I can't believe how seldom I am able to make it on here to post pictures/stories lately! Often times when something funny happens, Ricardo and I will say, "Oh, we must write about that on the blog!" and then when it comes time for me to sit down and write...can I remember any of those "bloggable moments"? NO! C'est La Vie with three little ones!

Ruth, Jana and I hosted a joint baby shower for Megan and Katie this morning and had a blast. They are both pregnant with their third child and are both expecting girls! It was so much fun to have a girly morning complete with pink flowers, pink presents, tea and scones (...and lots of other goodies!) I think there were 13 moms and 14 children so it was a loud and busy house, but oh so special! Ruth hosted at her house so we were there early to help set up and get everything ready. As we were preparing to leave in the afternoon, Anjuli jumped in the van to play and asked if she could come home with us and Diego begged for her to come over so Ruth and I said "OK!" We had a really fun afternoon with her. When we got home, Anji, Diego and Alexia took off playing and I did not hear from them for almost an hour. We then had a snack, colored, did "math" (at Diego and Anji's request) and then went outside to play. Ricardo called in the afternoon to see if we wanted to go out to pizza so we did that and it was a fun way to end a special day. I don't have any pictures of the baby shower, but will try to get some from Katie and will share later. Here are a couple of shots of the kids at the table:

I love how studious Anjuli looks in this picture. They asked me to write out math problems for them to solve and did great. Here they were practicing numbers and coloring.




Marco is now sleeping in the big crib and is doing great. There is a box next to the crib so D & A can easily climb in the crib. They only do this when I am with them, but they love jumping in to give Marco love and cuddles. His eyes look closed in this picture, but he was awake. There is no escaping them (his big bro and big sis, that is)!

Last Thursday we went to Laura's parent's house to have lunch with her and the boys. Diego and Alexia had a blast playing with Oliver and spent a good part of the afternoon, on top of their pool table, playing with the sticks and balls.

Alexia had her 3-year check up last week. She was such a champ! I don't remember her stats, but I do remember she weighed 27 pounds. Both her and Diego received flu shots and they did not cry. I was amazed. Last year, they were both in hysterical tears before the nurse even pulled out the needles and cried all the way to the exit. It was terrible. I let them chew gum for this appointment since I knew they were both nervous about the shots and I guess that did the trick because they were awesome. Alexia did not cry with the flu shot, but she did cry when they gave her the one vaccine which are always more painful. Dr Taylor is moving to California so she asked the nurse to take our picture so I pulled out my camera, too.

On Saturday, Ricardo and I went out for high tea together and brought lil' Marco along. I love going out for tea and especially love that my favorite person to do that with is my husband. We had a really fun time and Marco was his sweet lil' self.

You may not hear from us for a few days. Our dear friends, Paige, Scott and Sev are arriving from California tomorrow and will be with us until Sunday. We haven't seen them since April '09 and have not met Sev so we are SOOO excited!!!

Final game

Saturday was Diego's last soccer game of the season. The score was 3-1 and guess who scored ALL three goals for the "navy dragons"...Diego!!! It was an awesome game and of course the Lopez family was so thrilled to watch our soccer star! We cannot believe how fast the season went by and can't wait to sign him up for the spring. Aldo said he will come over on a regular basis to coach Diego to keep him on top of his game!


His feet never stopped moving during games. He was the only one that coach sometimes didn't even let rest but for 2 minutes during the game because he could clearly keep going for the entire 45 minutes.




"GO DRAGONS!"

Since this was the last game of the season, there was an awards ceremony and "festival" following the game. Each player received a medal and Diego was thrilled! Diego and Alexia enjoyed the bouncy houses, slides and cotton candy.

Diego and Coach William

New room!

