Ian is turning 2

I can't believe our little baby is going to be 2 years old. Time goes by so quickly. He will be 2 on July 8th but we will be celebrating when we celebrate the 4th of July.

Gersito is turning 10

Well, it is time for another birthday, although we will not be having a birthday party for him. Since our family is spread out everywhere, it just won't be the same without them.

So, instead of the party, this Monday I will be taking him to Schlitterbahn in Galveston for the day. If Dad is home then he will get to come too. I plan on giving Gersito the royal treatment for the day since he is missing out on a normal birthday party.

As most of you know, his birthday is on Thursday, June 26th so please let's try to make him feel extra special this year since most of his family is gone and he is not having his usual birthday party.

Pool Play

Ian loves playing in the pool. Here are a few pictures and a video. By the way, I can't get those sunglasses off of him. I made the mistake of letting him try them on in the mall today and he hasn't wanted to take them off since. :) Funny....

From Sweet to ???

Ian has become quite the little mischievous boy lately. The other day when we were sitting outside he wanted to go in his little pool so I just took off his clothes and let him get in. Well, before I knew it, this is what I found....

Then today I gave him an Oreo cookie for a snack (just one) but shortly after, this is what he was doing?? Towards the end of the video, I think you would agree that he became a little "cookie monster"! I'm not sure what came over him? LOL

Kids' bedrooms

As most of you know, it was my goal to get the kids' bedrooms painted and decorated before I went back to school. Well, most of them are done. I just have a little bit to do in each room yet but I am done until after school gets out again. I go back to school on Tuesday so all home decorating or organizing will be put on hold again. Here are a few pictures of my accomplishments. Keep in mind that each kid got to pick out their own stuff. They made all the decisions. We let them do whatever they wanted. (Aren't we great parents?!)

Elyse's bedroom:

Valerie's bedroom:

Ashlynne's bedroom:

Gersito's bedroom:

Park & Pool

What a busy day today. After Ian's ant incident I decided to take him to the park. We went on the slide, the swing and he even met a friend named Josiah. They played together for almost two hours. Afterwards, we met Christina and Madison at the pool. Ian kept trying to go down the water slide which was obviously too big for him. We took the kids to the baby pool where Ian dived head first (literally) while Madison enjoyed sitting in the water watching. It was nice and relaxing.

Here are a few pictures of our day.

Ian at the park...


Madi wondering what I'm doing & Ian strutting his big belly...

Poor Ian

Today Ian and I were enjoying the nice weather outside. Ian was riding his car and I was sitting there taking pictures and watching him. He decided to go behind the garage but after he was there for awhile I decided to check on him. There he was standing in a pile of ants. His feet were black covered with ants. I had a flash back of when I was a kid and sat in a pile of fire ants and they went all in my ears, nose, hair...everywhere. I totally freaked out and picked Ian up and wiped him down and then ran water on his feet. Our poor baby was full of ants. He took it so good - he cried for a minute and now acts like nothing happened. Although he does keep saying, "bye big bugs". I guess he is happy to be rid of them. Now if only Grandma was around in a couple of days...she would LOVE to pop all those ant bites!

Here is a video I took of him prior to his ant experience. :)

Summer has begun

Well, yesterday was the first full day of summer for our kids. Gersito is excited and is already spending the night at his cousin, Justin's house. The girls were sad about leaving their friends. Valerie is already scheduled for a after school party today at noon and Ashlynne & Elyse went to their mom's house. Tomorrow Valerie will be going to her aunt's house for awhile. So I'll be home alone with the boys. All the girls will be gone for 4 weeks.

School starts next week so things will get really busy for me but after 5 weeks, I'll get the rest of the summer to spend with my husband and kids. It should be fun. We plan on taking the kids to Sea World, camping and whatever else we can find to do.

Welcome!

Here we go again. Another blog address. Hopefully this will be the last of them. Some how the other one got changed. I think one of the kids messed with it. Please don't forget to replace this website with our old web address and save it to your favorites.

Have a great day!

Taks Test Results

We are proud to tell everyone that all our children passed their Taks Tests. And not only did Gersito pass but he made commended on all parts except writing. He was actually only 1 point short of being commended on writing too. So, we are very proud of him!

We are so blessed to have such smart kids! :)

Ashlynne's Bluebonnet

I just wanted to brag on Ashlynne for a minute. She participated in a voluntary program where students could read 15 Bluebonnet books and then take a quiz on them. For those students who volunteered for this, the school was offering a banquet where each student received a free lunch and recognition for their accomplishments. I got to attend this banquet which was set up so nicely in the library. Justin & I were both very proud of Ashlynne for volunteering and reading all those books throughout the year.

Happy Memorial Day.

As we all know, there is something very special about Memorial Day. It is a very important day for us all. I really want to say thank you and acknowledge Justin along with our Grandpas, my cousin Michael, our friend Eric, my father-in-law Greg & my old boss Tom...along with the many others who have made such a contribution to protect our country. Thank you all very much. It is very much appreciated.


Have a wonderful and safe weekend!

No, No Colorado

...As Ian would say it! After lots of consideration, we decided to wait on moving to Colorado. At first we were pretty sure that we were going to move but then after awhile we both thought we should hold off. Good thing we did, because now work got slower in Colorado. I think we made the right decision to stay put. I know the older kids are happy we are staying. They didn't want to leave all their friends behind.

So, now that I've got some more time off from school, I'm back to working on the house again. I'll post some pictures when I'm done with some of the bedrooms.

