What we did in April

I've really enjoyed reading everybodys posts to our family blog and also the individual family blogs. I figured it was my turn to join in the fun! I liked Rachael's idea of what did you do this month? So here's what we did in the month of April... Hopefully I can figure this out. We celebrated Jacob's 4th birthday where he got to decorate his own cake. He was very proud of his cake!!!
Towards the middle of the month Erica was complaining of her side hurting so Manny took her into the doctor and we found out that she had appendicitis. She had surgery a couple of hours later and everything went well. She stayed in the hospital for about 4 days and her lips had a pretty shade of red the whole time due to the "eat as many Popsicles as you want" rule.
David had his first haircut. He was born with crazy long hair, then about 4 months old it started to fall out except for a few patches here and there. We finally evened it up! He has also been busy this month learning how to sit up, say "MA-MA" (good boy!), clap his hands, and pull himself onto his knees. It's hard work being 7 months old.
Sara has been wanting to mow the lawn for a couple of years now. She finally reaches the peddles, so she got to mow the lawn for the first time! Manny was going to have her just do a small area, but she ended up doing our whole lawn plus the neighbor's lawn as well. (probably about 1 1/2 acres worth) She did a great job and can't wait to do it again. I'm excited about this!

Emily and Erica celebrated their 8th birthday! Erica (left) is smiling pretty big, but she was actually in a lot of pain. Later that night Manny brought her back into the hospital and her incision was extremely infected. One of the Resident doctors did the Chicken Dance for her since she was in the E.R. on her birthday. She thought that was pretty cool.
The infection was so bad that she had to have another surgery. This time she was in the hospital for 5 days with an even bigger incision. She enjoyed getting a collection of stuffed animals and other various toys and things just for her and nobody else. Manny and I learned how little sleep one can survive on. She had a very positive attitude throughout this whole ordeal and all the nurses loved her.
Manny thought it would be fun to dress Emily up in a gown and have her skip through the halls. I'm not sure we ever told the nurses that Erica had an identical twin sister. He HE He! Emily went skipping away down the hall and all of a sudden the nurses started freaking out while we are laughing hysterically in her room. They ended up laughing along with us and it brought some laughter to the Pediatric floor. We heard about it the rest of the time we were there from nurses and doctors who weren't even there.
We brought Erica home from the hospital on Thursday night and got a call from Manny's brother, Rafael, at 5:00 that he was going to be getting married on Friday at 4:00. To make a long story short... His bride is from Chile. She got her Visa on Monday, flew in on Thursday morning, and decided to elope on Friday. They have been waiting for almost a year to get her here. Their dad flew in on Friday at noon and met his new, soon to be daughter-in-law, and found out that they were getting married in just a few hours! He was flying in for Emily and Erica's baptism the next day.

Then Saturday Emily and Erica got baptized. Fortunately Erica was able to be baptized even though her wound was still open. After the baptism we had a get together at our house to celebrate the girls baptism and Rafael and Rocio's wedding.

Manny was suppose to leave for his deployment the next weekend, but fortunately his flight got delayed a couple of days. We were able to go to the Science Museum up in Raleigh and have a wonderful Saturday together.
Sunday a friend of ours took some Family Pictures for us last minute. We got some great pictures, especially of the kids. We then said good-bye to their dad for awhile. He is doing well and hopefully he will be able to see Colin. The past few weeks I have spent recuperating from the busiest and craziest few weeks of my life! Erica is still healing and going into the doctor every week, but doing great! Now we are getting ready to drive out to Idaho for the summer. Rachael is flying in next weekend to help with the road trip. We are so excited to be able to spend the next 2 1/2 months surrounded by family!!!