Birthday Wishes

Exactly 2 years ago today God blessed me with a handsome bit of heaven by the name of Elijah Raul Machuca.
It’s been so long since I have paused and thought about how brilliant my son really is. Just today while my beautiful wife was at work Elijah began talking about the movie on TV (Monsters INC) and although I couldn't really make up what he was saying, his facial expressions were so convincing and so serious and passionate that I can almost truly "FEEL" what he was trying to let me know. It was then that I though once again, "man Elijah you are so big now, and before I know it you're going to be telling me stories about school and monsters and whatever goes through your colorful little mind"
Its incredible how truly fast time flies when you're busy all the time and you hardly find time to truly dedicate to your kids. So I decided today to really focus on him, it’s his birthday. He turns TWO (2) years of age. What an age right? Most people label this age the "Terrible Two's" but I decided to place that aside and try and focus on the great moments of this coming year.
So it’s time to stay on top of things, focus on spending and dedicating more time with Elijah because on how fast things went I feel like he’s slipping away. I love him dearly and quite frankly he looks up to me and I have to show him that I’m devoted to him. Teach him and love him and grow together because in all honesty, as I teach him, he teaches me as well and that makes our relationship very unique. If you think about it you don’t go to class in college to teach your professor do you? This is where it’s different because although I am Elijah’s "professor" I still learn so much more from him. (Just an observation that's all)
November 06, 2009 it really all changed for the better. Ask my wife, nothing was ever the same that day. We both thank God for the great kids we have and the great life we push forward on living; and today we remember the great day that our boy was born.

Special thanks to my parents and my wife's parents, and for our dear friend Paul S. for always being a wonderful part of this family.

Blessings,

Raul.-

"Fire In The Hole"

"Fire In The Hole"

"Driving Through"

I was thinking the other day, "I wonder what is like to have a son Police officer?” I even commented to my wife, "It would be so cool to have a son in the force" she didn’t seem to be too fond of that, but I guess its guy thing.
Looking for things last week to have my son do, I ran into the city website and I saw that there was an open house at the local fire station and I thought to myself, "Hmm, it’s not a police station but, close enough. So I got out of school a little bit early and I called my wife and I told her to get ready that we were going to have a short family outing.

"Fire Awareness"

I got home, picked up my wife and the kids and we headed off to the fire station.
It was a good time, Elijah loved the fire trucks; they had about four different fire trucks there, a couple of older ones to the most recent ones. Elijah ran around in the trucks, played with the fire truck valves and hoses, he even sat down in the driver’s seat and played with the steering wheel. I could only imagine what was going through his head, him being so small in this massive truck. It was fun, Elijah enjoyed the environment, he’s rarely surrounded by a ton of kids but he seemed to do just fine. One of the firefighters there gave him a nice fireman hat, and it was a battle to have Elijah put the hat on but we made him, I don’t know why but Elijah is not very fond of hats.
It all lasted about an hour and a half, and it was obvious that fall is here because Nancy and I were cold. Natalie was all wrapped up in her "Polar Bear" suit, I was jealous because she looked so warm and cozy.
After the station we arrived home to some delicious ribs and French fries that my wife made. I can't complaint; I have a wife that knows how to cook the good stuff.

You can't take my happiness away!

