Oops!!

Um our blog list got deleted so I would really appreciate it if anyone who reads this can look to make sure that we have you listed and if we have forgotten you please leave a comment with your blog address. I have a terrible memory! Thank you, Thank you! Stay tuned for our next post...fire in the building! Scary! Oh and by the way, in our new picture that Diego posted I just want you all to know that I would never buy the shirt that Ryan is wearing, it was given to him. I don´t think that it is true! I only put it on him here because most people don´t understand what it says! I actually picture Naydene who lives in a double wide, feathers her hair, wears stretch pants, and weighs in at about 350 putting it on her son!

Heart melting!

I just had to post this before I forgot! Lauryn was asking to have her own email address because Jacob does, so we got her signed up yesterday. I always check their emails with them or before they do because you never know what is going to get sent to them. I just opened Lauryn´s email and found this from Jacob...too much for a mom!

Dear Lauryn,
You are my sister, and I am your brother, and I love you.
Jake

They are only 16 and a half months apart and they are best friends. Hopefully it stays that way even when they get older. I love listening to them at night talking and giggling. (Until it starts getting too late and then...well you know) They usually sneek into the same bed. Lauryn plays legos with Jacob and Jacob reads Junie B. Jones books with Lauryn. They are too cute! Lauryn was beside herself when Jacob was out of school for a week and she couldn´t play with him at recess. What more could you want as a mom! I am so glad that Lauryn has a wonderful big brother like I do. What a blessing.

DNA

I love what kids come up with!! So on Friday Jacob came home from school and was very anxious to show me something. He pulls out this little notebook and opens it. The first page reads, "DNA Book By Jacob." Then he turns the page and there is a hair taped to it and written underneath it says Jacob´s hair, his sex, age, and color of eyes. I was cracking up. Throughout the day he managed to collect many different people´s hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows. He then informed me that when he grows up he wants to be a scientist that works with DNA. In my head I am thinking, "yeah stick to that one you can make good money being a scientist!" I once got in trouble with Diego when Jacob told me that when he grew up he wanted to be a writer and I pretty much shot him down informing him that it is very difficult to become a successful writer and they usually don´t make a good living. O.K. so definately not one of my shining mom moments! I learned my lesson so now I just agree how great it would be to become a shop owner, construction worker, lego architect, Wii game maker, or whatever the choice job of the week is!

I was also happy that Jacob informed me that he changed his mind about what he wants for Christmas (for the 100th time.) He said that he wants a science kit with a "microscope and tubes to do science experiments." I am definately happier spending money on that than another lego set, or wii game! If anyone has any suggestions on where or which one is good please let me know. I am going to have minimal time to do Christmas shopping when we get home.

So back to DNA. We are all sitting in the living room when I glance over at Lauryn, who is sitting next to Ryan on the coffee table, and without even blinking she grabs a large tuft of Ryan´s bangs and cuts it off!! Um, did I just see what I think I saw? Now, I must admit Ryan´s hair is getting a little too long, but I get an uproar from the entire family including Diego when I even mention cutting it! And yes Amie, he is starting to look a little like a man child! Luckily you couldn´t really tell that she cut it. Anyways after putting Lauryn in time out and explaining to her that we don´t cut anyone´s hair, including our own, and after she apologized for not asking permission (yeah, because I would´ve said yes if you asked, or NOT!), I did have to laugh to myself and be greatful that my kids like to help each other out with their projects. After all, she said that she was just trying to help Jacob get more DNA! I did catch Lauryn today trying to pull one of Aitana´s eyelashes out! When I got on her about it Aitana looked at me and said "I want her to." O.K. kids whatever!

Here is the infamous hair that Lauryn cut from Ryan´s locks!

Most would agree that it is at least time for a trim.

My brave boy

Well just a quick update on my boy. Jacob is recovering well from his surgery and being very brave. We got to the emergency room at around 10 in the morning on Tuesday and he was in surgery at 1 in the afternoon. I was impressed at how fast they were. The doctor said that everything went well, but that his appendix was very swollen almost to the point of bursting. What a blessing that we got him in before it burst! I always used to think to myself, "I hope that nothing painful ever happens to Jacob because he will scream the entire time." He doesn´t deal with pain well at all! Well I was wrong about this. He has been amazing! He hasn´t complained much at all, well a little when they changed the bandage, but not much. They finally let him eat soft foods yesturday and today probably a little more variety.

