Riley in Children's Model Competition!

My son Riley has been entered into Next Direct Children's Model Competition 2010, for a chance to win a $100,000 scholarship! The 50 children who receive the most votes will be invited to the live final at Universal Studios, LA, on April 24th and 25th, 2010. Voting closes at 7am (ET) on March 18th, 2010. So please vote for Riley daily!!

xo,
Jen

My husband's voice rocks! :)

Here's a little clip of Tony singing, "Apologize" by One Republic. This recording doesn't do him any justice - the live performance was phenomenal!

Long Time No See!!!

Let's see...it's been about a year and a half since I've posted anything here. I can explain. I couldn't log in! I've spent hours trying every email address I could think of that I may have signed up with. I've gone around and around in circles for months trying to get access to this account!

Finally, I realized I had signed up under Tony's business email (duh). And now, here I am.

SO.... Since my last post, Riley turned 5 (and graduated from preschool), Ellie turned 2, and I had another baby (Trey Makai) who is now almost 10 months. Yeah, I'd say a lot has changed since my last post!

I also started a fun new blog called SIMPLY JEN. It's full of ideas on how to live a simple, stylish and satisfying life. Topics include: Interior Design, DIY Projects, Crafts, Natural Health, Family, Food, Gardening...and lots more! If you have any questions for me, send me an email and I may post your question and a detailed reply on my blog! Soon, I'll be posting instructions on how to create a padded headboard which would normally sell for hundreds of dollars for only $30!! Wohoo! In this economy, what stylish person wouldn't want that information??!! Well, maybe there are a few who couldn't care less. Ahem...alrighty then! See you on the other side??

Riley turned FOUR!

Well, Riley successfully turned four on January 10th. We had a fun party for him on the 13th. Look who came! • The Lugo's (Jason & Lori (my brother & his wife), Haylie and Zack • The Jardine's (Darla & Josh (My best childhood friend & her hubby) Paul, Nick and Andrew • The Howe's (Ryan & Cydnee - our best friends here in Rupert) Gift opening was a blast, particularly when Riley opened a gift exclusively from his 6-year-old cousin Zack. This was a gift Zack had put together for Riley all on his own. His mom didn't even know what was in the bag. This is what Riley pulled out: A Ball Light Saber A Pair of Shoes Star Wars Transformer Zack is such a sweet, generous boy. Darla's husband Josh is a musician (they're moving to Nashville!) and I asked Josh to bring his guitars. He and Jason played and sang together which was such a treat! Music is such a great way to bring people together. All the kids played really well together. Such a great bunch of kids. After Jason's family and the Howe's headed out, we spent some more time with the Jardines. They had traveled about two hours from Idaho Falls, so we wanted to spend as much time with them as possible, since we don't see then nearly enough. We had such a wonderful time with them and love them so much! The next day Riley was asking if his 3 boys could come over and play again. Well, now that Riley is four...he does everything in fours. When he drinks water, he swallows four times now instead of three, counting with his fingers. Can you say OCD? :) He has to do things just so and is very organized. What a fun kid. We sure enjoy him. He's been a really great big brother to Ellie. She loves him and follows him everywhere he goes!

The Gar-blog!

Happy New Year! We've decided to start the year off right by keeping in touch more with all our family and friends. With our busy lives and a multitude of loved-ones, we figured web logging would be the most efficient solution! Oooh, the exciting world of blogging. We're finally here! The Garcias...blogging. We'll call it the "Gar-blog" for short.

We had the best of intentions to send out Christmas cards this year. We had pictures taken, and even ordered photo cards. I think about 50 of them. Well, with a whirlwind of unexpected December work for me (Jen), and sick kids...Christmas really snuck up on us. I thought it would still be OK if I got them out before the new year, but then I came down with the flu, and before I knew it...3,2,1 - Happy New Year! So I have a stack of Christmas cards which will soon get tossed into the trash. How sad. I'd feel like an idiot sending them out this late. It would only announce to the world how horribly unorganized I've been lately. So, here is the photo from the card. Consider it effort on my part.




So, here we are in Southern Idaho. We hit our one-year mark the end of August 2007. Since we've been here, we've had our second baby Ellie and started a new business.

It's been quite a change from our former lifestyle in Utah. We loved Herriman and especially our home there. We miss our family and friends, not to mention great food (restaurants) and great shopping. We miss the niceness of everything back home. There isn't much of anything around here that is new by any means. On the other hand, we love the slower pace of life up here. No traffic, no rush. Nice and easy. We also love how being away from it all has pulled our little family together even more. We've loved strengthening our relationships with my brother Jason, his sweet wife Lori and their two beautiful children Haylie and Zack. What a wonderful family. We've made some great friends here, namely Ryan & Cydnee Howe. We sure enjoy their company and the ease of being wih them. We feel we can truly be ourselves with them.

Well, this is all I have time to write for now. I hope to write often enough to keep current and not so often as to bore!! Love to all!

Jennifer