CHRISTMAS!

The Frigolis had a wonderful Christmas celebration with our family this year. Of course, it was filled with house hopping and running late to each place we were supposed to go, but it was a joy to be around so many people that love us in the season of love. Christmas Eve, Annabelle and I went over to my mom's house around noon and played with Jacob, Grace, Allen, Kimberly and my mom. We enjoyed playing games while Annabelle napped, and the older kids played together. We then went to my childhood church for candlelight service (where the rest of the family joined us) and enjoyed a traditional service filled with the beauty of thousands of glowing candles. It was a great way to start the evening so we could be reminded of the wonder of a newborn Baby born to save us from our sins! We then went back to my mom's house for Christmas dinner, followed by the reading of the Christmas story by my mom's dad-Granddaddy and then having a gift exchange.

Granddady reading the Christmas story

Grace, Jacob and Annabelle - Excited Christmas cousins!

Annabelle had quite a lot of fun with the gift she gave her relatives. It was a box of hersey kisses that said "It's a GIRL" and a note that announced that she was going to have a little sister named Margaret (Maggie) Rose in April.

Daddy and Annabelle reading a book she got from Aunt Kimberly and Uncle Allen

Italo and I were quite surprised an impressed when we gave Annabelle a present to pass out to her great grandmother, Granny Jean. She looked around the room for a minute and then walked right over to her and handed her the gift. Our daughter is just a genius! :)

After each gift Annabelle opened, no matter what it was, Annabelle would say either-"WOW" or "Uh Ye" at what she show inside. These are some PJs she got from GrannyJean and Granddaddy. Her excitement is very contagious!

More Presents to open-she was pretty tired of opening presents after the first gathering, we had, too bad, we had 2 more big things to do before the Christmas gathering were done!

What is this?!?!?!?!?!

Her first Christmas present to open on her own!

That evening, we spent the night with my mom-this is her most important wish of the Christmas season....We all slept in the same room, so Annabelle woke up at 5:30 (not unusual for her at all-but she usually puts herself back to sleep) and realized that she was not alone, she started saying "Mommy, Daddy" like she was trying to wake us up. I got up, found her paci and blanket and told her it was still bedtime. I am glad she was too young to know what was waiting downstairs so we could all go back to sleep! She woke up again at 8:00 and we proceeded to wake up my Mom and Chris by signing "We wish you a Merry Christmas" as we went into their room. We then had a Birthday party for Jesus where we ate Pie for Breakfast and sang Happy Birthday to our sweet savior. After the pie, Annabelle still wanted her oatmeal---YAY---she has some good habits! We then tried to get her interested in her stocking, but she was more interested in the Christmas tree now that the presents were gone and she could see it better. After that we walked down the street (in ourPJS) to my Grandparents house and continued our birthday party by giving Jesus words of Praise for his Birthday. There is so much to Praise Jesus for this Christmas season and it was very sweet to hear everyone's "presents" to Jesus.

When Annabelle finally saw what was in her stocking, she was glad to get a new Blanket!

Christmas Morning Wonder-She liked all the ornaments on the tree!

Annabelle in front of the Nativity scene at my Grandparents house

Eating Jesus' Birthday pie!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

After the Birthday Party, we got dressed and went to my Dad and Andrea's house to celebrate with them. Annabelle enjoyed walking around from person to person eating brunch from their plates. It was a great Christmas brunch for her! We then opened presents and played games while Annabelle took a nap. (we ran out of room on our camera, so we don't have any more pictures) After she woke up, we went to my Dad's parents house and had a wonderful feast and yet another gift exchange with the extended family. This celebration is always the one constant in the Christmas plans and all of the family makes a point to be there. It is awesome to see some folks we don't see as often and celebrate with them. My favorite new tradition is that we all pick a name to pray for in the family throughout the year. I was so excited to have 4 names to draw this year for my family and it was a moment of realization of how much my family has expanded over the last 3 years! I am so blessed and grateful to our Lord for all that he has done in my life!

Jesus' Sweet Mercies

Yesterday did not turn out the way I thought it would when I woke up. Italo and I had a VERY quiet weekend, which is very rare for us. So we were home to watch things more than normal and on Saturday we noticed that our older cat, Sphinxy, was getting sick and actually letting Annabelle touch him. That NEVERS happens, so I knew something was up, but thought we could watch him until Monday when I could take him to the vet. By Sunday afternoon, we knew we could not wait any longer so during Annabelle's nap, I took him to the Emergency Clinic.

