Fiesta Bowl 2009 (a heartbreaker)

Our primary reason for driving out to Phoenix was to see family, but our secondary reason was to go cheer on the Buckeyes at the 2009 Fiesta Bowl. (Thank you, Dave, for getting such awesome tickets!!!) Although it was a heartbreaker of a game, it was still an exciting one--and a lot of fun to be there in person.

Those Texans...so proud :)


Famous "script" Ohio


Poor Bevo

Post-Xmas Trip to Phoenix

Due to conflicting family schedules, we saved our Phoenix trip to see the Villanueva-Camarata clan until after New Year's this year. It ended up being very relaxing, without the holiday stress. Izzy got to spend a lot of quality time with cousins Christian & Jackson, Tita Lisa, Uncle Dave, and Lola/Lolo.

Christmas 2008 in San Diego

The hiatus is over...we blame Koko for the lack of blog posts over the last 6 weeks. She borrowed our camera and we finally got it back over the holidays. Yay!

We had a wonderful Christmas with the Okano clan in San Diego. Momo and Jiji flew in from Chicago, Koko drove down from L.A., and she treated Momo/Jiji to a nice stay at the W Hotel downtown. We still spent all of our days together and Izzy got a great dose of "koko-momo-jiji."







Ernest stopped in for a few hours on his way out to Phoenix and brought Mama a wonderful gift (here's Izzy modeling it):

Mama's Sous Chef

Mama has enjoyed having a 3-ft sous chef lately, who is happy and willing to do chores like peel garlic. (And she does it the old fashioned way so it keeps her occupied for a quite a while. :) )

From 11162008 - Alex, faces, sous chef, hair

From 11162008 - Alex, faces, sous chef, hair

From 11162008 - Alex, faces, sous chef, hair

The Babe & Her Baby

Lola bought Izzy a baby doll a few months ago, and we weren't so thrilled about it at the time...but it's been fascinating to see Izzy taking care of the baby (without any purposeful instruction from us). Sometimes she's a little rough w/her, but luckily Baby has thick skin.

From 11162008 - Alex, faces, sous chef, hair

From 11162008 - Alex, faces, sous chef, hair

From 11162008 - Alex, faces, sous chef, hair

From 11162008 - Alex, faces, sous chef, hair

The Daycare Hair Fairy

The Babe has been coming home with some pretty funny hairdos, and we finally remembered to take some pics (albeit fuzzy ones):

From 11162008 - Alex, faces, sous chef, hair

From 11162008 - Alex, faces, sous chef, hair

Old Friends

The Babe met her old buddy Alex (from Mary's daycare) at the park recently. We were all hoping the kids would remember each other after not seeing each other for ~3.5 months, but they didn't seem to... Oh well, they still had fun playing just the same.

From 11162008 - Alex, faces, sous chef, hair

From 11162008 - Alex, faces, sous chef, hair

From 11162008 - Alex, faces, sous chef, hair

The Babe also saw her friend Sofia, who she played with a lot over the summer when her MoMo and Lola were here.

Izzy putting Sofia to work:

From 11162008 - Alex, faces, sous chef, hair

Let me check the engine, maybe that's why we're not going so fast:

From 11162008 - Alex, faces, sous chef, hair