New week, new work assignments, new weather, new a ton of things.
Last night after getting home from school and a long day at work, I get home to a house full of good vibes and joy, I really can’t ask for more.
I was just done telling my wife how great I felt being home with her and the kids and how fortunate and blessed I am for having her and my kids there with me when there is a knock on the door at an odd time of the night. I don’t want to get into too much detail but let’s just say it’s wasn’t a very good visit. Visit very long but it wasn’t favorable news either, and my wife was mildly upset about it because it affects all of us in a negative way in the long run. Five minutes go by and I sat down at the dinner table after my wife served dinner for me, and I looked at her and I asked her how she felt, to which she replied, "Ok" (in a soft "I don’t know what to say" voice) and I told her "Don’t you feel like this even just tried to take our happiness away?" It was at that very moment when I realized how this was all a trap. Our happiness had been stolen at that very moment, but this post isn’t about how our happiness was stolen in an instant, it’s about how my wife and I realized how we can make that drastic change and decision to not allow things to rob us from our great moments. We then smiled at each other and without words we knew we had flipped that switch of negativity OFF. It was almost surreal on how the same way our joy was pulverized by some unfortunate event, we chose to gain that back and return to that stage of happiness we were in to begin with. I have to say, that has been one of our greatest moments in our relationship.
I have to say I’m very proud of the great progress my wife and I have made throughout time. It was great to see how we both worked together to maintain the harmony and joy. I encourage everyone to not allow great thing come to an end over a bad situation. You can always choose to make things better.

Fall is finally HERE!! :) yay!

The weather is getting cooler, leaves are turning colors and falling off the trees, AND it’s starting to Rain!!!! Yay! I love the rain! And Elijah now does too. :) Today is the first time it rained and I left the front door opened and Elijah was at the doorway staring out at the pouring skies in awe.


Elijah is such a good big brother to Natalie. He always wants to be involved. So yesterday he asked me if he could hold the bottle to feed Natalie. So i had to take a picture! And yes, he does pose for the camera. :)
-Nancy

Carve the Pumpkin

So it’s a new week of work, Mondays always seem to drag but last night after work the wife made an awesome chicken dinner.
The house smelled great, I took care of Natalie while Elijah ran around the whose causing a ruckus while Nancy cooked away the afternoon.

Chicken, Veggies and Ranch potato salad if you were wondering.

Throughout that time I was sitting down feeding Natalie enjoying "Back to the Future" on TV and to my surprise Elijah was just as entertained by it, which I may add made me happy because he was enjoying a movie rich in pop culture history. Nancy then finished fixing dinner and we ate, we all sat as we watched the end of the movie, good times.
After dinner we cleaned up a bit, and Nancy began to do laundry, and I decided to carve the pumpkin we purchased during the pumpkin patch trip last weekend. Nancy and I had been talking about what to carve and we didn’t want to carve anything evil or scary on there and I couldn’t figure out what to do. So while I was at work, Nancy sent me an email with a great idea to carve a dog and I chose to stick with it. I have to say that for the first timer at carving pumpkins like myself I didn’t do a bad job. I have to admit, it could be improved but I think I will stick with it. So we carved Elijah's dog, we placed a small candle inside and lit it up for him. We will see how long it will last, and as much as I would have wanted Elijah to help, I don’t think I can trust him with knives and razor blades but this will do.
It was a great experiment, great dinner and pumpkin art, I can’t complain.
I finished off the night with some more Prison Break with my wife and me. We're HOOKED.

The Beginning of Fall

We had a great weekend this week. Not only is it one of my favorite times of the year, besides Christmas and New Years, but it also seems to be one of Mother Nature’s favorite times of the year because she goes through “FALL” so well.

Fall is here, and I can’t help but enjoy the color of the leaves change and the smell of pumpkin pie and autumn leaves in the air. Truthfully we all love it..

This weekend is the first time that Elijah has been to a pumpkin patch. We got there and he seemed a little confused at first but he soon figured it out he was surrounded by pumpkins and haystacks and tons of other autumn nick-knacks he had never seen before. Elijah didn’t know what to do; he was almost in a state of shock. It didn’t take long before he was all over the place. He was jumping all over the place and running to hear the sound of hay crushed under his shoes. We all walked around with him and chose a pumpkin to carve back at home. Elijah and I had some fun shooting pictures around the pumpkins and a small Indian hut they had there. Nancy and Natalie were walking around the patch behind us. It was apparent that Natalie was hungry.

We all had a great time this weekend. After the pumpkin patch we went home and concluded our day with some delicious Asian style lettuce wraps I made. After placing the kids to bed we stayed up for some alone time watching 2 episodes of Prison Break. Thank God for NETFLIX.

Raul.-