Long time no blog!

O.K. so I am going to write this as quickly as possible so that I don't get distracted!! Just some updates so that I have them written down. I have been a terrible blogger and it makes me so sad because I love going back and reading past blogs. I guess I could title this as "My Christmas Letter" IF I was going to send one out! No, really I love to blog so that my kids and myself can look back and read about the past!

Lauryn and Aitana both learned how to ride their bikes without training wheels. I had it all planned out in my head...Lauryn hasn't been real interested in learning so I thought if Aitana got it she would be a little jealous and want to try...sure enough Aitana picked it right up and Lauryn said "when are you going to take my training wheels off?" Then Lauryn picked it right up...yeah!

Jacob is my champ! He has been babysitting for us. I know he is only 9, but I think that he handles things better than me sometimes! The first time that we left him for longer than 10 minutes was for parent teacher conferences. To our surprise when we got home he had done the dishes and both Ryan and Lila were asleep! We were shocked...needless to say he has done more babysitting lately. Jacob is so responsible and does so well in school. He loves music. He is now, on top of taking viola lessons, taking piano lessons. He also really loves playing the recorder at school which cracks me up!! Then he is in the 4th and 5th grade honor choir and was chosen to be in the district wide Circle the State with Song Concert. I think they choose 5-8 kids from each school. I never have to push him to do his homework or get his projects done (maybe because he can't play any video games or have any screen time until it is all done.) Last month Jacob was diagnosed with Benign Rolandic Epilepsy. He had some seizures while he slept so the Dr's had an EEG done on him and that was the diagnosis that the Neurologist gave. He is now on meds and hasn't had another seizure!

Lauryn is my little authoress. At PT conferences her teacher told us that they were writ ting books that would be published (well put into book form). She asked each child to write 4 pages....Lauryn ended up with 12, with illustrations! She loves to read and write. Friday she brought home a story that the teacher laminated and I had to cut the lamination open because the teacher didn't realize that she had written on the front AND the back so what was supposed to be a one page story ended up being a 4 and 1/2 page story. I am very proud of her. She is my snuggler and I love when she cuddles up to me. She usually has a book in her hand and loves the books that Diego picks out for her at the library. I think that she is finally over the Junie B. Jones series. She read each book about 3 times! She loves the American Girl series and was very touched by the Addy books which were based in the time of slavery.

Aitana is our social butterfly. (Most like me of all my kids probably...orneriness and all!) At PT conferences her teacher told us about her little click. She said that there are 3 boys and 3 girls that do everything together and one of them is Aitana. She has informed me that Dane (who is also part of the group) is her boyfriend. GREAT! She had a few issues with kissing boys when she first started kindergarten, but we've got that all taken care of thank goodness! She always wants friends over to play and is always trying to keep up with Jacob and Lauryn. If I compliment her on something she asks if she does it better than Lauryn. She makes us laugh on a daily basis and makes us cry on a daily basis! :) She is reading very well and loves to read to me. She loves the Dick and Jane books.

Ryan is our Toy Story/ Star Wars addict! He wants to watch Toy Story 2 every morning. (The terrible mother that I am I usually let him!) Then we try to not have the TV on the rest of the day, which is sometimes a struggle. He is going to a speech pathologist because I was worried about his articulation. She says that he doesn't have any major issues and that with a few sessions he should get better. She said that the sounds that he has problems with M, W, B, and P are usually some of kids first sounds so she thinks it's a little odd because the other sounds that kids with speech issues usually struggle with aren't a problem. He is a very sweet boy and very independent. At church he walks himself to nursery and a lot of times he wants to walk to the bus to get the kids by himself! (That doesn't happen) Ryan loves his big brother and gets so excited when he gets home from school.

Lila is such a sweetie. She makes us all smile! She is walking now and I think that she tries to say baby...sounds more like DD. None of the other kids made sounds that resembled words this soon so maybe it is because she has so many people talking to her all the time. She HATES the car, which can make my life a little crazy since I spend so much time in it! I am hoping that she will grow out of it sometime soon! My mom got her a little baby doll and stroller for her 1st birthday and it is so cute when she give it loves and says "DD". We are so blessed to have her in our family.

What can I say about my awesome husband Diego. He works his tail off!! At home and at work. He has been teaching 3 classes at OU while working on his dissertation, and trying to keep his crazy wife happy! His dissertation is going well, but I'm sure not progressing as fast as he would like because he spends so much time with us. We are so blessed to have such a great dad in the house. He has applied to about 10-15 Spanish faculty jobs so now it is a waiting game. We decided that he wouldn't apply to the ones in the mid west or east coast because then if something opened up on the west coast we would want to move and well moving isn't our favorite thing to do. We'll just wait it out here in OK if he doesn't get one of the jobs on the west coast that he applied for. I was very impressed by the letters of recommendation that he was given by the Department head, and 2 other faculty members. He works hard and is a very talented teacher and I know that everyone that he works with can see that. He was given an online class to teach next semester so that will be nice that he will only have to be on campus to teach the other 2 classes. He is also taking an accelerated Portuguese class for Spanish speakers next semester. He is going to kill me when he reads this, but I can't brag about him enough.

I am the same....crazy mom of 5! I love it and wouldn't change my life for anything. I am so blessed! I sometimes have a hard time balancing it all which leads to eating fast food, but I'm working on that! I can't update much about myself because I am the same as always! Love to talk on the phone, go on dates with my hubby, and play on FB. I AM going to try to be a better blogger, but I won't keep my fingers crossed!