My favorite day

Today has been a favorite in the history books of the Lopez fam :) It was my turn to sleep in so I stayed in bed until 8:00am when lil' Marco decided it was time to get up, which was fine by me. Ricardo had taken D & A downstairs to play and get smoothies going. Marco and I came downstairs and we decided it was a good morning for pancakes. Ricardo made delicious banana pancakes and we enjoyed a very relaxed, fun breakfast time before it was time to enter the mad rush to get out the door by 10:30 for church. We got everyone ready and out the door and were only 2 minutes late for church. Diego now goes to Children's Church so we have to drop him off across the street from the sanctuary which is where those extra 2 minutes went :) I nursed Marco when we arrived and then dropped him off in the nursery, where the volunteers said he was a delight to have.
After church we headed to a nearby park for the bi-annual church picnic which is always a super special time. As soon as we arrived, Diego took off with his buddies and we only saw him for about 15 minutes while we tried to force him to eat, but he wanted to get back to the fun with his friends. Alexia wandered around the park, visiting people, jumping in on a Frisbee game, asking people to push her on the swing...she was very independent and happy to wander around as a social butterfly. Marco also visited a few different friends and was happy to be passed around. We left the park around 3:15pm. It was too late to have naps so we decided to continue enjoying the incredible day and we headed to Piedmont Park (after a quick coffee and pastry stop on the way there). The day was just glorious. We threw the blanket down and soaked in the goodness of the afternoon. I felt so blessed to be sitting on the blanket, enjoying the happiness of my family and praising God for his goodness. Of course Ricardo and Diego spent most of the time playing soccer and Alexia was back and forth, from playing in the grass to rolling around on the blanket with Marco and I. She was super tired so had some tantrums, but held it together fairly well. She gets really sensitive when she is tired so just a little bit of water that drips down the front of her shirt can cause her to throw herself to the ground, kicking and screaming. She is pretty good about responding to our command of controlling herself and calming down, but can get herself worked up pretty fast. So anyways, we really enjoyed almost 2 hours of just hanging out and having fun and decided it wasn't quite time to go inside yet, so we thought a picnic dinner should be next. We picked up pizza at Mellow Mushroom and went straight from the garage to the backyard and ate pizza out of the box, on the same tan blanket that cushioned us at the church picnic and at Piedmont park. After dinner we went straight upstairs and all the kids were in bed by 7:15, worn out from a wonderful day.


Helen and her sisters graciously kept Marco for us so we could enjoy our lunch. He was happy with all the attention!


There was a great turnout at the picnic. This is just a small part of the large group that was there.


Alexia wanted to jump into this game of Frisbee and went right up to Stefan (and had never met him before) to ask if she could join them.
Unfortunately, those are the only pictures I took at the picnic. On to Piedmont...



I love this picture of me surrounded by my children. It simply warms my heart.

Marco can sit up for longer periods, as long as he is on a soft surface. I have to share the wonders of this baby. He went down for a nap around 9:30 this morning and was still asleep when it was time to leave for church so we woke him up to put him in his car seat. He played in the nursery all through church and then fell asleep on our way to the picnic, but then woke up soon after we arrived. He was awake the whole time we were there and then fell asleep again on our way to Piedmont Park. He woke up before we even set out the blanket and didn't fall asleep again until we were driving to Mellow Mushroom. No tears. No meltdowns. Can you say SUPER BABY!!!!

Ricardo and Diego having a blast playing soccer.

Alexia rolling down the hill

Daddy and daughter, crazy about each other. Alexia likes to tell Ricardo that he is "brilliant" and that he is her best friend.

Diego took this picture and I love it!

New neighbors

Our next door neighbor's name is Sharon and her daughter is Jamie. Jamie, her boyfriend and 7-week old daughter are moving into Sharon's house next month when they move up from Florida. Jamie and baby Evelyn came over for lunch on Wednesday and Marco enjoyed meeting the new girl next door :) They are almost two months apart so Marco looks huge next to her:

Yesterday was the first day in two weeks that we had no plans and it was wonderful. We hung out at home in the morning and then headed to the library around 10. We checked out a bunch of awesome books and then went to Publix to buy ingredients for afternoon cookie making. When we got home, I made lunch and the kids surrounded themselves with the library books. This is one of my favorite sights to see as a mommy:

We read books all afternoon, took a break to make cookies and then continued reading into the evening.

Today, Diego and Alexia went to sports camp together. Will write more about that later.....

Apple picking and more...

Ruth and I took our six children apple picking last Thursday. She came over in the morning, we all loaded into her van and made the 1.5 hour drive to Ellijay. We went to an orchard that doesn't usually allow "pick your own" during the week so we were the only people picking apples which was really nice. The big kids had a blast and Marco and Callen did pretty well, hanging out on the grass, taking in some sun.


Alexia wanted to eat more apples than she wanted to pick



Taking a break to give Marco some kisses



He doesn't like sunshine in his eyes so he wasn't content for very long



1 peck picked, 1 to go

Tummy time in the apple orchard

After we finished picking the 2 pecks, we had a picnic lunch near the parking lot and just soaked in the goodness of the gorgeous day. Everyone was worn out on the way home...mommies included!