Our Trip to the Zoo

We finally took the kids to the zoo. It was a beautiful day and a lot of people apparently had the same idea because the zoo was pretty crowded but it was fun. Ian absolutely loved all the animals. He is at a perfect age for the zoo. Every time we would leave one animal he would say "bye, bye monkey" or "bye, bye giraffe" to whatever animal we were leaving and then he would cry to stay with that animal.

Ashlynne didn't come with because she really didn't want to go to the zoo so she hung out with her great grandma. Elyse & Valerie came along but they were too cool to hang out with us so it was just Justin & I with the 2 boys. Here are a few pictures we took....

We loved the giraffes.

Gersito & Ian hanging out

Daddy & Ian petting the goat.
Gersito & Ian hanging out with the ground hogs.

Thank God!

For those of you who have been helping me get through this awful month & half with a sore tongue, I just wanted you to know that they ran all the tests and it was not cancer. Thank God! Its scary when they tell you that you might have cancer, then they give you a prescription to treat "certain cancers" and then you look up on line just to see that your tongue looks like pictures with people with tongue cancer.

Well, apparently, I had a really bad allergic reaction to something. We haven't quite figured it out yet but since I stopped using the normal Crest whitening toothpaste (which I've used for as long as I can remember) my tongue has healed and I'm able to eat whatever I want again without hurting.

Valerie's Birthday Party

Valerie's birthday party went well. It started out with a little bit of rain but it ended up being a pretty nice day. We had plenty of kids running around everywhere (its not like we have enough to start with). :)

We all ate hot dogs, played ping pong and actually tried hitting a pinata. As usual, it was nice to hang out with friends and family. Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us and also for the nice gifts that you gave Valerie. She loved them all.
Here is Valerie about to blow out the candles on her birthday.

So Busy

Lately Justin & I have been pretty busy. The week that he was home we were busy with finals at school and sick kids. Ian was sick the most with high fever, throwing up a lot and just being cranky and clingy. He couldn't go to school so Justin & I were tag teaming it between us studying for our finals and taking care of Ian around the clock. Gersito also got sick for awhile but he wasn't quite so bad.

Now Justin is back at work and I'm done with finals. It is nice to finally have some time to get some deep cleaning done and some relaxation. Justin & I both did great in our classes. Justin made an A in both of his classes and I made an A in 4 of my classes and a B in my government class. I am so happy that I made an A in Anatomy & Physiology but I'm also glad those classes are over!

Here is a picture of Ian not feeling so well and Daddy on duty taking really good care of him.

Fun Filled Saturday

We started our Saturday by finally being able to see little Justin play softball. He did such a great job, although his team lost. They were only short 1 point though. It was a bummer but little Justin did so good. He was such a cutie out there playing. He really looked like he enjoyed what he was doing.

After our trip to Justin's game I took the kids to the Shadycrest Carnival. The kids had a good time playing games and dunking teachers. We also ran into friends we hadn't seen in awhile so we got to enjoy their company as well.

Later on, my friend Christina and her daughter, Madison & I took the kids to go swimming. Eric ended up joining us too. It was nice to just relax in the sun and let the kids enjoy the water.

What a beautiful day!

Little Justin & Gersito

Ayden being a silly boy

Christina & Madison

Little Madi soaking up the sun

Ian & Uncle Eric enjoying the water!

Time to Celebrate

Can you believe Valerie is going to be 12 soon? They are all growing up so fast. Her birthday is April 22nd but we will be celebrating the following Saturday which is April 26th. If you haven't already, please let me know if you will be able to make the party.

Valerie 12 years ago...

Valerie now...

Currently...

Elyse has been into music lately. She has also had so much homework so that has been consuming a lot of her time. When she is not doing that, she is usually hanging out with her friends or sisters.

Valerie has been busy with her friends and boyfriend lately. She got a report from the dentist that she will be needing braces so she will be next in line for braces soon.

Ashlynne has enjoyed just hanging out. She enjoys being on the phone almost as much as Valerie. These two girls are our little talkers...but so typical for pre-teens.

Gersito has enjoyed hanging out with the family and a couple of friends but mostly he enjoys playing games and playing with Ian. He also really enjoys playing our new Wii (of course). He also got some good news that his braces will get to come off in about 2 months. He is really excited about that.

Justin has been busy working a lot lately. When he is home he is usually hanging out with the family or busy doing stuff around the house that needs to be done.

And I've been busy with school and the kids. Life seems to be less hectic now but I'm still always so busy. Maybe it isn't less hectic but less stressful. :)

So, that's it for now. We hope you have a great weekend. Until next time....

Talk, talk, talk

Ian has just been talking so much lately. Our favorite thing he says is "I love you". He copies everything you say. I have told him "bye sweetie" once so now he enjoys saying "bye sweetie" as he is leaving to go upstairs. We are also trying to explain when to say "thank you" and "you're welcome" because he seems to use them both all the time when he gets something. Although sometimes when I remind him to say "thank you" when he gets something he will say "you're welcome" because I just said "thank you". So I think he is a little confused. On a another note, he also learned to say "sucks" which we absolutely hate! He will come up to us and say "sucks" and then run off laughing as he continues to repeat it and laugh. He knows it is wrong because we tell him it is a bad word and we say "no" which is why I think he keeps saying it while running away and laughing about it.

Our Ian is definitely a handful but he is definitely worth every bit of work just like the rest of our bunch.