Gressel Family

Can't believe it's already December

2008-11-17T20:07:00.000-08:00

So much happened last month that I should have posted more often than I usually do. Time is going by so fast. Justin's mom came to visit us, and it was so nice to have her here. Even though there isn't a lot to do in Urbana, we had a great time enjoying each other's company, and I think she had a good time just getting to see where we live and what we do in our everyday lives. The kids were so happy to have her here. Alan wanted to be with her all the time; he would walk in the bathroom when she was doing her hair and sit on the toilet just watching her, at night he would ask her it he could sleep with her. It was really cute seeing how happy he was to have her here. We got to enjoy some nice fall weather and we were able to take the kids to the park to play with the fall leaves right before it got too cold to go out. She's gone now, but we thank her so much for coming to visit us. Hopefully we'll be together again soon.

We put up our Christmas tree really early this year since we are going to Dubai so early in December. Before we put up the ornaments on it Alan decided to decorate it with a bunch of his toys. He put up Legos, balloons, cars and a lot of different things on it. He was really excited about it; here's a little picture of it.

It finally snowed here last week and it was so much fun. We went out and played with the snow for a while. The kids made snow angels, ran on the snow, made snow balls and just had a blast playing with it. Alan was also having a blast trying to ride on Eric's little motorcycle on the snow. His big legs could barely move, but he loved riding on it. Since we were in Dubai the past two winters and it's warm even during the winter, the snow was a new fun thing for them to play with.

We're going to Dubai!!! It's already December. We're leaving in two days, and I still can't believe it. We're so excited to see Justin and finally be together again. When we come back he's coming back with us for almost a month!!! Next time I post something it will be from Dubai. I can't wait!!!

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!

2008-11-05T12:44:00.000-08:00

This Halloween was soooooooo fun. The kids are at such a fun age to appreciate this time of the year. A couple of weeks before Halloween my sister Arely and her kids came to visit and we had a little Halloween party. All of the kids got dressed up except for Eric who decided he didn't want to wear his Winnie the Pooh oufit and he wanted to use Alan's old Dumbo costume, at least he did dress up . We decorated the house when Justin came to visit, so everything was ready for the party. The kids decorated pumkins with pumpkin tatoos; they hit a ghost pinata and were so excited when they got all the candy from it. They had a lot of fun playing and enjoying Halloween together.

On Halloween day we were really busy. Alan went to his morning preschool all dressed up and so happy to see everyone at his school in their different customes. At school they took the kids Trick-or-Treat and got lots of candy. After that he went to his other school and I picked him up early because Eric and Alan had a Halloween party at their gymnastics class. They put up a Halloween inflatable decoration and used all the gym equipment to have a cool party for them. After that we went to Alan's school for another party and they had lots of games anf of course candy.

We ended the day going Trick or treating and it was so fun, the weather was perfect and the kids were in such happy spirits that they enjoyed every second of that day. We missed Justin a lot since it's his favorite holiday, but he had fun in Dubai as well. He had a party for the young men from church, he decorated the house and even bought eye ball ice cubes. On Halloween day he handed candy out to around 150 kids in the neighborhood.

Happy belated Halloween to everyone!!!!!!!!

Daddy's visit

2008-10-05T12:09:00.000-07:00

It's been so long since I last posted anything and so many things have happened during that time. We were in the U.S for the summer and we were planning to go back to Dubai again in August. However, this didn't go as planned, and the kids and I are staying in the U.S this year while Justin finishes his contract in Dubai. As most of you know, Alan has some feeding and other issues, and speech and ocupational therapies are supposed to help. Therapies in Dubai are very inconvenient, especially because I would have to take Eric with us too. It's a really long drive with horrible traffic, and therapies aren't as good as they are here. In the U.S he would also be getting therapies at school; so we thought about it and decided that the best thing would be to stay in the U.S.

It's been really hard and sad not having Justin around. The kids miss him a lot; but they actually love it here. Alan goes to a preschool in the morning and to another one in the afternoon and he loves them. He didn't cry or complain at all for the first two weeks. Justin came to visit last week and he's staying for two weeks, so last week Alan didn't want to go to school because he wanted to stay with us, so I had to tell him that we were all going either to work or school and then he was ok.

