Hey Stranger!

I have thought about updating this blog multiple times in the past few years and am FINALLY getting around to it! Life is good so I might as well write about it, right? We are all settled in our new house in Smithfield. It's so nice having a place of our own where we don't have to share walls with neighbors! We are putting in new carpet and painting all of the upstairs bedrooms. I'm so excited! Almost the whole upstairs is the same color and it's been driving me crazy.

Joe is doing well. He's pretty busy with school work (grad school and teaching). He's really enjoying grad school though and has done really well. He's already looking forward to the summer though. I've started working again, although very minimal hours. It's nice to get out of the house every now and again.

The kids are awesome! Elijah loves kindergarten and is learning so fast! He reads well and has made lots of new friends. It amazes me how fast he is growing. Every time I ask him to stop growing he says he can't unless he stops having birthdays. He's a great older brother and is becoming very responsible. He gets breakfast for himself and Hailey every morning.

Hailey is just fun, most of the time (she does have her drama moments.) She has a great sense of humor and is constantly making us laugh. We just bought her a new Pinkalicious bike and she can't wait for spring so she can ride it. She already took a spin on it inside the house. She has been very patient with me while we've adjusted to having a baby in the house. Most mornings I'm a zombie but she loves me anyway.

Marcus is getting huge! He's not even 3 months yet and he already rolls over from his back to his stomach. His favorite thing to do is jump in his jumper. He has started making super cute baby noises and laughing a little. And of course, he still looks exactly like Elijah. The last 3 nights he has slept for 5.5 hour blocks! It's so nice to get some sleep! We really struggled to get him figured out the first 2 months and it seems like things are finally getting better. He was really gassy and didn't sleep well or nurse well. We tried tons of different things and in the end just had to be patient.

Now the main thing I'm looking forward to is good weather so I can get outside and do some yard work!

Easter and Bangs and Fingernails!

Again, it has been a long time since my last up date and for that I have to apologize. I don't even remember what I wrote in my last post. Maybe I should read my own blog sometime.

Anyway, it's spring vacation for Joe so we're trying to get the basement cleaned and organized. So far I have been stuck on my drawer full of keep sakes for 2 days. Man that stuff is hard to go through! Hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to move on. We'd like to get the basement painted because we went and bought carpet that we would like to have installed sometime in the next century.

On Easter Sunday we got to do lots of fun things! We had an Easter egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa Ribera's and we celebrated my birthday. Then my host family from Germany came to visit! They are such awesome people and it's been almost 10 years since I last saw all of them! Yup, that's a long time! Thankfully most of them speak English so they didn't have to suffer through my rusty German. It was so good to see them and catch up! Plus they brought me German chocolate. I mean really, what's not to like?

The kids are, of course, growing up way too fast. Elijah is in full 4 year old mode. He questions everything and tests all of his limits. He's getting so smart and nothing gets by him. This fall he will start preschool. I'm excited and anxious. But I know it will be so good for him! He's a ball full of energy. All of his jeans have holes in the knees so I gave in and bought him a new pair today. I guess he'll have LOTS of shorts come summer time. I posted some pictures of him and Hailey doing the yoga at the end of my workout routine.

Hailey is just plain funny. If I could video record her all day I would! She has some of the funniest mannerisms. I can't wait to hear what's going on in her head. She is constantly talking to herself or singing. She and Elijah play a game where they make the same sound back and forth to each other for as long as Joe and I will allow it. We also finally cut some bangs for her so she could see the world. They make her look more grown up. And I painted her fingernails the other day. I was painting my toenails and she was very interested, so I painted her nails. She loved it, but was a little impatient with the drying part. And I didn't have any really good little girl colors so she got blue fingernails. She didn't seem to mind.

Some SUPER good news to end my update with: Joe and I are going on a cruise in May!! WAHOO! I am so dang excited! We're going with some neighbors so we'll have friends to keep us company, because Joe and I might actually get bored with a week without kids. Wait, no we wouldn't... We're still excited to be going with our awesome friends!

Hope the rest of you are doing well and just as happy that spring is coming (even if it might not look like it at the time) as we are!

