- Gabe turned 4 two days before cousin Olive's first birthday, so Lindsay and I decided to have a joint, circus-themed party. We recognized that to the kids all our planning and decorations would not matter, but that made it fun for us, so we did it.
Lucia with cupcake all over her face.- We worked like crazy to get our backyard done before the party. Then we decorated, we had personalized water bottles, animal ballon making kits, otter pops in little bins all over the yard, a photo booth (which no one used) and a delicious dessert table. It turned out adorable and we had the best time planning it.
Mario was not so amused by all the planning (and a mild amount of pre-party stress) and swore that he is taking Lucia away on her next birthday so I can't have a party.
Gabe blowing out candles while Lucia watches.
Some things I want to remember about my four year-old Gabe:- He loves his sister. They are finally starting to play together and it is so fun to watch. Of course she still annoys him sometimes when she doesn't understand how to build a good ranch out of blocks, but he is very protective of her with others.
- He LOVES everything cowboy, and tells anyone who will listen that he is a cowboy, that he can ride a pony on his own, and he likes to wear his jeans, boots and cowboys shirts everyday, even when it's 110 outside.
- He likes to be in control. He tells me I'm not in charge of him, he's in charge of himself. He has such a *STRONG* personality and at times it's trying, to say the least. But I know if he gets on the right track in life no one will convince him to do anything else!
- He loves his dad to make up stories for him at night and sing him songs. Mario and I both just kind of make up lyrics as we go along, and Gabe often interrupts and says "no, what I want to happen is..."
He is an absolute fish. He would play in the pool all day. Swim lessons were a complete failure, but he already dives in head first, swims down to the bottom of the pol to get dive toys, and loves doing cannonballs.
with friends Allison and Daniella on our new swingset.
- He colors inside the lines, and has started writing random letters, although he can't identify them correctly. He counts well and does simple addition.
- He loves to get into my makeup, and he knows he's not supposed to. The other day he snuck in my bathroom and painted his nails and when I asked him what happened to his nails he said "nothing mom, Jesus just made them this way".
- It's getting harder and harder to get him to speak Spanish. He'll still do it with his dad, but he just tells me "mom, just speak English, okay?" But this is important to us so we keep insisting...
Mario introducing terere to our friends the Hidalgo's and the Larrietta's 
TJ - Gabe's best fremeny from preschool. They always want to play together and all they do is fight.
Lucia spent the whole night grabbing otter pops and finding different people to open them for her. "Treat" she says and she holds them up, and someone always helped!
Our favorite baby Olive in her adorable circus skirt. Gabe and Lucia both adore her and the three of them play together great. That alone would make it worth living here, but thankfully we like way more things about living in Arizona than I ever would have imagined.Happy Birthday Gabe - we love you!
