My Wonderful and Amazing Husband... I LOVE YOU!

I love my husband so much! In fact "love" seems like such a small word compared to the feelings that I have for him. He is the love of my life, my best friend, my confidant, my comforter, my provider, the father of my children. I had a hard time finding a "good" man. I dated several men, but always with the mentality of, "oh poor guy, I can help him. If I don't date him, nobody will." Yeah, for good reasons too! Oh well, live and learn.

Then I met this amazing Elder on the mission! Elder Roberts was spiritual, mature, compassionate, funny, and caring. I relied on him so much during the beginning of the mission because I was having companionship problems. Luckily he was my Zone Leader. There in Naperville, started our friendship. Then, after 3 months, we were transfered to Berwyn. Our friendship grew stronger. I admired him so much for being such an amazing man. He reminded me so much of my dad, his sense of humor, his gentleness, his good manners. I thought, "Hum, we'll have to hang out after the mission. He is the kind of friend I need." Then, one night Elder Gomez called. We talked and he told me that he knew that Elder Roberts and I were going to get married. I was in shock! I didn't think of him like that. He was my friend, and we were MISSIONARIES! He said that he looked at me with love in his eyes. I just chuckled, and said that I had to go. I then proceded to call Elder Roberts and tell him that Elder Gomez said. I laughed and laughed, when suddenly I realized that I was the only one laughing.

I said, "Isn't that funny!?!"

He said, "Why is that funny?"

"Uh, no offense Elder, but you just aren't my type. You're tall, white, can't dance, and don't speak spanish." (You see, I had my heart broken by a tall, white guy that couldn't dance, and I promised myself never again.)

He proceded to ask, "What is wrong with tall guys?"

LOL! Out of anything that he could have picked a fight with, TALL guys?!?! "Well, you see, the thing is, I can't steal kisses. I would have to say, um, excuse me, could you come down here a minute, I want to steal a kisses. Uh, no thanks."

"That is what stairs are for. We'll have lots of stairs at our house. You know, I can reach the tall cupboards without standing on the counter or getting a chair."

"Okay, well, I have to go now."

The very next morning, I called President Haines, and told him that I needed to repent. I told him of our conversation, and that I just might be getting feelings for Elder Roberts. He told me that it was okay, but to not break any rules. Okay, what did he mean "it was okay?" It wasn't okay! I was lost and confused. A few weeks later I had interviews with President. He asked me how my "feelings" were going. I told him that I needed help because my feeling were getting stronger. He told me that I was going to marry him, that that I needed to obey mission rules and that when I got home, to pursue a relationship with him. I was awestruck! Marry him?? Elder Roberts?? Could it be?? Well, three months later, he honorably finished his mission and went home. We were in love, but NOT acting on our feelings for each other. We started writing back and forth, but I was starting to have a difficult time focusing on the Lord's work. I talked to President again, and he told me that if I wanted we could talk about me going home early to marry him. I was suprised, and hurt. I didn't want to go home, I wanted to serve the Lord. I realized that I couldn't keep writing to him. I needed to refocus. I told President that I was going to write to him and ask him to stop writing me. That night I wrote the letter, I called President and read it to him. He told me that it said what needed to be said. So off it went the next day.

About 3 weeks later I recieved a response. Zach stated that he knew that eventually we would have to stop writing and that he wanted me to remember that the Lord was always there for me, and that when I had hard days to remember all of the people that I had helped. Then signed it "Brother Roberts." That was it.

Seven months later, on a beautiful, yet painfully sad Saturday, it was time for me to come home. I was with President Haines once again, for my final interview. He asked me about Elder Roberts. I responded that I didn't know if he still had feelings for me. He simply stated, "Sister Barrientos, just promise me that you will send me a wedding announcement." Once again, shock. Then, the long plane ride home.

Next, I was in the car with Candida Torralvo, my trainer on the mission, when her cellphone rang. She answered and said, "Hi Zach." It was him, Elder Roberts. I was so nervous! She handed me the phone, and we chated for a while. It wasn't awkward at all, amazingly enough. Then came the good-bye. "Bye Elder Roberts"

"Bye. (pause) I love you."

"Uhhhh. I'm confused. I just got home from the mission, TODAY."

"That's okay, I'm patient."

The next Sunday he asked my dad for permission to be my boyfriend, three weeks later we were engaged, and three months later we were married. I always tell him that he wasn't very patient. His reply is always, "I was as patient as I needed to be."

