did you hear that?

this is the first Christmas that zella really gets it. we have had so much fun with her this year. she understands the concept of Santa and is still scared to death of him. we did make it to the mall to wave at him this year. i gave up on making her sit on his lap. she just wasn't having it.
so last night we were at my parents house for Christmas eve. and on the way home we were telling zella that she needs to go to sleep when we get home so that Santa can come to our house. we told her that Santa can only come if she was asleep. so we got ready for bed, brushed teeth and i was tucking her in, going over our bed time rules. go to sleep, stay in your room. the usual. i was telling her that we had a big day on Christmas. we were going over to grandma and grandpa's house, we need to go to... this is when i stopped my sentence suddenly and turned around towards her window, as if something had startled me. i turned slowly around back to her and said,
"did you hear that?" her eyes got really wide and said
"what?"
"I think i heard some jingle bells..."
"what?"
"i think i heard some jingle bells... do you know who has jingle bells?"
"no"
"Santa..."
ok, so now i have her attention, i go back to telling her that she needs to go to sleep... i do it again...
"did you hear that?"
eyes as big as they can get, huge smile
"yes, i think i did mommy..."
i say, "lets go look out the back window to see if we can see Santa..."
we jump out of her bed and run down the hall, through the living room and jump on the couch that faces our backyard. we stick both of our noses on the window and look. i leaned back just a few inches so that i could watch her reflection in the glass. her little eyes were darting back and forth, trying to see something.
"did you hear that?"
"yes, i did!!"
"quick, you have to be asleep for him to come to our house, he is waiting on you!!"
she jumped up off of the couch as fast as she could and ran down the hall, back into her room and jumped back into bed. i was right behind her. she then asked me
"what do the elves do?" and i told her that they make the toys. she said
"no, what do they do in my house?"
"they make sure you are asleep so that Santa can come by..."
she thought about this and then yelled
"i love Christmas!!"
we laughed and i told her to go to sleep now
"did you hear that?"
and she got a huge smile on her face and i said good night and left her room.
i stood in the hallway for a few minutes, my heart was so full of happiness it was about to burst. it was so fun for me to experience the magic of Christmas, the excitement of Christmas with her. and i wondered if my parents had this much fun with my sister and i. i hope so, because it was fun!
or, i guess i should say
it was magical!!
merry Christmas
jill b

i hope you enjoy today like a 4 year old.

bath time antics

i have a girl who loves to take a bath. she is always up for entertaining me while i am watching her. sometimes i will bring in a magazine, or a book to read while she plays in the tub. but i always end up taking pictures of her. she is her silliest when bubbly. the first picture is my favorite. it always makes me laugh.
miss sassy,this smile reminds me of the cheese commercial they run every Christmas season. it starts out with no presents under the Christmas tree. then you see Santa putting packages under the tree. all the while the little girl is watching him work. then in the morning, the little girl's parents come into the living room to see massive presents under the tree. bikes, a car. tons of big ticket items. the dad turns to the mom and says something about Santa really liked the cookies they left for him. and the little girl says no cookies, i left him cheese...
and then smiles just like the smile above.

and this is usually the last smile before she wants to play.

jill b

birthday and christmas cards

so here is our christmas card. i had them printed in black and white. the hats were supposed to look like it is cold here. but i think they still look cute. we ended up taking the photo in our living room. it looked kinda like the one below. i made this photo stand for charlie's birthday, he put it on his desk. it is a book that flips up and has other photos behind it. he loved it.

jill b

better late than never...

I'm talking about Halloween pictures. we even celebrated Halloween 2 days before the actual holiday. so i was early with pictures, just late in posting.
this year, zella was a black kitty. so cute. her first costume was to be aurora, sleeping beauty. she talked about being aurora since last year at Halloween. so a couple of months ago, we found an aurora costume at Costco. so we bought it. she didn't want to try on the costume. so about a week before Halloween, i decided that we should try on the costume to make sure it would fit. i also wanted her to be used to wearing it, which would up the chances of her actually wearing the costume on Halloween. (see last year's post about Halloween). lately, when anyone tells her she looks cute or pretty, she gets really embarrassed and doesn't want to wear that outfit anymore. so i was trying to avoid this on Halloween. so, back to me trying to get her to try on her costume, we talked about it, nothing. i showed it to her. nothing. so, i put it on her. she didn't like this and proceeded to cry. realizing that this same serrano would happen on Halloween, and would make me a bad mommy, i made an executive decision to return the costume. so i did. and we had no costume. i was telling grandma about this and she said that ella, (zella's cousin) was going to be a kitty. i figured we could do that, because, what ever ella does, zella wants to. and it worked. so, long story short, we were a kitty...

