Christmas joy!

Christmas was such a magical time this year! So full of love, excitement and time with family. The girls are at a good age where both understand the magic of Christmas and get excited for every little part. We spent Christmas Eve day/night with the Lamis family. We opened gifts (an insane amount), ate traditional Christmas Eve lasagna (yummy!), and went to Mass. It was a great day! Christmas day was spent mostly with just our family so it was very laid back and relaxing. Santa gave some fun gifts that are great for the entire family- the best was the karaoke machine! Julia took a while to warm up to singing into a microphone while Bella jumped at the chance even though she spent most of the time dancing freestyle.

Julia is such a different girl. I feel like she is still a little girl and acts her actual age when I see so many 6 yr old girls that act so much older. I like that she still likes dolls, princesses, etc. She received some neat gifts this year- like her Easy Bake Oven and Leapster, both of which she loved. But when I asked her what her favorite gift was this year (from anyone), she said without hesitating "the Hopscotch Hill books". She has only read one Hopscotch Hill book and loved it SO much that we (along with her Grandma and Grandpa Lamis) bought her the rest of the series. They are sweet, simple books by American Girl. I was so shocked by her answer but so glad at the same time. Last night, she asked to stay up reading and gave me the biggest hug when I agreed. On school nights, I am pretty strict about bedtimes. She stayed up for 1 1/2 hrs reading and I finally had to ask her to turn off the light. Chet and I later talked about how we really hope that she stays such a good girl.

My family arrives on Sunday and staying for 5 days! Suzanne and her family are driving in from Idaho and escaping the COLD weather. I only get to see Suzanne, Pat and my nephews and niece a few times/year so I am SO excited for them to be here. My parents are coming from Prescott as well so it will be a full but happy house!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and is enjoying the Christmas break!

Bliss

Since 6:30pm tonight, this is what both my tired princesses have been doing.



I look forward to spending a relaxing week with both girls at home but tonight I will enjoy every minute of this free time. :)

Bella's party

Bella had her birthday party at our neighborhood park today. It was a lot of fun and she had a great time (hope everyone else did too). But ,man, even a party at the park is still exhausting! Probably more mental than anything else.

She had 12 little friends and lots of family attend her "puppy" party. The playground and bounce house kept all the kids plenty occupied and happy.

Bella and her angels

I am not sure where I stand on angels and what happens in our afterlife (since we will never be 100% sure until we get to heaven ourselves) but I believe that Bella has angels around her and that she has seen them.
It began right after my grandma (in Brazil) passed away last year. Sadly, Bella never got to meet her but we talked a lot about her- we called her GG. This same grandma also prayed A LOT for Bella when she was going through her medical issues as a new baby. Shortly after my grandma's passing, we dropped off my mom at the airport. Bella (who was just shy of 3 yrs old at the time), said "Why is GG going with Bobo (my mom) on the airplane?". I said that she wasn't and reminded her that GG was in heaven. Bella repeated herself again and said that GG was standing with my mom. I asked what she looked like and Bella said "a lady in a white dress with white hair". I still get goosebumps when I remember that day.
Anyway, tonight as we were taking pictures of Bella on the floor in our office, the shot looked fine from where we were 12 inches away and in the viewfinder but the preview kept showing this very dark shadow where Bella was sitting. I kept looking away from the camera to figure out what it was but couldn't see any shadow- nor was there any reason for a shadow. They only showed up in the pictures (we took about 10 in all). Even Chet (a skeptic) who was sitting right next to me was baffled by this shadow and thought something was up. It's not weird that there was a shadow- its weird that this shadow only appeared in the picture (not one drop of shadowed light when we looked at her).
Not sure what this all means or why I am blogging about it. It's sad that we'll never know exactly what is around us.

Here is one of the pictures and then a shot minutes later of the exact same location when she moved.

Happy birthday sweet, sweet Bella!

