Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Probably should have thrown a bash... but had a nice day nonetheless.

Happy 40th, Jeff!

mmmm... Gingerbread House!

I couldn't quite seem to come up with a good reason WHY you're not supposed to nibble on the cookie house with candy decorations.

anyone?

A Good Day

Liv shared breakfast with a Rainbow!

Our good friends, Leo, Carlota, Leo & Adriano came over for a visit.

Jeff let them drive!

There was a holiday party at the club house & Miss Sparkles the Clown performed for the kids.

Everyone enjoyed the show!!

Liv got to pick out her accessories before bed. Gotta love the lizard!!

Hope you had a good day, too!

Gingerbread House

Call me crazy... but this is a favorite Christmas tradition from when I was growing up! And we're have this beautiful new kitchen and are enjoying building up to Christmas in our new home this year!

So, I found pattern peices and recipes and notes from my Mom and Dad - which was a real treat! And my Aunt Carol sent me photos of her family's Gingerbread Houses -- a true inspiration -- Thanks Guys!!! And we were off & running:

First the cookie dough.

Then decorate the pieces.

Liv was impressed with my progress when she got up from nap.

Then construction and final decorating touches.

Happy Holidays, Everyone!!

All Vaccinated!

Liv and I drove into Alameda this am for a check up & Liv's second doses of her flu shots.

Cheese BALL!!

So we are both set for the Seasonal & H1N1.

SNOW??!!

So, I'm not sure exactly how unusual this is... but everyone assures me it's very rare.

It only snowed for an hour or two, but seems to have stuck for a while in the higher elevations. (We're at about 1200 ft)

A Quick Update

Hi, all! A brief update from our little corner of the world to yours...

We are happily embracing the Christmas spirit. Putting up some decorations we haven't had space for in years like this beautiful nativity my parents gifted to us.

We are little by little furnishing our new home. We've done most of our shopping on line and the UPS or FedEx truck is stopping by pretty regularly! which is such fun to have new stuff to see for the first time and make it part of our home and daily lives. We have a couple new rugs down, a few new paintings up, a couple new chairs built and doing their thing!

One of my favorites is "Mommy's New Rocking Chair" Liv and I cuddle here before bed with a couple books and some warm milk. It feels great on my pregnant back & I expect it to be my favorite nursing chair when Liv's little sister arrives in mid/late January.

I'm 33 (of 40) weeks along in the pregnancy. Feeling big! I thought I was going to loose it last week when I realized that I'd out-grown at least half of my maternity tops - Holy Crap! I'm really fortunate I don't have to get dressed for a professional atmosphere every day!! But everything is going great. I feel good! I'm not even too fatigued! Baby is active and growing. I have some preparations to do in the Baby-Gear department, but nothing too overwhelming.

Jeff is doing well. He returned Friday from his last travel for the year! I don't think there is another boiler outage scheduled until sometime in February!! Hoo-ray! He has an office at the local plant (about 20 minutes away) and usually goes there to work during the week. As much as I miss having him around all the time, it resolves a lot of the stress that we shared trying to facilitate his productivity with a toddler under foot. He took vacation over the T-giving week and got to get out golfing several days! He's enjoying the challenging courses they have here at Diablo Grande.

Liv is doing well! She's grown into 24 month/2T clothes - even though we still have to roll up the cuffs on some things! I bet she's still right around 25 pounds (although I don't know, for sure). She's seems to be developing very well. Of course, I think she seems very bright and clever - even though she hasn't shown too much of that vicious drive for independence that some toddlers develop... YET! For example, she's not super keen on trying to dress or undress herself - except for occasionally removing her shoes. And she is generally happy to ask for or accept help. I guess I'm ok with that! And while she does often get frustrated, she also is learning to remind herself to "try again." Which makes me very proud!

She's having a blast figuring out how stuff works and relates in the world. She's a good talker! Regularly stringing together sentences of 5 or more words. Playing around with verbs and tenses.

((She and Baby-to-Be share an Amazon wish-list here.))

Here she is observing the bread machine as it stirs the ingredients together!