Christmas Day

Wow! What a few weeks it's been! We're finally starting to slow down and relax, but it's always somewhat depressing for me after the holidays. So much hustle and bustle to get everyone's shopping done, mail out Christmas cards, wrap presents... Now it seems like I've got nothing to do! We had such a great Christmas. It started out on Christmas Eve. We did the annual Martino get together over at Meme and Granddad's old house where my in-laws now live. There were a TON of people there - 78 to be exact and only 5 of them weren't family. Crazy! We ate huge lunch, watched the Nativity Play, sang Christmas carols while waiting for Santa to come and let everyone sit on his lap. Unfortunately Jonathan was passed out from all the excitement so he didn't get to sit on Santa's lap, but Joseph and I did. :)

After everyone left, all of Joseph's brothers and sisters stayed and we exchanged family gifts. Trey and Patty bought such great stuff for everyone. They had so much fun seeing everyone open their gifts, especially the little ones. We stayed around for a bit and then we went back to our house. In the past, Joseph and I left for Arlington Christmas Eve night and went to my parents house to stay the night for Christmas morning. But this year, we started our own family tradition and stayed at home and woke up super early to see what Santa brought Jonathan. He had more fun shaking and ripping the tissue paper than anything but it was cute nonetheless!

After opening our presents, we packed everyone up including Gunner and left for Arlington. There we spent Christmas with my family first and then my Nana, Papa Len and all my aunts, uncles and cousins came to our house for a big lunch and MORE present opening! Exhausting but super fun!

And of course, Christmas isn't Christmas without getting up the next day and going to Dillard's to get all their beautiful Christmas decor half off! I found and incredible Santa and really cute stocking hangers!

Below are some pictures from my parent's house Christmas morning.

Christmas Pics 2008

Here are a few pictures we took yesterday with Mike, Joseph's brother, for our Christmas card. I need everyone to email me their address at iambigmac@gmail.com, please!!! Hopefully I get them out in time. If not, at least you can see these.

Jonathan is just the smiliest baby! He's so funny! Once we got settled in front of the camera and Mike was ready, Jonathan came out firing! He definitely has a smile quota when taking pictures, however. Once you hit it, there's hardly a smirk!

Baby's 2nd haircut!

Jonathan has a mop of hair as everyone knows. It totally makes his personality so I'm always so afraid to cut it. However, as the past two times have proved, it just gets curlier and curlier the shorter it is.

Check out my little heartbreaker!!

Family Reunion

I know I know! It's been over a month since we got back from our family reunion in the Smoky Mountains but I literally haven't had a second to myself since this semester started! So...now that finals are over and I found out I made a 4.0 this semester, I'll start blogging again! Woo!

Here are a few pics from our trip. We left on a Tuesday night for Gatlinburg, TN in the "Silver Bullet" or "Mormon Mobile." The names were interchangeable that week! It's Joseph's parent's van they bought to use for family vacations/scouting trips/whatever we need it for. Thank you Trey and Patty! It was jam packed with all our junk plus Jonathan's junk, plus my parents and brother. We had a blast though! Joseph and Corey, my brother were rockstars when it came to driving. They pretty much drove the entire time. My dad started out the trip there and my mom finished it while I snuggled with Jonathan in the back the entire time! Does my family spoil me or what?! Jonathan did such a good job but by the time we got there (15 hours later) he was ready to be in a non-bumpy atmosphere and I didn't blame him!

We stayed in a 36-person cabin with all my mom's brothers and sisters and their families. My Nana turned 70 that week and it was the first time in YEARS she had seen all her posterity in one room, so that was cool. She was thrilled!

Lastly, we went shopping in Pigeon Forge (a lot!) and I was super pumped to find a Coach purse for $40! I'm not a huge fan of major designer purses, in fact I think it's a little ridiculous to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on something you're gonna put on the floor, but when I saw this purse I loved it and was super excited for the price. It's small and perfect to use for big shopping trips like the day after Christmas! Yay! Can't wait to use it!

Daddy sleeping in the van

Mom and Baby J snoozin'

Best city in the world!

Hangin' out at good ol' Waffle House

Baby J's first Waffle House experience

We're here! The Great Smoky Mountains!

Mom posing in beautiful scenery

Family photo op

My Big Mike and Baby J

Happiest baby ever!

Mmm... Cornbread

On our way to go hiking

Gettin' amped before the hike!

Who knew?

Family photo

Aww... The parental units showing affection

I like this pic because it shows my awesome Vibrams FiveFingers. I totally felt one with nature just like the website said I would!

Corey just being his usual awesome self!

Our first family hike

Check out the mountain men! Corey started growing his beard in October for this trip at the beginning of November. Joseph grew his beard two weeks before! My husband the lumberjack!

I have a thousand more pics but don't feel like making a two page post so we'll leave it at that. Hope you likey!

Halloween 2008

Joseph was majorly sick on Halloween so I took Jonathan to our church's Trunk or Treat by myself, but we still had a blast. Poor Jonathan didn't take a very good nap that day so he was limp baby while we were there. He just sat on my lap while I passed out candy. I had to throw something together pretty quickly so it was a little uncreative. Of course, we bought Jonathan's costume weeks before the big day! Joseph found this cute monkey hanging out at Target for cheap so he snagged it. So perfect too, because I've called Jonathan my little monkey from day one. He looked to stinkin cute. Too bad he had no clue what was going on. Thankfully my costume didn't scare him!

Gunshow was a skeleton. It glowed in the dark.

You'll have to excuse the crazy look on my face, but our camera starting acting weird and this is what I look like when smiling for an hour and a half!

Even when he's sick, J still looks good!

So much to blog, so little time!

So I'm playing catch up again! Here are some pics of Jonathan getting his first hair cut on October 14th. I was so scared his curls would go away, but after Mike finished cutting just an inch, his hair was even curlier. Yay! He was so good to. Just sat there looking around...

My little guido!

This little boy is always smiling!

By this time I think he was ready to be done.

Joseph feeding Jonathan to distract him

The finished product. What's with the face?!

Sabena's Wedding

My friend Sabena got married the weekend of October 17th and 18th at the Omni Mandalay in Las Colinas. Her family knows how to party! First, there was a Sangeet party on Friday night. It was cool because girls could get mendhi (also known as henna) on their hands and Sabena got it from her fingertips to her elbows and from the tips of her toes to her knees! It was so cool! I got it on my hand and it's still there, but faded. Then, Saturday morning was her religious ceremony, Seik, and afterward we had lunch. Then it was Arpit's religious ceremony, Hindu. Then it was the reception. Needless to say, Joseph and I had a blast but were exhausted!

Me and Joseph at the mehndi party

Arpit and Sabena - the happy couple

A few of my high school girlfriends - Robyn, me, Sabena & Staci

Kristen, Sabena & me at Sabena's first ceremony. We were required to cover our heads and remove our shoes. We also had to sit on the ground the entire time. Needless to say, my hips began to hurt... I'm so old!

Joseph and his sexy Siek "do-rag." He definitely brought sexy back in this little get up!


This is where they got married. It's inside the Omni Mandalay in one of the ballrooms but it was transformed completely! So pretty!


Sabena and her sister Sharon walking down the aisle to meet Arpit.

Staci, Lauren and I at Sabena's reception.