It's about time!

It's been FOREVER since I last posted. I've been meaning to but every time I had a second I hadn't uploaded the new photos of the kids onto the computer and I know the whole reason most people check this is for photos of the kids. Can't say I blame you.

TONS has happened since I last posted. Most of you have heard bits and pieces of our crazy summer. Well, here's the whole story:

When we bought our house we did an 80/20 loan and so this August the 20% part was going to become a variable interest rate. So we decided to refinance. That meant finishing some of our home updates (ie. getting the carpet out of the main floor since the edges were duct taped). So we spent July putting new carpet upstairs, tile in the kitchen and laminate wood flooring in the living and dining. And of course we had to paint before the new flooring went in. It was a huge project but Joe and I now love our home. I might be able to stand living here for a couple more years.

Anyway, the day that we were going in to sign our closing papers for the new loan we got in a car accident (I guess that's what we get for discussing what we might buy after we grew out of the Buick). Luckily the signing had to be put off till another day for other reasons. The crash totaled our beloved Buick. A kid turned left in front of us with out clearing on coming traffic so we hit the rear passenger side of his car and it flung him around 180 degrees. The back end of his car hit a motorcyclist who was waiting to turn right onto the road. No one was hurt. The motorcyclist looked up just in time to jump off of his bike and avoid being pinned under the car. The car we hit had been purchased 3 days before the accident and the motorcyclist had insured his bike like the day before. Everyone involved was extremely lucky and blessed that things happened the way they did! Since the accident wasn't our fault we got reimbursed for everything including our trips to the chiropractor.

We were worried that we wouldn't get what we owed out of the Buick. We refinanced it a year ago in order to afford A/C. The insurance adjuster who came to look at our car said it was in such good condition he added another $500 onto the value so it turned out that we got $2,500 more than what we owed on it back! Which was very helpful because the Toyota Sequoia that we bought needed some major maintenance done. Thankfully I work at the auto shop and they gave us some amazing deals. So that was most of our crazy summer. Phew!

This summer Elijah learned to ride his bike. He does such a good job and of course LOVES going fast and shows everyone his helmet with fire and a snake on it. He's also getting so stubborn. I have to say, he does come by it honestly. He has graduated to a twin bed and always asks people if they want to see his new bed even though he's been sleeping in it for months now. I'm hoping to send him to preschool soon. We'll see. It all depends on when I'll finally get around to making some calls.

Hailey is also getting huge! She is 14 months and just starting to walk. She can take about 4 steps on her own. She's even starting to say a few words. I'm so glad we have her. She's just so happy all the time! Except for when her brother is making life hard for her. His favorite thing to do is go stand in front of her when she's trying to crawl somewhere. He's the stereotypical big brother. He can pick on Hailey all he wants but when someone else tries to he'll step right in.

I also have some very cute family pictures that our friend Heather Taylor took for us that I will post. Hopefully this brought you all up to date with us!

I'm such a bad mother!!!

I don't know why I'm posting this, it makes me feel awful! Today Hailey rolled off our bed and hit her head on my night stand. She had the BIGGEST goose bump! It made me so darned sad... I set her in the middle of my bed while I was getting ready and Elijah was playing in the near vicinity. Anyway, she ended up laying down on my bed instead of sitting and I should have put her on the floor then but I guess I figured she would be okay. I was wrong. It always makes me hurt when I see my kids crying like that. She's fine now but she's going to have a massive bruise on her forehead. A reminder to me to be more cautious in the future.

And now for a happy moment: Elijah got to play outside in his swimming pool yesterday. It was the first day this summer that it has been warm enough to get it out! And since Joe has been trimming our tree we actually get a little patch of sun on our back lawn, just large enough to shine on his pool. He had such a good time, although he spent more time out of the pool "watering" things than he did in the pool. A couple hours after we were done Elijah said to me, "You forgot to take pictures of me swimming in my pool!" He was very annoyed that I had forgotten so I promised to take pictures next time. And when I do I will probably post them here..

You need some help?