Our sweet Bella turned 4 years old today. Where did the time go?
Bella has always been a joy and a wonderful little girl. She definitely beats to the march of her own drummer- sometimes to music no one else can even hear! She keeps us laughing and always on our toes. I have loved staying home with her this year with Julia at school and the new baby coming soon. She is so much fun to be with.
Today was a great day for her. She knew it was her birthday the moment she opened her big blue eyes. Her first question was "so when are my friends coming over?" And then "so when do I get ice cream?" My mom is in town so she took Bella to get her nails painted. Bella picked light purple polish with a design of a holly. (Doesn't look as bad as it sounds.)
She got to pick what she wanted for dinner and dessert. Funny enough, we offered anything she wanted- pizza or even McDonald's- but she chose to stay home and have "mom's spicy chicken" for dinner! Chet even re-stated our offer in case she didn't understand but she was adamant on eating dinner at home. We were happy to oblige! By the way, my "spicy chicken" is pollo asada from Sprouts- SO yummy and easy!
Then we headed out for ice cream and to look at Christmas lights in our neighborhood. She ended the long day by playing with her new lego set with the biggest kid of the house (dad).
Happy birthday Bella! We love you!
Mom, Dad, and Julia





*At one year


*2 yrs old


*3 yrs old


*this year

Christmas cookie extravaganza!

Every year, the Lamis family gets together and makes hundreds of sugar cookies for Christmas. Each family supplies part of the dough and off to work we go! The kids enjoy decorating- or should I say that Bella and Brennan enjoy putting as many sprinkles on one cookie as humanly possible? Nothing says "yummy cookie" as the crunch of sprinkles! :) Julia is finally at the age where she gets the process and enjoys decorating. Each family then takes home a share of the cookies- we have about 75? Yummy! Mom can't stop sneaking in a few cookies here and there.











After the cookie decorating, we took Angie and Joe up on their offer to watch the kids overnight as our anniversary gift. Maybe they weren't expecting us to call in their offer so soon but we jumped on it! :) We went to dinner and finished all our shopping for the kids. Thanks guys! We loved our night out.

The girls had so much fun spending the night- Julia fell asleep first (like always) and the wonder twins (Bella and Brennan) stayed up WAY too late talking. The next morning, they each blamed each other when asked who was talking. We attempted to go to lunch together the next morning when I picked up the girls. Let's just say that lack of sleep and lots of sugar don't mix! Julia burst into tears and had a mini-fit when the server told us they don't carry chocolate milk and that was basically how the rest of our day went. Yikes! I guess it's all part of the fun!

Red Rock Fantasy

One of my favorite destinations during the holidays is the Red Rock Fantasy in Sedona. They have about 40 light displays (all different themes) and you vote on your favorite. We had a great time and the girls even got to sit on Santa's lap! For some reason, we have never done the "Santa at the mall" photos- there is always a long line and it seems so expensive. At Red Rock Fantasy, Santa is always placed in one of the hot cider tents but no one seems to know this except us. There was no line so the girls had plenty of time to thoroughly go over their wish lists!










After Sedona, we headed to my parents house for a late Thanksgiving celebration. Since we were all turkeyed out (and I don't even like turkey), my mom made a yummy Brazilian feast. Thanks- we had a great weekend with you guys! The girls always get spoiled at the grandparent's house. Since I didn't grow up with any grandparents around, I am happy that my children get to enjoy being spoiled by 2 sets of Gparents.
*Julia and Bella had so much fun poking around my parent's tree and trying to see what was for who. They kept begging to open up "just one"! Uh no, its only December 6th. Sorry girls!

One step away from a CPS visit

I finally went through Julia's backpack from last week with all her Thanksgiving stuff. I was excited to read her list of things she was grateful for.
Well, apparently Miss Julia is grateful for "my little sister Bella becaus my mom works intil midnight and my dad also works realy late." Just to clarify, I work until 8pm THREE nights a week and Chet gets home by 5:15 every night. We make sure that one of us is almost always home with them. Not sure if she misses me that much or is being a tad dramatic! :)

Can't you just see Julia and Bella eating a dinner of cold pop tarts huddled around a TV waiting for her workaholic parents to get home??

Ready for Christmas!

