Announcing......

Pictures, pictures and MORE pictures! Why?? Because my darling husband got me an awesome camera for Christmas. Just LOOK at how the volume of photos of my kids has increased just since December 25th!

We started the day at our house with a nice breakfast. We made eggs, and I had prepped some sausage balls with (hidden) spinach (sneaky mommy!) Then we went to Alex's sister's house to open gifts with her kids.

Here is a rare picture of me with my beautiful kids!


Alex's sister gave Grace this super-cool giant zebra - every inch of it is covered with something stimulating and fun for years! Caleb likes it too.

Yes, Caleb is funny and cute...but this is a face we see all too often. What's Christmas without a tantrum (or 6)?

An even rarer picture of Alex!!



We had the wonderful pleasure of having my niece, Maya, visit us for a couple of weeks. She was here on Christmas. She's the sweetest little girl!



My parents gave Caleb this basketball hoop. He's in love. He loves basketball. So many things about Caleb make me happy. But when he started playing with this, I was SO happy because after he would make a shot he would exclaim, "I did it!" I'm so happy to see him express that he is proud of his accomplishments!

Here is Uncle Aaron and his girlfriend, Mandy with Gracie Grace. Uncle Aaron is just awesome with the kids - what else do you expect from a guy who's able to be a goofball?


It's been really cold here the past few day, so we've been nice and bundled up!


Grace's new favorite plaything didn't cost us a penny! Her foot!

Our new tradition over the past 3 years is that on Christmas day my friends the Stapletons come over since Lourdes is visiting from Dallas with her family and my mom makes pizza. This year was really interesting with three toddlers, Sienna, Maya, Caleb, Grace and Ellie (who's six weeks younger than Grace)

Christmas is upon us!

Yikes!! I don't even know how this happened - it's December already!

I successfully convinced Alex to take some pictures of the kids...I think that I've laid the guilt on pretty thick about having no pictures.

Here Grace seems to be holding her breath in fear that Caleb will decide to roll on top of her.


The happy, pretty girl.


This is Caleb's favorite way to wear his hat...sideways. Because he's cool like that. I wish I had popped the collar for these pictures. :)


We went to Coraline's first birthday party - it was a blast! Happy Birthday to Cora!
There were tons of fun toddler-toys there. Like these cymbals, which we never, ever intend to actually own in our own home. Because I'm not THAT crazy!


Grace had fun, too. She was passed from person to person and spent some time hanging out with Kino, who is 6-months old. Yet another young suitor to jockey for Ms. Gracie.


Caleb enjoyed the frosting from this carrot muffin, and then proceeded to eat my delicious chocolate cake....note the evidence in the 'cymbal' picture above.



In other Christmas news. We put up a 'mini-tree'. For a second there, I considered getting a fake tree, so as to avoid the pine needle mess. Or not have one at all. But, in the end, I just couldn't stomach either option, so I decided to get one of those little 3-foot ones and we have it on an end-table. It's working out perfectly. Each morning Caleb asks to turn on the the 'luz'.

I'm also trying to figure out how to introduce Caleb to Christmas. Clearly, we tell him that this is Jesus' birthday and we talk about that. We pray to Jesus and God before meals and before bed. My mom got him a 'little people' toys nativity scene that is just awesome and he knows baby Jesus. But I also don't want to steal away the fun of Santa. So for now, I've told him that Santa brings Caleb presents for Jesus' birthday. I have some time to tweak this, I imagine that next year we'll have far more cognitive understanding of these concepts.

Crazy, Lazy Days

Happy Thanksgiving! What a wonderful, wonderful Thanksgiving weekend we had. We spent Thursday at Alex's sister's house. My parents and my brother, Aaron, joined the Fagundo/Leal festivities. The whole shabang was comprised of my family, Alex's family and his brother-in-law's family - a lot of people in all. Everything was delicious and it was wonderful to be surrounded by such a nice extended family.

Originally, we had planned for me and the kids to go with my parents up to Chattanooga for the Loftin (my mom's family) Thanksgiving. However, Alex and I recently made a weekend drive to Orlando with both kids that was 5-hour living nightmare each way. There were many times on that trip that we looked at one another thinking....what did we DO...implying both the craziness of this trip and also having two babies so close together. Needless to say after that - I didn't think a 12-hour drive to TN was advisable.

Friday, we re-did Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house and our very, very good friends, the Bortons joined us with their baby, Micah. Micah James is one month older than Grace and is jockeying for her affections.

After my last post there have been many requests for more pics of Grace...here I am happy to oblige - they aren't the best but they will do..

First, though, Caleb was an Indian (Native American) for Halloween...how cute is this!!??







This is approximately the distance that Caleb does all of his interacting with Grace...she gets almost no unsupervised floor time...and should probably spend more time on the floor than she does currently.


Caleb loves Grace. He calls her Gracie (and Ace). He tells her good morning (g'mornin Ace) and 'Sorry Grace' when he has been punished for being too rough with her (rolling on her, kicking at her, jumping up and down beside her) Having a big brother is very hard, I speak from experience.


My long nickname for Grace is most often, Gracie-Grace, or Gracie-girl.


So Caleb has a favorite movie..Disney's Cars. Here he is enthralled in it. I must say that this move is really, really excellent. I've seen it about 10 times in the past month and I'm not even tired of it - it's still entertaining and funny. Caleb is getting some Cars-stuff for Christmas.

The firstborn

In the days of two children, it's important not to forget the firstborn. Although, I must say that is truly impossible to do, when he is SO successful at monopolizing one's time and getting his way. Ahh, my strong-willed son.

