way?!?!

Happy Birthday To Me....Can I Please Have a CHI!! (sing title with birthday tune ;) )

I don't usually consider myself one that has to have all the "top" brands in hair care and actually I tend to error on the opposite side of that end getting whichever brand is on sale! Anyway, I have naturally curly hair, so if I want it straight I have to do all the work to get it that way :( Some of you are in the same boat with me!! Since I started using a flat iron to straighten my hair, I just picked one of the mid price range irons, which worked perfectly fine until....my hair stylist used the real deal and my hair looked pliable and shiny rather than dry and brittle! It's kinda like settling for Mr. Pibb or Dr. Thunder until you drink Dr. Pepper and are suddenly enlightened to the greatest thing on earth! Ok- maybe not the GREATEST...but pretty close! Anyway, from then on, I was severly frustrated and disappointed that I could not get the same results with my own flat iron and knew I had to have a CHI. However, I also knew that they were slightly outrageous in price, so I jokingly hinted here and there to Micah that it would be a great present for birthday or Christmas. I thought I might have a shot in the dark at scoring it for a Christmas present, but figured my chances were next to none getting it for my birthday.

On Thursday, I picked the boys up from Kid's Day Out, and stopped back by our house so Micah could tell the boys good-bye. When I walked in the door to grab a few things there was a wrapped box on the table from Micah. Honestly, I am not even sure what he said, I was so excited to open it! I "think" I may have glanced at him for a nod of approval to open, then I ripped into the package. I started on the wrong end, so as I shredded the paper, I wasn't completely positive, but..yep...it was a CHI!!! I definitely did not think it would happen for my birthday because they are so expensive, but I should have known better! Micah tends to be sneaky like that, pulling things off without me knowing anything (sometime I will have to write about our engagement story)! But, certainly he did pull it off and now my hair routine has been revolutionized!!! I don't know if you've thought about upgrading, but it is TOTALLY worth it!!

Thanks Babe...I love you! (Not just because you got me a CHI, I would love you just as much if you hadn't, but it sure adds to my motivation...hehehee).

Counting in Spanish & Naming Dinosaurs

Here's my first try of video posting! Aiden is counting in Spanish & Seth is naming dinosaurs ;)

Movie Night

Usually, because Micah travels so much on weekends, we try to have "date night" once a week. I am blessed to have wonderful in-laws and the amazing Trujillo family who keep the boys for us, making date night possible! Anyway, a few weeks ago we were ALL tired, so we decided to have a family date night! We have been doing this a lot more often and I have loved it! So, we ate dinner at home, unrushed (which is rare) and then we "let" the boys pick out a movie. Really it was more of Micah and I convincing the boys which movie they wanted (anyone ever do that?) ! While we were at the store getting the movie, the boys got to pick one treat each to have for the movie...I got to pick one too- thanks babe!! I just knew that both the boys would pick something chocolate, but Micah wanted G-2 so we went to that aisle first. Seth saw the Capri Suns and immediately began making his request known...of course Aiden chimed in because if big brother wants it, he must need it too!! We told them that if they chose the juice boxes, they couldn't get anything else, which I figured would be huge battle when we got to the candy aisle. Seth did pick out a candy bar, but I must say that I was quite surprised when the boys remained faithful to their juice box selection when given the "ultimatum" of one or the other! Seth was so cute, because he insisted that HE get to carry the Capri Sun box to the cashier and he did a pretty good job, minus a few drops...those things are heavy!!! Anyway, we got home, made some popcorn, broke out the juice boxes and settled in for our movie ;) It was such a treat! Here's a pic of all my boys on the couch enjoying the flick!!

Poster Child

Aiden, unlike his older brother, will eat just about anything you put in front of him! Micah and I have actually dubbed him "Rusty" from Brad Pitt's character in the Oceans movies, because almost every time you see "Rusty" in the movie, he is eating something...such is the same for our sweet Aiden! Again, also UNLIKE his older brother, Aiden throws caution to the wind when it comes to staying clean and actually has quite the knack for creating a mess! So, anyway, I recently discovered that Aiden loves the Chef-Boyardee "noodles" as he calls them. I think Marinara Explosion In A Can is a much more suitable name, but no one really consulted me before they made the final decision...oh well!!! Needless to say, we did have a marinara explosion at our dinner table the other night and I think Aiden should definitely be the "new face" of Chef-Boyardee!






No mess here! Nice and neat....noodles only!

INCREDIBLE DASH x 2!!

Since the boys are obsessed with the incredibles, Mamo (my mom) got BOTH the boys Incredibles' costumes for Halloween. Let me just tell you....they are quite hilarious! They have loved them from the moment they saw them and are immediately transformed into super-heroes when they put them on! They have been more than delighted to wear them around the house, to school for costume day, the YMCA carnival, and will once again wear them tonight at our church fall festival! Here are a few pics of my "heroes!"

Hello all!
I thought i would finally give blogging a try! To be honest, I have been a little scared of the whole idea because most of my friends have these immaculate, super-cute, creative blogs with all the lights, bells, and whistles and I thought......"There's no way I can keep up with all that!" But I have decided that even if my blog is the plainest of plain and dullest of dull, at least I can say I have one! Plus, it will give me a chance to journal and share some of our Mariano Madness with family and friends. I chose Mariano Madness, because, well...honestly...it was the first thing that popped in my head. At first I thought maybe I was a creative genius, but then I snapped back into reality and realized it was simply that three boys (four, if you count our beloved dog Finley, and of course we do) are constantly running amuck throughout the house with me frantically flailing behind trying to make sense of it all!!! ;) Okay, so it's really not that crazy, but sometimes it sure feels like it!!! I do love to write, so maybe I will find some sort of solace and sanity hiding in this blog somewhere! For now, since it is 12:00am, I will leave you with anticipation of stories to come......and a few pictures of the illustrious Mariano boys!