A Somewhat Early Arrival

Not much happened in November so I am not going to do a recap. About the most exciting thing that happened is that to celebrate Thanksgiving Leo took me to an American restaurant (Foster´s Hollywood) where I requested root beer and stuffing and the server just looked at me weird. In the end we ate barbeque ribs. Really it doesn´t matter what you eat on Thanksgiving, what is really important is remembering all the blessings you are thankful for and the company you share the moment with. I can truly say that I am very blessed with so many things: love, family, health, shelter, freedom, joy. The list could go on forever. And now I have one more thing to add to the list: Clark.

December has started off with a bang. We have been quite busy this month getting things ready for the baby including painting his room, setting up the crib and dresser, washing clothes etc. It is good thing that we got all this done because although my due date wasn´t until the 21st of December, Clark Steven Wilcken Gutierrez joined our family the 10th of December at 4:00am. He is an angel and has brought lots of joy to our family this holiday season. Overall, all went well with the birth however, Leo did have to break the law speeding to get me to the hosipital in time. It is a good thing it was during the middle of the night or we might have been caught in traffic and Clark would have been born in the car. I went from having contractions every 10 minutes to every 3 minutes in about 15 minutes and the pain was unbelievable. I admire all women who have natural childbirth but I think they are crazy. Although pretty much my labor was natural until the last 15 minutes when the anesthesiologist finally showed up and gave me some drugs (general anesthesia) which I had been requesting since I arrived at the hosipital 2 hours prior. Right after the miracle drug I was told to start pushing and 10 minutes later Clark arrived weighing 7lbs 9 oz and a little over 20 inches long. Both mom and baby are doing well. We love having a new addition to the family.

Mom and baby Clark a few hours after birth.

Charlie and Clark´s first encounter. Charlie is more than delighted to have a baby brother. He is adjusting very well to the changes and is a great helper.

Clark´s first sun bath.

OCTOBER RECAP

October was a pretty busy month for our family. Not only were we busy with work, school, church callings etc, but we were also very involved in two church activities. The first activity was the "Día de la Hispanidad", AKA Columbus Day. It is a day to celebrate the differenct cultures. Since everyone has this day off, the three wards that meet in our church building decided to do an activity together to celebrate the different traditional food, dance, dress etc. of all the members. We are quite diverse and in all there were 10 countries represented. I was in charge of the USA table. I decorated the table using anything red, white and blue. I was kind of lazy making food so in the end I just brought homemade chocolate cookies and ranch flavor chicken. The cookies weren´t the best and the chicken a little dry but the people didn´t know the difference and goobled them all up. Another American brought rice crispy treats. During the activity we also had a talent show where people were encouraged to share typical dances or songs from their respective countries. The night before the activity Leo and I decided we would represent the USA and do a little diddy. In the end we used Charlies children´s songs CD and made up a dance routine to "She´ll be coming around the montain when she comes". We included some typical square dance moves as well as clogging steps. As you can tell from the pictures we even tried to find the most western clothes from our closet. Charlie was supposed to ride around on his stick horse but in the end he just stood in the middle of us with stage fright but at least he didn´t cry. It was a lot of fun and the people really enjoyed it but I think I might have jumped around a little too much because when I went to the doctor later that week he told me the baby was really low and asked if I had a lot of activity lately. I guess I danced one too many dosey dos! He told me I needed to relax more and take it easy. What he didn´t realize was that I had volunteered to organize the Tri-Ward Halloween Party. Weeks up to the party I tried my best to delegate some of the responsibilities but that is one thing I still need to improve on. I really wanted this party to be a missionary activity so I made invitations for people to invite people who were not members. The people really took me seriously because in the end almost 300 people showed up. The church was bursting at the seams and I was a little stressed. It was hard to walk around because there were so many people. The activity included a carnival, food, spook alley, and games for adults. Even though there were a few hicups (ran out of hot dogs and broken glass in the spook alley), overall the activity was a success but I have already announced to the ward that next year there is no way I am going to organize the Halloween Party. Too much stress for me and too much suffering for my poor husband. I don´t have any pictures of the halloween party (I was too busy to actually enjoy it and take pictures) but decorations included a balloon canopy and a huge spiderweb made from yarn and a huge spider hanging from the ceiling that I made from wading up tons of newspaper and painting black. Good thing November was much more relaxed or I think the baby would have made an early appearance.

