FIVE years old!!

Diego Tomas Lopez, is FIVE years old!! Wow, amazing. This child is such a precious gift from God. I'm not even quite sure what to write about him since I have about 10 minutes to write and probably 3 hours worth of things to say. He has always been a mellow guy, since the day he was born. He was a super easy baby and made 7 international trips by the time he was one since he was so easy to travel with (El Salvador twice, Canada twice, England twice and Mexico). He has a quiet spirit and is very reserved. He likes order, justice, peace, routine, but also loves to be hyper, wild and active. He can be just as active, hyper and crazy as a typical 5-year old, but more often than not, he is pensive and inquisitive. He loves, loves, loves his family and delights in spending time with all of us. He is passionate about soccer and plays every single day, whether inside or out. He loves to sing and recite memory verses and enjoys dancing and listening to music. If video games and TV were allowed in our house, he would definitely be hooked because he jumps at every chance he gets to play on friend's iphones. (We do watch videos and movies, but a limited amount). He is definitely the most handsome boy I know and I cannot wait to watch him develop into a charming young man. He is very smart and loves to learn new things. He is beyond just sounding out 3 letter words. He can now pick up a simple book and pretty much read through it. He can do all sorts of addition and subtraction and is learning about money. He loves to help out around the house, whether it's sorting laundry, sweeping the floor or cutting cucumbers. He has a great sense of humor and really loves to smile and laugh. He has some serious muscle tone and is quite strong. I am starting to ramble because I am running out of time and want to enjoy the bragging rights I have as the birthday boy's mom :)

Our greatest prayer for this incredible boy is that he will grow up to be a man of the Lord. We pray that he will walk with the Lord every day of his life and will not remember a time of not knowing Jesus. If it is God's will for him to be married, we pray he will marry a woman of God who will love him and respect him for who he is and the man God has created him to be. Dear Jesus, draw Diego to you and bless his path, may you be his saviour today and always.

Our new neighbor, Jamie, came over to help us make a home-made pinata on Tuesday afternoon. We dipped newspaper into a mixture of flour and water to make the paper mache and we just finished painting it today (Thursday). It's a soccer ball.

It took longer to dry than expected so we are going to hit it on Saturday with Tio Aldo.

Making silly faces before opening presents

He showed us how he can jump higher, run faster and reach higher now that he is 5

Putting the mark on the wall. He has grown 3 inches in the past year. Alexia has grown 4!

We let him create the agenda for the day, from breakfast to dinner and in between. The agenda went as follows: croissants and yogurt for breakfast, Jeronimo's mid-morning, Chik Fil A for lunch, bowling in the afternoon and presents, pizza and cake in the evening. We have always done parties in the past, but since most of his friends are in school now, we decided to make it a Family Fun Day. We invited Anjuli (she is homeschooled) and Bennett (his mom let him skip school for the day!) to join us for Jeronimo's and Chik Fil A and it was a blast! Ricardo and I were so pleased with how easy it all was with 5 kids. Lunch at Chik Fil A was a breeze because they were all so well behaved, sat quietly to eat their lunch and genuinely enjoyed the outing. What a blessing to be with well behaved children! After lunch we came home to do the pinata and then the kids went home. We met Aldo and Eliana at the bowling alley around 4pm and played one round. Diego and Alexia were very tired by that time, but had such a blast. Then we came home for pizza, cake and presents. Diego requested a strawberry cake so I made one from scratch and it was delicious. For presents he received a world globe from Grammie, a watch and adidas jacket from Mima and a set of soccer nets, adidas pants and t-shirts from us. He was thrilled!

Enjoying croissants bright and early

And the fun begins!

Alexia had a blast on this smaller slide

How big does he look here!?!?

Marco LOVED going down the slide!

Enjoying a game of air hockey

Ricardo tried to hang out and read a magazine, but Marco was determined to devour it. Check out the lil' lady. She wanted a break from the action and took this comfortable pose to hang with the boys.

