Merry Christmas

We just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. We have been pretty busy between both sets of parents so we figured now is the perfect time to send those wishes before the time passes us.

Love,

Alex, Aleida, Isaiah, and Nathanael

IT IS A ...

We posted the pics of the baby in Facebook and Myspace a few days ago when we found out but only 2 people noticed. Our entire family knows now so we decided to post it on our blog to let all our blogger friends know especially those who do not have Facebook or Myspace. We are so excited about this and our families are excited as well.

We are now in Corpus. We just arrived yesterday and we will only be here until the day after Christmas and even at that we are leaving really early in the morning. We are hoping we can get a little rest and relaxation here but we will just have to see. We hope you are all doing well.

Benavides family

Life is busy

Well needless to say that I have not posted anything about our family lately because I have been running around like crazy with appointments and just being tired. So many new things happened in November like Nathanael started walking finally. Out of nowhere he just started taking some steps and now we can't get him to not walk. He is so cute because even though it has been about 3 weeks or so he still has the look that walking is so new to him. Here are some pics of that. I couldn't figure out how to turn these pictures upright.

Isaiah was due for a haircut so he got a new haircut. He wasn't too happy going through the process but he is happy now and I am happy too because it is one person less that I have to comb their hair.

The next thing that I can remember happening was Thanksgiving. It seemed like I blinked and the holidays started rolling around. After a few hours of working in the kitchen and cooking we have a beautiful meal awaiting us. Alex helped out so much which was good because by the time we were done cooking I was pooped. After resting a little while we got the Christmas tree out and started decorating and that was the last thing I did on that day.

Here I am at 17 weeks in my pregnancy. I am now 18 weeks but we haven't taken a picture yet.

And last but not least we celebrated Alex's 26th birthday this past Monday and we had a wonderful day.

So that is what has happened but please keep us in your prayers as we enter the next few weeks. We have a pretty busy schedule. Alex works this weekend which means he has Monday and Tuesday off. This kind of works out perfect because on Monday we will be celebrating Isaiah's 3rd birthday and I have a doctor's appointment so Alex and the boys should be able to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. They still have not heard the baby because they have not been in the room when we find it so this time they should hear it without any problem. Hopefully the midwife will schedule me for an appointment to find out the sex of the baby at this next appointment soon. So far everything seems to be going fine with this pregnancy. I can feel the baby move on occasion which is cool and Alex can't wait till it is consistent so he can feel the kicks as well. Tuesday night Alex has to go to work from 4:30 until ? so that is a little bit disappointing because not only does it cut into family time but I have no clue how to prepare for the evening at all. The positive of that is that he will have Wednesday off so he only has to work Thursday and Friday of next week. We are still praying about whether or not we want to attend the command's Christmas party because we do not have sitters up here and I am very particular of who stays with my kids. If we attend the party it will be Sunday the 14th which means that Monday the command is closed if you attended the party. If you don't attend the party you report to work. We have decided it isn't too bad because on the following day we start our leave anyway. We will be flying out at 6 am from Portland and should be in Corpus around 2ish. We will be in Texas for about 10 days. We fly back home on the 26th of December. So as you can see we are pretty busy for the next few weeks which has been causing me a little stress to be honest because I am trying to make sure everything is in order before we leave but I don't have enough time in a day and the kids add a little stress because anything I do get accomplished doesn't stay that way for long. I wish I could admit that my house is immaculate all the time but to be honest it isn't and I am just trying to figure out how to keep it presentable most of the time and not lose my mind.

Well I pray you are all doing well and I look forward to seeing some of you soon.

Aleida