Isabel Kiera

Welcome Isabel Kiera Suarez
1/19
8lb10oz
6:37pm
20 in

MJ's 6th birthday

Mario had a very fun birthday celebration. We let him open one of his presents just after his yummy pancake breakfast (the Sonic Colors Wii game) which he was allowed to play far more than would normally be allowed. We were mostly relaxing all day as a family and played games together. Then we picked up Grandma Keppel from the airport who arrived in time for dinner, cake, and presents.

Mario and I laughed the whole time we were decorating the cake. Sorry to be a disappointment - we usually save the "fun" cake for bigger parties and have our Suarez family cake for our small family. But this one - requested to have white frosting and red icing - it just didn't work. I picked up the wrong type of frosting and it "bled" everywhere. Oh well... MJ liked it, and it tasted good.

We appreciated all the phone calls and blog comments. MJ felt like a very special boy on his 6th birthday. We're all a little sad that his sister did not arrive on his birthday, and it seems she really wants to take her time and make some grand entrance.

Happy Birthday Mario!

I'll never forget the day our MJ was born. He was such a sweet boy and still is. It is so fun to watch you grow older...we are proud of you big guy!

Christmas song

Christmas Day

Chriastmas Eve

Our first Christmas home and completely alone...and I think it worked out well. We missed all of you, and tried to fill the time with as much happiness and craziness as possible (the crazy is pretty easy for our family).
Tricia and the kids delivered 10 plates of cookies to our closest neighbors. We made sure to give the priests a few extra cookies on their plate.
Mario took over sugar cookie baking and decorating.
And all the kids were VERY excited on Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

24 hour babymoon

Tabitha and Babu agreed to repay Mary, Ryan, Mario, and I for our babysitting favors by working an amazing weekend for us all. I don't know all the details of Mary and Ryan's weekend (we are excited that you have your new place) but I do know that the very Sat-Sun that the Kazas agreed to watch our children turned out to be the day they helped Mary and Ryan move into their new place. So, I believe it was an amazingly self-giving weekend for the Kaza family.

We are very grateful for your gift of a 24 hour babymoon. From 1:30pm Sat to 1:30pm Sun we were quite free and able to relax. Mario and I had a great time! It began with checking into our hotel in downtown DC (thanks to some Hilton points), then bowling in the White House bowling alley, dinner at the Hotel Palomar in Arlington and then drinks and dancing at the rooftop lounge of the W Hotel (very close to the White House with a great view of the Washington Monument). It was fun to enjoy some relaxation in this city we are so close to, yet often rush in and out of for events.

The White House bowling alley may have been the coolest thing we have done. My friend Andrea works in OMB and has access to some fun White House things. This just happens to be one of them. After passing through 2 security check points, wandering the halls of the White House and connecting building to find the Secret Service office in order to get the key to the bowling alley, navigating the basement tunnels beneath the White House, we finally found the Truman Bowling alley. It was a lot of fun just getting there. We have lots of pictures of the bowling alley (modest, but if it's good enough for presidents, it's good enough for us). Mario sat in each chair knowing that at least one president had sat there before him - similar to the stash of the bowling shoes and bowling balls in there. It didn't hurt that I happened to win (115); but I had a lot of fun regardless of that.

Then we had time to change and get ready for the Booz Christmas party at the Hotel Palomar and then the W Hotel in DC. We stayed out until nearly 2am and definitely had a good time (our little baby girl enjoyed dancing with us).

We returned to happy children who seemed to have such a fun time with their cousins! Thank you so much Tabitha and Babu for looking after our 3 crazy kids!