Our Stay-cation

Our Labor day weekend started out with Ces coming home at 11:30 on Friday morning...total surprise and I loved it! We talked about going away for the weekend but then decided we could have just as much fun staying home. We started out our weekend with a camp out in the backyard. The kids were beside themselves with excitement. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and then we climbed in our tent where we talked, giggled and looked at stars. Gabe was so excited it took him til about 10:00 to finally calm down and fall asleep. It was an absolutely beautiful night for our little backyard adventure and we all had a blast. The kids are ready to sleep out there every night...except Emma and I request a mattress!

Saturday morning we went and picked up my sister Rana and went to the zoo. We like to get to the zoo when it first opens in the morning because the animals are almost always out and playful and the weather is great! Gabe is in love with turtles! We aren't quite sure why but it was one of the first understandable words he said and he has always been fascinated with them. And we came across some HUGE ones right at the front of the zoo...He was in heaven and it took some serious bribing to get him to move on.

It was also one of the elephants birthdays and they were having a celebration for her. They had some crafts & face painting for the kids. Emma and Gabe made some elephant ears...Miguel had no interest he just wanted to find the snakes.

He found the snakes...


Gabe was pouting about have to leave the penguin exhibit...too cute!


A little break from animals to do some climbing...

(random kid on the far right)

The kids with their Aunt Rana

After the zoo we met up with my Mom and Dad and ate some lunch at one of Ces' favorite mexican restaurants, Mr. Mambo...It's really yummy!!

After lunch we took a little break by watching some football at my Moms and the kids wrapped up the day with a game of tag with their Grandmama...

Sunday was our relaxing day. We went to church, ate lunch at my Mom's, my Dad & sister (who live in Arkansas) stopped in for a visit and then our friends, the Mason's, brought over some yummy cinnamon rolls and our kids played for a while. After they left we had a big sleep over in the living room and watched "The Sword in the Stone".

On Monday we started out at my Grandma & Grandpa's with our traditional Labor Day breakfast of sausage roll and fresh sliced tomatoes. YUUUMMM!!! Then we went to the Aquarium. Miguel was most excited about this and he was all over the place. He wanted to see the sharks but every exhibit thrilled him and I couldn't get him to stay in one spot for more than a few seconds. They all had so much fun!

Daddy just had to get in the picture : D

JELLYFISH!!!!

Emma and Ces comparing mouths with the sharks...I think the shark wins : )

Ces, Emma & Miguel (with randoms kids)

Gabey looking at fishies

The kids were able to pet baby nurse sharks & sting rays, as well as feed some stingrays!

Our last adventure for the weekend was a movie. We went and saw, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, it was a very fun movie and we all enjoyed it. After that we went home and crashed! It was a long, fun, exciting weekend with a lot of great memories! I can't wait to do it again!!!

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. : /

A Heartastic day!

On Saturday we went to the Oklahoma Heart Institute. They were celebrating their 1st anniversary. We learned about heart healthy food, heart disease and got to talk to a cardio Dr about Ces' extreme salt intake ( we were told because he has low blood pressure and is heart healthy he can have as much salt as he wants! My Mom was bummed she wouldn't be able to harass him anymore about this...), not to mention a giant anatomically correct heart that we walked through, face painting and balloon making. Miguel even convinced his Grandmama to come along! It was a fun afternoon.