The kids were so excited to see Justin even though it had only been a month since the last time they saw him. Eric was screaming out of excitement running everywhere with his hands up. Alan went to his bedroom and got a bunch of toys and told Justin he could play with them. Then he went to the fridge, got his favorite soup and yogurt and told him he could have them. Alan doesn't stop telling Justin how "proud" he is that daddy is here and how much he loves him.

We've had a really good time, especially since fall is Justin's favorite time of year. We went to Curtis Orchard and got some apple doughnuts and peach pie. We went shopping for Halloween stuff and decorated the house. We've been going out to eat to Justin's favorite places and we're having a great time having him around.

He's going back to Dubai next Thursday. The kids and I will go see him in December and then he'll come back with us for all of January, so it won't be that bad. I think we made the right decision, and even though it's hard for everyone, we're getting used to our routine and are trying to make the best of it.

Our trip to Mexico City

2008-07-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in such a long time, but my life has been crazy with the kids lately. Around 3 weeks ago some issues came up and my mom, the kids and I ended up going to Mexico City. I hadn't been to Mexico in over two years and it was so nice to be back and to show the kids the place where I grew up (I guess I should say Alan, because Eric doesn't realize anything yet, I just don't want to exclude him). We had some really nice days, it didn't seem very polluted and this was our view from the hotel. I love the way the houses look all colorful.

I ended up realizing how much I like to be in Mexico City, even though I don't really get homesick anymore, especially since my parents live in the US now. It was so fun to drive in the crazy traffic again, to eat my favorite food, to go to the places that I used to go and to be around people that are so nice and helpful. Being from Mexico I always hear foreigners talk about how Mexican people are so warm and I always wandered what they were talking about (especially in Mexico City); but this time, not being there in such a long time and coming from the Middle East it was a big shock, everyone we came around was so nice and always trying to help in whatever way they could and in such an efficient way.

We got to see some or our closest relatives that we hadn't seen in years and Alan and Eric got to play with their cousins and they had a lot of fun. We also got to see my brother's son Diego, he's so cute and it was so nice to be able to hold him after such a long time.

We also went to a place called Piccolo Mondo and the kids had a blast. They had a room full of sand and sand toys to play with, they had a little train that went around, a snow slope made out of carpet that Alan loved, Alan got to paint a ceramic Spiderman face and to row a boat on a little pool and Eric had a lot of fun playing with the toddler games they had.

I also took the kids to the house where I grew up. I moved there when I was four and lived there my whole life. We couldn't go inside because my parents are renting it to someone else, but being there brought back such happy memories of my life in Mexico.

I hope we can keep going back to Mexico even if it's every once in a while, so that the kids get to know where their mom comes from.

Finally some real pictures

2008-06-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

I decided to steal some pictures from my sister's facebook posts. Since the pictures aren't mine, not everyone is in them, so I'm sorry to those who were there and aren't in the pictures, I wish I could have my own.

I loved Viviane's wedding, it was so cute, here are the pictures.

The trip to Orlando was really fun too, Justin's family and my family and some of my relatives were also there, so we had a great time.

Viviane's Wedding

2008-05-21T15:13:00.000-07:00

Now you're going to know how bad I am with computers. I've been trying to figure out what to do with our pictures from Orlando for over a week. I left the memory card reader (that I use to download pictures from my camera to my computer) in Dubai, so I was going to transfer my pictures to a CD so that I could download them. It ended up that I didn't have the memory card for my camera for some reason; I don't know how that would happen if I was able to take pictures during the whole trip. Anyway, I decided to use the CDs that my mom made from her pictures and to make a long story short, for some reason the pictures appear upside down, and the program that opens them up lets me turn them to the right position, but once I attach them to my blog they end up like this.

