New House Keeper

I got a new house keeper and her name is Bella. Auntie Donna got Bella and vacuum for Christmas and she was pushing it around the house the other day and it was just so cute I had to snap a pic.

Christmas with the DiTore's

Christmas Day we drove back to Orlando from Plantation to spend Christmas with Joe's family. We had a great prime rib dinner with all the fixings, we opened some presents and enjoyed some dessert.

Bella and cousin Mike

opening more presents

cousin Dexter opening one of his presents

Clark and Dexter with their father Rich (Joe's brother for those who don't know)

Grandma Grace got a beautiful frame with pics of Lola and Johnny from the Hernandez crew

Christmas at Midnight

Every year since I was a little baby we went to Grandma Bella's on Christmas Eve and opened presents when the clock striked midnight. The whole family gathers and there are always tons of gifts to be opened. This was Bella's first time of course. She woke up ok at 11pm and fine in the car ride but when we got to grandma's she got a bit cranky. She had her good moments and her bad that night. When she started opening her presents though she got a second wind and was so excited. She was riping the paper off and then she would make all kinds of noises towards her new toys. She did much better at opening present here then at Nana's.

Bella with her cousins Brandon and Ryan

Bella and Aunt T

Grandma in the kitchen

the boys gathered around the table

she got a mailbox and anyone who knows Bella knows she loves her mail :)

Grandma got her a baby doll and she was feeding it a bottle. It was so cute

Has anyone seen Abby?? Oh there she is hiding in her pile of gifts!

We had one more Christmas to attend the day of Christmas. That one was held at the DiTore's. Those pics I will post later.

Christmas at the Gritters

Our first Christmas was at my parents. We woke up Christmas Eve morning and treated it as if it was Christmas day. We all went to breakfast and then came home and opened presents. Bella wasn't to sure at this time on what to do with all the presents. We all had to help her along.

Aunt T got her this cool book with a train and the track is park of the book

she found herself in the mirror on the table and was trying to lick herself

my Uncle Bruce then came over and we had our Christmas dinner. Joe cooked a great standing rib roast.

Bella played Papa's drums later on

Santa then came down our street later that night before we went to Christmas #2

Vegas

My sister and her long time boyfriend, Frankie surprised us on Christmas Eve with the news that they are engaged and have been planning a wedding in Vegas for April 5th, 2011. Congrats to them!

Park

So our first stop for the holidays was my parents house in Plantation. We went down on Tuesday and we went to the park. Bella loves the park and had to much fun which makes us even more excited for her birthday party.


Aunt T took her down the slide

then Papa & Mama helped her

feeding the ducks

Disney

Eariler this year Joe and I did some volunteer work and earned 2 tickets to any Disney park. We saved them until the end of the year so we could take Bella for an early birthday celebration. Yesterday was the big day and her first visit to the Magic Kingdom. The day started off a little chilly but by the afternoon it was a beautiful day. Bella was a great girl all day and ooed and awwed at everything.

she wouldn't turn around for this pic because she was to busy taking everything in

we were watching the parade and she kept reaching out to all the floats

our first ride of the day was Buzz Lightyear

riding dumbo

It was a toss up for favorite ride. Bella loved the carousel and "Its a Small World"

she kept trying to grab the horse next to us

she was in awe with "Its a Small World"

she kept smiling at all the little people dancing and singing

meeting Mickey and Minnie. She was alseep when we got into the room and when I picked her up she never cried but she looked up, ooed and pointed. We took her over to them and she gave kisses to both of them.

she is now part of the club