Happy New Year!

I don't know about you guys but I am just dying to start 2009. I am so hopeful for a year filled with unbelievable blessings of health, love and prosperity. My wish to you is may the New Year be all that you hope it will be!

Skate til you drop!

Last Saturday we went to our neighbor Madison's 6th Birthday Party at our local Skating Rink. Due to Sam's nap time the boys stayed home and the girls went to the party. I think it's pretty safe to say it's been well over 20 years since I've been on roller skates, not to mention to an actual skating rink. Holy Cow! I think what surprised me the most was that it looked exactly the same as the ones I used to go when I was a child. I'm sorry, did I say exactly? Cause what I really meant to say was EXACTLY!!! The lights, the arcade games, the antique-ish looking skates, the nasty looking technicolor carpet. The music was definitely modernized, I guess they do what they can to stay current, but every now and then they would play and oldie but a goody and I just wanted to strap on a pair of skates (which I never actually did), get out there and show these youngsters how it's done. Of course, they were all literally flying by on their super jacked-up roller blades, so they wouldn't have noticed if I tried anyway.

Madison & Isabella ~ The Sk8er Girls

Isabella wore these teenie weenie skates that weighed about 15 pounds each, I kid you not. You can kind of see them in the picture. On top of how heavy they were, their wheels were pretty much locked. Picture this if you may, she was basically anchored to the floor. So you may be asking yourself how does she skate? And the answer my dear friends is: she doesn't! She walks on these incredibly heavy "skates" around the rink over and over and over again, which by the way she loved doing. By the time we left she was oh so proud of her skating abilities.

I must admit it was fun and funny,... in a "back to the 80's" kind of way. It certainly brought back many memories from my childhood, and I'd be lying if I said the thought of getting a pair of skates and getting out there didn't cross mind once or twice. But I settled for being a spectator instead. Do you think roller skating is one of those "like riding a bike" situations where it just comes back to you? Hmm, maybe I'll have to give it a try next time around.

"OH. MY. GOSH!!!"

That's exactly what we heard in our house over and over and over again on Christmas morning. Well, that and "I just can't believe it!" Yep, that's all we heard while Isabella was busy opening all of her and Sam's presents. And let me tell ya guys, it was absolutely magical.

Although Sam is obviously oblivious, Isabella is finally old enough to get the concept of Jesus' birth and Santa and presents. One of the first things she said when we went to get her in the morning was "Happy Birthday, Jesus!", immediately followed by "Did Santa leave presents?"

There was no shortage of surprise and excitement as one by one she opened presents she has been hoping for since October; a Dora bike and a Dora helmet, a camera and the most coveted Moon Sand all brought to her by Santa. Mommy and Daddy had a few other presents for her but the big surprise from us was a Dora scooter which was a HUGE hit. In addition, amongst many of the presents she received from family and friends , she was especially excited about the LeapFrog Tag Reading System that Grandma and Grandpa sent, since she is desperate to learn to read, and the Polly Pockets toys that Tata & Papa Abu sent from Florida. According to her: "This was the best Christmas EVER!"

As you can imagine, Sam was more entertained by the wrapping paper mess around him than he was by all the toys. However, there was one toy in particular that captivated him for quite a while; the Playschool Busy Gears. They are colorful and they move and make noise. I tell ya, that Santa was onto something when he left this particular toy. We're slowly but surely setting up Sam's toys so that he's not totally overwhelmed. So far, so good!

Yeah, this is pretty much what Sam looked like during the present opening portion of the day. It's almost as if he's pondering whether or not he can take this big box on.


Lucky for us we got to hang around the house in our PJs and play with our new toys for most of the day before heading out to Uncle Chris' house for dinner and our gifts exchange. Sam took a pretty good morning nap, but skipped his afternoon nap altogether. Bad Idea! Undoubtedly this is what you get when Sam skips his afternoon nap:

Yeah, I wish I could you that's a special rendition of Jingle Bells he's belting out there with his cousins, but unfortunately that's not the case. He was this cranky for most of our visit. It was the BEST!

Isabella got to play with her new bike today for the first time and that went a little something like this:

I'm ready to roll people! I'm sitting on my bike and I've got my helmet and my knee pads on.
You know what they say: Safety First!
Hmm, why aren't I going anywhere?

