Christmas 2010

After a big trip and a round of the stomach flu we are all glad to be happy and almost healthy on Christmas morning!! We decided to convert our morning room into a play area for the girls. Luckily Jai started feeling better so that we were able to get it done. There is no way I could have done it alone. We had to take the table out and put the floor down and get all the toys down from the third floor!!! Man was that a work out. Here is the new playroom that Santa left for the girls on Christmas morning.

Lots of new toys to keep the girls busy.

Santa brought Isha the Barbie house she had been asking for. It now lives in her room where, for the the most part, it is free of Diya's destructive hands.

It's Christmas morning, why not let your kids eat cookies for breakfast?

Isha loves her new Polly Pocket.

Diya is checking out all the loot from her stocking.

Isha loves her new Barbie house. She is closely guarding her Hershey's Kisses!!

Santa brought us all Singamajigs. Isha loves hers and Diya loves to listen to them sing. Mommy is happy that Santa also brought her one!

Our neighbors, James and Karina, brought the girls these adorable little incense burners home from their trip to Europe. I know that these will be a great keepsake for the girls. I still have Christmas ornaments that my grandparents got for me on all of their travels and they are some of my favorite Christmas decorations.

Here is our little princess doing some Tae Kwon Do moves on the Bop It Buddy!! A great way to get some aggression out.

Santa also brought the girls a fairy fort! Here are Jai and the girls trying it out.

There was definitely a theme to this Christmas ... Princesses!!! Isha is all about the princesses and fairies!!

We had a great Christmas. It was so nice to be home!!!

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.