Independance Day

Our 4th of July was full of friends, fun, and fireworks!

  We enjoyed a fantastic lunch with good friends, rode in a patriotic bike parade, and ended the night off with fireworks. By the end of the day, we all were exhausted due to all of the excitement and the intense heat from the day. I don't remember 4th of July being so hot but my senses may be off due to pregnancy hormones.

 The kids right before the Evan's Mini Olympics ;)

 Tossing water balloons into the target

Here we are wearing shower caps that were topped with shaving cream.

The kids got to throw Cheetos at our heads and see how many they could get to stick. 

Even the Dads got to join in on all the fun!

The kids had to feed them ding dongs while blindfolded. 

4th of July Bike Parade

Lexie was walking all over the place, but Eric was only able to capture this one of our backsides. 

Amanda, Me, and Gracie

This was about the time when the heat was starting to get to me 

and Eric promptly said, "It is time to go home!" 

 

Fireworks in Pajamas

 

           Hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July and celebrated our freedom to the max!

Fourth of July Craft

Talk about knocking out a craft in the nick of time! 

I was actually planning on doing this in Alamogordo, but we were just too busy. 

We made Firework Sun Catchers!

The kids enjoyed the craft and it took them all of about two minutes. However, the next whole hour was spent goofing around with the leftover tissue paper. Who would of thought cut up cheap pieces of paper would be that much fun?! We also made Sweet & Salty No Bake Nutella & Pretzel Cookies that will most likely not make it long in this house. Yummy!! 

 

A short video of the tissue paper excitement!

Poor Lexie was trying to take her nap during this fiasco.

Craft Inspiration Link

Pretzel Cookie Link 

Boy, Girl, Girl, BOY!

Before we made our way on down to Alamogordo we were able to find out that we will be welcoming a little BOY to our family.  Ethan was overly ecstatic! I reminded the children that we still need to pray for a healthy baby and that we will love him no matter what!

Visiting our Family in New Mexico

Since we have little more than a month before we make the long haul to the D.C. area, we figured it was time to go to Alamogordo and visit with our families. We have not been down in quite awhile so it was a nice treat to see everyone and for the kids to get reacquainted with their relatives. While we were there we were able to attend the Coyazo Family Reunion. Unfortunately, my Grandfather Librado is no longer with us, but it was wonderful that we all came together to celebrate him, his parents, and all of his brothers and sisters.

We were blessed to have Mariachis( my personal favorite) play for us and they happen to be standing in front of the family boards. A family board was made for every child of my great-grandparents. It included their children, grand children, great-grandchildren and in some cases great-great-grandchildren. As you can imagine with any typical Hispanic family, the boards were filled to the max with pictures ;)

Our little family

Me and my Grandmother Maria.

 Every family wore the same color of shirts and as you can tell our color was red. 

Ethan and cousin Jacob took full advantage of the cascarones (confetti eggs).

Here are the kids with their Great-Grandparents; Germ and Lapiz at the Space Hall of Fame

My siblings

Stephanie, Julian, Me, and Jennifer

Gracie and Grandma Margie cuddling

Lexie enjoying a kitchen bath with Great-Grandma Germ.

She loved every minute of it and pretty much flooded the kitchen

Ethan with his Uncle David

The kids enjoying the backyard swing with their cousins

Lexie giving her cousin Promise a kiss

Lexie and Great-Grandpa Lapiz joking around

Gracie having too much fun cooking with Grandma Teresa.

Ethan and Uncle David "horsing" around.

The kids with my Grandmother Maria

The kids with Eric's Parents, Dan and Teresa

The kids with Eric's Grandparents, Germ and Lapiz

Family picture with my side of the family

My parents with a majority of their grandchildren.

WHEW!!

The funny thing is that barely scratches the surface on our huge family. ;)

Feeling the beat!

***Sorry about the space between post!

 Enjoying our summer at the pool quite a bit and the camera just doesn't get taken out much***

First of all, I took this video with my phone so it is not the best quality and it was taken in horrible lighting. It was spur of the moment because I couldn't resist catching this little rocker in the act. Ever since Gracie has started playing drums, there is no stopping what she will bang on..table, chairs, couch, etc.  On this video I love how she shows Eric the beat she wants to play, how her head and hair bounce to the beat, and how she realizes when Eric messed up the beat! We REALLY need to get this girl a drum set pronto! She is making new beats all the time and it is amazing how she remembers them. She has tried teaching Ethan but frustration takes over and she just goes on without him.

Since summer has started and we will be moving soon, we decided to end Gracie's drumming lessons. I told Gracie's teacher and the first thing he said was, " Please don't stop once you get to D.C. She has potential and by what she is doing at 4, she will be shock you at 12". I thought that was really sweet of him!

Last day of school!

Yesterday was the last day of school for Ethan and Gracie!

I don't know who was more excited, me or the kids?! 

I enjoyed turning my alarm clock off that day knowing it would be

 awhile before I would have to use it again.

The kids made little treats for their classmates. Owl Miss You! 

Ethan and Miss. Gomez! 

I am VERY happy with how wonderful this school year has turned out and I owe it all to his teacher! 

She made it a fantastic first year for him!

This was waiting for them when they got home from school! 

After pictures they ran right through it!







This video is of Ethan's class singing a song to us for their award ceremony.
Ethan is all the way in the back.

Sorry, but the video is shaky!
Lexie would not stop trying to climb on me so I was busy trying to contain her.