2nd Annual Cookie Exchange

Last year I had a small cookie exchange a few days after Caitlin was born and it was a blast. My friend Kaari down in Santa Clara throws one every year and I love it, so I decided to host another one this year up in our neck of the woods. I think it is becoming one of my favorite holiday events!

We had 20+ guests this year, compared to last year's four or five and I LOVED the diversity in the creations! Of course I realized at the end of the night that I never took pictures of any of my friends... just their food :)

Our friend Jeremy drove up to be a cookie judge... along with these two crazy kids. Andrew thought it was so fun to have his own cookie party in his room. The train table has many uses :)

To minimize the sugar overload, we had a lovely appetizer spread too. Some of the guests brought delicious things (spinach artichoke dip, spinach balls, bruschetta, cheese plate, taquitos) to share and I made a bean dip, baked brie, and cranberry meatballs. Yum, yum, yum!

My neighbor Sahar made her first batch of cookies- EVER! So exciting... so I had to snap a picture!

I found cute snowmen platters for everyone to load up their cookies on to take them home.

Midway through the night Kevin and Jeremy came down with their little Andrew helper and awarded prizes- 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. They picked some great cookies, though they were all amazing.

At the end of the night we cleaned up and Jeremy gave me a mini photo tutorial on my camera... since I don't really know how to use it yet.

Kevin was my practice subject with my portrait lens. :) (not sure what the lens is actually called?)

I already started the morning off with a few cookies :)

What a fun night! Can't wait till next year!

Remembering a great lady!

Kevin's sweet Great Aunt June passed away about two weeks ago. Today we had the opportunity to celebrate her life at a memorial service down in Cupertino with friends and family. When we lived in Santa Clara she lived a few blocks away from us in an assisted living home and we really enjoyed getting to know her... and especially introducing her to Andrew.

One of my favorite Aunt June memories was when I took her to vote in the November 2008 Presidential Election. She greeted me all decked out in her patriotic clothes and earrings... and we drove over to Cupertino where her home was and voted. Her enthusiasm and accessories paired with Andrew's cute smiles made them the most popular pair at the voting polls.

We also had several fun visits in June's apartment with Andrew- who loved getting into all of her stuff when he was a baby. He was always a big hit with all of the residents when we went to dinner in the dining room too. 

After today's memorial we ate some treats and spent time with some of her family and friends. Kevin's mom and his Aunt Inez flew into town briefly for the event, so it was fun to see them too!

Aunt June will be missed!

Kevin with his 2nd cousins (Judy and Janet's kids)

Inez, Janet, Shari with Catie, and Judy (Janet & Judy are Shari's cousins and June's daughters)

This little cutie was such a good sport despite going to the memorial service instead of taking a nap. She made loads of friends and waved at everyone. It was so adorable!

Google PSO Holiday Party 2011

Last year I didn't get to go to the Google PSO Holiday Party because I had just had Caitlin... so this year I was super excited to go. 

Last night we trekked into SF to party. The event was held at the San Francisco Design Center and was beautiful. They had these acrobats hanging from huge white drapery things doing all sorts of twists and turns. It reminded me of Cirque du Soleil. Everything was decorated in white and sparkles and they even had a screen that was showing digital snow... so I felt like I was part of a winter wonderland.

My favorite part about Google parties is the food. Last night did not disappoint... though I realized I didn't snap any pictures. 

They had several food stations (1-2 on each floor) and then people walking around with food on trays too. I don't think I managed to try everything, but what I did try was really good.

My favorite station was the Asian station- chow main cooked in a big wok right in front of us, chicken on little skewers, lettuce wraps, and several other little appetizers similar to spring rolls. The chow mein was served in mini Chinese take-out containers... and I went back several times to get more. Yum!

They also had a tapas station, a Latin station, and of course, a dessert station... in addition to a bar on each of the four floors. Kevin loved the mini sliders. The dessert station had Cheescake cake pops and different flavored little cookie dough balls... among other things. Mmm!

They also had photo booths with different crazy hats all over the building... so we got a few pictures.

I went home full and had a great time talking with Kevin's work friends and their wives. 

Caitlin's 1yr appointment

I had a rough morning today. The best way to cheer me up is to look at pictures of this little cutie.

Despite her little tantrums, she makes me so happy! She LOVES me and a loves her "da!' I love how she crawls all over the house looking for Kevin saying, "da" or "dada."

She is also making great progress with walking. I think she's taken 15 steps in a row once or twice... 

My favorite time of the day is when she is drinking her bottle. She'll just grab it and lie down wherever she is.... and then she grabs her hair and holds it. She gets in this same position to go to sleep at night... except she sticks her thumb in her mouth.

