enjoying some down time 

until next year!!  hope you are too! 

we've been enjoying lot's of time at home this week together doing a little of this & a little of that.  love being at home, especially this time of year.  we've done a lot of baking, cooking & projects since last friday & have enjoyed every minute of it.  isabella got a huge (bigger than her) savannah dollhouse from santa & we've been enjoying playing with her new barbies in it.  in the middle of all of the festivities, the 'pella' guys came & installed all new windows & doors in our house & boy does it feel nice & cozy in here!  

here is a bit of our projects from this afternoon.  bella loves to bake & i'm so thankful for that!  loving our family time.  happy holidays! 

merry christmas - from the nittos

~ oh christmas tree ~

our tree this year . . .   

 

~christmas happenings~

two weekends ago we went to the annual tree lighting in our town.  they've been doing it for a long time & this year was their largest turnout.  it was a super chilly night, but still loads of fun.  the local school choirs sang christmas songs & santa showed up, with live reindeer pulling his sleigh.  we had hoped to let isabella sit on santa's lap, but it was such a big crowd, we couldn't even get near enough to see him.  she did get to see santa a couple days later for a private 15 min photo shoot, so she was able to bend his ear then.   

NDA Birthday shindig

i've been so preoccupied getting ready for the holidays, that i haven't had a whole lot of time to bring our happenings up to date.  we recently celebrated our angel's 4th birthday!  we started the day with a slow morning, watching olivia in bed.  i took the day off to spend the afternoon with her.  i dropped by her school just after their lunch, to be the 'mystery reader' & bring in cupcakes.  i took her home early so us girls could get our nails done.  she chose lilac with sparkles, of course!  happy birthday sweet girl!! 

do you think she had a good birthday??

she couldn't hide it if she tried. . .   

(don't pay any attention to the fact that our kitchen furniture is still in our dinning room, since our floor is still not finished)

4 amazing years

i'll never forget that day.  you changed my world . . .  

happy birthday baby girl !   

~counting my blessings~

i am reminded daily by isabella's smile, just how blessed i am. 

hope you all had a fantastic thanksgiving.  

tuesday morning was grandparents day at isabella's school.  they did a super cute performance (sooo proud of her) & then we all had breakfast together.  

couldn't be more thankful for these moments. . .   

notre dame academy 'fun run'

isabella's school had a fund raiser, 'fun run', to raise money for technology (more ipads) at their school.  it's one of their large fund raisers that included the kids in pre-k all the way up to the middle school 8th graders.  the kids were to run as many laps as they could around the soccer field.  they did it by class, so the pre-k's went first of course.  parents & teachers ran with them, while the rest of the school cheered them on.  so fun & what great school spirit they all had.  the fun included a dj (so lot's of fun music), the chick-fil-a cow, the marist school war eagle mascot & popsicles for all the kids when they finished.  poor isabella was not herself with a cold, but she did 2 laps & we're so proud of her & all the kids at nda !!  they raised over $34,000 - way to go nda !!

 

'fall happenings'

i know it's now the middle of november, but i never posted about our halloween weekend.  saturday afternoon/night, our town had a bunch of activities for the kids at the town green & the store owners handed out candy while the kids passed by.  i'm not a fan of the princess costumes, but anyone with a 3 or 4 yr old knows that princess' are their world.  my child is no different & of course had to wear her rapunzel dress.  she rode a pony & we took a hayride through the local cemetery.  it was a super chilly night, but lots of fun! 

the 'princess' & her pony . . .