Presents from Italy

Wow, a camera that says "say cheese"

Cara loves opening presents

How cute, a cat!

We got a nice surprise from the mail man today with a special delivery all the way from Italy! Aunt Cyndi was sad that it had not arrived in time for Christmas opening, but Cara was probably even more excited about it being late because she had MORE presents to open! We got some nice sweet treats from Italy and a calendar. Cara got a cat, a camera, a reindeer that sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (one of her favorite tunes), and mittens and a matching scarf. Thank you so much Zia Cyndi and Zio Danilo for thinking of us!

Thank You

We are so blessed! Cara received so many wonderful presents for Christmas. Most are pictured here, except for the new clothes, which are in her closet, and her cute little table from G & G F. She is very lucky to have such wonderful generous grandparents! Thank you for our wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Part 3

What a fun Christmas day we had at our house! We woke up in the morning to find that Santa did come to our house during the night. Cara was excited to check out her presents. Among her gifts were the Little People doll house, and her first digital camera. She also enjoyed helping Mommy and Daddy unwrap their gifts. Mommy got a digital frame which she loves, because she loves pictures (especially ones of you know who)! One of Daddy's presents was a new watch. Cara got Mommy a picture frame that says "Mommy and Me" which had our picture in it, and she got Daddy the Planet Earth series on BluRay DVD. She was such a good shopper this year!

Grandpa and Grandma F came over later in the morning for brunch. Then after brunch and a nap, they came back over with GreatGrandma for a visit before they headed off to see the other kiddos for the day. We enjoyed a nice afternoon of napping, playing with our toys, and then a quaint Christmas dinner with the 3 of us! A perfect day, just wish it had been a White christmas, but you can't have it all :)

Christmas Part 2

Christmas Eve was spent with Emily's family at Grandma and Grandpa F's house. We started afternoon with opening gifts from the gift exchange between the siblings and the cousins. Then G & G opened their presents. Then the frenzy of gift opening began as the grandchildren tore into their presents from G &G. Poor Cara and Oscar didn't understand that they had to keep opening gifts, they wanted to play with each thing, RIGHT THEN! After the gifts, we sat down to a nice Christmas dinner, followed by yummy dessert! Thank you so much Grandma and Grandpa for the terrific Christmas!

Ho Ho Ho....Merry Christmas

We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas. So far we have had a wonderful Christmas season. We celebrated Christmas early with Grandma and Grandpa A before they headed out of town. Then we spent Christmas eve with Emily's family at Grandma and Grandma F's. We went to Christmas Eve mass and thought our little angel would be tuckered out and ready for bed, but oh no, once all of her new presents were carried into the house, so much for bedtime. We did finally tell her she had to get to bed before Santa came! Our Christmas day festivities will be fun as well. I am sure we will have lots more pictures to post soon! These pictures of her in the Santa hat were taken because we did them last year also. Hopefully they will be a tradition!

Merry Christmas to all! We hope everyone enjoys spending time with friends and family this holiday season!

Christmas at the Zoo

Arriving at the zoo

Cara is saying "uh oh" to the penguins, she thought they were great

Petting a shark with daddy

Looking at the lights with Mommy

Standing outside of the building that housed Santa and his reindeer, Cara wanted no part of seeing Santa

Walking down the path, the lights were so pretty

On Friday night we headed out to the zoo with Grandma and Grandpa F for Christmas at the zoo. The zoo is all lit up with wonderful Christmas lights. We enjoyed seeing the seals, polar bear, penguins, walrus, tiger, and bears. All of the other animals were all tucked in for the night. It was so pretty walking through the zoo looking at all the lights, some in shapes of animals and objects. We headed into the "north pole" to get a peak at Santa. Cara emphatically said no when we asked if she wanted to see him. It was a foggy, drizzling night, but at least it was not very cold out. I am sure it is very pretty to see all the lights in the snow, but unfortunately all the snow we got earlier in the week was all melted. Christmas is just a few days away and Cara is so excited about presents! She has been so good all year so I am sure Santa won't disappoint!

Christmas Part 1

All the presents from G & G A under the tree

Cara uses her new yellow vacuum which looks like Mommy's yellow dyson

Extreme joy to be opening gifts

Squeals of happiness

Showing Grandma her new dress she just unwrapped

Opening more clothes

I LOVE opening presents!

Grandma and Grandpa A will be spending Christmas in Florida with Great Grandma A, so they came down for the weekend for an early Christmas celebration before they fly out on Tuesday. Cara had an absolute ball opening her presents. Some of her presents included clothes, a dinosaur with a dinosaur book, and a new vacuum cleaner. Cara has loved spending a few days with Grandma and Grandpa before they go. We have been stuck at home because of the snow, so that means lots of play time!

Hopefully in the next day or two we can get some playtime in the snow. It was too cold yesterday and today but I think it is going to warm up a bit, hopefully not too warm to melt the snow though!