This is making me laugh so hard, but I'm sorry, this is all you'll be getting from Viviane's wedding until I figure out what else I can do. If anyone has any ideas please let me know, I'm desperate!!! Sorry Vivis, I wanted to make you proud but it's obviously not going to happen. Maybe you guys can just imagine how pretty the picture is if you could just look at it upside down, hahaha!!!

If you can just forget about how bad my picture looks, Viviane's wedding was soooooo fun!!!. It was a great way to end a vacation at DisneyWorld. Viviane and Robbie got married at the Orlando Temple and it was so nice to be at their sealing and hear all of the important things they tell you when you get married . . . that you kind of forget as years go by. I was so glad to meet Robbie, he is the nicest guy she could have found and I'm just so happy they're starting a life together. We love you guys!!! I promise I'll post good pictures, maybe I'll have to ask my sister Arely to forward some to me for a real post of Viviane's wedding.

Back in the U.S.

2008-05-11T19:07:00.000-07:00

We're so excited to be back for the summer!!! The kids and I came back on April 12, and we've been incredible busy ever since, that's why I haven't posted anything for a while. We took a 15 hour straight flight to Atlanta and we stayed there with Justin's parents for a few days. After that we flew to my parents in Illinois and we were getting over the jet lag and planning the last details for my sister's (Viviane) wedding for a couple of weeks.

The wedding was in Orlando, so we got there a few days before the wedding so that we could go to Disney World (our favorite place in the world). Justin came to Orlando as well and it was so nice to be with him even if it was only for a week. It was so much fun to be there with the kids and all the family. I still haven't figured out how to get my pictures into my parents computer, but hopefully by tomorrow I'll be able to. Hopefully we'll have some fun pictures to post.

Justin's Birthday & Easter Egg Hunt Party

2008-04-04T05:49:00.000-07:00

Justin is already 32, we can't believe how fast time has gone by, this is the eleventh birthday that we've been together. In the morning we went to one of the malls and we had lunch at TGI Fridays. I bought him a Coldstone "Cake Batter" Cake that he wanted. He LOVES Coldstone cakes, every time he gets a chance he makes up an excuse to get one and try a different flavor. Our favorite flavor is still Midnight Delight (pure chocolate....so good).

At night our neighbors, who we've been friends with since living in Indiana, came over to our house and we had cake together. Their kids and our kids were already asleep, so it was nice to actually be able to sit down and talk without interruptions. We love Justin (as Alan keeps calling him lately) and wish him the best for this year.

Happy Belated Easter !!!

This year for Easter some friends invited us over for an Easter egg hunt. Some of Alan's friends came over and we all brought a snack. I brought some cupcakes with Easter-colored frosting, and they had cookies, marshmallows, jelly beans and a bunch of unhealthy but really good stuff.

The kids went out behind the backyard to look for the very obviously "hidden eggs". Once they found them it was so fun to watch them open each egg to see what was inside of it. Alan is not very fond of candy (or any other type of food), so he opened one and that was more than enough for him. On the other hand, our neighbor George loves food and he was opening all the candy as fast as he could; plus, he is never allowed to eat candy, so I think he was trying to eat as many as he could before his mommy said it was enough. Happy belated Easter for everyone!!!!

My dirty little boys

2008-03-22T02:33:00.000-07:00

It started getting hot again around a month ago, so when Alan comes back from preschool we have lunch and then we go out to the backyard so that the kids can play in a shaded area. So I thought about sharing with you a little bit of our everyday playing.

I remember before I had kids I imagined myself having a couple of girls, having their hair cutely done, wearing pretty dresses and bows on their hair. Now that I have two boys, the image of my kids is soooooo different. They are nothing else but my lovely dirty little boys (not all the time of course) and I love them so much for that. I never imagined how much fun it would be to play "the boy way".

Alan and Eric love going in the sand and rolling on it (Eric trying to eat it), playing with dirt, and with any living creature (bugs mainly) that they find in their way. Eric is now refusing to wear a bib when eating and of course he thinks he can do it all by himself, so between the fun that they have playing and getting dirty and not wearing a bib. I find myself changing their clothes at least twice a day. Especially Eric, he loves turning on the hose in the backyard and getting himself soaked.

