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!

A visit to the office

Every Christmas season, we make a trip to Ricardo's office to see the gorgeous decorations in the lobby area and then head up to his office to hang out for a bit. The last time we were at his office was the day that I was in labor with Marco. We had a great time seeing Papi's new office and pretending to work with him, while enjoying the beautiful view. We had so much fun, I told him that we were going to come to work with him everyday :)

Pictures galore

The past several weeks have been busy, busy and I have not done a good job keeping you posted with photos and happenings around here. I just uploaded a bunch of pictures and have more to go, but will let you enjoy these first :)


Diego and Alexia have always loved lil' Benjamin. We took care of him a couple of weeks ago and we can't call him "Baby Benjamin" anymore because he's a big boy. He is so sweet and adorable!


This was from Christmas dinner. Diego was really excited to be the photographer.


Ricardo and my mom took the kids to the park one afternoon and had a blast!

Waiting in line for the Pink Pig at Macy's. This is a very popular Atlanta Christmas tradition. We waited in line for almost 1 1/2 hour for a 2.5 minute ride. But the kids LOVED it!

Diego and Alexia were so excited that they were able to sit all by themselves.

The rule is that babies cannot sit on laps so Marco had to sit on the bench like a big boy. He did great.

Big boy!

When Ricardo and I went away for the weekend, my mom had a thousand and one things for the kids to do. She said they only watched TV for 20 minutes on Monday morning when she showered. Here they are very focused on decorating their Christmas cookies.

Alexia has this new thing of poking her tongue in her cheek when she is focused on a task. So cute!

Grammie told them they had to wait until we got home to try the cookies so here they are digging in!

In early December, we went out to lunch with Aldo, Eliana and Cami to celebrate Cami's 16th birthday. Here's the birthday girl with the Lopez fam.

Also in early December, we went to Chik Fil A with Patricia and Caitlin and stayed there for THREE hours. The kids had the indoor play area to themselves (pictured above) and Patricia and I hung out and chatted while Marco snoozed in my arms.

The annual making of the gingerbread house. I need to get an after shot because it turned out so cute.

Before we cut Alexia's hair, I used to love how it looked in a ponytail. Doesn't she look so grown up here?

Marco and Callen playing on the kitchen floor.

Big siblings in on the action, too!

Alexia trying to calm Marco with a song

I am sorry that this was very random and out of order, but wanted to get pictures up before more days go by. We are on our way out to have lunch and park time with some friends. Happy New Year! AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRAMMIE!!!!