Merry Christmas to all!

Hi everyone, so my resolve to blog more often is not looking too promising at this point but hey, can you blame a girl during the holidays? We've had lots of parties, that's for sure, most of which we've hosted. Maybe that's because the only parties we get invited to are the ones we throw. Anyway, it has been a great season - one in which I'm sad to see end. Although, I will say that I'm going to be happy to take a break from cooking, baking, and cooking some more. If the only thing I got for Christmas were restaurant gift certificates, I would be a happy camper!

So, on Mae's birthday this month, we found out that we're having another girl! Yes, even Rob is trying his best to be excited about the news. We've suddenly become aware of the only-girl families and Rob has quickly bonded with those dads. He has a new found liking for Title 9 with sports - hey maybe our daughters will both go to college on sports scholarships. Anyway, at least we can re-use all the cute clothes we got for Mae as a baby.

Mae has seen Santa twice this season and I'm sadly lamenting that both times, we didn't have our camera and the one time, our wonderful photographer aunt lost the pictures on her card. I was so looking forward to posting a picture of Mae with Santa but I guess that will have to be another year. She will be so disappointed in us as parents in thinking we never took her to see Santa when she was 2. She has told Santa that she wants a "Clifford doggie" which she has asked for for about 4 months now. Let's just hope Santa comes through. She has learned "Jingle Bells" and loves to sing it while taking all the tree ornaments off and placing them throughout the house. I have also misplaced the baby Jesus from our special nativity from Malaysia thanks to Mae and hope it turns up before I put all the decorations away.

Anyway, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope for a happy new year!

Big Sister Time!

We are trying our hardest to get Mae to think that it's going to be great to be a big sister. Yes, for those of you who don't know, we're adding another one to our ranks in mid April. We find out if it's a boy or girl next week and Mae thinks it's going to be a "baby sister" so we'll see if her prediction is right. At the moment, she has no desire to share the spotlight with anybody but at least lets me do my thing when she's playing with a friend. So...once this baby comes, I may be calling all of you with little ones to bring them over to play so she doesn't hate me and the new baby and we can have some peace.

We are very grateful this time of year for all the blessings in our lives. We are so lucky! We hope this season finds all of you well too. Eat lots of turkey this week and I want to know if anybody is crazy enough to get up early for shopping on black Friday! Have fun!

Okay, okay, worst blogger ever! Probably most of you have given up on us now but I am resolving to be better so expect more frequent blogs in the future. Anyway, we had a great Halloween this year. Mae actually got the concept of trick-or-treating (except she wanted to eat each piece of candy as she got it) and boy did she get a lot of candy! (Much to mom and dad's happiness!) We didn't even take her trick-or-treating the night of Halloween because she got so much at a trunk-or-treat neighborhood party the night before and a cubicle trick-or-treat at both daddy's and grandma's offices in the afternoon. She was loaded!

For Halloween this year, we decided to do something Rob did growing up at the Cowley's home. We projected Halloween cartoons onto our garage and set up blankets and chairs for everyone who passed by to sit and watch for a bit. We served doughnuts and hot chocolate and apple cider as our treats. It was a huge success! We had lots of friends stop by along with our great neighbors who almost stayed the duration of the evening as their small kids weren't ready for the marathon trick-or-treat yet. We had so much fun and Mae couldn't have been happier watching movies with her friends and stealing everybody's candy from their buckets when they were preoccupied watching the show. (I swear I didn't teach her that move!) Here are some pictures of the evening, along with Mae in her kitty cat costume - and might I add, she had a great "Meow" to go with the costume.
Hope everyone had a great holiday.

Vacation in Montana

Our annual trip to Montana this year was very much needed as we had just exhausted ourselves working on our new house. We had such a great time doing a whole lot of nothing mixed in with
some fishing, mining for sapphires and of course, the candy store!

The candy store is a huge, old fashioned candy store that pulls taffy, makes fudge and other yummy chocolate decadence, and has just about every kind of penny candy you can imagine. I feel like I've stepped into Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory every time I go there. Of course, the Kingsford family likes to go just to see my reaction because the first time I went, I about hyperventilated from the joy I felt! Mae liked it too. She filled her own candy bag and I was very happy to see she picked a lot of sugar free candy - of course she didn't know what that meant at the time but it sort of softened the blow as she began diving into her treasure trove.

We love staying with Janet and Larry, Tom's aunt and uncle. They always host such a good trip for us and make us feel so welcome at their beautiful cabin on the lake. This was certainly another great year!

Family Fun

Yeah! We are finally beginning to feel settled into our new house. Now, we actually have time to enjoy the summer and get out a bit. A few weeks ago, we decided to have the family over for a bbq in celebration of moving in. The cousins were entertained the whole night by Mae and the fact that she jumped into her little pool fully clothed, got more popsicle down the front of her than in her mouth, and pretended that she was a dog for awhile - and this is just regular behavior, not a show for the cousins. Now you know what our daily life is like with this little one!

Phew...we're still alive!

Hello friends and family,
I know, as many of you have attested, I am a crappy blogger - hence the title of my last blog, about 2 1/2 months ago. We have been working like crazy on our new house and have finally moved in, sort of settled ourselves, and are working to finish up a few more projects. My painting skills have really blossomed since I've probably put about 20-30 gallons of paint on the walls in the house, walls, ceilings, trim, furniture - you name it, I have painted it. Rob, on the other hand, has had the fun jobs, tiling, demo work, hardwood floor installation, finish carpentry ( his favorite!) and other odds and ends that needed to be done. He has really made the house look amazing. Honestly, this has taken over our lives and we haven't gotten out much. No summer trips, no going to the movies, not even TV which was really hard with all the season finales of our favorite shows. Except we did find time to watch "Lost" which we are still talking about. Anybody have ideas about it? We had a bunch of pictures of the house and of Mae, etc but we took them on Rob's little brother's camera and then lost it...oops. Hopefully he has a backup of all his pictures from his trip to Germany last summer.