We are all very proud of him and are anxious for him to come home. Hopefully tomorrow or Sunday he will get to come home. It is wearing on all of us especailly Lauryn. She had a terrible day at school yesturday becuase she misses him so much, and of coarse it was picture day! She said that she didn´t smile at all so I will make sure to post that gem of a picture when I get it.

We are very lucky that the Tranvia stops one street from our house and stops right in front of the hospital or changing off would be a real headache. Diego has been sleeping there and then I have been spending the afternoon with him. (We have been playing a lot of Phase 10!) We were going to switch off nights, but there was no way that I could´ve sleep in that reclining chair with hopefully only a week or 2 to go till our new addition. They won´t allow visitors in under 12, but the kids dropped in for a short hello last night and Ryan got to say hi quickly the day before. Thanks for all the prayers and notes!

Jacob said that he was like a human fire engine with all the tubes coming off his IV.

When it rains it poors!

Well just a quick note to let everyone know that Jacob is at the hospital right now and has to have his appendix out. (Not sure how to spell and I´m a little frazled right now!) Anyways say a prayer for him. I´m sure that he will be fine, but it sure is tough as a mom to see him go through this!

What the heck is the deal!!

O.K. so I am a little bitter right now and I have to vent. I truly enjoy being pregnant...I know I´m sick and wrong. I wouldn´t have almost 5 kids if I had terrible pregnancies. Anyways so since we arrived in Spain a little over 5 months ago I have only gained like 7 pounds and I weigh the least that I have ever weighed with any of my pregnancies. I totally attribute this to having to walk everywhere and not being able to drive through any of my favorite fast food joints anytime I feel a touch hungry or I didn´t plan dinner. (Now I am not saying I am thin by any means because I definately started this pregnancy way over my ideal weight but at least I haven´t tacked on another 20-30 pounds like I usually do.)

So back to my frustration. I have always chuckled to myself about these super thin women who look like a tooth pick with a pea on it and have high blood sugar or high blood pressure when they are prego. I don´t laugh because I am super jealous that they look so great, but I just think that it should be the women who can throw down the super sized Big Mac meals with no prob. (like myself) that should struggle with those issues. It just seems logical to me. Hope I don´t offend any of my fellow big eaters!! So I have my first glucose test and I pass it. I have never had an issue with any of my pregnancies, but for some crazy reason the Doc has me do another one. Not sure why, maybe they do it differently here. Well that great orange drink that they give you isn´t quite as great here ha ha. They don´t even try to make it somewhat drinkable. Nope, the second time I had to do it I just about lost it!

So I go to the OB tonight and he has the results from my blood tests and says that my blood sugar is a little high and then the nurse takes my blood presure and says that it is a little high!!! Wait a second....I am like 15 pounds less than any of my other pregnancies, how can this be? Then the doctor procedes to tell Diego that I have to go in for the grand daddy glucose test of them all tomorrow which is 3 hours and they have to draw blood 3 times, oh yeah and I couldn´t leave out that tasty orange drink!! Oh, if I had a Taco Bell close I would have driven there and thrown down a few burritos! Oh, and the biggest Dr. Pepper that I could get my hands on. Oh wait maybe not, the heart burn would have killed me! So needless to say I am totally bitter! I am definately happy that I haven´t gained as much weight, but someone help me understand the logistics because I am definately not a doctor!!

I also had an unltrasound this morning and the tech said that the baby looked chubby (gordita) and that my amniotic fluid was okay to low. She scheduled me to have another ultrasound a week from Friday. The baby´s health comes first but it would be great timewise if I had to be induced a little early. We´ll see!

Quick note of funny things kids say
The kids are watching some Chinese show called something like ninja warrior. It looked a little bit to me like American Gladiators only there weren´t any steriod using gladitors on this show, just really strong Chinese men. The contestants have to go through these crazy obstacle courses that require massive amounts of strength. Don´t ask me why, but the kids think it is the greatest thing. So this is the conversation.

