Busy Busy Busy

We have been keeping really busy lately. I have been really bad about blogging the last few months, well since I became pregnant. Here's a little bit of catch up on our lives. This pregnancy has wiped me out. Recently I decided to start taking extra iron pills, thinking maybe I was anemic. It really seems to be helping. The boys have been busy being boys. David has decided that he wants to do everything that Jacob is doing. It's cute watching them play together. Jacob loves it that David finally wants to play with him. Jacob is doing really well in Kindergarten. I am so glad that he has such a wonderful teacher who has recognized that he was getting bored with what they were learning. She has made the extra effort to give him extra work and teach him new things so that he isn't bored. Emily and Erica had a concert at school where they sang a very nice variety of Christmas songs. They did a fantastic job! Of course they were on opposite sides, here is a picture of Emily with her class.

Here's Erica with her class.

Sara is learning to play the clarinet in Middle School this year. It was so much fun going to her first Band Concert. They did such a wonderful job after only playing their instruments for a few short months. She is in the very back left corner of the picture. It was super hot in the gym and very crowded, so I was just focusing on not passing out and this is the only picture that I took.

Before her concert we got a Pre-Concert at home. It is so wonderful to watch your children find a joy in music.

Jacob and Sara also participated in soccer this fall. They had a lot of fun.

When the three girls were little I use to think that life could not get any more crazy and busy then we were at that time. I soon found out that just because they were in school didn't mean less crazy. It's just a different kind of crazy and busy. But, we have so much joy watching our children grow, develop talents, and learn new things. Now we are getting ready for Christmas, for Manny to deploy in a few days, and for the baby. One thing is for sure... we are never bored and we are thankful for that!

Halloween at the Beach-part 1

The kids had the Friday before Halloween off of school. My friend Vinessa and her two kids went to Myrtle Beach with us. We had a wonderful time! The kids got to do a lot and keep busy, but it was actually very relaxing as well. Everything went very smoothly and it ended up being a very stress-free weekend. The family that we went with are our military family and the kids have pretty much grown up together. We have all known each other for almost 7 years now.

We have to get a goofy picture.

The very scary boys!

Freaky Girls!

Vinessa and Deon

We loved staying on the beach and sitting out on the balcony and having the ocean right there.

Daniel, Vinessa, and Olivia

Halloween at the Beach-part 2

We spent Friday afternoon at Ripley's Aquarium. The kids have so much fun here.

The kids had fun taking pictures. Here are just a few.

Petting the sting rays.

David LOVED petting the sting rays. Sara ended up having to put one hand on his back because he kept getting a little too close to the water. He was soaked.

Halloween at the Beach-part 3

We were so excited that it was actually warm enough to play at the beach on Halloween day. The weather was perfect and we had great waves to play in. The kids had so much fun!

Sara and David watching the waves.

I love the colors in this picture. We had such a fun weekend!

Family Time at the Beach

We escaped for the weekend and went to Myrtle Beach. Our lives have been so hectic lately that we decided that we just needed to get away. I am so glad that we did, we had a great time and the weather was perfect.

The kids were just relaxing in the water watching Daddy playing in the waves

Jacob was having a lot of fun running into the water

David started to copy Jacob and had so much fun running at the water. He would run all the way up and then all the way back and then turn around and do it all over again.

He ran and ran and ran some more until he couldn't run anymore. So, then he decided to crawl. Soon after that I took him into the condo and put him down for a nap and he gave me a look like "thank you" and went right to sleep.

These pictures are not in any sort of order. At the beginning of the day David wasn't so sure about the waves. He liked digging in the sand with the shovel and pail, and he liked the water, but the waves were a little strange. This is a picture of David saying, "Uh-Oh-eeeee" (that's his uh-oh) at a wave coming their way.

The girls had so much fun playing in the waves. I just love this picture because their heads turn in the same direction.

Daddy and David playing in the water

Erica made this special spot of hers, it was very relaxing. One of the things that I love about the beach is that you can spend hours playing in the sand and never get bored.

Sara enjoying the water. She is my little water baby.

Emily spent the majority of her time at the beach collecting beautiful sea shells. She would get so excited about each and every one of them with their unique shapes and colors. She brought a bag of them to her teacher at school on Monday after very carefully hand selecting the right ones for her.

I caught them having a special moment together in the water. The two of them sat like this just hanging out for the longest time.

Jacob can not wait to go back to the beach again. I forgot to put a picture of him on here in the waves. He was so cute, he was karate chopping them and doing his "ninja moves" on them. I really just needed the video camera for that, it was hilarious. He would jump over one, then karate chop the next one, then spin around and kick the next one.

The four of them were finding little clams and putting them in the bucket and watching them dig into the sand. They collected about 25-30 of them

It's a...

I had my ultrasound today and it's a GIRL!!!!!!!!! I am due right around Valentine's Day.

Introducing...

There is a Native American wives tale that when a small child is looking through their legs they are looking for their new little brother or sister.

For those of you who don't know yet, we are expecting baby #6. I am due Feb. 15th. This explains my disapearance from the blogging world, and the real world this summer. We have had a wonderful summer, and I have a lot to catch up on. I have been dealing with a lot of morning sickness. Or in my case, all day sickness. I am starting to feel like I can function again and can get back into life. Everything looks really good and I have had two ultrasounds already. One because of my history of twins and we weren't sure of the due date, and the other because they couldn't find the heartbeat at my last appointment. My heart stopped beating for a moment, but everything is fine. The baby was flipping all over the place in the ultrasound and I guess it wasn't sitting still long enough for them to find the heartbeat. The kids are very excited. It's pretty cute to listen to Jacob tell everybody about the baby. He's determined the baby is a boy and the girls are voting for a girl. Manny and I both feel like it's a boy, so we'll see.