My boys say...

While taking a shower with Xavier, he looks at me and asks, "mommy, where's your (boy part) at?" ummm...this kid just turned two.

Last night we were hanging out in the boys room, and Santiago started to tell the boys things he was thankful for. He then asked all of us to say what we were thankful for. Our responses were about each other and why. Xavier's responses, "I thank you for church." and then "I thank you for Jesus". We were pretty much stunned.

Isaiah has been talking back so much lately. He pretty much doesn't do anything we ask. On many occasions we have asked him to listen to us. His new response, "I forgot my listening ears at preschool!" Should I just be thankful he atleast listens there?

My Chunky Chunks

I realize that I have been a slacker when it comes to updating pictures of Samantha. She is now 2 1/2 months old, and at her 2 month visit she weighed in at a whopping 14 1/2 lbs. They measured her length at 22 3/4". She gained three lbs since her 1 month visit. The norm the doc said is 2 lbs when they are breastfed, and he said she is the size of a 4 month old. That puts her in the 98Th % for her weight, and about 50% for her length. She definitely has some rolls. Thankfully I don't dry her clothes so she is still managing to fit into some of her 3 m. clothes.

For the first two months I would say she was sort of colicky. I know it was due to her gassy stomach. This little one would pass gas constantly. She also only goes poop about every 5-7 days. This makes her stomach very bloated, and I know she is uncomfortable. The doctor said that it isn't something that I'm eating, and recommended giving her a pro-biotic everyday. I have been now doing this for about two weeks, and I do think it has helped. Her sleeping has unfortunately been affected by her tummy, along with the fact that she is on her second cold. She slept pretty good in the beginning, but now only wants me to hold her, sleep with her, or be in the swing. At night time she is awoken with gas. This is pretty frustrating. She doesn't take a pacifier too well, so I am left to nurse her back to sleep. She has had some good nights where she slept 6 hrs, then another stretch of 4. Typically she goes down about 9 pm, wakes up anywhere between 12-3, nurses and then wakes up again between 3-5, nurses and is finally up about 7. I don't really mind that she doesn't take a pacifier right now...but we will see how she sleeps once her tummy gets better.

She thankfully takes a bottle, and it has allowed me to have some girl time with friends, as well as time alone with Santiago. She doesn't have it too often, but does fine.

Last week she got an early Christmas gift. I have been waiting for her to turn two months so that she could get her ears pierced. Every parent has their own opinion on what age this should be done, but I figured I would rather do it before she is old enough to freak out about it. yes, she did cry, but she looks so cute!

Her new favorite thing are her hands. They are constantly in her mouth. Her tongue is also always sticking out. Don't put your face too close...you might get a wet surprise!

She is cooing and smiling tons. Last night was the first time we have heard her laugh. Of course I had to run and catch it on video. It is so cute, because it looks like she is crying and laughing at the same time! Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Goodness

This year's Thanksgiving was spent with my side of the family. That morning Santiago had plans to play volleyball with his vb buddies, and I hurried up to make Pumpkin Spiced Cream Cheese Breakfast Rolls before he left. They were delicious! Thanks to my sister-n-law, I have a new favorite recipe blog picky-palate.com. Go there...you won't be disappointed, just maybe gain a few lbs!

The kids and I got ready and waited for Santiago to get home so that we could head over to my parent's house for Thanksgiving lunch. We were able to celebrate the holiday with my sister's and brother's families, along with my grandparents. We missed my two brothers who were in Utah.

Somehow Santiago has become the official turkey carver. I don't know how my dad got out of that one.

Oh wait..here he is...haha!The little ones were just as excited as the adults to eat.

Samantha relaxing with Uncle Mark:

My mom did a great job with the meal!

After we stuffed ourselves the kids went outside to burn some energy. Santiago is always a trooper when it comes to playing/babysitting them.

While the kids were busy my sisters and I made these NOEL signs. We tried using modge podge for a background but we had some difficulties. I think it looks fine like this.

Why are they the ones who always get to take naps?

