Daniella's 40 Days

Sunday morning, our family headed over to St. Nicks to receive Daniella's 40 day blessing. I had to take some shots of the girls before we left for church...

Daniella's 40 day ensemble compliments of Mrs. Becharas...(complete with her evil eye pin...I wasn't taking any chances!)

My beautiful girls!!

Some pictures from Church...Mrs. B and Daniella and Father Stratton..

Our family of four...

Mr. B and Daniella...

Santa, Marianna, and Friends...

Through Birmingham, I met some girls over the summer that have become good friends. We all have kids around the same age and they loved playing and swimming at the pool and we had a lot of fun meeting up with them to see Santa at the mall today! Madeline (in pink, age 3) and Jenna (age 4) and Max (20 months) and Rory (20 months). Of course, Marianna loves playing with Madeline and we have pictures of them at Halloween brunch dancing and playing, however...Marianna (aka: the cougar) loves Max and Rory...DJ and I think this is her target age...younger boys...she loves them!! We had a lot fun today, depsite the scared funge face Marianna displayed in the group picture.

We needed a solo shot of Daniella and Santa and once Marianna saw Daniella with Santa...she had to sit with him too! As you can see, she got a lot more comfortable and was able to tell him about the Robot she is dying for. It was funny because after seeing him and leaving, she kept saying "where's my robot??" Obviously, doesn't quite understand that Santa brings the presents on Christmas day quite yet!!

Santa Brunch

Getting ready for Santa brunch I found it is just easier to have both girls in the tub...Marianna has been waiting for this day...what fun she had washing her baby "doll" sister!

On our way to see Santa...Marianna waiting in awe...

Daniella and Daddy..it almost looks like I caught a smile!!

I wish I knew how to scan in the pictures that were taken by the photographer of the girls and the family...these are the pictures I got after the photographer..not as good but you can see there were no tears :) (just fake smiles!)

Marianna and her Papou...

I have many more pictures but since our computer is down as we wait for our Microsoft 7 upgrade (yeah!), I had to upload to my work computer and these are large files. I can't wait to get more up from playgroup and brunch so stay tuned!!

Fine Motor Skills

Marianna's favorite store to browse in is Michaels...she could spend an hour in there looking around for "special art projects" to do at home. Last week when we went, she spotted at checkout the gingerbread tree decorating kit...how could I say no??
When she woke up from her nap today, the first thing out of her mouth was "gingerbread Christmas tree"...so here are some pictures from this lovely project...it took a lot of coordination to get these little candy ornaments on the icing on the tree and Marianna was meticulous!

We couldn't have done this without babysitter Laura!

Mommy and Marianna...

Not sure if you were supposed to taste or eat anything from this kit but I couldn't keep Marianna away from a tasting...

It ain't pretty, but she sure had fun doing it and cried when we ran out of ornaments! Marianna was so proud to show daddy when he came home...evidently the tree was done with him in mind :)

Hugs and Kisses...

Mother's Helper

Marianna was so excited to help me give Daniella a bath today. I was actually quite surprised at how smoothly it went and how good she was at it...

I didn't even have to tell her to get under baby sisters arms...she knew to do that herself!

A clean and content baby Daniella...

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

I spent Saturday getting the tree together with all the base ornaments and all the ones out on the couch that Marianna could hang (all the fun ones!)

When she woke up from her nap, she was so excited to run downstairs and check them all out!

This is her running like Sparty and examining all the ornaments...

Decorating the playroom!! Every year, putting jellies (Marianna calls them jellyfish) and stickers on the window is always good for a lot of entertainment!

After a bath, it was time to start hanging the ornaments. Marianna must have told DJ and I twenty times how much fun this was. She was running back and forth getting ornaments, putting them on, changing them around and just being very silly!

Our Christmas tree is ready and Marianna is giving it a hug goodnight!