family

Noah Xavier turns ONE

Although a little late, our little boy turned one this past 19th of April. This year has been a year full of all sorts of emotions, adventures, and just plain out blessings. If anyone tells you that their first year with their baby is smooth, I may question that. There has been challenges along the way, but those challenges have taught us so much about ourselves, about each other and just about life. Even though there’s been moments of struggle, fear, exhaustion and much more, this year was one that we will never forget or regret. Our sweet boy has taught us more this year than we thought we could ever teach him. To describe the love we feel and have for him, is indescribable. From all his sweet laughs, smiles and coo’s here and there, we absolutely love each inch of him. As a mom, I can honestly say time is a thief. This year has flown by and although life gets busy, this past year I had to stop and make sure I was taking in each moment I spend with Noah. I think as a parent, you never want to miss a thing… and this is sure our case. For both Xavier and I, making sure to be there for those ‘firsts’ has been a top priority. And even though, unrealistic, we are so grateful and blessed that he’s surrounded by such amazing people who get to share those moments with us. I wish I could keep him a tiny baby just a little longer, to keep that sweet baby smell on him, to breastfeed him a little longer, to just plain out keep him in my arms and not have him running away… He’s ONE and my heart has all sorts of feels!

Oh my sweet sweet boy Noah,

You are the sweetest boy with the most contagious smile ever, there is not one person who does not look at you and just wants to smile along with you. You took forever to finally sleep through the night, 8 months exactly… sigh.. But now you got it down! Mama loves watching you sleep so soundly as your sweet face just melts this mamas heart…

You are active and crawling techniques have never been so fast! Mama and papa love watching you on the go… you keep us busy and on our toes! We agreed that your first word was “Ese” in spanish.. aka “that one” in english! You go around pointing your chunky little finger as you say “Ese, ese” guiding us to what you want to get your hands on next! haha you can thank your dad on that one, as he loves letting you touch and explore everything!

You’re adventurous but cautious all at once, you analyze your every move and decide whether your going to cause any bumps before you make a move…You can walk but refuse to let go of our hands while doing so..(enter cautious side here)… But we know that the time will come when you let go of your little hands from ours and take off on your own.. so for now we will enjoy holding your soft little hand and walk you along the way..

You’re a BIG boy measuring in at 31 inches tall and weighing in at 26 pounds 12.5 ounces to be exact at your one year check up! You’re wearing 18-24 month clothes and shorts never looked so cute on someone.. your curly hair is EVERYTHING and gets attention from the ladies haha. You love bananas and sweet potato and you think sippy cups are chewing toys still.. don’t worry you’ll get that down eventually. You officially have two bottom teeth and your top two teeth are finally making an appearance and you’re handling it like a champ!

Sweet baby boy, keep smiling and showing us those two teeth and brightening up our lives! You are so strong, brave, sweet and such a happy soul.. Mama and Papa pray you will continue to be so! We pray you’re a man of GOD, a man who loves him unconditionally and chooses to follow all his ways… He has given us the greatest gift. YOU. You are our rainbow baby, a bright light to us, our lives, and to those who you surround. Know you are loved by us and soo soo many others.

We thought we knew what love was before you, but YOU have taught your dad and I the true meaning of the greatest most selfless and unconditional love. We love you with all our heart son. Know that mama and papa will always be there for you no matter what, know that we aren’t perfect and we may fail along the way, but we promise to come back stronger and guided by our faith to guide you the best we can. We know God will watch over you in those times where we may fall short and for always.

Noah, your dad and I love you dearly.. You have stolen our hearts.

We love you to the moon and back times infinity and FOREVER!

-Mama and Papa ❤

Here’s some pictures of Noahs celebration at Disney and a failed smash cake attempt with family! lol

*And then there was magic here *

We also celebrated grandpas birthday with these amazing people! =)

“So mom when can we come back to the land of mickey and where dreams come true?”

Love you baby boy, keep flourishing and your gang will be there next to you enjoying every bit of it!

