If it's the Day after Thanksgiving....

...then it must be time for the Reston Holiday parade!  It was much better this year and lots of fun... but the weather was Wiiiiindy.  Glad we brought a blanket and chairs for the girls to sit in!

Father Daughter bonding

Cousins Bonding

That's my girl, alright

Don't ask.  I did not take this picture - my brother did - and I have no idea what Emma is wearing and what she is doing.  I plead the 5th.

Children's Museum of Houston

One of the mornings we were in Houston, we spent a fun time at the Children's Museum.  What a great place it was for the kids!  We stayed there for about 4 hours and easily could have spent much more time there. 

In "Kidtropolis" the city is divided into areas where you can work for a paycheck and also spend your paycheck.  There are restaurants and banks run by the kids, supermarkets, and a police station.  Emma and Alexa spent a lot of time there pretend playing and having a great time...

 Driving the ambulance

The girls took turns working and shopping at the local grocery store.  They actually had kid check out lines and the kids had to take turns being cashiers and ringing up a person's cart... It was really cute

Next job was working at the Kid Cafe.  I was their customer - they took my food order, rang it up, cooked it and gave me a check... So much fun!

The work day was not over yet... next job was to work at the vet clinic - taking care of sick puppies and grooming them too!

They had a section for Tessa too - babies under 2 could play in an indoor playground.  Arturo spent time with her there - he says she had fun!

Sisters!

Breakfast for Tessa

A love of photography seems to run in my family.  My uncle has all sorts of gear and loves to take tons and tons of pictures.  Trust me, LOTS of pictures.  Let's just say that the next several shots of Tessa I picked out were filtered and narrowed down from about 200 pictures.  Yes, he took 200 pictures of Tessa eating her bowl of yogurt over the span of about 10 minutes.  My kid must have felt famous!

There are a couple of cutes ones though - she loves feeding herself, even if she makes a mess!

Took away her spoon, I thought she was done:
Exhibit 1:

 Exhibit 2:

Gave her spoon back to her.  Don't you wish sometimes happiness could be so simple?

Houston - Day 1

For Thanksgiving this year, we all traveled down to Houston to visit my grandparents and see our cousins.  The last time we had gone down was in 2006 - so a full 4.5 years ago.  Amazing how quickly time flies!  The weather was warm and humid; a welcome relief from chilly DC.

Here we are, the first morning - Tessa always falls right back into my mom's arms as soon as she sees her Puo Puo!

Zach and my bro:

My mom's arms are like a sleepy time drug for Tessa.  She can be lulled to sleep in her arms so easily!

Emma's favorite part about the trip was playing with my aunt and uncle's dog, Winston.

After a morning nap, we all got into 2 minivans - yes, we are that big of a family now! - and headed over to my grandparents' place.  Amazing - they are both in their mid 90's, still living on their own, and looking so great!  Here is Tessa, receiving her "red envelope" from my grandmother and meeting her for the first time:

My mom is busy with grandkids!

I love this shot of little Tessa that my brother took.  Big elevator, lots of big people - and little Tessa

Early November 2010

As I sit here on a chilly January night - it's snowing outside! - I'm finally updating the blog and sifting through pictures from last November!  The sunlight seems so warm, the girls are not all bundled up, and we are enjoying some after school play outside in the front yard.

I am missing those days... Brrrr.