Family life

This is my family! They are great people. Even though we are only able to get together once or twice a year, it's always fun! There is always something going on with one of us. Most people watch reality tv shows for entertainment, but I just need to talk to one of my siblings and I am set! There is no need for tv when you are a member of my family! This pictures was taken January 16, 2011, after Cassidy, my newest niece, was blessed and Xander, one of my nephews, was baptized and confirmed. It was a great day. We weren't originally planning on being together for such an occasion, but sometimes life brings you together when you don't expect it. My Dad was diagnosed with colon and liver cancer on Christmas Eve 2010. Originally, we were all going to be together for Christmas, but that didn't work out with my brother who lives in Brazil or my brother whose wife delivered Cassidy on Dec 12th. Thankfully, we were all able to get together in January! It was a great time, and it is always so fun seeing all of the cousins play with each other. They had a blast! At one time Elizabeth (10 yrs old) was playing with Isabella (5 yrs old) and it just killed me thinking about Annabelle being big and playing princess and dress up! So crazy!

Speaking of Annabelle, she is 8 months and 1 day old! She is quite the army crawler these days and I can't just put her down and walk away anymore because there is no telling where she will be when I come back for her. She's so cute and so sweet! Whenever I pick her up, she'll just nuzzle her head into my neck and Ben always says, "She doesn't do that to me whenever I hold her. I think she likes you better!" And I agree! ;) She can sit but she is still wobbly. I have no idea how much she weighs, but she already wears 12 months clothes and has been for a couple of months. At Old Navy, she wears 12-18 months. Crazy! She has 6 teeth...4 on top and 2 on the bottom. She is eating food...pretty much she gets some of whatever we eat except for meat. She loves fresh avocado and her strawberry-apple puffs. Everything she does is cute to me! I just love rocking her when she looks up at me and I smile at her and she smiles back. Or when I am rocking her and give her Eskimo kisses and she smiles so big! It's fun being her Mom! Tiring...but fun!

Ben's work is going well. We have been approved for a loan to buy a house!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo!!!!! FINALLY!!!! We have already found one that we like, so we'll see what happens. I'm excited because my Dad is going to move in with us. Since we found out he is, what he calls, "recovering from cellular malfunction" (he doesn't like the "c" word), he has quit working and Annabelle and I stay with him during the week. It's actually been really fun! I love my Daddy!

And now I can't think of anything else to write, so I'm going to sleep!