THE BIGGEST, HUGEST, MOST SHOCKING, EXCITING NEWS WE'VE EVER HAD!

Yesterday we found out we are expecting....twins! The last 2 months have been filled with ups and downs but this piece of news left us with mouths gaping open. I went in for my first sonogram and the technician took the longest pause ever, gave me a million mile stare and asked me if twins ran in our families!

I laughed for about 15 minutes in disbelief!

We are excited to say the least!

So if any of you out there in blogger land have twins and have any advice, bring it on!

Birthday Fun!

I got to celebrate my birthday twice this year thanks to my sweet husband's secretive scheming and planning.

First, we celebrated a day early with our family at our house. Carmela made my favorite meal, we opened presents (I'm very excited about my new cowboy boots and digital frame!) and we had my favorite - ice cream cake with coffee for dessert.

Opening my presents

Posing with all of the kids except Judah who refused to be in the picture

Then I got more on my actual birthday! I spent the morning having breakfast with my two dearest friends, Kerri and Lois. They did such a good job of keeping Stevie's secret to themselves. Thanks to all of you who were able to make it out for my surprise birthday party. Stevie really did surprise me-it was so sweet of him and he did a great job (with the help of family and friends). He knows me so well....he planned for karaoke and a piñata-two things I always said make a good party!

Yes that is me hitting a piñata on my 29th birthday-never too old!

Thanks babe-you're the best!

Our "staycation"

In lieu of a family vacation away from home this summer, we did our own version of a "staycation" this past weekend. This was primarily due to the fact that Stevie's truck bit the dust (needs a new motor which is not cheap) and so we had to forfeit our San Antonio/Sea World plans and make the best of it. In actuality, we had a blast this past weekend and I think having fun around Dallas and sleeping in our own beds at night was probably the best thing we could have done!

So on Friday we took the boys to their first movie ever-Ice Age 3 at AMC Firewheel. Stevie and I were amazed but they watched the entire thing and loved it! Judah was so cute chomping on his popcorn and drinking his juice. We never even had to step outside with Levi which really surprised me!

Me and the boys in front of the theater. If you look closely, you can see Judah's "Manny" toy from the movie Ice Age that he got with a Happy Meal from McDonalds. He sat with Manny during the movie of course!

Then after lunch we headed to the Science Place at Fair Park. They got to see "Manny" (a mammoth like the one from the movie), lots of animals, cool gadgets and gizmos and my favorite part, the children's exhibit on the bottom floor. If you haven't gone, you really should! They have live animals-snakes, ant farms, spiders, etc., a barnyard area, lots of cool dress up stuff, themed career areas where kids get to "try out" the careers (firefighters, theater, construction and more), a toddler area where kids can crawl and play, sand tables, a water room....so much for them to do!

The Water Room

Levi checking out his funny relfelction on the "stage" of the "theater"

Watching the cool things the light does in the ball when we touch it

Both boys playing in the toddler area

We ended Friday night with dinner out and then all of us off to bed at home!

Then Saturday we headed to Fort Worth for some fun in the sun on the beaches of Burgers Lake. Another very cool place! Check out the website http://www.burgerslake.com/ - although it does not do it justice. After playing in the water, Levi napping in the shade of a makeshift tent with our stroller and towels and a picnic lunch in the shade of the trees, we headed to the Stockyards to see the sights and of course the longhorns.

Picnic lunch in the shade

Ready to jump in! The water was nice and cool!

Levi taking a cat nap....this is the life!

Ride 'em cowboy!

Look at those longhorns!

The boys had so much fun (as did we) and did much better than we even could have expected! A family "staycation" ended up being fun and fulfilling!

BIG NEWS!

Kathy and Sonny are engaged! On Thursday night (July 16) Sonny surprised Kathy in front of both of our families while celebrating Carmela's birthday and popped the question! It was so neat how he did it. Sonny plays the guitar and so he sang and played the Brad Paisley song "Then" and in the middle of the verse where he describes proposing, Sonny stopped the song and went and dropped to one knee. We are so excited to welcome Sonny into our family! Congratulations you two! Here are just 2 pictures I managed to snap during the moment. However, in the midst of all the celebrating afterwards I didn't get a shot of them looking at the camera or of Kathy's incredibly gorgeous big ring! Oh well, another post another time!

