See if you can hear what she's saying/singing. She skips over lots of letters, but she's definitely getting the hang of it! You'll probably have to listen to it a couple of times if you're that interested to understand her!

At the beginning of January, I "signed up" for the 5 o'clock club that the girltalk blog started several years ago. It's basically a commitment to rise early in the morning to feed yourself on God's Word and to prepare for serving your family well throughout the day.
It has changed a lot for me. I am learning a lot, first of all, about God and what He's done (I'm using a Bible reading plan, reading teaching articles, and praying through the Scripture that I read). And second, the part about being ready and prepared spiritually for the day has indeed been the case for me and I appreciate it so much. I hope the rest of this household does, too.
I've been thinking about doing this for a LONG time, and feel so relieved that I finally just set my alarm and started doing it (and Kristin calls me to make sure I'm up :)).
I am requiring a 20 minute power nap at least several times a week, and I try to get to bed around 9 or 9:30.
I'm not sharing this about myself in order to make everyone think I've got it all together or I'm hot stuff. I'm sharing for two reasons: in case someone else might be thinking about doing it and needs a testimony, and also for everyone who has read this to now hold me accountable to what I've said I'm going to do.
If anyone might think to consider this "club," talk to me about it! I'll say it again: I consider it a relief and a blessing. I pray that it blesses God, too.
There are also several other women in the church doing it! Such an encouragement.

I can't express well enough how much fun our kids had at Cohen's party today. It was a blast!

I ran across these photos in a folder and realized that I forgot to post them back in November. It was starting to get chilly that month, but looking at these pictures makes me long for even just chilly air. We are getting a little weary of the COLD!

Maybe in a couple of months we will be able to play outside like this without big coats and gloves!

Sorry these pictures are so tiny! I used my cell phone camera.
On Friday Aaron and I drove to Snowshoe, WVa to hang out with each other and ski. It was a late anniversary present to each other since we didn't have a grand celebration back in December.
We had an awesome trip. We had so much opportunity for good, lengthy discussions with no interruptions (you know who I'm talking about, although of course we love them dearly and missed them a lot!).
We got there around midday, and it was too late to get a lift ticket because we didn't want to pay full price only to be able to ski for 3 hours. So we unloaded our stuff in our room (we stayed in The Village...central part of the mountain), and relaxed in our room ALL afternoon. We did nothing! I read a book, Aaron took a nap, we watched the news, we ate junk food...it was quite a vacation indeed.
We went out for a late dinner, then came back to eat Ben and Jerry's for dessert while we watched a movie.
On Saturday we skied!: It was a gorgeous day. Blue sky, lots of snow on the ground, and the slope conditions were ideal. All slopes were open. It was about 5 degrees, so we bundled up well and tried to leave no body part exposed (that's why we look so ridiculous...it was COLD!).

We stopped after a couple of hours to get some hot chili and warm up my toes.

I'm so glad we have similar interests like this...it's a great way to spend time together! Thanks to Papa and Gramme for taking care of our girls!

Megan, I read that entire Kristin Hannah book in those two days, finishing just as we pulled up to our driveway. It was a real tear-jerker, a great recommendation...thanks!

On Saturday night we all watched The Little Mermaid together. I took Vivian to the store to rent it last week but I was glad we waited to watch it as a family. We baked chocolate chip cookies...that's all Kate was interested in! She wouldn't sit still for the movie...every once in a while she would come stand in front of the TV, but it didn't take long for her to walk off to play with toys. Vivian was mesmerized the whole time, just like this:
It was fun! I didn't remember that movie to be so scary...Ursula was one mean sea witch!! Not crazy about that, but hopefully Vivian will just remember the fun music.
Thanks to my husband for being a trooper! (Actually, it's possible that he was kind of into it...I don't know, ask him!)

I have an awesome husband. This picture was taken the day I got home from our Florida trip...he left this sweet surprise on our bed.

Is it too mushy and lovey-dovey to share this? Sorry, but I have to give the man some props!

On Monday, January 17th around 2pm Dennis and Shannon welcomed their baby boy! What a miracle!

We know Daniel will become good friends with our kids!

Several weeks ago I had an encouraging phone conversation with my friend Molly who lives in Alabama...she told me the exciting news about her twins that are due in July! What an answer to prayer! We are thrilled for Nate and Molly :)
Congratulations!

WOW! My parents got us this iRobot Roomba for Christmas and it has become very well-loved in our house. It is a robot vacuum. You just press the button and it moves methodically around a room, cleaning the floors. After a messy meal, for example, I can clear the table, go play with the girls, and leave the Roomba to cleaning up under the table. It maneuvers around all the furniture, but also goes under the couches and beds. It can also sense when there is a lot of dirt or crumbs in a particular spot and it will start going in circles in that one spot until it's all clean, then moves on to other parts of the room. Hooray!!

Three cheers for my Roomba!

On Tuesday afternoon we drove up to Charlottesville to celebrate Michael's birthday. It was a long drive, but definitely worth it because the dinner (fancy, intimate Italian) and the company were awesome. The girls were very silly, Michael got some cool gifts, and we all ate until stuffed.

Vivian is showing off her spaghetti noodle. Crazy!

