Pictures

I've been meaning to post more pictures of Clarissa, but never seem to find the time. Christopher is in school and the other kids are sleeping (due to an early morning for everyone - they woke up at 4:50 AM and didn't want to go back down).

I'm exhausted, so this is just a quick post. I took Clarissa's 1 month pictures a couple weeks ago and here are my favorite. I didn't really like the photographer, so I'm not too impressed with these shots.

She was not very happy for pictures. All she wanted was her binky.


The girl taking her pictures did not do a good job (granted she had a crying baby to work with, but most her angles were bad). Here's Clarissa in her blessing dress.

My little boy is 2. (I took these back in July)

He's such a good little boy.

Chillin like a villain

Christopher fell from he jungle gym at the park a few weeks ago (19 days to be exact). He cried like crazy and said his foot hurt. We took him to the doctor the next day, but everything seemed fine, it just looked like it was bruised. A week later the kid was still limping so we took an x-ray and yesterday we finally got a call back from his doctor telling us he broke is foot. He actually has 2 fractures and needs to have it cast. The kid has been walking, running and jumping on a broken foot for 3 weeks and doesn't even complain of pain!!! I felt horrible though, for not being more proactive about finding out about his x-ray results earlier. My mom bought Christopher a t-shirt when she was in town and it says "Never Stop". Sooo appropriate!!! Even with an injury the kid never stops.

Lastly, I went to the Relief Society broadcast this weekend and it was AMAZING. I'm sure everyone who attended it fell in love with President Uchtdorf's message. He suggested 5 things we sister should not forget. I'm posting it so I don't forget this in a few weeks.

1. Forget not to have patience with yourself - no one is perfect, be patient with yourself and your weaknesses.

2. Forget not the difference between a good sacrifice and a foolish sacrifice - don't waste your time on foolish things.

3. Forget not to be happy now - don't spend your life waiting for your dreams/goals to come true saying you will be happy when it happens. Look at your everyday blessings and be happy with your life now.

4. Forget not the why of the gospel - don't think of the gospel as a to do list.

5. Forget not that the Lord love you - God has not forgotten you. He's aware of you, your fears, your trials. He loves you and has not forgotten you.

Welcome Clarissa

This is way overdue, but our sweet baby Clarissa arrived on August 9th. She is a really good baby and is very loved by the whole family. I've had a crazy month adjusting to life with 3 kids, culminating on my whole family flying in for her baby blessing. We had a great time, I was super busy, and am glad life is staring to go back to normal.

Clarissa arrived 1 day early from my scheduled c-section date, even though I tried my hardest to postpone it. She was scheduled for the 10th, which is my grandma's birthday and I really wanted for them to share birthdays. I went into labor Tuesday morning and after hiding/fighting/refusing to have Cory take me to the hospital I was finally dragged there. The checked me and said I could either stay and have the baby that day, or go home and come back the next morning, when I was scheduled to go.

What did I choose? Go home. Too bad the contractions got really bad by the afternoon, that this time I was asking to go to the hospital. She arrived safe and healthy that evening, and has been a good baby since.

At 4 weeks she started smiling and sleeping 8 hours at night. Although sleeping through the night does not happen every night, we will gladly take what we get!!

Quick updates on the boys:

Christopher has started preschool at his new school and he loves it (and so do I). He goes to school for 5 hours 3 times a week.

We have started to potty train Drew this week. He is catching on fast, wish me luck!!!

Happy Birthday Boys

This year I went the easy way and decided to combine the boys birthday party. We threw them a party at McDonald's right between both their birthdays. I have to admit it was weird to sing Happy Birthday to them when it really was neither of their birthdays, but it sure made my life easier. Here are some of our highlights.

Christopher was obsessed with the cupcakes. He had to have one before it was time. But I guess that's the perk of being the party kid. You get whatever you want.

My cute little boy putting on his party hat. I had to buy hats because he specifically asked for it. (They are such a waste of money!!!)

Drew playing on the playground.How would wee survive without inside playgrounds during the summer?

I can't believe it, one decent picture of the whole family. We sang Happy Birthday twice. This one only shows Christopher's cupcake tower, but Drew had one for him too. Actually Drew's cupcake stand tipped over a little before we sang to them, so we just had to switch the top cupcake when it was singing time because the second stand wasn't too reliable.

