our little all-star

Hayden made it into the all-star team this year, and her team got 2nd place in one tournament, and 1st in another tournament. It was a lot of practices, a lot of games, but Hayden absolutely loved every minute.

I'm just so glad that soccer is finally over... only for softball to start for the girls in 3 weeks!

Final score: Girls 3 Boys 2

I love looking at those license plate holders that say "final score" with a boy/girl tie or whatever... if I did it, it would be girls 3 to boys 1... but with our new BOY puppy, Sammy, it's not as big of a blowout! Here are pics of Sammy on Christmas Day. Santa left a note in the tree, telling the kids to go look on the front porch-- where Sammy, a Labradoodle puppy was waiting there in a box! We brought Sammy on the airplane home with us from Atlana, as a carry-on, and he is a full-fledged family member now. He is actually a really clam, well-behaved little guy, but he does have quite the bladder!! We are all surviving well, except for Carmen who is incredibly JEALOUS over Sammy. She can't handle being in the same room with him, unless Dave or I are holding her, and then she keeps her eye on him the entire time. I didn't know that 7 month olds could experience jealousy, but Carmen is going to have to get used to sharing some of that attention! Oh, yes, and one pic of Alex with his light saber stuffed in the side of his pants. He LOVES to have light saber fights with Dave (though it's hard to tell which of them is having more fun!).

Tampa and the great grandparents

During our stay in Atlanta for Christmas, we travelled to Tampa, Florida to visit Dave's grandparents (his mom's parents) for a few days. During walks around their retirement community, we kept the kids interested by having a contest to see who could find the house with the most lawn ornaments!...We all loved being spoiled by Nana and her cooking. There were better pictures of the kids with Nana, Papa and Mumu... but I LOVED Anamarie's pose in this one, and couldn't pass it up. Reminds me of my poses in all of my pics growing up. :)

We went to Ybor City one afternoon for lunch, where Dave laid claim to his Cuban-Italian heritage and we tried to figure out which building Dave's grandfather (his Dad's father) rolled cigars in years ago. We loved our visit to Tampa!

Santa Tats

For Dave's Christmas business mailer this year, he created these really cool cards that centered around these tattoos he had made... and sent the cards to clients. The illustrator that he used for the tattoos, Kako, requested pictures of our kids wearing the tattoos as payment. Here the kiddos are, trying to look tough with their tats. Funniest thing was how Alex started crying during the photo shoot because he couldn't look mean enough. :)