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My way of looking at the situation now is: the messier they get the more fun they have, and I actually love looking at their little feet all dirty and then washing them off. It is so fun to watch them playing with water, dirt, boats, airplanes and then going for a jump on the trampoline. You guys have to watch the video of Eric on the trampoline, he was eleven months back then and he loves it:

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I think the trampoline is getting too small for Alan, but he still loves bouncing on it. Lately what he likes to do is jump for a few minutes and then lies down on it and puts his feet up on the bar. He puts his hands on the back of his neck and relaxes for a few minutes and then back to jumping.

Anyway, even though the kind of fun I have with my boys is so different than what I had expected, I enjoy it so much and I'm so greatful for being able to experience being mother of two little fun boys. It is a lot more fun than what I could've ever imagined.

Boys' Birthdays

2008-03-06T12:02:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday we celebrated the boys' birthdays. Eric is now one year old and Alan is four. For those of you who don't know this, Alan and Eric's birthdays are only one day apart, and that's only because Eric was born in Dubai. If he would've been born in the US like Alan, he would've also been born on March 2nd because of the time difference. Anyway, we threw a birthday party for both of them since they pretty much share the same friends.

Lately, Alan is really into Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, so the theme for the party was Mickey and it ended up being really cute. It's amazing to see how even though we're so far away from where Mickey Mouse originated, we were able to find all the decorations, plates, cups, napkins and even balloons with the Mickey Mouse theme, not to mention all the other themes (e.g., Winnie the Pooh, Cars, Spiderman, Princesses, etc.).

Sixteen kids (and their parents of course) came to the party , and we had a great time. We ordered pizza, and my neighbor Kathy and I made a cute Mickey Mouse cake that ended up taking forever to make. I was afraid I wouldn't even have time to take a shower before the party, but it was worth it. The cake ended up being really cute and Alan loved it. I hope Eric liked it too, but since he can't talk yet I'll just have to take his smile as a yes.

We played some games as part of the party. I wanted to have them play the egg and spoon race, but I figured eggs are pretty messy. So I asked Justin to get me some lemons from the store. However, when he got back home he said they didn't have any lemons, and he brought the weirdest fruit I've ever seen. It's the size of a lemon but it kind of looks like an avocado, and when one of them fell down and broke it looked like nasty boogers on the inside (I didn't dare try it). The kids also played with a parachute thing that they would move up and down. They played Ring around the Rosies with it, and they were hypnotized like half an hour with that thing without even needing any assistance (which is so nice when you're trying to be a good host).

I also made a Mickey Mouse pinata, it kind of looked like the classic Mickey because I didn't find any skin-colored paper for the face and I was afraid to paint it and ruin it, but it really turned out OK and it was fun to make. The kids loved hitting it and of course getting the candy once they broke it. We also filled up a bunch of balloons with water and the game was supposed to be to make a basketball shot with the balloon, but they ended up just popping them on the street as fast as they could.

I loved having a party for the kids. I think this is the first year that Alan "got" the concept of what a birthday party is, because at two he had a party with a few little friends but I think he was still too young to understand what was going on; then at three he was at the hospital waiting for his brother to be born, and the only cake he had was the one that the hospital gave me for dessert. But this time he actually got to have fun and blow the candles with Eric by his side. Every time someone would say, "How old are you now, Alan?", he would answer, "I'm four, and my little brother Eric is one year old."

I'm so grateful for having my two boys. I love staying at home and being able to be with them all the time (even though they are both so high maintenance). Justin and I just can't imagine our lives without them we love them more than anything in the world.

FOUR TEETH

2008-02-09T01:20:00.001-08:00

Our little Eric has four teeth now!!! Two on the top and two on the bottom. This is the only picture in which you can barely see the four of them (if you click on the picture to make it bigger you can actually see them). I thought I would share it with you guys since most of you haven't seen him with any teeth at all. I can't believe how much he's growing and how fast time has gone by. He'll be a year old in a couple of weeks, I just can't believe it!!!.

