An afternoon with my babies!

I didn't have any work this afternoon so after running some errands, I went to the hogar. These afternoons are always the best! In my head I tell myself I'll really only see the kids on the weekends so any extra time during the week is just a bonus! 

 Tía Rosi and A.M. dancing after lunch... She's one of the best!

 Everybody with their babies!

These babies "helped" with homework... maybe in the sense that they stayed quiet!

 Look who got her first real bath today! She wasn't a fan... Also, funny story... I was carrying her around this afternoon and Tía Benita said "Tía Hannah, if you love her so much just make your own. I'll help you find a father." I'm glad I can always count on the tías!

I've been telling the tías for weeks that it's time for M. to get a haircut because he obviously takes after big brother Alexander in the hair department... Today was the day!

 It took 3 of them to get the job done!

Mamá B. combing her hijo's hair!

Mamá B. and her son after his first haircut... He looks so much more grown-up!

Weekend at the Hogar!

My favorite part of the week is alway the weekend! There's nothing I love more than spending time with all of my favorite babies! The past two weekends I've spent Saturday night at the hogar and although I really don't like spending the nights anywhere except my own house, I have enjoyed these impromptu sleepovers that let me spend a bit more time with the kids than I would if I went home for the night! It's also made taking kids to church easier as I'm already there Sunday morning. Here are some pictures of this weekend's fun!

 I ALWAYS took group pictures of the babies when we went on outings at the former Baby House. Now that we're here with the big girls, it's a bit harder and we always have a few big girls join our "Baby House" pictures!

 A.M. and S. were told to fold clothes before we went to Horita Feliz. Based on this picture, that wasn't getting done!

You know you're Tía Silvia's favorite when she makes you your very own pot of spaghetti sauce without tuna mixed into it!

 Are you going to your wedding or Horita Feliz?!

 She came to Horita Feliz with a plastic crown. It must have come off before this picture was taken!

 This picture makes me laugh just thinking about it. "Spongebob" in Spanish is written as "Bob Esponja"... It seems that someone made a typo!

She's always willing to share her bed with me for the night!

The twins before church

 Look who has already been discharged from the hospital! He came home Saturday afternoon and has had a bit of a rough time. His lip looks to be healing well! He finally let us wipe his nose after the picture. He's eating well, but definitely isn't his usual active self again just yet!

Look who is finally sitting up (for VERY brief periods of time) on her own!

Some may say she's dressed and ready for church... Others who know her know that that outfit change is just the first of many!

D. on our way home for church!

Waving "hi!" to our blog readers!

Bienvenida, S.!

I guess I should be posting this with yesterday's date as that's when our newest baby arrived, but I just met her today so I'm keeping today's date! Meet baby S. (some debate over what her actual name is but most likely the same name as one of our older girls)! We're told she is 3 days old, but I'm not sure it's true. Her umbilical cord fell off this afternoon and would that not be super soon?! All we know so far is that 6 hours after her birth, her mother walked out of the hospital and left her there. Of course there are all sorts of thoughts on why that happened but we'll never really know. We're just happy to have her here!

Such a round little face! 

 She's SO tiny! 

I don't think there's anything I love more than newborn baby girls... Too sweet!

You better believe her chulito came off as soon as I got near her! haha I hate hats so much. This picture was taken right before she thanked me for feeding her by puking up everything. 

I.'s Cleft Lip Surgery

This afternoon I. went into surgery to have his cleft lip repaired. Based on the way his lip looked (his lip and gum were all one), it seemed like it could be a difficult fix and I know he was in the operating room for at least 4 hours. We recently heard the good news from Tío David that he came out of surgery just fine and will spend the next couple hours sleeping. After that we should have a better idea of what his recovery may look like. We're taking hospital shifts all day tomorrow and tomorrow night, although we have been told that he could possibly be discharged tomorrow afternoon. We're praying it's true! This is his second of three surgeries, and hopefully he'll recover quickly so we can schedule the third and final surgery to close his cleft palate. I'd hoped to see him at some point this afternoon but surgery took much longer than I anticipated and I wasn't able to go... I'll post some pictures of his new lip tomorrow!

A Night with I.