"When you look at others with their lands and gold, Think that Christ has promised you his wealth untold. Count your many blessings; money cannot buy your reward in heaven nor your home on high." One of my most favorite hymns.

Thanksgiving is a great time to be reminded of all that you are grateful for...I am reminded every day of my blessings.

Soccer Time

I think from the moment we found out we were having a boy, we have been anticipating the day when our son would play soccer. This year he was old enough to play for the city league. We were two proud (and maybe too competitive) parents cheering him on...along with his little brother yelling "Go team Hornets!''

His first game he scored three goals. The second game he scored five. I lost track after that:)

Since Santiago is big on soccer, he would give Isaiah pointers during their breaks. The first couple of games we probably took the game too seriously. We decided to focus more on him having fun then being the fastest/best player. I don't want to be one of those crazy moms!

I think he did have fun, and we were so proud of him! Some of those little players were pretty good. It was so cute to watch them..and so funny when they scored for the other team.

Here is his game face:

At the end of the season they all got a hot dog lunch, where they also received their trophies.

I'm totally a soccer mom, and I love it!

Samantha's Blessing

We were so grateful to have family come down for Samantha's blessing. Of course I was stressed about it all, but everything turned out great. The blessing was beautiful, and so was Samantha.

She was awake during the blessing and happy. Afterwards she got fussy because of her gassy tummy. She was not happy when we took pictures! We came home and had a great lunch...and all probably ate too much! Afterwards we played "celebrity" (a family favorite) and enjoyed everyone's company). Family time is the best.

Halloween

Halloween weekend we had Santiago's family down since we were blessing Samantha. Saturday we let the kids carve pumpkins outside.

Later that day we headed to our ward's Halloween party. They had a chili cook off, hot dogs, games, and plenty of treats. Isaiah randomly said he wanted to bee a ghost for Halloween. When I tried to spray his hair white for his pre-school party it scared him, so he refused to do it for the church party. I decided to make Xavier a ghost also. He wore his costume for about 5 min., then cried for us to take it off. Kids!

Originally I had wanted Samantha to be something cute and girly for Halloween. I finally decided to keep with tradition and she was our little Ortega Chili #3.

Santiago decorated the back of our Jeep for the trunk-or-treat. He had fun with his newphews and nieces passing out candy. They got tons of compliments on their carved pumpkins.

Xavier is Two

Xavier turned 2 back in the beginning of October. We kept it low key with pizza and cake.

He has jumped into the "terrible two's" with both feet! I'm sure the new change with the baby had something to do with it. He screams and hits constantly! Isaiah is usually the target. Sometimes he will walk by and hit someone on purpose, and says sorry immediately after. Isaiah can usually take it like an older brother. They are playing together alot more these days. He is Isaiah's copycat big time! He refuses to sit in a shopping cart...and takes off running from me the first chance he gets.

He does love his "Baby Samantha/Princess". He will go up to her and give her loves and tell her "I love you". He is gentle with her, although sometimes he likes to poke at her.

Xavier is one smart dude. He talks like a grown-up. He refers to himself correctly and forms complete sentences. He can sing the ABC song all by himself, and can count to 20 (he does miss a few numbers here and there). We think he might be color blind though. I guess I just think he should recognize his colors by now, but he has no clue. Since my dad is color blind it is a possibility.

He is sweet enough to be scared of flies...but crazy enough to climb a chain-linked fence. We love him, and I'm expecting it to be another year of me practicing my patience.

Newborn Pictures

Samantha had newborn pictures taken when she was 6 days old. I was stressing about them before she was even born. The session went much better than I thought it would. I did have to drive around for a while to put her to sleep since she insisted on being awake in the beginning. Here are some of the pictures we got:

Baby Samantha

Samantha Dianne

8 lbs 3 oz 20"