Artsgarden Performance

Cara and I are waiting for the performance to start

Scott introducing his jazz band at the Artsgarden at Circle Centre Mall

The band playing

Scott joining in on his trumpet for a number

Cara took this shot and the next, she was so proud to push the button and make it click

Professional photographer in the making

On Thursday afternoon Scott's jazz orchestra performed at Circle Centre Mall in Indianapolis. Cara and I headed downtown to enjoy the performance. It was nice walking through the mall looking at all the Christmas decorations. The concert was awesome. The acoustics in the room make it seem very loud and festive. They were only allowed to play for 30 minutes, which flew by. I was amazed at the number of people that came to sit down and listen to the performance, taking a break from their shopping, or enjoying their lunch, it was nice to see that.

We then joined the band for an early dinner the Hard Rock Cafe, before they headed back to school and I headed home to get ready for work.

Hope everyone is ready with snow boots, shovels, and french toast fixin's (you know the typical grocery run of bread, milk, and eggs before a big snow)! We are excited and ready to see more white stuff tomorrow!

Daddy's Band Christmas Concert

The stage was decorated beautifully, although, it is quite dark in this picture so it is hard to see.

Daddy and Cara after the concert

Cara playing with the stage decorations after the concert, this is a large ornament, or a "ball" to her

Mommy and Cara after the concert in the lobby, posing in front of the pretty tree


You can't tell it by these pictures, but the 24 hours prior to this were very rough for Mommy and Daddy. We were hit by food poisoning on Tuesday, and felt awful all evening Tuesday. Poor Cara just didn't know what to do, but at least she did not get it! Luckily by Wednesday we were both on the mend, slowly but surely. Poor Scott would have loved to take Wednesday off to recover, but as they say "the show must go on".

But the concert was fabulous! His music selections were superb with our favorites being the Santa at the Symphony and Stille Nacht. Cara was a delight to all those in the audience around us. She kept saying "Dad" and pointing to the stage. She clapped when everyone else clapped (which is new for her, she used to cry when people clapped), and she loudly would say "uh oh" between selections. Even her Daddy found that quite amusing because he could hear it onstage. At one point she was standing in the aisle way waving her hands "conducting" along with Daddy. Those sitting near us got quite a kick out of her behavior!

The busy concert season continues today with a performance by the Jazz Orchestra at the Artsgarden at Circle Centre mall this afternoon. A Blue Christmas Jazz concert is Sunday at the school. Busy, busy, busy! At this rate Christmas will be here before we know it!

Family Christmas Party

Isn't this dress cute? My friend Milissa, who started her own children's clothing business, made this. She held an open house last week and I just fell in love with this one. For more of her cute fashions go to trendysisters.com.

Santa brought a present for each child courtesy of their Mom and Dad, so Cara got the Higglytown heroes stackable dolls. She is a big fan of the cartoon and now also a big fan of the stackable dolls. Great Grandma Edwards got her some puzzles.

4 of the 5 grandkids posing together for this picture. Cara is 3 months younger than Oscar, but the way she is sitting in front of him, she looks much older and bigger. Charlotte is holding her new babydoll that she got from GreatGrandma.

Last weekend was the Edwards family Christmas party with all of Grandma F's brothers and sisters and their children, and their children. Great Grandma E was surrounded by all of her children, most of her grandchildren and greatgrandchildren. Cara had a ball running around with all of the other kids. Their are 36 great grandchildren, so there was no short supply of someone to play with.

It's Snow Fun!

Cara didn't remember what snow was from last winter, so we were excited to go check it out on Friday. We got a couple of inches of snow on Wednesday, and then a couple more on Friday. She loved walking through it and kicking it with her boots, but when she fell down and her hand touched it she wasn't a fan. Luckily the weather was in the 30's so it was "warm" enough to be outside for a few minutes. It was bitterly cold on Thursday but warmed up on Friday. Hopefully it doesn't warm up too much, this snow finally makes it feel like the Christmas season!

16 Months Old on Saturday

On Saturday we went to Build a Bear for Charlotte's birthday party. It was a lot of fun, almost too overwhelming for Cara. She picked out this pink cat to make. Which is also the same animal that Charlotte picked out.

We dressed up "Pinkie" like a Colts cheerleader! Go Colts!!

All the kids posing for a picture with their stuffed and dressed animals! How cute!

I asked Charlotte if she had a great birthday party and she said "the best ever!". How sweet!!

Cara was too busy to say "cheese" to hold Pinkie for the picture.

Then on Saturday night Mommy and Daddy went to the downtown Marriott for the annual associate Holiday Gala for the hospital. The best part of the evening was the door prize giveaway with Simon visa cards. I won the one and only $500 gift card! How cool is that?!

Lacey, Gigi and Emily posing for a picture.