Let's try this again...

It's been well over a year since my last post. Things here are busy... to say the least. I'll try to give a short summary of the past year.

We adjusted fairly quickly to being a family of 6, although last summer was not without its drama. Mostly medical related but nothing too serious. I've found that with 4 small children there tends to be a lot of medical drama. Case in point: the months of December and April both brought weeks of fevers and multiple ear infections. April brought double ear infections for 3 of the kids at the same time. It was an interesting time.


Matthew turned 5 in September



Halloween brought quality time with Hawkeye, Black Widow, a pirate princess, the Hulk, and Tony Stark







Christmas was fun and Santa did not disappoint :)



Princess Elise turned 4



Ryan the Lion turned 1! (and tried his first donut)



Princess Viviana Frog turned 3!



Gilbert started playing around with making custom guitar pedal boards and has been getting a few custom orders. Ryan is the unofficial mascot of Relic Pedal Boards.



Thanks to HEB I'm able to go grocery shopping with my sanity in tact.



We've been getting in Grammy's pool



But mostly, these kids are just getting big:







I'm going to try update on a regular basis again. There's always something to say about what goes on at the Saldana Zoo.

Well, we've managed to settle into our version of normal for the time being. The 3 "big" kids are pretty good about entertaining each other and Ryan seems to be getting the hang of our routine. He's given us a few smiles but nothing consistent yet. He coos quite a bit, though. I am so in love with this boy.

We took some family pictures earlier in the month and as always, Kelly and Marianne of Miabella Photography got some great pictures.



Me and my handsome boys



Gilbert and his girls



This picture gets me every time



I love the way these 2 love each other





My Elise



My boy looking a lot like his daddy here



This girl is too much. I'm so glad Marianne was able to capture this.





My gorgeous girls





The Saldanas

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 ;-)