Familia Cedeño

Has it really been ONE YEAR? Last year at this time, I was sitting in a hospital bed, recovering from my Addisonian crisis. Last week, as I woke up on the morning of my brother's birthday, I couldn't help but tear up, as I remembered how miserable I was on his birthday last year, which was right before I had gotten super sick and eventually went to the ER days later. Ugh. That is a memory I never want to relive. Being diagnosed with Addison's hasn't changed my life THAT much. Sure I take meds daily, which is probably the biggest change. I have to make sure I don't over exert myself physically. I wear a medical ID bracelet that never comes off. I am a little more conscious about what I eat, since the meds have changed my metabolism and it is easier to gain weight. Yet, more than anything else, I think the experience has taught me to be grateful. Looking back on that time last year, I am so happy that I am NOT in that state anymore. I appreciate so much the fact...

In mid July, Roberto came home from work one evening and told me we had some things to discuss. He had been working at his current job for just over a month. The company he works for, happens to deal with real estate. At work that day, he had met someone who he knew from his previous internship, Mark. Turns out, he was selling his house and so were his parents. Roberto also found out that one of his co-workers, Eric, is a realtor. We weren't looking to buy a home. In fact, we weren't planning on it for another couple of years down the road. We wanted to save up a larger down payment and had some other goals we wanted to take care of first. So, buying a home was far from my thoughts. If you know me, I had other things on my mind. So when Roberto came home and started talking about a house, I was VERY surprised. I knew that Roberto secretly wanted to wait and see if there was a chance for us to live outside of Utah. When he took this job, which is based out of Denver, Color...

On August 9th 2014 one of my biggest wishes came true, I saw WICKED the musical at Capitol Theater in Salt Lake City. I first found out about this musical at my first year of college at BYU-Idaho back in 2007. I instantly fell in love with the songs and watched the clips from the musical on YouTube and I KNEW that someday I would go see it. Well I FINALLY had that chance! The whole week before I was to go, I was SO EXCITED!! I kept singing the songs and picturing in my mind what it would be like to see it in person. The night before the day of the show I felt like a child on Christmas Eve. Seriously. I was ecstatic. I made sure we left the house with plenty of time and arranged a babysitter for Samuel days before since my Mother and my sister would also be going. Thing was, my sister had no clue that my mom had bought tickets for them to go. So we all got in the car and joked about where we were going. When we finally got there my sister was pretty surprised! It was fun to see ...

Here are a bunch of pictures from what we have done this summer.  My parents asked Roberto to build a deck in their backyard. It isn't finished yet, but here are some photos from the process. This past June, my sister Emily turned 16! We had a huge party for her with all her friends and our family. It was amazing fun! For the 4th of July, ALL of the family went to the lake. Here is Samuel with his cousin.  Later that July, Roberto's work had an event at the Aquarium! Samuel LOVES it there!  The last day of July, we took a small overnight camping trip with my parents and little sister. Samuel loves the lake!  It's not summer 'til you get buried in sand! I am still really into doing nail art. Here is a mani I really liked.  Enjoy the rest of your summer!

We have now lived in the basement apartment for 4 months! When we first moved, we decided we were going to attend a Spanish speaking ward this time around.  Since Roberto and I have been married, we have always attended an English speaking ward. So we were looking forward to switching it up. Turns out my parents attend an English speaking ward, so we're not in the same ward. We like the ward very much! I grew up attending spanish speaking wards and going to parties and I have missed that part of my culture. The activities in this ward have been great! Roberto was called into the Young Mens Presidency as a counselor and I was called into the Primary as a teacher. Roberto enjoys being with the youth and I of course love teaching, so I was happy to say yes to being in Primary. About a month ago, a recruiter contacted Roberto about possible job opportunities. Roberto wasn't actively looking for another job, but he gladly accepted the opportunity to find something better. So b...

I really don't want to talk about this because I feel like a broken record. Some of you may already know about this struggle I am about to spill over about. Why am I writing this? I don't know for sure really. Maybe it's for me. Maybe it's for you. Well, here it goes. Why is the title of my post "2 years ago"? Well, that's because that's how long I've been waiting. That's how long I've been wanting. Yes, I want another child. Why hasn't it happened yet? I'm not sure. A LOT has happened in the past 2 years. My body has gone through A LOT just this past year alone (Addison's). I understand that. Kind of. But it still doesn't change how I feel about having another baby. This past weekend we had Stake Conference (it's a bigger church meeting) and at the Saturday evening session, a woman shared a story about her daughter, who had to wait 11 years to adopt her 2 children and have them sealed to her in the temple. She als...

