Diego's birthday party!

Finally, here are pictures of the big party on Monday! We had a blast and Diego was so excited to celebrate his birthday with his friends. The theme of the party was Cars (the Disney movie) and everything was McQueen and Mater related.

After all the friends arrived we played for awhile and then had lunch. We had chicken from Diego's favorite restaurant (Chik Fil A!), fruit and salad. The kids did so well standing around the little tables we had set up in the living room and happily ate their lunches. After lunch we ventured out to the cold to hit the pinata! The concept of the pinata was new to most of our friends so Diego had to show them how it was done. Some of the girls were even scared to hit it, so cute. It was a big hit and we had a blast with it. We then went inside to have cake and open presents and play some more before everyone started to get sleepy for nap time.

Ricardo took the day off of work so it was special to have the whole afternoon together. In the evening we went to La Fonda for dinner and we started a fun tradition. We spent the whole time at the restaurant talking about the past year. We told Diego stories of all the trips we'd taken and we talked about special memories which he really enjoyed. He kept asking us to tell him more and asked a bunch of questions. It will be a lot of fun when the kids are older and we can enjoy this tradition on their birthdays.

Enjoying lunch!

Notice how the moms are shivering - the kids didn't even notice the cold with the excitement of the pinata!

Quite a swing!


Showing off his suckers

"Happy Birthday to you"


Diego and Bennett with their cheeks full of tootsie rolls

This is Diego having to do whatever Papi does!

Enjoying salmon and asparagus off the BBQ last weekend

Diego turns THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today we celebrated our superstar's THIRD birthday. Amazing!
Seven of Diego's buddies came over for a party this morning and we had a blast. Diego was on cloud nine all day long. I will upload pictures tomorrow, but just wanted to make sure to say Happy Birthday Diego today!

Baby Cayden

Some of our best friend's had a baby boy last Friday and we are pleading for prayer for this precious boy. He was born at 32 weeks, weighing 3lbs 11oz. He is still not breathing on his own very much and is in a very delicate situation right now. He had an MRI done this morning to conclude whether or not he has any neurological problems. Please pray for peace for Scott and Paige, wisdom for the doctors caring for him and health, strength and recovery for baby Cayden.

You can follow his progress at http://hirschhaps.blogspot.com/

Friends

My friend Jessie and I have been exchanging childcare lately. Her children are almost the same ages as Diego and Alexia so they make a happy foursome. It is a wonderful way to get some things done during the day without children (like yesterday I went to the doctor for the first time since Alexia was born!) She even watched our kids for us last Friday night so we could go to Cirque Du Soleil on a special date and it was spectacular!!

Here are some pictures from last week when we had Sofia and Albe for a morning. I even fed all four children lunch at the same time and survived! :)

Sofia kept saying "You have to fix my heart. You have to fix my heart."

I was so pleased that Sofia and Diego contently played legos together for a long time. They made a great team and built some awesome structures.

Quietly sitting together is rare for them, this is usually what they're up to - being wild!

Meanwhile, Alexia and Albe tumbled around on the pillows and had their own share of fun:

Happy New Year!

It's crazy that this is the first post I've done in the new year! Where have the first two weeks of January gone!?

So not to delay a post any longer, I will upload some pictures and try to write a post soon...!


Ricardo bought fireworks for New Years and Diego was just giddy with excitement. In the next picture you can see the line-up of all the ones they set off together. It was so cold out that Alexia and I were inside when these pictures were taken. The boys had a blast!

We had a special New Years dinner at a friend's house. They have 4-month old twin girls and Alexia decided to be silly and hang out in the bouncy seat.

Ricardo and Diego assembled a gingerbread house on New Years Day and really enjoyed their time together.

Diego decorating the tree with ornaments.

They LOVE sitting at this table in the morning to play their pianos together.

I babysat my friend's 3 children last week and this is what our family room looked like for several hours: Alexia and Hartley (also 1-yr old) playing with the new play kitchen, Asher (6 yrs old) and Diego running around like wild and Adeline (5 yrs old) reading a book on the couch. Whew! I don't know how mothers of 5 do it!

Alexia and Hartley were so cute together!

I know that after 2 weeks of not posting, there should be more..but I still have pictures on my camera to upload. I will try to update again this weekend. Thank you for your patience!