Starfish

Pulled this bio from their website "Starfish is not your average band for kids, and our concerts are not like a preschool sing-along. We are a rock band made up of 5 New Jersey dads who aim to give kids -and their parents - a taste of "cool" music influenced by classic rock. A StarFish concert is like a lesson in Rock 101 for the whole family. Our shows are fun and high energy, complete with special effects and even a bubble machine! StarFish is the coolest band for kids around. Come check us out and jam out on your air guitar" http://www.reverbnation.com/starfishrocks

 Our family got the awesome privilege to watch this band rock out for FREE at Rutgers University. The ambiance was PeRfEcT. One of my FAVORITE things to do is listen to live music out in nature. The river in the background was pretty and I'm so happy it didn't rain that day.

I discovered that my girls LOVE to rock out! They love music and absolutely LOVE  to dance! They were CrAzY, SiLLy and so fun to watch. They started off a little timid for the first minute but after that they were all over the place, dancing, jumping and weird moves I never seen them do before. Brought Mark and I back to some fun concerts we been to back in the day when we were single. Except this band and environment was incredibly kid friendly.

This weekend our family is going to take a little family vacation so Mark can live his childhood dream and see Bob Dylan in concert. He has been a passionate fan for years. Since the tickets are ridiculously priced and we would have to pay for each child even the baby, we decided that the girls and I will have a hotel party while daddy rocks out to Bob. We also hope to stop at some church history sites as well. We're all excited!

The Beginnings of Transformational Change

Mark has finally been given a classroom! He will be teaching 9th and 10th graders English in Newark, NJ. We spent a few days cleaning and organizing his classroom. We are hoping to get some desks & chairs in there before school starts. This school year will be exciting, difficult, fun, challenging & rewarding. I'm excited for Mark to have these experiences. We will have a lot to talk about and exchange many stories! I still remember my first year as a school teacher, WOW what an experience to say the least. My first day of teaching I ran home and cried for a while with my roommate who also had a hard day her first day as a teacher as well. I was fresh off the mission working at the state hospital teaching middle school boys they thought it would be nice to welcome me to the school by calling me every swear word in the book. I didn't know what to say or do. I was going to BYU learning how to be a teacher while teaching, and now Mark will have this glorious opportunity. 

The girls love going to daddy's classroom

Let's Color

Who said Crayola is just for kids huh? About a week ago we were all sitting at the table coloring as a family and I decided to draw and color Esther. I definitely would not call myself an artist by any stretch of the matter but lets just say I had a lot of fun and found myself completely happy and at peace drawing and coloring my kids. I know I feel like 5yrs. old, the fact that I love to color and paint. When I was done with Esther's drawing Mark looked at my paper and said "Juanita I think you should draw and color Eve" With that eye trying to relay a message telepathically like my daughter Eve wanted to feel special to. Except at that moment I was extremely tired that I didn't think I would be able to draw another picture at least a decent one that would make my other little girl feel special or pretty. So I said a sincere heartfelt silent prayer in my head asking Heavenly Father to help me draw my little Eve and make her feel beautiful as she is, and He heard my 

PRAYER!

1st drawing

 Esther

2nd drawing

 Eve

 I believe that Heavenly Father answers the littlest of prayers especially when they benefit others and not ourselves. The next day I drew my baby Asenath below. Except she doesn't look like a baby in this picture. I need to practice more.

3rd drawing

 Asenath

Drawing & coloring are fun ways I interact with my girls, usually everyone is happy when we do it. I find it helps if I play uplifting and inspiring music in the background. I feel so relaxed and at peace. I'm currently working on a tree. We'll see how long it takes me to get it done. Anyhow draw & color away beautiful world!

Charm of the Bronx

My Papi grew up in the Bronx and spent most of his youth trying to get out of it, and here his little girl is voluntarily going to it. Isn't ironic don't you think? Growing up my Papi used to tell me some crazy stories from his childhood of his experiences in the Bronx & Harlem all about violence, gangs, cultures etc.. perfect stories to make any little girl feel comfortable right before bed;) Anyhow it's not nearly what it was 40 years ago, however it really depends on the area. Each block is so different. Mark's good friend from basic training  lives in the Bronx and is being deployed to Afghanistan in a week so we thought it would be a good idea if we met up with him before he left. We had a blast!

 Apparently busted fire hydrants is a commonality in the Bronx. My Papi said when he was younger they illegally used to bust the fire hydrants in the summer time because it was so hot, but apparently it has become a ritual that it's no longer illegal. There is an actual person who gets paid to put the fire hydrants on so anyone could play in the water because it gets dreadfully hot and muggy. As cool as it is, I couldn't help but think in my mind CONSERVATION PEEPS!

 Mark's buddy made us some yummy African food. I don't know all the names of these yummy treats but they were quite delicious!

 He put this root in our water to give it a slight favor and provide us with some Vitamin C. I loved the smell!

 This pudding was sweet and yummy, very similar to Tapioca

 The last time I ate African food was on my mission 8 years ago. I distinctly remember because my companion at the time which I will not mention her name, refused to eat the food that this family especially made for us. It was a feast and they expected us to it the majority of it. I didn't want to offend that family on my mission so I kept eating and eating and eating and I felt like I had to eat more because my companion wasn't eating and I didn't want to show any disrespect (Hawaiian upbringing I tell you) any how I reached a point where I couldn't have another bite, I could barely walk straight because I ate so much. I kindly excused myself from the table and went straight to bathroom to vomit. It was involuntary! That never happened to me before. The food was awesome I just ate to much!

 Mark's buddy from basic training with his adorable children.

 I love how the Dominicans and Puerto Ricans chill on the street and  play dominoes and blare their Latin music. It's just like the movies. Mark and I were loving it!

 A little Bronx art

Driving in the city on our way home. It wasn't such a bad drive.

New York City

 We woke up in the morning and Mark decided we should go to the city. I had my reservation because I have been there before and remembered how busy and crazy it is. Anyhow despite the potential stress I decided to go. The girls were so happy to catch the train.

 They were so curious and stared out the window on the way down there.

 Mark wanted to show me how to get to the temple by catching the train, so I could go by myself someday soon. Now I just need the courage! The Manhattan temple is located in the middle of the city. It's quite unique in the essence that you can't really tell that it's a temple compared to other temples that stand alone. This temple is connected with other buildings, but still stunning in it's own way.

 Between Esther and Asenath they took turns taking a nap, and that was really nice.

 Can you see the advertisement for the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon?

 We decided to get some famous Gray's Papaya hot dog's and eat them at Central Park, which by the way is huge and pretty.

This picture was the end of our trip, catching the train home. We were all so exhausted, sweaty, hot and extremely thirsty by the end of our trip. It felt sooooooooooooo good to sit down. I'm now 7 months prego in this picture and still so excited to see my son soon.