Friday, December 26, 2008

home for christmas






this year was really special for miles and me because we hosted christmas for the first time. i loved it. i have always dreamed of spending christmas at home. i had these visions of waking up early and sneaking into the living room to see presents from santa. mason and dahlia are still too young to really get into the whole christmas thing. mason seemed really indifferent to the gifts. that is good. we try to not go overboard with the gift giving. mason and dahlia each get one gift from miles and me and then one gift from santa. of course my huge family buys them presents also so they end up with tons.

my parents and siblings along with miles mother joined us for the holiday. everyone came over at about eleven and we had brunch and opened gifts. this process took a really long time. i loved it though. i always want it to last longer. after presents we started cooking dinner. this was so much fun. i love to hang out in the kitchen drinking champagne while chatting and cooking. everything was so delicious. we served a really fancy dinner with turkey roulade and beef tenderloin along with asparagus and mashed potatoes. mmmm. the food was really yummy. miles did most of the cooking. thanks dear.

hosting christmas was a lot of work. if we host christmas again next year i think i will try to be more organized and get stuff done earlier. ha ha. i always say that.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

setting up for christmas



christmas is almost here. yikes. oh my gosh. we are so behind this year. i really love christmas eve. there is so much excitement in the air. we had so much fun today. we baked cookies and brought them over to miles' cousins house. they had a little party that we attended. it was so fun to see them on christmas eve. we don't usually get to see his aunt and cousins for christmas. i really like miles family. they are so sweet and fun.

of course now i am way behind for setting up our house for christmas. i did get the tables set up and decorated. everything looks so pretty. now it is time to finish wrapping presents, and start cooking tomorrows dinner. i am so happy. christmas is here.

Monday, December 22, 2008

the finished card



we finally finished our christmas cards and put them in the mail today. man. they just took forever to finish. we started them a week ago. we are more behind this year than last year. oh well at least they are done. i hope some people get them before christmas. i think they turned out really cute.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

cookie exchange


i went to a cookie exchange last night at my sister susan's house. it was lots of fun. i ate way too many cookies. i feel like i have a bit of a sugar hangover today. is that possible? there were five girls and each made two different types of cookies. we made sure to have at least six of each type to trade and then extra cookies for sampling. i think the winner of the night for me was the toffee. it was just a little bit of heaven. i think that is actually a candy instead of a cookie, but it was so good. now it is time to try the peppermint one. mmmmm

Monday, December 15, 2008

photo shoot






it is raining today so we decided it was a good day to do our photo shoot for this years christmas card. the kids were pretty good. i really wanted the pictures to have a bluish tone that would make it look really cold outside. i think having the rain helped. miles took the photos. i love that we take our own pictures now. it is so much easier than dragging the kids to the mall. it was a fun photo shoot and the kids got to stay in their christmas jammies all day. here are some of the outtakes.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

christmas tree




we got our tree on friday and finally finished decorating it today. it is so pretty. i always make miles get the tree on the twelfth of december. we got engaged the night we got our christmas tree seven years ago. it just so happened that we got our tree on december twelfth that year so now we always have to get our tree on that day.

i just love decorating the tree. i carefully unwrapped all the ornaments and miles put them on the tree with help from mason and dahlia. we have been lucky this year and have not had any ornament casualties yet. dahlia is much better about not throwing the christmas ornaments than mason was, and mason is now old enough to know better. thank goodness. he did however refuse to put the train ornaments on the tree and insisted on playing with them. choo choo.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

visit with santa



jen and i took the kids to see santa today. i was a bit worried that mason would scream. i didn't even try it last year because mason screamed so much the year before. they were pretty good. mason did not want to have anything to do with santa. so funny. jen finally convinced him to sit next to santa by telling him he could get a thomas the train set for christmas. he reluctantly sat next to santa long enough to snap a photo, although he is leaning far away from him. dahlia was better. she smiled a little bit before crying for mama. bodhi was the champ. he loved sitting on santa's lap. i guess we know who is the good little kid this christmas.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

