InstaDump

I am usually the last one to join any kind of bandwagon. But I recently fell in love with Instagram! I am still not one to take pictures all the time but am hoping this gets me rolling. We'll see! Here are some of my favorite pics. We'll see if I can have regular posts where I just dump all my instagrams on here on a regular basis! I should probably stop making promises about doing anything on the ole' blog on a regular basis. I epically fail each time! Oh well....better to make and live the memories vs. trying to record them. : )

BIG BROTHER....little sister

Why is she putting this thing so close to me?! What is going on?

LOVE!

A New Time Out Spot

Our little Maciah has officially entered into his terrible 2 stage! He tests his boundaries with us constantly and pays a visit to time out several times a day....well on a bad day that is. He has his good days sometimes.  He has become accustomed to time out and doesn't argue when the consequence is called for. He calmly walks over to his time out spot and sits down quietly. It's the cutest thing to watch him accept his consequence so eloquently. EXCEPT when as a parent you wanna see some sort of emotional reaction for those bad choices. Well on one of those bad days we got that reaction we were looking for by just changing his time out spot. I think it worked! What do you think?

***Disclaimer*** Before you go calling CPS this is the picture of him before we threatened to walk away. Which we never did. It only took 2 seconds to get the cry and for him to learn his lesson. He's back to his original time out spot where he is safe instead of hanging by a thread! LOL.  Our little terrible 2...gotta love him! At least he's got cuteness going for him!

A peak into the waiting area....

For the birth of Illana we had a sweet friend take pictures of our special day to capture the moments and reactions of our family to the gender reveal! Being that I was in recovery I missed out on the jumping and hollering going on in the hallway. I wish I could have been there to introduce little Illana but having pictures taken was extra special because we get to keep those forever. We had a photographer for the birth of our second child as well and it is awesome to go back and see still pictures of his birth story. These will be cherished forever! I just got these pictures from my friend this weekend and here are some of my favorite!



Waiting Patiently.....



How much longer till this baby comes? It's past my nap time!

You think my mother in law really wanted a girl?

It's a Girl!

Illana Eve Garcia

7/30/12 12:54pm

7lb.15oz. 19.75in.



The Lord blessed our family with another little girl on July 30th! I meant to post a birth announcement sooner but the sleepless nights have gotten the best of my energy during the day! Enjoy some shots of the special day we got to meet this little bundle of joy! Maciah has officially become not only a little brother but also a big brother. He is learning how to pet his little sister gently instead of slapping like he normally does everything else. And big sister Atianna is back to smothering mommy mode like she was with Maciah when he was a baby. She asks to hold Illana every 5 minutes! So the adventures continue in the Garcia household....especially now with #3 added to our growing family! Fun times ahead!

Enjoy some shots of the special day we got to meet this little bundle of joy!

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Photo slideshow made with Smilebox

Patio Final Reveal!

The Patio is finally furnished and done! We got it completed as soon as summer started and have spent a lot of time in the back patio enjoying family dinners and just lounging around in the shade listening to the palm leaves rustle in the wind. The kids love to play in the sprinklers, baby pool, and slip and slide while we watch them from  the comfort of our patio furniture. When we shopped for patio furniture the retail price was way out of our budget as it was high demand season in the beginning of summer. So.....we got our Craigslist skills on and began the hunt for some outdoor furniture. We scored big time with the furniture we found! We got super great deals on both the conversation set and the dining table set. We LOVE us some Craigslist deals! 

Concrete Gone Wrong Part 2

We left off with the concrete truck in our front yard. We were so excited about finally getting our patio floor expanded. The guys starting laying the concrete and smoothing it all out. Here are some pics of their progress..

After this step they started stamping while the concrete was still wet and then came back the next day to stain. After the contractors finished the job on day 2 we were happy with the results! Until....the concrete dried. On day 3 we found that there were some sections that were not covered with protectant sealant. Here you can see the sections that were not covered.

We called the contractor back to seal those sections and then they went on their way. I must note that our experience with this particular contractor was not stellar. Once the project was started unfortunately there were moments of miscommunication between us and the contractor. We found he was not completely honest about certain elements of the job. So by the end we were happy for them to be on their way once they came back to seal the unfinished sections. We were jumping for joy that the job was finally finished and there would not be anymore awkward moments with the conctractor. Here's the clean version..

Until......a couple of weeks later we got some rain. The palapa is pretty waterproof in the middle except for the outer edges where it comes down. The outer edges of the concrete got some water which was not unexpected but what the water did was unexpected! Here's what we found after the rain stopped.

The rain was peeling the stain off the concrete! We thought "Unbelievable...what else can go wrong?" At this point we were so done with the contractor that we decided not to call them back. We were gonna rock the rustic old concrete look and just live with it.

If anything, this taught us to do our research on contractors and look up reviews or at the very least get recommendations. Oh! And Do It Yourself when all else fails!! I'd rather have awkward moments with my husband than a complete stranger! LOL.





Patio Retreat Part 1

The last time I blogged about our outdoor backyard retreat I unveiled the palapa that we built. That was hard work but the next step after palapa construction was to decide on flooring. We went back and forth on what kind of flooring to do but ended up deciding to do  concrete in the end. My DIY self really wanted to tackle the concrete job ourselves like we did the palapa. So in order to convince Johnny I had to do my due diligence and research. I came up with the supplies needed and the cost with doing it ourselves vs. hiring a local contractor. Once I finished all my homework I was ready to plead my case. It went a little something like this....

Jaime: So...this is what we would need....about 90+bags of concrete and.....

Johnny: LOL..... That's all you had to say....call the contractor! I'm not gonna deal with 90+ bags of concrete!

Being that there wasn't a huge difference in cost anyway I agreed feeling defeated and we started to call for bids from local concrete contractors. After the bidding process we chose a guy who also would stamp and stain for a reasonable price.

The morning the contractors came to start the project I couldn't help but watch them lay the supporting beams and lay out the grid for our space. I had read up on all the project entailed so it was fun getting to watch and several times commented to Johnny "We so could have done that....Look how easy that looks!" Until this thing rolled up to our driveway and Johnny came up next to me while I watched through the window wide eyed....and shot back with...."You were saying?"

 

To say the least, I am glad we  Johnny decided to hire the job out. You told me so Johnny....there it is in writing!! Enjoy it!

Stay tuned for Part 2 to see our finished flooring!