A children's museum without children

2008-02-09T00:21:00.000-08:00

During Alan's winter break from school we went to the Discovery Center which is a children's museum that is five minutes away from our house. We hadn't been there in a while because Alan has been going to preschool, so we decided to go one morning and we got there and we were the only ones there. They actually had to turn everything on when they saw us coming in, so I thought maybe we had gotten there way too early (at noon), but no, they open the museum at 8:30am.

We were there for three hours and no one else came in, I still can't believe it and can't figure out why more people don't take advantage of this place. It is a really nice children's museum and it's super cheap; it was less than three dollars for both Alan and I to get in. Even though there were no other kids there, we had a lot of fun.

Alan loved getting on a helicopter and said he was flying to abuelitos's house. He drove a white "BMW electric car" that he absolutely loved and drove on the track for like an hour. Since there were no other kids there, they let him do whatever he wanted. They also had one of those pianos on the floor that you can step on; Eric loved walking on that too and listening to the sound each key made.

I tried to get Alan to build a house with some big foam shapes that they had, but he wasn't too interested in my project. He was more interested in driving a big boat by the water games, which were by the way Eric's favorite. He ended up being soaked, so we had to go back home to change him.

It's so fun to have kids and play with them and see them learn as they play. I thought having Alan at home again all day during winter break was going to be hard. But we ended having such a good time. Eric loves playing with Alan and misses him a lot now that he's back in school. We miss him during the morning, but at least we have him back in the afternoon.

Rain, rain and more rain!!!!

2008-02-08T23:59:00.000-08:00

So, a month ago, the government of the country decided that they would pray for rain..... I guess their prayers worked (of course I think global warming had more to do with it than the prayers, but anyway...), a week after that we got so much rain. It was so fun, our street was completely flooded and Alan and Justin decided to have fun with it.

They put their swimming suits on and they were kicking the ball on the water, playing with Alan's boats and running all over the water. All of the kids here had so much fun, since it barely ever rains in the country. I felt bad for Eric because he and I just stayed inside the house watching Alan play outside, but the water was too cold for him to play. It ended up rainning for a whole week, it was really nice to have a little bit of a change in the weather, it was kind of like an oasis in the middle of the desert.

WELCOME 2008!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-01-18T04:23:00.000-08:00

I can't believe we're almost at the end of January and I hadn't even posted pictures of New Year's Eve until now. I'm so bad at updating our blog, but one of my New Year's resolutions is to update it more often, so I hope I really become better at that.

We decided to welcome in 2008 at Planet Hollywood just like we did last year. The thing is that they have a themed party every year, they organize lots of games for the kids, and it's super laid back, so we don't have to worry about the kids being quiet at a restaurant. Last year the party's theme was Disney characters, so the kids had to dress like their favorite one. When we made the reservations for this year we looked up Planet Hollywood on the Internet and the theme was the same, so we thought Alan would wear the same thing as last year. However, I thought that it was weird that they would have the same theme two years in a row, so I decided to check it out on the morning of the 31st and the description for the party was different this time. At the last minute they changed the theme of the party to a Pirate one. As you can imagine, this isn't a country where kids dress up a lot and they barely sell any costumes, so I thought we wouldn't find anything, especially a pirate one and having to find it so fast. But we ended up going to this toy store where they had a really cute one, so we were all set.

We had a lot of fun. Alan became friends with a cute two and a half year old little girl dressed up as a princess (she didn't hear about the theme on time) and they were just playing and laughing all night. The girl's dad (in the picture) ended up being exhausted because they wanted him to spin them around and the little girl wouldn't let any of us do it. It had to be her dad, so we felt so bad for him, but he was really happy to see how much fun they were having. Alan participated in different games they had and ended up winning the costume contest. Eric had a lot of fun playing with a bunch of balloons that they had and watching Alan being silly playing and dancing with his friend.

We hope this year keeps being as fun as how it started and we hope this year brings lots of blessings, health and love to all of you and your families.