Yesterday was a big day here at the Lopez household. Diego and Alexia are officially roommates. We bought Alexia a bed and she spent her first night in her new room last night, next to her big brother. They were both beyond excited for this day and were giddy all afternoon, just waiting for bedtime to arrive. We put them to bed around 7:30 and it took Alexia forever to fall asleep. I think she was scared to be in the new room. She kept asking if she could come sleep in our room, then she asked for water, then she asked to go to the bathroom, then she asked if we could bring the blue rocker in from her room so I could sit in it to give her a cuddle...and on and on. She finally fell asleep close to 9:00pm and slept all the way until 6:40. When Diego slept in his bed for the first time, he fell out three times the first night, so we had warned her that she might fall out, but we were so happy that she didn't! She doesn't move around that much when she sleeps so hopefully we won't be hearing any THUMPS in the coming nights.


We need to get a better picture, but this gives you an idea of the setup.

Big girl in her pink bed

Gracious big brother who is so happy to share his room with his lil' sis

Exersaucer time!

When Diego and Alexia each turned 4 months old, we pulled out the exersaucer to introduce them to a new world of entertainment. Marco's time has come! I can't believe how fast this super baby is growing!





Hanging out with Mami while the big kids played on the play set, Friday afternoon.


We had a pajama pizza picnic lunch on Friday. The kids were still in their jammies at noon and it was perfect weather so we threw a blanket out in the front lawn and enjoyed our pizza while we chatted with our neighbor who was gardening close by. Ms Chris is great with the kids and she even fed them pansies for dessert :)

A new favorite day :)

I'm not trying to compete, but this past Saturday was my new favorite day :) Seriously, it was just wonderful. Today has not been a wonderful day (more on that later) so it is extra therapeutic to sit down to write and remember what a gift this past Saturday was for our family. Should back up one day and remember that the weekend had an awesome kick-off with date night in on Friday night. We had all 3 kids in bed by 6:45pm and Ricardo went out to get sushi take out. We pulled out boxes and boxes of old pictures and had a blast eating sushi and going through hundreds of pictures. With our ten-year anniversary approaching, we wanted to pull out pictures to document our first 5 years of marriage and we found some great shots (and some not-so-great ones!) I must add that this was Ricardo's idea, not mine. Yes, he is wonderful! :)
So, back to Saturday. Once again, it started with a little sleep in for me and banana pancakes made by chef Ricky. We played outside and enjoyed the morning and then headed to Diego's soccer game at 10:00. He was outstanding and scored 2 goals. The weather was glorious and it was such a pleasure to be out on the field. Aldo comes to all of his games and films them so I will try to upload some videos of him playing. He was so pumped up and excited after his game, so sweet to see!
As we were deciding what to do for lunch, Ricardo suggested we go on a hike. So we ran home, had a quick lunch in the backyard, gathered our things and headed up to a breathtaking place, about 45 minutes away, called Sweetwater Creek. We had the best hike we've ever had. The day was perfect, the kids were happy, Marco fell asleep in the baby bjorn and we took our sweet time, without the slightest rush in the world. We hiked down to the ruins of an old factory and then down to the riverside. We sat by the river and just hung out for almost two hours. Of course the camera battery died as I was about to snap the first shot of our riverside hangout, but it was awesome. The kids threw rocks, Ricardo and I chatted, Marco watched the scenery. It was one of those moments that I would love to freeze to be able to remember every little detail for the rest of my life. We hiked back up and were in the car by 4:45. We called Aldo and Cami to meet us at Mellow Mushroom for dinner and had a super fun time, sitting outside on the terrace. Diego and Alexia were worn out from the hike (and soccer and no naps) so they loved just sitting still, coloring, eating and enjoying their time there. We headed home and we were all in bed by 9:00pm!
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And on to today....
Ricardo woke the kids up early to say goodbye to them (which I fully support and am glad he did), but that meant for an extra dose of crankiness. I went to bed late last night and woke up early so I wasn't all that chipper myself. The kids were at each other all morning so I was thrilled when it was 10:15 and time to leave for ballet. Ballet was great. Alexia loved it and Diego and I played memory game in the sitting area. When we were about to head to Trader Joes, they started to fight about something (and being plain ugly to each other) so I said we were going home and not to Trader Joes. We came home, re-grouped and talked things over and then headed back out again. We weren't at Trader Joe's for 2 minutes when Alexia rammed her shopping cart into Diego's heals (by accident) which exasperated him and set the tone for the rest of the trip. I ran into a gal that I had not seen in 2 years and as we were talking the kids had a full out fight...hitting, pinching, screaming...the whole works. I could not believe it - they had never done that, and much less in public! My friend said to me "Oh wow, you are so patient. I cannot take my kids to the grocery store with me." And I thought "This is the first time that I've really wished I could have left them strapped onto the roof of the car" Just kidding. The highlight of Trader Joes is always finding a stuffed animal and getting a treat. After my conversation abruptly ended with me saying "I'm sorry, we have to go, these kids need their lunch!" We skipped finding "Joey," picked up our crackers, went straight to the cash register to pay and straight to the car for spankings (they each earned themselves an extra one). Phew. Variations of that incident continued throughout the afternoon and right up to bed time...which was at 6:40pm! I put Alexia down for her nap at 2pm, but she fought it with fury, so she was able to get out of her crib at 3pm to play with Diego. They had a peaceful and delightful hour of quiet play while I had a peaceful and delightful hour of rest time in my bedroom, which allowed me to make it through the rest of the afternoon (and a lot of prayer and a cup of coffee at 4pm). Before bedtime I asked Diego how he felt about having such a hard day and he said "Mi corazon ha estado en el oscuro." "My heart has been in the dark." And how wonderful it is to know that we have Jesus to bring us the light that we cannot possibly have on our own.