WHAT?!?! What do you mean I have to pedal? Are you kidding me? Seriously, you're expecting me to do all the work? Why isn't this motorized? Isn't this supposed to be like a toy or something? Fine, then someone just push me while I "look" like I'm biking. What, no takers?

Then forget this,...

I'm moving on to my scooter. At least then one foot rests while the other one works and they can take turns. I'm so outta here. See ya!

Quick, tell me, what's the first word that comes to mind!!! Just curious, is it something along the line of DIVA?!?!

We are SO ready for Santa

Amazing Christmas Eve service at Hope ~ Check
Christmas music blaring through the house ~ Check
Delicious family dinner ~ Check
Sprinkling of magic reindeer food in the yard ~ Check
Opening of Christmas Eve pajamas and books ~ Check
Cookies and Milk for Santa ~ Check
Two kids in bed waiting for Santa ~ Check

Yeah, I'd say we're ready,...

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

The Shack

OK, so I just finished up a big ol' serving of some serious faith nourishing food. I'm talking about the book The Shack by William P. Young. I literally just finished reading it and all I can say is WOW!


One of the ladies in my Fall Bible Study group recommended this book a few months ago, and I actually purchased it during Thanksgiving weekend immediately after finishing up the Twilight series.

I must admit that this book was a bit difficult for me to get into initially. But once I got past the first couple of troublesome (due to subject matter) chapters, I found myself wholeheartedly relating to the main character ~ I often ask myself a lot of the same questions about God and this world we live in that he asks throughout the book. Although it is a work of fiction, it's quite unexpected and revealing.

I highly recommend this book, regardless of where you are in your walk of faith. I for one can say that it has both shaken and enlightened me in wonderful ways.

Gingerbread House Amateurs

The Butler Family built their first ever Gingerbread House this afternoon. Neither Scott nor I had ever built one when we were kids. Come to think of it, I don't know if it's because of the scorching Puerto Rican heat, but growing up this was definitely not a part of my culture. But hey,... there's a first time for everything, right?

This was without a doubt a family effort. Scott was our contractor providing the necessary direction, I was the carpenter in charge of building the house, Isabella was the decorator in charge of well,... adding the decorative touches, and Sam was busy being a happy spectator while devouring a ton of snacks.


Isabella's favorite part was eating the icing, which she did constantly, and adding the candy onto the roof of the house. And the best part for me was that we got to do it together and we all had a blast in the process.


I'm pretty sure this isn't the prettiest house on the block, but being that this was our very first attempt at anything like this, I think it turned out pretty darn cute!


I'm positive that going forward we'll definitely be making this an annual Christmas tradition in the Butler home.


PS: It's currently sitting on top of our kitchen counter, but I'm not exactly sure what to do with it or how long to keep it out. Due to our amateur status in the Gingerbread House making arena any and all suggestions would be welcome and greatly appreciated.

Chivalry is Not Dead

Last night we went out to dinner with our wonderful friends the Wessons. I've known Hannah since our days of working together going back to 2005 and consider her to be one of my closest friends. We actually met when I was pregnant with Isabella. Hannah is married to Chris, and they are parents to an awesome boy named Jack. We just adore the Wessons and we try to get together with them quite frequently. So obviously Isabella has been around Jack since she was born. As you can see in the picture below, she has actually been pretty smitten with Jack for quite some time now.

This picture dates back to December 3rd, 2005.
She was 4 1/2 months old.
Yeah, she's kissing him.

Let me just start by saying that very much like Isabella, Jack has grown quite a bit in the last three years. He is no longer the little pre-schooler boy pictured above. OK, so with that being said I'll now get back to my story.

Last night as the hostess was walking us to our table Isabella extended her arm and asked, no insisted, that Jack held her hand while they walked. Initially he just kept walking without really acknowledging Isabella's request. Suddenly I hear Hannah say: "Awww, Jack give her your hand". So he finally complied, but just by looking at him you could tell he was absolutely mortified!

We arrive at our table and Jack pulls out a chair to sit on. Without missing a beat, Isabella climbs up on the chair, looks at Jack, flashes him a big smile and says :"Thank you, Jack!" Yeah, by this point Hannah, Chris, Scott and I are totally dying. As I look over to where Jack is still standing, he's got this "Are you kidding me, kid?" look on his face, but once again Hannah saved the moment by saying: "That was very nice of you, Jack!". Thank you, Hannah!

