New Year and Great-Granddad

Katarina cut her two top front teeth this week. After a rough weekend, they broke through the gums on Monday (Jan. 24th) and are still growing in. Poor baby! But she is certainly enjoying eating finger foods with her new teeth!

Kati loves to play Peek-a-Boo! She also likes to hand toys to us and have us give them back to her. These interactive games are so funny to her, and her laugh warms my heart.

Tita Chrissie stayed here through New Year's, so we had more fun play time with her. Yay!

Everyone enjoyed watching Katarina smile and dance along with the singing snowman whenever he played music. It's amazing to see my children develop musical talent at such a young age.

Great-Granddad Leo and Gramma Jane and Uncle Brian also came to visit us for New Year's. The two big girls helped Great-Granddad do his exercises by counting to 20 for him, and they were even able to assist in putting on the sock for his prosthetic leg. We were so blessed to be able to spend this time with my 97-year-old Granddad.

Great-Granddad enjoyed holding the baby and watching all the girls play. He was impressed with how well Katarina can scoot around on the floor to get where she wants to be, and he remarked several times about how good of a baby she is to sit and entertain herself.

On New Year's Day, we went ice skating at the River Market downtown with friends Dalia and Zaina. Great-Granddad, Gramma Jane, Uncle Brian, and Dalia and Zaina's grandmother came to watch. The girls started off needing help, but by the end, they could skate on their own.

Bye, bye! Thanks for visiting us, Gramma Jane, Uncle Brian, and Great-Granddad.

Bye-bye, Tita Chrissie! Come again soon.

I'll also share a few pictures from Cousin Steven's 11th birthday dinner last month:

Santa brought all three girls tutus for Christmas. Here Katarina is modeling hers:

We call our little one "Baby" so often that Kati recognizes "Baby" as referring to her and responds. I sure do love having a baby!

Christmas 2010 and Tita

This was Katarina's first Christmas. Tita Chrissie came to Little Rock for the holidays, and we all enjoyed the week with her.

Tita reading Bella's bedtime story

Gabi reading to Lolo

Tita hides behind Gabi at the restaurant

Daddy makes Bella laugh at the restaurant

We gave the girls personalized books with coloring pages made from pictures of them. Gabi's book is a storytelling book, with creative story scenarios for her to write about, plus a few pages dedicated to her favorite things and thoughts about our upcoming move. Bella's book is an alphabet coloring book with a picture of her for each letter of the alphabet, plus some activity pages at the end. I highly recommend these books! If you're interested, you can purchase one from Kimba's Creative Outlet on Etsy.

A coloring page from the personalized books

Lolo had one of my pictures of Kati printed on canvas!

Silly siblings

Ninong Edward, Ninang Sylvia, and Cousin Steven (and Kati)

Mama and baby

Lolo and Lola came over early Christmas morning

Bella loves to dress up like a princess

Princesses driving their new remote control car

Outside the movie theater after watching Tangled

Bella's new ball castle

US map for the girls to explore with their new Tag readers

It took us several days to open all our presents, as the girls like to have a few hours to play with every new toy as they open each one.

The Polar Express

Riding the Polar Express

We have enjoyed a wonderful Christmas season. We spent all our time with visiting family and weren't able to keep up with the blog during the holidays, so now we'll catch up. One weekend in December, we drove to Branson, MO where we could take the Polar Express to the North Pole to see Santa!

All aboard!

Katarina on the train

Bella (and Lily bunny) waiting for Santa

Gabi sitting on Santa's lap

Annabelle didn't want to sit in Santa's lap, nor did she accept the bell from his sleigh. Once Santa left, she changed her mind and wanted a bell. Luckily, Daddy had one for her!

In addition to a visit with Santa, we enjoyed cookies and hot chocolate on the train, sang Christmas carols, and watched Christmas lights through the window. There were more lights decorating the train station, too.

Before our evening Polar Express ride, we had the day to enjoy Branson. We took a tour through Talking Rocks Cavern, which was the perfect activity for our family.

A nativity scene in the cave

Look how the cave is "growing" and taking over the stairs that Gabi is standing on!

Bella's defiant three-year-old attitude may bring a challenge to life, but it also allowed me to catch her in this model pose.

We spent a couple fun hours crawling (and slithering) through two "simulated cave" 3-D mazes as well. It was quite a trick to squeeze through some of those twisting tunnels!

It was a really cold weekend, but we had a great time! The chilly weather made hot chocolate at our hotel even more appealing.