Now here we are, three and a half years after we met, married for time and all eternity (thankfully), with our beautiful daughter, Carlita, and at least one baby waiting for us in heaven. I never knew I could love someone as much as I have grown to love him. He makes me want to be better, to try harder to reach my full potential. I love everything about him. Well, maybe not the fact that he chews his nails until his fingers bleed when he is stressed.


I love how he will do anything to make me laugh when I'm feeling down.

I love how wonderful of a father he is to Carla. How he loves and adores her.

The fact that he is a worthy Priesthood holder, and honors his Priesthood to the best of his ability. I love how faithful and how the Gospel means the world to him.

I love how he spoils me like crazy, and will bring me flowers, just because.

I love him because he is mine. For time and all eternity he is mine.

How grateful I am to Elder Gomez who started it all and for a mission president who knew how to help us be obedient, yet still let me in on Father's plan for me.

I LOVE YOU BABY. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. SO MUCH SO MUCH! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH THAT IT YOU TRAVELED TO THE END OF THE UNIVERSE AND BACK INFINITY PLUS 1, IT WOULD ONLY BE A SMIGE OF HOW MUCH LOVE I HAVE IN MY HEART FOR YOU.

Father's Day Suprise!

This year for Father's Day, I decided to do something very special for Zach. I decided to take him camping! The last time that he had been was about 10 years ago with the scouts, and he hated and dreaded camping. So what on earth possessed me to take him camping? I love camping and I wanted to share something that I love with him. I haven't been camping in about 15 years, and I thought it would be so nice for our family to be a camping family. I got everything ready, without Zach knowing. Lacey lent us a lot of camping necessities, including a humungolungo tent, it was so nice of them. My amazing friend, Chaparito (Chris Radigan) helped us take everything down with his truck. Zach was blinded the whole time! I told him that we were going somewhere about an hour away, when in reality we were going to Jolly's Ranch in Springville, oops! We stopped by Tommy's on our way down and ate. Once we got to the campground, I realized that I had forgotten a great many things. So I called my dad to bring them. He came later with Noemi, my niece who is staying with us for a week and a half. Chaparito and Aubrie, his fiance, staying for the evening. We had chicken tinfoil dinners with veggies, s'mores, and hot chocolate.

We were having such a great time... then the next morning came, bringing lots and lots of rain! The wind was so strong, and the rain was pouring so heavy that after 14 hours of downpour, our tent started to leak and Noemi was getting scared. We were sure that the baby would get upset, but instead, she fell asleep to the sound of the rain and the roaring wind. Nevertheless, we decided to come home early. Boo hoo! That whole day we spend inside the tent playing games. Amazingly enough we had a really good time. The miraculous part was that in the morning it let up for about an hour. Just enough time to cook breakfast, pancakes, eggs, and bacon. Then for lunch the rain also let up for about an hour, also just enough time to cook lunch, grilled hot dogs, chips, and hot chocolate.

Oh yeah, we left on Friday afternoon and weren't planning on coming back until Sunday around noon. Instead we came back Saturday evening.

Although I thought that it wasn't the best surprise, Zach loved it. We want to go camping more often. We had a lot of fun doing nothing. Our phones were turned off and we were able to be a family and spend quality time together with no interruptions. It was a great experience!

Sorry I don't have any pictures of Zach at the camp, he was the one taking the pictures.

Jumping and Swinging

Carla has been getting a little bored while at home, so we decided to get her a johny jumper. Luckily my sister in law had one that she gave us. So we have put it up a couple times. Carla loves swinging in it, since she can't exactly jump yet. She will swing and hand for about 30min before she gets fed up with it and wants to get out. We are loving the new toy also.

I remember when my niece, Noemi, used to use the johny jumper. How she loved being in it. She would swing and jump like crazy. She loved it! We would put her in the doorway into the kitchen. I can't believe that my little niece is 8 years old going on 25. She was baptized and is getting older by the day. How I love her.

It is really sweet when I dress up Carla and realize that she is wearing clothes that Noemi wore when she was a baby. She even got to wear some clothes that I bought Noemi when she was little. How fast time flies!

I'm a big girl now!

This is Carla's last picture in her last day in the baby girl carseat. This day, on the way home from Tommy's I made a left turn and whole car seat, base and baby included toppled over! I pulled over and started crying. I was so scared! I turned to Zach and said, "We need to buy a new carseat, TODAY!" Her baby girl carseat holds up to a 21lbs baby, and Carla was 20lbs. So yeah, it was time for a big girl carseat. My parents, the wonderful people that they are, gave us some money because we didn't have very much money. We were able to use that money for the carseat. We went to Burlington Coat Factory and found this amazing carseat that is for babies 5lbs to 100lbs, for only $167! What a deal. It is an amazing carseat. Carla loves playing with her feet, although she does miss her hanging toys. But as for me, I'm glad she is safe while riding in the car.

