Not a great pic, but such a precious moment.  D picked her up out of the bouncy seat, sat her on the couch and spent a good 10 minutes talking to her, kissing her and just being so sweet.  Talk about melting a mama's heart!

Get ready for stripe overload!!

Still can't believe I get to be their mommy!  God is good!!

Yes, this was posed (Alexia, not Diego)...but that doesn't take away the cuteness!

Lovin' on our lil date night intruder.
I had strep throat this week and it knocked me out.  I spent Wednesday in bed and a lot of Thursday too.  On Wednesday morning, Marco was amazing.  He watched a 60-min video, played by himself, served his own food and drinks and was so cooperative when I told him I needed to rest.  I had someone else bring the big kids home and I left the front door unlocked, lunch served on the table and wrote a note with instructions for the afternoon for everyone.  I'm beyond grateful for these amazing children the Lord has blessed me with!

I had to document this bc I'm just amazed...
I put Lucia to bed at 10:30 last night and I woke her up at 9:00am this morning!! This girl is a sleepy head!!
She'd had a bad cold this week so I think she's resting up to fight it.

Alexia took this.  Those cheeks!

Last night was a big night! We left all four kids with a babysitter for 5 hours!
The IHG President of the America (Ricardo's boss) hosted a wonderful evening to thank the spouses of the operating committee for their support.  It was at the Intercontinental and it was so lovely.  He gifted us a beautiful Waterford vase with flowers, a cook book, a hand written note and gave a nice speech of gratitude for us.  It was so special!  The meal was amazing and we really enjoyed the company at our table (there were 20 ppl in total).
So...all this meant we needed to leave baby at home!  I'd been pumping milk and was sure 11oz would be plenty for 5 hours.  Lucia cluster feeds from 5:30 to 10:30 every night and I really don't put her down.  Well around 9:15 Mary texted me that she was on the last 4oz!  This girl had never taken a bottle so I wasn't sure shed even eat.  I was amazed and so happy!
So here's Mary, the hero with lucia!!

The Halsey clan arrived yesterday afternoon and spent the night.  The kids played nonstop and had a blast.  Ricardo took Diego and Asher out for a special ice cream date after dinner which was very special for them.

Here's the group picture from the spelling bee:

Jack came over to play yesterday and Marco loved it!
Boys and dirt:

Boys and their guns

Super nachos!

We had a really great day yesterday. We stated off with Skype calls with Grandpa and Tia Majo. We loved talking to both of you...our two most loyal blog readers! :)
Then the kids went outside to play with two neighbor girls outside and had the best time digging in the ravine in the way back of the yard. We called them in after an hour to get washed up and changed and then we hosted Home Group from 12:00 to 2:00. We had a special time with those that came.
While Marco and Lucia napped, D and A went back out to play with Rebecca and Lillian while I tidied up and Ricardo went to Home Depot to buy trees and plants.
At 5:30 we headed out to WALK to Farm Burger! Alexia and Marco rode their bikes and the rest of us walked. It was wonderful! It took us about 40 min to get there. We ate on the outside terrace and really enjoyed our time. The walk home was also great and we got the big 3 in bed around 8:45 before watching a movie.
Phew! Quite a day!

Happy girl with her daddy!

A picture break on our way home

Diego did great at the spelling bee and placed 5th for 2nd graders!
He requested lunch at Circle Sushi and had his first order of sushi all to himself...and tempura chicken.
Lucia was a dream...she fell asleep at 9:00 after nursing during the opening ceremony, slept in my arms through the whole bee, through lunch and woke up when we got home at 1:00.  We have another super baby on our hands!

Waiting for the regional spelling bee to begin!

Our "book ends" :)

The boy's new look for the morning

Alexia, " Mama, Lucia was reading a magazine and she fell asleep."

Smiley girl!

