We're back!

We had a wonderful trip to El Salvador, a wonderful Christmas and I am slowly getting back into the swing of things. I am uploading pictures from our trip, but don't want to skip a post about our special outing to the Nutcracker with Diego and Alexia the Saturday before we departed for El Salvador. We took them out to lunch at Circle Sushi and then on to a really special afternoon at the Fox Theater. They LOVED it!

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I found this video on my computer from August and had to post it. A fun glance at life with 3! :)

Christmas Tree!

The Sunday after Thanksgiving is always our day to decorate the Christmas tree. The kids were so excited this year and we had a lot of fun!


The tradition always includes hot chocolate (made from scratch) and some kind of treat, this year it was brownies.


Marco was napping when we started, but joined in about half way through and was not as much of a problem as I thought he'd be :)

We enjoyed remembering where each ornament has come from and telling stories of past Christmases.

We ended the night with pizza on the floor, watching Rudolph videos.

We're so excited for Christmas! We leave for El Salvador in 2 weeks so there is a lot to do to get ready before then! We will return on the 22nd, just in time for Christmas here at home with Ricardo's mom, step dad, brother, sister and her sister's boyfriend.

I'm sorry for the lack of posts the past week. It's a long story, but suffice to say that we are great and have been super busy. My mom and Ricardo's mom were here for a long weekend to attend Grandparent's Day at Heritage and we had a fabulous weekend with them. I lost everything on my phone last week, including all of the pictures we had taken over the weekend which I was so bummed about because we had some beautiful memories captured. Ricardo's mom departed on Sunday and my mom stayed through Tuesday. Ricardo took Wednesday-Friday off of work (Thanksgiving holiday) so we had a wonderful week!


My mom and I went out to dinner on Monday night which was such a treat. We went to Seasons 52 and had a wonderful meal.


Such a happy girl with her daddy!


They were on a long mission to find walking sticks and here they are proud of their finds.

On Tuesday night we had the Grahams and Harvey's over for dinner. This is the kids table in the kitchen. They all behaved really well and allowed the adults a nice meal in the dining room.

Late Wednesday morning, we headed up to Dahlonega for a fabulous outing. We had a great lunch at an adorable cafe where we used to go when I was pregnant with Diego. The 5 of us barely fit around one of the tables, but it was so quaint and cozy.

After lunch, we strolled around the town and truly enjoyed every moment. It was such a treat to be right there, with no rush. The following pictures are from the afternoon there:

Lil' man still isn't walking, but he sure did enjoy walking the town, holding on to daddy's fingers.

We hung at at this ledge for at least 4o minutes. The children had a delightful time running back and forth, jumping off, laughing, singing and just being kids. It was great!

Marco crawled up and down the ledge and had just as great of a time.

We passed a fountain and garden on our way to the car and once again just hung out there for about 20 minutes and let the kids run and play. These sweet moments foster precious cuddles like the one above.

And on to Thanksgiving...

It was a gorgeous day so the kids could not get outside soon enough. Here they are playing in the dirt/mud in their pajamas. Yeah, we're fine with that :)

My turkey helpers! Here they are rubbing the raw bird with olive oil and salt before sticking it in the oven.

OK, so that is the extent of my Thanksgiving pictures :(

I had my kind of day of cooking all.day.long, with the kitchen windows open, praise music playing, daddy and children gleefully playing in the yard...it was wonderful. We invited people from Ricardo's work over for dinner and they arrived at 4pm. I cooked a feast and everyone was thoroughly satisfied with everything! :)

On Friday, Ricardo let me sleep in until 10:00!! Yes, that's right!! Wow, I felt new! We had a lovely day at home, just hanging out, playing board games, playing outside, eating yummy leftovers and enjoying each other. We had babysitter come in the evening and Ricardo and I went out for a sushi date and had a blast!

On Saturday, we headed out for a beautiful hike, then to picnic lunch at a great park, then to frozen yogurt, home for a bbq dinner and 6:30 bedtime for all people under 6.

