Fun Family Sunday

So our amazing friend aka cousin came and picked us up again today for a BBQ at his house with all 4 of his kids and his niece and her baby who is 8 months old. She came to San Diego when we were both pregnant. So it was great to have the babies meet each other for the first time and have 9 kids under the age of 18. We ate, swam, watched Brasil so over, then called it a day and cane home. So much fun though! It's so nice to get out of grandmas house but also to swim and spend time with such amazing people. Today was a great day!

Our new sleeping arraignment, Thais and bita on the futon, tiago on a twin on the floor and baby and I on the twin bed but I still end up on the floor most nights snuggling someone.

These two are so related!

Working on opening latches

Meeting laila for the first time

Cousins

Big and small

Pool time again

She thinks she knows what she is doing but she has no idea

Dino being attacked by my kids 

Someone passed out

Brasil, Champs once again

My beautiful first born

We ended the night with mini fireworks as we build up to 4th of July

Family, family, family

As hard as this is, it is beyond worth it. It is one month of my life for a life time of memories for not just me but more importantly for my kids.

 The hardest moments are always holding Zico, he is a mamas boy and so heavy that not a lot of other people hold him, just me and he only falls asleep on the boob so he is always on the boob which makes me sitting on the couch for half the day, meaning poor bita doesn't get a lot of my time,but honestly she doesn't want it much just when she is tired but as you can see, she just falls asleep where ever. Tiago is great about taking her with him and helping with putting her shoes on or helping her not cry, etc. he is the best big brother and half the time she only asks for him anyways. When the cousins are around Bita loves to be with them and held by the big girls. They are only 10 and 11 years old but they act much older, which is good and bad but when i am around them while I love their help, I make sure they get to be kids too. It melts my heart to see them playing games and laughing. They are such good kids even though they have been through so much. I love them, I miss them being little but I'm glad to see them grow up to beautiful and amazing people.

We are not in our comfortable ground, my life choices and where I am in my life is not the same as all of my cousins and that gets in the way and is hard to explain to my kids but I'm trying. I have to keep my kids first and put away my issues or dislikes to keep this trip positive but also because its family. You love them no matter what. We have been through so much the last few months and we are all grieving in our own ways, I pray this trip brings joy and happiness to all but especially the kids. These are the times they will look back on forever.

Obviously not having car is hard but I am pretty proud of myself for keeping the kids busy. We started off with just the swing and croquette but they both got old pretty quick. So then we did a few hide and seek games, but the kids fav game so far was treasure hunt with clues I left all over the backyard that lead to the next clue, I even had my grandmas pocket as a hiding place to involve her, it was classic! We have made shapes in the sky, we have played hot potato, we did a day of chalk drawings, found a ball in the bushes and started monkey in the middle, we have tried everything and its only week 2 of 4. 

Now the heat is by far the hardest, I finally made it to the $1 store and got bubbles, jump rope, some toys for the kids but its so hot, we have yet to use them. I'm trying my hardest to keep us busy but with no car and not being able to go outside, its hard especially when I wont let them play video games or watch tv all day. Trying to keep some things close to home as possible with chocolate chip pancakes breakfast, and home work time, movie time, plus also fun things like going over to my cousins house for Saturday night dinner. Her ac wasn't working so we sat outside with the water on but it just made it more fun. Like my cousin said, "we don't need a birthday, wedding or funeral to get together, just get together to get together" and that's exactly what we did. 

Some of my funniest moments include bita swinging her shirt above her head singing Ola' then my grandma says " let me show you" and takes the shirt from bita, but grandma sings " garbage man" I don't get it either but wow was it funny! After dinner at my cousins, my grandma watched a movie with us  and then went outside and lit fire crackers with us. She was so into the fireworks, it was cute and it was late like 11pm. That's another cool thing, since fireworks are illegal in the entire state of California, and not here, I keep using 4th of July to the kids as a reward for them to stay in Utah for they can let off their own fireworks. It's sad at night when they are crying to go home but I tell them a few minutes of sadness at night is worth the hours and days of fun during the day with their cousins. Tiago still has night terrors, bita is better at sleeping between her siblings and Zico is sleeping amazingly. Thais wakes up early and Bita goes to bed late, and Zico stil wakes up to be feed in the middle of the night and they are all in my room, so Im not getting much sleep. I'm still exhausted but like I started this long journal entry with, a month of tough moments is worth a life time of memories for my kids. Thanks for listening to me babble, its 2am and this is the only time I find to blog, so bare with me. Im an emotional wreck by ends day. Now for photos....

This happy boy is a mamas boy but his great grandma sure loves him too! She has a special bond with him and they just laugh and smile back and forth.

Upside down chalk drawing of princess cotton candy ballerina

Thais has the star winking and waving , so stinking cute

Guess who?

Tiago sun under Thais rainbow

Where ever she may fall

She loves babies

Our evenings outside

A tradition to take photos on grandma front porch, trying to locate them multiple generations of them to put in one book.

He loves his bath time

Helping me cook breakfast

Doing her journal work while we cook

She is writing all about our vacation

Yummy

Grandma turned on her lighted Mary and told Zico " you need to pray to santina so you can crawl" I was cracking up

Tiago and Tio Dave working in the garden

Where ever she may fall

At Tiagos god mother house playing in the sprinklers

Chillin with my boy

The girls on the skate board,I learn to ride a long board for the first time but no photos

Family time on a Saturday night, it doesn't get any better

Ok well maybe it does, movie time with my babies

It's Hot

This is just the beginning of what is scheduled to look like the hottest week in history. It's challenging enough to just be stuck one the property all day but now we will be stuck inside most the day too, and at Grandmas house where there ate tons of breakables and not a lot of toys. This is truly becoming challenging now, but again thx to friends aka cousins we got out of the house Thursday for a swim in his pool and some other fun too. My kids are not used to video games of Amy kind or guns, not even nerf or water but on vacation they have experienced all of them. It's pretty obvious they are not any good with them but they are having fun. I'm thankful for our family and friends.

Video games with his cousin

Watermelon was the perfect treat on this hot day

Even Zico wanted some

Where ever she may fall

Since bita was asleep in the house we went outside for a picnic

Thais is becoming quite skilled on the broken swing

Couldn't even look at clouds

Awwww a pool now this is what we are used too

Still trips me out to see mts on all sides of us

We watched the nba draft but my fav moment was this throw back moment

The kids played games

And made music

And watched tv at our friends house