NOVEMBER

Here's the monthly photo share :)  

 Precious Alexia loves her doll, Sydney and asked me to take a picture of the two of them.  For a stretch of time, she was so into playing with her babydolls and would feed them, carry them on her hip, change them, talk to them, sing to them, take them on errands, etc.  Just recently, she has changed her preferred activitity to coloring. She spends hours of her day coloring these days.

Soccer season has now ended, but Alexia loved hanging out with Robyn on Tuesdays while the boys practiced. 

 Marco accompanied me to a doctor appointment and sat in this chair with his little book the whole time.  He was so nervous that he had a shot coming to him!

Whenever Ricardo travels over a Friday, we have Nina and Deven over for pizza and play.  This particular Friday was so beautiful that we let the kids picnic on the grass.  Nina and I always enjoy these special times together! 

 I teach Diego's Sunday School class and absolutely love it!  We have an awesome group of kids, most of whom I've known since Diego was a baby.  You probably remember Addie, the girl next to Diego.  They've been buddies since they were 1.  

 We had a fun playdate with Michaela and Alexis (and baby Emma) a few weeks ago which started with a tea party (of course!)  The kids had a blast together!

 My dear friend Laura had her precious baby boy...10 days late...on October 29.  Ricardo and I went to the hospital to visit her and Luke and to meet adorable Peter.  He is sooooo cute!  It was a really special time to hang out with them without our 5 big kids interrupting us or distracting us.  I think that was the first time!

The next day, Marco and I went to visit another friend (Lina) and her baby (Sofia) and Marco sat like this with Sofia in his lap for about 20 minutes.  He LOVED holding her.  Yes, my heart was completely melted!

 I set Alexia and Marco up at the table with paints, paper and brushes and carried on with doing laundry and cleaning the house and returned to this mess.  He was so pleased with himself...can't you tell?!

 Alexia was SO eager to meet baby Peter.  He was born on a Monday and we made it over to their house that Thursday.  On Wednesday, she said to me, "If you forget to take me to meet Peter, I am going to get in the car in the middle of the night and drive there myself."    She had been praying for him for months prior to his arrival.

 Diego loved holding Peter, but wanted to get back to playing before too long

 Happy again with another baby in his arms!

 And when he wasn't holding baby, he was there to protect him with big brother Thomas

Playing in the "workshop" while the big kids were at school 

 Marco and Callen are such good buddies.  They are only 6 days apart and they play really well together.  The two of them set this tea service out by themselves and proceeded to have a pretend tea party which may have been one of the cutest things they've ever done!  For 2 yr old boys, they get along so well.

 I am going to write a separate post about Alexia's birthday, but here's a picture of me reading a book to her class.  Ricardo and I took donuts in to her class a few days before her birthday to celebrate.

 Concentrating on her morning work

 Marco really wanted Diego to give him a cuddle before nap time.  Diego was over the moon and sat like this with him for about 10 minutes.

 Our neighbor, Ms Jaime came over to give Alexia her birthday present a few days early and Alexia was thrilled with the rings, hair bow, bracelets and crayons!

 Alexia was invited to a ballerina birthday party on a Friday afternoon.  Marco was in the front room, but Diego sat with the other brothers to watch the sisters dance and be silly.  How big does he look here?!

 One Saturday while Marco and I napped, Ricardo took Diego and Alexia to get donuts at Sublime donuts and for a stroll in Piedmont Park.  Cuteness!

 All snuggled up together, playing house.  

 Marco is the apprentice to our puzzle master Alexia

 Tia Ale had a one night layover in Atlanta and we had a wonderful time with her!  The kids were thrilled to spend the afternoon with her.  She brought them each a special book about London and they soaked up their time with her, and read all of the books.  After the kids went to bed, a babysitter came and Ricardo and I took her out to dinner which was super special!

 The kids filled out these papers for a service project.  I'm not sure if you can see them well, but they were super cute.  Alexia's is the top one and Diego's is below.

 November 16 was Grandparents day at Heritage.  Diego and Alexia did an outstanding job with their recitation and singing and were thrilled that Grammie was able to be here.  Grades 1-5 did "discovery projects" on the subjects of their choice and Diego chose...soccer.  Are you surprised?!  Yes, he looks way too handsome and grown up in this picture!

