More photos

from Lito's visit...

Lita sent him with a bag of treats for each child...including Marzipan! :p

Cecilia was just sure that all the gifts he brought were some sort of jungle gym meant for her to climb!

Christmas Show - Figure Skating and Lito visit

Mariana had her first Figure Skating show at the Christmas Show this weekend. She avidly sold tickets to family and friends. Her routine was simple, being a first time performer. But she did beautifully, and we were very proud. She really enjoyed it, and so did we!

The rink was really cold, and Gloria and Lito are usually snuggle buddies. So they bundled up together!

Flowers for the performer

 Mariana's candle kept going out, and she was trying to subtly fix it while performing!
 

Little eater

Cecilia has her picky moments, but for the most part she is an  avid eater and loves trying new things, especially if they come from Daddy's plate! Manah always gives her a little snack when she visits.

Christmas Piano Recital

 Everyone played beautifully. Mariana had her rehearsal for her Christmas Ice skating show afterwards, so she went in her bun and makeup! The rest of us had to scurry off to RE (and after that I served on the meal team for youth group)...busy Sunday!

 Anastasia and Gloria did the bells for Stephen's Jingle Bells Song. They did great, especially Anastasia since it was her stage debut!

Stephen

Gloria

 Mariana

Allia (She and Miss Amy had originally cut out the middle of the song because it was too much for her to get ready in the short 6 weeks between recitals. But she really liked the depth it added to the piece, so she practiced furiously this weekend to get it down! Amazing!)

Fall Champs Swim Meet

Allia swam in her championship meet for the fall season and did great. She is really improving a lot. She and her friend Jade had these complimentary kneeskin suits which made it a little more fun!

Baking fun

Before Advent began (we gave up screen time!), we were watching the BBS (British Baking Show). With that inspiration lingering, Mariana decided to make a creation with one of her friends (and Gloria joined in too).

It's begining to look a lot like....Snow?! (Anniversary Edition)

It is a crazy week of celebrations here starting with Cecilia's birthday, then St. Nicholas day, Austin's and my anniversary (15th!!!), and the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. We are planning a big trip in February to celebrate our anniversary, so we just did a few small things yesterday. In the evening, we headed to the vigil mass for the Solemnity at St. Mary's. Just as we were walking into the church, snow flurries started falling. By the time mass was over, snow was pouring out of the sky and everything was white! What a beautiful surprise to light up our celebration. It made for a joyful evening of warm dinner, cold snowball fights (I played too!) and cozy-ing up by the fire. It was an absolutely lovely night, and we all went to bed late!

In Texas, you never know how long the snow will last, so we had a student take our photo after mass!

The neighbors came out, and everyone was collecting snow from yards, vehicles, etc. to make snowballs, a snowman and a snow fort. So much fun!!!

This guy took some convincing, but when he finally came out he had a grand time.

One last shot before bed

Our backyard in the morning

By the time we got home from mass, this little one was tired, cold and hungry. She really did not understand what the fuss was about. So Daddy fed her dinner while I bundled everyone up and went to play. This morning she was a little more interested...

Mariana finally coaxed her outside and helped her play a little

She was determined to enjoy every last bit of the snow until it was completely gone!

 As a little surprise, Austin transferred the old 8mm tape of our rehearsal and dinner to a DVD. So we watched that to finish off the evening. It was so fun and quite funny to see everyone, especially singing karaoke...always entertaining! ;)