Noah’s 1/2 Birthday & Family Photos

carcache-32 Our sweet Boy has reached the 6 month mark you guys! That means 1/2 birthday! This means that after this he will almost be a teenage baby! This boy has kept us on our toes. He is the most sweetest baby and always has a smile on his face… literally melts our hearts. He’s at a point where so many changes are taking place and his little personality is starting to make an appearance. I anticipate a strong-willed little guy but with the kindest heart in our future. He loves his momma and daddy and has started to reach out his little arms for us to pick him up. He loves his skip and hop play table and loves putting all toys and mostly everything in his mouth! lol Maybe teething? But at the moment no teeth in site! He rolls over like a pro but can’t take the heat lol aka, he gets frustrated and lazy when it comes to “trying” to go on all fours to explore the crawling position. We’ll let him lead the way on that one and see when this big little fella wants to start making us chase him around. Oh and Food… well not his favorite just yet! Lets just say there’s been a whole lot of gagging in the works haha! But he does seem to like avocados like his mama. He’s at 95%tile for both weight and height so no concern there just yet. And although he’s an amazing baby and can pretty much adjust anywhere (beside his car seat, lol) he’s also not a great sleeper. Lets just say this is the area that has ‘kept us on our toes’ or what I should really say, ‘barely’ on our toes from how sleep deprived we are. All I know is, he’s lucky he is cute… we will take all the advice we can get on that one! Any tips to get him to sleep better?? help a mama and dad out. He also loves Mickey mouse and his eyes open wide when that little mouse is in sight! Bath time is his favorite followed by a game of papa chases mom and Noah around the house. I know someday these will be my favorite memories, maybe minus the sleep deprivation..

But in all seriousness, we have learned so much from him and although real life has been an adjustment. He really has challenged us.. he has made us aware of how little sleep an individual can run on, while at the same time, teaching us how much someone can also love. Because people, THIS IS REAL LOVE. It’s not always hearts and rainbows because I don’t care how perfect a picture can seem, real life can be hard with a baby. And although we know this is our first, and this is all new to us, were trying our hardest. Challenges have presented themselves, but we have learned to lean on patience and show each other grace. We’re not a perfect family but were trying to live it out to the best of our ability. Even though, there are days we may fail, this is OUR family and to us its OUR perfect little family. Noah these past 6 months has brought and taught us the real meaning of unconditional love, and I have never felt more blessed or grateful to God for trusting us to be his parents. In the midst of all the struggles we may face, while adjusting to this little guy, I hope to always focus on enjoying the process of HIM, because he’s only little once and these will be memories that last a lifetime for us as parents. It’s easy to be overwhelmed when you feel like so much is going on. But, all those feelings placed to the side don’t compare or surpass the feeling I have in my heart, body and soul for this precious boy. He’s taught us more about life and its meaning these past 6 months then we ever thought or thought we knew before. He’s our greatest adventure, the most rewarding and the biggest blessing.

And even though, I may talk about struggles and adjustment, I just want to keep these emotions and feelings as raw as possible for our memories and for my readers and fellow parents out there. Because although, our lives may seem perfect in all these tiny IG stories and pictures or Facebook that everyone posts’ or even on my blog and my pages, LIFE IS REAL. Life isn’t perfect for anyone and sharing with you all that we’ve encountered struggles in adjusting and our sleep deprivation, it’s all real and we know were not alone. And in the midst of it all, no matter how big or small are struggles are, our life has been fulfilled with a greater purpose and were so incredibly blessed to be where we are as parents, as husband and wife and as a family of three in our journey right now. We will always remember these days….

Our friend and photographer Beca @ Becacphotography who pretty much has documented all our big milestones with her camera, captured these amazing photographs for us as a family and our little Noah at 6 months! Life may not be perfect always, but these Photographs are PERFECT! We may not have it together all the time, but together is my favorite place to be with these boys, and with all these good feelings! I hope that our love can be seen through these photos in our smiles and faces! Because there’s sooo much of it surrounding us and were so incredibly blessed. Looking back at these one day will be so amazing.

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Love you NOAH ❤

A Sweet Baby Gender Reveal

batch_img_9702 This past weekend, we had the honor or sharing with our close friends and family one very exciting moment for Xavier and I.. the gender of our sweet babe! We knew from the get go that we wanted to be surprised along with everyone and that we would try to do it in a creative manner, or at least in an exciting way! Along the way, some of my close girlfriends and mom decided they wanted in on the plan and wanted to help us out with the reveal! Which by the way, I appreciated with all my heart being that this mama has had some difficult days with all the nausea and yes…trips to the bathroom..sigh. But with that on the side, brain storming took off and we ended up with the sweetest gender reveal night! Our simple sweet theme was bow ties or bows and while its one we’ve seen before, it was ours and it was perfect! Some great DIY’s also came into play by yours truly, since we all know that I’m up for a good arts and craft! The time and effort that my mom and friends took out of their schedules was just a huge meaning of love and a reminder of how much this sweet baby is already loved and cared for! After a couple of snacks and a couple guesses from our guests, it was reveal time. We found a way to make the reveal explosive and made it POP! We found the cutest reveal balloon on etsy, over at Baby Glimpses. My mom was the only one who knew the gender (because she begged! Lol) so she filled the balloon with the adequate color and when everyone was gathered around it was time! It was time to reveal what we had been patiently waiting for…a sweet baby girl or a handsome little boy! And just to make the occasion even more fun… that night we had a power outage! Yes! for most of the reveal we had no power! Lets just say, thank goodness for technology and phones with flashlights.. lol it was definitely a reveal to remember!

