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!

Tis' the Season for Celebration

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas everyone. We hope all our friends and family are having a great holiday season. We have been busy getting ready for Christmas, baking lots of treats, wrapping goodies, having parties and trying to get our shopping done. I feel like I'm on that old game show "Supermarket Sweep" every time I go shopping. Mae can only last so long before she has a little meltdown in the store so I plan my list out strategically and make a dash for it once she's situated in the cart. Our experience at Target last week was comical. I was running all around the store, shoving fruit snacks in her mouth as we went and ended up throwing things in my basket that I didn't even want. And in the checkout line, as we were nearing the end of Mae's rope, she grabbed for my shopping list and started to eat it. I figured, a little fiber never hurt anybody so I let her chow down and proceeded to empty my cart to be rung up. The lady in back of me said, "Excuse me, did you know your daughter is eating paper?" I told her I'm sure she thought I was a terrible mom but at that point, I'd do whatever it took to buy me a couple more minutes to get out of the store. She thought for a second and then said, "I understand, I've done it with four of my own kids." Oh boy! Hopefully we're almost done with the Christmas shopping for the holiday.

We also celebrated Mae's first birthday on December 2nd. We had a party with family and were all excited to see Mae go to down on her cake. Much to our surprise, she didn't know what to do with it just sitting there on her tray. She poked at it for a few minutes and licked a little frosting off her fingers. Once I cut it into pieces like I do with all her food, then she went crazy! We had a great time celebrating even though she didn't know what the heck was going on.

Anyhow, we hope life finds you all well and happy. Merry Christmas!

Fall is in the air

Hello everyone,
We have had some fun these past few weeks. For Halloween, Mae was Pebbles Flintstone and we went as Fred and Wilma Flintstone. Mae had fun but she obviously didn't get what was going on. But she sure has loved playing in the leaves with her cousins and all the other days that I have been raking. We have been loving the great weather and are a little sad to see the cold come. But the changing seasons means Mae's birthday is coming up soon!

Dance DanceRevolution

Well tonight was our last night with Grandma and Grandpa Wood before their departure to the Singapore Mission. Mae pulled out all of the stops to show off one last time. Enjoy

The verdict is in !!!

People always ask us who we think Mae looks like more - Rob or Me. Neither of us could really tell because some days she looks like a Kingsford and other days, she looks like a Wood. I guess this is the reason - Mae is almost right in the middle. We would like to think that she has the best of both genes but who knows.

For anybody looking for a fun thing to do to waste time, go to www.myheritage.com and you can do the look-alike meter and see what celebrities you look most like. I know we've had a good waste of time on this rainy, Saturday evening.

The green toilet gets a face lift

We finally finished our bathroom this week! (Okay, Rob really did all the work) It is awesome and I love the green toilet even more now. Its nice to have two bathrooms again as well. I'm not sure that I would suggest having one bathroom in a house - I definitely think that having two bathrooms eliminates some frustrations. Anyway, enough of that. We are getting ready for my parents to leave on their mission. They leave for the MTC one week from today. I can't believe that it's almost here. We are surely going to miss them.