It's a ...

Yes it is a our precious little girl that we have been waiting for a long time now. We hoped she would join our crazy family and are so excited to think that Shayna will finally get a little sister.
I can not really explain how I feel about these news, I just found out not even two hours ago and I still can't believe it. I kept hoping for a healthy baby, that is always my biggest concern and then with this pregnancy I finally decided to stop asking Heavenly Father for a little girl, I was just going to accept what ever he wanted to send us. We love all our kids and it would have been just fine having another boy but this is definitely a big surprise and now we are just looking forward to meet her and welcome her into our home.

She was being very modest and would not stop crossing her legs, the technician told me to wait for another half an hour and see if she finally decided to change positions, when she finally did it was very clear she was not a boy :)

All day sickness

You think that by now I would be all done with feeling sick... well it has gotten better but it is still a challenge when I do wake up feeling all yucky. Dan gave me a blessing a couple of weeks ago and I felt much better but 2 days ago I had a really rough day. Why is it that some of us have to deal with this all day sickness??? Somebody I knew had 8 kids and never threw up while pregnant, she did gag once while brushing her teeth but no puking... lucky me!!!

School supplies

Ever since I was a little girl the start of a new school year has been so exciting. Back home my mom used to take us with her to pick out all of our supplies and I just loved the smell of new notebooks, pencils and specially the pencil bag. It was a very exciting time for me. At school they used to make us wrap all of our school books and notebooks with a certain color of wrapping paper depending on who the teacher was. I was my mom helper so I always enjoyed that time with her, my brothers had nothing to do with it :) After wrapping them with paper we had to cover them with clear plastic so they could last all year long. It was a beautiful sight when we were all done. For some reason I will always remember the year I wrapped all my stuff with the shiny blue paper... it looked so good, I also added stickers and a name tag on the cover so they would not get lost.
I don't get to do that with my kids school supplies but it is still exciting to go a shop around for them. When we lived in Utah we did not have to worry about buying anything but since we moved to Texas we have had to buy everything. I think the kids really like shopping for supplies too and usually they fight over who can find everything first. This year it was so much better even without the help of Dan, we got mostly everything at Walmart and then whatever we could not find we went to look for at the Dollar Tree. I was very proud of myself for saving so much money this year and with the money I saved I was able to get some nice school clothes for the kids. Usually it is very stressful to go shopping with all four of them but since they were part of the process they behaved better than other times. Aaron is so excited about stating school and was happy to pick a few outfits for himself.
So the school supplies are packed and ready to go, the new clothes are hiding in my closet so they can't wear them before school starts and now all we are waiting for is for that first day.... and I wont be here to see it (very sad face).

Update on the last couple of weeks

On Pioneer Day we went to the church for a nice activity. They had food and then games for the kids. Victor, Tristan and Aaron tried their luck with the apple game, Victor was triumphant after a couple of attempts. Shayna got busy working on some Pioneer toys (here she is sporting her cute crochet flower I made for her).
Dan's long time friend Tyler Allen was in town visiting his parents and they invited us over for dinner at their house. It gave me a chance to finally meet him and we spent a nice evening talking, eating great food and the kids played in their pool for a long time. I can see why Dan Tyler likes his friend so much and it was interesting to see them interact with each other even after so many years. They get along great, he lives in Korea so I don't think we will see him any time soon but we would not mind getting together again next time he is in town. His parents were great, they treated us like family and were so kind to my kids, I have never in my life felt so comfortable meeting new people and being in a house full of strangers that were talking to me like we were old friends, special Tyler's sister in law Trina, she was the best. Anyways we had a great time.
I took the kids to the pool on a day we were supposed to have a big thunderstorm. The day seemed fine to me so we left for the pool and to our surprise it was completely empty,

we had the pool to ourselves for like an hour and a half and then the thunder started and we headed back home, but the kids still had fun swimming around. That same afternoon I took them to a Baptist Church were I was told they have a HUGE indoor playground open to the public and we wanted to check it out. It was huge and so much fun for the kids. We were lucky to get there just in time before the rain storm started and by the time we were done playing the rain was all gone. We will be visiting that place again really soon.
Last Thursday we got together with my friend Lucrecia and her kids and visited the Botanical Gardens, they had never been there so we thought they would enjoy it. It was fun and we had a picnic afterwards and let the kids play for a while. We had fun talking to each other and it is so nice to talk to her since she is so open to talk about anything, the best thing is that we speak Spanish to each other that is always a plus for me :)
Today we went to the Hermann Park, about 30 minutes from the house, it is right in Downtown Houston. I wanted to take the kids to the water park they have there. It was hot, humid and I don't know what I was thinking but the kids had fun and that is the important thing. They got wet, ate, got dirty, ate some more and then walked back to our car. I thought we were not gonna make it back... we were melting!!!!
As you can tell I have been feeling a little bit better and that is a good thing. My energy level is still not back where it usually is but we are getting there. My kids can see that I am trying really hard to make their last days of summer a little bit more fun and they appreciate it.