MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

We had such a good time last night and this morning with my parents and my brother. We had dinner with them - Colombian tamales, green bean casserole, arepas and blueberry grape sparkling juice. We then opened presents and Bella had such a great time opening everyone's presents. All in all, she got over 40 presents!!! :O Dont panic.. most of them were $1-$2 little presents but she did get a Crayola easel and 2 cute playhouses plus lots of accessories.

Anyways, I'll have to post some pictures later..

Paci-free!

Wednesday night was Bella's 1st time sleeping pacifier-free! She did so good! Billy told her she was a big girl now and didn't need a paci. She then threw the pacifier in the trash can. At night, she got her blanket and her milk. When she asked for the paci we reminded her that she was a big girl and that she had thrown the paci away because "big girls don't need pacis." And that was it! She went to sleep and slept through the night. She has been a little sick (runny nose and cough). But I really thought she was going to cry all night for the pacifier!! I'm sooo glad she didnt!

Last night when she asked for the pacifier we just reminded her again and she said "Oooh ok." And just repeated what we had told her "I'm a big girl and I don't need a paci." LOL She's so smart!! :) We'll see how she does tomorrow at my parents house. Billy and I are going to a church member's home to watch the Saints game and Bella's sleeping at Nana and Papi's house :)

Gingerbread House!

I cant believe how fast December has gone by.. It's already the 16th and in just a week Christmas will be here!!!

I guess starting to work at Michaels has made my weeks and days go by a lot faster. My feet and legs and shoulders and everything else in my body hurts... but I like the people I work with and it gives me something to do.

I've also been Christmas shopping and Bella might set a new record with all the gifts she has under the tree :) But a lot of them are "small" gifts and some I separated into smaller gifts so she had a LOT of wrapping paper to tear through Christmas morning :) She'll have a blast!!

We also made our 1st gingerbread house yesterday. It turned out ok and I assured you, it looks a LOT better in the picture than it does in person! LOL But Bella had so much fun decorating it and eating the candy decorations, it was awesome!! :)

GO SAINTS!!

I hope you are not tired of pictures because I took the cutest pictures of Bella today in her new Saints Cheerleader outfit :)



This is our Christmas tree

The garland on top of the fireplace with the stockings (I'm still looking for 1 more stocking holder)

Bella's Little People nativity set and her mini Christmas tree


A wreath I did last year

Pictures :)

Billy and Bella at the New Orleans Zoo :)

A shot of beautiful downtown Houston yesterday while I was driving to the airport to pick up Billy

Our car this morning before going to church.. all frozen up :(

My little chiqui being silly :)

Bella and Tio David.. she loves her tio :)

Snow Day!

I've been missing for a while.. we went away for Thanksgiving week to Billy's mom's house and this week I started working at Michaels while Billy was out of town. We had a good week at mom's house and Bella *loved* spending time with Grandma, Grandpa De, Grandpa Bill, Aunt Kathy Jo (aka KK), uncle DeDe, uncle Dan and cousin Danielle. And of course she loved feeding the baby cows and seeing all the animals.

We had a great family dinner with lots of yummy food on Thanksgiving day! And on Friday, we went to the New Orleans Zoo (even though I was dying to go shopping) but had so much fun seeing all the animals.

My dad, brother, Bella and I drove back Saturday night and Billy stayed in Louisiana to fly with his family to Maryland for KJ's surgery last Monday. Praise the Lord the surgery went well and she's recovering nicely. A big scar and lots of pain meds, but they are hoping to fly back home early next week. Billy flew back today in the middle of a "snow storm," according to Texans... ;) I guess having lived in Michigan thought me that unless it's a blizzard (and even then) live goes on...

We survived the snow and by that I mean, I survived driving around the idiots that don't know how to drive in this weather. Although I gotta say, we'd call this a *dusting* in Michigan.. we had just a very thin layer of the white stuff.. The bad news, Bella's school/daycare closed and so I had to call grandpa to the rescue because I had to work from 12-3 AND pick up Billy from the airport. Anyways, everything went well and besides my soar legs and shoulders, I'm happy!