Our Precious Angel

Our family received sad news on Monday... We went in for a routine ultrasound to check on the progress of the baby only to find out that he no longer had a heart beat or blood flow to his body. We confirmed this news with my OB Dr. and then we went to the hospital to induce labor. It only took 4 1/2 hours to deliver Matthew Martin Ochoa, born at 3:30 AM on December 9, 2008. He weighed 6.5 ounces and was a perfect little boy. He had all his fingers and toes, and was just beautiful. I know that he is with our Father in Heaven and our family will miss him. I am thankful that we are an eternal family and will one day reunite.

It's a Boy!

So, I have been very sick for the last 2 days with a stomach virus. I went in for a check up and they couldn't find the baby's heartbeat so the Dr. did an ultrasound to make sure the baby was OK. While we were checking to make sure that all was well, we noticed ...... well, you guessed it..... it's a boy! How funny, we will have #3 in our house how exciting! I have another ultrasound on Friday to confirm!

Decorating at the Miglin's

The boys and I spent Saturday afternoon decorating for Halloween at the Miglin's house. Tom, Matt and the girls have an annual tradition in decorating their yard for Halloween each year. This year due to Ike, Matt invited us to join in so the boys could have some sense of normal home life. So, we decorated milk jugs to look like spooky faces, then put up some spider web, tomb stones, blow ups, and a full blown grave yard! CREEPY!! We put a big spider on the web between the 2 front trees, but with the wind blowing so hard, spidy had to come down! We ended the evening with some pizza, candy corn, and the greatest halloween cookies ever! Thanks Tom, Matt, Avery, Marek, Payson and Tess for having us over!

Update on the house

Well, we will be moving back into the house this week. Our contractor has finished the master bedroom and we will live there until the rest is finished. We still have the kitchen and one bathroom to complete. After that we will put in the floors and the baseboards and be home free! That is, get the backyard in order!! It's a mess back there, let me tell you!

We are Homeless!

So, can I tell you how tiring it is to commute from Richmond, Texas to my job everyday! I have wonderful friends that are helping us out in our time of need and couldn't thank them enough if I tried. But I really just want to be home sitting on my couch being lazy! It has been very hard to commute an hour and a half to work and home everyday. I think it's all starting to sink in! The kids are being great and pretty much have a fabulous attitude (they are being spoiled by Aunt Joanne!) Robby has been staying at the firestation, and I am back to work this week.

School will start back on Monday, and we will be staying at the Maddocks' house until we can find an apartment, rent a travel trailer, or get back in our house? I am so grateful to all of my friends that have stepped up to help us in our time of need. I feel very loved which is much needed right now!

Hurricane Ike

So, it looks like a bomb went off in our neighborhood! We live on the East side of Highway 146 in Seabrook and our house suffered extensive damage from the storm. We had between 2-3 feet of water in our house, not to mention the roof damage, the backyard fence, the trees that are down and the debris in our front yard! YIKES!!

The best thing is that our family is safe and sound! Oh yea, and I get to completely redecorate my house! Shopping! YEA!!

Jacob's first day of School

What a lucky boy! Daddy took Jacob to school today for his first day of Pre-K at SUMC. On the way, Daddy and Jacob stopped off for a quick hair cut! I think he looks very handsome and grown up! His teacher this year is Ms. Carol who used to be a kindergarten teacher and she has 15 kids in her class this year! (WOW 15 four year olds!)This includes his two best friends Stephanie and KC. What a brave teacher. Jacob is suited up with his new Transformers backpack and his Batman lunch box with his ham sandwich, apple sauce, cheeto puffs, and a granola bar. This is one healthy eating boy!

Back to school!

Monday was Eli's first day of school in the 1st grade! He has a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Castaneda who is so excited to have him! He has a few classmates from last year in his class, which makes this transition a little easier. I walked him in on the first day and since then he doesn't need me to walk him! I did go in with him this morning to check the PTA mailbox, but he quickly made his way to the lunch room for some breakfast. I gave him a kiss on the check and reassured him that I did not leave any lipstick!! So, needless to say my little boy is growing up!

South Padre Island

Well, we survived our 5 day trek to the island! We had such a good time visiting with family, hanging out at the beach, schlitterbahn, just being lazy!! :) The boys enjoyed playing with April and Cabo (the boxer)!

Our drive home was adventurous with 2 hermit crabs in tow! Everytime we visit the boys beg to buy some, we always say no, this time Daddy was weak and caved! So, we have a superman crab and a spongebob crab! We have been told that they are very easy to take care of (we will see)!

HPD Saves the Day!!

Well, we had an exciting weekend! Friday night the boys, Jenna and Casey Larson and I went to a playoff game of Jared's in Clearlake at the Dad's club. While we were there someone burglarized some of the vehicles stealing purses and personal items. Noone heard alarms going off CRAZY!! I walked over to my van with all 4 kids in tow and thought, "did I leave my window down?" Then reality set in, someone broke into the van! They stole my purse, which I never leave in the car! As I was hiding my purse I was thinking, "is this really a good idea?" They stole my work briefcase with all my personal stuff, bills, kids shot records, insurance info, etc. Glass was everywhere! I have never felt so violated and empty! The interesting thing is that they didn't take any of the electronics, or kids PSP's from the car? They must have been amatuers or just looking for cash!

