Over the river and through the woods......

About once a month, Carlos works all weekend at the Northwest Health Systems (Springdale Hosptial) as a hospitalist. He is pretty busy during this time and so sometimes, we go away to visit people. This weekend, we hopped in the car and went on up to Bella Vista, AR to visit Gigi Rich and Gigi Lu. We had a blast. We got to their house (after getting lost) at about 10:00 on Saturday morning. We played, read books, ate snacks and got lots of hugs. We took a trip to our favorite store, "Helping Hands." Joaquin had a few major meltdowns while we were there when someone bought the play car that he was riding in. He ended up skipping lunch that day and taking a REALLY great nap because he was so tired. We watched a bit of basketball (my Grandma is a huge fan), went to a great Mexican restaurant (Joaquin ended up pouring a bowl of salsa on his lap...so fun :) ), and Joaquin even was able to get the mail with Gigi Lu. Sunday morning we played quite a bit before church. I sadly didn't get any pictures, but Gigi Rich and Joaquin played for a long time at the tool bench. He LOVED it. We went to Judson Baptist Church (where a sweet lady offered to watch Joaquin during the service) and then we went to eat Chinese food for lunch. It was so fun to have a sleepover with them. We will hopefully have many of those in the future. Thanks Gigi Rich and Gigi Lu for letting us visit this weekend!

March 15, 2011

2 years ago today was one of the best days of my life (and I know dada agrees). We were SO excited to welcome Joaquin Addington Acosta into the world. The Lord has truly blessed us these two years with Joaquin's smiles, laughs, cries and kisses. We wouldn't change any of it for anything in the world.

We pray for you daily JQ that you will love good and hate what is evil. We pray that you love Jesus with all your heart. We pray that God will establish in you a passion for his work and for showing other's Jesus. We named you Joaquin "God will establish" knowing that HE would do that in you!!! We love you so much sweet child.

*Since we celebrated on Saturday, we woke up and had a low key pancake breakfast before dada went to work. Joaquin was NOT a fan of the birthday hats but WAS a fan of the pancakes!

JQ with mama and dada.

Thanks for celebrating with us!

Birthday Party for a 2 year old!

On Saturday, we had a great little get together with some family and friends to celebrate the birth of Joaquin. He was a big fan of having everyone around, although he is struggling with sharing toys/books/everything with other kiddos! :) We are working on that daily. He loved seeing so many people and getting to eat pizza and his favorite, CUPCAKES. He LOVED the icing. Thanks everyone that was able to come and make this day special for our family.

*The adorable child in the happy birthday hat is Liam Lawson!! Isn't he so cute??

New table for the birthday boy

For our sweet Joaquin's birthday, we decided that we wanted to get Joaquin a little table and chairs of his own. We decided we were going to use the money in our change jar to buy his birthday present this year. We found a table/chair set that we really liked but didn't think we would have enough. When I counted the change we had the EXACT amount, to the dollar for the table/chair set that we loved. Yeah God. So here it is. He LOVED it. We hope to spend many hours playing, reading, eating and spending time with friends/cousins at this table.

Kim, Brax, Mae and Thomas also sent JQ a present in the mail and so Joaquin opened it at his table. He was so exited for the Psalty CDs and for the soccer shirt!! Thanks Watkins family!

2nd Snow storm

Recently Arkansas had another wonderful snow storm. The best part was, Carlos got to stay home from work and play! It was a blast. This was Carlos's family's first snow storm in the new apartment! It was freezing but we had a lot of fun in the snow. Joaquin loved being in the backyard and realizing that every time the apartment door opened and someone came out, it was his Tata(Claudia), Abuelo or Abuela!! He got extremely excited every time someone joined in the fun. Thank you Lord for the beautiful snow.

THANK YOU!!!

I want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone that donated furniture/goodies for the apartment, spent many hours painting, spent many hours cleaning, spent many hours fixing and organizing and encouraging us in a HUGE way!!!! Special thanks to Grandma Lu and Grandpa Richard, Grandma Bonnie, Grandpa Gordy, Mom, Dad, Aunt Betsy, Uncle David, Courtney Linn, Sarah and David Hamrick, Karen and Trey Trumbo, Tanner and Cory Cangelosi and MANY OTHERS!!! We appreciate you SO much.

The Acosta's move to Fayetteville

This weekend, Carlos's mom, dad and sister moved from Florida to Fayetteville and moved into our apartment that is attached to our house. Carlos's brother, Daniel and his cousin, David drove with them from Florida to help with the move.

The blessing of the apartment

When we bought our house, we got a very awesome apartment with it. It has a bedroom, kitchen, living room, bathroom and laundry room. It was in pretty rough shape to begin with. BUT, we have had SO SO much amazing help from SO SO many people in the last couple of months to not only make it livable, but beautiful!!! Thank you EVERYONE that blessed us by helping. This weekend, Carlos's mom, dad and sister moved from Florida to live in the apartment. Here is a little idea of what it looks like.

The Apartment

More pictures of the apartment that is attached to our house.

Playing in the snow

Full body piano

Joaquin loves to entertain me during the day. Today, he decided to play the piano with his whole body.

Snow in Fayetteville

Since we were in Florida for Christmas, we missed one of the Fayetteville snow storms. Seeing as I grew up with cold Christmases, this was a little sad for me. BUT, NEVER FEAR, winter is not over in Fayetteville. We had some snow last night and this morning and we are supposed to get more tonight and tomorrow. Joaquin got to play in it for the first time. SO FUN.

Jason and Alisha visit

Our dearest friends, Jason and Alisha Kempenich were able to visit on their way home from Christmas in Minnesota. We played LOTS of games, at LOTS of good food, went to Eureka Springs, visited War Eagle and saw the movie Tangled. It was so good to catch up with them and of course, Joaquin thinks they are the coolest. (They are actually Joaquin's God parents).

17 week pictures

While we were in Florida, I hit my 17 1/2 week mark in the pregnancy. I don't normally do pictures, but I thought I would a few times during this pregnancy. Baby number 2 has given me a run for my money. I have been sick a ton, but have felt the baby kicking a lot. We are excited on Jan. 11, 2011 to find out the sex of this baby. :)

Orlando getaway

Carlos had a CME (continuing medical education) conference on Pediatric Infections while we were in Florida. It was in Orland0, which meant that we were able to have a little getaway for 3 nights. Thanks to Carlos's parents and Carlos's grandmother, we were able to go childless(of course, I still had Acosta number 2 with us in my belly). We had a great time. His conference was only until noon, so I was able to sleep in in the mornings and then the rest of the day, we were able to go out to eat, visit some disney places and just relax. We were also able to see Uncle Brian and Aunt Fanny for a meal. Praise the Lord for getaways!!! :)