Enjoying ice cream after lunch. We didn't have lunch until 1pm so they were all so hungry that they did not leave a morsel of food on the table.

Sweet buddies

A car full of kids and balloons

Anjuli takes a hit...

...then Bennett...

...and Alexia...

...and the birthday boy.

The soccer cake

I just had to post this picture of Alexia. This is a typical stance and expression of her and wanted to have it documented to remember it

Pizza with Aldo and Eliana

CAKE TIME!

Best Buds

Diego is big brother extraordinaire. He has done nothing else but pour love onto Marco since the day he came home from the hospital. He used to love to touch my belly and talk to his baby brother so I knew he would love having a baby brother, but I could have never imagined it would be so incredible. Diego has never once lost his patience with Marco, gotten upset with Marco or put his needs before Marco's needs. He only wants the best for his little buddy and is always willing to do whatever I ask of him to help me out (bring me a change of clothes, feed Marco his dinner, jump into Marco's crib to keep him happy until I can get there, etc).
Diego was so excited for me to take a picture of two of them with their hoodies:

A year ago

She was just a baby!!!!!! Oh how I love this girl. Ricardo and I have been commenting a lot lately how much she is growing and changing. She is so witty and comes up with the funniest things. I am always at a loss for examples, but I have one to share. Ricardo and Diego were building a fire last week and Diego pulled out an air pump with a hose. He pumped it up and down to get the fire going and it worked great. Alexia was watching him and said "Ah! Tengo un idea, voy a traer mi pump." (Ah, I have an idea. I am going to get my pump) She ran into the playroom and came out with her baby doll, put her on the floor, and started jumping up and down on her stomach, saying she had her pump. Ricardo and I laughed so hard and loved how quickly she came up with something so clever.

Rethinking the blog

I've decided that this blog is going to take on a new purpose: Photo album. I just don't have the time to sit down and write much and I don't like that that keeps me from posting at all. So, I've decided that I will just upload pictures more often and write less. Our family is very dedicated to checking the blog (probably on a daily basis) so I don't want to leave you all waiting for long stretches of time for pictures!
Ricardo is at prayer night at church and all the kids are in bed right now so I do have a little time to write.
I will try to think of some fun updates from the past couple of weeks:
- Diego and Alexia started gymnastics a few weeks ago. I was thrilled to find a class for each of their age groups at the SAME place and SAME time. It is awesome. Their classes do 10 minutes of warm up exercises together and then they break into their small classes for the last 35 minutes. They love it! Marco and I just hang out on the bleachers and watch. The class is at 3pm so it is in the middle of his afternoon nap time so he usually falls asleep nursing and naps in my arms.
- Marco is trying lots of yummy foods. He is not a big eater, but usually has at least one meal a day (or like today, a half of one). I've made him oatmeal with blueberries, corn and broccoli mash, sweet potatoes, black beans and then he's had the classics: banana, applesauce, peas, etc. He is allergic to avocado which we are majorly bummed about. He threw up (a lot!) after having it on two separate occasions so we won't be trying that again for awhile. He has no desire to crawl yet and is perfectly content sitting in one spot, chewing away on his toys, watching the action of his siblings. Diego and Alexia are great at getting him to giggle himself into exhaustion - it is adorable.
- We have joined an awesome home school group and are attending weekly playgroups with them. The kids have a blast playing with several kids their same ages and I enjoy talking with the moms.
- We are in the decision-making process of what to do for Diego's kindergarten year. If you think about it, pray for wisdom for us! The home school group has been a great way to get more information about that option.
- Diego's 5th birthday is next week and we are super excited! Since most of his friends go to school, we've decided not to have a party this year. We don't like to do weekend birthdays and I am a stickler for celebrating on the actual day. Ricardo is going to take the day off and we've let Diego plan the agenda.
On to the pictures...!

These pictures are from a few weeks ago when we went to Vanessa's house for a play date and tea date to celebrate Ruth's birthday. I didn't get any pictures of the birthday girl, but did get the babes.

