Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2008

On Christmas Eve, we went to John's aunt Nayda's house. Before we left, I tried to get a picture of the girls in front of the Christmas tree in their Christmas dresses. It was impossible, so John stepped in and tried to hold them there for a quick photo.

At least I got Avery to smile in this one!

Reagan, showing me her beautiful dress

Gabby and Reagan - Don't they look beautiful???

Avery, Gabby and Reagan

Lauren, Joaquin, Avery Gabby and Reagan

Reagan, John, and Nila - I love this picture!

The Fernandez Family - Lauren, Doreen, Jose, and Gabby

Avery - she loves that she's walking around now!

Nila, or Abuela

Nila and Reagan

The Mendez Family

Maribel and Debbie

Avery was snuggling into her Abuela - it was so sweet!

Avery and Nila

Jesus, Debbie and Josh

Joaquin and Marcelo

Nayda - trying on her new scarf

Reagan and Jose

Reagan tried on Maribel's new scarf and thought she looked pretty fancy!

Avery - opening presents

Doreen gave Reagan this real digital camera for kids! She loved it!

Doreen's mother Catherine gave Avery this Elmo/Cookie Monster ball that shakes ... Joaquin thought it was pretty cool, and whenever it started to shake, he gasped and made this funny expression!

Reagan was having fun playing with Josh's toys (cars, airplanes, helicopters) and I guess she thought the nativity scene was missing a helicopter :)

Whenever Joaquin comes to our house, he always loves playing with this toy microwave that my friend Nicole gave Reagan for her birthday last year. I told Maribel I would get it for him for Christmas, since I knew he'd love it. At Diane's cookie exchange, we were talking about the Christmas shopping that still needed to get done and Diane said she'd be going to Toys-R-Us the next day, so she'd be happy to pick it up for me. When she got there, they were all out of microwaves, but said they had some at their Rt. 4 location. I was at Target so I was going to pick it up after ... then I was talking to Nicole and she said she was near there and she'd be happy to go get it. When she got there, they said they couldn't find them in the back. So, the next day, Diane went to a different Toys-R-Us in NY ... still no microwaves! Then she went back to the original Paramus location, where they had just received a shipment and she found one!!!! So, the purpose of this long explanation about a microwave is that 4 separate attempts were made to find it, all by 2 very good friends of mine ~ THANKS Nicole and Diane!!!!

Brothers ~ John and Jesus

After everyone finished opening presents, it was midnight and Avery was WIRED! She gets SO goofy when she's tired ... we were playing Peek-a-boo behind the doorway and she was cracking up!

I wish I could say they fell asleep as soon as we got into the car, but they actually stayed awake for the majority of the drive home! Reagan didn't fall asleep until about 5 minutes before we pulled into the garage ... I took this picture just before we got them out, around 12:50 AM.

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Christmas Day

Avery's favorite stocking stuffer: a new toothbrush!

Nana and Grandpa sent Reagan this princess tent and the girls loved it!

Avery loved following her big sister into the tent!

Reagan loved getting a new princess dress and dress-up jewelry, so she looked the part in her princess tent!

Since Reagan loves playing on other kids' pianos at playdates, I told John I thought we should get her one of her own. She loved it!

It was a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas morning! Then we rushed around the house, packing for our trip to Utah :)

Merry Christmas!!

There's no time to go through the 200 pictures I've taken over the last 24 hours, but I thought I'd share at least one from last night at Nayda's house (John's aunt) and one from this morning.

Reagan got a princess tent from her Nana and Grandpa, so we were playing in it in our Christmas pajamas!

Now I've got to crazily run around the house, packing up all the last minute items, then get in a car and head to Newark airport! Utah, here we come!!!!

Diane's Cookie Exchange!

I spent all day yesterday making dough, cutting out cookies, baking them, frosting them, then decorating our favorite Fawson Family sugar cookies. And of course, Reagan wanted to help! Her favorite part was playing in the flour. Maybe because it's kind of like playing with sand? I don't know. She just likes making messes!

Here's a picture of all the cookies after they were decorated. My mom, sisters and I started a tradition, probably about 9 years ago where we'd pick a Saturday in December and bake cookies all day long. It was always so much fun! Then we'd give them out to our friends, neighbors and co-workers for Christmas. I'm always sad I can't do it with them in Utah, but at least I get to start the tradition with my daughters here in NJ. Anyway, we usually make Christmas Tree cookies, but they are bigger and I needed to make LOTS of cookies, so I changed it to stars this year. I needed enough cookies to take about 4 or 5 dozen to the nurses at Hackensack, and then about 4 or 5 dozen to Diane's party.

