It's Friday!!!!

So, I couldn't pick one of these for FFF, so I'll post both that I took this morning. I love the first one because it shows her gorgeous eyes and the second shows her spunky personality.

Oh, and many of you asked about the Secret Blog Pal. This round, our blogger buddy Muriel set it up. Her blog is private though, so you may not have seen the info on it. I'm not sure if she'll do a round after this or not. If there is another round started, I will post the info on it when I know..... It's about our 4th or 5th round and it's so much fun picking out a little something for your pal and getting a surprise in the mail.

My Secret Blog Pal Rocks!!!

I got a gift in the mail today from my new SBP. It is PERFECT.

First, a kitty cat for Gabriella. But, not just any kitty cat. It's a purse!!!!!!!!

And for me, a divine box of chocolates, truffles and peppermint bark - YUMMMMMMMMMMMY!!! My SBP was certainly paying attention and got my favorites.

Thank You!!

Gabriella is feeding the kitty cat :-)

Three Kings Day

Happy Three Kings Day (or Epiphany)! Today is the 12th Day of Christmas, when the Three Wise Men visited baby Jesus and brought him gifts. Ferdy grew up in Puerto Rico and there, the Three King's Day celebrations are as big or bigger than Christmas. He always celebrated the day as a child and so we will continue that tradition with Gabriella.

The children all leave some grass (or um, weeds) under their beds for the camels to eat after their long journey. Then, the Three Kings leave a gift.

Gabriella is checking under her bed to see what the kings brought.

oooooooooooooooh.....

My very own keyboard - I love music!!!

FFF

Here's my Favorite Foto Friday pic. She's offering to wash Bing's face. He didn't take her up on the offer, go figure.

Happy 2008!

I wish everyone a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year.

PR in Review

OK.. .Here comes the mother of all posts with pictures from the trip. I'm warning you.... LOTS of pics.

OK... Last chance to grab a drink or coffee (or both!)....

First up.... our nephew Piero. How gorgeous is this child??? His eyelashes are to die for!






Gabriella just loved this rocking horse that grandma had. With her is Titi Karen.



Titi Karen always wears cool bling to play with.




You know.... not a bad view for your final resting place. Click to enlarge and you'll see better that it's a cemetary.







El Morro(the fort)





I've always loved this view from the fort. I think it's the palm trees.















The only pics of all three of us from the trip.










Ferdy, his sister Karen and Gabriella.




I love this church and I always take a picture when we go.



Old San Juan pictures. We didn't go at night, but I'm sure it's gorgeous with all of the Christmas lights.













I have no idea what we were all looking at, but it was apparently very interesting.
Notice Piero is sound asleep, just as we wanted Gabriella to be as it was way past naptime. She fell asleep 2 minutes before we got to the car and then woke up getting into the car.



Cheese!





MMMMMMMMMM, this foot is yummy. Heck, it's the most I've eaten in days!! (a post for another day... Gabriella is on a hunger strike these days).



Here mommy, a flower I picked just for you.



This is probably a good time for intermission. Take a potty break if needed. I told you this post was long.

Meeting granddad...







The next set of pics are from Piero's baptism. I didn't get a really good shot of the gorgeous outfit Ferdy's mom made(remember the beautiful dress she made for Gabriella's baptism??)


Peiro with his Godparents and the Father.



Is this adorable or what???? Gabriella giving her cousin a kiss.

What the heck was that???


Going in for another one.



This look says it all. Let's just say getting her to be still for 1/2 a second was a huge challenge. By this time, the hem of the dress was torn out already.



Gabriella and Titi Ady (Piero's mom)



My feeble attempt to get a picture of Ferdy, Gabriella, his mom and sister. Little miss ants-in-the-pants wouldn't cooperate.

Next up... pics from Piero's first birthday party. I've been to Puerto Rico about 5 times now, but I've never been waaaaay up in the mountains before. Heck, even Ferdy says he's never been. Let's just say, I'm glad to know that Gabriella doesn't get carsick. The last hour of the trip(it was 2 hrs from San Juan) was up, down and around to say the least. I was definitely needing to get out by the end.

Here is the view from the house.





Gabriella never let go of that balloon for the entire day. And yes, she has her purse. She'd be lost without it!



Notice the new purse from Grandma on her arm?




OK, if you are a vegetarian, you may want to look away now.

For all of us meat-eaters, oh my gosh was this good! I can now confirm that I held true to my promise in an earlier post and I did eat myself silly this trip. I can't help it. If you saw what I put away at the birthday party, you'd be shocked.



Grandma Maty and the birthday boy.



There was a clown doing face painting. I wasn't sure how that would go over with the perpetual motion machine named Gabriella. The trick was showing her the mirror. Even still, it had to be quick and so just a dot on the nose and a quick flower.

Notice it's already smeared from her wiping it?



After a few hours when all of the big kids had left the bouncehouse, daddy took Gabriella in it. She LOVED it. The scene and commotion when we took her out? Not.Pretty.









So, anyone still awake? I warned you it would be long.