Love Sack Attack

One Saturday morning, we got a call from my mother in law. She called to ask if we needed a love sack for only $10!! Of course we weren't going to turn it down. So the next day they brought it down when they came over for Sunday dinner. We had no clue that when they said that it was big it was really that HUGE! It has since become our favorite piece of furniture in the house. I try to only jump into the middle of the sack when Zach is around or else I have a very hard time getting out of it. Here is me, trying to get out. Zach wouldn't help me, he thought it would be funny to watch me try to climb out. Ha ha, very funny.

I love how tiny Carla looks in the sack, it just cracks me up! She seems to like it also.

Zach also loves to sleep in the sack with Carla. It is interesting because she won't sleep with us on the bed because she thinks that it is time to play, but somehow if we are laying down with her on the love sack she sleeps. Why?? I have no clue. But it sure is cute!

Toybox Hotel

Bug and Carla are good friends. My mom got Carla this toybox for FREE at a garage sale and it has been such a great toy! My little neighbor friends play in it almost everyday, and Carla loves being in it because she can sit in the corner and play with her toys. I think that it is so adorable the way that they play together. Bug loves Carla, and enjoys playing with her, even though she can't do a lot. He is such a good friend to her.

Vinyl Fun

We finished putting things up on our walls two days ago. We were up until about 1am putting up the phrase in the living room. Zach was being quiet, as all parents know, when children are quiet they are getting into some kind of mischief. Well, I looked up and Zach had put the extra bits of vinyl on his face...yes...his FACE! TEE HEE HEE!! I almost wet my pants I was laughing so hard. Which was a much needed change from my frustration from earlier that night. I was noticing that we were wasting a lot of vinyl so I decided to make smaller decals in the extra bits. Well, There I was doing so good, not wasting much when I decide to make a shadow flower, then a heart. Well DUMB HEART! IT CUT OFF PART OF MY "L!!" GRRRRR!! I was frustrated, but not upset. So I do the next 4 letters. They finish cutting...what only an inch tall?? They were supposed to be 3 1/2 inches!! GRRRR!! I cut them again, only the L fits. Finally! Wait, what is this? A shadow letter?!?! GRRRR!! Once again I start cutting. YES YES YES!!! An "L" just the way I want it and the size I need it. Yes, quite frustrating. Once that whole ordeal was done, it was time to set up the words.

I asked him to take a picture of the letters before we put them up. After he took the picture, I noticed that there was an oops in the picture. At the bottom of the picture were his feet!! Tee hee hee!! Oh that one also made me need to go potty! I love my silly husband! Now the saying is perfect on my wall.

"Stand Perfect and Complete In All The Will Of God"

New Home

This is our new home! In the two years that we have been married, we have lived in 5 apartments! Hopefully we won't make another move for a while. We were lucky enough to get a lot of help from our wonderful ward family. I had everything completely unpacked within a week. It was so busy but very rewarding. My house currently is messy, I have been a slacker. With Carla waking up all hours of the morning and exhausting me to death, watching on Adam and Bug, and my laziness, I just wasn't up to cleaning today. Blah blah blah...

Mooer

An amazing visiting teacher of mine, Jen Wilhite, brought Carla a present when she was born. It was Mooer, a pink stuffed cow. She has grown to love her Mooer! At night and during all her naps, she has to have Mooer. She will wake up and as long as Mooer is there she'll go back to sleep, or wake up happy because she can play with Mooer. I love going into her room and see the different positions that she sleeps in with Mooer. It is SO adorable!! I love going into her room and watching her sleep. There is something so special and peaceful about watching Carlita sleep. Ummmm.... makes me want to join her!

Almost Crawling and Sitting

This is Carla sitting by herself! She likes it, but gets too excited when she sees something that interests her and topples over. She is getting so much better at it though. One thing that makes me laugh that she does when she is sitting is she finds her feet, and I guess her toes look so yummy that she has to eat them. When she leans over to eat them she looses balance and topples over, but she won't stop trying to eat her toes! Oh so cute!











