Random Pics from the dub-v

I just wanted to get some pics up. Since our camera broke, we didn't take as many pictures as we normally would have. I'm tellin ya, Keith goes crazy with that thing. He took 393 pictures Christmas day, before he dropped it. Imagine how many more we would have if it had been working for the rest of the vacation! So we don't have pics of paintballing with Robert, or going to the Huntington High basketball game (they're ranked #3 in the country, by the way). We don't have pics of us playing games with my brother and sisters, or my girls playing with them. But we had a great time, and I'm sure that we'll remember it without the pictures.

Maricela really liked my dad's beard.


Here's Sally and Ben with all the kiddos.


Here's Memmie, Amya, and me. (Don't I look like a giant?)

This is my mom, Jan, and Kara.

And here's my dad asleep with Maricela. Did you spot the puddle of drool she left on his shirt?


That's all for now. I hear the baby starting to fuss. Oh, I added some more pics to the West Virginia recap post, so be sure to go back and check those out.

West Virginia Recap

We were able to go to West Virginia for Christmas and we were so excited about that. We hadn't been since last Christmas, so it had been awhile since I'd seen my family. No one (except my immediate family) had seen Maricela. We were long overdue for a trip. We got in on Christmas Eve and stayed until January 4th. It was a nice little break. We got to hang out, see the fam, do fun things, forget about school... It was great.

Christmas Day we opened presents at my Mom's, then had a great big turkey dinner. Later that night we went over to Memmie's (my Mom's mom). We had a huge Italian feast and then opened some more presents. Grandma (my Dad's mom) came with us and we all had a lot of fun. However, Keith dropped our camera halfway through the night, and it broke. We couldn't take any more pictures for the rest of the trip. Luckily, Amya had brought her camera, so we did get a few on some other days.

The girls made out like bandits!! They were so pleased with all their presents and have been playing with them non-stop since we've been back.

These first three are pics of the girls opening presents at our house before we left. Amya asked Santa for a journal for Christmas (we thought that was pretty cool) and she was really excited to get it.


Here's Elena getting yet another princess dress. I think the count is up to ten!

Here's Téa with all her loot after it was over. She was excited to get a dress-up dress of her own.

Here's Maricela opening a present. She was really into the wrapping paper. ;P

Elena got a pair of Princess roller skates from my mom and dad. She tried them out on the carpet for about 5 minutes, then said she was ready to go outside and try them on the street. Um, I don't think so.

Uncle Ben got Keith a Tevya hat for Christmas. In case you don't know, he's from Fiddler on the Roof. Keith had never seen it before, and then watched it one day and was SO into it. He wanted to be Tevya for Halloween, he said we needed another daughter because Tevya has five daughters... So Ben was really excited to give him this hat. I'll have to take a picture when Keith dresses up like him.

While there, Keith and I went to 2 Marshall basketball games with my Grandma. Marshall's basketball team has been losing quite often, but they won both the games that we went to!! That was pretty exciting. And we got our picture taken with Marco (the buffalo).





My dad has lost some weight and while we were there, he put on a little fashion show for us. He was trying on all his old disco clothes. That was pretty funny!

Keith got sad while we were there. Amya got a CD player from my mom for Christmas and she was listening to it all the time. Then my sisters showed her this website to play games on, to make money to "buy" things. I don't know. Anyway, she was on that constantly. Keith was sad cause he realized that she's growing up.

Well, Keith's calling me to come down to help with the kids. So I'll be back later to add the rest of the pictures. TTFN!

Happy Birthday Téa!!!!!

It's only a month late, but better late than never, right?

Téa had a great 2nd birthday. It was really laidback. We didn't have a big family party, cause it was SO busy. Her birthday is Dec. 3, so it was right before finals for me, and also getting close to Christmas. I didn't have the energy (or time) to throw a huge party for her. But I don't think she cared. Hopefully after next year I can do better parties for her. I don't want her to be one of those kids who felt like their birthday wasn't as important because it was so close to Christmas. Anyway, enough rambling. Here are some pictures.

She's been trying to use the potty lately, so we got her some big girl p*nt*es. She just wears them over her diaper though.

Her big present from us was a little trike. She gets so jealous when the other girls are outside on their bikes and she's not. I saw this little one at Target and had to get it for her. She can pedal backwards, but she needs to practice going forward. :)

My mom sent her a box full of little presents and she was really excited to open that and see all the things just for her.



Téa is SO into coloring right now. She draws on everything (including our walls). My mom sent her some crayons and a coloring book, and I think that was one of her favorite presents. She went right to coloring and spent about half an hour on the floor, filling in her new book. So cute!

After opening presents, we went over to the farm for dinner. Bonnie, Keith's mom, Arax, Aria, Iva's family, and Noel's family were all there. I took a cake over, and while we were singing to her she decided that she wanted to taste the cake.


Obviously, that became her piece! All in all, she had a pretty great day.

Oh, and did you notice the giant bump/bruise right in the middle of her forehead? I don't remember now what happened, but man! It seems like that girl has a new bruise every day.

Smile

What? A new post? I don't even think I can believe it myself. I got a new version of Photoshop (CS2 to be exact - yippee!!) and this is the first layout I've done while playing around with it. I'm going to do some updates in a few minutes, but I wanted to get this posted.

The quote says "Nothing prepared me for your smile."