Aa, A, K & M

november catch up

2012-01-23T22:50:00.000-08:00

just a had to share highlights from november...cause some good stuff happened!

maya moved from her mattress on the floor to her big girl bed (this may have happened at the very end of october...i can't remember)! it's been a seamless transition - she's yet to fall off the bed. i'm pretty sure since she spent the first two years of her life nestled in between aa and i, she was used to sleeping in one spot (meaning she never moved around in a crib all night long!). you can't see it here in this picture, but she actually uses her boppy as a pillow. i imagine she has lots of good association with that boppy and it also feels like she's being cradled in someone's arms (hooray for them not being mine all. night. long!).

in early november aa and i took a much needed weekend away sans kidlets. this would be our first time away from maya for more than one night (she had done that a few times when we moved and for our last anniversary). we hit the road mid day on friday so we could get down to the beach with enough time for a little happy hour at the salishan lodge, another beer at the salishack (a sweet, coasty dive bar) and then dinner at the side door (with our favorite pan fried oysters to start!). we basically did nothing the rest of the weekend but lounge, nap, catch up on magazines, watch movies or football (including an awesome duck win over stanford), snuggle on the couch and eat good food. oh and we did make it over to the lodge for a couple of swims/hot tubs. it was incredible to have some one on one time with each other (something that is SO hard to find with two kids...but SO important). the weekend was not quite as relaxing for the grandparents...sadly both kids slept terribly and were up multiple times in the night. much fun was had, but it might be awhile before we get another weekend away! :(

kellen and i raked (played in) a lot of leaves - the con to living in a neighborhood with LOTS of trees! truth be told, kellen and i rakes some leaves and aa raked a LOT of leaves! ;)

my gram was in town for a couple of visits and my kids had so much fun with "drammy". it brings me such joy to see my kids loving my gram so much. i can remember (and still do) loving my gram and grandpa so much that it hurt...literally, we'd SOB after leaving their house. i only wish my grandpa was still alive, cause i know they'd have so much fun with him and he'd love loving on them too.

kellen wrapped up about six months of semi-private swim lessons at the farber swim school. he grew so much in those six months and i was so proud to see how far he'd come. he's much more confident in the water now (although still doesn't love his face to go under water) and we're hopeful that when we start up again in the spring that he'll step right back where we left off. poor maya was demoted to playing in the hot tub...we couldn't seem to get a schedule with the instructor and our swimmate that aligned so we could do a mommy and me class while kellen did his lessons - hopefully that will also happen when we start up again in the spring!

maya potty trained this month! this girl was actually ready to potty train in july/august (going potty on the toilet 3-4 times a day without being asked), but with the pending move and because she wasn't even two i didn't think it was possible and was too afraid to make the plunge! after we settled into the house, she was no longer so eager...but during the first week of november, her interest peaked again and i took the opportunity to say goodbye to the diapers. she was diaper free for a week before spending the weekend at her grandparents (nov 12/13), but that wasn't really fair to ask someone else to forgoe diapers in her first week, so she wore diapers that weekend. once we got home that sunday, i packed up the diapers and we haven't looked back. she basically trained herself and is practically night trained as well. i can't tell you how happy we are to no longer change/wash diapers. now if we could just figure out how to get them to wipe themselves we'd really be set! btw, her favorite undies are these pink ones pictures - those are apples on them and she calls them her "undies apples". she'd wear those undies every day if she could! as soon as she takes them off she says "wash my undies apples please mama!". she also has "undies stripes", "undies flowers", and "undies swirls".

and this post is suddenly WAY too long and i haven't even hit on thanksgiving! i think i'll end on potty training and come back for a little turkey and pumpkin pie.

iPad killed my blog!