the world series was on when we were over and grandma and grandpa's house. it was the Phillie's vs. the Yankees. Matt is a big time Yankee's fan and charlie b wore his Phillie's jersey . both jersey's were worn in actual games played by uncle Tommy Barrett.

and here are the two little kitties. too cute. we had a great Halloween. just a little bit of candy, and a lot of fun. thanks grandma...

how do you say thanks?

i was raised in a patriotic family. we always watched fourth of July celebrations. i always said the pledge to the flag. always took my minutes of silence when thinking about our veterans. and my father never allowed a jane fonda video in our house. i married a patriotic boy. we painted a giant (floor to ceiling) United States flag in our garage after 9/11. my boy loves all airplanes and watches many documentaries on the army, navy, and air force. we both have grandparents that served during war times. with all of that history between us, how do you say thanks to all of the service men and women who sacrifice everything for us to be safe?

a few months after zella was born, my sisters kids (the greatest nieces and nephew ever) came over and stayed the weekend with us. some of our friends asked why would we take on 3 more kids and a new born? because they are the best kids ever! they helped me do the dishes, and fold towels. leah, helped make dinner and they cleaned up after. they played with/held zella for hours upon hours.

during this weekend, we took the kids to the annual Luke-days. this is on the Luke air force base and they open up the base to the public. they have all kinds of air planes and old air planes on display. you can take pictures and go inside some of the planes. there are all kinds of air shows that go on that day. there are soldiers every where and alot of veterans. it is truly amazing.

it was in march of 2005 when we went. and security was extremely high at the base. we waited in line for an hour to get onto the base. there were people every where. there was a little boy behind us, about 5 years old. and the whole time we were in line, he kept asking his mom and dad when he could see his soldiers. they kept telling him, soon. as we got closer to the front of the line, you could start to make sense of the lines and all of the security that we would be soon going through. and the little boy kept asking about his soldiers. we began seeing sings about what would and would not be allowed on the base. after a few of these signs, and closer to the front of the entrance, there were soldiers. all dressed up and looking amazing. standing guard by the security tables. we had been talking to the people around us and had talked with this little boy in line behind us. he was so excited to see his soldiers. as we got closer to them, the little boy broke loose from his mothers hand and ran up to a soldier . the boy ran right up to him, put his little shoes toe to toe with the soldier, stood up as straight as he could, and saluted him. and said in a whisper, "excuse me, soldier. but thank you for protecting my family and my country." the soldier looked down and slowly brought his hand up and saluted the little boy and said "you are most welcomed". he put his hand in his pocket and handed the little boy a flag sticker. patted him on the head. the little boy was so proud and was smiling from ear to ear. he ran back to his mom and began showing everybody around him his sticker.
i had tears falling from my eyes. and i remember being so proud of my country, so proud of my soldiers and so hopeful for our future because of this little boys love of his country.

so how do you say thank you? maybe the answer is passing the love and pride of our country onto the next generation. i pray that our country is full of little boys (and girls) who can't wait to show their love and pride they have for this beautiful country.

happy veterans day to everyone
jill b

memorize

i have been doing a lot of memorizing lately. especially when it comes to zella. i am trying to memorize how it feels to hold her little hand when we are in a parking lot, or when we are in the mall. or anywhere we are holding hands. it's amazing how something so small as holding someone"s hand, can be to me. i remember when my dad had his heart attack, and we were waiting in the emergency waiting room. my mom, my sister and i sat for hours just holding hands. i remember the comfort it gave me, just knowing that they were there next to me. and feeling their hands in mine was a sense of peace.
charlie held my hand when i was in labor with zella. it was a small way to telling me that charlie was right there with me. that i wasn't doing it alone. well, i was, but you know what i mean.
when zella was a baby, charlie would hold her hand when she was tired, or fussy, or cuddling on the couch. as she has gotten older, she still holds his hand on the couch, while they watch a movie. when she is sick, he holds her hand until she falls asleep. i have found them holding hands, both asleep, in the middle of the night. the other night, i was falling asleep with zella, and she rolled over, she reached out for my hand. and this melted my heart.
so i have been trying to memorize her hands.
jill b

it's tea time, again...

that is what we have been up to. we have tea all of the time. we have tea in her room, living room and in our bedroom. it doesn't matter when, where or how much! black kitty normally joins us, but when she is not available, someone else fill in.

when we are not having a tea party, we are in the pool. she has been very nice to us this summer.