All showered and happy after a full day on Saturday.

Diego showing off his first loose tooth! The adult tooth is already growing in behind so he is super excited!

3 kids lined up, reading books makes a mama happy! :)

This pictures is from this morning. Marco likes to sit on the bed with the kids now while I take my shower. When I came out of the shower, this is how I found Alexia and Marco today. How precious is this!? Yes, there Marco is with the same book. That book has been like his lovey today. He insisted on napping with it and threw a fit when I took it away from him at bedtime. He can crawl up the whole staircase with it in his hand and takes it everywhere he goes. So sweet!

Are you still reading? If so, thank you! I know it's been awhile since I've actually written out a blog post and I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it :)

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With my boy in his classroom

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Love their closeness!

Such a big boy!!

Crowded around marco while he hasbreakfast.  

**Alexia's birthday post**

I started a birthday post for Alexia on Sunday, but just finished it today. Since I have posted pictures since then, it went down in the shuffle to appear in chronological order. Scroll down to see the post on her birthday!!

Taco night!!

Snack time!

Fast Water Flowing (his Indian name)

Indian princess

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Alexia's FOURTH birthday!!

Dear Alexia Marie, Last Friday you turned FOUR years old! What an absolute delight you are to our family! You had been so excited for your birthday, counting down the days until you turned 4 and it is still hard to believe that you are already 4 when I look at you. I'm not sure my words can express right now the sheer wonder I feel when I ponder the fact that God gave us a daughter and God gave us YOU as that daughter. You are so precious, so incredibly precious. There are countless things that daddy and I love about you, but I will name just a few. We love how you wake up in the morning and your energy level is at 100% before your feet even touch the floor. No matter what time it is or who woke you up, you are all smiles first thing in the morning. We love how you take delight in helping us out and looking for ways in which you can help the family. We love how you take such pleasure in doing puzzles. We love how you look up to your big brother and adore him in an amazing way. We love how you love to run to Marco's crib the second you hear any peep come from his room. We love how you are our fashionista. We love how you are a total and complete Daddy's Girl! We love how you are such a cuddle bug and love to give and receive hugs and kisses. You are simply wonderful and we love you beyond measure!

Alexia invited her buddies over for a birthday party and we had such a blast. We kept it all outside this year which worked out great, but it was a bit cold. Our neighbor Jamie offered to do face painting and the kids just played in the yard, ate snacks, enjoyed cupcakes, hit the pinata and blessed us with their company while we celebrated our big girl.






Diego had to go to school at 8am so we had an early breakfast and present time before Ricardo and him left at 7:30. Alexia requested pumpkin pancakes for breakfast so we had an early morning pancake feast! She was so excited to open the gifts from Diego...




...glitter glue (previous picture), toothbrushes and an extra set of clothes for...

...her new baby doll! I took her to the American Girl store the week before just to let her look around and to get an idea of what she liked. She had her heart set on this baby doll and...

...the high chair. Can you see the sparkle of happiness in her eyes!?

I didn't have the camera with me between breakfast and party time, but during that time we hung out at home (Ricardo took the day off), picked Diego up at school and went out to lunch at Chik Fil A.

The birthday girl was the first to get her face painted!

I love this action shot!

Sweet girls, Miriam and Keona

and Michaela too!

I love how this picture shows her as the center of attention. I wouldn't say she looks to be the center of attention, but when she finds herself in that kind of situation she runs with it!

Singing "Happy Birthday!"


This picture melts my heart. I love how Ricardo is squeezing her hands in such a precious way that shows his love and protection of her and I love how she rests in the comfort of that.

She requested pumpkin cupcakes so that's what she got! Do you see a pattern?! I made pumpkin cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting and banana cupcakes with the same frosting.

Her friends were so sweet and generous with their gifts. She had a blast opening presents!

This captures the "fall festival" feel of the party.

Of course Diego found plenty of people to play soccer with!

Sweet family picture

Oh that face!

He spent a really long time playing up in the fort of the playground. So sweet!