Aunt Sarah and Uncle Ian come to Washington, D.C.

On a long weekend, Aunt Sarah and Uncle Ian came to visit us.  It was chilly, but still lots of fun!

Sarah took this photo of DC when they flew in, and I loved it.

The Iwo Jima Memorial

 Walking around The Mall in the evening after some museum fun

 Dinner at Guapos

 Reading with Aunt Sarah at the library

 Trying on Aunt Sarah's boots

 Reading and snuggling

 For months, Jovie talked about ice skating.  So, we did it (while Aunt Sarah and Uncle Ian watched)!  We met our friends there, too.

 She was so excited!

 Loving on Lily

 Jovie went around and around the rink tons of times.  She did great!

 Got up after falls like a champ!

Cheers with hot chocolate!

                                       

Super fun winter weekend

Birthday Parties and Face Painting

We went to Maya and Josh's birthday party at the Fairlington Community Center.  Lots of fun, and the face painting was amazing!

Jovie started with an arm painting, because she wasn't sure about a face painting.

 Jovie and Josh

 She eventually warmed to the face-painting and got a really cool lion face painting.

 The full picture

 Happy Birthday, Maya!

Mommy and her little lion

 She liked to see herself in the mirror

The look is complete with her purple leopard robe!

Do I see a cat in our future?

Jovie did something I've never seen her do before tonight.  The lights were off in her bedroom, and we were singing and praying, and suddenly she got up on her little knees, pressed her palms and her fingertips together in the praying hands pose, squeezed her eyes shut, and lifted her face to the sky and prayed "Dear God, please, thank you, can you please, can you please, thank you, send a kitty cat to our house?  Amen."  Then plopped down in her crib again and snuggled under her blanket.  Then she looked up and me and said "God said no, because Mommy and Daddy don't like kitty cats."  It was the saddest, funniest, cutest thing I've seen in a long time.

I told Mike and we both laughed and he said "Oh no.  Are we going to have to get a cat someday?"

Happy New Year!

For our traditional New Year's Day hike, we invited friends along this year.  So we met at Rock Creek Park and had a really fun and lovely hike, stopping by to see the horse barn.

 Friends hiking- the little ones did a pretty good job!

 Jovie wasn't so sure about the horses...

Then we went to Cactus Cantina for lunch with the Mongelli's- delicious and fun.

Silly girls having fun together.

Good way to start the new year!