 We went to Yeah Burger to celebrate after Grandparents Day.  A new favorite!

Below are pictures from Holiday Lights at the Botanical Gardens.  We took my mom there on Saturday (Nov 17th) and had a fabulous time.  We went out to dinner to Mellow Mushroom and then headed over to the gardens around 7:30...yes, starting the outing PAST bedtime!  Oh but it was so worth it!  The lights were spectacular, the kids behaved incredibly well, we enjoyed smores and live music and just had a super evening.  Everyone was tucked into bed by 10:15!  

This is out of order, but on Saturday (the day we went to the Gardens), Ricardo was a superstar and took care of the kids so my mom and I could go shopping and out to lunch.  Mom and I had a wonderful time out and Ricardo was creative with entertainment with the kids and set the tent up for them in the backyard.  They loved it!

The next set of pictures are from a one night getaway that Ricardo and I took on Monday which was amazing.  My mom was very happy to take care of the kids for us and they were excited about being with her and doing arts and crafts projects with her so it was a win-win!  Ricardo and I left the house around 10:30 on Monday and returned around 4:00pm on Tuesday and felt like we had been gone for days.  We started our getaway with a quick stop to get me some sneakers and then we headed to an incredible place for lunch.  A Spanish restaurant called Barcelona..  If you live in Atlanta, you must go!  We had a 2+ hour lunch and felt like we were honeymooning...no rush to be anywhere, no interruptions, very romantic...oh it was great!  From there we headed to Serenbe which is a lovely planned community not far out of town.  We had a great walk, a yummy tea time, a fun dinner and the next morning enjoyed a delicious breakfast, another great walk, yummy lunch and then headed home.  It was just what we needed!

Love the lamp posts in the town

My kind of breakfast!

Scenery pictures from our walks:

Of course Grammie had to take the kid to Chik Fil A before she left so we headed there on Wednesday for lunch...and ice cream by the roadside.  This picture does not show it well, but they are on a hill, far from the road...don't worry!

And on to Thanksgiving!  I am bummed that I was not better about taking pictures, but I was busy cooking and hosting!  We had 21 people for dinner and it was a wonderful evening.  We invited different people from different areas (work, church, friends, family, etc) who didn't have plans for the day and it turned out to be a great group!  Ruth and her family joined us which was so very special to spend a holiday with such close friends...our first holiday together!  

I cooked a 27-pound turkey and it turned out just as I wanted...satisfactory to my carnivore husband :)  I used my tried and true recipe of putting it in brine for 16 hours prior to cooking it....and it was a hit!

The kids table

Buffet table

Don Justo and Mario getting ready to enjoy their meal.  We sat 9 adults at this table, 5 adults in the kitchen and 7 kids at the kids table.  Oh, and there were 2 babies!  The tree in the background is one of the projects my mom did with the kids.  They made a "thankful tree" and wrote on the leave what they're thankful for. Very sweet!

My mom left very early Friday morning (I drove her to Marta at 5:50!) so we spent Friday cleaning up, relaxing and just hanging out.  We went to a farmer's market in the afternoon to buy sushi supplies and the kids had a blast seeing all of the wacky food there.  Ricardo and I made sushi for date night and had a blast. You'll see the picture above that he is an awesome sushi chef!  My specialty is the rice and his specialty is the assembling and the rolling.  It was divine!

And our big news from the weekend is that Marco is potty trained!!!!  We can still hardly believe it!  For about a week he had been asking to use the toilet for #2 and didn't go in his diaper a single time.  Then on Thursday (Thanksgiving day), he was outside playing and came running inside to say he needed to use the potty and he just went pee.  That's when we realized he was ready to go for it.  All of Thursday and Friday he had a clean and dry diaper, so on Saturday morning we all headed to Target to let him pick out underwear.  He was sooooo excited!  He chose Thomas the Train underwear and proudly carried it around the whole store.  He went to church in underwear on Sunday and didn't have any accidents.  Ricardo and I just can't get over how it just happened so quickly.  As Auntie Paige said, "Incredibaby strikes again!"  The boy can't talk much, but he sure is smart! :)