sneak peak: Maryland 2010

I am dying to get this post up, since it's been a month since we left for our fabulous trip to Maryland to visit the Aznars. WE LOVE MARYLAND! We had such a wonderful trip and here are some of our highlights: (in random order since blogger is not being kind to me today... :o/

This is Wye Grist Mill. Such a charming little place with SO MUCH HISTORY! We loved that we just kind of happened upon this little gem. So, this mill was dubbed "the breadbasket of the American Revolution". General George Washington sent gold coins to this mill to order flour for his troops at Valley Forge throughout the war. The mill is still in use today. Here are pics of the kids grinding flour and corn in various ways...

Nobody throws a party like the Aznars! DJ, port-a-potty, lights, fog and more lights and lots of food, family and dancing!!!

Mahlia was in HEAVEN!!! She LOVES her Latin blood!

Handsome Aznar men!

John with his Dad, brothers and sons. 3 generations. love it!

This is probably my favorite picture of the whole trip! Mahlia and Jackson sacked out on the hammock. The sun, sand and humidity really wore them out!!!

Random..... back at the mill. Me.

Oh how we LOVED the beach house. The sunsets were amazing! We loved sitting out there every morning and evening and watching the ships come and go. Everything from shipping barges, military ships going in and out of Annapolis and even cruise ships!

John and I in St Michaels, "the town that fooled the British". Another super fun "beachy" kind of town. When the people found out that the British were about to attach their town they hoisted lanterns up on the masts of their ships and up in the tops of the trees so the British over shot the town thinking it was further away then it really was. Only one home was damaged in the raid.

Another sunset picture. I love this one.... I love Mahlia's bun on her head, the tree, the fishing pole out on the pier... so pretty.

This is the whole family in St Michaels. We are SO HOT and SWEATY! The kids had just finished eating giant cherry snowballs! (thus the red lips, cheeks and chins)

again, did I tell you about the sunsets? This was our last night at the beachhouse.

Back at the house in the country with Grandma Aznar. This was Joseph's 8th birthday!!! The kids were out catching frogs ( I think around 30, I didn't want to know....) and took a break for this cute pic!

More to come.... Ü

Snow Day!

A couple weeks ago we woke up one Saturday morning, looked out the window and KNEW we had to cancel everything we had planned that morning, 'cuz we were having a SNOW DAY! So, we got everyone all geared up... And headed outside!

Little Jackson was "perma-grin" the WHOLE time! This was really his first snow day!

Joseph was Mr. Snowball - he is such a tease and couldn't wait to get the perfect "hit" on the least suspecting victim!

We (er.. um, THEY) had to make snow angels!

"Oh yeah! Oh yeah!"

"Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman....."

Looks pretty good!!!

Then it was time for sledding!!! John borrowed my Dad's tractor (the 4-wheeler is a bit too fast for their first time street sledding) and it was PERFECT!!!

I loved hearing the kids giggle and laugh constantly as John pulled them all around the neighborhood! They had SO MUCH fun!!! They seriously couldn't stop laughing.

Winner!!!

Congratulations to Joseph on winning his class Spelling Bee!!! Now it's on to the school Spelling Bee! G-O J-O-S-E-P-H!!!!

Joseph will be testing for the Accelerated Learning program at school later this month. We are so proud of him for working so hard in school - even though it's so hard when you're such a "yellow" personality and you'd much rather be making everyone laugh all the time - he does SUCH a great job in school! We love you bud!!!!

(This is his "Hurry up, Mom!" smile. He was anxious to get to the bus, but I just had to get this picture before he left for school!) Ü

Discovery Gateway

WARNING: This could possibly be the MOST pictures ever posted to a single blog post in the history of blogging... but seriously, have you BEEN to Discovery Gateway? It's, like, totally seriously so super fun!!! We got a free family pass that had to be used by December 31st. So, what did we do? We went on December 31st! We only had a couple hours, because we had parties to attend, (of course!) but the time we had was SO. MUCH. FUN!!! (the pictures are somehow in reverse order of what I wanted them to be... it's too late, I'm tired and want to go to bed... so, you'll just have to scroll through them ALL to see all the fun and cuteness of my kiddos!) Ü

Typical Mahlia makes friends WHEREVER she goes! She made a friend making towers! I had to intercede when they wanted to put the stool on top of the bench to keep the tower growing!

So showed off her thinking skills by grabbing any bench or stool she could find to keep adding to her tower.

Joseph was showing off his math/engineering skills! I think he would have done this all night had we not interrupted him to go to the next level of the museum. It was a system of wheels. So, you turn one and they all slowly start turning... it was really cool and he loved it!

John LOVES this kind of stuff.... building, creating and being with his favorite people!

It brought out the best in my kids. They worked so well together!

They had a cute little market where you could get your groceries then take them to the cash register. Very fun!

Another one of Joseph's favorites! He LOVES climbing!

Jackson loved riding the pony! I think he loved it so much because it was FAKE! Ü

Mahlia planting her garden.

What's not to love about playing in the water in DECEMBER?

Mahlia, home from the market and stocking the fridge! She could play Mommy all day long! (well, actually, she already does! Just ask Jackson!!!!)

Christmas 2009

Just a little glimpse into one of the BEST Christmas's EVER! We had such a wonderful Christmas. It was very low-key with not too much of the holiday hustle and bustle that tends to take away from what Christmas is supposed to be about. We had so much fun, we played and laughed, spent time with our family and friends and just enjoyed each other. We really "broke-in" the new house with lots of holiday hosting!

Baking cookies
Jackson doing is FAVORITE thing - COLOR! this is intended to keep him from coloring on the walls!
Our silly monkey - or as we call him, our own little "monkey george"! Ü

One of Mahlia's FAVORITE gifts - Princesses! (she SO takes after her Mom!)

Yeah, good luck trying to get the perfect "kids and Christmas pj's" picture with these silly kids!

I am so blessed to be the Mom of these 3 awesome kids! They are all so different and so wonderful! Merry Christmas to me!!!