We spent the day after Thanksgiving decorating for Christmas. Julia and Bella were so excited and would not let us forget. Everything inside is decorated and there are some decorations outside (see below). I already have a few presents and may start wrapping tonight- that will just drive the girls crazy for the next 25 days! :)



We ended the day of decorating with one of our favorite Christmas movies- "Christmas Vacation"! Besides the few choice words here and there, its a cute movie and the girls (and Chet) think it's hilarious. We watch it every year and Chet still ends up cracking up in the same parts.

Chet and the girls LOVE the tacky blowup decorations- especially our Santa Homer. Doh! I, for one, cannot stand these decorations so I bought the white, moving reindeer last year and we had a "classy" lawn for once. Its sort of a joke in our family that I dislike Homer and the gang and that I insist that we have the "classy" Christmas every other year. This year, Chet and the girls thought it would be funny to mix the "trashy" and "classy" together- despite my protests. Oh well, its all for the kids anyway. I can have my own Christmas when we're old. I apologize if I offended anyone who may like the blowup decorations! To each his own.... :)

Temporary blog hiatus.....

since I just discovered the joys of Facebook! It's SO addicting!! My sister has been telling me to join FB forever and I just didn't believe that any of my friends are on there. Wrong! Everyone is on FB- where have I been??
My kids have been watching PBS since school ended since mommy can't stop checking her growing (slowly growing but getting there) list of friends. :)

We have officially joined Crunchyville!

And this is our "flag" to prove it.


This is our new compost bin! I have been dying to start one and finally got around to getting a bin. You too can get your very own just by calling the city's Solid Waste division! :) I know that Gilbert and Chandler give these to residents for free.

It's SO easy and so good for the environment. Plus, it will provide wonderful, organic soil. I do it mostly for the "green" aspect of it since I don't really garden or need much of the actual compost. So, it all goes well, in a few months I will have free compost to give away. Who knows, maybe I will be inspired to start growing a real garden!

Basically, we gather up all our fruit and veggie scraps in a container in the kitchen. After a week, we throw it into the compost and add shredded paper (we have a ton of shredded bills) or grass clippings. (The girls get a huge kick out of throwing stuff in the bin.) You keep layering "green" and "brown" layers like this and soon you will get compost! There are a few more steps (very simple) that I won't bore you with but its so easy! By the way, the fruit/veggie scrap container does not smell at all. I am super picky about my house smelling clean and it doesn't smell at all. You have to stick your head inside the container to even get a whiff of ripe fruit.

I had to take a picture of our back lawn. We had decided not overseed this year to save time and money. But, I called our lawn guy a few minutes too late because his crew had just left our house when I called. Oops! I am kind of glad we had it done- it's the nicest time of the year right now and a great time to be outside. I love looking out the window and seeing this!

Happy Anniversary to us!

Chet and I just celebrated our 10th Anniversary! We went away to Sedona for the weekend- my parents watched the kids (thanks again!). We had such a good time! We ate out, did a little sightseeing, walking, and even went to a late movie (just because we could).

We stayed at the Los Abrigados Resort. Normally I wouldn't even think of staying there (too $$$) but I found out that they have small, bungalow type rooms near the back of the property for only $110! I was so nervous about getting that good of a deal- I kept waiting for them to tell us that we needed to attend a timeshare presentation or that our room had a shared bathroom. But, it was a great room- MUCH better than any room I have stayed in Sedona. It was smaller than most rooms but big enough for us- who needs a separate seating area in a hotel anyway? :) We loved our stay there and plan to go back again.

Happy Anniversary Chet! Here's to many more adventurous years! :)

*We only took a few pictures of our trip before my camera battery died. Luckily, we had some great shots near the creek.

WOW!

What a great night! I stayed up way too late to watch the end to a historical and magical night. I loved Obama's acceptance speech and shed a few tears- because I was SO happy that he won and also because I wasn't sure my parents would live to see the day that an African American man be elected in this country.

I also thought that McCain's speech was wonderful and it reminded me what a great man he is- even if I don't agree with most of his policies.

Looking forward to what the next 4 years bring!

Free Starbucks on Election Day!

I already voted via absentee voting so I will be in line tomorrow at Starbucks! Maybe 1/2 caffinated since I am preggos? Something to keep me awake while I anxiously watch the election results.

