Watermelon, rain & frogs

Frankie came home from H.E.B. the other day with a HUGE watermelon. He cut it up and we all dug in!! Rafa & Gabriela have now added "watermelon" and "sandia" to their vocabulary!

It's also been raining like crazy over here the last couple of days. It's good for the lawn and even though it's humid, the temperature has been good to us. The rain has also been good for spotting baby frogs!! When you walk through the lawn, they start hopping just ahead of your feet. Today, Gabriela said that her favorite part of the day was playing with a baby frog. She said he had to go back to his mommy though.

Funny Sign

I really didn't have anything to say other than to show you this sign - it cracked me up!!

Plethora of Playground Pictures

Yesterday we went to the playground and since no one else was there, I let Micaela explore the playground for the first time! She was mesmerized by the rocks! I even slid her down one of the little slides and she got a kick out of that.

Gabriela showing her little sister the proper way to play with rocks.

In these pictures below, Rafa was checking out a motorcycle in the parking lot.

Sum-Sum Summertime!

The last week or two have been moving at a nice pace! Of course, it all started out with Geneva finishing up her last official year of elementary school. Time flies. There was a “crossing over” ceremony at her school and with that another journey begins! It’s been a pretty typical summer so far. Frankie’s been working on his books, we’ve taken the kids to the park to hang out with friends, seen a couple of movies and gone out for night time excursions for ice cream or pan dulce!

Grandma & Grandpa came by for a few days and it was a lot of fun. Rafa & Gabriela especially love hamming it up with them and we all had a really nice time! We’ll hopefully see them again soon.

Father’s Day was really nice and relaxing. We like to think that every day is a little father’s day and a chance again to say “Thank you, God, for everything (and everyone) wonderful that you give us!”

Geneva at her Crossing Over Ceremony.

Gabriela being sweet with Grandpa.

Rafa playing some hoops with Grandma.

Nothin' but net, Grandma. Nothin' but net!

Rafa & Gabriela playing with shaving cream in their water table.

Garden Lady

When I say "Garden Lady," I don't mean it in a lofty tone that implies that I'm a superior gardener - I'm not. Since this is my first experiment at a garden, I don't really know what I am doing yet. Nonetheless, what I do know is that I have turned into one of those people who take pictures of things in their garden! And I am happy about it!! Check it out... I am growing bushes of parsley and basil, two tomato plants (one is a beefsteak), one jalapeno plant and two poblano pepper plants. I can taste the rellenos already. As the kids say, "Thank you, God, for delicious food!"

This is the entire garden. If I can make this work, I will make and plant others this fall.

Basil and parsley. I'm making lasagna today and using both of these...

These are the beefsteak - I can't wait until they turn red.

Until now I had never seen a baby poblano.

Frankie's First Belt Awarding Ceremony

Last night we went to the TaeKwonDo academy where they had a belt awarding ceremony and Frankie earned his yellow belt!! Whoop whoop whoop!!! In the video, after he gets his belt, you can hear Rafa & Gab saying "Hi Dad!" The kids were super well-behaved as they sat and watched all those people get their new belts. And even though Geneva couldn't go to this belt ceremony - she earned her third degree green belt! You go girl!


After the belt ceremony, we went for some celebratory ice cream and then drove downtown to check out the cool motorcycles at the Republic of Texas Biker Rally. Rafa especially got a kick out of that!

I just had to throw in this picture below because during the belt ceremony, Gabriela picked up the camera & actually took this picture of Rafa! He was clapping for someone as they got their new belt.

Micaela is 9 Months Old!

Micaela turned 9 months old this week! She is a super happy baby who smiles and babbles all the time. When she gets really excited, she gets this huge smile and wrinkles her nose and squints her eyes! As you can see below.....

She likes to crawl – she gets around really well. She likes playing with her brother and sisters and she’s learned to protest if someone takes a toy away from her. She’s really personable and very easy going. She makes friends quickly! I’ve had so many people tell me what a good baby she is and they can’t believe she sits pretty happily throughout an entire mass. We’re expanding her food repertoire. The doctor said she can pretty much eat anything now, so we’re trying new things bit by bit. Frankie even let her taste ice cream for the first time!

Micaela is also starting to show signs of her first tooth! It’s a small little thing and you have to really look hard for it – but it’s there!

It’s been a quick and fun nine months and we’re all savoring every minute. When the kids really enjoy something, we always tell them to remember to say Thank You to God. So it’s funny to hear them shout, “Thank you, God, for ice cream!” or “Thank you, God, for bunny rabbits!”

So, Thank You, God, for every beautiful day that you give us!

Catching Up

I’ve gotten so behind that I don’t even know where to start! Last week Frankie was out of town for a few days at a retreat in Schulenburg. It’s a beautiful part of Central Texas that we didn’t know existed until we visited. I’ve attached a couple of photos of the retreat site and I promise they don’t do it justice. But while he was gone, the kids and I just hung around and did our thing.

One of the cool things we did was go to Bishop Vasquez’s first priestly ordination in the Austin diocese. It was really cool! I took my camera, but with juggling the kids, I only managed to get a few photos AFTER the ordination was over. It was really neat though.

Then later, Gabriela took most of the stuffed animals out of Geneva’s room and it turned into a scene from E.T. Silliness as usual. Frankie’s back, though, and we’re so glad to have him home!