Who had the idea of getting bright blue, green and orange cupcakes? It was such a mess, that's okay, I only had to deal with it once, instead of twice.Opening gifts

Drew fell in love with his "Rex". He carries it around and calls him Rexy. Thanks Cammie!!

Well, I think I'm all caught up with my blogging, so you probably won't hear from me until after the baby. Wish me luck!! I hope it's soon!!!!

Random Thoughts

We've had a lot going on recently and I better blog about it now while I have time, or I'll never get to it.

My in-laws treated us to a trip to Sedona for the 4th of July. We had a great time swimming and playing with the Schmid cousins. The weather was amazing (I guess anything is amazing compared to the 118 degrees that was in Phoenix that weekend). It was literally a torture to have to come back to the valley and deal with this NASTY monsoon season!!!

At the airport overlook. I was quite impressed we were able to snap a decent picture of 5 kids.

This is the best our little family could come up with!!

This picture pretty much summarizes our mini-vacation. Hanging out a grandma and grandpa's resort eating popsicles and swimming. The boys loved hanging out at the patio and they would scream high to EVERYONE that walked by.

Cory and I had been to Sedona once before, but only for a day. This time we drove around and got to know more of this beautiful city. We were just in awe with all the amazing views that the residents of Sedona see daily. It made us wonder if they even appreciate it and notice it, like we outsiders did.

Our little hotel was next to an outlet mall, so on Saturday we were even able to go shopping for a bit. We had not planned on it, but who can really pass up 65% off at the GAP? (Well, a very pregnant lady can, but her husband can't and there were some great deals for the kids too).

Last week Cory took Christopher to get his 3 year old pictures taken. I was busy with other things and was going to have to cancel the appointment, so he decided to help me out. I have to admit I was a little nervous of what the outcome would be, but they did great. I can't believe my baby is 3!! (Actually he's been 3 for over a month now).

He's been talking (like real sentence talking) for a while now, and now I have to deal with talking back. I didn't think this would happen until he became a teenager, but I guess I was wrong. Some days he's the sweetest little boy and I just love him to pieces. And then there are the bad days, that get me on my knees pleading with Heavenly Father for patience and ideas on how to be a better mother. Right now the main problem is that I don't have enough patience to deal with the lack of maturity and huge amounts of craziness this little guy has.

This (ugly) picture is for my mom. She's been bugging me to post a pregnancy picture. Here's me at 34 weeks.

I'm currently 35 weeks (4 weeks left until schedule c-section date). I can't stand the heat anymore and I'm officially unpleasant to be around. I whine and complain most of the time and I don't EVER want to be pregnant again. I think I can finally say I AM DONE (just need to convince my other half that WE are done).

This has been a fairly easy pregnancy, but I just go CRAZY when I'm pregnant. And I really mean crazy. My poor family should not have to suffer through mom being pregnant again!!!

I had my last baby shower this week, and my good friend (and visiting teacher) Ivana was kind enough to come over and take ALL of my baby stuff to her house to wash. At this point, I'm accepting all the help I can get. I'm getting really excited and ANXIOUS to meet this little girl. She is a mover and I can't wait to see her and get to know her personality.

I could go on and on about how I'm done being pregnant, and done with the summer, but this post is too long so I better finish here. I totally forgot I still haven't posted about the boys birthday party. I need to get the pictures on this computer and then I'll post about it.

Happy Father's Day!!! (belated)

I meant to post this on Sunday, but never got around to. I didn't get Cory a Father's Day card this year (I know I am terrible) and I had great plans of publicly expressing my gratitude to him of what an amazing father he is. Well, I guess it's never too late.

I just want to let the blogging world know how lucky I am to have married such a wonderful guy. Cory, you are an awesome father and the boys ADORE you. They look up to you and love playing with you. Some of their favorite games with daddy include: ridding the bull, hide and seek, and, and just having Cory run around the house chasing them. I am really blessed to have such a hands-on husband who helps out a lot with the kids!!!

So, for father's day Cory got a BIG (8 person) tent. And to celebrate, we took him camping (more like he took us). Yes, I know I'm crazy. I'm 7 months pregnant and I wanted to go camping. I swear it's the pregnancy hormones that make me this nuts. We've been married for almost 6 years and I have never agreed to let him take me out, and now that I am huge and uncomfortable I say "Let's camp!" Go figure?!