Have a very Merry Christmas

2008-01-06T09:03:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Christmas is gone and we're already a few days into the year 2008!!!

I love the feeling that the Christmas season brings with it. I love having a Christmas tree and lighting it up every day. We love decorating the house and making Christmas cookies. I think the thing that Justin misses the most about not being in the US for Christmas is knowing that it's cold outside and being so warm inside the house sitting by the fireplace. So this year he recreated that feeling by downloading a video that shows a yule log burning. It was so cute, because it actually made it feel like it was cold outside.

Our neighbor Cathy invited us over to her Christmas Eve open house. Her house was so nice all

decorated for Christmas; she made so much food we couldn't believe it and everything was so yummy too. When we got back home the kids opened a couple of presents and then were off to bed because we were hoping that Santa would show up that night....and of course he did.

I remember when I was little the only day of the year that I was happy about waking up early was Christmas Day. I remember waking up like at 6 or 7 in the morning and running downstairs to see what Santa had gotten for me. I would feel so tired from staying awake till 2 or so in the morning the night before, celebrating Christmas Eve, but the excitement of getting to see and play with my new toys made all the tiredness go away (at least for a few hours).

I thought at Alan would feel the same way and would wake up early that morning, but I guess he's still too little to get that whole feeling. Eric and him ended up waking up at around 9:30 and we hurried downstairs to see all of the presents. I think Eric's favorite part of getting presents was the wrapping paper; he loved playing with it. Alan liked his presents too, but he specially LOVED Eric's presents, which doesn't really matter since Eric is still too little to realize which ones are his. However, Alan's favorite present was one that was actually for him. He got a really big train that stops when it gets to the train station and it makes sounds as it passes through different tunnels and stuff. It is so much fun to have our little boys and look at their big eyes shining with happiness when they looked at the presents they got.

On Christmas Day we went out to have lunch at a hotel and it was really fun. The restaurant was next to the beach and they had an inflatable castle where Alan jumped the whole time. Actually Justin and I didn't even get to eat together; we would switch to take care of the kids, so I would go eat a full plate, then Justin would go eat and we spent around 3 hours like that (taking care of kids and eating by ourselves). It was a lot of fun though, it is really nice to see the kids having so much fun. We just didn't have the heart to ask Alan to go in and spend an hour and a half having lunch (especially since he's not a big fan of eating, as most of you know).

It was so nice to hear from our family and friends and hearing how they spent their Christmas Day. My favorite part about Christmas is that it's so easy to be happy and to forget about all the bad things that happen in the world and just focus on how blessed we are to have love in our lives. I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas as well.

CHRISTMAS TIME

2007-12-22T09:27:00.000-08:00

It's so weird to be in the Middle East and try to feel the Christmas spirit in a Muslim country. However, this year we've done so many Christmas-related things that it doesn't really feel that weird anymore. A couple of weeks ago we went to a Christmas Fair at one of the schools here and it was so much fun. Alan went on a camel and a pony ride, he took a picture with Santa Claus, he went on some go carts that they had, and after that he decided he wanted to have his face painted in the ugliest way possible; they painted really thick eyebrows and the ugliest curly mustache, as you can see in the picture. Anyway, we had a blast laughing at him while he was jumping on the inflatable castle.

We've also been to a couple of malls where kids could take pictures with Santa, but our kids refuse to either look at the camera, or smile or at least stop crying. We ended up buying a picture where Alan had the biggest fake smile because I had to tell him Santa wouldn't bring any presents if he didn't smile (of course all of this in Spanish so that Santa didn't realize he was being threatened :) ).

Last night we went to a hotel/mall where they had something called Winter Wonderland and it was soooooooo cute. They had a huge Christmas tree in the middle of a lake that faces an amphitheater and they had a show with dancing snowman and a representation of Happy Feet. They also had a choir singing Christmas songs and even an ice rink for whomever wanted to skate. Once again there was a face painting stand and Alan decided to be Spiderman this time.

I love this time of the year and we wish we could be with family to make it even more special. But I love the fact that at least now we have our own little boys that get to enjoy everything with us.