Friday, July 29, 2016

Happy 7th Anniversary to us

July is such a busy month for or family. 7 years ago on 25 July 2009, my hubby and I said I do in front of our family and friends. It was such an amazing day and I wish I could go back in time and do it all over again. God has blessed our union tremendously in those 7 years with 3 amazing boys (Tman, 6 years old, Jbird, almost 4 years old, and Bean 2 years old) and a brand new baby girl, Emilia, almost 3 weeks old. 

7 has always been a really lucky number in our relationship. 7 was hubby's jersey number when he played soccer back in the day and because of that we ended up getting married the 7th month of the year :).

- We were married on 7/25 exactly 25 months to the day that hubby and I moved in together
- We welcomed our first son on 7/21
- We welcomed our first daughter on 7/9
- We welcomed our first nephew on 7/24

7 is clearly a lucky number for us and I am excited to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary. Having just welcomed a brand new baby, our celebration was pretty low key. I would like to share 7 of my favorite pictures from our wedding day.

Leaving the altar as husband and wife, I love this picture
I love this close up of us
I love this group shot
There was a lot of kissing that day
I love this shot where you can see the dress in all her glory
We are always having fun together
Enjoying our first dance
Happy lucky number 7 to us and cheers to many more. I look forward to celebrating many more anniversaries with my favorite guy.

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Tman is 6 years old

Happy birthday to my big boy Tman who turned 6 on July 21st. Every time his birthday comes around, I can't believe how much he has grown. My first baby is 6 years old you guys.

Emilia's arrival and the chaos that is going on in our house made us decide to keep the birthday parties low key this Summer with only family. Tman's birthday was on a Thursday but we wanted to celebrate on Sunday so that everyone could be there. Apparently when you are 6 you understand dates particularly with the help of Siri :). A week before his birthday, he asked Siri how many days until July 21st and started counting down the days from there :) :). That is one smart cookie I know. So we did a mini celebration on his actual birthday on Thursday and had everybody over on Sunday for a full celebration.

On Thursday we ordered some cupcakes and opened a few presents. My mom didn't want to miss the mini celebration so she came home during her lunch break. Gotta love living super close to everyone.

I present to you my new favorite picture of all my kids, we have 4 kids you guys (so amazing and surreal)
My niece wanted in on the action :)
Check out Emilia hanging out with granddad, I couldn't help but dress her up for the event :)
Now we were getting ready for the cupcakes
Hubby was on cupcake duty :)
The boys were so excited about the cupcakes and the candles
Jbird's face in this picture is just priceless
Tman and Jbird and those cupcakes :)
And of course we got a group picture of everyone that was there

We tried to get a family picture :)
My mom and my aunt chilling with Emilia
My mom and all her grandchildren, love this so much. The boys were too busy eating their cupcakes to participate in our picture
My brother J and the kids
Then we opened some gifts and the boys were in heaven


We had a great low key celebration on Tman's actual birthday. On Sunday we had everybody over and celebrated all over again :)

This time hubby ordered a cake. Tman picked the design that he wanted
Emilia slept the entire party but she was there :). By the way, my babies all sleep the same way with their arms up in the air. This little girl is just so adorable and I am loving this sleepy phase so much
Hubby bringing the cake, check out my little excited Tman on the left :)

Blowing the candles on the cake
Tman was serious about blowing his candles :)

My crew hanging out
Then the kids enjoyed the cake
I completely forgot to get a family picture but I did get a picture with my friend and her kids who came to see the baby
We had a great time celebrating our Tman's 6th birthday. Next year we'll definitely celebrate in style with more people. I am just amazed how much time has flown. I have a 6-year old in the house. Happy birthday to my big boy Tman, you changed our lives forever since you joined or family 6 years ago and we are forever grateful.

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Emilia's newborn shoot - Behind the scenes

We decided that since Emilia was our last baby, we would go all out and have a newborn shoot to capture every moment with this sweet blessing. I always love those sweet sleepy newborn goodness and was hoping for some of those shots. I also wanted to capture our family at this stage of our lives where everything is chaotic and hectic but we are still loving every minute of it.

