Snowed in!

I just wanted to post some pictures to show you all why we are not spending tonight with you in Tampa as we had originally hoped. We really have a very impressive blizzard her in Virginia, the last I heard the official count was 20 inches. But first I thought I'd share some pictures of Cecilia with some of her gifts during our little pre-Christmas here at home: We think she enjoyed being so spoiled. Here is the "after" picture, once all the gifts were opened and we were having breakfast. Such a pretty (and white) Christmas!

Now for some snow pictures. The snow began to fall around 10 pm on Friday and continued all day Saturday:

There is our car on Saturday evening, AFTER Ryan had gone out earlier to clear it off and put the wipers up so they wouldn't freeze to the windshield.

These are pictures that Ryan took today, when he went to clear off the car a second time. It finally stopped snowing sometime during the night!

It took poor Ryan a full 3 hours to clear off the car and shovel a path behind it so we can safely back out. There is no more snow in the forecast before our flight Monday night (thank goodness), so we should be all set to leave on time, I hope! Until then we will just stay cozy and warm inside our apartment. Ryan will be especially cozy, as you can see, in his new Xbox 360 fleece pants, with his new Call of Duty video game to keep him company:

Please keep praying that our flight tomorrow takes off without any problems. We cannot wait to see everyone!! We love you!

Merry Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

What Cecilia Thinks About Christmas

We celebrated Christmas a little in advance this year in order to have our very own family gift exchange under our tree, before we head to Tampa (yay!) on Monday. Please pray that our flight isn't cancelled again. Cecilia, as you can see, was really excited. We think she really understands what Christmas is all about.

One more from Ryan, Mary and Cecilia :)

Hey everyone! I also wanted to put up one final post before we head to Tampa this weekend (further proof, Marisa, that great minds think alike!). We have gotten some great shots of Cecilia lately that I just couldn't miss posting. First, we have Cecilia hanging out in the laundry basket full of warm laundry: The night we went to Mass as a family for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception happened to be very cold, so we put a hat on Cecilia. She did not like it:
Here she is being her usual happy self:

Daddy was cracking her up when he was rocking with her on the glider:

She's getting so strong!

Another hanging out with Daddy picture. I had to post this because, in this particular picture, Cecilia looks a lot like me as a baby. The big cheeks and squished lips are just like my lips as a baby. It also helps that her eyes look more brown than blue here. She's not ALL Ryan, see?? There is some of her mother in there!

We got a lot of compliments on Cecilia's hat while we were shopping for Christmas supplies in Super Target. Ryan was a very proud Daddy, as always:

Bathtime pictures! You can never have too much of a good thing, Sofia! ;)

Daddy making Cecilia look silly:

Cecilia being silly:

We also decorated for Christmas, although we put up our tree on Joyful Sunday. We wanted to have a beautiful Christmas tree to come home to after our week in Tampa! It was so special because last year we didn't put up a tree, since we made trips to both New York and Tampa and it sort of got lost in the shuffle. So this year we wanted to do things right: we listened to great Christmas music, ate Christmas candies, and just soaked it all up. Here's the picture recap. Cecilia in her Santa hat (which she disliked as well):

Cecilia really enjoyed the tree decorating ceremony...but had to take a quick nap in the middle of all the excitement. I love it when she falls asleep nursing, with her lips pursed like this:

I believe she also gets her big cheeks from her mother. :P Here is the finished product:

Ryan insisted we take the pictures with all the lights off to get the effect of the soft Christmas-light glow. We think the tree has made our apt. even more cozy. This really is the best time of year! Cecilia really loves the lights:

Her cheeks are so kissable!Here are some more Daddy pictures; Ryan home from work, dancing with Cecilia while I make dinner. I love how her hand is clutching his sleeve:

She fell asleep pretty quickly, she was so comfortable!

And finally, Monday was Cecilia' s 2 month birthday. My original plan was to take a photo shoot each month on her birth-day until she turns 1, to have a record of how much she grows and changes. I forgot to do it on her one month birthday but remembered to this time:

My other thought was to take a picture of her next to a stuffed animal, to have a better size comparison between pictures. Right now she is about the same size as her Buccanneers bear. Ryan liked this picture because he says it looks like she is making fun of the Buccanneers:I like it because it shows off her great legs which, in case you couldn't tell, look exactly like Ryan's. I think her somewhat worried/concerned face is so cute in this one: That's all I've got...it's a lot I know, but I hope you enjoy them. We are so crazy excited about seeing everyone so soon. We are literally counting down the days!!

