Well, here's what we've been up to for the last month and a half.

My kids are still really cute



And they love each other



Nana (formerly known as Mana, thank you, Elise) came in to spend the last few days of my pregnancy with us and to help out after Ryan's birth. We decided to take the kids to the zoo to encourage my body to keep doing what it was already doing on its own. I had been at 3cm for two weeks at this point and everyone was pretty anxious about me going in to labor.



This is the last picture of me with just 3 kids and also the last picture of me pregnant. Ever. Unfortunately I completely forgot to take one last belly picture until I was in the hospital gown and all hooked up to machines.



The zoo did the trick. The next day I was 4.5cm and my doctor sent me to the hospital. She took her time really getting the induction process started because she was running late that day and she arrived at the hospital right before the nurses' shift change and didn't want to stress anyone out. Once we really got started it all moved really quickly. By the time she broke my water I was already 7cm and Ryan was born an hour later in one push. So from the time I left my appointment to delivery was a grand total of 4 hours. Only 2 of those were uncomfortable. Good times.

5/9/12. 8:29pm. 6lbs, 3oz.



Coming home!







All 4 (!) of my kids



About 1 week old



2 weeks old



Mattman sure is big now



This is how Matthew plays with Ryan



Viv turned 2! We threw her a relatively small (for us) party at Gilbert's mom's house. She's gotten a bit dark already this summer because she LOVES being in Grammy's pool. We went with a zoo animal theme and she went crazy for it.

Super cute giraffe print birthday outfit



Elise riding the neighbor's horse. She loved it.



At the end of her party with her buddy Amelia. Viv has perfected the pout and I love the contrast of Amelia's big cheesy smile.



Enjoying her gift from her grandparents



Birthday morning donut!







Birthday dinner at Red Robin with the grandparents



Elise and her Nana are like two peas in a pod



At the pediatrician for Viv's 2 year check up. I just find the size difference amusing.



Yep.



5 weeks old







One last story time before Grandpa got on the plane to go home.



My parents were here for a total of 5.5 weeks. My mom was here for 4 and my dad was here for 2. They overlapped for about 5 days. Now the kids are getting used to just having me in the house with them all day. They definitely got off to a rough start there. Now if only I could get back to sleeping through the night ;-)

As promised, a post with photos!

Some changes took place in our living room last month and I have to say we're loving the results. I didn't realize how much I didn't care for the carpet until the laminate was installed.


March was a bit crazy. I spent about half of it walking around in a bit of a fog and I'm glad to be feeling normal again. Gilbert went to California for 5 days and we missed him like crazy. We spent his birthday at the rodeo and the kids had a great time. Matthew actually got himself a real cowboy hat at the rodeo and he was thrilled.



We mainly just walked around the livestock and expo part of the rodeo. We didn't stay for any of the competitions. The kids had fun looking at the animals, though :)







Elise's birthday! Since her birthday fell on a Sunday and we have a family tradition of having Shipley Do-nuts on birthdays, we celebrated the day before. Viviana thoroughly enjoyed her chocolate donut...




Once again, Grammy came through with a fun party.





The birthday girl and her big brother :)




My 3 year old!

 




Eventually, Viviana just sat down and started playing in the mess



Elise used to be terrified of dogs. This was a big reason why we got Zero so quickly after Pez abandoned us. Gilbert figured it would be better for Elise to have a dog in the house in hopes that it would help her get over her fear. The man was right. Elise loves Zero. He even lets her do this to him:

 

After sharing that story with one of Jason's friends, she found this stuffed Corgi and bought for Elise's birthday. Elise loves it.



My little Texans going for a walk with Mana.





He is so his Daddy's boy :)



We spent a couple of days up in Spring with the Stewarts a few weeks ago and they had an egg hunt for the kids. The kids loved it and we just loved being with them.




What's a Mommy to do when her husband's favorite baseball team is in town and team apparel is not readily available in local stores? A trip to Hobby Lobby and some crafting the day of the game...