she is walking


dahlia is now walking. she is no longer just taking a few steps, but walking from one side of the room to the other. she just started this on thursday. she is a very cautious walker. she doesn't just go for it. she walks slowly and carefully. it is so fun to watch.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

so stylish


yes it is true. my little girl looks way more stylish than i do when we go out shopping. i am going to have to work on my look.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

shopping trips


this is my little girl after a long day of shopping. we have been doing lots of shopping lately. i know we have been shopping too much because every time we get into the car mason asks if we are going to toys r us. he thinks this is part of our routine. we have a ton of kids to buy for this year. it doesn't help that i am a very bad shopper. i just can't make a decision. i sit and debate every purchase far too long. this does not bode well with even the most patient people, and two little kids are not the most patient people. this has led to more than one melt down in a store. (theirs not mine, although i have come close). i am going to try to sit down tonight and do some good old fashioned internet shopping. that should help.

Friday, November 28, 2008

happy thanksgiving







i love thanksgiving. we host every year for the family. it is usually about 17 people including kids. we had a super fun thanksgiving. i hope you all had a fun one too. i think things went very smoothly this year. i was a bit worried that i was out of practice having missed last year, but it worked out great.

i love how the table looked this year. i get really excited planning the menu and decorations every year. jen suggested using clementines for a centerpiece and they were so cute. now that thanksgiving is over we can eat the arrangement. i love that. i also made some flower arrangements using white and green roses. so pretty. i thought they might clash with the clementines, but they looked great. i am thinking i will do something similar for christmas. maybe using crab apples. miles did a great job refinishing a small table and chairs for the kids table. it was so cute. we served everything buffet style and that worked out so much better than family style like we have in the past. everyone got their food much faster and with less confusion as in "i didn't get the mashed potatoes, did they get passed this way?"

the turkey was done early as usual. every year i put it in 30 minutes later and it is still the first thing done. i will figure it out one of these days. i had so much fun. i am usually a freak with all the stress and commotion of cooking for so many people, but i think the champagne helped ease my tension. thank you to everyone for all their help and for enjoying this beautiful day with us. now, it's time to plan christmas.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

one year old




happy birthday my dear baby dahlia. she is one today. we had a fun day. her aunt christina and cousin zena came over to help us celebrate. they brought their dog roxy. roxy had lots of fun running around the house. mason loves the puppy.

i really wanted to bake a cake for today, but i could just picture myself eating all of the leftovers and decided to buy tiny desserts instead. dahlia loved her little fruit tart. she ate all of the fruit. i was impressed.

we took her to her one year doctors visit two days ago and he told us we could start giving her whole milk. how crazy. we haven't tried it yet. i really want to ween her from breastfeeding, but i just couldn't start that on her birthday. we will start tomorrow. somehow i think it will be harder with her than mason. she seems more attached.

she is now 20 pounds 10 ounces, and 27 inches tall. that puts her at 25% for weight and 50% for height. she seems to be changing so much. she babbles all the time. i just love her adorable voice.

Friday, November 14, 2008

dahlia takes a step


dahlia took two steps in a row this week! my mother in law came over to visit and dahlia decided to show off for her. she has been taking one step here and there, but she took two steps and almost a third on thursday. i didn't get the two steps on film, but i did get one. here she is taking a step toward nora our housekeeper. dahlia is so close to walking. things are getting pretty exciting around here.

and this is what happens most of the time she tries to walk.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

wagon rides


i took a break from cleaning today to give the kids wagon rides. this new toy is a huge hit with the little ones. thanks mom and dad.

Monday, November 10, 2008

birthday party for baby



we celebrated dahlia's first birthday this weekend. she really doesn't turn one until the 22nd, but we host thanksgiving and i just couldn't handle two big parties within one week. my house is still a mess from this one. i really should be cleaning instead of blogging, but oh well. the party was lots of fun. i think dahlia had a great time. i worked really hard to make some cute decorations for it so everything looked adorable. we lucked out and the weather was super nice. we had set up all the tables outside. there was a great turnout. there were about 50 people. she is so popular. it was so fun to see all our friends and family. of course i didn't get enough time to talk with everybody. that is just how it goes when you are the host. dahlia was a perfect star, laughing and charming all the guests. thanks to everybody who helped us celebrate.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

party garland



i made this party garland for dahlia's birthday party. it turned out so cute. i cut out the fabric over the last two weeks. a little bit each day. there were lots of little tiny pieces all stacked in a box. then i just mixed them all up and sewed them together in one day. it was so fun to do. the pattern is from the purl bee party garland.