Performing "She´ll be coming around the mountain when she comes"

I guess I am still pretty young, or at least try to be.

Charlie practicing his karate moves with his halloween costume on.

TO BE YOUNG AGAIN

Okay, so really I am not that old but when I start to think about how many years have gone by since the good old times of high school and college I start to feel my age. But not the other weekend. The other weekend I felt young again. I felt like I was transported back in time when I used to dress up and perform for my family and friends. In high school I declared Wednesday official clash day and every Wednesday I would wear dreadful combinations of clothes from the 60´s and 70´s to school. ( I thought this idea would catch on with my fellow classmates, but in the end I was the only one who participated) In college I wouldn´t go to school with the crazy clothes but sometimes I did dress up crazy to perform Dancing Queen or Getting Giggy With It for my roomates. Even one time, some friends and I dressed up up in cheerleading outfits and wigs to hand out helium balloons for Valentine´s Day. I shared these experiences and pictures with my husband and his reaction was that no wonder I didn´t have much success with the opposite sex. Back to my story. Well, the other weekend we were invited to a celebration dinner for a family that was recently sealed in the Madrid temple. After the dinner at a restaurant, we moved to another room where they had Karaoke set up. At first I wasn´t too excited to perform considering my current status, but in the end my friends convinced me to get up and sing. I started out slow but once I got going I couldn´t stop and we stayed until 2am. My first song was Jenny from the Block, by Jennifer Lopez. It was rockin. Then I performed Livin the Vida Loca by Ricky Martin followed by Baby, Hit me one more time by Britney Spears. My grand finale was the Grease Medley in which I performed both the woman and man parts. Watch out John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. They have nothing on me. During my performances I created such a fan base I even had 5 back up dancers. You are probably wondering by now if I have pictures to document this event, but fortunately I do not. To get a mental picture all you have to do is picture me, 8 months pregnant, singing my lungs out (or should I say screaming), and attempting to do the moonwalk. During one of my performances, one person asked my husband what I was like when I was single. His reply was "Not much different". Oh to be young again.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON

Shortly after Leo and I got married, Leo started working at a savings bank called La Caixa. It is the biggest savings bank in Spain. I am not one to brag, but right way his boss recognized that he was a great worker. Even though he lacks the formal education most of his other co-workers have, even they started calling him a "machine" for how quickly he picked up on things and how quickly he could get the job done. In 2007 we had finally made the decision to move to the USA however we decided to stay more time after Leo was offered a promotion from basically cashier level to bank director. It was an offer we could not refuse. In November of last year the doors opened of a new branch of La Caixa with Leo at the helm. Although it has been a challenge to start a new branch from scratch, he has done an amazing job. I am very proud of all that he has been able to achieve. Leo came to Spain from Ecuador 9 years ago as a naive 19 year old. He had no idea what to expect but with the uncertainty in his country he decided to try his luck in Spain. He arrived at a small town outside of Cartagena to stay with some cousins. His first job was working in the fields picking tomatoes, but that wasn´t his cup of tea so he only lasted 2 days. He then decided to walk the 5 miles to Cartagena to try to find work. He saw a help wanted sign in a pizza restuarant. They were looking for a guy to deliver pizzas on a small motorcycle. When the owner asked if he had ever driven one before, Leo said of course, but the truth was that the closest thing he had riden was a bike. The owner told him to take the motorcycle for a ride, so Leo took it around the corner and asked someone on the street if they could teach him first how to turn the thing on and then how to drive it. In less than 10 years Leo has gone from delivering pizzas to bank manager in a country that is not his own and with only 1 year of higher education. It just goes to show that with hard work and with a willingness to learn you can achieve anything.