#27's name is actually Matt Kemp and I thought it would be cute to put "Matt" on the back, but Matthew's not crazy about having his name shortened at this point so I just left it alone. Although, he was really happy that he and Daddy matched :)



Last, but not least, here is Ryan at 34 weeks, 6 days

I'm well aware of how long it's been since I last posted. I don't have a good reason (other than being pregnant and having 3 small children running around). Here's an update on the last two months or so: Elise turned 3! She had a Tangled party and loved being surrounded by all of her favorite people. I will post pictures as soon as I get a chance to copy them off of Gilbert's profile and upload them. She also surprised me the other day by demonstrating that she can name each letter of the alphabet and she managed to learn a decent amount of phonics faster than Matthew did. At this point they're almost at the same level. Viviana is *finally* saying more than "hi", "bye", and "Dada". All of a sudden she decided she wanted to communicate with us and has been picking up new words and phrases every day. She's still very much a goofball. A very, very cute goofball. Matthew is Matthew and as active as ever. Right now he's in a rare moment of silence as he sits behind me playing on his LeapPad. He's definitely the most excited about having a new baby, but I can't say I'm surprised. That boy is an incredible big brother and he loves his little sisters. Matthew and Elise have both become acquainted with "knock knock" jokes and it's really interesting to hear what they come up with since they don't really understand how they work. Their punch lines usually end up having something to do with butts. I am about 34.5 weeks pregnant. The ticker on the left is a day or two off and I've tried to fix it more than once. As of my appointment last Friday I am 2cm dilated and on track for another 36 week baby. His car seat finally came yesterday and the kids were super excited that a package was delivered for their brother. Matthew "helped" me get it out of the box today and he was a little disappointed that we weren't bringing Ryan home in it today. I had to explain to him that we're hoping that Ryan stays put until at least May 5 so he'll be strong enough to come home with Mommy. I feel pretty unprepared for this little one to join us, but I think that packing my bag this weekend will probably help me to process how quickly this pregnancy went. And for those of you who are curious to know, yes, this is it for us. There will be no more babies growing in this mommy's tummy. We plan to take preventative measures in the near future. I will update with pictures soon!

This month has gone by so quickly. I can't believe that the day after tomorrow is March 1st. Things around here have been pretty busy, too.

We were able to go to the zoo with Daddy and the kids loved it just as much as the first time. It was pretty chilly out that day, but it was still a lot of fun.

Silly Daddy



Viv loved listening to her daddy play the drums



Checking out the chimps. One of the chimps actually ran up to the glass and banged on it while we were sitting there.



The kids weren't too cooperative with the picture taking this time, but at least Daddy had a little more fun



This was Viv's face while Daddy was pretending to be a monkey



Viv modeling a vest Mommy made. The fleece came courtesy of Grammy



Valentine's Day was fairly quiet here. I think I was pretty uncomfortable that day so we lay pretty low. The kids did get to wear their special Valentine's shirts and Daddy gave each of us chocolate. It was a good day to be together :)



Matthew taught himself to write his name. I taught him how to spell it, but he did it all on his own when it came to writing it. I love, love, love the way his crooked 4-year-old writing looks :)



He also addressed Daddy's Valentine's Day card himself. (He misheard me on one of the D's :) )



Me and my babies. My girls are still working on the timing of self portraits :)







My first project for Ryan is almost done! Matthew has named him The Dread Pirate Roberts (Princess Bride reference :) ). I still have to make his pirate gear and his shoes, but at least the monkey is done :)



I got an idea from Pinterest to find an old, cheap acoustic guitar and have Gilbert take the front off of it and put in shelves to hang in Ryan's room. Well, turns out my Texas parents did me one better. One of their daughters plays cello and another one of their daughters took an old cello case and put shelves into it and then abandoned the project. Well, my Texas parents are in the process of figuring out what's next for them in life as they plan to leave Texas in the next few months and asked if I wanted this unfinished cello shelf. Coming home to this after running errands a few days ago was the highlight of my day. Now we just need to paint it :)



My boy may have been born in East San Gabriel Valley, but he is definitely Texan. This is how he dressed himself to go to the dentist :)



He was a total rock star at the dentist and got a great report. We're just keeping an eye on a tooth he injured when he took a bit of a spill a couple of months ago.

We found this tool bench at Goodwill and I knew I would regret it if we didn't get it for Matthew. It was missing the accessories it originally came with, but Matthew has a tool set to make up for that. All 3 of the kids love it.



Grammy moved to Texas over the weekend! Gilbert spent most of the weekend helping her move and the kids are so excited she's here. Auntie Val came out to visit before she makes the big move and I had her cut Viv's hair. No more baby mullet!



This picture reminds me so much of a picture we have of Gilbert's first haircut.



The end result :)







Matthew asked me to spell out everyone's name and he wrote them all down. I love being his mommy.



Our littlest Saldana will be here in about 10 weeks! Well, officially I still have 14 weeks left, but given my history we're kind of expecting this one to come at 36 weeks as well. I started getting his room ready this morning. I moved most of my sewing room into the guest room and as soon as I can get a couple of other things out of his room I'll start sanding the baseboards and trim for Gilbert to paint. I really can't believe how quickly it's going.

Here's the tummy at 26 weeks: