New Year, New Me

I suppose the New Year has something to do with the recent fire under my butt. Perhaps it’s more of a combination of factors at play; Miguel is working two jobs so he’s home less, my kids are growing crazy fast and I want to document more, I miss having a social connection with the outside world on a regular basis, I have finally/recently come to terms with me and I want to hold myself accountable.

Recently, I discovered ME; as in me, I, yo.  For as long as I can remember I have been living in a conflicted state of being.  I have always felt the need to create, to work with my hands and my heart but I have pushed myself towards trying to find a more lucrative career.  I have trouble finding satisfaction in ordinary jobs and therefore have had LOTS of them.  With every new step I take towards something I believe would fulfill me, I run away with my tail between my legs.  My fear of failure has kept me from succeeding yet I also fail because of my fear of success. See the conflict?

So I came to these conclusions:

1)      I am a dreamer.  I am ‘that’ friend.  You know, the one who always has some hair brained idea that she shares with passion yet she never follows through.  The friend who means well but just can’t seem to get her shit together career wise.

2)      There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a dreamer and I should keep my mind open.

3)      This year, I resolve to live my life for me and to follow my heart.  To no longer allow outside voices to dictate what is appropriate for me or my family.

4)      Time to use my creativity for a bigger purpose and to allow that side of me to flourish.

5)      I shall embrace my differences and count them as strengths rather than weaknesses.

As you may be able to gather, until now I made a lot of excuses and refused to take full responsibility for myself and my downfalls.  As my children grow, I realize that I may be setting them up for failure to, unless I change my ways.  I’m a firm believer in leading (parenting) by example, so if I want to raise holistically successful children, I had better start living by the same expectations.  Really, who doesn’t want to be fulfilled in all areas of their lives?

For reals this time!

Here we go! Another year has begun and we are off to a wonderful start.  A million things have changed since I last posted on this blog.  Rather than writing a giant post to get you all up to speed, I have decided to take a different route.  Cinful Sweets is undergoing a serious makeover and I will post all of our madness over time.  This time around, I am fully armed with a new Canon SLR and plenty to share (like stories about these two cuties)!

Away with the time

Holy smokes! Where does the time go? I am continually amazed at how quickly the days seem to pass now that I am a mother. So many things have happened since my last post. I have thought about writing many times but have felt too overwhelmed with where to begin.

We had Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. Salem has tried many new foods and passed a ton of milestones. Shockingly, he is already 7 1/2 months old!



I suppose now is as good a time as any to just start over (again) with this blog. With that, happy Thursday and let's see if I can actually keep up with writing!

A Patch of Pumpkins

On Saturdays, my sister likes to come out to the boonies and visit my little family. This past Saturday we all took a trip to the pumpkin patch. Halloween has always been a favorite holiday for me and Mig, and we hope Salem feels the same someday (especially because it was on Halloween that we found out about him). So, although Salem is too young to appreciate the awesomeness that is fall/harvest/Halloween/Dia de los Muertos we felt that there is no better time than the present to get him started!

This pumpkin patch is so adorable and its a local company so that makes you feel warm and fuzzy when you're dishing out your hard-earned cash.



Out first adventure was through the little tarp maze, which was fun and confusing at the same time!



We then took him into his very first spooky house!



And the necessary photos of my pumpkin with a bunch of pumpkins!



After all the excitement, little man couldn't help but crash out!

1 Year Anniversary

Yesterday marked the one-year wedding anniversary for me and Miguel. I can say without a doubt that more sh** happened/changed in our first year of marriage than in the entire course of our courtship. Ha!

Let's recap:

- Got married
- Moved into our rv and began traveling
- Traveled to the East Coast
- Found out I was pregnant
- Traveled through the South and to the West Coast
- Returned to Colorado
- Moved into my parents' basement
- Began working at the kennel again (both Miguel and I did)
- Moved out of my parents' basement and back into the rv
- Lived at a campground
- Started working at Home Depot (both Miguel and I did)
- Got too pregnant to be comfortable in the rv
- Moved back into my parents' basement
- Got hernia from pulling hoses at work
- Quit Home Depot
- Mig got his old job back in Denver and started working there again
- Mig lived in the rv in Denver for a month to save on gas money
- I was bit by a dog on my hand, swelled up for a week
- Mig moved back into the basement and began commuting to work
- Had a baby shower
- Had a baby :-)
- Stayed with parents for a few more months
- Moved into our own home
- Salem turned 3 months old

And that brings us to our first anniversary as a married couple! Happy Anniversary babe! Its been one hell of a ride!

Let the Nesting Commence!

Much to our dismay, Miguel and I were unsuccessful in securing a home for our little family prior to Salem's arrival and we were destined to live in my parents basement for a few more months. Not really a big deal except that I was robbed of my chance to 'nest' during my pregnancy.

On September 3, we finally moved out of the basement and into our first home as a family (and our first real home in almost a year)! I was so excited to finally give Salem a room of his own and that became my priority.

Because of my obsession with outer space, we decided that a room full of spacey-ness would be perfect for our son. First order of business was to assemble his furniture and then get to decorating. Miguel, Sara and I all pitched in to make the letters of his name from space inspired craft paper. After completion, we framed the letters and spelled his name up on the wall.



Next was to hang the variety of original artwork friends and family had given our lucky son.



Then, I ordered a super sweet (to scale) solar system mobile for his upward viewing pleasure and some spacey wall decals. Once they arrived on the doorstep, I immediately continued my work on the room.



Even after all of this, I thought the walls were still kind of bare so I cut out a bunch of hand-drawn stars from the left over craft papers we had used for the letters and placed them randomly throughout the room.

Finally, I decided to sew a new valance for the window and matching bumpers for his crib (which I naively thought were just for decoration until I found Salem with his head against the crib rails one night). I decided to document the process of bumper making and will type a short tutorial for my next post.



So, here's to my little man and his awesome room! Now that his space is complete, its time to tackle the rest of the house :-)

Salem Oliver Banuelos

Because I have been out of the blogging loop for so long, I figured I should probably give some information regarding our son, Salem Oliver Banuelos.

Salem (named primarily after the city in Massachusetts because that was where we discovered his presence) was born after a fairly quick and easy non-medicated delivery on June 28, 2010 at 7:50pm. He weighed in at a mere 6 lbs, 13 oz and was 18.5 in long. By my side during the whole process were my amazing husband, Miguel and wonderful sister, Sara.



Our little man came into the world beautiful and perfect!