HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEXIA!!!!!!!!!!!!

One year ago today, we were blessed with the arrival our amazing baby girl. This year has been simply wonderful and Alexia has brought an abundance of joy and blessings into our lives every day for the past year. We can't believe that she is already ONE!!

We had a really special day as a family...I will let the pictures tell all about it...

When she woke up, the three of us paraded into her room singing "Happy Birthday" and Diego gave her a bouquet of balloons which she LOVED

She had pancakes and watermelon for breakfast...

...and tried whole milk for the first time (which she wasn't too crazy about)

Diego decorated cupcakes for her

One of the things Ricardo and I were most excited about was putting her in her big girl carseat that now faces forward! She definitely loved it.

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There are no pictures from 10:00 to 4:00. During that time she played, took her morning nap, went to the mall with Diego and I, had lunch at home with Papi and took an afternoon nap.

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After naptime we headed to our favorite park.

We set up the self timer on the camera - not too bad!

She had a blast on the slides and crawling all over the place. We took 100+ pictures, but am trying to keep this short for times sake so will create a separate album and send it out :)

After the park we came home for dinner. It doesn't look too appetizing here, but I made one of her favorites - tortilla pie.

Singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

She loved the part of the cupcake with frosting and didn't eat much more once the frosting was gone

One of the best pictures we have of them together!

After eating her fill of cupcake, she proceeded to pick up as many crumbs as possible and hand them one by one to Ricardo - it was so cute.

And that was our baby girl's birthday day! She was most definitely spoiled and doted on all day long and Diego was really excited to celebrate her special day. We praise God for the blessing of being her family!!

Catching up....

We have been super busy since our return so I apologize for the lack of posts. Last Friday we went to the birthday party of Diego's dear friend, Ella Ann and it was such a blast. Her mom put so much thought into the party and made it really special for everyone. The kids decorated their own aprons then decorated cookies and cupcakes and had a blast while doing it all. Diego was so into his projects and especially loved having his own apron since his new name at home is "Little Cook." He helps out so much in the kitchen and can now make his own peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.


Aprons all lined up and ready to decorate


"Hmmm, what should I write...?"


Hard at work!


Nothing like instant gratification after a job well done

These were all the big kids, 5 of them have younger siblings who were doing their own thing during the party

Alexia LOVED the play kitchen, so much that I am now on a hunt to buy one for her

Fall in FULL SPLENDOR

Upon our return from El Salvador, we were thrilled to see the amazing colors of fall here in Atlanta. Ever since living in Boston, Ricardo and I absoultely love the fall. On Saturday we took the kids to play at a park and on our drive there, snapped several shots of the beautiful trees in the neighborhood. Keep in mind that several of these pictures were taken from the car, but you can still enjoy the beauty.

The pictures below are from our yard:

We're back!

We have been in El Salvador and Guatemala so that's why you haven't heard from us. We had an absolutely fabulous time and there are soooo many stories to tell! I am working hard to get unpacked, laundry washed, house cleaned and settled back in so that we can get back into the swing of things. I am trying to sort through the 1100+ pictures that we took, but for now click here to see a small sampling of our photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=178045&l=708c2&id=678120522