We went with another couple (the Lewis) and had a great time. The boys really enjoyed being able to run freely, I liked the cooler weather. I do have to admit I probably won't be doing this again so soon. I need to get over how dirty and dry my skin was!!! I think it was more the dryness that drove me nuts. So here are some pictures as proof that we actually camped.

Here we are!!

The boys drinking their milk in the morning. And the TENT!

Cute Christopher. He walked around our camp site like this all morning. We had to convince him to take it off becuase it was getting too warm.

Our morning entertainment. This squirrel just hung around for a while and the kids loved watching it. When it finally left, Drew kept saying "squirrel, where are you?"

Can you tell Drew was happy?

May???

Did I really not blog in May? I try to post at least once a month, but I guess I'm not that consistent.

Lets just get straight to business. Last weekend Cory and I had a little staycation. His mom agreed to watch the boys over night so we could get a hotel near the temple, wake up early and go to a session. When we left her with the boys Friday night she made the mistake to tells us "Don't rush." Oh we sure took that to heart!!! The waking up early turned more into waking up at 9:00. WOW, I think that was the highlight of my weekend, but the amazing breakfast buffet, followed by time in the temple just made the beginning of our holiday weekend AMAZING!!

On Monday Memorial Day we had my in-laws over for dinner. We usually go over to their house, but this year we decided to just do it at our place. Cory and I pulled out the Dutch Oven and made a yummy meal in it. We also had corn on the cob and peach cobbler. It felt like camping, only better!! I had running water and my comfy bed to sleep.

Christopher
How do I put this in a nice way? He's driving me crazy with his creativeness!! He turns 3 on Saturday, but he thinks he's 16. On Sunday we were driving up to my in-laws and this was our conversation in the car:

Christopher: "Mamae, I go swimming at grandma's?"
Me: "No, it's late, cold, and it's Sunday."
Christopher: "Ok. Papai, I go swimming at grandmas?"
Cory: "No, it's Sunday"
Christopher: "I ask grandma to go swimming"
Cory: "Grandma will say no, it's Sunday"
Christopher: "Ok, I go swimming by myself."

Just like that, a simple statement. He thinks he can do whatever he wants. He always asks first, but I don't even know why, because no matter the answer he still does whatever he feels like.

We have a few things planned for the summer including Summer Movie Fun and swim lessons. This week was the first time at the theaters for the movie fun. I go with a bunch of friends and their kids. And guess what? I was the only one to lose a kid. Guess what kid? Christopher!! He ran away at the end of the movie and left me and other 5 moms nervously looking for him. He literally disappeared for about 3 minutes. It was a VERY scary moment.

Drew
He's all of a sudden decided to talk. He repeats stuff we say and seems to talk non stop (specially if we're in the car).

He insists Christopher's name is also Drew. Funny, but very confusing!!
Here are some of his other funny words:

Keebee - binky
teddy - blanky
Buzz tu-tain - Buzz chu-chu train (Toy story 3 - it starts with a chu-chu train scene)
I did it (even when we are the ones that do it)
I she-she - I want to go potty (she-she is pee in Portuguese)

Today he pooped in the toilet for the first time!! I'm not pushing potty training, but the kids constantly takes his diapers off and runs to the bathroom door asking to go potty. Pee in the potty has become a constant, but poo, that was a first!!

He loves to play with Christopher. He is lost, when his big brother isn't around!! Christopher went camping with Cory and Drew was in complete distress. The kid didn't really laugh until Christopher got back. He was so happy to see him, that he hugged and kissed his big brother on his own.

Baby Girl
She is a MOVER!! My goodness this kid kicks and moves around ALL the time. Christopher moved a lot, specially when I was eating. Drew was a bit more quiet. He moved at night time. Baby #3 beats the boys by far!! She moves when I eat, she moves when I lay down, she moves pretty much anytime anything is touching my belly. I'm a little concern about all this activity. The trend tends follow after birth. Will I ever get a calm kid?

I'm 10 weeks away from my scheduled c-section. I'm getting bigger and more uncomfortable by the minute. I had my first baby shower this week, and I'm getting more and more excited about having a girl. I can't wait to put bows on her hair, and to finally be able to dress a baby in pink dresses!!