Cookie Baking

After our trip we needed to get back into the holiday spirit so Isha and I baked some Christmas cookies.

Cooking with Isha is always an adventure. This girl loves to talk and she does a great job of keeping me company in the kitchen!

Isha is the official cookie taster. She is more like her Dad, after a few bites she is done. Meanwhile I am scarfing down cookies like crazy. Diya on the other hand takes after her mommy. That girls loves sugar!!!

The Oberoi Family In The Dominican Republic

Here is our family picture. Too bad Isha wasn't looking at the camera, but with two little kids you take what you can!

My girls and me.

This is Diya and Abrahan, our favorite waiter. He was so sweet. He always called the girls his "American daughters". Isha was a little shy, but Diya loved him!

After awhile Isha warmed up to him. I think she likes to play shy to get some extra attention. Abrahan also showed us the picture of his two little kids. I think of him often and hope that all is well with him and all the other great people from the D. R. that we met.

Daddy and Isha hanging out in the swinging chair!

Our big girl all by herself in the big chair.

Getting ready to leave the room. By the end of the trip we were all getting pretty tired and were ready to come back home.

Isha and Diya relaxing in their jammies in the room.

The Pool

Diya enjoying some lunch. Actually she is eating an appetizer of goldfish and drinking a virgin pina colada from a sippy cup!! This is the life.

There was an area next to the pool where they had brought sand in. Diya and I hung out here, eating peanut butter crackers while Isha and Daddy enjoyed a drink in the pool.

It's a rough life!

This girl loves to pose.

I don't know, maybe she is doing Yoga. It must be the Indian in her!

Playing in the baby pool. It didn't matter how warm or cold it was the girls had a blast playing in the pool. We brought a floaty for Diya, but she was having NONE of it, so I had to hold on to her the whole time. You try to be a good parent and plan ahead and then it all backfires when the kids don't go along with the plan. We tried to let another family borrow it and of course their baby didn't want to have anything to do with it either.

Relaxing by the pool in the swinging chair with Daddy.

The Beach!!

The girls loved the beach!! Diya ate a few handfuls of sand and Isha enjoyed making sand castles.

I absolutely love this picture!! Nothing sweeter than a Daddy you can trust to keep you safe!

This was after a mouthful of sand. She also enjoyed putting it in her hair.

Me and the girls on the beach! I can't believe I am putting this picture out for the whole world to see.

Daddy and Diya checking out the ocean.

This life jacket was awesome!! We got it hoping that Isha would be a little more independent. She still wanted us to hold her in the pool. She doesn't trust that she will float. This summer there are some serious swimming lessons in her future!

The beautiful beach Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

Some castle building. Isha would get mad every time the waves would wash her castle away. By time we were done playing I think we had made 20 castles that were all washed away by the waves.

Diya enjoying the feel of the sand on her feet.

Our Resort

We stayed at The Reserve At The Paradisus Palma Real. This place was amazing!!! It was decorated beautifully and it really made it feel like we were in paradise!! This was a little side room that had this pretty fountain. It was so peaceful and quiet.

They did a great job making it feel festive. There were Christmas trees everywhere and there was always Christmas music playing.

The pool at the main resort.

The courtyard in the main resort.

We stayed at a part of the resort called The Reserve. We had all this beautiful scenery on our walk to the main resort.

Lots of pretty flowers to see and smell.

More flowers.

Here is the children's pool at our resort. Diya spent more time on the slides than Isha!! The building behind the pool is the Kid's Zone. The girls played in there a few times, but we weren't brave enough to leave them there alone. Maybe next time when Diya is a little older! The staff members in the Kid's Zone were all awesome.

There were flamingos at the main resort. We had to stop and see them every time we were there.

Isha and Mommy!

Isha loved the flamingos.

Our first few days at the resort where a little rough!! After Diya's bout with the stomach bug I managed to catch it and spent a night throwing up. One plus of having the stomach bug on vacation is that I came home weighting less that when we left. It was also cold and rainy the first few days which was a bummer, but soon enough the rain went away and the sun came out and we were all healthy enough to enjoy ourselves and head to the beach.

