Teething and a swingset

Sebastian is cutting his third tooth, first top tooth. He loves these bracelet's of Manah's!

 

And a "new to us" swingset for the backyard! Some neighbors who were downsizing gave us an old wooden swingset. Austin spent a beautiful afternoon with the children putting it together in the backyard. They were so excited, especially about the big slide, which we have never had before! We still have the metal swingset too, but it is starting to rust.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had such beautiful weather, and it ended up being a huge blessing because Austin was sick Wednesday and Thursday. :( I hope this doesn't become a habit...he had the flu last Christmas! We did have Pawpaw and Manah to celebrate with, which was an extra blessing!

The turkey outfits are compliments of Lito and Lita (as was our pumpkin spice pancake breakfast!). Sebastian and Anastasia's outfits were too big, so the girls put his on Annie over her Aggie shirt, and she looked so cute!

SO much to be thankful for!!!

8 Months Old!

Our Sebastian is 8 months old today! It was a busy month for our big guy. He made many big leaps this month including army crawl/scooting all over the place and transitioning from the swing to the crib for all 3 of his naps. He is also sleeping unswaddled for naptime and bedtime! He still takes 3 naps of around an hour each. He had his first stomach bug. :/ This is the reason I have not posted since last Monday! No fun! He is still recovering...and so am I. He is such a sweet baby, though, that even when life gets hard, he is still such a joy!
He started out the month saying various random sylables then quickly settled on "mama" with great vigor. Then this last week or so, he switched to "dada." He is sitting up much better as well.

(And for my personal reference...I made it back to my pre-baby weight this month...just in time for jeans weather. Yay!)

Mobile guy

This guy is now on the move. He army crawl/scoots everywhere. Gone are the days of Legos in the living room. Look out world, here comes Sebastian!!!

Soccer Tournament

Allia's end of season tournament was Saturday, and boooy was it cold! Her team was ranked a close second going into the tournament, and far above the third place team. They fully expected to play in the championship game and really should have. However, the team ranked last developed some very questionable tactics to sneak their way into the championship game! They never scored one goal. They played their entire team on their half of the field defending their goal and kicking the ball out of bounds if things got close. They even had a defender playing 2nd goalie at one point. The ref missed a lot of calls, including fouls and rules violations, and our team lost the game in triple, sudden death overtime as a shootout. It was really diappointing to say the least, but I was very proud about how Allia and her teammates handled it. They all showed up for the "consolation" game to win 3rd place. And when the other team forfeited (it was drizzling, about 35 degrees and dark out!), they played a "just for fun" game of girls against Dads. Allia had made special cookies to hand out and so did another teammate. So they celebrated in spite of it all. I checked to see how the championship game went....same thing. 0-0, but this time that team apparently lost in the shootout. So at least they did not win the championship! And the whole thing was a great life lesson in making the most of an unfair, disappointing situation. So I think Allia's team came out on top after all! Did I mention that Allia played the best I have ever seen her play. She was really awesome. I was just sad that Austin couldn't be at that game to see her...but at least he was there to play the Dads game that evening!

Last Soccer...Brr!

Stephen had his last soccer class of the season this morning. Heading out, the temperature was a mere 37 degrees! I was surprised that he was so happy to go. I bundled him up well and armed him with a thermos of homemade hot cocoa, and he had a great time. It was just he and one other boy that braved the cold. We all watched from the van, and I just hopped out to take a few photos. What a guy, my Stephen! He earned a special smiley face patch and even got to do his favorite activity - "The tunnels."

Reading buddies

Gloria loves to try and keep Sebastian happy without me as long as possible...which can be quite a challenge this last week or so. She decided to read him a book and was so proud that he enjoyed it!

Family Visit

We had a nice visit with Austin's Tio Quique and Aunt Somer last night. They are in town for a visit to Aggieland with their son, Lorenzo, who might attend A&M next year...we are all hoping he does, anyway! They really hit it off with the children, even a very sleepy Sebastian.

Aunt Somer definitely has a way with babies!

The girls loved this game with Aunt Somer where they draw letters on each other's backs and guess what letter. They started doing words too.

 Anastasia really warmed up to Tio Quique. She even gave him a kiss when they left!

We all had a good laugh during bedtime prayers. Each child prayed in thanksgiving for their visit, but Stephen said for "Tio Kiki" and Anastasia said "Tia Kiko." He has quite a variety of names! ;)

All Saints Celebration

We had a belated All Saints celebration at church last night because they paired it with the First Friday Children's Holy Hour. It was a potluck dinner/party with adoration afterwards.

At dinner with friends (Allia was Our Lady of the Rosary, Mariana a Guardian Angel, Stephen was Jesus with the Sacred Heart, Gloria was St. Therese, and Anastasia was Mary)

 Most of the little saints gathered together

 Anastasia and her buddy, Magdalene, had a great time together. Once the stage cleared they had a blast throwing these angel feathers and chasing them. So sweet!

 And my guys...not dressed up but still cute!

Crazies

Here is my crazy bunch at the mall. I discovered that Stephen really needed pants after changing over their drawers to fall/winter clothing with our recent cool front...and since it came with lots of rain (and there were several good sales going), I figured it was worth an venture to the mall to find the boy some pants and let everyone run around a bit!

Happy Baptism Day, Allia!

What a weekend! We had an early celebration of All Saints' at the park Friday morning with friends, Lito came in Friday evening. Then, Saturday began early with the girls singing at mass (and it turned out the mass was offered for Allia by her Godparents!), then a 9am soccer game and a 1:30pm soccer game. We were able to visit with Tio Enrique and Lorenzo as they visited this weekend as well and went to the Aggie game with Lito. Pawpaw and Manah also arrived Saturday with a U-Haul full of some furniture for the new house! Whew. Luckily, Allia and I did some baking on Friday afternoon. She made a pumpkin spice cake and was very proud of it. It was wonderful to celebrate such a special weekend with so much family and fun!

 Her team won both games!