Well, well, well...the Abdalla family has been very delinquent with our website. This has been an extraordinarily busy year for us so we'll recap the whole year here and give you a summary of pictures before we start the new year. Next year we will try our best to be more diligent about keeping our website up to date!

After our wonderful stay with Dt and Opa in Florida last Spring, we headed to Cleveland to celebrate Easter with Sittoo and Giddoo Abdalla. In April we spent a long weekend in Chicago mainly to attend George's Spring Loyola A Cappella concert--which was fabulous! This year our business has really started to move along. In case you are unfamiliar, we started a Catholic toy company called Wee Believers. Our first product, My Mass Kit, is on store shelves just in time for the holidays. Last spring, we attended our first trade show, which happened to be in Indianapolis. It was our first opportunity to get exposure and to test the waters. The response to our company was extraordinarily positive. Feel free to visit our website: www.weebelievers.com

In May, we had the opportunity to travel to California to attend our niece Charlotte Smith's dance performance. It was a quick turn around, but we so enjoyed our time with Dolph, Dorthe and the kids up in the mountains. Charlotte is so gifted and is now attending SUNY Purchase.

Joni was able to spend a reunion weekend with her Little Flower sisters from Franciscan U. Several of her household sisters (and most of their families) were able to reunite down at the lake house. What a wonderful weekend!

Memorial Day weekend was, once again, a rather large Indy 500 party that the Smith siblings and friends enjoy down at the lake house. Had a great gathering of friends and family and enjoyed beautiful weather.

June was a fantastic summer month. Emma turned 5 on June 14th. We had a carnival birthday party that even included a little ferris wheel! It was great fun! A new creature joined our family on June 14th. Scott Joseph Abdalla (our Siberian kitty) joined our crew. He's quite a funny little cat and sure puts up with lots of girl play time (takes rides in mini shopping carts and baby buggies, etc.).

The 4th of July was spent with Mom and Dad Smith at their mountain home in North Carolina. There were many activities for the kids and of course fabulous golf for us!

The end of July was spent on a whirlwind trip to New England for Steve's cousin, Lelah Stevens' wedding. We drove and were made sure to visit Niagara Falls (which Joni had never before visited). It was so nice to bring the girls to the part of the country where Steve spent a lot of time as a boy. The girls were even able to meet great, great aunts who were thrilled to meet them.

In August, we went to Cleveland for Steve's 20th high school reunion. That was just plain fun. The most common phrase, "Abdalla? Is that you, man? Wow! You look great!"

On August 19th, Ruthie turned 3. She was so excited to have a party of her own! She loves panda bears and wanted a "panda" party. We did the best we could--short of flying one in from China! There was lots of candy and there were many games. She was beaming the whole day.

Emma started school (kindergarten) at the end of May. She was so excited! She is attending Lumen Christi Catholic school--an independent Catholic school located in downtown Indianapolis. She didn't bat an eye when it was time to go. There wasn't a tear shed. She loves school and has a terrific teacher, Mrs. Butterfield (if you can believe it!). There are only 8 kids in her class including her cousin Sadie Smith.

Emma is the most precious, sensitive, responsible and disciplined little lady. She is wise beyond her years, but has the most fantastic imagination. She is a leader. As soon as she walks in the door from school, she takes out her homework (yes, she has homework in kindergarten), completes it and puts it back in her bag without any prompting.

She is very interested in knowing the date and time. I guess she is learning that in school. In school she is also learning Latin and is teaching her little sisters. This summer, Emma began to ride her bicycle without training wheels! She is so proud of this accomplishment! She also recently learned to tie her shoes.

Ruthie is the most precious little girl. She is exploding with love and hugs and kisses. Many times during the day you will hear a little voice say, "Mommy and Daddy, I love you." She loves to sing and has the most expressive face. She is always busy and rarely sits still. the furniture gets a lot of different uses, such as climbing.

She has been learning her letters well and the best teacher for both Ruthie and Vivian is, of course, Emma. They are learning so much from her. Ruthie's personality changed quite a bit when Emma started school. She took more of a leadership role in the house. I can't say enough about precious Ruthie. She is such a gift to our family.

She is also hilarious! Here are a couple of Ruthie-isms:

In the middle of Mass at our parish, "Mommy, There is a spider web up in the light by Jesus. You need to tell somebody so they can clean it or a spider will bite Jesus in the arm and he will whine, whine, whine."

Ruthie went through a spell of getting really bad nose bleeds. She said, "Mommy, I don't want bloods in my room cuz I don't want bloods on my yummy sheets."

Ruthie in the middle of the night: "Mom, my nose is broken. the Air wont come out. There's water in my nose." (She had a stuffy nose)

Emma said, "Ruthie, you are not allowed to get in the pool unless Mommy or Daddy are in the pool.  Do you understand?  What is the rule?" Ruthie replied, "No poop in the pool!"

Ruth had flipped over a very large chair and I said, "Ruthie, how did you flip over that chair?" She said, "Magic-----RUTIE magic!"

She refers to a trash can as a "crash" can, parmesan cheese as "promise on cheese" and magazine as "mazagine."

Vivian, oh Vivian. Vivian is turning out to be our little stinker. She is a very smart little girl. She speaks Spanish and English and can count to 15 in both languages. That little girl doesn't miss a beat! We will have to say that she is the most rebellious of the three and she is not yet 2! Vivian also LOVES to sing! Her favorite songs are: ABC's, "Binkle Binkle, Little Dar," and Away in a Manger.

Vivian loves to watch football, like her Daddy and Mommy. One day Joni asked Vivian, "Vivian, where is Daddy?" She said, "I on't know." Then she said, "Oh, wait! Go iish!" (meaning that Daddy was in the other room watching the Notre Dame game). All three girls know the Notre Dame fight song, of course!

Vivian loves to hide and is very patient, even if Mommy and Daddy are yelling her name looking for her for 10+ minutes! She will stay hunkered down until we find her, which can become disconcerting.

Vivian loves Scott the cat. Ruthie nicknamed Scott, Scottie Boy. Vivian just calls him "Boy." In fact, she calls every cat, "Boy."

One of the funnies Vivian stories happened not too long ago. She was supposed to be napping but was particularly chatty. We don't usually go in to her room unless she is crying or calling for us. So, about an hour in to her chatting, she says, "Mooooommmmy! MMMMmmmmmmmm!" I went in to find out what she was mmmmming about. She had moved her crib over a few feet (probably by pushing against the wall--she was IN the crib). She had reached a jar of Vick's Vapor Rub and was covered from head to toe! I could hardly pick her up she was so slippery!

Vivian just recently stopped stopped hiding things in her footed pajamas. We would see lumps down by her toes and would find all kinds of interesting things that she had taken!

Vivian is a chocoholic! The most embarrassing thing, though, is that she doesn't call it chocolate, she calls it, Ca Ca! If you know any Spanish, you know why it is embarrassing to be in line at the grocery and hear Vivian yell, "Mommy! Ca Ca! I want Ca Ca!"

Well, that's a re-cap for the whole year! We'll try to be better about updating the family website!