Texas Trip and Christmas

The week before Christmas we drove to TX to visit Charles' brothers and their families. On our way there we stopped in Independence, LA, the town where my great, great, grandparents first settled in the US from Sicily.

This is likely the church they attended.We wanted to go to the Italian Culture Museum but, they were closed :(

We were also sad to find out the Italian restaurant we wanted to eat at was closed. Though, it wasn't quite what we were expecting, we're glad we got to see this little town.

We stopped in Houston to see our good friends the Benacs. It was great to see them and Azure had so much fun playing with Lucy!

We did a day trip to San Antonio and remembered the Alamo. It was definitely a day of remembrance as we had completely forgotten what had occurred there. Very interesting stuff.

Then we went to the San Antonio Zoo. It was colder than we were expecting for Texas. Not many people were there.The highlight at the zoo was the hippo. We watched this guy get into the water and open his huge mouth. Tons of fish swam in and we thought at first that he was eating them and were wondering why the fish were swimming so anxiously into his mouth only to be eaten. But, we soon realized that they had a symbiotic relationship and the fish were actually cleaning out his mouth. Fascinating! We all sat and watched in amazement for about 30 mins.

These are really bad pictures. Can't wait to get our SLR in a couple weeks :)
Exhausted after a LONG day. She wasn't the only one who looked like this :)We also went to an open gym with foam pits and trampolines with all her cousins. At first she was a little scared to jump but, Daddy toughened her up and she had a blast! Daddies are great for that :)
For our drive back home we each had our own block of cheese to eat. You know how we love our cheese in this family :)


We also stopped in New Orleans on the way back and were disappointed by how debacherous it was. I guess we are too naive. We don't look forward to ever going back.

For Family Home Evening the Monday before Christmas we took a ferry ride across the Savannah River to Hutchinson Island where some gingerbread houses were on display. Azure loved being on the boat. We were excited to find out it was free. Wish we had known that before. We also acted out the Christmas story. Azure was sick this last week with pink eye and an ear infection. Thanks to her antibiotics, she is all better now. And gratefully she did not get either of us sick. Here she is part way through the act, where her illness is fully manifested:
Once the "donkey" came out to led me (Mary, great with child) to Bethlehem, she was all giggles. We didn't have donkey ears, but bunny ears worked just as good.

The babe lying in a manger. Forgetting her tantrum 2 minutes earlier.

On Christmas Eve we drove around town and looked at all the houses that had gone "all out" with lights and decorations. Then we feasted on a yummy turkey. Charles has been in charge of cooking turkeys before but, I actually cooked this one. It was my first time. I was so happy with how moist it was. The Pioneer Woman's blog is so helpful for cooking tips. I highly recommend it!

Just before bed on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas morning I made a yummy breakfast consisting of crepes with strawberries, bananas, whipped cream, and nutella. Also potato latkes and a cheesy sausage, egg casserole. I think this will become a tradition.

Azure playing with her new paints she got on Christmas morning.
Another tradition we started this year was going to a nursing home to sing Christmas songs to some of the patients there. It was very touching and we hope to be able to do it every year with the kids on Christmas day.

Then we headed over to Garner's house for Christmas dinner. Here's Azure and her good friend Isabella. She is 2 months older than Azure and they sometimes have a love/hate relationship. But, mostly they love each other and get really excited and giddy when they first see each other after a long time. It's very cute :)

It was a wonderful Christmas for just our little family of 3.

Azureisms

I'm starting to get a little teary-eyed at the thought of dividing my time between two as Vince's birth approaches. Of course, I am excited for his arrival and I know I'll love him just as much as Azure, but a part of me is sad that this stage of my life and Azure's life as an only child is coming to a close. We have had so much fun! She has taught me how to be a mother.

It's hard to express in words just how much joy she brings me. Charles says she's an exact clone of me. And I agree. I guess I'm somewhat vain, but I love that she is so like me :) She has picked up on a lot of my mannerisms and facial expressions and to see her do them is absolutely darling! With her vocabulary growing more and more, she cracks us up with the things she says and a part of me wishes she would stay this age forever.
Here are a few samples of Azureisms:

"It's too, so very dark. Too, so very hot. Too, so very..."

She made up a word called "Momo". We think he is male. He very well may be her imaginary friend. When she first started talking about "him" a lot we laughed and kept asking, "Who/what is Momo?" Since we laughed so much, she now mentions "him" whenever she wants to illicit laughter from us.

On Sundays mornings she wakes up to see me and Charles dressed in church clothes to which she exclaims, "I have to, need to, go to church. Nursery!"

One of my simple joys is to leave the Christmas tree lights on when we leave the house to run errands so when we come back, we have pretty, glowing lights to greet us. When I first did this I exclaimed to Azure, "Look at the lights on the tree. Isn't it so pretty?" And now every time we open the door she says in her most excited voice, and running to the tree, "Look! It's so pretty!"

When she hits something accidentally or runs into something (the table, the door) she says, "I'm so sorry. Excuse me."

Azure refers to Charles' 5 finger shoes as his penguin shoes. The other day she said, "Daddy, you're in big trouble." "Why?" he asked. "Because your penguin shoes." "Gonna need to go to the dark room." The dark room is the laundry room where she goes for punishment.

When I tell her it's time to go to sleep, more often than not she responds with, "No, I'm just waking up."

She is a pure delight!

Christmas 2009 Photo Shoot

Now, that we are on vacation in San Marcos, TX visiting family, I finally have some time to update the blog :)

Here are some pics from our Christmas Photo Shoot that we are going to try to do every year.

Christmas Festivities

My previous excuses for not blogging for almost a month remain fully intact. Charles with finals, and my hatred for this new program that doesn't handle the uploading of photos as I'd like. And it's the photos that I use as the basis for my blogging.

Ok, on to the catch up. We went to Ev's house again this year for Thanksgiving and loved being with her family and seeing the beautiful mountains that we miss dearly! We drove up to Virginia and West Virginia too, cause we're crazy like that.

But, we're also slightly lame because we didn't take any pictures of Ev or her family or the beautiful mountains.

Here's a crafty Thanksgiving project that we did in YWs. It's a Thanksgiving tree where we wrote what we were thankful for on the leaves. I like when they inspire me to be crafty, because I'm usually not.

We put our little Christmas tree up the Monday after Thanksgiving for Family Home Evening. I think we may make that into a tradition.

Azure with Santa at our ward Christmas party. Some kids were crying and did NOT want to sit on his lap. She did okay, but wasn't super thrilled about it. And if anyone is curious about our decision in regards to last year's post about Santa Claus, we're not telling her that Santa is coming to bring gifts, we're telling her that Mommy and Daddy are giving her presents. But, we're not anti-Santa Claus entirely.

While we put together our gingerbread house Azure picked up a candy cane and asked what it was. After telling her she said, "It's for sheep mommy!" I was impressed that she recognized it as a shephard's cane. I then realized that that was the symbol for the candy cane. And she knew it before I even did.

I was also pretty impressed with Azure's decorating skills. She was in deep concentration as she placed each piece of candy on the house. I think I need to do some more crafting projects with her.