WELL.....james is activated!

yep, because of the HURRICANE down in the coast, he is being activated to help out texas and louisiana!!! we are so proud of him! as of right now, he will be here in san antonio in the "headquarters" of the operation!!

well, me and my boys are having a STAR WARS marathon!! all 6 epi while i try to clean our room!! just relaxing upstairs......joshua is getting into EVERYTHIN...so as i clean up something, he comes and takes things out or makes more mess!! FUN FUN FUN!! :)

WELL, one week of homeschooling down and i am SOOO LOVING my new system of planners and charts for us1!! much more organzied and i am even making a weekly MENU!!! so easy to know what we are having on what day!!!

anyway, i am truely enjoy myself and alex is learning so much!! every week we are going to study a STATE...this week, of course, we studied TEXAS and learned all kinds of easy facts and such !!

AUGUST UPDATE!!...WE ARE SO EXCITED!

Hola family and friends!

We hope everyone is doing GREAT!! As for us, well, AUGUST is a pretty busy month in our home!! We have enjoyed our time together as a FAMILY now since June 23rd!! it has been WONDERFUL having james HOME AGAIN!!!!

First, I MUST start with some WONDERFUL news that we received this week…..i am pretty sure you know that I think my WONDERFUL hubby is a HERO to our FAMILY, well, this week he got something so BIG and WONDERFUL given to him by the U.S. ARMY……our HERO got word that he will be receiving the THE BRONZE STAR MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so PROUD OF HIM!!!!!!! This is such an HONOR for him and us and we could not be more proud of him!!!! I am not sure when they will be awarding him but I will let ya’ll know!!

Well on top of that news, this month, we have celebrated 2 special BIRTHDAYS!!!

On August 10th, we celebrated our big boys 6TH BIRTHDAY!!! YIPPEEE!!! So hard to believe that he is now 6 years old!!!!! AMAZING! We had a little party for him at a pizza place and we had a BLAST!!! It was really bittersweet because he actually asked james, after asking who was going to be there, “daddy, will you be there too?” and james said “of course I will be” and then he realized WHY he was asking, and he went on to hug him and told him that THIS YEAR daddy would be there for his birthday!! Awwww…..this last year he has grown SO MUCH…both physically and mentally! He is just such a smarty and is doing so well homeschooling!! We are really proud of him and all he has done this last year….He is starting 1st grade and we bought his FIRST true curriculum and we are so EXCITED!!! I can’t wait to get started…I know we will be a bit rusty but we sure are going TRY!! and he retains so much info, he can remember AMAZING facts!!! so awesome! he is excited about getting started doing class!! we ordered his curriculum and it is FAITH BASED so we will BOTH be learning so much about GOD and the world around us together!!

And then on August 25th, we celebrated our little baby’s 1st birthday!!!! WOWOWOW….hard hard hard to believe that he is ONE already!!! It seems like just YESTERDAY, I was in shock after finding out that on NEW YEARS 2007 that I was PREGNANT!!!! Awww, it has been just be such an awesome year….he has grown so much from that little bitty 6 lb 4 oz baby to a 17lb 8 oz little boy…he is pulling to stand, cruising, standing & babbling!! And his first word?!?!?! MAMAMAMAMA!!! AAWWWW!!!! I am so happy because that is my first baby that has EVER said my name FIRST!!! YIPPEEE!!! He is truly a mama’s boy and I am so happy! J FINALLY!!!! Anyway, he is doing well and such a little guy!! one bad habit is that he puts EVERYTHING---EVERYTHING IN HIS MOUTH!!! OMG, i have such a FEAR that he will choke on something! and i sweep and mop and this little one will FIND something to put in his mouth!!! AAARRRGGGGHHHH!!!! this is my first baby that has done that. i think because alex was our first and we kept him CONFINED to a specific area (because he was the only one) but now with 3 boys and a nurse, well, we can't and he has the run of the HOUSE!!! YIKES! We are so BLESSED to have him in our lives! And for his BIRTHDAY, he FELL OFF THE BED AT 3 AM!!!!! OMG, talk about SCARY!! Thank God he was just fine except he scared MOMMY AND DADDY like crazy!! Just our luck, after a YEAR of sleeping with us, his birthday would be the day he FALLS off the BED!!! He was fine, just scared himself and most of all US !!!! we are going to go out to eat at a favorite restaurant and just CELEBRATE his life!!!

