Florida is kinda nice

The kids and I rounded out our August vacations with a trip to Florida to visit with my parents. Being on vacation without Mario was a little sad, but we can't have everything I guess. As with any large trip, getting there is half the battle. My parents suggested I try to fly with the kids, and found tickets so we'd all arrive in Orlando at the same time. I went into the trip very positively and really, all the kids behaved even better than I imagined. I guess it depends on the ages of the kids and their tempermants. MJ helped roll a "daddy suitcase" through the airport, and I pushed Joey and Sheila in the double stroller. Security took me about 5 times longer than anyone else, and the agents paused and seemd the need to recount as I walked by with my little crew. I also had a largely empty plane both going and returning. So I had 2 rows to myself for the 4 of us. Sheila fell asleep during take off; the boys played a bit, read books, watched a movie, and then fell alseep during the movie. MJ woke up as we were landing and got to look out the window, and Joey stayed asleep until we got to the gate. The way back was also really great.

Oh, and we had a fun time there too! Sheila thought this table looked dangerous, so of course she liked to play under it.

I think the boys had fun, but were a bit apprehensive about the seaweed that was around the first day (no doubt it came in from all the storms...which did not affect us at all.) MJ turned impressively tan despite the 50 sunscreen I put on him.

This day turned out nicely as it was a beautiful Sunday, halfway through our trip, and we went to mass at a lovely church. And then while the little kids were napping, I was able to take MJ to the pool by myself. He is quite the fish now - he can almost swim the width of the pool, and dared to jump in the deep end. But since he's afraid of the drain, he did this weird spin move to catch the ledge as he was landing, and unfortunately cut his chin. It wasn't very deep, but enough that I worried about it. We didn't want a scar that would be annoying when this likely to be hairy kid starts shaving. We took him to an urgent care and the doctor put some Dermabond on it. And I beat myself up for a whole day because MJ couldn't go in the water anymore.

But the trip was more than just beaches and pools, and we enjoyed hanging out with the Keppel grandparents. We definitely had a fun time (and I think my parents had a good time too).

Lots of traveling

We've been all over the East coast the last few weeks, and I haven't been able to sort through all the pictures. Mario's mom has added a few slideshows of pictures from our recent vacation on their family blog, so you are welcome to check that out if you are curious as to what has been going on with us. Here are a few pictures I wanted to add to their collection.

These are from our visit with Christian and Michelle's family in North Carolina for little Christian's baptism. I am completely amazed at Michelle's energy for having just had a baby 2 1/2 weeks before the baptism and yet preparing for a major sacrament, party, and large group of family to stay. Also, their house is so neat and well kept. Michelle, you will have to share your secret with me, though I'm pretty sure even with the great tips I won't manage to keep my house as well-maintained as you have.

The baptism was quite lovely. Christian David was very well-behaved (he nearly slept through the entire ceremony). I enjoyed meeting Christian and Michelle's friends. Their baptism party afterwards was so much fun and I am impressed at how relaxed they were - this is another thing I will try to learn from them.

Sunday we went to mass, then off to the Dixie Grill for a delicious brunch, and a visit to the USS North Carolina battleship museum. I have so many more great pictures, but haven't sorted through them yet. So, here are four as an appetizer.

Mario's mom came down with another van-load of Suarezes on Sunday afternoon. Here we are at the end of Mom's birthday celebration on Monday.

My fun weekend

I have fully recovered from a crazy mid-July weekend, and feel I must post about it before it gets too overdue. I'll try to keep it brief.
First, Thursday July 16th, Mario and I went out to celebrate our 6 year anniversary (which was really on Sunday, but we were too busy to celebrate it then). We went to The Tuscarora Grill in Leesburg, which is known for it's fine dining. This particular night they were hosting a beer tasting event. It was actually really fun. Normally you are seated with other people at a table, but they set up a special table for us on our anniversary. We tried 8 beers and had 6 courses of excellent dishes paired with the beer. All of the beer came from Lagnoitas brewing co. in California. I should try to find the menu again because the food was awesome.

Friday, Mario's company had their annual Mexican Fiesta held at a partner's home. One of Mario's favorite parts of this party is the sports competitions. I've been pregnant on and off for this party, but he insisted I join him this year to play. We started off with a little 3 on 3 basketball, and our team won. I haven't played basketball in years! Then we played volleyball and our team won again. It was nice being able to play sports together again.

I went home to shower while the babysitter continued to take care of the kids and Mario stayed to enjoy the fiesta. I then went out to begin the celebration of Erin's bachelorette weekend. We made some very cute headbands that night (I had no idea those were still in!)

Saturday I left the kids again to go to two winery's for tastings. We also had a bridal shower for Erin at the second winery. I went back home to play with the family for a bit, and then Mario drove me to DC to join the rest of the bachelorrette party for dinner at Firefly and a night out on the town in DC. Mario was very sweet and picked me up that night (yes, he put all the sleeping children in the car, drove to get me, returned home, and got the sleeping kids back in bed). Our evening didn't end until 3am!

Bright and early at 7am, I was up again on Sunday to drive back to DC, this time to co-host a Baby shower for our friend Andrea (the very adorable pregnant one in the middle). Sheila came with me this time and I think had fun trying out all of the new baby gear.

