Family Pictures!

Happy Thankgiving!

We have a lot to be Thankful this Thanksgiving!

First, we are so thankful for our family! Our mothers are amazing women that have taught us so much about growing up! We love you Dora and Karen! Glenn is an amazing man who has taught us hard work, perseverance and family values... and I guess he also blessed Jared with his good humor! Each of our siblings (this includes Misty and Michio of course) are unique and AMAZING! We love you all!

I especially love YOU Claudia! You are my favorite girl in the whole wide world!

Second, we are thankful that Elijah has had such a good first year of life! He's been so fun and happy, we just love him so much! Right now he is getting 4 more teeth in (aside from the 8 he already has). Poor little guy! He is such a trooper!

Third, we are so grateful to have awesome jobs that we truly enjoy!

Fourth, we are thankful for our awesome, kickbutt new car! Hybrids totally rock!!

Fifth, but most important, we are grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ, for the life He lived, for the Atonement He endured for us, and for the example He is to us. Because of His infinite sacrifice we can one day return to live with our Father in Heaven and we can live with our families for eternity. I am grateful that His Church is once again on the Earth and that we can have saving ordinances that enable us to be heirs to all of God's promised blessings.

 

We were blessed with perfect weather today! We decided to go for a nice morning bike ride!

 Joaquin really HATES anything you put on his head. Oh well little dude, the helmet is a must!

 Our normal thanksgiving traditions have always included, but not limited to lounging around, watching football or basketball... eating good food... relaxing... in our PJ's... I don't think EJ got the PJ's memo!

 Later in the day, when EJ decided to put pants back on he helped make our Thanksgiving dinner!

It was very simple, but nice Thanksgiving meal. I really enjoyed an intimate evening with my two guys. I think that's what I needed.

On a more personal note:
Five years ago today we lost one of our beloved friends. We miss so much Chental! Because of the Plan of Salvation I know that I will see her again. I know she is in a good place and she is happy. Thank you for living your life in such a way to bless others. Thank you for your example! I can't wait to catch up with you and talk through the night like we used to!

Thank you to whoever is reading this, thank you for who you are. And to you Chental, I miss you and today I celebrate your life. Happy Thanksgiving Hurley!

I invite any of you to read Chental's Eulogy. She was a remarkable girl, one of the best to ever walk this earth! 

What's the meaning of this?

Have you ever been to Red Lobster or Joe's Crab Shack and been disappointed? Or have you ever ordered sea food at a nice restaurant only to not be fully satisfied at the end of your meal?! Well, that's Jared every time he orders some sort of sea food! It's so cute watching him order because he gets so excited, but it's also so sad when we leave because I know he was disappointed. The sweet thing is that he always acts happy about his meal and says that it was "so good" only to later admit that he should learn his lesson...

NOT THIS TIME SIR! I decided a couple weeks back that I wanted to make an amazing dinner for Jared to celebrate our happy (and roller-coaster) marriage! I hope this isn't too lame of a blog entry for Elijah to read back one day, but it was too fun to pass off. 

Our fun little journey began with putting Elijah to bed. He was a good little guy as usual. As soon as I closed his bedroom door I went right to work! Here are the main yummies! That huge one is about 3 lbs of snow crab legs. The one to the left is the shrimp and to the right is the lobster tail! YUM!

 I figured I didn't want to make such a heavy meal so the only two sides were asparagus and a few small red baked potatoes.

The almonds are a really good topping for the asparagus.

There are the AMAZING Snow Crab legs. They turned out sooooo good!

 A heaping dish of large, garlic buttered shrimp!

I don't know how well you can see everything, but we had asparagus, snow crab in the back with baked potatoes, a heaping dish of large shrimp, blackberries, lobster tail, and of course, Martinellis

 I wish I had a picture of Jared stunned reaction to the feast! But, here's an after feast picture of my king.

 ... and all the shells and left overs...

But that's not all! We used our fireplace for the first time :) We ended the night with s'mores. Happy Anniversary lover! I can't believe it's been 4 years already! Where has the time gone?!

10 Months and walking!

Some family and friends might have heard rumors about Elijah...well here is the proof.  Recently EJ has been taking his own little steps towards becoming a toddler.  Tania and I notice that each day he becomes more daring than the last.  This little guy has no fear.  He has really enjoyed his time crawling but is now ready to walk like a big boy.  We hope you enjoy this video of our little guy strutting his stuff.

Happy Halloween!

We had so much fun this year gearing up for Halloween! We really wanted to do something with a family theme. Since we both grew up loving Star Wars we thought we could do that, but Tania didn't want to be a skanky Princess Leia so she went for the Jedi look. I was a very handsome Han Solo and Baby E was the cutest little Ewok I've ever seen!

 Our friend Brittany won the Best Costume award with her self made Yoshi costume. She rocked it!

 Little Henry and EJ sharing a cutie-pie moment!

Elijah and me Trick or Treating.  For the record, we (when I say we, I mean I) got tons more candy at the church trunk or treat than at our local neighborhood.  Either way, Elijah enjoyed observing all the other kids dressed up in their costumes.  I enjoyed the smell of candy filling up in Eli's bag.  It reminds me of when I was a kid and we used to stick our heads inside our pillow cases to rummage around for that perfect piece of candy to trade.

Our very first Halloween as a family was so much fun.  Thank you Tania for making and altering our costumes.  Because of your skills we had really great looking costumes.  I really felt like one of the baddest smugglers space has ever seen.  One very important fact that came from this holiday is the answer to one of life's great mysteries.  What do you get when you cross a Jedi with a space pirate?... an Ewok.  I love you Tania B.