One final post before Christmas

Hello from South Bend! But not for too much longer...we will be in Tampa in less than a week! Yay! We can't wait to see all of you!

Since we will be seeing all of you soon, I thought I would add one last post. (Also, I know we will be taking lots of pictures in Florida so I do not want to get too far behind. )

Here are some pictures of our apartment decorated for Christmas. As is Lantigua tradition, we decorated the day after Thanksgiving. Since we leave for the holidays, we like to put our decorations up early so we feel like we have enjoyed the Christmas season in our apartment.

Our little tree

Our nativity scene.

As some of you know, every Christmas David starts a war with my precious little Snowman and the Nutcracker. He will usually strike when my Snowman is least suspecting. This is how I found the poor thing a few days ago. David claims it was Sofia's fault.

Ryan, this picture is for you.

It is the newest hall on Notre Dame's campus.

This is where all the people named Ryan live.

Sofia in all her sweetness

Another bath picture. She was again just lounging, with her leg up, and I thought, "How cute, I will be a bad and unsafe mother and take another picture of my baby bathing." And she responded with her fingers, "Read in between the lines, Mom. That's what I think of bath pictures."

In typical South Bend fashion, it is very cold already thus bringing about the beginning of many occasions for Sofia to wear her snowsuit.

My friends and I got together this past week at our apartment to bake and decorate sugar cookies for the homeless. Aren't they so festive and pretty?

By the way, Mary and I will be planning a baking day when we are home! We plan to bake and decorate sugar cookies and other lovely treats for Christmas!


One evening, Sofia woke up after she went to bed. After several attempts of trying to put her back to bed, I brought her out into the living room to relax with Daddy. I walked out of the room for a minute and this is what I came upon when I returned; the magic of Daddy.

And last by not least, here is a picture of our aspiring gymnast.
Yes, she wiggled herself out of her bouncy seat and held herself up on the toys.
She eventually let go and slid to the finish line for a perfect score of 10.

Well that's all for now.

Jack and Christina you are in our prayers.

Ryan, Mary, and Cecilia, have a safe trip.

All our love, Marisa, David, and Sofia

Prayers needed!

Hey everyone! I never thought to use the blog in this way, but please keep us in your prayers! I know most, if not all of you know what's going on here, but I'll briefly tell you just in case.

A few weeks after we had the floors put in our new home we noticed our wood laminate started buckling. Each day the damage got worse. It was so bad that we couldn't walk on the main part of the entrance into our hallway because it would move/lift/shift the rest of the floors. It literally looked like a speed bump in our house. The person that installed the floors was going to come out and fix it. We assumed the laminate expanded due to humidity. While the two guys were here working on our floors, they discovered that our slab (concrete) was really wet. If you touch it your hand is actually wet and you have to wipe it dry, it's not just damp concrete.

We contacted our insurance company to find out what's going on. They're sending out a guy this afternoon to see if he can discover a leak of some sort. In the meantime my Dad and Chris Curran have been here looking around our house. When Chris was here he noticed that our garage floor surrounding our house was all wet too, so we were thinking well maybe it's the air conditioning leaking somewhere. Then when my Dad came by he noticed mold or mildew on the baseboards inside Jack's closet in our bedroom! MOLD/MILDEW! And then today I put Isabella down in the office and Jack noticed more mold/mildew all on our baseboards and into the closet. The walls with the mold/mildew are the closest to our master bathroom so we're wondering if the shower is leaking in the walls. Who knows, we don't know what's going on but we know this is a huge mess.

I ask for the prayers obviously because this is really stressful for us right now, especially before the holiday's. We also need prayers because depending on what the issue is, it may or may not be covered under our homeowner's insurance. So if you could please keep these two things in your prayers, we'd greatly appreciate it! Thanks - we love you guys!

And to end this on a good note, I'll post some recent pictures of Isabella!

Fondue/bonfire at my brothers' house

So nosey!