A Rough Start

The weather was our first problem. We weren't going to be able to make our connecting flight because our first flight was delayed so we got re-routed through Miami. We checked our bags in (which is a critical fact in the story) and headed back home to relax since we weren't leaving until the afternoon and we had gotten up at 4:45 am. On the way back to the airport Diya threw up all over her clothes and since we had checked our bags we had nothing to put her in. So we bought this tacky over priced onsie at the airport. Poor Diya was running around the airport dressed like this while it was snowing outside. I'm sure people were thinking that we were horrible parents. She may look happy in this picture, but she spent the whole rest of the day throwing up, which made for a really long day. We finally arrived in the Dominican Republic at 10 pm. We were all exhausted, but happy to be on vacation, even if we had brought a stomach bug along with us.

Our First Visit With Santa

This was the first year we have been brave enough to take the girls to see Santa Claus. We weren't sure how it was going to go, but luckily they did great. Our neighborhood hosted a Cookies With Santa Party and it was a lot of fun, but VERY crowded. This was the first year so I don't think they knew what to expect, but I have to give them credit because they had a pretty good system for everyone to get a turn to see Santa. They also had a coloring contest and a station where the kids could make ornaments. Mr. and Mrs. Claus were amazing. When they came in Santa was playing the bagpipes and that really got every ones attention. The clothes they were wearing were absolutely beautiful and Santa had this deep warm voice that sounded just like I remember Santa sounding when I was little. It really was a neat experience. I had to go with the girls to meet Santa because they were a little nervous, but no tears were shed! Good job Oberoi girls.

It was hard to keep Diya happy before we saw Santa. She wanted to run around and play, but there were so many people I was afraid she would get trampled. She was happy once she got a cookie!

Here's Isha with a big mouthful of cookie.

An Update Before We Go On Vacation

Diya Diya Diya!!! This girl is going to make me grey!!!! She has to be the most persistent kid on the planet!!! She also loves to climb. Here is how our day goes: Diya climbs on something - I pull her off OR Diya gets into something she shouldn't be into - I take it away - Repeat over and over and over and over again. Even if she drives me crazy I still LOVE her a ton. Here are some of Diya's new tricks: She tries to fill her cup up from the fridge, luckily she isn't tall enough yet to reach the water. She brushes her hair and teeth and washes her own face. She can point to her eyes and can even say it. She is learning lots of new words, but her favorite is NO!! Lucky me.

Here is my little cheese ball!!! Isha is doing great. She will be testing for her yellow belt at Tae Kwon Do this weekend. She is really enjoying school and has lots of fun playing with all her classmates. Lately she has become more defiant and her attitude has grown!!! Eventually she does what you want her to do, but she has been pushing it a little farther lately.

Poor Diya has been kind of whiny lately. She is getting her molars and she has been very sensitive. The smallest thing will set her off. I have been giving her Tylenol and hopefully her teeth will pop through soon.

Here is a much happier picture!!

Yesterday Diya pulled her stocking off the mantle and the heavy pointed snowflake hit her on her head leaving a nice little hole. Luckily it didn't bleed very much and the cut is up in her hair so hopefully there won't be a visible scar. At this point I am thinking that it might be safest to put Diya in a helmet 24/7!!!

Tonight we are going to our neighborhood clubhouse to see Santa Claus. This will be a first for both of the girls so it should be fun. I am expecting some crying to be involved. I will post some pictures this weekend. Then we are off to the Dominican Republic. We will have lots of great pictures and stories to share!

Here is one of Isha's school pictures. I didn't really need any pictures of her and these were really spendy, but how do you say no to this? So like a sucker I ended up ordering one sheet. I got a different pose from this one, but I scanned this so I could share it with all of you.

Happy Halloween 2010

This year Isha was a pink fairy/princess and Diya was a spider. Usually I am not a fan of spiders, but even I thought she was pretty dang cute!! Getting ready to head out and do some trick or treating. Parul spent Halloween with us so she took Isha out to get lots of candy while I pulled Diya around to a few houses in the wagon.

Two cuties in their matching "Wickedly Cute" spider shirts!!!

Oh My Gosh I love these cute girls!!!

We went to a Halloween party Friday night and the girls had a blast in the bounce houses. I hardly saw Isha all night. I don't think she even ate any dinner because she was having too much fun playing.

Diya had fun jumping with the little kids.

My fearless little spider!!