i also sewed a happy birthday sign. i did not use a pattern for this. this is my first sewing project that i improvised. the letters were hand stitched and rest was finished on the machine. i am hoping we can use it for many years.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

little chairs


these cute little chairs used to belong to my sister and me when we were kids. we have been cleaning out grandmas house and found them. they now have a new home here with my kids.

Friday, October 31, 2008

happy halloween



we had such a fun halloween. miles and i drove the kids to orange county to go trick or treating at my mom's house. mason dressed as captain hook and dahlia was tinker bell. they looked great. mason screamed when we were getting him dressed, and i wasn't sure if he would calm down enough to leave the house. giving him a sword seemed to help and then he stopped crying long enough to realize candy was involved with this plan. ohh candy. my niece zena came with us, and she kept us going at a fast pace. miles and i dressed up with them to make it more fun. my sister christina even dressed up her new puppy. the kids got tired pretty quick, but not before getting lots of candy that miles has claimed to be his. my favorite part of the holiday was when we got home and the kids were all tucked in bed. miles and i made cocktails and popcorn and put on a scary movie. yay.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

the jack-o-lantern



we finally carved our pumpkin today. we were sitting in bed tonight at 7:30 reading books, when it became clear to miles and i that the kids were not sleepy. so what to do. ah yes. lets carve the pumpkin. we all scrambled out of bed and headed to the kitchen for our project. miles did the carving and mason was the art director. i think he turned out so cute. best of all the project made the little ones sleepy so they were finally ready for bed.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

11 months


my little girl is 11 months old. she has been making me laugh lately. she has started to point at things she wants. my doll is getting quite demanding. this last month she learned how to stand. she can now stand pretty well and doesn't always fall down. she can now gracefully sit from a standing position. such control. i weighed her this morning and she is 20 pounds. oh my. i think it is time to shop for a new car seat. no more baby seat for this girl. she is almost a toddler. yikes.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

lunch with jen



we went back to my favorite lunch spot in the marina yesterday. tony p's. jen now has mondays off so we get to hang out. i had some clam chowder and a yummy salad. it was a perfect day. it would have been so nice to go sailing. hmmm. when am i going to get that sailboat?

Sunday, October 19, 2008

pumpkin patch



i took the kids to a pumpkin patch on saturday. my sister christina brought zena and her new dog roxy. i was so excited. a pumpkin patch! just like on the charlie brown special. well it turned out to be not so great. it was so hot out. it was 90 degrees. that is one thing about living in southern california that sucks. you have to wear shorts to the pumpkin patch. we were so sweaty, and there was a super long line for all the fun events like the pony rides and balloon animals. i think the kids had fun. we got to bring home a free pumpkin, and they each got a balloon animal. christina announced it was time to go home when they started the screaming contest into the microphone. what was that guy thinking? we decided to skip the pony rides, and go out to lunch.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

new puppy



my sister christina got a new puppy. we were so excited to meet the little girl. we drove down right away to see her. she is a puggle. a puggle is a cross between a beagle and a pug. she is so cute. my sister bought her online and had to pick her up at the airport on friday. they named her roxy stella. she is of course adorable. she will only get to be about 15-20 pounds. right now she is soo tiny. we all fell in love immediately. cheers to the newest member of the family.

haircut time




we took mason to get a haircut yesterday. people were starting to comment on how cute my daughters were so we thought maybe it was time. i was under strict orders from miles to not tell the hairdresser to keep his curls. i was good. i silently said my "it will grow back" mantra as i watched his hair get shorter and shorter. mason surprised us by not screaming at all this time. he sat quietly and played with the toys. when we got back to the car we both thought she cut it a little too short, but it will grow. he is so cute. he looks like a little man now.