Tonight I participated in Diane's 4th Annual Cookie Exchange! Everyone brought dozens of homemade cookies, then we went around the table and took what we wanted.Look at all these homemade goodies!

Diane's friend Gina surprised her and came all the way from Long Island! I wish I'd had my camera ready when Gina and their other friend Judy walked through the door - it was priceless. It made Diane emotional to see her oldest friends ... Diane's mother and Gina's mother went to high school together, so they've been friends since birth. They've been friends with Judy since 4th grade! Gina came with us to the Lakehouse for a fun girls weekend back in September.

Jen and Ms. Lisa ... I joked with Ms. Lisa that I simply can NOT call her "Lisa"! It just doesn't sound right! I knew her first as "Ms. Lisa" (Reagan's preschool teacher) and although I now consider her a friend, it's too hard to change her name to just "Lisa". She just laughs and says it doesn't bother her at all ... she has other friends and neighbors that call her Ms. Lisa still because their kids were in her preschool program years ago.

Group shot at the end of the night

Top row: Jen, Diane, Judy, Gina

Bottom: Amanda, Ms. Lisa

What a fun night! John was so happy when I brought home a huge container of various cookies :) John LOVES cookies, so it was the perfect kind of party for me to attend. Thanks Diane!!

Merry Christmas!

I included my blog address on our Christmas Card this year, and since people are starting to receive them in the mail, I figured I'd welcome some new vistors to my blog! I've been updating my blog on a regular basis (usually every couple of days) for almost a year now. Although it's probably the biggest consumer of my very limited free time, I love doing it and I can't think of better way to spend it. Years down the road, I'm sure I'll look at the pictures and read over the stories about my girls and I'll be so happy that I documented all of their many milestones and sweet stories.

Please feel free to leave comments, since it's always nice to see that people are checking in on us :) You can also click on "Follow this blog" under Followers.

For my readers who visit often, but haven't yet received my card in the mail, sorry for spoiling the surprise! Many THANKS go out to my dear friend Christie Adams who photographed my girls and put together our beautiful card this year! She's an extremely talented photographer and graphic designer and we were so pleased with how the card came together. Avery was in such a horrible mood the morning of the photo shoot, but Christie managed to get a decent shot of her, so I give her lots of credit. Back in June, we had a wonderful photo shoot, so if you haven't seen those pictures, check them out here.

I hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas!

Westwood Holiday Parade

Last night, we did something we rarely do: the whole family did something spontaneously! I was talking to Nicole around 4:00 PM and she said she and Chris were taking their kids to Westwood's "Home for the Holidays" Parade. I thought Reagan would probably love it, so I asked John if he wanted to go. He said "Sure!" The parade started at 6:00 PM, so I knew we'd need to eat dinner first. Nicole and I decided to meet at Mountain House Pizza in Westwood so that we could eat dinner, then be right there when the parade started. I rushed around the house, trying to find everyones warmest clothes, then we all bundled up and jumped in the car.

I had to wake up Avery from her nap, so she was very groggy ... then Reagan fell asleep in the car on the quick 5 minute drive from home to Westwood! Guess she wore herself out earlier at Sabrina's birthday party!

Reagan and Mia did great at dinner, coloring and sharing the crayons.

We quickly ate dinner, then Reagan and Mia got festive with the headbands that Nicole brought.

Reagan and Mia outside the Mountain House

Chris and Bennett, walking to the parade

I must say, I was impressed with this parade! I wasn't expecting much, since I figured it wouldn't be anything special, so I was surprised to see actual floats!
Most of them were sponsored by Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC) because they are buying the old Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood (the hospital that closed, just days after I delivered Avery there) ... I'm not sure of the details, but I think the town gets to vote on something for it to all go through, so I think they might have been lobbying for people's support!


This NY Giants float was a big hit ... one of the guys was carrying what looked like the Superbowl Trophee. Not sure if it was the real thing or just a replica, but Nicole and Chris were excited to see this float, since they are huge Giants fans.

This was an interesting addition to the parade ... I guess "Lil Sean" was a girl? Anyway, we thought it was a cute way to propose.

This float was titled "Elf", like the movie with Will Farrell. This was a woman dressed up like "Buddy" from the movie ... I loved that movie, so this was one of my favorite floats!

The whole gang

Bundled up - it was COLD!!!!

Mia and Reagan ~ Reagan really enjoyed the parade, except for the people sitting next to us ... apparently, they knew everyone in town, so they were shouting and screaming at just about everyone who walked past us in the parade. Seriously, they just kept screaming, and hootin' and hollerin' and it was getting on Reagan's nerves. She kept shouting back at them, "STOP SCREAMING!" ... but of course, they couldn't hear her over their own shouting!

Darling picture of Nicole and Mia