2 week cuteness

Here are some pictures of sweet Marco at 2 - 2.5 weeks.

Auntie Paige sent us a box full of wonderful gifts last week. Alexia's gift was a sling to carry her baby dolls in. It is adorable and she LOVES it. I have one just like it for Marco so now we match!

Our weekend!

We have had a wonderful weekend. It started on Friday night with Ricardo coming home from work saying, "What do you think about going out for date night?" My mom is always very gracious to offer date nights to us when she is here and had already mentioned to us that she wanted us to go out. We decided to leave her with Diego and Alexia and we took Marco with us. We went to a great Italian restaurant close to home and Marco was awesome. We definitely got some stares when we walked in with such a teeny tiny baby. He fussed for a minute, I held him for about 5 minutes and then he sat in his carrier the rest of the time. It had been a really busy week for Ricardo at work so it was really nice to have some time alone to catch up and enjoy each other's company. Alexia was awake when we left so Grammie decided to do something very special with her...paint her nails for the first time! She LOVED it and loves showing off her pink nails to anyone she can show.

On Saturday morning Ricardo and Grammie took the kids to the movies to see Toy Story 3. It was their first movie theatre experience and they loved it! Alexia fell asleep on Ricardo's lap near the end of the movie, but otherwise watched it and did great. I wasn't sure she would have the attention span for it, but apparently she did!

Being a mother to little ones, I have learned that they go through stages. Bad stages come and go...good stages come and go. Right now Diego and Alexia are in a wonderful sibling stage. Marco's arrival has brought them closer together and they have realized they need to play on their own more since I am not as available as I used to be. My heart swells with happiness when I see this stage that they're in and how much they are enjoying each other. In the picture above, they sat on the ottoman and played puzzles for quite awhile. When Alexia couldn't find the spot for a piece she would say "Diego, adonde va?" He would take it from her hand and proudly put the piece where it should go and she would give him a look of adoration.

We took Marco to church this morning so I had to dress him in something more than a onesie or jammie for the special occasion. I thought this little outfit was so cute!

Diego is beyond in love with his little brother. Today Marco was sitting in his bouncy seat and Diego was running upstairs to get a lego piece for grammie. As he was about to race by Marco, he slowed down, got on his knees, showered Marco with 4 or 5 kisses and continued on his sprint to the stairs. I think he gives Marco more than 100 kisses a day.

Today we celebrated Father's Day and gave thanks for the extraordinary father that Ricardo is. Every single day I am amazed that God has brought the two of us together and given us the gift of children. Ricardo is an awesome dad, in every way...the way he makes the kids laugh, the way he plays with them, they way he teaches them, the way he disciplines them, the way he provides for them, the way he sets a godly example for them...the list goes on. I pray that Alexia will marry a man just like her daddy and that Diego and Marco grow up to be husbands and fathers just like their daddy. He really is pretty close to perfect in my eyes!

Ricardo loves, loves, loves cupcakes so we made him cupcakes galore. We made chocolate cupcakes with fudge frosting, chocolate with marshmallow frosting and maple walnut cupcakes with ginger cream cheese frosting (Brownie, thank you for the wonderful cookbook - you couldn't have chosen a more perfect gift!)

Of course I would not have been able to do the cupcakes without Grammie. In fact, she did all of the work and did an amazing job.

Diego and Alexia shared the step stool to finish up the decorating this afternoon.

Ricardo took the kids outside to play in the sprinkler and pool before dinner and they all had a blast!

Our special Father's Day meal

A happy daddy with his three kiddos.

Our week in pictures

Our adorable little boy at 1 week old.


On Monday, our friends Jake and Jen brought pizza over and had dinner with us. The kids love Ms. Jen and wanted to get just as many cuddles as Marco from her!


Katie and her kids came over on Tuesday to bring us dinner. (YES! Dinner deliveries have begun and they are a wonderful blessing!) The three kids look so serious in this picture, not sure what they were looking at. Ella Ann loved holding Marco!

We bought the kids this new white table to replace the red one in the kitchen. We always keep a vase of fresh flowers on the big table so this week the kids decided they would like their own vase of flowers for their table. So sweet!

Ricardo has been watching the World Cup game re-runs on his computer. We don't have any TV channels, but he has not complained about it once and has been happy to watch them from the computer. Diego sat with him for awhile on Tuesday, learning all about the game. I love this picture of my THREE guys!

Grammie arrived on Tuesday afternoon. The kids had been counting down the days to her arrival and were so excited to see her. She brought several fun gifts for the kids. Here Alexia is sporting her new socks, crown and purse!

The kids know that when Grammie is here, it's time to hit the kitchen to make treats. Yesterday they made delicious peanut butter-chocolate rice krispie treats. YUM!

Notice Diego's arm. They were both dripping in chocolate.

This is what Marco and I have been up to most of the week. If he is not nursing or hanging out in his bouncy seat, he is usually cuddled up on my chest like this.

Diego and Alexia spend a lot of the day, touching and loving on Marco. He was sound asleep this morning and they spent awhile kissing his hands and talking to him and he was not phased by it one bit.

My mom took the kids to the Children's Museum this morning and they just returned, after having a blast. Everyone is down for naps now and I am on my way up for one myself!

At home as a family of five!

We've had a wonderful first week at home with Marco. We are all madly in love with this lil' guy. He is such a good baby and is so laid back - Praise God!!! He is a great eater and is starting to plump up. We had his 4-day check up last week and he was already 7 pounds. He was 6lbs, 10oz when he was discharged from the hospital so that is an awesome weight gain, considering a lot of newborns don't make it back up to their birth weight until they are 10-14 days old. This boy just doesn't stop eating so that is why he is gaining weight so well. We made his doctor's visit a family outing and the kids really enjoyed going along. It was fun to have our first outing as a family of five!
Ricardo has been super, super, super-dad with Diego and Alexia. The three of them have done a bunch of fun things together, including the Children's Museum, ice cream date, cupcake date, family fun house (with slides, bouncy houses, etc), gardening, reading, swimming in the backyard, errands, etc. It has been a special time for Ricardo to hang out with the big kids which has been such a blessing to me since I have had a lot of sweet, alone time with Marco. It has also given me a chance to rest and take it easy. Marco is becoming a better sleeper, but still prefers to take snoozes in somebody's arms. For the last two nights, Ricardo has held him for 2 hours in the later evening so that I can have a solid stretch of sleep, knowing he won't wake up. Last night he did two 2-hour stretches laying down which were great for me. He is just so sweet and adorable and cuddly!!!
Diego and Alexia are doing great with him. They talk to him, sing to him, read to him and always have to know exactly where he is and what he is doing. They ask to hold him many times throughout the day and are really good about being gentle with him.


He loves the attention from his big brother and big sister!


I love how she is holding his hand here.


This morning Alexia asked me to bring her the Peter Pan book so she could read it to Marco. It was one of the cutest moments of the week! (Helen, notice his outfit - it is soooo cute on him!!)

On Friday we had a special dinner to celebrate Marco. Ricardo picked up sushi from our favorite place and we had quite the feast!

Marco hung out in the bouncy seat for most of the meal.

An after dinner stare-down with Papa.

Hanging out outside while the big kids played

Auntie Taylor came to meet him. We were hoping he would arrive in time for them to meet him!

Some sweet sibling shots:

Driving the tractor at the children's museum

Painting at the museum. They had such a blast!

One of the highlights of last week for the kids was breaking out the pool - they LOVED it!!!!