Progress

These last few days were great. We managed to decompress a little bit, we spent time with each other, and I made a lot of progress on my personal TODO. Win. Win. Win.

Christmas has arrived!

Today Christmas arrived to the new house with us for the very first time. We didn't have time to work on the outside, but hopefully we will get to it sometime soon - ideally before Saturday. 

Happy Birthday Lionel!

Today was Lionel's 44 Birthday, so he got to go to the Bengals game, we made him one of his favorite meals, AND his very favorite chocolate cake. 

Soccer

It appears that while I went to Michigan, the girls were busy making special drawings for daddy. They definitely know what he likes!

A quick visit

Between yesterday and today, Gabi and I drove about 11 hours to go visit my friend Lulu and her family in Michigan. Our visit was short, for about 3 hours, but I am glad we did it. Lulu has visited me a number of times throughout the years, while I haven't gone to Mexico in about 9 years.  And not only has she been my friend for about 25 years, but her family was also always very nice to me. She is here for a few days to take care of her sister, who just had surgery, so going to see them was absolutely the right thing to do. And I am thankful that Gabi came with me, because otherwise I wouldn't have been brave enough to drive there and back all by myself.

Thanksgiving 2015

Despite a difficult year, this Thanksgiving we were lucky to be together again. So among many other things we were thankful for family and for health. The fact that the weather remained very mild was also a real treat.

Bella's 7th Birthday Cake Cutting

Over the years

I like that Facebook is a bit like a time machine sometimes. On Bella's birthday it reminded me of her birthday posts throughout the years. And I love seeing the girls's sweet faces as they grow up.

Happy 7th Birthday Bella!

Bella had a pretty awesome 7th Birthday, if I may say so myself. We spent the day together - no work and no school - and we did everything that she wanted to do. First Isabel and Cesca came to drop off her birthday gift, since Isabel is home from college for Thanksgiving. We then had lunch at Deweys, went to see the Good Dinosaur with Abuelita, had our traditional family cake cutting, and closed the day with dinner at J Alexander's, Bella's favorite restaurant. The weather was also pretty mild for this time of year, and the sun came out to wish her a wonderful day!

My favorite part of the day

Nov 28,

Last Monday Bella was not feeling very well so my mom picked her up early from school, pretty much a couple of hours after I dropped her off. Later in the day my mom sent me this picture, which completely made my day. I was in the office in one of my many meetings, and probably dealing with a difficult conversation, so seeing my little angel was very uplifting. It immediately warmed my heart and made me smile.

Birthday countdown

Bella was so excited about her upcoming Birthday that she kept a pretty close eye on the countdown. She religiously moved the ginger man step by step until it was her special day.

The Art of the Brick

This afternoon we went to Museum Center for a birthday party. Sadly we showed up too late and missed the party entirely, but since we were already there we went to check out the Lego exhibit. Sofia and I really wanted to go, but Bella was complaining about it. Her complaining ended when we got there though, because it was a pretty cool exhibit. The girls already like Legos, and the exhibit made them even more excited about them.