As is always the case at Emergency Clinics-Sphinxy and I had to wait a LONG time. So-there we were in the room for about 2 hours waiting to see the doctor. I knew the outcome would not be good, so I was sad and holding my big cat.

Well, low and beyond--I started feeling my sweet little baby move in my tummy! This was the first time during this pregnancy that I could for sure say that I felt him move! It was like he was trying to keep me company while I was alone with this difficult situation.

We ended up having to say goodbye to Sphinxy yesterday, but before we did, Italo and Annabelle joined me at the clinic to say goodbye. Annabelle was playing around and sitting in my lap while Italo and I talked about our options and I reminisced about all the good times with our little buddy-Sphinxy. She was completely unaware of why we were sad, or really that we were sad at all. She just kept insisting that the bottle of lotion in my purse was milk and was trying to get me to open it up for her to drink.

But in the midst of that difficult situation, Jesus was reminding me of all of the blessings in my life-they were all around me-in my tummy, on the floor laughing and in the chair next to me crying just as hard as me over a lost life. My sweet, sweet family-all four of us were together and everyone was loving on me in their own way! Jesus' blessings are just priceless!

Halloween Celebrations

We had the pleasure of going to Killeen, TX (where my brother lives) to have a fun Halloween celebration with my brother, Sister in Law, my Dad and Andrea, and my niece and nephew Jacob and Grace. Kimberly-my sister in law-decided to go all out and dress up with the kids as all the characters from The Wizard of Oz. Kimberly was The Lion, Allen was The Tin Man, Grace was Dorothy and Jacob was the Scarecrow. They were super cute. Andrea and my Dad decided to join in and Andrea went as The Wicked Witch and my Dad went as a munchkin. They were all so fun! Since I had already bought Annabelle's costume, we could not participate in the Wizard of Oz theme, but we did make our own story with Little Red Riding Hood.

As you can tell, Italo was the hunter who saved the day, Annabelle was Little Red Riding Hood and I was the wolf disguised as Granny.

Here is Annabelle with her cousins, Jacob and Grace

Grace and Annabelle with their baskets!

Here is Annabelle playing the part of Little red Riding Hood very well and picking flowers instead of staying on the path to granny's house!

My "Red" is SUCH A DELIGHT!

Several people have asked me if Annabelle was scared of my costume--and as you can imagine---NO. She is not scared of anything! But, several kids at the carnival we went to were very scared. One little boy was so worried about me, his mom asked me to take off the mask, so he could see I was a normal person! Who knew I would scare kids......The mask was VERY uncomfortable and I will certainly not be doing that again in coming years!

Annabelle loved the carnival we went to-they had slides and bounce houses which are her favorite! I spent most of my time trying to look out of the little holes in my mask to see where she went and chase her around! Some people thought I was acting out the story, but I was just trying to keep up with her! Italo was great to stay on top of her knowing that I could not really do much with her on my own!

After the carnival we went Trick or Treating...However, Annabelle did not like it at ALL! She wanted to stay at each person's house and get to know them! The first house we got to-we rang the doorbell and no one answered. Annabelle had a huge fit because she could not go into the house. I finally convinced her to go to the next person's house and get her candy and she did not care about the candy at all-she just wanted to guy to pick her up and take her inside with him.....SCARY! We decided to try one more house and she again really wanted to go into the house. We finally gave up. Since I am a mean momma wolf (as I was called all night), I did not let Annabelle eat any of her candy, except for one sucker that I let her try. (Only after much encouragement from my Dad and Andrea) She actually really liked it! She was A MESS after she was done with it, but it was fun seeing her enjoy it so much! Andrea would ask her for a lick and she would say NO and stick it in her mouth! She must have really liked it to be that selfish:)

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

Our Anniversary Cruise (with Annabelle and Family)

Annabelle's New Entertainment

On our cruise, we traveled with lots of folks that entertained Annabelle. She learned tons of new games and songs. One of her favorites was "Cowboy Annabelle" which Matthew taught her. She really enjoys it but no one can do it as well as Matthew!

Annabelle in the Mirror

Annabelle's favorite part about her new room is that their is a mirror next to her dresser/Changing Pad. She loves to play with the baby in the mirror! These are some pictures I captured after her bath on Monday afternoon! So FUN!