We're thawing out...

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers over the

last few days... after losing our electricity around 3am

on Monday - we stuck it out home till late-

morning and decided that being cold under

our parkas was about all we could handle.. so off

to find somewhere warm with our munchkins in tow.

Dad's house lost power by noon and off hotel

hunting we went. Shawn and I felt like Joseph and Mary

looking for an inn. All the hotels within 45 miles were

booked and had waiting lists of over 100 people already.

After 2 hours on the phone with hotels and and hour

at the Double Tree lobby area we were able to get

a room for the night. Apparently Double Tree had

a computer freeze and lost some reservations.

We lost about 6 trees (nothing compared to our

neighbors though) altogether... Power was

restored around 5ish on Tuesday

THANK YOU PSO!!!! We were so excited

to have power back I think we jumped and

danced for a good 15 minutes

There were lines of people everywhere - even

McDonalds was running out of food. You know

it's bad when you have to wait over an hour for

fast food. We'll be better prepared next time...

I sign off with a pic of my happy baby sleeping

soundly in front of a nice cozy fire...

Happy Birthday Bella

Bella is celebrating her 6th birthday this year and in true

'Bella Style' it was a princess party. For the first time

I ordered a cake - Barbie Island Princess. It was

delicious!!! Chocolate with Raspberry filling - YUM

Molly, Skylar, Madison, Meredith & Addison

came to help celebrate princess Bella's birthday

These are her best friends in Kindergarten

The girls giggled and screamed as they chased

each other around -- as if they don't get

enough time together during the week. Ahhh.

Cristiano was a trooper and slept through

most of the excitement.

JULIA!!! Bella's friend from pre-school

arrived and joined in on the fun.

B-day card from Molly

The girls making princess headbands - bedecked with

butterfly and flower jewels, rhinestones and

flowers. They also made bracelets with glass beads

"It was a lot of fun" -- bella

That night we decorated our gingerbread house complete

with tootsie roll logs.

Welcome to the family Kelsey!!!!

Brandon and Kelsey...

We are so happy for you guys!!!

Bella has been anxiously awaiting for this day all week.

LESLIE - thank you for saying 'yes', you are

an incredible and beautiful person and we are

so happy to have you as part of our family.

We LOVE and MISS you guys very much!

O Christmas Tree

" Deck the halls with balls of hory --- fa ra ra ra ra"

For those of you who are not familiar with the song from Christmas Story

the song is sung by holiday inspired waiters at a Chinese Restaurant

for Christmas dinner... one of my favorite songs of the season.

For the last 7 years we have kept the tradition of selecting Christmas

trees with the Brisco's and every year seems to be better than the last.

Our bundled family (Sejera's & Brisco's) braved the bitter cold wind to select the perfect

Christmas tree for our living rooms.

Bella and Sydney ran like crazed monkeys to find the perfect tree

Our tree!!!!!
Bella and Daddy picked out a 9 foot Douglas Fir (I think it
was a douglas fir -- whatever it is, I LOVE IT cause it doesn't
shed everytime you touch it)


Sarah, Sydney and Thomas

Another tradition is daddy and Bella putting the angel on top of the
tree once the tree is trimmed...

Bella did a wonderful job overseeing the trimming of the tree,

and assisting in the decoration (to make sure we had it just right for Santa)

Although Cristiano fell asleep half way through the tree trimming process

he enjoyed watching his sister unwrap each ornament and put it

4 inches in front of his face so he could clearly see how beautiful each ornament was.

Can't wait to see what Santa brings...

MORE PICS!!!

Bella's kindergarten class kicking off the holiday season

with a Thanksgiving party...

I'm almost as tall as my sister...

Tummy time - my favorite time of the day