These pictures are from our girls trip last weekend to Orlando. Of course mom and I were there for the half marathon, but we also went to hang out with great friends. Debbie, mom's long-time friend, Carissa, and Arin (Jeremy's wife-to-be) joined us. We had a great time, mostly eating good food, taking our time for everything, talking about marriage (Carissa and Arin are getting married within two months of each other!), and exploring Disney and parts of Orlando. First picture taken: Debbie fell asleep on the plane ride down, and had her head hanging halfway in the aisle. I was laughing :)

We were pumped about our getaway. We left on Friday morning and didn't come back until Monday morning.

On Friday night we took a reallllyy long taxi ride to a restaurant for dinner. We were trying to find Maggiano's (to load up on carbs before the race), and when we did, there was 1.5 hour wait and so ended up at another place. It was awesome food though. Best macaroni and cheese I've ever had.On Saturday, while we were at the race, the others went shopping at some major outlets in Orlando. They were gone all day, so after mom and I showered and took naps, we went over to Magic Kingdom for ice cream.

Can you see the castle behind me? And it was cool that the Christmas decorations were still up for us to enjoy.We met up with the others in Downtown Disney for dinner at an Italian restaurant. They didn't have time to go back to the room first, so they had ALL their shopping bags with them :) After dinner we stopped in the Ghiradelli chocolate store and had gourmet desserts. Perfect.On Sunday we slept in, ate breakfast at the hotel, and then headed over to Hollywood Studios to play all day. There weren't a lot of rides there, so we mostly walked around looking for good food and seeing shows. Carissa took all the pictures that day, so I need to get them from her.

We ate dinner at a 50's diner. The decor reflected someone's house during that decade...very entertaining. Our waitress was pretending to be our "mom"...telling us to keep our elbows off the table and reprimanding us for not cleaning our plates, etc. It was pretty funny. BUT, she might have taken it a little too far with Arin! She was harrassing her so much. We were all laughing, but by the end I don't think Arin thought it was funny anymore! She told Arin to get up and help her clear the table and carry the dishes to the kitchen, and Arin absolutely refused. We were cracking up.

We went to bed early on Sunday night because we had to be up at 3 a.m. to make it to the airport (we flew into the wrong airport, unknowingly...it was an hour TAXI drive!)

On Saturday morning mom and I woke at 3 a.m. to hop on the monorail over to Epcot. There were SO MANY PEOPLE!! It took us almost an hour just to walk to the starting line! We heard the total number was around 28,000 people. It was crazy, but so fun! The music was great, fireworks were motivating, Disney characters entertaining, DJs jamming. It was an awesome experience. The race was tough because I wasn't very prepared. By mile 8 or 9 my legs were in bad shape. I would have stopped to walk, but they still hurt, so I just kept running. I finished in 2 hours, 26 minutes. It was cool to run through Magic Kingdom and Cinderella's castle. They definitely made sure you weren't bored while running! The only complaint I have is that it was so packed, there were many times when I got stuck behind people and there wasn't a way around.
My legs have recovered. It wasn't until Wednesday, though, that I could walk up and down the stairs like a normal person.
Mom did great! She did 8.5 miles, which was awesome considering she was sick for a couple of weeks before the race. We were pretty proud of ourselves :)
We are planning to do another one in September in Virginia Beach. Let the training begin!

Last Wednesday I took Kate to a class called Melody Makers. Vivian and I have been going to storytime at the library when Kate is in preschool, so I was trying to think of something that Kate and I could do together while Vivian is not with us. I found it! We had the best time! Thanks to Ashely and Cohen for putting in a good word for us because the registration was almost full :)
It's a music class that lasts 3o minutes. Silly action songs, dancing, instruments. It's right up her alley...oh, how she loves music and to dance! She was in the middle of it all after about 5 minutes of hesistation. She was very excited when the puppet giraffe came out to say hello at the end.
We were there again today and it was great. I have so much fun with these kids!

Last week we joined Avery and her mom Janelle at Pump It Up for the girls to play and run around together. It was Vivian's first time there, so Avery showed her the ropes. They had a blast. They ran from one thing to the next without stopping, for an hour and a half. There were bouncy houses, huge inflatable slides, and an obstacle course. She had a hard time climbing, but towards the end of our time she was getting much better. I was able to participate, too...I pretty much had to so that she could get through the obstacle course. I had a lot of fun playing like a kid with them!

I love this picture...she looks so grown up.

They laughed and giggled and screamed!

What a cool place! If you haven't been, ask us and we'll go with you! I can't wait to take her again.

After we played, we took them to McDonald's for lunch. They had the most impressive playground area that I've ever seen in a fast food place. Vivian had fun on that, too, until she had an accident in her pants right before it was time to go :)

Happy 22nd Birthday, Uncle Michael!

This morning at breakfast I was telling the girls that today is Uncle Michael's birthday.

V: I want to give him a present today for his birthday today.
Mom: What present do you want to give him?
V: Gold. Juuussst gold.
Mom: Oh, wow, you want to give him gold for his birthday present? (confused, trying to understand where she got that idea...)
V: No, not gold. Just frankincense for his birthday.

Ohhh, now I get it. Ha!
Michael, you can look forward to some pretty cool gifts from the Fernandez kids.

We played over at Papa and Gramme's house today! Kate is usually wearing at least 5 more of these necklaces while she plays. She walks all over the house with them dangling from her neck. I have diva daughters.

On Tuesday I cleaned the bathroom but decided not to windex the mirror (and I still haven't). So thankful for such precious reminders.