So I mentioned before that saying prayers with Elijah is some what humorous... Well, last night I was gone and Daddy and Elijah were saying prayers together. Usually when we want Elijah to say the prayer, we start it and Elijah just takes it from there. So Joe started the prayer, "Heavenly Father," and then paused for Elijah but he just looked at Joe and said, "You need some help?" Needless to say, it took a little while for Joe to compose himself and get the prayer finished. I'm so sad I missed it!

Anyway, it's been raining here for about 2 weeks straight and I think we are all going a little stir crazy. So today I built Elijah a little fort. He had a great time in it! He took in some books and animals and ate his lunch in it. We gave him a flash light to play with in there which he thought was the best ever! He also learned that a fort will not hold if you jump on top of it. We have had to rebuild the fort many many times....


























And a picture of Hailey for the heck of it..







And one last fun bit of news. Joe and I went anniversary shopping today. We left with the intent of buying a new VCR/DVD combo and came back with a 32 inch Samsung flat screen TV. YAY! It's so beautiful! We hooked up my laptop and finished watching the second season of "Chuck" on the TV through Hulu. We kinda figured that we had earned it and we have been scoping TV's out for a while so it was kinda an impuls buy but kinda not. I love anniversaries!

Alice the Camel

Hey there!
Because I have no more school, and Diana is continually bogged down with work and school, I have volunteered to add my two cents about our family. Everything is going really well. As mentioned above with me out of school there is more time to do silly projects that I have been meaning to do for the last year. Again Diana is constantly busy but always looking stunning! Elijah made a big step this last week by spending the night over at Grandma Georgia's. A lot of his cousins were there so he wanted to stay the evening. I thought that he wouldn't make it, but Diana got him to sleep and he did great. Yea, the first over night with out mom or dad. Hailey is doing well and likes to show her 7 teeth by grinning. She has found that clapping feet together in the bathtub gets lots of attention and people wet. She's a cutie, definitely from Diana.

Here is Elijah Singing "Alice the Camel." It has become one of his favorites from a sing-a-long CD we have of children's songs.


Here is Elijah singing the "A,B,C" song.

If he lives to see 4 I'll be amazed!

I love my son, I love my son, I love my son. He's reached another stage in his life, one I hoped would never happen but I knew it was coming! He's independent. He has decided when he wants to do something or see something he will make it happen. Recent occurrences: Monday morning he woke up and came in to see me. I told him to play downstairs while I finished waking up. When I sat up in bed I saw some light in the hallway which can only mean the front door was open. I ran outside (minus glasses or contacts which means I could see about 2 feet in front of me) and couldn't see him anywhere. I found him a minute or two later over in the neighbors carport because he had followed a cat there. Tuesday morning I'm sitting in the dining room finishing up breakfast, Eljah is in the kitchen, not more than 5 feet from me and somehow manages to spray WD40 in his face. The cleaning supply cupboard must have been open because I've asked him to open it many times since and he can't (believe me, if he could he would have). If he keeps scaring me like this I might not make it to see my next birthday. Needless to say, Joe and I have had some discussions with him and are buying a chain to put on the front door. Yes, he can unlock the regular lock and the dead bolt. Elijah is getting better at saying prayers! He recites after Mom and Dad but sometimes adds a little something of his own. I said, "and bless Daddy that he will be safe." Elijah said, "and bless Daddy, that he will be safe from alligators." I said, "bless the missionaries." Elijah said, "bless the jumping beans." Guess he doesn't really know what missionaries are yet.

Hailey, thankfully, is staying semi little. Although she has figured out that rolling is a great way to get around. She has also decided baby food is disgusting (can't say I blame her) and that she prefers real food. Her favorite would be pears (home canned baby!).

Joe and I are both SOOO excited for him to be done with school. It's so close, but we're running out of patience. There are lots of projects for us to work on. But aren't there always. Speaking of projects I'm actually going to post some pictures from our last couple renovations. I've been promising them for a while now. Joe is planning on doing guitar lessons this summer as well. Might as well get all the money we can, right? I'm working at Import Auto again, only 2 hours a day. It doesn't get much better than this!