Also, in true second-born fashion...the pictures of Grace are scarce scarce scarce. Poor thing. I'm convinced now that I need to purchase my own small camera just to get pics of my kids. For example, today we will be heading to the zoo in costumes with friends while Alex is shooting a wedding. Which means that I have no camera to document the fun!

Here are some pics of Caleb and one, not too thrilling one, of me and Grace.




Pensive....not even posed. :)

It's like cirque du soleil at my house when Caleb rides his 'moose'. He typically stands on it and rocks violently back and forth. He never falls - he's got amazing gross motor skills - an athlete in the making maybe?

Caleb is hilarious - his already large vocabulary is really mushrooming - he's so bright! and funny. Grace is doing fabulously - she's just beautiful and precious - there really is something about little girls that just melts a heart. I didn't realize that.

I have begun to feel an intense sense of the importance of these amazing lives that God has entrusted to me. I am humbled by the significance of it - and truly know that I cannot succeed on my own in growing children who will have eternally significant lives. Everyday, many moments that I look at them, my heart and soul is reminded to honor God with my life so that these amazing kids will do the same. They have truly helped me to pray wholeheartedly that my life will be a mirror that reflects Christ to them.

End of Year Special

Sorry it's been a while (why am I always apologizing at the start of my blog posts?)

Anyway, a real post to come...This is too good not to spread the word!!

Abigail Todd Photography (aka the talented chic who documented Grace's birth) has an end of year special for South Florida clients only. She is such a great photographer, but super gifted with families and kids. Now, in preparation for those snazzy Christmas cards - S.Fl. clients can shoot for no session fee!

Check out the details here.

So...what's up?

We are happy to say that we are now a family of FOUR! Grace Fagundo arrived on August 12 at 6:29 a.m. It was an awesome, perfect birth - we arrived at the hospital at 3:30 a.m. and I would say I was really only in labor for about 3 hours before that - and for most of that I wasn't even sure that I was really IN labor.

The last ultrasound we had about a week before she arrived said that she was BIG - almost 9 pounds at that time with 3 weeks to go. However, as per usual, they were off - she was 7 pounds 13 oz and 19.5 inches long. She arrived so quickly that it was totally drug-free. We had been praying for God to give us a good birth and he answered our prayer beyond our wildest dreams. In retrospect, it was really almost easy. Don't get me wrong - it hurt, especially at the end, but it was totally manageable.

We were really blessed because we had a friend and fellow photographer - Abigail Todd - there to document the delivery. She was a client of Alex's about 5 years ago when he shot her wedding, since then she and her husband moved to Louisiana and she started her own photography business. She is very talented and started a unique service there shooting 'birth sessions' which go from pregnancy to delivery. Since she is relocating back to MIA, she wanted to start building business here -- so voila! We had her shoot ours - it is amazing. I mean, I was THERE, but being a central participant who is really focused on the matter at hand - it is so special to be able to see what was going on. Seeing my mom and Alex's reaction through the birth is just awesome.

What you can't see in one picture is that my mom arrived at 6:11 (there is a shot, not shown, with the time) - Grace was born at 6:29 a.m...my mom just made it! (as did the doctor, mind you who got there right after my mom!)

Check it out at Abigail Todd Photography Blog. I believe that there will be one more part after what's posted, so check back again, too!

Vacation continues

So far our vacation has been great! We have spent several days at the beach, just hanging out...only about 100 feet from our beach house! On Tuesday, Alex's sister and her family arrived. You would have thought that Caleb was counting the minutes until his cousins, Isabella and Nicholas, arrived. Even though they are much older and in elementary school - he adores them. He chases them around the house, plays with them - and they totally oblige him. Nicholas carries him and wrestles with him - which is just the best thing in the world to Caleb. He has been having a blast - he must get so bored with mommy and daddy. This makes me really excited for when Grace gets to be old enough that they can play together, because Caleb will clearly enjoy it.

I definitely feel relaxed, but not necessarily rested. I am not sleeping well at night. I've reached the point that it is very difficult to find a comfortable position when laying down. And after much tossing and turning, when I do find that position, I generally have to get up to use the bathroom. So annoying. The house has really soft beds, which isn't really great for me right now, and has made getting comfortable a little more difficult and made my back hurt. I will be visiting my chiropractor when I get home! Also, we've been sharing a room with Caleb...this is not how we usually do things. Caleb has slept in his own room since he was about 5 months old - so this arrangement is not ideal. Several nights he woke up and saw us (read, me) there and screamed for an hour for me. Nothing is wrong w/ him, he just wants to be picked up. After a couple of nights of doing that and having to sit in a chair until he fell asleep - we decided we would do a same-room cry it out method. The first night was about an 40 minutes of crying, and then Alex just laid him down and showed him that we weren't going to pick him up, and finally he went to sleep. Last night, he woke up once around 1:30 and Alex got up, laid him down and did that twice and he fell back to sleep. So that was much improved.

In case you didn't remember - we are in fact vacationing on an island that is only accessible by boat or charter plane. And, there is in fact a tropical storm here around South Florida. So what to do with an 8-month pregnant woman? Tomorrow is our check out day, anyway, but we are juggling the storm trackers to determine when best to leave. We thought about leaving today, but it looked fairly certain that we would end up driving in the storm across the state - not a good idea w/ 40 mph winds. So we are going to leave at our predetermined time - tomorrow morning and hope that the predictions remain accurate with the storm passing us this evening, so that it is in the Gulf by tomorrow morning. Either way, we will have a rough boat ride - it won't be fun. In good weather the ride to the mainland is about 15 minutes - so it will take longer. Hopefully it won't be raining too much that we and our stuff get wet on the way.

I will be happy to be home close to my OB. He has actually been popping up in my dreams somewhat frequently, so on some level I must have some anxiety about being so far from him at 35 weeks pregnant.