A Birthday Celebration!

We celebrated Jose and Nana's Birthday on Saturday with lunch at Hacienda and then cake and ice cream back home. It was very nice and we enjoyed having Titi Gigi there too. Afterwards, Nadia stayed behind for a sleepover with Nana and Papaw while Jose, Geraldine and I headed to Downtown Indy to do some shopping and to watch a 3D movie at the IMAX. The next morning we enjoyed breakfast with Uncle Ebon and his friend Lizzy, shopped some more and watched another movie.

There are other great photos that we have included in our family album link if you would like to view more.

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

(a.k.a. Becky/Nana)

We look forward to celebrating it with you tomorrow and we hope you have a wonderful day!

This is for You Aunt Brea

Aunt Brea bought Nadia this adorable outfit for Christmas so we wanted to post a photo for her to see. The cute, little snowman socks were from Nana.

Merry Christmas!

We spent Christmas Eve at Aunt Peggy and Uncle Dick's house. With a rapid growing family, the grandparents buy for the little ones and the adults get to enjoy a White Elephant gift exchange. We had such a wonderful time! It's always a treat when Nadia gets to play and hang out with her second cousins, as she loves following them around. The bathtub photo pretty much shows what they did all night. Looks like their recipe for happiness was a dark bathroom, flashlights and a few other toys since they were in there most of the night.

Christmas day festivities took place at our house. We woke up way too early (5:50 A.M.), watched Nadia open her gifts from Mommy and Daddy, Santa and out-of-town relatives. We then then set off for Mass (apparently Christmas day is the day to attend if you want a quiet, small crowd). Nadia passed out in the car on the way home but once we arrived home it was back to playtime again. Papaw and Nana then came over and we had our gift exchange. After a few hours of opening gifts and playing, Nadia finally took her nap while the rest of us had a delicious dinner.

Wow, this year was definitely a blast, thanks to Nadia. She would let out a big "Ooooooooo!" with every gift that she opened and even enjoyed helping us open our gifts. (We'll try to post a video by the weekend.) Well, after today, Nadia can clean the house with her vacuum, write her grocery list down on her easel, travel by hopping donkey or ride her radio flyer to the grocery store, fill up her shopping cart with plenty of food, and then prepare us a nice dinner in her new kitchen. Yep, sounds like Mommy can take a little break and let Nadia handle the chores for a few days.

A Love-Hate Relationship
This photo was taken because both Nadia and Eli looked so cute in their Christmas PJ's and house slippers this morning. Usually the two love each other but the last couple of days they have behaved like true siblings. It was bound to happen, I think the boyfriend-girlfriend relationship is now a thing of the past. Oh well, Nadia can use a brother with a little sister on the way.

Mundane Sledding

What a different story still photos paint.

Xtreme Sledding!!

Disclaimer: No one was harmed during the filming of this movie clip.

NEW ANNOUNCEMENT!

Nursery #2 has been painted-we'll post a photo once we have at least one piece of furniture for the baby. Anyway, we've chosen the wooden circles above to hang vertically on the wall without the ribbon. Okay, so here it goes...pay attention...we ordered the letters S-O-N-I-A. Yes, we have officially changed the baby's name from Reese to Sonia. We're not planning on changing the name again because the letters we've chosen are non-refundable and unless we can scramble the letters into a different name that we like, we're sticking with this name.

The Bed Head King and His Little Waffle Snatcher

Well, Nadia's wonderful sleep schedule of bedtime at 7 PM, wake up at 6 AM and nap from 12-2/3 PM has been disrupted for some unknown reason. Nadia has spent the last week waking up at 5 AM (this is too early for Mom and Dad). Not only does she wake up but she's wide awake, ready to go and lately to our surprise, very hungry. This morning after Nadia had already eaten her own breakfast, Jose (with his awesome "bed head") sat down with her for some TV time and his 2 waffles...so he thought. Nadia snatched one of the waffles and ate it herself leaving Daddy hungry.

Ho! Ho! How Could You Do This to Me?

Jose had the day off so we thought it would be nice to get Nadia out for a photo with Santa to continue the tradition. This year however, we're a little older and wiser-no cute smile for the camera. Surprisingly there weren't any tears or screams but just a look of panic on her face. She tried to slide right off his leg to get away before the photo was taken. Afterwards we took a photo of her outside in front of a beautiful Christmas tree and large presents, but Nadia was mostly interested in the tiny candy cane that she got from Santa.

A Girl's Best Friend

Nadia has been spending a lot of time playing with the dogs. She mostly tells Beasley that she's a "bad dog" and then uses Roxy as a pillow or blanket to lay on. Roxy really loves Nadia because she gives her more attention than we do.

Okay, so this insn't the greatest photo but I had to include it. This morning while I was trying to get ready, Nadia took it upon herself to sneak my lip liner from the drawer and use it as a pencil all over our mirror (see photo above) in our bedroom, herself and the wooden table at the end of our bed.

SLEEP OVER

It was time for the monthly sleepover at Nana and Papaw's. While Nadia spent Friday through Sunday with them, Jose and I had a great weekend together...productive yet fun. We finished all of our Christmas shopping on Saturday. We had a blast shopping for Nadia! Christmas has become as exciting as it was when we were kids now that we have a child of our own. We did a lot of our shopping in downtown Indy, had lunch together, which included a peaceful, quiet conversation and a lot of laughter, finished the rest of our shopping, and finally curled up on the couch with a fire going and watched a movie. It was a great day altogether. On Sunday we finally got around to painting Reese's room. We have one more coat to go, one stripe to fill and a few dot decals to add before it's completed. Since our crib probably won't be in for another few weeks we have plenty of time.

Not only did we have a great weekend but we know Nadia kept her grandparents smiling and laughing all weekend (she's a little ham). Nadia also got to see and touch her first "real" snowman and played with her second cousins who came by for a visit.

We're Goin' Streakin'!

On Friday, Nadia and I attended open gym at A Plus Gymnastics here in Noblesville. Unfortunately no photos were taken since I took the camera but forgot the ever so important memory card. Anyways, when we arrived, Nadia sat back and watched all the children for a few minutes before joining in. She eventually warmed up and walked the beams, climbed the wedges, bounced on the trampolines, played basketball, and even played around in the huge foam pit. She was in heaven with huge open spaces to run and so was I, since no entertaining or cleaning up was required.

Now, time to explain the above photo. I went into Nadia's bedroom after her naptime, just to find that she had taken her shirt off. We've always known that she's warm blooded like her Dad but now that she's undressing herself, we may have a problem keeping her clothes on.

CHUCK E. CHEESE'S

WHERE A KID CAN BE A KID

It's cold, there's snow and only so many things to do when you're stuck inside the house. That said, Nadia has had it with her boring toys (thank goodness Santa will be coming soon). So yesterday we attended a Mother's Group meeting, today Eli and Nadia played at Chuck E. Cheese's and tomorrow Nadia will get to enjoy an hour at A Plus Gymnastics Center with a group of children. It seems that Nadia has Mommy's cabin fever issues and is much happier outside of the house.

Winter Wonderland

It's our first winter snowfall today, so beautiful... We were very excited to get Nadia out to play in the snow so we bundled her up this morning at 8 A.M. and took her outside while Daddy shoveled the driveway. Unfortunately Daddy nor Nadia seemed quite as thrilled as Mommy was about the weather. Maybe because it was too early in the morning?