2012-01-18T23:39:00.000-08:00

well...not really, cause i'm trying to revive it! but aside from life (which is crazy busy with two littles), i blame the purchase of the ipad with the decline in my blogging. you see, pre-ipad i actually had to go into my office and sit down at my desktop to do anything on the internet...so it forced me to post to my blog. now, i can pretty much do anything on my ipad (pinterest, blog reading, facebooking, words with friends...yes, it can be a problem!) except easily post to my blog. well, i could easily post...but not easily add pictures and what's a blog with no pictures?

so, i need to find a way to bring this blog back to life and i'm working on that (have a lot of things to work on at the moment though...so we'll see how it goes!). i have so much to catch up on over the last few months - most importantly a certain someone in this house turned FOUR! four...are you kidding me?

despite the lack of attention on this blog, he was showered with celebrations for nearly a week. first off on the night of his birthday he chose sushi for dinner. so our little foursome ventured out to the neighborhood sushi train (which was rumored to be pretty good) and enjoyed a feast of sushi. rolls, edamame, noodles and sesame balls. it was quite exciting for the birthday boy to grab the little plates off of the rotating conveyor belt. sadly, i brought my camera sans memory card...so no pics of my sweet birthday boy's sushi outing. afterwards we went to peachwave to get a froyo with unlimited toppings (faves include: popping boba's, m&m's, anything gummy and of course sprinkles)! we brought it home and did a little cupcake/candle and singing action.

family shot...so hard to get all four looking good!

the next day was the day he celebrated his birthday at school. it was my day to work in the classroom and in honor of his birthday we brought mini ice cream cones from trader joes. they were a hit in the classroom. he was given a birthday crown to wear and got to pick out a book from the birthday basket - which of course was the highlight for my book loving boy! instead of rushing back to pick up maya, i took him on a little birthday lunch date at mcmenamins.

finally the weekend arrived and it was time for his par-tay...a fire station party to be specific. portland fire and rescue rents out their historic belmont firehouse (no longer a functioning station) for events. the highlight was getting to sit in the real fire engine and to slide down the fire pole. well, the fire pole wasn't really kellen's highlight (he made it to the top of the pole only to turn around and say no thank you), but it was a highlight for many of his friends! what fun to celebrate with some of his closest friends - including our baby and me group (6 of us who all had babes around the same time and used to attend the hospital based support group for new mamas!).

firefighter cousins sam and maisy!

playing in the firetruck with best bud, max (from nike)

the kids on the tour listening to the real firefighter lecture them about fire safety

the cake...by beaverton bakery

my boy...too nervous to go down the fire pole he'd been talking about ALL week!

~~max~~ TILDEN! going down for his fourth time before he had to be cut off!

mama's two babies!

daddy helping him to blow out the candles (must have taken 10 tries!)

the next day we had a family dinner and his choice of meal was chili bar. i made two kinds of chili - regular red chili with beef and italian sausage and a white bean, green chili and chicken chili. of course lots of toppings were offered, including chips, sour cream, avocado, tomato, hot sauce, green onion and cilantro. we followed the chili bar up with a little ice cream cake (again with lots of toppings) and a few special gifts from family. what a lucky boy to be loved by so many. needless to say, by the end of the week we were a bit birthday'ed out.

k blowing out candles one last time

papa, b and k

"dancing/running in circles"

baby sammy, sarah and grandma

it's crazy to think our boy is four years old - he's a full blown kid now, who can carry on a real conversation, who loves loves loves books (and also tv!), who is sweet, cautious, kind and sensitve...with a bit of a stubborn side, who is open to trying new things, but often needs a little reassurance, who is fascinated with learning about new things, who wants to know all the details of your day, but not so willing to share the details of his (when we are apart), who is gentle and protective of his little sister (except when he's not, which is about 15% of the time!), who loves his family, who has a hard time picking a favorite of anything - it's ALL his favorite, who is a little on the shy side, especially with new people, who has one of the most contagious and genuine smiles, who can't wait to run as fast or be as big as his daddy (it's almost a daily conversation...when will i be as big as daddy, when will i wear the same size shoe as daddy, when will i be as fast as daddy?!), who still loves thomas and also cars the movie charactors, who has really good hair, who is a puzzle master, who is my "snuggle bug forever" (according to him!!!) and who is FOUR! it makes me want to smile and cry at the same time. i know they say time flies, but i really can remember that day we brought him home from the hospital (to a 55 degree house...brrr!) like it was yesterday (and yes, i did want to return him to the hospital in a brief moment of hormone and sleep deprivation insanity). we love you sweet boy!

halloween

2011-11-06T23:42:00.000-08:00

ok...not too bad, just a little under a week since halloween and i'm getting my post up! i'm on a roll. halloween was super fun this year - both kids were really into it. involved in picking out their costumes, racing from door to door for trick or treats and of course, gobbling up as much candy as possible. ugh.