A week before I had Samantha I was dilated 4-5 cm. I was ready to go anytime. I had to hold back the tears the following week when my ob said I hadn't progressed. This was on the 20th and my due date was the 23rd. He wouldn't induce me until I was at least a week over. I wasn't miserable or anything, I just wanted to meet my little girl. On the car ride home (about 2:30 pm) I felt some cramping. I assumed it was from his examination. Around 3 the cramping turned into painful contractions. They started out 5-9 min apart, but around 4 pm they started to be exactly every 4 min. I called Santiago and told him to come home. I was a little scared at how fast and painful they started. My mom was teaching piano lessons and thankfully my dad was able to come over right away. We got to the hospital at 5pm and my contractions were 2-3 min apart. They put me in triage and told me I would be there for about a hour to monitor my contractions. My ob came down to see me and informed me that he had stripped my membranes at my appt. Once they saw how close my contractions were they admitted me right away. I hadn't dilated any further from my appt, and my ob assumed I would be in labor for awhile.

I didn't want an epidural. I thought I could manage the pain, but the contractions were not letting up. I was also feeling pressure with the contractions. ( As a side note I was positive for GBS, and they wanted to give me two full doses of anti-biotics before they broke my water. Which meant their plan was to break it around 10pm. They didn't want to check my cervix too much before then. ) At 7:30 the nurse decided she better check me. I was dilated to a 7-8. I ended up asking for an epidural at the point because the pain was just too much. The anesthesiologist only gave me half a dose since I was so far along. It didn't help much, and I wasn't even numb. I kept telling the nurse I felt alot of pressure with every contraction. Again, she didn't want to check me, and when she finally did at almost 9pm I was fully dilated. Who knows for how long! She rushed to get my doctor. He came in at 9 and broke my water. They told me to try pushing with my contractions. (The actual delivery was a little traumatic for me, but I will leave that part out). At 9:04pm little Samantha was born.

Samantha and I had time together for about a hour before they took her to get cleaned off and weighed. She nursed right away and did great.

I was so excited for the boys to meet their sister. Isaiah wanted to hold and kiss her right away and wouldn't give her up. Xavier wasn't too interested at first, but warmed up to her after seeing Isaiah with her. Both of them have done great with her, and no signs of jealousy yet. They practically smother her and fight over whos turn it is to hold her.

Pretty in pink, ready to go home!

Almost There!

I will be offically 38 weeks on Friday. I saw my OB yesterday and asked if he was going to check to see if there was anything happening. At first he said no, and then said he could if I wanted. Well of course I wanted him to. Now as a side note I do not feel ready at all to have this baby. If he said there was nothing yet then I would have been fine with that, I just needed to know. When he checked me he said, "Wow!" Umm...apparently wow means that I am 3 cm and 75% effaced. The baby still has not descended down though. I was in total shock, and literally had my hands on my cheeks stunned. Of course I could still not go into labor till my due date, but now I am scared it can happen whenever.

When I was 38 1/2 weeks with Xavier I was dilated to a 2 and 50% effaced and went into labor a few days later. So who knows? I have been having a tremendous amount of upper back and upper abdomen pain. My ob said that pain in my upper abdomen is probably caused from my ribs being pushed out. The upper back from carrying extra weight. I have also had contractions randomly these last couple of weeks. I think I have everything I need for the baby. Today I had alot of energy to clean, but that was probably more from fear of the house being dirty when the baby comes then nesting. Crazy girl...wanting to be early!

Pre-K

I'm sure every parent says the same thing, "I can't believe my child is in pre-school!" Isaiah started pre-k yesterday and already he seems so grown up. I thought it would be hard to drop him off, but I love his preschool and his teacher. I walked him into the room and he was so excited. His best friend is also in his class and I hope they won't make too much trouble. Already he told me how they were drawing on each other with markers. I guess as long as he doesn't get sent home with a note :) Today out of the blue he told me "Pre-school was so much fun."

He goes two days a week in the morning. This is the first time that I will have alone time with Xavier, until the baby comes that is. When we got into the car after dropping Isaiah off Xavier asked, "Where's Isaiah?" and continued to ask the whole morning. He even cried for him at one point.

Xavier loves his older brother, but having some alone time with me will be good. Isaiah tends to interrupt whenever I am doing something with Xavier, so now he will finally get one on one time.

I'm sure I'm going to have tears next year when I say good-bye at Kindergarten, but for now it's all smiles.