Me, 27 yrs ago

I let our girls have one piece of candy after dinner tonight. Julia proceeds to dig through her entire bag to inspect all her goodies from the night and to find just the right one. Bella looks in and says "I'll take this one" to the first piece of candy she see and leaves the rest alone.



Man, my mom could have taken this exact photo 27 yrs ago! My sister and I are exactly 2 1/2 yrs apart (like Bella and Julia). Julia and I are both Geminis and Suzanne and Bella are a few days apart from being the same sign as well. I don't believe in Astrological signs 100% but I think there might be something to the time of year you are born. Julia and I are so alike- its scary. Don't worry Suzanne- I am not implying that you are as odd and free spirited as Bella is. :) She is one of a kind!

Halloween fun!

*Gee, do they look a little excited for candy fest 2008??



Like my sister's post, I love Halloween- I love the decorations, the fun food, watching Charlie Brown Great Pumpkin, etc. My candy loving kids think the same about this great holiday. They knew exactly how many days left until Halloween.

Angie, Joe, and cousins Brennan and Isaac came over to Trick or Treat with us which was so much fun! I wish I had taken a picture of them TOTing together.
*No one was very cooperative for picture time when there is candy to be eaten.


*I need to master the skill of self portraits. Sorry Julia!


*A little blurry but I needed a family photo for our Halloween scrapbook. We have a family pic from every year so far.



We have already had a long day today- I worked, Julia had a soccer game (too hot!), and we stopped by the library to check out DVDs (anything to save $). Its only 2 pm and they are bathed and ready for a nice, lazy day inside. I can't wait for cooler weather next week!

Hope everyone had a great night!

The must see movie of the month!

If you have kids between 5-12 yrs old that is! We love HSM 1 and 2- it's a feel good movie and we love all the singing and dancing. So, we have been anxiously awaiting HSM3! For any of you non- HSM fans, this 3rd movie came out in theaters for the first time- the other 2 were only released on the Disney Channel. Chet agreed to go with us after I reminded him that soon the girls wouldn't want us to tag along with them anywhere. I had to laugh at him since he dislikes these campy, girly movies and truly dislikes musicals of anykind. So, it was 90 minutes of torture for him (at 10am on a Sunday morning none the less)- even though I did catch him laughing or smiling a few times. Thanks Chet- you are a good dad!

Anyway, the girls and I liked it but I didn't LOVE it, nor will I rush out to buy the cd or dvd like I did for the first 2. It was cute though! Anyone else see it on opening weekend??

Crazy kids!

Julia and Bella wanted to go swimming yesterday and even though I thought they were nuts, I agreed- half thinking that they would chicken out anyway. I couldn't even stand having my feet in- it felt like ice water! After a few minutes, they both were brave enough to jump completely in and swim for a while. This only lasted about 15 minutes but they enjoyed their last dip in the pool until next summer.

Halloween- a little early

Jackie and Steve (Chet's parents) throw a fun Halloween Party every year for the grandkids. The kids always have a great time in their costumes, playing fun games, carving pumpkins and getting a head start on Halloween candy/cupcakes/cookies/whatever else Papa gives them. :)

Julia and Bella are "Annie" and "Sandy" from the Annie movie- one of their favorites! I still need to find a locket to finish Julia's costume and finish making the "Sandy" collar for Bella's costume so people will know what she's supposed to be.









Thanks Nanny and Papa- we all had a great time!

It's "cold' here in AZ

At least that's what Bella thought this morning. It was 68 degrees in our house when we woke up and this is how Bella was dressed when she came downstairs for breakfast!



I told Chet that living with Bella is like a perpetual Saturday Night Live skit! :)

I need the extra calcium, right?

Well, that's what I am telling myself after polishing off an ENTIRE pint of Ben & Jerry's yummy Pumpkin Cheesecake ice cream! It is SO good- you have to try it!

Luckily, Chet was upstairs and didn't see the pathetic, cliched sight- me on the couch with my feet up and watching Desperate Housewives, eating the entire pint that was balanced on my growing tummy! You only get to live like this during a pregnancy so no regrets here. :)