Ahhh, back to my happy place:

Marco rolled over from his back to his belly for the first time today. God was so gracious to let us celebrate this milestone together as a family. We were all in Alexia's room, getting the kids ready for bed and all of a sudden, his foot pushed on my leg a little bit, and over he went. We ended up scaring him and making him cry since we all applauded and got way too excited. I was so happy that Diego and Alexia were able to see it because they always ask about when he will roll over, talk, walk, eat, run, etc.

We're having a good week here. Yesterday we hosted Ricardo's team from work for dinner and had a nice time. The kids and I got everything ready during the day then we went to Diego's soccer practice at 5:45 and I pulled him out early (at 6:15) to make it home for the guests to arrive at 6:30. Oh dear, that was rough. He was hysterical and cried almost the whole way home. I felt so bad. I had told him before practice began and he seemed cool with the idea so I didn't think it would result in such tragedy, but he was crushed. He finally calmed down when I told him that he could play soccer in the backyard with some of Papi's workmates. Of course the guys were really nice and were happy to play with them, but one complained that Diego had asked him out to play just to embarrass him because he couldn't seem to get the ball away from Diego :)

Alexia was the socialite of the party and asked everyone what their name was and was happy to chat with them while she munched on their appetizers. I wasn't able to sit down to eat with them since I had to take the kids up to bed right after we served dinner, but I made it back down in time for dessert.

Here are some photos from last Friday that I just uploaded from the camera:

I mentioned in the last post that Diego and Alexia had gone to sports camp together last Friday. This is how I found them when I picked them up at noon...enjoying Popsicles! This was Alexia's first time at sports camp and she LOVED it. When I drooped them off and saw that Alexia was going to be the only girl, I asked Diego to take extra care of her...and he did not let me down. Coach Todd said he was an awesome big brother. Praise God! Todd also said that she listened better than any of the boys - go figure! They played soccer, did gymnastics, arts and crafts, story time and snack time.

In the evening, Ricardo's aunt came over for dinner, along with Aldo, Eliana and Cami.

Tia Rosa was happy to meet Marco!

She wanted him to enjoy the pupusas and fried yuca with us.

We have a new participant in the counter top smoothie routine :)

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!