Down on one knee!

Aww how sweet!

Levi's 1 year checkup

Levi's one year checkup took a suprising turn today...Here are the stats.

Head - 18 inches (25-50%)

Length - 30 inches (50-75%)

and then there's the suprise:

Weight - 19.6 lbs (5-10%)

Yes I said 5-10%! It seems that Levi is now following in his big brother's footsteps. Apparently between his 9 month and 12 month appointment he should have gained an average of 9 grams per day. Instead, he only gained 7.2 grams per day. The good news is that this time around the doctor is not alarmed. She said since she now understands Stevie's history of high metabolism (oh poor Stevie) and since they have done tests on Judah and see that nothing is wrong, then we aren't going to worry so much about Levi. She instructed me to do the same things I was told to do with Judah-increase his milk intake, add butter to his food when possible and make sure he's getting good fatty foods like cheese, yogurt, beans, etc.

The funny thing is, we would've never guessed this was going to pan out like this today. Stevie and I were SO SURE Levi weighed at least 20 if not 22 lbs. And then to top it off, he eats SO MUCH! I give him the same serving sizes as Judah, he often eats what Judah doesn't touch and then he also asks for food all throughout the day. There are some moments where I have worried that we are feeding him too much-apparently I'm not feeding him enough!

You can't tell by this picture though!

Happy Birthday Levi!

I cannot believe it! Our little firecracker is one year old today! We celebrated this 4th of July in bigger ways than past years since it was Levi's first birthday. We spent the day swimming, eating, playing and just having a good time! He tuckered out too early to see the fireworks show though....that's ok-he'll have plenty more chances to see fireworks on his future birthdays!

It's so funny how life is....14 years ago Stevie and I were at church camp on this day. We snuck out to watch fireworks from a rooftop of a building on the camp grounds. Who would've guessed that so many years later, we'd be celebrating the birthday of our second child!

Mami and Levi on July 4, 2008

Mami and Levi on July 4, 2009

Conversations with a 2 1/2 year old

In the last month or so, Judah's conversation skills have really taken off. From the moment he wakes up (and starts calling for me) until the moment we lay him down at night, he is almost continually talking....to us, to Levi or sometimes to himself and his toys. I decided I needed to to take some time to document some of his typical conversations.

Judah telling jokes:

-"Mami, ¿Papi es Doc?" (mami, papi is Doc (character from the movie Cars)
-short pause as he gives me time to make a "are you crazy?" face
-then Judah says "NAAAAAAA!" and laughs at his own little joke

He repeats this joke many time throughout his days, interchanging different family members and different Cars characters, but laughs likes its the first time he's told the joke every time!

Judah asking for something he really wants:

-"Mami, ¿vitaminas de Cars?" (mami, cars vitamins? - as he points to their location)
-I then ask him and clarify "¿Quieres tus vitaminas de Cars?"
-and then all in one sentence (so as to avoid me telling him no) he rapidly says "Si, ok mami!" (Yes ok mami)

His new thing is to say Yes OK mami to everything in hopes that if he gets that sentence out fast enough I won't remember that I probably wanted to turn down his request!

Other funny things...
* He now likes to "read" his books and tell the story himself (of course he puts himself in the story)
* Judah now calls himself "Judah" and also calls himself "tú" (you)...so he's not using personal pronouns correctly yet but at least he's started using them!
* He is always trying to get Levi in on his shenanigans. He will yell (very loudly) for Levi to come - "¡EEEEE-IIIIIIII ven!". Then at that point he will usually give him whatever toy it is he has decided Levi needs to play with. They love playing with cars most of the day. They also love jumping up and down and falling down in Judah's crib.

Levi isn't talking yet but he does a lot of grunting and babbling. He is also very into pointing at things at the moment. Whatever he wants, he points at.

They both keep me laughing so much! Man, God is good!