HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEXIA!!!!!!!!!!!!

One year ago today, we were blessed with the arrival our amazing baby girl. This year has been simply wonderful and Alexia has brought an abundance of joy and blessings into our lives every day for the past year. We can't believe that she is already ONE!!

We had a really special day as a family...I will let the pictures tell all about it...

When she woke up, the three of us paraded into her room singing "Happy Birthday" and Diego gave her a bouquet of balloons which she LOVED

She had pancakes and watermelon for breakfast...

...and tried whole milk for the first time (which she wasn't too crazy about)

Diego decorated cupcakes for her

One of the things Ricardo and I were most excited about was putting her in her big girl carseat that now faces forward! She definitely loved it.

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There are no pictures from 10:00 to 4:00. During that time she played, took her morning nap, went to the mall with Diego and I, had lunch at home with Papi and took an afternoon nap.

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After naptime we headed to our favorite park.

We set up the self timer on the camera - not too bad!

She had a blast on the slides and crawling all over the place. We took 100+ pictures, but am trying to keep this short for times sake so will create a separate album and send it out :)

After the park we came home for dinner. It doesn't look too appetizing here, but I made one of her favorites - tortilla pie.

Singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

She loved the part of the cupcake with frosting and didn't eat much more once the frosting was gone

One of the best pictures we have of them together!

After eating her fill of cupcake, she proceeded to pick up as many crumbs as possible and hand them one by one to Ricardo - it was so cute.

And that was our baby girl's birthday day! She was most definitely spoiled and doted on all day long and Diego was really excited to celebrate her special day. We praise God for the blessing of being her family!!

Catching up....

We have been super busy since our return so I apologize for the lack of posts. Last Friday we went to the birthday party of Diego's dear friend, Ella Ann and it was such a blast. Her mom put so much thought into the party and made it really special for everyone. The kids decorated their own aprons then decorated cookies and cupcakes and had a blast while doing it all. Diego was so into his projects and especially loved having his own apron since his new name at home is "Little Cook." He helps out so much in the kitchen and can now make his own peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.


Aprons all lined up and ready to decorate


"Hmmm, what should I write...?"


Hard at work!


Nothing like instant gratification after a job well done

These were all the big kids, 5 of them have younger siblings who were doing their own thing during the party

Alexia LOVED the play kitchen, so much that I am now on a hunt to buy one for her

Fall in FULL SPLENDOR

Upon our return from El Salvador, we were thrilled to see the amazing colors of fall here in Atlanta. Ever since living in Boston, Ricardo and I absoultely love the fall. On Saturday we took the kids to play at a park and on our drive there, snapped several shots of the beautiful trees in the neighborhood. Keep in mind that several of these pictures were taken from the car, but you can still enjoy the beauty.

The pictures below are from our yard:

We're back!

We have been in El Salvador and Guatemala so that's why you haven't heard from us. We had an absolutely fabulous time and there are soooo many stories to tell! I am working hard to get unpacked, laundry washed, house cleaned and settled back in so that we can get back into the swing of things. I am trying to sort through the 1100+ pictures that we took, but for now click here to see a small sampling of our photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=178045&l=708c2&id=678120522

A Full House

My friend Susanna was in town this week (her and her family moved to New York last year) so I hosted a lunch for several friends to get together. We hadn't seen Susanna since she left and she has since had a precious baby girl (Ellie, 3 months old). Her son, Micah is 7-months younger than Diego so they couldn't really play together a year ago, but the age gap gets smaller as they grow older. Diego was just thrilled to have so many friends over. There were 5 mommies and 8 (EIGHT!!) children. It is great that the big kids are at the age now where we can just let them run free through the house and know that they pretty much keep themselves out of trouble. They spent the first couple hours in the playroom and then headed to Diego's room to play.

The gang!

From left to right: Susanna with Micah and Ellie, Jana with MaraKate, Me with Diego & Alexia, Vanessa with Michaela and Kim with Josh and Rachel

Micah giving Diego a big hug!

After a great lunch we enjoyed a delicious cake (baked by Kim) and coffee.

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Diego and Mara Kate really stuck together - it was neat to see much they enjoy each other's company

Don't tell Mara Kate's daddy that she gave Diego a smooch :)

Visit from Grammie

My mom was here with us all of last week and we had a very productive week. Ricardo was in London the whole week so we took care of a lot of projects around the house, errands, shopping, cooking and cleaning.
I wish I would've taken more pictures because Grammie and Diego did so many things together. One day they spent several hours assembling a chest of drawers for his room and he loved it. He was very proud to use his own tools and did just what Grammie told him - screw this, hammer that - he did great. Another day they spent the morning in the kitchen, making cookies. He was amazing. He was engaged for several hours and even decorated ALL the cookies almost by himself.
Ricardo returned Friday evening and him and I met downtown for a date which was a lot of fun.
Diego was very happy to see Ricardo on Saturday morning, but Alexia was absolutely giddy. He went to pick her up from her crib and she giggled and clung on to him tight. He brought her to me so I could nurse her and when he put her down, she started to cry and scream until he picked her up again. She laid her head on his shoulder and just cuddled with him and really expressed to him that she had missed him - it was precious.



Helping Grammie measure out the flour


He loved rolling out the dough and cutting the cookies


I went out to do errands while they frosted the cookies so there are no pictures of them in action, but here is the finished product...he did ALL of these cookies.


Here's a close-up so you can see the detail of his frosting job.


I have been wanting to get a picture of the famous "green car" from Publix. This is how the kids and I do our grocery shopping every week. They each have a steering wheel and sit next to each other and usually get through the whole round of shopping without bugging each other.


Can you tell who loves his baby sister?!




We had a family BBQ on Saturday afternoon. This is Diego eating a......HOT DOG! Yes, that's right, I let him have a hot dog :)


Playing tee-ball - he hits the ball like a pro!


Alexia hanging out in the exersaucer, watching her brother play ball

Starting the week off right!

Mondays are usually our day of groceries, errands, cleaning and work. But yesterday we started our week off in such a fun way. Our friends Nina and Deven came over for a 6-hour playdate and we had a blast. Deven is 6 months younger than Diego, but they have a lot of fun playing together. Alexia also enjoyed playing with the boys. After we all had lunch together we put all three kids down for a nap at the same time which worked out really well. Nina and I had almost 2 hours of grown up time which was such a treat. We drank coffee and tea, ate cake and enjoyed each other's company. Once the kids were awake, we played inside for awhile and then set them loose in the yard. Alexia hung out in her exersaucer while the boys rode their tricycles.


Alexia played right next to the boys and they were sweet enough to pass her a tractor