{Samantha: 9 Months Old}

On Samantha's 9 month check up, she received her shots and let it be known to the entire people at the doctor's office that she was not happy with it :)

Here are her stats:
Height: 27 inches (31%)
Weight: 19 lbs (51%)
Head: 44 (51%)

Oh lil bean, you are not so lil anymore. Dr. Segal said you are solid when she held you :)

You are definitely a busy lil girl. Kinda have to huh, when you are keeping up with big brother.

You started crawling at 6 1/2 months and are now going at lightning speed. You are also standing on your own for a couple of seconds. The other day, you were succesful at taking one step forward on your own.

You love playing with this push car. You push it all around the house.

You started trying some real food like Macaroni and Cheese, grits and your favorite---Chocolate Ice Cream. Bad mommy and daddy. You love vegetable base baby food. A complete opposite to your carnvore big brother.

You love to dine out and people watch.

You say momma and dadda.

You've been drinking water from your sippy.

You are consistently sleeping thru the night.

You love your blankie.

You are a busy lil thing and plays with William's toy.

You absolutely adore your big brother and he loves you so much.

Happy 9 month old Samantha! We need to start getting ready for your 1 yr party.

{Atl Snow 2011 & National Championship}

Oh what an interesting weekend/weekday it has been. So let's start of with a lil background about Ed's National Championship trip. In 2005, Auburn was suckin' post their undefeated 2004 season. I made a promise to Ed that if his team ever goes to the National Championship I'm sending him. Yes, I made this promise thinking it would not happen soon and when he goes, it's us going.

Fast forward to 2011, here we are with 2 kids, a 9 month old and a 3 year old; and Auburn was chosen to go to the National Championship game. Ed being the responsible hubby told me that he didn't have to go. But I'm a woman of my word and know in my heart that Ed deserves this trip. He's been the greatest hubby and daddy to our 2 kids. So off we sent him to this trip.

I was prepared to take care of the 2 kids the weekend of his trip. I had plans for us to go to all this fun places on the weekend. The game was on a Monday so Ed was scheduled to go home on Wednesday morning. I was thinking not a big deal---I'll drop the kids to daycare. Go to work Monday then take Tuesday off and have a day of pampering. Well all of those plan were shuttered by this lil thing called Atlanta Snowmaggedon 2011. Yes, it was the weekend where Atlanta was snowed in for 4-6 inches and everybody was stuck at home.

I dreaded the thought of being stuck in the house with 2 kids all by myself. But you know what, it was actually enjoyable. And I have to brag in here---It was reinforced to me how blessed we are to have two good kids. It was also such a wonderful moment for me to witness how my kids love each other. These two were laughing and playing all the time.

We even made it outside to play some with snow.

Look at these two having a blast! Whatever big brother does, lil sister wants to do. William is such a great big brother. He actually was so excited to show Samantha how to do things.

The night of the game came. It was time to cheer for Auburn Tigers.Ed sent us this picture pre-game. Great seats!The whole crew enjoying the team's victory. They were all too sweet and sent me text messages that they miss me :)A fun and busy week. The kids were so glad to see their daddy home :)

{Christmas 2010}

It's 2011 and I am just now blogging about our Christmas adventure. I decided that I wanted to focus on actually feeling those special moments, so blogging took a backseat . Both Ed and I had a long off from work and it was so nice to be able to spend time together as a family.

Christmas 2010 was a busy one. How special it was for our kids! Samantha's first Christmas and this was the Christmas where William "gets it" all---from the baby Jesus' birthday, Christmas songs, to reindeers, to elves, to cookies, to Christmas tree, etc. Anything Christmas related he understands. We are also very fortunate to have what I call a "2 day Christmas extravaganza". My family is big on celebrating Christmas eve or "Noche Buena" and Ed's family is big on having a Christmas dinner! Christmas morning is spent at our house. I love this moment because although I love being surrounded by family, I also treasure times involving just our family of four (er five including Riley).We are fortunate that all work out and we have a drama free Christmas schedule.

Noche Buena was celebrated at my sister's house. This is her first Christmas at her recently purchased house. Here house was We had a traditional Filipino menu for our Christmas eve dinner. Hmmm....I'm getting hungry just thinking about those yummy "lechon" or pork roast! One more thing special about this Christmas, we surprised our parents with a visit from my brother from New York. He moved to NYC 2 years ago and this is the first time he's been back.

Check out my Mom's reaction. I guess no Mom wants to be away from her kids during the holidays

William and Samantha cuddling with Lolo and Tito Nestor while opening their presents.

My Ate (older sis') and I in our matching Christmas sweatshirt :)Ed has an excellent helper opening presents!We put on our Christmas jammies and left carrots for the reindeers and cookies for Santa.

William saw this in the morning and made a comment that Blitzen does not like healthy food and did not eat all of his carrots. William got up with a bloody nose but was oblivious to it because of all the excitement. If you ask him, if Santa brought him any presents this is what he'll tell you (and yes, he's consistently told numerous people this story).

I went to Potty and go to bed and when I wake up there were toys from Santa!

Samantha was still asleep and I asked him if he wants to go ahead an open his other presents from Mom and Dad. He said, no Mom, we can wait for my baby sister. So sweet!

Here's William loving the Ironman and Batman Trio that Santa got him.Lil princes Samantha finally woke up and checked out the new "baby" kitchen that Santa got her. Big brother of course was so excited to show lil sis all it's neat features :)Toy explosion on Christmas morning.After church, my family came over and enjoyed this wonderful brunch.Tito Nestor had one more suprise for William--- A Melissa& Doug Easel!The day flew by and next thing we knew it was time to head on over to Granddaddy & Grandmommy's house for Christmas dinner.

Cousins enjoying their kiddie table

For now Samantha is in her high chair, I'm sure she'll join them soon!

Christmas loving from Grandmommy!Samantha rocking her "Forget Santa, I have Gradma" shirt

Christmas loving from Granddaddy!
Presents time!

We are extremely blessed to have such loving and generous family! This blog post would be too long to even go into details all the goodies that we all got. Here's our 2011 9 round fruits for good luck. 2010 has been a wonderful year for us. We are looking forward to all the blessings and prosperity this year.