To start our bow ties and bows theme, this mama had some fun on her chalkboard’s and got to get in on some of the exciting plan!

My little sister also wanted in, and this cute little drawing was hung up near our precious little baby’s ultrasound baby selfies! We have that board in our home and we get to walk by everyday and stare at our little blessing!

Our closest friends and family also were wearing their baby guesses with these cute DIY bow ties and bows made by this mama. They were the cutest little things and fun to watch what our guest’s guesses were..

batch_img_9690 batch_img_9717 Now to talk about this sweet dessert table! IT WAS BEAUTIFUL! I was so in love with the whole set up! My friend brought all these yummy treats and cake to us from a baker friend, Jaclyn Otero. Everything was delicious and everything was gorgeous. batch_img_9713

Vanilla cake with nutella filling and cream cheese frosting?! Yes please! Oh and the most perfect bowties and bows cookies I ever did see.

Now is the time to bring your sense of humor out! Cupcake toppers with a meaning!

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The guys and the girls… this baby is going to be loved by so many!

The amazing grandparents to be!

The aunts and uncles and the three ladies who made this day even more special with all their support and planning!

The time to finally reveal whether we would be having a boy or girl with this awesome balloon!

It’s a Baby BOY!!

Life’s Happy Moments Lately

Life has been busy lately, but there’s been a whole lot to be happy about around us lately. I’m calling these.. “Life’s Happy moments Lately!” We are definitely counting our blessings around here, whether small or big there’s a lot to be thankful for lately. I think it’s so easy to take things for granted, specially with two full-time nurses in our house hold. Both my hubby and I work 3, 12 hour shifts a week in the same household, while sometimes being on complete opposite days. It can get exhausting to say the least. But when we do get to enjoy sleeping in the same days off together.. the happy dance comes out! That alone calls for a Happy moment alone! But none-the less, even with the busy schedules we’ve been toughing it out and squeezing a whole lot of Happy Moments in when we can.

Life’s Happy moments lately!

#1 for those who have missed it, has definitely been announcing the arrival of our little Baby Carcache coming April of 2017! If you missed the great news, you can check out a sweet little note to our babe Here (Our Sweet Baby)
Can we say um.. FALL!? Fall is here and even though all you northerners are probably having a more realistic feel of fall up there, down here in florida the weather has at least been a breath of fresh air! The humidity has been pretty low, and the breezes have been oh So So wonderful! For us Floridians its as close to fall weather we probably get!
Pumpkin Patch with the little sister, a yearly tradition plus the yummiest frozen apple cider I ever did taste! Its a plus when your pregnancy makes it a craving too!
The arrival of a cousin we haven’t seen in years! Introducing her to some ‘American’ traditions during the holidays will surely be fun for us and her. Her smile of appreciation is priceless.
This mama and daddy upgrade mamas car for a bigger ride! Rocking the mama car early! So grateful that God has allowed us to be able to make these switches for the changes coming up!
Lastly Family and Friends, and for all the moments of encouragement they give through this stage in our lives. For our families love, patience, guidance and endless support! Those are always happy moments

-Jen<3

OVERWHELMED WITH THE LOVE OF FAMILY

I am overwhelmed with family love….a good kind of overwhelmed though, the kind that makes you smile. The past couple months, I have realized how much our family has grown and how much we have matured. Family isn’t always all smiles and cheer like seen in most photographs. Family is also about hardships, disagreements, loss and failures. But family is also about Love, forgiveness, grace and humility…these all can surpass any of those not so good qualities. It’s a good reflection of what God is to us, because he too, is our family..and love and forgiveness can overcome a lot. My family, like many others have had their ups and downs.. The downs being quite low. But these past couple of months I have seen how much we have grown. How amazing it is to forgive and let go…and how ahead it puts us in any relationship. We still have room for improvement, we still bicker and disagree at times, but we wouldn’t be human if we did not. I guess we are realizing that all we got at times is each-other. That it’s better to be at peace with each other than to be in any silly little disagreement. We are learning to let things go.

The past couple of months we have made it a priority to speak more and be more involved in each others days and lives. It wasn’t a talked thing but I think we’ve all realized how nice it is to be involved in each others lives. With my brothers this is a prime example. We have leaned on each other for help without expecting anything in return. My brother joe lend himself to us during our engagement party a couple of months back and it meant so much to us because he did it out of his own will and want. Thank you joe!