Mae is talking up a storm. The other weekend, we were driving to Casey Kaiser's wedding celebration and I was trying to do Mae's hair. I broke the elastic and said, "Oh shoot!" and she proceeded to say that the rest of the night. The only problem is that it comes out like another word that means pretty much the same thing but most people would be mortified if they heard their child repeating. Well, what can you do? She also is very practiced in her animal noises, and loves to recognize letters. We hope to be reading by the end of the year. (Just kidding) She loves running around in circles in the new house and thinks it's funny to be chased. She also is quite the fashion plate - she loves her "shades" this summer and can't have enough shoes. Boy, are we in trouble! Her one fun thing we've done this summer is swimming, or getting squirted by the hose in the front yard. It doesn't matter, as long as it involves water, she is there and loving it.

Well, enough of our boring lives - hopefully in the next few months, there will be more to blog about than our stupid remodel. Okay, it really has turned out great but we're pretty ready for normal life again so please don't think we've fallen off the planet and give us a call.

I know, I am a crappy blogger

Hello Friends and Family,
I know what you're all going to say, that Suzanne and her family aren't very good bloggers - it's been over a month since she last posted anything. To tell you the truth, life has been very crazy but with boring stuff - nothing really worth blogging about. We have been trying to make the deal on our new house close all the while, trying to keep our house clean for house showings to try and sell our little home. (Try keeping a house clean with a toddler following at your feet pulling out everything you just put away!) We've packed up lots of our stuff to try and de-clutter our house and it is strange how if feels like less of a home now. I am going to miss out little place.

Mae had a great Easter. (I know Easter was like 3 weeks ago but i had good intentions) She found a few eggs on the lawn, and was very content just opening them up, organizing the pieces and lining up her pieces of candy. All the while, mass chaos ensured around her as cousins hunted for eggs, Rob and his uncle had an egg toss competition, and the dogs chased one another. She was oblivious! Good thing the egg from the egg toss didn't crack on her head. We were very excited to get a zoo pass from Grandma and Grandpa Kingsford so we've tried it out a few times and Mae loves it! She especially likes the giraffe, gorillas, and monkeys. We hope that will keep us somewhat busy this summer.

Anyway, I hope you are all well. I love how blogging connects me with people who I wouldn't normally have a chance to talk to in this little cyber world. Please stay in touch and come see our new house soon. (And send buyers our way if you have any for our darling house!)

The end of an era...

Hello everyone,
This week has been a whirlwind for us and now that I'm trying to process what has happened, there are many mixed emotions involved. We decided to buy a new home, just literally down the street from the one where we currently live. We will even still carry the Bryan street address which sounds kind of crazy but hey, we can't bear to leave! This new house is one that we can hopefully be in for awhile and will be able to have our kids (no I only have one right now and none on the way, but some day) grow up with lots of other kids right on the same street. We are so excited!

At the same time, it is hard to say good-bye to our old home that has so many fun memories associated with it. We have loved this "good ol' house" and have had fun fixing it up so it feels like home. So, at any rate, if any of you know someone who wants to move into the Foothill area, we would love to sell it to a great person! More updates to come as we start remodeling the new house. It isn't officially ours until the middle of April so cross your fingers and toes that we survive selling the house, remodeling, moving and all the rest!

Mae is a pistol these days and we've officially entered that stage where you can't take her anywhere anymore. We tried to go to Pei Wei for dinner the other night and she threw a fit in the restaurant, in the middle of eating, so we threw our dinner in cartons and got out of there as soon as possible! What a horrible experience! It's a good thing she's so dang cute, otherwise I might sell her to the circus.

A long time in coming!

Okay, so I know that I've received a lot of flack for not posting since before Christmas. January and February have been busier than usual, which I guess is a good thing. I don't know what made it so busy though, as nothing really new and wonderful is happening in our lives. We are in the process of redoing our kitchen - well, just new countertops and a backsplash. It is so thrilling for me to be able to wipe off the kitchen counter and swish the crumbs right into the kitchen sink without it getting stuck in grout, and the lip on the sink. (Both of which are not gone as the conters are granite and we have an under mount sink.) Some of you might know what I'm talking about and others of you will just think I'm crazy for loving the clean swish. But at any rate, it is wonderful!
Mae is keeping us on our toes and is discovering the joy of being naughty. She still eats dog food and splashes in the dog water, she fishes things out of the garbage can, she pulls all the books off of the shelves and tries to run away from us whenever we're in church, a store, etc. I guess it's good that she is very sociable. We have decided, on many occasions that we are going to be inactive church members because going to church is the biggest challenge of the week. It seems like the longest three hours ever! But everyone else at church thinks it's cute that Mae runs around - I'm glad that someone does! My favorite thing that she does right now - just in time for valentines day - is blow kisses. However, it is a bit different how she goes about expressing her affection. She sticks her index finger in her mouth and pulls it out to make the kiss noise. She tried to blow kisses the regular way but didn't know how to make the sound so she has figured that the sound is the most important and has mastered it with perfection! It really is quite amusing. Well, have I talked enough about my child to make you all think I'm that proud mom that brags about her kids? I hope not.
I did feel like I was truly initiated into motherhood a few weeks ago though as Mae had her first flu. She puked all over me multiple times and we were up the entire night. Then, in the following days, I was up to my elbows in poop and to top it all off, Rob got the flu and couldn't really help out. It is a week I hope not to relive for awhile. But there is something about those days that really makes you feel like a true mommy! Enough with the gross stuff though, I'll attach some recent photos of the little squirt!