Jacob-Mom do they have any shows like this in the US?
Me-Yeah they have a show called American Gladiators

A few minutes pass.

Jacob-If Daddy ever went on that show he would have to lose a LOT of weight and gain a little bit of muscles.
Me-HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa.........................................
Lauryn-But Daddy isn´t from China, he is from Spain.
Me-HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaha.............................................

Entry from Jacob and Lauryn

I have a feeling that this blog is soon going to become overtaken by the kids! (Not like pretty much every entry is about them) Every little thing that they do they ask to post it on the blog and usually I say no because it is chaos sitting down with all the kids to try to do this kind of thing, but finally I gave in. so here are there entries! And no Jacob does not watch wrestling, but they didn´t have the soccer chips that he wanted.

Jacob´s new wrestiling chips

Well, I got these new wrestling chips, as you can seen in the pics. The people on the chips, or

W chipz, are JTG, Trevor Murdoch, Mick Foley & Chris Jericho.

(P.S. I Jacob wrote this.)

Lauryn´s new journal

This is my journal. I call it "My Private Journal" and it´s nick name is "Diary." I already wrote on 2 pages, but I like reading them a lot of times. Well I wrote that at school one day we were supposed to draw a leapord, but when a girl named Nedea saw my leapord she said "que feo" which means how ugly. Then when she showed me hers I said "que bonita" which means how pretty. So now I´m her friend. The End

Halloween in Spain / "Jalogüín" en España

Although not many people celebrate Halloween here in Spain I couldn´t pass up celebrating one of my favorite holidays, so we decided to have a small little family Halloween party. Grandma sent a fun Halloween package with some cute tops for the kids and fun treats. Thanks Grandma! Diego and I started out the day running around getting all the things that we needed for the party and we actually found some Halloween decorations! When I say running around I literally mean running around since we don´t have a car. I would say that we probably walked 4 or more miles! We also had an ultrasound scheduled for the day so we had to fit that in too. The OB said that everything looked normal, i.e. amniotic fluid, heart, kidneys, bladder, and her size. We were happy with the results since when we had the last ultrasound the tech was a little worried about the amount of fluid and her size.

So here are the results of all our work. I must say it definately paid off! The kids loved it and we didn´t even get one whine or complaint! The kids decided to dress themselves up and this is what they came up...Jacob decided to be a mad scientist, Lauryn a Flamenco Dancer, Aitana a princess, Ryan, well he ended up dressing up like a white trash baby after spilling one too many things on himself, and Alejandro, a farmer.

We started off with a fun and healthy dinner, hot dogs, pizza, chips, and punch. Oh, did I say healthy? My mistake. After dinner we play pin the nose on the pumpkin. Even Ryan liked it.

The kids loved the eat the donut off the string with no hands, but it didn´t last too long since the donuts quickly fell to the floor. Three second rule!!

Next, crafts! I am always a little leery of crafts during parties because the kids are usually a little crazy and uninterested, but the kids actually enjoyed the candy spiders and Halloween book marks. Short, sweet, and to the point!

O.K. why not a few more treats to get the kids completely sick. Grandma sent this Halloween cupcake kit and it made a whopping 6 cupcakes, but enough sprinkles and frosting mix (you had to add powdered sugar, butter and water to the frosting mix, I think that the frosting mix was just food coloring) for like 20 cupcakes. The kids loved them!

Next Tía Pily told the kids a spooky Halloween story. She gets hired to do story telling a lot and the kids loved it. They got a little creeped out when the vampire in the story grabbed a knife, but then were cracking up when she started singing about using the knife to spread some peanut butter!

O.K. finally the grand finale! Trick-or-treating!! The kids went door to door to each bedroom. They had such a fun time and since we bought all the candy we didn´t have a plethera of too many tootsie rolls, hard candy, mints, dumb dumbs, etc. You know the candy that sticks around until the next Halloween! Purely the good stuff that we knew they would like!

All and all it was a hit and I must admit it ended up being just as fun or funner than Halloween in the states....No one got cold trick or treating, no one was over tired from a day full of too many activities (well, except for mom and dad), and no one threw up! (at least not yet).