Alexis is 4 months younger than Marco and this is their first real interaction. It won't be long until they are crawling around together...can't wait!


Alexis' big sister, Michaela was eager to sit with Marco and Callen. So sweet! I love how Marco and Callen are jammie bums together.

Here is a series of pictures from our snow week last week. The snow started falling on Sunday evening and we did not leave the house again until Friday morning, not even Ricardo (except for a quick trip I took to Publix by myself on Thursday evening). The week was CRAZY. There was SOOO much snow and ice that the roads were treacherous and the whole city was shut down. Ricardo's office did not open until Friday, yes, it was closed for FOUR days. Monday was our big "play in the snow" day and Diego had a blast. Alexia came down with a terrible tummy bug on Sunday night so spent all of Monday throwing up so she didn't get to enjoy the snow.
On Tuesday, we baked cookies, played games and just hung out inside. Then Tuesday night Diego and I came down with the tummy bug. It was terrible. God was so merciful though because I got sick the first time at 7pm on Tuesday and by the time Marco woke up at 5am on Wednesday, I was able to get out of bed and nurse him. Diego threw up about every 45 minutes the whole night and was miserable all of Wednesday. Ricardo was a superstar and tended to Diego all night on Tuesday so that I could rest and recover myself. So yes, we were snowed in, but at least our energy levels were low so we did not get cabin fever.

Here are some shots of Diego sledding down the driveway in the roasting pan:

Exploring the neighborhood with Papi.

Jeff, Kylie and Toby came over to play which was a blast. They came over to play in the snow last year too so we have a fun tradition going on!

Diego sitting on Kylie's lap to slide down the hill in the roasting pan. Jeff caught them before they crashed into a tree. After playing in the backyard, they all went out to the street to play. Diego sat on Jeff's lap in the pan and they slid all the way down Kings Down Road. Ricardo didn't get any pictures or videos of it, but it sounded awesome!

While all the fun in the snow was going on, I stayed inside to take care of my sick lil' bug. I set this little bed up for her on the kitchen floor so she could still spend the day with the family. She was so weak and miserable.

On Tuesday, the kids and I ventured out to get butter from a neighbor so we could make cookies.


Making chocolate chip cookies.

On Wednesday, it was Diego's turn to have a bed set up on the kitchen floor. Poor kids!

The snow was fun and games in the beginning, but as you can tell in this picture, it quickly turned to ice.

We've been seeing a ton of gorgeous birds on the dogwood tree outside the kitchen window.

Alexia and I were doing puzzles in the living room the other day and I had to run upstairs to do something with Diego. I asked Alexia to keep an eye on Marco and this is how I found them when I came back down. What a wonderful big sister he has!

Snowed in!

We've had the quite the week here. We have been snowed/iced in since Monday and today was our first outing of the week. I have a ton of pictures to share (including a repeat of last year's turkey roasting pan slide down the drive), but want to share pictures from last week first:

Last Wednesday, Ricardo's sister, Alessandra (Tia Ale) flew in from London to spend a night with us on her way to El Salvador. We had not seen her for two years so it was so special to have her here. Ricardo took Diego and Alexia on the MARTA to pick her up in the evening and she was delayed coming out of customs so it ended up being quite the outing for them. We had dinner together and then saw her off again bright and early Thursday morning. She will be back again with her fiancee in February so we look forward to more time with her then!


Alexia was totally in love with Tia Ale! Here they are washing hands before dinnertime.


Ricardo's dad always comments that Alexia looks like Tia Ale and you can definitely see that resemblance in these pictures!

We have a new Saturday morning routine. We leave a snack and water for the kids in their room and tell them they need to stay in there until 8 or 8:30. In the bowls above we had left them almonds and raisins, with a banana on top. They always get so excited about their Saturday snacks!

I love seeing how the age gap between Thomas and Marco is getting smaller and smaller. They are 6 months apart, but Marco is slowly catching up to Thomas. They'll be tearing our houses up together in no time!