Another milestone that she is reaching is crawling. Recently she has been getting on her hands and toes and tries to scoot. We will put an otter pop in front of her and off she goes, but wait, she is further away than where she began. How can that be??? She scoots backwards!! Tee hee hee!! She gets so mad and frustrated because she tries so hard to reach the otter pop or toy and only gets further and further away from it. Poor thing! It is amazing to me have much more mobile she is now. It feels as if she is getting bigger and bigger and developing so fast that I just start enjoying one phase of her life when suddenly she enters a new one. Oh well, I guess that is what babies do. My mom was telling me how she was unhappy because all 5 of her babies decided to grow up and she wasn't ready for it. It is hard to imagine my little baby all grown up. I guess I need to spoil her while I can! I like you forever, I'll love you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be, my dear, sweet, beautiful Carlita.

Temple Ordinances....

Zach and I had the privilege of witnessing the endowment ceremony for Sariah and Diana on May 21st 2009. It was so amazing to see my sister in the Celestial Room. Being there with her was such a great experience. Abi, Sari and I were there together, with my parents. One by one, we'll all get to the Temple so one day we'll be together in the Celestial Kingdom.

On our anniversary we were able to spend the afternoon at the Temple with our good friends the Lymans. They had Kurt and Austin sealed to them. They all looked so beautiful dressed in white. It was so emotional and spiritual. I can't think of a better way to spend our afternoon anniversary.

Abi's Wedding

Abi and Diana were sealed for time and all eternity on May 23rd 2009, for time and all eternity. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, and the temperature was perfect. They were sealed at the Salt Lake Temple, then we headed off to the luncheon at my absolute favorite mexican restaurant, Los 3 Amigos. After the luncheon we went to the reception hall, the Grand Ballroon at the Provo Library. It was so beautiful. Diana looked gorgeous, and Abi so handsome. They are perfect for each other!

Carla was loving being there, especially because she spent most of the night hanging from me!

During the money dance, my mom danced with Abi. Her baby boy is now married. He has grown up so fast! My poor mom, I can only imagine how it would be when Carlita one day, far from now gets married.

I also got to dance with my baby brother during the money dance. I even got to pin a tail on him! I love my little brother so much.

At the end of the night when they left, we got to see them off using sparklers. I know that him and his new wife will be so happy together.

Loved By All

Carla is so blessed to be loved by so many people. There are so many people that pray for her, love on her, praise her, encourage her, and play with her. These are a few of them... not including Zach and I, because that is an obvious one!Abuelito is SO in love with Carla. He is such a good grandpa, he can even get her to fall asleep WITHOUT pepe, her boyfriend (aka binky).

Helaman, Abi's former mission companion is getting over his fear of holding babies because of Carla.

Auntie Chata, came all the way from Guatemala just to hold her! Well, and also for Abi's wedding.

Uncle Abi LOVES bugging Carla, and every other baby he is allowed to get his hands on! You can see in the background Diana is just dying to hold her too.

Tia Toya also came from Guatemala just to hold her. Carla loves her Tia Toya, she is always so calm when her auntie is holding her. Oh so cute!

These are a few of the people that mean so much to us.

Sippy Cup Experience...

When Carla turned six months, we decided to start introducing the all too famous sippy cup. She obviously isn't a fan. I decided that since she is so interested in drinking from a cup, that we could just do that. So when she eats lunch and dinner she drinks her juice from a regular cup. She is getting a lot better at it too! Who knows, maybe one day she'll decide that a sippy cup isn't really that bad.

Patrick and Carla

This is Patrick, my sister's soon to be fiance. They also came down from California for Abi's wedding. As we all know, Carla loves men! Patrick got on her good side. He was making her laugh so hard. He was making her squeal for about 15 minutes. We could hear her squeal all the way to the living room. When I heard her squeal I went into the bedroom to find Patrick and Carlita laughing. It was oh so precious. I like Patrick, he really is a good guy and treats Sari so well. I am so happy that she was able to find such a good guy. Yay for peter priesthood husbands!!

Our First Family Zoo Trip

Elmer, Cindy, and Kai came up from Hawaii for Abi's wedding. We all wanted to go to the zoo, so on the 22 of May we went to the Hogle Zoo. They took two of Cindy's nephew's and we took Carla and Noemi, my niece. We left early in the morning to be able to spend the cool morning hours there, but of course, none of us knew how to get there, so we got lost. It took us well over an hour go get there, but when we did, we were excited to go and explore. Carla wasn't exactly sure what to do with everything that she saw, but we were having a blast. Zach was especially excited to go to the Zoo because he loves animals.