3 happy kids + Mom with a camera = 3 unhappy kids

I attempted to take some updated pictures for my Mom of the kids since the last picture we had Miguel was 6 months old...It started out not so bad...but I can never get a picture with all three of them smiling and looking at the camera. I find it close to impossible!

Before their Daddy bribed them with ice cream....

Here he was literally dangling the ice cream bars above their heads. The boys' expressions here are priceless!

And after....

As you can tell by these pictures Emma was great in all of them! She was quite the little poser : D

Emma's new look

Isn't she gorgeous!?

Berry Pickin'

I found a Blackberry farm about 15 minutes from our house and took the kids over there one morning. We had so much fun. It had rained the previous couple days so it was a bit swampy but the kids rather enjoyed stomping in the puddles. I think it might be something we turn into a tradition (the berry picking...not the stomping in puddles... )

We brought along Emma's best friend, her, Emma and Miguel did really well picking but Gabe kept dumping out everything he picked. He thought they were bombs and he kept trying to blow up the bushes...gotta love the boys :D

We ended up picking over 9 lbs of berries. We made a triple berry pie and blackberry cobbler. I'm saving the rest to make blackberry jam...which I'm very excited about...yum!!

WoW...let's catch up.

So....my last post was in March...like the beginning of March....I'm a slacker. I blame it on no internet connection. : D Now that we have that, I'll dive right in on what the kids have been up to these last six months.....

For those of you that haven't heard we are expecting baby #4 on November 8th. It's another little boy and we are very excited.


Emma turned 7 on May 31st. She is such an amazing little girl. She has a great heart and she is so mothering. Sometimes I have to remind her she's not the Mom and to go be a kid : D Although most of the time I'm grateful for her help. She has started getting the boys cereal in the morning (without being asked!!!), I'll come out from getting dressed or school clothes together and they will all be at the table eating. It's so helpful! She started 2nd grade just a couple weeks ago. She is doing so great!! It's 200 times better than last year. There have been no tears and she is really enjoying herself. Her Spanish skills are just exploding! She speaks it whenever possible. She really loves that she is the only grandchild at her Abuelita's that can speak it...it's their own special language. The same with her Daddy. Although Miguel doesn't think it's very cool. He is really wanting to learn now. Emma is such a great friend. She has so many kids at school that just love her. She is very compassionate. Ces and I feel very blessed to have her as a daughter. We had little birthday party for Emma with some of her friends from school. Here are some pictures from the party.


Miguel turned 4 on June 22nd. Miguel is full of life. There is nothing he can't dream up. He is always fighting monsters and shooting all kinds of made up creatures. Sometimes I'm not sure if he knows what's reality and what's not but he sure does have a lot of fun! He still has his deep voice and sweet smile which endears him to most people. He starts another year of preschool in about a week. He is very excited!!! He is an incredibly sweet little boy...He will come up to me or anybody he knows really and tell them how much he loves them. One of my favorite things he does is when I make something for dinner that he is particulary happy about and he says something like this " Mom! You are awesome!! You make the best dinners ever!! I love you so much!! Thank you Thank you Thank you!!" It always makes me feel good. He brings so much joy and laughter into our home.

Now for my Gabey baby. Gabriel is now 22 months old now and the happiest little guy in the house. As long as he isn't hungry he is laughing. He loves to follow his Bubba around the house and mimick whatever he is doing and then they just laugh and laugh. One of my favorite noises are the two of them playing and laughing together. He loves his Emma too. She is usually the one who gets him out of his crib in the morning and then all we hear in the morning is him yelling her name. He loves to tell her stories and she is sweet enough to listen and pretend he is telling her something really important. It's too cute!! Gabe is a big clown too. If he knows you are watching him he will pretend to get dizzy, cross his eyes & then fall over. He thinks this is pretty funny. He hated the pool this summer. It took us till about mid July before he would get in the pool without crying and then he'll only get in fully dressed. I'm hoping next summer goes a little smoother. : /