Illuminations

On December 9th, we took the kids to Illuminations at Botanica.  We really lucked out because they weather was really nice.  Unfortunately, this made it really busy, but at least it wasn't freezing!

Before we went, we ate at River City Brewery.  Aria's first time there!  Daddy eats here every Wednesday with Auntie Amanda.



Both of the kids were looking adorable all bundled up.  Antonio in his snowman hat, and Aria in her sweet furry suit that Melanie and Donna got her.




The lights were awesome.








We took a break to get a funnel cake and hot cocoa.



Poor Aria just gets milk.



Antonio enjoyed playing the instruments in the children's garden.




My sweet snuggly baby!



Antonio was hilarious when we got to the dancing lights.  He just wanted to dance and dance.  Buckner has really taught him a lot about dancing!



We finally pulled him away to go see Santa.



Then he wanted to go back and dance some more. At least there was a bench for Quentin and I to sit on and watch our crazy boy.



We got there so late, we barely made it through before they closed.




Aria loved looking at the lights!



I love making memories with our little family!

Christmas Card

Luckily Aria is a super good sleeper, so I didn't have to do much sleeping during the day while she napped.  I was able to spend a lot of my maternity leave playing with my embroidery machine.  One big project I took on was making all four of us Christmas pajamas to wear in our Christmas card pictures.  We went over to my parent's house to pose by their tree and have my dad take the pictures.

If I'd known my mom would be in her pajamas too, I would have made her a matching pair!

There were a lot of bad pictures....like glowing Quentin...



...Antonio with his leg on me for some reason...



...and drunk Quentin.



There were some adorable ones too!






Finally we got one that was good enough for our Christmas card.  Then  we had to get one with the grandparents.


This little hat is off a snowman decoration.  My mom thought it would look cute on Aria.  Too bad it barely fit!



Our little present!



I'm sure everyone has seen the viral video about "stirring the baby" to make them stop crying.  Quentin and my Dad were stirring both of the babies in hopes that they would stop whining!



Merry Christmas!

My Big First Grader

After I got settled in to the groove of having a newborn baby, I got to go pick Antonio up from school one day.  I went in to latchkey and he was on the climbing wall!




He had been studying penguins and was super excited to show me the penguin he made that day.



After we left, we went to Joann's to buy fabric to make a craft with his class for Christmas.  While we were there he found many things that he wanted.  He had me take a picture so I could remember to get them for Christmas.  He's so funny.




Antonio was grounded from Minecraft until Christmas break at this point.  He is just too obsessed with it!  The good thing about this is that he actually did something else!  When we got home, he helped me with dinner and helped me make oatmeal cookies.



After bathtime he asked if he could pose for some pictures with "sissy."  He sure loves her!  It was all his idea for them to lay under the tree together.  I love his little personality.




One more snuggle with sissy before bed!



One of the teachers at his school had sent me this picture of Antonio performing in music class.  He's getting too big!

Where are we going today?

Aria is such an easygoing baby that we can pretty much take her anywhere!  Grandma came with us to her first doctor appointment.




They told me to undress Aria and put her in a blanket.  Silly mommy didn't bring a blanket.  Luckily they had one.  Great job Mommy!  At least she had her Grandma there to snuggle her.




She wore her cute Princess Leia onesie from Auntie Amanda.



A few days later, Quentin and I took Aria with us to go get massages.  Sweet little Aria slept through both of our massages!



Quentin's massage therapist got Aria this awesome Stormtrooper towel.


Afterwards we took Aria to meet her Great Grandpa Nelson.  She's so lucky to have such a sweet Great Grandpa!