Diego enjoys cutting fruits and veggies and Alexia is now wanting to do it too. They both helped me cut cucumbers for dinner one night last week and loved it. They ended up eating a ton of cucumbers, celery and carrots and weren't so hungry when dinner time arrived :)

The weather here has been glorious and it is wonderful to spend a lot of time outside with the kids. Last week we did hop scotch on the front walk and Diego kept wanting it to be bigger and bigger and bigger. It eventually made it up to 42. He jumped on it, walked on it, crawled on it, walked backwards on it, all the while practicing his counting.

Gwen and the kids stayed with us for a couple nights again last week and of course, the kids had a blast. Alexia gets an out pour of love and attention from Hartley and Adeline and they even fight over who gets to play more with Alexia. The three girls decided they needed to have a grape snack up on the counter.

Marco is getting better with tummy time!


Ricardo and I continue our weekly date nights in and they are a real treat for us. The last two Fridays we've done bbq's. We were playing with the camera and got some beautiful photos like the one above.

Here is our spread. Ricardo enjoyed a big ol' steak and I had a grilled portabello with feta. We also grilled lots of veggies and rice. Ricardo lined the garden with tiki torches so it felt like we were on vacation!

A new week

There is a pattern forming here...I let too many days go by without writing and then I end up posting a bunch of photos with quick comments and that's the extent of my blogging. The purpose of this blog is so that family and friends can see and read about our family, but also so that we will have recordings of these precious times. I am going to see if I can start doing a short post everyday, with just a recap of what we did each day. I have a bunch of photos from the last two weeks, but I will start with photos from yesterday and today and then I will do a separate post to "catch up"...once again!


This was actually last week. I took the kids for hair cuts and Alexia got her 2nd (maybe 3rd?) hair cut. They just trimmed a little bit to tidy it up a bit. She did great and loved sitting in the chair.

Alexia had ballet class yesterday at 10:30. She had a blast and I took Diego's reading lesson book along so we did school while we waited for Alexia. Marco nursed and then hung out in his car seat. After ballet, we headed over to Chik Fil A to meet Megan and her boys for lunch. We had a great time and let the kids play for a long while and then enjoyed ice cream. There were a bunch of kids playing, but the four of them stood in a line like this, licking their ice creams, not the least bit concerned about the commotion around them:


We left Chik Fil A at 1pm and headed to Marco's 4-month check up. Diego and Alexia behaved really well and made it easy on me. Marco weighs 17 pounds and 3 ounces!!!! He is a CHUNK! Diego weighed 16 pounds at his 4-month apt, so I was surprised to find out the Marco weighs more. His shots were awful and he screamed like crazy, but he fell asleep nursing and took a nice, long nap at home afterwards. We praise God for his perfect health. What a blessing.

Today (Tuesday) we headed over to Lily's house for lunch and play time. Diego, Alexia and Stella played so well together and had a blast. They stayed in Stella's room for almost 2 hours after lunch, just talking, playing, being silly and having fun. There were no fights or complaints or anything. Lily and I enjoyed our time together and Marco and Nico enjoyed staring at each other in the bouncy seats :)

Diego, Stella and Alexia on the floor, reading books.

Nico and Marco hanging out in the kitchen while the mommies prepared lunch.

Stella jumped in the van as we were getting ready to leave and played for a little bit. Diego and her took turns sitting in his car seat, with the other one on a lap. Cuteness!!

We got home around 3:00pm. I transferred Marco to his crib, put Alexia down for a nap, put on a pot of coffee...and here I am! Diego has soccer practice at 5:45 this evening so Ricardo will come home early to take him and Alexia to that. Now I need to decide what to do next: Fold laundry, wash dishes, clean house, prepare school lesson, make dinner, file papers, do bible study homework or a little bit of everything! I think I will try to make a small dent in all the above!

Church retreat and little bit more

Last weekend we went on our church retreat and it was awesome. Ricardo flew in from London on Friday afternoon, we loaded up the car and hit the road around 3:30pm. We arrived at Cohutta Springs, which is a beautiful conference center on a small lake, about 2 hours from home. We checked in to our hotel room and got lost finding our friends for dinner so we ended up having an improvised picnic on the lawn for dinner...

After dinner, we went to the hotel room to change clothes, attended the welcome session and then headed down to the bonfire at 9pm. Here Alexia is on Pastor Pete's shoulders, on our way to the bonfire. We roasted marshmallows and enjoyed smores. After the fun, we headed back to the hotel where all five of us slept in one room. It went much better than we had expected. The first night, I slept with Diego and Ricardo slept with Alexia. On Saturday night, we put Diego and Alexia together in the one bed and they thought that was the coolest thing ever. We all slept well since we went to bed so late both nights...we were pooped!

It was a wonderful weekend of important teachings, special fellowship with friends and a true reflection of what God's church is.