For Christmas last year, I decided that I was going to get myself a couple of things to take care of my nails.  My nails weren't in horrible shape, but they always went through a phase of growing out, being painted a few times, then breaking and being cut down again. I hadn't really taken care of my nails consistently.  So I did a little research and decided to invest in a nail strengthener and a couple polishes.  I used the nail strengthener as directed on the bottle and by the end of the first month I could already feel a difference in the strength of my nails. My nails were dented a little and were dark in color because of my Addisonian crisis, so I was anxious for them to grow out. That also motivated me to keep them painted and so I began to give myself a weekly manicure. It took about 4 months for my nails to completely grow out.  Another thing that I wanted was for my manicures to LAST. How annoying is it to paint your nails to have them chip in a d...

I stumbled upon this photo on my mother's phone yesterday. I didn't know she had taken pics of my hospital stay back when I had my Addisonian crisis. This photo awoke emotion in me and I had to make sure that I had it, since I didn't have any other photos of this memory. While I was in the hospital, my mom took care of Samuel. It was the first time we had been apart from each other for that long. As grateful as I was that I had my mother to watch over him, it was painful to not be able to care for him at that time and be the mom. I remember how I felt when this photo was taken. As I held Samuel in my arms at that moment, I was extremely grateful to have him in my life. It reminds me how important it is to have a grateful heart every day.

Life is good. It is very good.  It can be so easy to compare ourselves to others and to focus on the things that are lacking or that we feel should be different in our lives. Right now I want to focus on the good, on the positive, on all the many rich blessings that my Father in Heaven has given me, because there is A LOT to be grateful for. We live in my parents basement apartment and that allows us to save money so we can get a home in the future. Having my family close is another blessing because I can spend more time with them and we can help one another more. I have an incredible husband who loves me and works so hard to provide for our family. He truly is my best friend, he makes me laugh and cares for me. Our son Samuel is a happy and healthy boy who brings us so much joy. I have my health and am able to serve my family and enjoy the time I have with them. The list could go on and on, etc. This past weekend my younger brother Danny was sealed in the temple to his ...

We have moved! I had forgotten how much effort is involved with moving! Thankfully we had plenty of help and I am married to a man who is SUPER organized. He makes packing and unpacking go SO smoothly, it really is such a help. This past week was super eventful! So much happened I couldn't keep up. It all started the day before the move. We had gotten home from eating out and all of a sudden, Samuel falls over himself, and lands on his arm, bruising it really badly. This has been the second time that he hurts his arm like that. Poor baby had such a hard time sleeping that night. Then the next day, we load the truck, move and unload. Then, I went back the next day to clean. I was so caught up in everything that when the day was over, I was EXHAUSTED and I realized, I had forgotten to take my meds that morning! OOPS! Not good. I was okay though, just super sore and tired. In the morning, I had a MAJOR migraine. I made sure to take my meds with breakfast and then laid down for...

Currently I am a stay at home mom of a three year old boy. It's amazing how drastically my life has changed now that my son is SO much more independent. Not that it isn't as hard, it's just different. Instead of being sleep deprived or constantly thinking about if he's eating enough, I'm wracking my brain trying to figure out how to entertain him or if he's learning what he should know. A couple months back, I thought I preferred the first year phase of raising a child compared to raising a toddler or preschool age child, but now I realize it was just being baby hungry, because every phase has its pros and cons. For instance right now, most days, Samuel wakes up after I do, and even when he does wake up before me, he is old enough to go grab a drinkable yogurt from the fridge or go to the bathroom on his own, etc. I can stay in bed longer if I need to. The other day he just kept asking me every ten minutes if it was time for me to get up until I finally ...

Hello again! I wanted to sum up what else happened the rest of last year. The holidays were good. Thanksgiving and Christmas was spent here with both families. Samuel turned 3! We celebrated with a low key family party. I also had a play date the day of (which was a Tuesday) at our apartment and invited a few friends that he knows really well. They had such a good time and all I did was bake cookies! I think I've decided to keep birthdays simple. Once he's old enough to tell me what he specifically wants to do, then I'll do my best to grant his wishes. Speaking of Samuel, he is such a sweet heart. I love him to pieces. He loves to sing and dance, like me. So he'll do duets with me if he's in the mood. It's awesome. He talks so much more now, it's like he's a real person. He is obsessed with Lightning McQueen and plays with his cars while saying the lines from the movie Cars. Ha Ha. I love the fact that he can tell me so much now, it's less of a m...