Sheila Mercedes Suarez

Since cell phones don't work in the hospital (but wireless does), we just want to share that Sheila Mercedes Suarez came at 7:38pm today. She's 8lbs, 7oz and very healthy (and hungry). When I can, I'll upload pictures.

Tricia asked me to add head size (14.0) and length (20.3) too.

before we get too busy...

We wanted to share something that has made us happy the last 2 days.... our fence. The neighbors (if they have caught us) are certainly calling us crazy as we frequently just go out and stare at our fence. I'm sad I didn't have any wide angles of the overgrown forest-yard that we used to have. But I'm happy that Mario had the vision to transform our yard into what it is today.

BEFORE:
This was one of the woodsy areas to the right of our house. And in the background you can see more woods/overgrowth that is at the back of the property.

Close up of side overgrowth.

AFTER:
Right front of the house showing the cleared overgrowth.
From the back of the property looking to the front. That big tree was surrounded by smaller overgrowth.

BEFORE:
Close up of overgrowth at back of property (it was basically about 15 feet that stretched the entire length across the back).





HALFWAY:
Our first step was to clear the growth, and then plant grass seed (which grew in quite nicely)

You can kind of see from the different shades of grass where the new greener grass was put in and grew.
AFTER:
As shot from the back corner of the property.

Still pregnant - 39 weeks

In case any of you were wondering. Mario has reminded me that I seem to have babies pretty much on time at 40 weeks, so I should be patient and enjoy these last few days. It has been good advice. Since I'm still pregnant, we've been able to get more work done around the house and have been able to finish up things. We've also had a chance to go on dates, which seems to be our favorite thing to do before babies arrive. The boys have joined us on a few of these outings. But we made it to see a movie - the one date that I find a bit more difficult with tiny babies - so, we're all set. We've also just had our house blessed (finally! yay!) MJ says there are more angels at our house now to protect us. It was fun having our priest and neighbor over. He has the exact floor plan of our house so we were comparing all of the fun things that can be done. They moved in around the same time we did in September. We had a fabulous Thanksgiving with the Kaza's as generous hosts. I don't have many pictures from that, but if you've seen the Suarez blog, you've gotten them. It was great spending time with cousins and Mario's parents and almost all of his siblings.

Cheers!



We also feel that Joey is at an absolutely adorable age (well, MJ is as well) but Joey is at the perfect age of obedience without much talking back, with all the curiosity of a toddler. MJ is just plain curious about everything, but has a much better understanding of rules and order. So we have been trying to take more pictures of them if possible.

For the most part, MJ and Joey stay in their own beds at night, but occasionally Joey will be in his crib or they will try to share a bed together. I got some night shots of this, but then tried with a flash and they didn't wake up. I guess they are pretty good friends. (You can see part of the wall where we painted the boys room... I really should do a before and after picture).

MJ still loves all tools. He also likes spending time outside even when it is cold. I'm not exactly sure what he is doing, but I've caught him simply staring at the tools, carefully arranging them, and pretending to use them. Joey joins him outside for a little while but then decides it's too cold.

MJ had an extra special fun day when Mario let him pretend to use the real tools. He was happy for hours!
With the beginning of Advent, we've started to find some of our Christmas decorations. The boys really love this snow globe of the Nativity.