Lucia's birth

Lucia Grace Lopez

Born Tuesday, February 4th at 4:48am

7lb 7oz, 19 inches

As with the other children, I like to write the birth story of how our precious baby was welcomed into the world.  Our baby girl is now 11 days old and is doing absolutely wonderful.  She nurses like a champ, is on a pretty good sleep schedule and is very content.
So her due date was Sunday, February 2.  That day came and went and no baby arrived.  My mom had arrived from Seattle on January 27 to wait for lil girl to arrive and was due to depart on February 4th.  When she had not arrived by Feb 2nd, we realized we needed to extend Grammie's flight to give us two extra days to wait for baby's arrival (so that she could take care of big kids while we were at hospital).  So we changed her flight to leave on Thursday, Feb 6th.
I had a 9:45 appointment on Monday morning with our midwife.  Since I was 1cm dilated, she stripped my membranes (I will spare you the details of what that means) and said that if my body was ready, I could go into labor within 24-48 hours.  All day I had lots of braxton hicks contractions and was optimistic that labor would begin soon.  After we put the kids to bed, Ricardo, my mom and I sat down to watch an episode of Foyle's War.  At 10:00pm I was sitting on the couch and suddenly felt my water break.  With all of my other labors, contractions started first and then my water broke so this was the first time that labor started this way for me.  My mom and Ricardo continued watching the show while I headed upstairs to put the last few things in our hospital bag and tried to rest, knowing that contractions weren't far behind.  At 11:00pm the contractions began and we were so excited to know that we'd be meeting our daughter soon!  Our plan had been to labor at home for awhile, but I couldn't rest and there was no where for me to walk around so we decided to head to the hospital at 12:15am.  By this time the contractions were every 4-6 minutes and the pain was very manageable.  We parked the car, headed into the waiting room and hung out in the waiting room for almost an hour, just waiting for things to progress a bit more before being checked into our room.  We checked into our room at 1:30am and when the midwife came to check me I was 5cm dilated.  I did not want any medicine so they just put an IV port in my hand, but did not even hook me up to an IV, for which I was very thankful.  After we completed the paperwork and they monitored the baby for some time, they told me I could go walk around the halls if I wanted.  Ricardo and I walked the halls for one hour and it was such a huge help to get labor progressing faster.  My contractions became much much more painful and more frequent during our walk.  It was a special time for Ricardo and I.  We held hands the whole time, chatted, laughed and rejoiced in the fact that we were getting closer and closer to holding our baby.  He provided a very strong hand for me to squeeze very hard during each contraction and did a wonderful job of encouraging me and supporting me.  Our nurse tracked us down in the hallway to tell us our hour was up and we had to return to our room for 10 minutes of monitoring and then we were free to continue walking.  I knew that once I got back in that bed, I wouldn't get up again...the final stretch was upon us.  I asked for our midwife to come back to the room to check me and at 3:30 I was 7cm dilated.  The contractions were so very intense and close together.  I laid on my side and buried my face into my pillow and continued on, in silence and in the darkness of the room.  Ricardo knew that my request was not to be spoken to or touched during this intense time of labor so he went to lay down, which was completely fine by me because I just needed to be alone, in my own world.  Ricardo had made a music mix for us to listen to and it was perfect.  I was so encouraged by the praise music and the lyrics proclaiming God's goodness.  It was a time of worship for me and I was really at peace and content. At 4:00, full transition was taking place and I told Ricardo I needed him by my side and to call the midwife back.  Valerie came into the room and was so relaxed and encouraged me to do whatever my body needed me to do.  I was 8cm at 4:10 and she told me I could push if I had the urge and she was very calm and reassuring.  At 4:35 I started to push and at 4:48, our amazingly beautiful baby girl took her first breath in this world.  We had asked for a delay in cutting the umbilical cord (so all that rich blood could keep flowing into her body from the placenta) so it was so neat to hold her while she was still "connected."  After about 4 minutes, Ricardo cut the cord.  I had some sweet cuddles and then they called the NICU nurses in to work on her b/c she wasn't crying much.  After about 10 minutes they were happy with how she was doing so they gave her back to me.  We had also requested a delay in her bath so we had a long stretch of time where she nursed (she latched on right away) and cuddled.  It was amazing!!
*****I started this post weeks ago and am just not getting back to it...so is life with 4 kids!  Update: Lucia is now 5.5 weeks old and continues to do amazingly well.  Praise the Lord! ***

A special package came in the mail this week!  My dear Paige sent the most beautiful sweater for Lucia (knit by her mom, pic to come).  She also included gifts for the big kids.  They could not wait to sit down to paint (D and A) and to play (M).  Thank you so much, Paige!!  We love you!

Ricardo took Thursday off of work and we had an awesome day!
It started with me sleeping in until 11:00...aaahhhh!!!
We had lunch at home and then headed downtown with the first stop being Sublime Donuts for donuts and coffee...double aaaahhhh!
Then we went to Piedmont Park and had a blast.  We walked, ran, played and soaked in the gorgeous afternoon.  Notice the first pic below...we had the park to ourselves!!
After a few hours of fun we headed to Osteria for a wonderful dinner of pasta and pizza.  

Sporty boy!

I think she loves her daddy!!

Spring break fun at Catch Air!

Yesterday we kicked off the first day of spring break with a full day playdate with the Coxes.  They came at 10:00 and stayed til 5:30.  After lunch we went down to the Dunwoody nature center for some exploring and wading.  It was a gorgeous day!

Precious babe at 4 1/2 weeks!