its a long one...

OK, OK I know it has been a while since I have written anything of value, so hold onto your hats... I don't know!! I am going to update the blog now and fill you all in on the goings on in our lives, first of all, I am currently 17 weeks pregnant and fighting a stubborn cold, which makes feeling sick from being pregnant even more miserable. In time it will be over. We are trying to get a few things done around here before we leave in April, yes, that is right we will be out of here in the middle of April. I have been busy trying to get the many piles that have formed in the past year taken care of and the house tidied up so that when April comes we will be able to direct the movers and all will be painless, that is the dream anyway!! Paul is still busy with the project, and it looks as though we would have had to move to Italy if we had stayed on the project through next year. From what I have been told from others on the project if we were sent to Italy the housing would be an issue plus it would mean moving Nathan twice within the school year and I am just not ready to put myself or Nathan through that!! I am not against living in Italy, just not at his point in our lives and with 4 little kids. Nathan is enjoying school a lot and has been doing well with his reading. He really enjoys taking things into school for show and tell. The kids are encouraged to find things at home that relate to the topics in school and bring them in to the classroom for show and tell. He has taken in books, monster trucks and plastic animals. Nathan has been using his imagination and making thins out of whatever he can find. He likes to color a lot, and is always getting on the Cbeebies website and printing off pictures to color. He is a sweet boy but is always ready to rat out his sister if she does something closely resembling misbehaving. The words “work it out” are the current phrase of choice for Paul and me. Kayla is a different story all together; she has found cartoons and would watch them 24 hours a day if allowed. She is not interested in coloring and arts and crafts, possible in 6 months time, but not at the moment. It is amazing how well behaved she can become when her brother is getting into trouble. It is almost as though she becomes the perfect little girl; always saying her pleases and thank you’s. She does not like to be told no and is more than willing to hit anytime she does not get her way. I do not know who said that it is the terrible 2’s, because I have found that right at 3 or right before 3 kids are a mess and that does not end, well, it gets a little less, but is never as easy as when they are 15 months old. She is sweet tough and a very cuddly little girl always ready to help and LOVES her baby dolls she will change their “nappies” (diapers) and take them for walks in her stroller. She is quite the little mom and a great big sister to Emily. Kayla will hold Emily’s hand as they walk up and down the stairs and all over the house. Kayla will hold her and try to give Emily hugs, but Emily is not interested most of the time and just tries to wiggle away from her. Emily where to start, she is all over the place trying to be older than she is. She will walk, yes I said walk, not crawl, walk up and down the stairs by holding onto the rails. She is saying more and all of the time. The current words of choice are “share”, which said anytime she wants something that someone else has, “there”, this is said when she is not exactly what else to say, a generic word for everything, “sit”, when she wants to sit somewhere, “juice”, for her juice cup, this has been replaced with “share”. I believe that is all of her vocabulary. She tries to say woof when we see a dog, but it is more of the fff and will make a noise trying to say meow when we see a cat. She is trying to talk and there are times she yells share, share and I am just not sure what it is she is wanting to have so I try to distract her by asking her where something is and the obvious answer to that question is “there”. She has also started with the temper tantrums when she does not get her way and she is really quite good at them for being 15 months old. That is about it for the life of the Hellens. I am sure there is more that I have left out, but the little ones are getting restless and I need to get dinner on the table. I am going to try to get some video or pictures up in the next few days, but at my speed the past few months it may be next year when I get those on here, so keep checking, and I will try to keep you posted. Until next time, ADIOS!!!

Early birthday

On Saturday we celebrated Kayla's birthday one week early!! She will be 3 years old on the 23rd and wanted to have the Grundmeier's here to help us celebrate, but they will be in Madrid, so we celebrated a week early. Mrs. Grundemeier made a squirrel cake, as that was the kind of cake requested by Kayla, for Kayla and we all enjoyed the chocolate frosting. The Grundemeier's gave her a flamenco apron, which she loved and a flamenco doll. It was a good time.

Dancing Turkey

A Christmas Decoration that we have is a Dancing Turkey, he dances to Jingle Bells. At first Emily was not sure about him, but by the time Christmas was over she LOVED him!! She would request that he be played over and over again as she would dance to the music!! Here is a little video of her dancing "with" the Turkey. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJurhOj3yY8

My Little Helper!!

Here is a little video of Emily "helping" me mop the floor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eDCC9oPBO8

Guess What!!

Paul and I are proud to announce to upcoming arrival of baby #4!!! We had a visit with the doctor last night and all looks good. We are still amazed to see this tiny 2 inch baby with all 5 fingers and toes, to see it's little heart beating and know that all is well so far. I am 12 weeks along and the doctor gave us the due date of July 28. I am coping fine, sick as usual, so when the doctor told me I am 12 weeks I was super excited to think only 12 weeks more of feeling sick. I have been tired, more tired with this pregnancy than the others, maybe it has something to do with running after 3 other little ones. We are unsure as to where the baby will be born possibly here in Spain or back in Texas. We are VERY excited and wanted to share our joy with everyone!!

Sunny Saturday!!

What a Day!! Today has been a sunny, warm day in the low 60's with blue skies for miles. This type of day is fairly normal in Spain this time of year. This morning we had pancakes for breakfast, this is Nathan's FAVORITE breakfast meal, well pancakes and french toast. I think it is really the syrup that he enjoys to eat and the pancake or french toast are just vehicles to get the syrup into his mouth. After breakfast it was playtime, then Kayla got her hair cut, not exactly a professional cut, but when I have to constantly tell her to look up, sit still, stop moving around, what can you expect. It turned out fine and since she is only 2, almost 3, she doesn't complain too much.

After the girls nap we headed out to the pirate ship park where we played for a bit then walked along the sea front looking fro sea shells, then back to the park area where we played with the soccer ball. Well, Nathan and Paul played with the soccer ball while Emily ran around chasing them trying to get it before they did. Now the kids are eating their dinner of popcorn, hot dogs, pasta, cucumber and carrots. We had to throw in the vegetable to give them a little bit of nutrition!! ...and that was our day in sunny southern Spain.

Traveling Lightly...

I was just going through my pictures and I came across this one, this is a picture of our luggage before we left Oklahoma City to come back to Spain in November. Before we left OKC we had to purchase a new suitcase (the large gray/orange duffel bag). This brought our total of luggage up to 7 pieces plus our 4 carry-on. We had all of the bags packed to busting point and had to leave a few things behind until next time we are in town or someone comes to visit us. Just wanted to share. This is how we roll.....