She sucks her thumb so hard that she now has a blister on it :( 

This week she's been fabulous and has gone to bed at 6pm and has slept in till 8 or 8:30am. I am getting spoiled! I'm sure she won't do it this weekend, but I have definitely enjoyed a few relaxing mornings this week.

We had her 1 yr appointment on Monday and it was fun to see how much she has grown!

Her newest stats are below(compared to 9 months):

Weight- 22.87lbs (80%)

Height- 30.5 in (90%)

I can't believe how much she has grown!

Here's to another awesome year with this little cutie!

Decorating

Kevin and Andrew got our tree all set up tonight while I arranged our nativity set on my pretty new sideboard. It is so nice not to have it all squished together on our piano!

Aren't they such cuties?

We also had a bit of fun goofing around and then got the little man to bed way too late! He is an expert at slyly not getting to bed.

I am excited to get some ornaments on the tree tomorrow... hopefully? If there is time? I don't know where my time goes these days... but I seem to have none.

My favorite part of Christmas at my house is adding the lighted garlands (is that grammatically correct? lit garlands?)... I love my white stairs with garlands. Now I just need to add the bows.

I am hoping we are finally decorated by Christmas. It has been slow going this year...

Can't wait to see Cate's reaction to the tree tomorrow. I hope she doesn't knock it over. Today she discovered my apothecary jar full of Hershey's kisses that was a little too low on the shelf and now it is broken. :( I had to eat all of the Hershey kisses too. It was a rough night :)

Catie's Mommy and Me Birthday Luncheon

(I deleted any address info, so the invite looks a little off)

Alright... well maybe the party was more for me than her, but I think she had a pretty good time too :)

It was fun to put up a photo banner with pics from each month all year long and see how much she has changed!

Since Catie's birthday is in December, I thought it would be fun to have a little Christmas luncheon with a few of my friends who also have kids that are close in age. We sent Andrew and Kev off to a preschool event and Super Franks, and had fun spending the afternoon with friends!

The babies had some extra special things set up for them to explore and play with...

And I got to use all of my Christmas dishes! (I am still hand-washing them all... but it was worth it)

The babies played and ate and the moms chatted, ate, and kept the kids from attacking one another. It was a lot of fun.

Kaari stepped in as master bubble woman and I was so grateful. I can't blow bubbles (even easy ones) to save my life.

We sang "Happy Birthday" and had yummy ice cream cake. My goal is to make Catie like all of my favorite treats so that we can have a giant birth month from Nov 23-onward till Christmas celebrating :)

Friends came from close by and a few trekked across the bay. I managed to only snap photos of Liz and Henry though. Catie LOVES Baby Henry!

I had fun decorating for the party and think that we're going to keep the red and green polka dot garlands and birthday banner up all month long. Every time I see the birthday banner it reminds me that December is also a time to celebrate Jesus' birthday.

We did salads from CPK for the moms and the babies got to eat Catie's favorite baby snacks.

In addition to ice cream cake we also had a few other December favs- peppermint brownie bites and Mrs. Fields nibblers (which I like ALL year long).

The best part of the weekend was that Elise and Baby Olivia were able to come for the Mommy and Me fun! Catie and Olivia are going to be such adorable buddies when they are older. They already just get so excited when they see each other!

We sent guests home with our favorite bubbles and spent the afternoon after they left openings adorable gifts. Catie has so many generous friends!

It was so nice to celebrate this little one who has filled our year with joy!

Stay tuned for more birthday fun when I have time to post later today... the little cutie partied from Thursday to Sunday! I am still recovering... and so is my house. Instead of doing dishes, I am blogging. :)

I wasn't super mom today

But we did celebrate this little cutie's b-day and we really tried to have fun.

At the end of the day when I was in tears from the tantrums, fighting, lack of naps, and all around grumpiness (plus getting hit really hard in the face from my sweet Andrew)... I decided we needed a do-over.

I was at a meeting till 10:30pm Wed. night, then tried to finish up birthday fun for Catie, but felt terrible from the cold I am still trying to kick... so just went to bed (after drowning my exhausted sorrows in chocolate pie). Hopefully we'll all wake up happier and healthier tomorrow!

Tomorrow is going to be like Groundhog's Day, but instead it will be Catie's birthday groundhog's day... We'll call it her Birth-Weekend instead of her birthday. Wish me luck. I think starting off with a dark shower and no electricity definitely put me on the wrong side of the bed from the getgo this morning!

PS- G&G Smith and Kathren, Catie LOVED the presents. I have lots of photos I'll post later this weekend.