I am not the only one proud of Leo. Charlie too is proud of where his dad works. In fact almost even before Charlie could talk he could say La Caixa. As we travel around anytime we see a branch of La Caixa, Charlie always says, look La Caixa. On one ocasion Charlie and I went to visit Leo at his branch after it was closed. Charlie thought it was the coolest thing be at daddy´s Caixa. He was in heaven as you can tell by the pictures below.

Leo sitting at the the cashier´s desk balancing the accounts at the end of the day.

Charlie took over Leo´s office and stole all the stamps so he could stamp his papers.

Chalie helping daddy with his work.


Ever since we visited Leo at his branch, Charlie now calls our home office his La Caixa.

LITTLE BOY GROWING UP

Charlie started school this year. No that doesn´t mean that time has really flown by and he is already 5 years old. In Spain. kids start public school during the calander year that they turn 3. This has been a big adjustment for both mom and Charlie. All summer long we were trying to prepare Charlie as much as possible for this big step including potty-training. Charlie has always either been with mommy and daddy or grandma. In fact prior to going to school we had never been able to leave him by himself in nursery at church, so we were a bit worried about how he would adjust to going to school. In the end I think it was me who had a harder time adjusting than Charlie. The first couple of weeks was the adjusting period where he only went for an hour and with only 6 or 7 other students. Now he goes from 9am-2pm and there are 24 other 3 year olds in his class. The first day, because of work, I wasn´t able to drop Charlie off, but Leo said he did very well. The second day I got to drop him off and Charlie almost ripped my shirt off because he didn´t want to go. He was screaming and crying so much it made me cry and unfortunately I couldn´t stop. I blame it on the pregnancy hormones. I was crying so much people on the street were asking if I was okay. Although I never cried that much again, everytime I dropped Charlie off and he started to cry I did too, but I made sure I was too far away for him to see. This only lasted the first couple of weeks and now both mommy and son are doing fine and no more tears. Charlie now comes home and tells us all the things he has learned at school. It is fun to see how he is learning new words, sayings, and songs. He likes talking about his friends too. One of the names he mentions most is Pedro, however when he says the name it sounds like "Pedo" and for those of you who speak a little Spanish you can imagine that it makes us giggle a little everytime he says it.

Charlie right before he entered school on the first day.

Charlie going to his classroom with his teacher Silvia.

Charlie after his first day of school waiting for Grandma to pick him up.

On Mondays Charlie has PE and must wear the school uniform. Before the kids enter the classroom they all line up outside and when they go to the class they hang on to each other like a train

BIRTHDAY FUN

To celebrate Charlie´s birthday this year we decided to have a more intimate party. For the first two years of his life, for some reason I felt compelled to invite every child in the primary plus friends outside of the church. The guest list averaged arount 30 to 40 people. This year I cut the list down to 8 and boy, what a difference. The theme this year was "Cars the movie". Thanks to my sister Krista who had already thrown a Cars birthday pary for her son, I was able to steal her game ideas. To start off the party we played Cars Bingo, colored pictures and then we went outside to do a relay race and break the piñata. Charlies only request months before the pary was that there would be a piñata. Unfortunately here is Spain I have never been able to find a piñata, like the paper mache type so this year I had to make it myself, hence the picture below of my attempt to creat a piñanta that looked like a Cars wheel.

Even though it is not a professional piñata, the kids enjoyed hitting it just the same.

Charlie received some great gifts including this Cars mat with Lighting McQueen and Sally included.

Charlie blowing out his candle.


Charlie and his guests.

HELPING HANDS

It doesn´t matter how he says it, whether it is "I help you", "te ayudo" or a combination of both "Yo help you", Chalie is always willing to lend a hand. He loves helping around the house, especially the fun jobs like, cooking, baking, painting, dusting and of course cleaning the bidet in the bathroom. I am sure this willingness to help around the house is not going to last forever so we are taking advantage of it while we can.

Charlie helping make his birthday cake.

Charlie is an expert egg cracker and he especially loves taste testing the end results.

Charlie also helped us during the summer paint our home office.

He has a great future ahead of him in the painting industry.