Mario was incredibly generous the whole weekend and did a great job taking care of the kids. He even managed to finish the railing to the front porch of our home that weekend. I'm lucky to have such a great husband! And what a way to celebrate 6 years of marriage!

Work around the house

It's been awhile and we've been working on a lot of things. I'm borrowing this post that Mario made on the Suarez family blog. Hopefully I'll have another update soon.

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Here are some changes we've done recently...

First, we redid our deck, b/c when we moved in, we had this:




And now we have this:

Another before angle:



And an after angle:


We also added a new wood railing to our front stairs. For full effect...

When we moved in:




After some work:


Now:

4th of July weekend

Nothing says lets celebrate America like taking on some home-improvement projects. We decided to go with refinishing the deck since Mario had the extra days off work. The threat of rain prevented us from fulling finishing the deck, so I don't have complete before and after pictures. But if your deck looked like this, wouldn't you want to do something about it?

The actually staining of the deck isn't so bad... kind of like painting a room in your house. There's just a lot of prep work. Mario was master of the sander. I found it was a bit stronger than I am.

So I was stuck with the tedious task of setting the nails that had popped up back in the deck. I'm only smiling b/c MJ asked me to. I am glad I learned to sink nails and eventually got into a pretty good groove.


This is what happens to our home when we do projects (especially outside ones). The kids entertained themselves pretty well. This is a very creative home made out of patio cushions that were quickly tossed inside to clear the deck for work. That night I thanked the children's guardian angels for keeping them alive since we didn't watch them that much all day.

I do think it's nice that the kids see us doing projects. MJ certainly enjoys it.

He really loves power tools and has taken several still shots of the various tools we own. Typically he has to pose them in the exact way they are on their boxes or the front page of their instruction manual (which he loves to read and thinks are his magazines).

Despite all the work, we managed to celebrate the 4th in a more conventional way of a BBQ at our neighbor's house. It was great getting to hang out and get to meet more of our neighbors and all of their kids. Plus, a few of the men had some great fireworks so we all enjoyed a very nice show on their lawn.
Mario didn't like that I let Joey use a sparkler on his own. (I still did it after taking this picture, but I held it with him).

I have a cute video of the boys and their sparklers as well as the 2 dozen neighborhood kids, but I didn't know if you'd find that interesting.

What would a blog post be without a picture of Sheila and one of her cute faces?

Oh, I have to get a video of her crawling before it's too late. She continues to improve in speed. Our new song for her is sung to the Spiderman theme song tune "Danger girl, danger girl, goes wherever the danger is"
The projects did not end there. Sunday I returned to Home Depot to rent their 14 ft ladder (which after renting the sander on Friday, I think they began to recognize me). With more threat of rain on Sunday, we couldn't work on the deck. So we moved inside and replaced the chandelier in our foyer. It is now my new favorite part of the house to stare out. Mario still amazes me with all the new things he takes on. His only comment is something like, "The more I do, the better I get at trying new things."

What kind of toothbrush do you use?

I was asked this at the dentist on Tuesday... I tried to figure out why that mattered as the only answer I could think of was "green?" The hygienist wanted to know if I used a manual or electric toothbrush.

I know we've had a good discussion about movie ratings, but I had to post a few pictures from our quick visit to NY last week. Mario had a conference in New Jersey, so the kids and I tagged along to spend some time with family in New York.

We first made a suprise visit with Grandmama and Grandpapa. I never tire hearing Grandmama's stories and the boys had a great time playing. I'm so happy they were able to play where Mario played as a child and hopefully they will have some memories like their dad had from his youth. It was hard to stop the fun to take pictures, and I hope I didn't overstay my welcome in doing so.



Two of our four Mario's

Then we stopped by Michael and Sarah's who generously hosted our very tired crew. As an added bonus, Luke was also visiting them at the same time. The kids had a great time scooting around inside the house and running in the front yard. I especially enjoyed watching Sheila and Michael Jr. play together. It was hard to pick only a few pictures of them. Michael really knows how to smile for a camera. This was definitely Sheila's favorite toy at their house.

Michael and Sheila shared so well, she even let him suck her hand. Of course, since Sheila likes eating her feet it wasn't a big deal for her.

It was so wonderful to see sweet Maria. She is growing so quickly! Maria was a very generous cousin and shared her toys so well. I am looking forward to returning the favor very soon!

6 months

This post is a little late, so I have to post it soon and I'm going to attempt to put it behind Michelle's birthday pictures. Our little baby Sheila became half a year old on June 4th. Here's a recap on how our other babies looked at 6 months old.

Superman Mario James!


Joyful Joey!

And now there is Sheila.
Is it any wonder that a big concern of mine at her check-up was if she is a healthy weight. I mean, I began to question failure to thrive. Since this is so fun for me, here's our 6 month chart. Blogger had trouble with my chart, so I saved it as an image and then posted it - weird. Sorry it is blurry. The second row is height and the third is head size.

The doctor insists she is growing fine. Still, the last time MJ or Joey weighed
17 lb 10oz they were less than 3 months old. Oh well, we still think she is adorable!

Perhaps her brothers are just giving her a good workout?
The following are not related to Sheila's 6 month celebration but are just fun.
We are so happy we got the SAMs chairs and enjoy rocking on them. Here are the boys watching one of the storms from last week.

As you already know, we were very lucky to have Luke stay with us last weekend. We had so much fun. Here's a playful moment between godfather and godson.We miss you Uncle Luke!