Lucas David Bello

The brand new member of the family has arrived. His birthday was 11-27-08. One day before Tony's birthday that way Carlos will not forget Tony's birthday. Lucas weighed 8 pounds 7 ounces and measured 20.5 inches. He was the same height as Nicholas but not the same weight. No wonder poor Mary had such a hard time with the pregnancy. And I thought giving birth naturally to Anastasia at 8 pounds was hard enough I cannot imaging adding an additional 7 ounces. Mommy and baby are doing fine. He is a cutie though, we cannot wait to see him.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Our festivities began early this morning when the kids made apple-pumpkin muffins. They were yummy! This whole feast was a joint effort that took all day. I guess when the kids are older we can share the responsibilities of the dishes but until that day arrives, which I am in no hurry, Tony and I have to do all the Thanksgiving traditions.

This is the first year that I have been able to take a bird to the table. As many of you know I am allergic to turkey and have always eaten ham for Thanksgiving. This year I got to eat a Turken (a chicken made turkey style). Tony put the chicken in a brine the night before and cooked it the next day. It was the best chicken that I have ever tasted. It was so moist and very flavorful.

I made the pumpkin pie since the kids and Tony love it so much. I usually make it from scratch but this year I took a shortcut and bought a pre-made uncooked pie shell. I only eat pumpkin pie once a year which is a great dessert for me since I do not over-eat it.

Nicholas set the table and we are oh so proud of him. As you can see from the above picture he did a beautiful job.

Anastasia made the biscuits for our meal. Well it is more like she opened a can and put the biscuits on the baking sheet. We placed it in the oven and waited 10 minutes then we removed it from the oven and she placed it in the bread basket. But she feels she contributed to the meal and that is what counts. As seen from this picture she was really proud.

To finish our night we were giving a great performance in Spanish of The First Thanksgiving Feast from the kids. We had Anastasia as the pilgrim girl and Nicholas as a Native American boy.

By the way thank you to all who sent their feathers to add to our turkey. It was nice to be able to read all your feathers on thanksgiving day.

Bible Ceremony

On November 21 we went to St.Vincent's School to see our daughter recieve her Bible. It was such a special ceremony. She got to do the introduction to the Mass. Afterwards the school had a reception for the parents. Anastasia and Nicholas go to such a great school it is worth all the money we pay.

Happy Halloween

Part of our Halloween traditions is to carve pumpkins. The kids are carving the pumpkins we picked. They were so proud since this was their first year that they got to carve their own pumpkin. In the past we have just chosen one pumpkin for the family.

Tony carved the pumpkin design that I choose. My hero...that was a hard design. But isn't it cute!

Our pumpkins all a glow. The happy face was Nicholas' design, Anastasia was the cat, and the ghost was Tony's. By the way I helped everyone carve a little bit of theirs, since I did not want to be left out yet I did not want to carve my own.

Nicholas is a car's mechanic and Anastasia was inspired by our trip to Walt Disney World to be Alice in Wonderland. We stayed at the Grand Floridian and the kids went to the Wonderland Tea Party. The kids at that event went dressed as Alice or the Mad Hatter and thus her costume.

Happy Halloween and by the way I love that Daylight Savings Time has not ended and the sun does not go down until later. We got to leave at 6:00 and there was still some light out.