Here we are on Christmas Eve. We went to Andy's parents' church. When we came home we put the kids to bed and then watched Home Alone. It's Andy's favorite Christmas Eve tradition.

Joey was super excited about Christmas. He woke up at 12:00, 3:00, 4:00, 6:00, and finally at 7:30. When he woke up at 3:00 he said, ""I have an idea, let's just go and look at the presents."

Hannah woke up at 7:00 so we went into Grandma and Papa J's room to wait for Joey to come out. His room is back by their room, and we wanted to make sure we were with him when he saw all the presents so we could see his reaction. Here Andy and Hannah are playing peek-a-boo waiting for Joey to wake up.
Finally...the presents!

Joey gave Andy a light saber for Christmas so that the two of them can play Star Wars together. On the package he had me write, "This is not a light saber." We totally tricked Andy. ;-)
After a night of not sleeping well, Joey asked if he could take a nap at 10:00 am. He looked pretty awful, but I was hoping he was just tired. Well, he woke up from his nap with a fever. That explains the lack of smiles in some of these pictures.

Hannah, on the other hand, had a blast.

Last Thursday night Andy's parents, Andy, the kids, and I all headed to the Phoenix Zoo for Zoo Lights. Before Hannah was born, we went to the Festival of Lights at the Wild Animal Park, but the one at the Phoenix Zoo was so much cooler.

Unfortunately thousands upon thousands of other people thought so too.

It started at 6:00 and when we got there at 6:15, the zoo parking lot was already full and closed. We parked in some overflow parking and then hiked over to the zoo. We purchased our tickets online and when we found the prepaid ticket line, it was about 200 yards long. We almost gave up hope, but the line actually went fairly quickly. When we got in, the park was jammed pack. It looked like a street scene from Mardi Gras with people crammed in shoulder to shoulder.

We still had a great time seeing all the amazing lights. I can't even imagine how many people it took to hang all of those lights. One part of the lights was choreographed to music. It was amazing. Of course, pictures don't do it justice, but here's a little taste.

After we flew back from Philadelphia, we stayed in Phoenix for Christmas. Our week was filled with relaxing and hanging out with Grandma and Papa J.

One of the first priorities was getting batteries into Joey's new light saber that Uncle Timmy and Aunt Sarah gave him for Christmas. He was really excited because it lights up and makes noise!
Joey and Hannah are pretending to sleep here. I'm not sure why they were doing this, but I encourage any kind of playing that has them laying quietly.
Andy's parents live on a golf course. After all the golfers were gone for the day, Papa J took Joey out to look for stray balls that golfers left behind. Then, Joey got his first golf lesson.

One morning, Grandma made doughnuts with the kids. I have wanted to make homemade doughnuts for a long time now, so it was really cool.
For those of you who know our kids really well, it won't surprise you that while both kids enjoyed making the doughnuts, only Hannah liked eating them.
She also liked sharing them with Daddy.

We flew home from Philadelphia on Monday. We got to the airport with plenty of time, so the kids got to play in this little play area. It was sponsored by the Please Touch Museum and had a little airplane, luggage carrier, and traffic control center. It was really neat.
Here's a rare look at Hannah's "funny face." It's hard for her to do it because she usually starts laughing.
Hannah Belle enjoyed the play area too, but she was a little tired. Over-tired, really. This would be confirmed by the multiple meltdowns she had on our five hour flight home. She even did the wet noodle, freak out scream a couple of times. It was awesome!
We had such a great trip, and now we're so glad to be back home!

Sunday, the day after the wedding, Andy's parents and I took the kids to the Please Touch Museum. We went last year when we were in town for Timmy and Sarah's wedding. I made a comment about how Hannah would have a lot more fun this time around. Boy, was I right!

Note: I did not mean to dress both of my children in stripes.


Just like last year, the grocery store area was one of the highlights of our trip. Hannah was so cute going around shopping for groceries. One of the low points of the trip was when we left the grocery store area. Hannah had the meltdown of her life. Precious.
Another favorite at the museum this year, was this little room where you could make and then launch rockets.

And of course, we had to ride the carousel.

After lunch, we went over to Uncle Timmy and Aunt Sarah's house where Andy and Timmy were already watching the Eagles game.

Papa J had a chance to cuddle with their new Goldendoodle puppy, Felini. Joey and Hannah were starting to lose it a bit at this point of the trip, so Felini might now be the favorite "grandchild."
Joey was SO pumped to be able to ride on Uncle Timmy's "motor scooter."
We had a great time hanging out with Uncle Timmy and Aunt Sarah at their beautiful house! We opened some presents and as a present to the boys, the Eagles won after one of the most exciting and dramatic comebacks ever.

Now, finally, the wedding!

Here is the bride, Melanie, with her parents.

It's a funny, semi-long story, but Mike and Melanie actually met on Andy's brother and sister-in-law's first date. Timmy and Sarah got married last year, and now Mike and Melanie are married. It's especially neat because Timmy and Mike were childhood friends, and Sarah and Melanie were childhood friends.

Melanie also happens to be the granddaughter of Richard Nixon and the great-granddaughter of Dwight Eisenhower. Her parents are Julie and David Eisenhower.

And here's a shot of our complete group of eight now: the two Lanzones, the two Logans and their wives. The best part about this group, is that we all get along so well. When I first married into this group eight and half years ago, I remember thinking that it would be so interesting to see who the other boys married, and how well everyone would fit together. Well, it's an amazing blessing, but I couldn't have picked out better girls if I had tried.



We had to leave the wedding a little early to get back to the babysitter so we didn't get to try the cake, but I thought this cake topper was so cute!

Congrats, Mike and Melanie! We love you guys!

Friday we got up and headed to Andy's grandparent's house. We had a nice visit with them, and I'm so bummed that we didn't get any pictures of the kids with their great-grandparents.

That night we had the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. The groom was Andy's childhood friend, Mike Logan (brother of the famous Dave Logan). Andy and his brother were both groomsmen.

Here's a picture of Andy with the handsome groom.

And here's Timmy, Dave Logan, and Andy. Now that's love.

The rehearsal dinner was beautiful! We had a private room at this nice restaurant. It was a gorgeous setting and the food was delicious! Best of all? Thanks to my in-laws, it was a kid-free evening! Look how happy we are about that!