Happy New Year!

As we all enjoy a bit of bubbly with dinner in preparation for the new year...

(the girls each get a little sip)
Allia: Mmmm...can I have some more?

Daddy: No, sweetie, not until you are all grown. If you have too much it will stunt your growth.

Allia: Well, I want a big, full glass like you. I can just stay my same size.

A wedding...and a cold snap

We had the blessing of attending a wedding this weekend for one of the holiest, most amazing couples! Austin sang, and everything was just beautiful. We even had the privilege of visiting with Allia's Godparents beforehand and our precious little Godson. I hope if we have a boy someday he is just like little Stephen! What a fun weekend!

The two toddlers making friends


Bride and groom with the musicians


All the kiddos had a blast opening up the dance floor (after the bride and groom of course)


Allia dances with her Godfather




The temperature dropped again about 30 degrees...just in time for the girls to try out their new Christmas clothes. Thanks, Lita!

The celebration begins

We made it home! Rather than tackle the mountain of unpacking I have to do...I choose to blog what a good time we had visiting with family. Here are some photos.

Gloria admires the final touches to our tree before we leave (we do ornaments the last Sunday of Advent)



My little beauties at Lito and Lita's house after mass






Father and son


After the Christmas morning gift extravaganza


Game night! I thought we would be doing Karaoke, but our wonderful family had mercy on me (the non-singer in the group) and played board games instead! Yay!


The cousins playing outside during game time






And the great thing is that for us Catholics, Christmas is not one day but an Octave. So party on, we still have 6 days left!

Side note: To those viewers who were there, if you have any better photos you would like to pass along or would like me to send one of these, please email me! ;-)

Merry Christmas!!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year. I hope everyone has a blessed celebration!
Our 2009 Portraits...

You can't catch me...

I'm the gingerbread man!

The girls have been wanting to do this, and I finally got up the nerve after Manah brought a recipe and cookie cutters for us! It was lots of fun and yummy too.

A visit

from Lito and Lita. Brief as it was, we all enjoyed it! And we will see them next week for a Christmas celebration!





And for Lita, since we could not convince Gloria to perform for you, here is her pat-a-cake routine (please ignore goofy mommy voice in the background!!!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zba3yadfMS4

I have been having a ton of trouble uploading this video for some reason...on blogger and on you tube!

Bowling

We took Pawpaw bowling this weekend. It was the girls' first time, and they really had fun.





I have never thought anyone looked cute in bowling shoes, but Mariana managed to pull it off. She was so adorable!

more snow photos

These are from our last morning of snow. The sun was melting it quickly, so we hurried out to play one last time!

more snow

It started snowing again around 4 and just kept going all afternoon and evening. Now everything is covered in a thick, white blanket of snow. It's so pretty!

Gloria insisted on going out to play with us and really liked it until she toppled over face first! Poor baby!


The girls liked going out with Daddy until he tried to start a snowball fight! I thought it was fun, but they all screamed!


Our winter wonderland!

SNOW!

Immaculate Mary

Your praises we sing! The Church celebrates Mary's Immaculate Conception today. We had a wonderful mass and visit with friends afterwards.

And here are some photos from the weekend...

A skirt?
She pulled this out of our tree box and asked what it was. So I told her a skirt, but it didn't seem to fit right. ;-)


And a helper...oops! That is our Mariana!

Photos from the weekend

We had a great Thanksgiving except for all finishing off a head cold. Here is a photo before we left of us trying to keep sniffly baby Gloria happy....

The hammock worked like a charm!


Fun time with family









The girls enjoying "Tugboat Island" park near Pawpaw and Manah's house