Well, we got things cleaned up as best as possible got the police report, buckled the kids in the car and headed home! I called Laurice and Kurt and they came over to help me clean out the left side of the garage so I could park the van in there until I could get the window fixed. Well, this worked out well for both of us! My garage is clean and I finally found a home for the big oversized blue recliner that has been sitting in the garage for almost 2 months!

Saturday morning I started calling around to find a place to get my window replaced. I could not believe how much these companies wanted! Anywhere from $200-400. INSANE! I did find a great place in the area off off Highway 3 that only charged me $156.00 to do the work! During all of this I had Jacob, the Blake twins, Sylvia Maddocks and Savanah (the Blakes neice) with me. What an adventure for all of us (especially the Zac, the owner of Clear Lake Auto Glass!) Mission accomplished! Thanks to Ashley for letting me use her credit card to pay for my window, my cc and check book were stolen so, I had no other way to pay for it!

So, after a somewhat long weekend and the realization that I would have to get a new drivers license, buy a new purse, and get everything replaced; I was starting to be OK with it and had learned my lesson! I was driving home from Choir practice after church and received a call from a strange number, answered it anyway.... It was a police officer with HPD telling me they had recovered my stolen purses!! Can you believe that? We met and sure enough, everything was there! I was in complete shock and so very thankful for the blessing I received from my Heavenly Father!

Lessons learned.... Never leave anything in your car (especially your purse)!!

Jacob says goodbye to the Mamone!

So, now that Jacob is 4 it's time for the pacifier to make an exit! Yesterday Nana and Papa came up with a great idea to tell Jacob that a bird came and stole all of his mamones. Papa told him that he went outside and tried to catch the bird, but all he could get was a feather. Nana gave him a wooden spoon that had "BIRD WACKER" written on it, just in case it tried to come back! Well, we came home last night with a feather and the wooden spoon. When daddy came home from work, Jacob told him the entire story! Daddy was very concerned that a bird could get in our house when we were not home. Jacob comforted him with the "BIRD WACKER" theory!

At first, things were fine he didn't even ask for it at bedtime. However, at 10:26 PM the shreeking cry came from the bedroom across the hall! Daddy went to comfort him, ended up sleeping with for about an hour. Then, another shreek! Mommy went to give love and comfort, ended up scratching his back for about 30 minutes (It seemed to be the only thing that would stop the angry cry!) So, the long night began! Between Robby and I, we probably got about 2 1/2 hours of sleep tag teaming our precious boy! He never asked for the mamone, until this morning when he walked into the kitchen pulled out the top drawer and stated,"I bet that bird didn't get this mamone!" Only to shreek in disappointment when he discovered that it too was gone! (Mommy scoured the house and hid them all!) So, needless to say hopefully tonight is better!

Under the weather!

We've had a tough week at the Ochoa house! Jacob has been very sick with a weird infection in his throat and mouth! His fever has been very high and on Wednesday we ended up in the ER at St. John's Hospital with a 105 temp. Pretty scary!! Poor little guy has had a really tough ride this week, he hasn't been able to eat or drink very much at all. He has lost 4 pounds and has been very cranky, to say the least! Jacob came to work with Mommy 3 times this week, because we can't let him be around Nana (he was very contagious)! His fever finally broke on Sunday afternoon, which was perfect timing for the big birthday dinner we had for Nana's 54th! We seem to be on the downside at this point, but Mom just called me to let me know that he is running a low grade fever! Will this ever end??

Jacob is 4!

It's so hard to believe that Jacob is 4 years old! What an adventurous weekend he has had celebrating his fourth birthday. Friday night we went to Wal-Mart to spend the giftcard that The Blake Family gave him. He purchased some Star Wars Galactic heros action figures. Saturday morning we visited Blockbuster to spend another giftcard from a buddy he met at the baseball field (Cade) He picked out a Wall-E toy. Which he hasn't opened yet, because he wants to wait until later? Saturday afternoon, Aubrey, Grant, and Savannah came over and helped us decorate Sponge Bob cup cakes for the pizza party we had at Cici's. Grandpa Ochoa came over after church on Sunday to spend some time with the boys and brought the boys new lego sets! So, needless to say Jacob has had a wonderful 4th birthday month!

Jacob's 4th Birthday Party

We celebrated Jacob's 4th Birthday this last Saturday at the Seabrook Pool. His actual Birthday isn't until June 29, but since we combined it with Stephanie who turned 4 in May we met in the middle. The kids had such a good time, we started out with a little rain but all had a great time. Thanks to all who came and joined in on the celebration!!

Uncle Aaron is a Dr. !

Mom, Dad, Peanut, Eli, Big J, and myself flew up to Arizona for Aaron's graduation from Medical School! The weather was great the first day, the second day is was hot, the third day...well, let's just say it was hot! We enjoyed spending time with Ben, Alex, and Audrey! We miss them so much! On Saturday before we left, Peanut, Big J, Aaron and I went on a 4 hour ride down the Salty River. What fun we had! The river moved pretty good the entire time, we only hit a few slow spots and really only one dead spot the entire 4 hours. Getting out of the river, well that is a whole different story! Have you ever wondered why they put the exit at the fastest flowing part of the river? I can't quite figure it out myself! With no shoes on and a river full of rocks, somehow after flipping out of my tube into 40 degree water and then being knocked over by Peanut! I managed to make it out. The best part of this was the older couple who was camping at the side of the river watching us try to get out. They told us they come down every Saturday just for the entertainment! Well, I guess they got what they came for!! :)