My one and only

Dedicated to my wonderful husband - Cesar Pena

This year on September 28, him and I will be married for a full 2 years. What a wonderful, shaky, challenging, joyful, exciting year and a half it's been so far... He is the complete opposite of me. I'm way too loud to be honest, I am feisty and have a "strong character" as he always says when I am being ME. "Tu nada mas eres chiquita" he says in Spanish, meaning I am only small, and always hinting I have a big/strong character. I always laugh because he is right. He is quiet, reserved, very soft-spoken and oh so polite (rest assured, I am the opposite, except I can be polite too).

If you take a look at my husband, what do you see? Let me tell you what I see immediately... A very un-groomed dude... cause lets face it, we tend to pick on the not-so-nice appearances of a person before even trying to SEE the good in that person.

Too often, we judge people by their outer appearance first, failing to see the beauty, value and even the humility in their hearts and the person they truly are... 

I didn't meet my husband with this much facial hair. When I met him almost 4 years ago this coming July, he had what I have a habit of calling a "clean face"... 

After we got married, he started to let his beard grow and forget it, that was the end of me, that was above and beyond devastating for me (I can be a bit selfish, not going to lie). I had a hard time accepting his beard the way HE wanted to have it. 

We had countless arguments over his beard, it was starting to get quite pathetic, I mean who argues over a beard!? But you see, the real issue with me was that I wasn't getting my way. My husband doesn't let me get away with what I want, and surprisingly, through him being like that was that God taught me to let go of the control issues I once had. 

But moving on, I remember him once telling me "learn to love me through my beard". I am a VERY dramatic woman (just give me my Oscar now, thanks!), so my reaction when he said that, drove me nuts, I cried as I replayed his words in my head... Hmmph - "learn to love me through my beard" he says... "Oh please, how about let me count the ways I have loved you" is what I really felt and expressed to him. 

It took me quite some time to understand that love does not rest or stop at the outer appearance, it is meant to reach the heart... 

We laughed together as I once joked and told him "at least you don't have facial hair on your heart" (I may have been the only to laugh at that joke) but anyway, I say all this to say that I love this man with every bone in my body and with all the love in my heart that I posses. 

Under all that outer appearance, flesh and facial hair lies a beautiful, humble and servant, loving heart and an amazing man of God, an amazing father to our daughter and an amazing step father to my boys and I wouldn't change or trade him for anything or anyone in the world. 

It was his smile and his kind eyes that stole my heart almost 4 years ago and it's his tender love that continues to steal my heart.

Let's not be so quick to judge a person at a first glance. Take the time to actually know that person...

"Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are." - Pinterest quote

The joy of being a mom!

So. I'm Jenny and oh so new to the world of "BLOGGING", so this should be fun... I am 32, married and a mom of three. I'm going to dedicate my first post to my precious children. I have two amazing boys, Samuel - 11 and Daniel- 6 and recently God blessed us with a precious princess, Hannah - 6 months. 

My journey as a mom has been quite an amazing one, filled with lots of joy, tears, frustrations but so jam packed with good ol' LOVE.  

I remember always having so much fun dressing up my boys. I dressed them quite preppy (until of course they learned and decided to dress themselves) but yes, simple shorts, t-shirts, hats etc... I didn't have to really worry about combing their hair cause lets face it boys eventually end up with messy hair throughout the day. It took only a matter of maybe seconds to dress Sammy... By the time Daniel was born, ha - forget it - I was a pro, lol, i was dressing him with my eyes closed so-to-speak and in a heartbeat...

Until... Princess Hannah came along. 

She was blessed with the most adorable little dress and I was head on determined to put her in it. What took me back then maybe seconds to dress my boys took me over 5 ETERNITY LONG minutes to put her in a dress!!! My baby girl was born of 6lbs and 10oz... So not only was I feeling defeated lol by that darn adorable little dress BUT O. M. G, i was terrified i was going to break something (my boys were chunkah monkahs compared to Hannah). Sheesh. But what was the big deal in dressing a girl?!?! The same rules applied! Arm there. Arm there. Head there! Agh! Being a mom to a daughter was officially challenging. I had no idea what I was doing or at least it felt that way. 

6 years of not having a newborn and I was left feeling like a brand new parent having no clue what to do or how to do it (it eventually hits you like a rushing wind and it all comes back to you) But oh, forget it and then her having been a girl! How to clean? How to wipe? What to wear? How to comb? What colors to wear? Did I mention the amount of clothing choices the girls have. Dresses, skirts, leggings, sweats, jeans, jeggings... 

What had happened to me LOL - I had been a mom to boys for so long that I could've sworn years ago never being one of those moms that dressed their daughter in pink or dresses etc... In fact Sammy clearly told me that Hannah was not going to be one of those "princessy" kind of girls. HA!!! Yea right!!! She took us ALL by surprise. She is the most feminine and most delicate little girl ever. You can't help but smother her in pinks and purples, and well who am I kidding, every color honestly. Cause clearly navy is the new pink! She wears it so beautifully. The boys with all their toughness - treat her like the queen of the house (i don't exist LOL)...

Now, I've also officially become one of "THOSE" moms that want to dress up like their daughter! I can admit to maybe having thought "oh that's so tacky and corny". But oh jeez it's gotten crazy around here, I now plan what I'm going to wear according to what she's wearing not even me dress her to look like me but me dress to look like her HAHA! There's a difference! If she's in pink I'm in pink, purple - I'm in purple, blue - I'm in blue! And then we take selfies haha to show off how color coordinated we are!!! 

I tell you it's a such a joy being a mom to two boys and now a girl. The boys drive me bananas and are so much crazy fun! And the princess well she's the princess and that says it all. Now that she is 6 months i see her gravitating more towards the boys and the things they do and the toys they play with... It's only a matter of time until she starts to drive THEM crazy and take over their toys... I can hear my boys already in a few months "Mooooommmmmm, Haaaaannnnaaahhhh is taaaakinggg my toooooyyyssss" and i will do what a good mom does best - TUNE. THEM. OUT! LOL... My home is circus or a zoo or both LOL and I'm going crazy half the time trying to juggle them BUT God knows i wouldn't have my life, my home and my world without them or any other way... They truly complete me!

It's such a joy to be called MOM! :)

I saw this quote somewhere (probably Pinterest) "MOTHERHOOD: THE MOST EXHAUSTING, EMOTIONAL, REWARDING AND LIFE ENHANCING JOURNEY A WOMAN CAN TAKE"... this quote is MY wonderful life in a nutshell :)