Fork...Spoon...Finger....Whatever works best

In action

If the spoon is not cooperating he just uses his hands.

Helping himself to a snack. I love that M jumps right in. Who needs a plate. This floor will do the trick. Look and no dishes to clean-up. The pantry is way to accessible I know when he is getting hungry. He just helps himself.

C a victim to his latest feeding frenzy.

I love this age. I think I say that about every age. This little guy is just learning how to feed himself. He is insistent upon it. He actually won't eat unless he is holding the utensil.

Feliz Anniversario

M and C birthdays are just 5 days apart. It is so much fun. On their special day we let them choose a fun activity and there favorite dinner. I tried to talk C into Dominos Pizza or a Churrascuria. It was a no go. All you wanted to eat were lobster claws. I couldn't find the claws so Lobster tail would have to do. I have never cooked it so after a little research on google we now know how to prepare Lobster. Along with Lobster tail You wanted Jello with lots of fruit in it, Cheetos and Guarana.

I cannot believe you are 7yrs old. Here are 7 things I love and adore about you.

#1 I love your kind heart. You are always willing to help out a friend with what ever they need.

#2 You are a good example to your younger brothers.

#3 Whenever Dad leaves, you take on the role of the man of the house.

#4 You have a great sense of humor and good imagination. You are always thinking of ways or tools to make life easier. Your latest invention would be a giant sling shot that could take you from here to Utah in a split second.

#5 You are learning how to read and enjoy writing a good story with illustration to go along.

#6 I love that you like to watch Animal Planet and then want to tell me about all the cool things you have learned.

#7 You are just like your Dad. Your very smart and are good with math and numbers.

C I just can't get enough of you. I love to watch you learn and create.

Feliz Anniversario 2x

This little guy has me wrapped around his little finger and He knows it.

I can't believe what he gets away with.

Four things I love love love about YOU!

(There are a million things I love but here are FOUR since your turning four)

#1 Every single night when he gets into bed he asks "Will you lay by ME!" How can I say "NO" to a good snuggle with my M. I lay down by him and he gives me the little melt my heart grin. Then he proceeds to pull up his sleeve so I can rub his arm. I stay just a few minutes but they are precious minutes.

#2 I love the scene every morning when I drop him off at school. He unbuckles himself. I make him promise me he is going to have a good day. Then he makes sure I don't have any lip gloss on before I give him a kiss. He doesn't want any kiss marks on his cheeks.

#3 I love that he always is comparing himself to his DAD. He informed me he was getting pretty big just like his dad. I asked him how..what do you mean?. He then tells me So proudly his eyebrows are getting big just like DAD's.... LUCKY GUY HUH!

#4 One thing we love to do with M are his puzzles. He loves them and is quite good at them. Once he has roped you in he'll never let you leave. Putting them together and taking them apart and putting it together again. Oh the memories!

Birthday day we went to the "HOT ZONE" and then had some friends over for lunch and cake. I hope he had a great day!

Gimmie a KISS!

This is for you Grandma Arbuckle

Thanks for all the goodies. It was like getting Christmas in September. Your the best!

Fun Climbing Tree

Fever

We had just moved into our new place and M claimed this box for his own. He had covered the bottom of the box with diapers to make it nice and soft. He always plays in the box putting all sorts of treasure and toys. Throughout the day M had been pretty winy and I could tell he was really tired. We went to get the kids from school and he kept telling me he was so tired and couldn't walk. At around 5:30 p.m. he went and put his pajamas on curled up in his box and went to bed. When I found him the poor little guy was burning hot with a fever. Now it all made sense he was getting sick. This was C's nice little touch of trapping him in the box. After all what are brothers for.

EVICTED...A BLESSING IN DISGUISE

There really is a good reason behind me getting so far behind on my blog. Here is the story. It was a friday morning I had just gotten home from exercising and went to shower. While getting dressed I hear my door bell ring. I thought it was a little weird because I wasn't expecting anybody. In fact nobody can just show up at your house. The guards will always call up before letting anyone through the gates below. I open up the door and here is the Zelador (apt manager) standing there with a man. They both start speaking in Portuguese of course and I am not getting any of it. All I know is they aren't leaving. I could tell by there body language something was up. I am frantically trying to figure out my new cell phone and am searching for R phone number. I finally get through to him and he found someone in the office to speak to this man. To make a very very long story short this man was here to throw us out of our apartment. Come to find out the man we were renting from wasn't paying his mortgage and was in default. He was no longer the owner of the apartment and we were getting kicked out. After about an hour and a half of lawyers speaking with lawyers. This nice man that was here to kick us out realized that we had no idea what was going on. Once he heard I had four kids and I started crying he showed mercy on us and gave us 6 days to get out. He could have just done his job and given us the boot but he went out of his way to help us. That afternoon we went apartment hunting and we moved the next Thursday.

It is interesting looking back on the whole thing. Our Zelador knew what was going to happen. A few days prior to this he came to our house and gave us a list of apartments for rent within the building. We thought it was rather strange he would do this. We also crossed paths with him in the elevator a week prior to this and he sure had a lot to say. If we could have only understood him that would have been helpful. Another sign of things to come was a man came to our house a few months earlier. He was once again speaking in Portuguese. He showed up at our house at 6:30 a.m. and talked with R for a good 10 min. We now understand he was there giving us 2 months notice that we needed to get out of the apartment.

I have to say that day was a little shocking and stressful but we love our new place and it is so much better for our family. We really feel it was a blessing in disguise. (p.s. the picture above is not really us. I just enjoy taking pics of cars and trucks that are spewing with stuff. I see it quite frequently here)