You may remember months ago when I.'s cleft lip repair was suspended at the last minute due to a cold. It has FINALLY been rescheduled, this time for this Friday morning. Unfortunately over the weekend he developed a cough and for the past couple days he has also had a fever. In an effort to keep him as healthy as possible in the days leading up to the surgery (so it won't be suspended again), he's been put in isolation with Danyelle at her house. However, as we're still in the middle of moving houses, she's been staying at the former Baby House at night. Last night, Sarah and I joined Danyelle and I. for the night and had a sleepover! I. is loving all the extra attention and seems to be getting better... Pray that his health continues to improve and he's able to have his surgery on Friday! It's important that this lip repair happens when it does, because after he heals from this surgery, we'll have to schedule surgery for his palate repair (He had a double cleft/lip palate. One side of his lip was repaired before coming to us... We'll have the other side and his palate repaired.)

So weird to see the all the rooms without cribs!

Too many flashes going off at once!

A little Jewish boy with his yarmulke? Or just a ridiculously too small newborn hat? 

Feliz Cumpleaños, D. y B.!

Yesterday D. turned 2 years old and tomorrow B. turns 8 years old! To make it easier on all of us who wanted to celebrate with them, we celebrated both birthdays this afternoon! While D. didn't know it was his birthday, B. has been looking forward to it for MONTHS! I almost always make the kids' birthday cakes and ever since they realized I'd take requests, several have asked for certain colors, cake flavors or cake decorations. B. has been asking for a Spiderman cake for awhile now and any time we talked about birthdays or it was someone else's birthday, he reminded me that he wanted a Spiderman cake. I had grand plans for this cake because I didn't want to disappoint him but I didn't plan well and ended up at the hogar with an un-frosted cake and no decorations. Luckily one of Sarah's coworkers came to the rescue and let us borrow some food coloring so he didn't have a plain white cake! Danyelle had a Spiderman cake topper/candle for him but ended up not being able to come at the last minute so a couple spiderwebs were all I could do. He was so happy it was his birthday and he's so easy to please that he thought it was great! We're continuing the celebration next weekend as his other request has been a sleepover at mine and Sarah's apartment ever since Cliver came to stay with us after his heart surgery. 

D. surprisingly sat relatively still during our picture taking! At one point before singing though he did stick his hand into B.'s cake. The chocolate frosting on his cake was a bit hard so he wasn't able to bite it but we tried. He wanted no part of it! 

We celebrated right before dinner (bad timing on our part) and most of the kids said they were too full to eat anything else after. This may be a new tradition... cake for dinner? Sounds like a plan to me!

Weekend Fun!

This weekend has been a bit crazy! After spending almost all day at the hogar yesterday, I ended up staying over night. It certainly made taking kids to church easier as I didn't have to go back and pick them up this morning! I planned on taking 8 with me but at the last minute Tía Sarin wanted to take two of my toddlers since I was taking 4 of her big girls. After a wild morning (really though, they couldn't have been better behaved than they were), we went back home for lunch and then this afternoon we celebrated Daniel's 2nd birthday (yesterday) and Benito's 8th birthday (tomorrow) with a joint party! 

Sarah brought E. over for the weekend. Right before I took this picture, he was playing inside the laundry hamper but got out when he saw the camera!

 Taking them to Horita Feliz just got way easier as we're now just down the street and can walk!

Birthday boy on his actual birthday!

 She's basically a tía.

And she wants to be with "her" Gabriel.

Whoops! Looks like she was so busy tucking in the babies that she didn't realize she tucked in one of the big girls too!

This crew went with me to church this morning!

 When we can't find pants in your size, you might get to wear 6 month pants... Not a problem when you're so small they really just look like capris!

Remember the face (one eye shut and tongue out) she used to make when she first arrived?! We don't see it as much anymore but I thought it was funny how she has her eye closed here..

 All smiles!

 Being silly with her bread at Horita Feliz!

 Saturday night = Movie night

Don't you all see sheep on your way home from church? 

It's a miracle! Getting these two to both smile and look at the camera at the same time is almost impossible!

 She was maybe told to go rest... We might have stayed up and watched Cake Boss instead.

Washing the dishes or licking the beaters? Depends on how you look at it...