Our friend, Manuel is a missionary in El Salvador and has been here in Atlanta since December. He spoke a bit at church on Sunday and then came over for lunch. I LOVE this photo of Marco! Manuel has two sons back in El Salvador so is always eager to hold and play with our kids!

Manuel with the whole fam.

On to a new year!

Ricardo and I always enjoy the week between Christmas and New Years and try to make fun plans to fill the days. This year was no exception and we had a full agenda. My mom left early Monday morning and Ricardo took the day off to take a friend out to do a bunch of errands. He was gone most of the day, but came home in time for an early dinner with the kids and to let me go out for a Girl's Night Out, which was a blast. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Ricardo went in late to work so it was wonderful to have him at home until almost 9am both mornings. On Tuesday afternoon, we headed over to La Fonda for an early dinner and had a great time. We had not been there for some time so the kids were thrilled when we told them we were going. We put the kids to bed as soon as we got home, put out some desserts and Aaron and Helen came over at 8pm to play games with us. We had a really fun evening, playing games and catching up. Ricardo left work early on Wednesday and we headed over to dinner at Dave and Megan's. Our kids took off with their kids and we only saw them for dinner and dessert time, the rest of the time they were downstairs playing and watching Veggie Tales.

Ricardo took Thursday off, but had some errands to do so Ruth and the kids came over for a play date and lunch. In the evening we had some friends from El Salvador over for dinner. Ana Julia and I have gotten together with the kids, but it was the first time we had the complete families together and we had a blast. We had take out pupusas (typical Salvadoran food) and they were delicious!

We had a relaxed morning on Friday. Ricardo took the kids to Whole Foods to get goodies for our NYE dinner while I stayed home so Marco could nap. Our friends, Jake and Jen came over at 12:30 and we all piled into the van and drove down to Piedmont Park together. Jake and Jen used to live in Atlanta, but moved to Orlando in July so it was so wonderful to hang out with them, catch up and celebrate the news of their first baby on the way! We had lunch at Willy's, right at the entrance to the park and then spent a couple of hours, strolling around the park and playing on one of the playgrounds. It was hard to believe that it was the middle of the winter because it was in the high 50's - it was amazing!

Ricardo and I continued with our New Years tradition that we've been doing for 6 years now. We pull out poster boards and do a recap of the year, month by month. We write down big events by the month, truths the Lord has imprinted on our hearts and prayers of Thanksgiving for blessings. We also review last year's year-end prayer requests and see how the Lord has worked in our lives and reflect on the coming year and write down our prayer requests. We made a wonderful meal of seared tuna, fresh crab and shrimp cocktail and enjoyed some champagne while we worked on our project.

Saturday was an indoor lazy day and it was great!

Our backyard on Sunday, after the Christmas day snowfall

Out with the ladies: Vanessa, May, me, Megan, Janelle and Leigh Ann. We had a great time at Chili's, eating yummy food, drinking margaritas and talking the night away. Between all of us, there are 16 children!!

LOVE those chubs!!

This is how they watched Veggie Tales, all lined up on the couch.

These two boys are so precious together. They have very different temperaments and they are funny to watch. Callen was all over Marco, poking at him and pulling on him and Marco just sat there, letting Callen carry on with whatever he wanted to do.

Sweet boys!


Our kids had the best time with Rodrigo, Julian and Dani. They played like wild for hours and were wiped out by the end of the night.

A few minutes of quiet time when they played a game on the floor

We let the 5 of them eat in the kitchen while the adults ate in the dining room. Here are the kids enjoying key lime pie.



Enjoying our lunch at Piedmont Park on Friday

Alexia adores Jen and was thrilled to have her push her on the swings

I asked Alexia if she wanted a ride in the baby bjorn. She really did not feel much heavier than Marco. She's actually only weighs 7 pounds more than him (he weighs 20 and she weighs 27)!

Ready to reflect on the year!