With my brother Chris it’s been special.. We have gone through a lot together… But we are learning to lean on each other when in need and when we want to share good things and that makes me so happy. We have talks with meaning and purpose, and we learned to listen to each other. Most importantly, I think we realized we have each other at the end of the day, no matter the circumstance. It’s been so nice to spend time with him on days off and share moments and build memories with him and his girlfriend Alexis, Xavier and I. The sweetness of it all is that we have come to see we are not just brothers and sisters, we are each others friends as well.

With my parents the relationships have also changed, and I think it has to do a lot with our age. Once we were kids, stubborn and thought we knew it all, yet they always had our best interest at hand and heart. We are growing and one thing I have learned now that I’m older is the unconditional love they give me, even when they disagree. We have had many uneasy moments in the past, but God has been good and we have overcome them all. Our relationship is stronger than ever, they are my best friends. They care for my heart more than any other physical human being and for that I am grateful.

My sister we all know is one that is dear to my heart, and I think she’s a reminder to our whole family of the joy we can find in the little things. She’s also a quick reminder of how different we all are and how differently we all have grown up. She brings us smiles and laughs only a child can and sends us “I love you’s and I miss you’s ‘” when we need them the most. While she may be strong-minded, she reminds me of how important it is to stand our ground, yet love with all our hearts.

The love recently has been one that even though we don’t talk about it on a daily basis and maybe my parents nor my brothers and sisters see. As I sat back to think and just take all the struggles we have gone through and all the memories in the past we hold dear to, they all just seemed to amaze me. We are growing as a family, and I really think it’s for the best. One thing I am so thankful for is that we all are here and live close to each other and that even though we don’t live under the same roof, were only a phone call away or a 10 min drive away. I’ve learned that while we are not a perfect family, we ARE a family and that’s good for me.

We have more family members being added like my fiancé Xavier and my brothers girlfriend and its so lovely to see how much we are a part of each others lives thus far. I know we have more to learn from each other and more to experience together, but so far its makes my heart warm. My family as whole is growing, and though some are far away, or I haven’t talked to in a while, I love them all because Ive learned something from each and every one of them. Today you were all in my thoughts, and today I am grateful for all those I call my family.

Jen<3

SOFIA TURNS SEVEN

Sofia turned SEVEN last week and I can’t help but look back at my little sisters #7 celebration! It was definitely a family affair full of surprises for our little Sofia! This year her birthday fell on a week day.. and we all know that a weekday birthday for a little one is no fun! lol But thanks to big brothers and sisters, we would take care of that and make sure it was a day full of fun for her! Unlike many little seven-year old girls, my sister is no fan of princesses, pink nor sparkly…(She kinda takes after me on that..woops) What she is a fan of and a HUGE fan of on that note, is horses! The love she has for them is overwhelming… Overwhelming in the sense that it’s this good emotion, that consumes you with love and a smile when you see her eyes light up when she sees one or is riding them in lessons. It fills me up with joy honestly. So what better way than to celebrate with some horses on her special day!

I wanted to surprise Sofia.. So my plan was to set up a little cake table while she was in school so that when she’d get home, it was her birthday surprise! Well, that’s exactly what I did… The night before I had seen a couple of ideas online to incorporate horses and well my first task was a cake. A simple cake, with a silhouette of a horse. Let me start off by telling you this… I’m NO baker.. but I try! lol So a boxed cake would do, lol. Let me humor you all… the first cake?… well it fell apart while I was taking it out of the baking pan… sigh. But thank goodness for my honey! He’s so sweet…because I wasn’t having the greatest day and when I saw the cake fall apart, I almost went into tears. Luckily for me, I have the best fiancé ever… He took me to the grocery store and made me try again! So cake number 2? Success! lol Easiest thing to do was decorate the cake… Some cream cheese frosting and a chocolate sprinkled horse silhouette! A couple of goodies from target and I was ready to decorate the next morning before she came home from school!

I was so excited to share these photos with you all, not only because I was proud of how our sweet little set up turned out but most importantly because of the smile on our sweet little sofas face! It was priceless! I can’t wait to share more birthdays with my little sister! Most of you know that I adore her and she keeps me going and wanting to be a better me for her eyes!

Our celebrations didn’t stop there..Some games for the day, and a horse cake to wrap up the night. After, came some planning for our family trip to Orlando to keep celebrating with our little Sofia for the weekend. Lets just say the fun continued and its safe to say she had a great 7th Birthday!

We all love you Sofia! We all wish you many many more birthdays to come, full of that love, happiness and personality you have. May God continue to bless you!