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Happy Cinco de Mayo! 

Most people think this celebration is Mexico's Independence Day...wrong. That's on September 16th.

Cinco de Mayo marks the victory of the small Mexican Army that defeated the French at the Battle of Puebla. Hence why it's only celebrated in Puebla, not in all of Mexico. It's a bigger party in the states than in Mexico. Gringo's always love a reason to party... but aside from that I believe we celebrate it here to show the friendship between Mexico and America and because there are so many Chicanos that live in this country. 

Eric isn't getting ready to huck a lougie at McKay...he's just mid sentence.

Sopes...pretty much one of my fave dishes!

We celebrated at El Gallo Giro with our good friends/neighbors Chelsey, McKay, and their daughter Claire. I'd say this place is the best Mexican in Utah County: good, authentic, and cheap. They even make the guacamole at your table.

H&M

is FINALLY coming to Utah! 

I'm sure you've all heard the news by now but if you haven't here's the article.

It's been a long time coming but Utah is finally getting some good retail stores. When I first moved here there wasn't a Macy's, Forever21, or Sephora. 

Now that H&M is coming, I don't have to travel home to get my good shopping done.

It opens this Fall at Fashion Place Mall, along with Crate and Barrel.

All Utah needs now is Zara.

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"Now I got black cards, good credit, and such" - Jay Z
Leila went into daddy's wallet and pulled out the creidt card. Of course that's the thing she pulls out.

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To you this face may look like the bride of Chucky.
But to me, this is my favorite Leila face where she pants while squinching her little nose.

Leila is FIERCE...look at her fist ready to knock you out.
And just in case anyone was worried, I promise you this girl is as sweet as pie.

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Sleep.

If you remember, I posted a few weeks ago that we were going to try to break little miss Leila out of her swaddling habit...well we didn't. We're still swaddling because I just didn't want to fight the battle and if she sleeps well, so be it. One afternoon I put her down for her nap swaddled, as usual. When I went in to check on her I found this:

She almost had her arm out and was STILL sleeping. Not normal behavior at all.
I went to check on her 30 min later and to my surprise found this:

WHAT?!? I couldn't believe my eyes...one arm completely out and still asleep!?! I was such a proud mamma.
The next night she woke up around midnight because she got her arms out (very rare...Leila still wakes up once a night for her 4-5am feeding combined with being out of her swaddle).

As you can see, I have proof she could sleep with her little arms out so we tried a little experiment when she woke up at this random hour of the night. We let her cry it out for 1 1/2 hours, it was hard but needed to be done. She didn't fall asleep after that 1 1/2 hour crying episode so I swaddled her up and fed her.

Did that one night of crying really do the trick? I think so (knock on wood) because since that night, if she gets out of her swaddle she'll usually stay asleep.

Leila is already slowly growing out of her swaddle, we're still continuing to do so in the meantime but I'm not as concerned as I was in my last post. Soon, those 2 swaddling blankets will be a thing of the past.

A Day in History

I'm sitting on the couch and get a call from my brother Billy. "Cynthia, I have the best news ever, they just killed Osama bin Laden, it's all over the news".

Today is a day that will go down in history. Osama bin Laden was captured and killed. I'm grateful for the Navy Seals for carrying out their mission successfully and I believe that President Obama has done a great job protecting us as a nation. Many people celebrated his death today at the White House and ground zero. 

I stumbled upon this quote and it has gained popularity in the blogosphere. It appears to be a modification of one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech's, not a direct quote like some may think. Regardless, I think it is well said and I feel it matches my sentiments:

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." 

The death of another human doesn't necessarily warrant the cause of celebration, regardless of how evil that person was. But I will say there is comfort in knowing that the world might be a little safer with some of those extremists gone. 

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There have been some changes going on in the Church that will affect 150,000 Utahan's, including us. They are doing away with student wards and replacing them with young single adult wards. What does this mean for us? 5 of the 8 married student wards in Provo/Orem have been dissolved. Meaning, we no longer have the option to go to the family ward or the student married ward. It's been so nice to be able to chose, when we were first married we attended the family ward but eventually moved to the student married ward and never looked back.

We love being with people our own age and in a similar situation because we have been able to meet so many friends. The time has come for us to move on. Eric has graduated so technically we shouldn't be attending the student ward and with this change it's official. Dissolving the married wards will benefit the singles wards and make more room for a new stake. We're excited for the change and for some diversity in our wards, but we'll miss our friends. We're glad we were able to be a part of a student married ward before these wards are no more.

Today all the student wards met at the Marriott Center and everyone in the many wards and stakes were released, that took about an hour. Leila was being so difficult so we chilled with the rest of the parents with restless kids...outside the stadium.

Today wasn't complete without Sunday dinner and a nice walk in the park.