Now, I'm pretty sure that given the opportunity Jack would have had some choice words for all of us, but instead he took his Mom's compliment, pulled out the chair next to Isabella's and quietly sat down. Luckily, Isabella's diva-ish behavior did not continue throughout dinner which of course allowed Jack to enjoy his meal in peace.

A Rockin' Party

Today was Isabella's preschool Christmas party and I was assigned to be one of the party moms. Like I mentioned before, I was responsible for the kids' goody bags which I was thrilled about. One of the other moms (Mom A) volunteered to do the craft and story time, being that she was a preschool teacher in the past and all, and the other mom (Mom B) was assigned snacks. Mind you, their parties last only one hour.

The first thing we did was the craft and let's just say that Mom A was a bit oh, how shall I put it?,... ambitious. The idea was to decorate a big red bucket like Rudolph with antlers, ears, googly eyes and a big red nose. And it would have been really cute if white glue actually worked on plastic and big pieces of foamies.

I'm not a preschool teacher for many, many reasons, and giving thirteen three year olds a cup with glue and a Q-Tip to glue all of those pieces together is NOT my idea of a good time. Holy Cow! Glue was dripping everywhere! EVERYWHERE! Not to mention the kids were getting quite frustrated because nothing was sticking or staying in place.

Once it was evident that this might have been a case of biting off more than the kids can chew, we decided it would be best for us (the adults) to glue ALL of the pieces together with a hot glue gun instead. While we were hard at work with the craft project, Mom A relocated the kids to circle time and read them a few books.

OK, so once we finally turned thirteen buckets into thirteen Rudolphs one of the room teachers asked if we had snacks. Mom B, who by the way doesn't speak any English, handed her three dozen cookies. The teacher asked if she had brought anything to drink ~ Nope! So off the teacher went to find some juice to serve along with the cookies.

Needless to say by now I'm totally mortified with how badly things seem to be going. I know the teachers must think we are the most incompetent group of mothers they've ever had host a party. When suddenly a little boy squeals: "This is the best party EVER!" WHAT?!?! Yeah, I had to double check to make sure he was in the same room I was in. And then it suddenly occurred to me, they're three years old! I'm pretty sure that unless you feed them liver and raw oysters, every party is a rockin' party.

By the way, although it is strongly discouraged that younger siblings attend the parties, I had gotten an OK to bring Sam because well, what was I supposed to do with him? Luckily he was an angel. He sat quietly in his stroller and enjoyed watching the mayhem that was craft time and totally loved listening to story time. I'm sure the Cheerios and other snacks I constantly fed him didn't hurt either.

Sorry, False Alarm

Yeah, please disregard my previous post. I just received a call from my Mom and the one topic that will NOT be discussed during tonight's meeting at the Jacksonville Mayo Clinic is Hector Torres, also known as my Dad.

Apparently they want him to meet with a Cardiologist (heart), a Psychologist (oh crap! ~ just kidding) and a Nephrologist (kidneys) for further evaluation as well as complete a lung examination before their final meeting takes place. Which of course means waiting some more, you know,... like until next week. Argh!!!

Life can be such a roller coaster ride sometimes, don't you think?

It's Decision Time

OK guys, the moment of truth is finally here!

Everyone who has been involved in my Dad's evaluation at the Mayo Clinic will meet tonight and go through his extensive file to evaluate test results, current health and determine whether or not he's a viable candidate for the transplants. I think my parents will be notified of their decision either sometime tomorrow or Friday.

I wish I could tell you that I've placed all my worries in the Lord's hands and am at peace with whatever determination is made. But I'd be lying if I did. You see, I tend to be somewhat of a control freak so as you can imagine, with this being totally out of my hands and all, I'm a nervous wreck right now. I don't deal well with uncertainty and I'm definitely not handling not being there with them during this time the best I could either. But enough about me, right?

I know that whatever happens in the next couple of days will be God's will. But I'm looking for my prayer warriors again. All I'm asking for is that you please pray that my Daddy and the rest of our family is armed with God's peace and grace to handle whatever comes our way. That's it, my friends! Peace and Grace for the Torres clan.

I promise to keep you all posted as soon as I hear.

Here's the entire crazy family (sans one grandson, Nicholas).

Photo taken April of 2008 at Shelby Farms in Memphis, TN