Our photographers are amazing, they've been taking pictures of our family since we were pregnant with Bean and we absolutely love their work. They came to our house and set up a complete studio. I loved that we didn't have to leave the house with our tiny newborn but rather captured her in our home environment.

They took a lot of pictures and definitely had my vision in mind. I was so in love with the basket shot of my little dainty girl in bows. I took all these shots with my Iphone and I can only imagine how awesome the final product is going to be.

I present to you my current favorite pic of Emilia chilling in a basket with her pink outfit with her eyes wide open
We took a bunch of pictures in our bedroom. Our room looked like this when they set things up
Then we did a few individual shots of Emilia with her parents and grandma
Jbird loves his baby sister and is always checking on her
Me and my girl, my heart is so full

My mom is one proud grandma
My baby getting her picture taken, she is such a doll
After we were done upstairs, we all went downstairs and the photographers focused on getting some individual shots of our girl.

I love this picture where you can see the boys in the background with hubby while Emilia is in the foreground getting prepped
They changed her in a variety of outfit and bows and took the time to calm her along the way when she got cranky.

Now you see why I love working with these girls, they are just so loving towards the kids
Another basket shot of our sweet girl and her blanket
I absolutely cannot wait to see the final result. Emilia was a mere 8 days old when we did this photoshoot and she handled it so well. I am looking forward to updating pictures in our house to include our baby girl.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

First week at home with our baby girl

The first week at home with our baby girl has been nothing short of crazy, chaotic and amazing. My mom took a week off to help us get settled and it was so helpful. My brothers helped out with the boys while we were in the hospital. Since we got home from the hospital it has been a juggling act taking care of all four kids and I am happy to say that we are all still alive and well. The boys have loved having their daddy home all day and doing fun things together. Emilia is adjusting really well to life in our household and I am healing well too. Emilia is such a great nurser just like her brother Bean before her.

Emilia is such a peaceful baby. She eats, sleeps and loves to cuddle. She has the sweetest face and I can't help but stare at her all day. I love this kid so much
The day we came home from the hospital, we brought some gifts for the boys from Emilia. They were so excited. Funny story, when my niece came over to visit a few days later and asked for their toys, Tman told her she needed to ask her parents for a baby sister and she'll bring her a gift too :).
Bean was a little unsure about the baby at first
Getting him acquainted to his new baby
Bean getting a bit more excited about his baby sister
A few days later we got our stork delivered. I always order one of these for our kiddos. We got a family picture in front of our stork of course. Our family is complete :)
Hanging out with my baby girl. I love that she is looking at me in this picture. I am one tired but super happy mama
My mom and brother J hanging out with Emilia
Hubby chilling with his daughter
I am loving all the pink in this picture :)
My cousin C came to visit with his wife and kid

My brother J got lots of baby cuddle :)
My sister K also came to visit
This is how the boys ate breakfast all week

We attempted to take a family picture and chaos ensued :)
My mom caught this awesome pic of me sleeping with the baby, we are always tired around here
I have also been getting lots of baby cuddle with this sweet little one
We took our baby to her first doctor's appointment. She is not going to get much one on one time with us so we take it where we can get it
She had jaundice so we were told to put her near the windows so that she could get some sun, look at that peaceful child of mine sunbathing
I made a cute project I found on pinterest
This is the concept I had in mind, poor baby girl. Hubby did not trust my makeshift bed and didn't want to be too far from the baby. This trial run proved to be interesting. Hopefully we got a good one during our actual photoshoot.
Breastfeeding has been very interesting. The boys are really interested in everything Emilia does and ask a lot of questions. The minute I put her on the boob, they all came near me and had a million questions

Tman wanted to know how she was getting any milk from the boob
Jbird thought she was biting me therefore hurting me so he decided to stop her :)
So she is just drinking milk but not hurting you mama?
This is pretty much how I breastfed Emilia everyday the first week
Our first week at home with our 4 kids has been amazing and exhausting at the same time. We are tired but so happy. Tman, Jbird and Bean are doing really well and adjusting well to Emilia. The boys are completely smitten with her and give her kisses regularly. Emilia is healing nicely and we are all so in love with her. I am thoroughly enjoying this time at home with our kids. God has been very good to us and we are so thankful for our blessings.