We had free time all of Saturday afternoon...can you guess what Diego spent hours doing during that time? Yep, playing soccer! He played with the big kids and had so much fun. He even scored a goal which was a big deal for him since he was half the size of a lot of the other players!

And Alexia had a group of big girls that were loving on her all afternoon. Here she is with Emma and Avery, having a blast!

So excited to go for a canoe ride!

Diego was part of a wonderful Children's program. They spent all of Saturday morning, part of Saturday afternoon and part of Sunday morning together. After the church service on Sunday morning, they came in to sing songs and share the memory verses they had learned. Diego is in a white shirt, on the left side. He really enjoyed his special time of learning about God's word, spending time with his friends and making new friends.

We missed Addie's birthday party so when both daddies were out of town, we went over to their house for dinner. We had our own little bday celebration with her and enjoyed brownies. The kids had a blast playing together and May and I enjoyed spending the evening together.

A butterfly princess with a gun...doesn't get cuter than this!

We have so many pictures of Diego and Alexia in this same bouncy seat. A Lopez family classic!

I had to snap a picture of what our mornings look like. Every morning Diego and Alexia sit up on the counter top to have smoothies and breakfast. Diego seems to be having a growth spurt because his appetite has really picked up. For breakfast he has a smoothie (milk, banana, blueberries and flax seed), plain yogurt with honey and half a piece of toast. Alexia usually has half a smoothie and half a piece of toast with peanut butter and banana. They stay up on the counter until they've finished their meal and then head down to get changed and cleaned up. This is the only time of the day that they get to sit on the counter and it's become a fun morning routine.


A different view so you can lil' Marco's place during breakfast time. I can't believe in just a little over two months, he'll be having his own meal!

We've decided to homeschool Diego for pre-K year and we started our program last week. The curriculum is called "My Father's World" and we love it. The first 10 days are about creation and learning about what God created on each day. I will have to take a picture of Diego's "creation book" that he made. Alexia has been able to participate in the daily lessons and enjoys coloring. I will do a separate post with more details about this curriculum and why we chose it and what we will be learning this year. It is very exciting! As you can see, Alexia decided to come to the table with her wings on...

...and the next day she decided she needed to do school with her sunglasses on :)

A friend of mine came over for lunch a couple of weeks ago and she has a sweet baby. Felicity is two months older than Marco. They were so cute on the floor together.

I have been working on this post off and on all evening. The kids are all in bed now and I am heading up myself. My friend, Gwen and her kids are arriving late tonight to spend a few nights with us. Her father will be with them tonight so he will sleep in Diego's bed. We put a sleeping bag on the floor of Alexia's room for Diego and they were thrilled to sleep together...until Alexia realized she was going to be stuck inside the crib and he was going to be on the floor. So, Ricardo took the mattress out of her crib and put it right next to Diego on the floor. We just peeked in at them and Diego has rolled out of the sleeping bag and Alexia is as snug as can be in the middle of her crib mattress. We'll see how the night goes...!

An afternoon at the fair

I am so sorry for the lack of posts lately. I don't think we have too many readers who check in on a daily basis, but I know those who do and I know you've been eager to read about your great-grandchildren, Abue. We hope you are feeling better Abuelo and we love you!


Had to start by sharing this adorable picture of our super-happy, super-star, super-chubby baby. He is just amazing and brings us countless smiles and cuddles every day! We love you Marco!

Ricardo left work early yesterday and we headed to the North Georgia state fair. With traffic, it took us an hour to get there, but the kids were so excited that we were going to the fair that they didn't seem to mind the long drive. Diego remembers when we went to the fair last year so it is so fun to repeat a tradition that he has memories of! He remembered that last year he could not do the bumper cars or go on the Ferris wheel...but this year he could! We had such a blast and decided not to look at our watches and to leave after we felt we'd played enough, regardless of the time. We split up for a little while and I took Alexia on the carousel (two times) and the nemo ride (two times) and Ricardo took Diego on the ferris wheel and bumper cars. Marco came with us girls and was as happy as can be, in the baby carrier. We had dinner, cotton candy and headed home around 8:30pm.

Diego LOVED this jumpy thing.

Heading up to what Diego called "The playground" It had a rope ladder, bridges, slides, etc all set up like a maze. Alexia was nervous doing it all, but Diego cheered her on and waited for her after each part.

A very happy mom and her kiddos

Alexia LOVED this Nemo ride. I love the smile of excitement on her face here.

Diego was excited to experience what all the hype was about after Alexia told him she had gone twice.

The big kids got tired so we let Diego ride in her stroller, she rode in Marco's stroller (yes, that is the car seat) and Ricardo carried Marco in the baby bjorn.

Watching the elephants on our way out.

Marco needed to nurse before we left and Alexia sat behind me and hugged my neck for a long time and it felt so sweet and so special. I loved having her little arms wrapped tightly around my neck.

Everyone happy and tired after a ton of fun at the fair!

(I will be doing some "catch up" posts to share pictures from the last two weeks)