Well, for the month of JUNE, and JULY we took some time off to be TOGETHER…we spent 2 wonderful weeks RV’ING together, just us, our little family of 5! It was really awesome to just BE together, without nurses, therapies and drs appts!! Wow, back to just being us….we spent our first week in ROCKPORT….we stayed at an RV PARK out there…it was WONDERFUL!! The ONLY bad part was MAN, those mosquitos were just about ready to TAKE US AWAY!!! Thank GOD we were SLIGHTLY smaller than THEY WERE!!!!!! Yep, they were pretty big and VERY BOLD….they would just STICK to you, without a thought on their mind except to eat off you!!! My little matthew and daddy got the worst of it (over 27 bites on matthew!)….anyway, it was nice just being together as a family….we did a lot of fun things around that area like the aquarium, fishing, the jetties, etc….very nice!!! We also took another 8 days at a WONDERFUL place called GUADALUPE RIVER RV RESORT….and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT! It was just BEAUTIFUL and peaceful….defiently a place to go! They have lots of cabins if you don’t have an rv and if you do, well, YOU MUST CHECK IT OUT!!! We had so much fun in Kerrville , tx!! it was just really relaxing and peaceful and just having so much fun swiming and being together. and THE RAIN HELD OUT until we got HOME!!! yep, GOD sure BLESSED us because our whole trip, we had no rain and just BEAUTIFUL days....and on our way home, the HURRICANE that hit texas came in THAT DAY!! the rain even waited until we got EVERYTHING OUT OF THE TRAILER!!! THANK YOU GOD! Anyway, we have pictures up at FLICKR for anyone wanting to see some pictures!!! And if you are up to READING , you can check out my BLOG for a COMPLETE (J) account of our vacation…and I do mean COMPLETE!! And you KNOW I can WRITE!!!

Well, MATTHEW is doing AWESOME!! We are so happy! Since late MAY early JUNE, he has been CLEAR IN THE LUNGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wowowowow, it has been so NICE to not have him SICK!!! ONE WHOLE YEAR of it…james likes to credit HIMSELF for matthew getting BETTER saying that he just missed daddy and that is why he was so sick for the past year…..pawsha!!! I told him it was the ANTIBIOTICS that he has been on since april/may and will continue to be on thru the winter….just as a precaution! So far so good!!! We are just trying to get him STRONG so that he can learn to WALK and TALK!! He is just getting BIGGER…he is such a HAPPY boy and now with daddy home, well, he is that much more HAPPIER!! He LOVES wrestling with his BROTHERS and boy, he is REALLY good at it!!! His baby brother enjoys tormenting him and vice versa….he is now got an ATTITUDE and before, if someone took something from him, he would just watch him do it and not say ANYTHING, well, NOW, boy, he lets you know if you are doing something he does not want you to do!!! He YELLS AT US!!! It is too cute to hear him just go off!! NEVER before has he really showed that kind of EMOTION and it is so awesome to see!!! And to see him get mad….josh doesn’t know what to make of it when he does it but he usually backs off if he does!!! He will be starting school soon and get back into the rhythm of it all!! YAYAy!

Well, as for james, apart from being home again, THANK YOU GOD, he is also back at work after over 40 days on leave!!! We are now starting to get into that kind of rhythm but we are so happy because he is now on working 4 days a week so that means we get him for 3 WHOLE DAYS….awww…that is so awesome and we are so happy about that! We can take a quick trip out of town if we wanted to…very nice!!! But he is back to working out and keeping in shape….we are just so happy to have him HOME!!

AS FOR ME, well, I am just hanging out with all my boys! It has been so AWESOME having my family back together. We are just EXCITED on everything…it is kinda bittersweet because whenever we do something, we always seem to ask our self, when was the last time we did this and sometimes it is almost 2 years ago!!! We lost a WHOLE YEAR TOGETHER….it sometimes doesn’t hit you until you think about that. And then there are the things we are doing that we realize it has been OVER a YEAR since we did it together….like going to CHURCH, going to eat somewhere, etc…just today, we started home school and how nice it was to have james here to ask alex how his day went and all of that…he even got to help get alex study area set up!! Anyway, it was just really nice!! I finally got a diagnosis for my arm that has been paining me in FOREVER…TENNIS ELBOW!!! Yeah, you know with all the time I have, I do SOOOOO MUCH tennis playing at the local country club….yeah right!!! I know that you can get it with out that but what a diagnosis…and with the FIBRO, it just amplifys the pain I am in!!! after josh is weaned, I hope to finally get some PAIN RELIEF from my FIBRO….i can’t even IMAGINE what it feels like to be PAIN FREE….soooooonnn!!

sooo, that is our AUGUST for 2008!! we are SO PROUD of JAMES and his BRONZE STAR METAL!!! just amazed and so happy that he is who he IS!! and then our boys turning one year older....we feel SOOOOO BLESSED, THANK YOU GOD!!

i put together some MONTAGES for both boys!! i hope you check them out!!

ALEX'S video montage


James Alex Turns 6!

JOSHUA'S video montage


Happy Birthday, Joshua Michael!

well, that is it for now...i know it has been a LONG TIME since i have kept up with ya'll and my blog but that will GOD WILING change now....

Maria
Proud Army wife to James, mommy to Alex(5), Matthew(4) & Baby Joshua (1)

wow!! baptism...

hola!! well, things are trucking along in our neighborhood!! we have been just BUSY being us....it is really nice like that!!

well, today, we went to our FIRST baptism class so that we could baptise JOSHUA & Matthew!!! we are happy!!

i found something out that was PRETTY PROFOUND!! i had NO IDEA that the way that the church viewed a baptism was this: WE ARE BORN IN/FROM WATER AND THEN REBORN IN WATER IN THE CHURCH BY BAPTISM!!! WOWOWOW...i had NO IDEA!! that was pretty big...i just kept thinking about that. very interesting...GOD WILLING this will be a GROWING time for my family and i....