Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! We all went to Mississippi and New Orleans this Thanksgiving. It was tons of fun! We decided to visit Uncle JW and Aunt Loise in Mississippi. John hadn't seen them in 13 years and it was a great opportunity because Dampaw Johnny, Grandma O, Tyler and Dylan were also going to be there. We met Lee, David, Jessica, Joyce, Robyn, Tara, Adam and so many more relatives. We want to thank them from the bottom of our hearts for their gracious hospitality and for all the fun moments we spent together. We loved our hilarious nights by the fire outside and John loved the opportunity to shoot the guns with his dad and nephews. I tried, but didn't do so well. Better luck next time. The pics below are Jessica and Lee with Julia. She loved all the cuddles and attention you guys gave her, especially all that rockin', Lee. We hope to see you all again very soon!

After three nights in Mississippi we drove to New Orleans for Thanksgiving day. We had a great smoked turkey, John was in charge of the famous seafood gumbo and Jennifer and Namaw cooked the rest. I basically took care of the girls and ate. Not much help at all.

As far as the girls are concerned, they are doing very well. Julia, now 4 months old, is 25 inches (63.5 cms) and 13 pounds (5,8 kgs.). Joana, at 19 months, is 32 inches (81 cms) and 24 pounds (10,8 kgs). Julia wakes up smiling everyday and is overall, a very happy smiley baby. She can roll over by herself and prefers to sit and look at everything around her, rather than lying down. Her legs are very strong and it almost looks like she is ready to walk! When she rolls over, she does try to crawl and we can see the effort developing into a skill. Let's see if next month she can do it. Unlike her sister, Julia seems to be already teething. Joana didn't get her first tooth until she was almost 13 months but it looks like Julia will get hers much earlier.

Other than that, we are getting ready for our first Christmas in the US as a family of four and I have already started decorating the house. Since Joana is obsessed with anything that has a round shape, I really don't know how long I will be able to keep the Christmas ornaments on the tree. We will have pictures of that next month, though.

See you then!!

Here are a couple of videos. One is Joana dancing,....it's pretty funny. The other one is of her in her walker....I know, she doesn't need the walker anymore, but she seems to think it is a fun toy until Julia can start using it. The last one is of Julia just hanging out and being her old happy self. We tried to film her while she was turning but she only did it when we weren't looking.