kellen decided this year he would be a train - he wavered between james, busy as a bee james, thomas and finally landed on percy. with the move just behind us, we had plenty of boxes, so i googled thomas the train costumes and came up with some great tutorials for creating a train out of some boxes, hot glue and paint. i got right to work on cutting out the pieces and while maya napped, k and i worked on painting and gluing.

mr percy the train (with face painted by grandma!)

when maya found out kellen would be percy, she quickly decided she would be ata hat...aka sir topham hatt. the round, friendly head of all the trains on thomas and friends. ever since our "day out with thomas" adventure in hood river, she has had a mild obsession with ata hat. everytime halloween was mentioned she would declare "ata hat!". so ata hat it was. i ordered a kid's size top hat off amazon and went out to search the second hand stores for a little boys suit. after no luck, i happened to be talking with a mom of kellen's friend and she mentioned that his favorite thing was to wear a suit that his dad had bought for him. lucky for us...we were able to borrow the suit jacket and that almost completed our costume. i had found a little yellow shirt at goodwill that i cut into the shape of a suit vest, a black piece of felt tied into a tie and some grey pants, white shirt and black shoes that are part of our every day wardrobe rounded out our little miss sir topham hatt.

here's a side by side with the real sir topham hatt and our little miss topham hatt...not too bad! actually super cute! she put the costume on at 1 in the afternoon to go visit our old neighbor and didn't take it off until late into the evening!

miss maya topham hatt

the "real" sir topham hatt

maya topham hatt and torsten the big red dog!

miss topham hatt and percy the train

trick or treat!

maya and daddy in line for trick or treat

kellen unfortunately found it pretty difficult to run from house to house with his percy costume on...so off it came and we hauled that thing all around the neighborhood. note to self: no more cardboard box costumes. they are super cute and impressive, but not realistic and will promptly be discarded in favor of keeping up with the friends for more candy! on the plus side, we now have a real fun percy costume/toy that has gotten some good playtime post-halloween and it was a fun project for us both!

the crew mid trick or treating!

for the second year in a row, we met up with our "baby and me" friends...tilden and torsten, tom and wes, kellen and maya, sydney, henry...just missing hadley. we all enjoyed a great halloween feast of pulled pork, sweet potato fries and other yummy treats prior to heading out to trick or treat in the ladd's addition neighborhood. it's so much fun to see how much more into it the kids are each year.

post trick or treat...and they ALL chose to eat a sucker!

the loot!

on a sugar high in their new halloween jammies!

fail.

2011-11-01T22:03:00.000-07:00

aye aye aye...big time fail in the blog department! what can i say, moving, the start of preschool, two kids, a bit of work, life, birthdays and halloween has all taken precedence over blogging. i have such good intentions, but just can't seem to make it to the computer to bang out a blog post. so here is a big dump...

we moved! it's already been seven weeks. yikes. the house is slowly starting to feel like our home and not a vacation house that we are borrowing for a week. the odd, not our smell of the house is going away and it's starting to feel familiar. i'm becoming less nostaglic for our old house - in fact was over visiting our old neighbors and didn't even pay too much attention to our old house (other than to see if they were keeping up the yard work!). it's feeling comfortable. now if we could just get ALL the boxes unpacked, ALL the pictures on the walls, some decisions on more paint colors, and buy a few (or more) things that we need...we'd be in even better shape!

the kids have adjusted really well. especially maya who...HALLELUJAH!!!...is sleeping in her own big girl bed. it was a thousand times easier than we anticipated, considering she slept every single night of her almost two year life in our bed and practically in my arms. she more often than not sleeps through the night and if she does wake up, it's best if aa goes in to get her settled as he can be in and out in a few minutes (as long as he doesn't fall asleep on the floor!). she prefers us to lay and snuggle her until she is asleep when going to bed, but aa and i both now snuggle her for a few minutes and then tell her "i'll be right back" to leave her on her own to fall asleep. i actually have to tell her that i need to brush my teeth and i'll be right back and that will somehow alleviate any tears. i won't lie...sometimes i miss her...but i couldn't be more thrilled to have our bed back. it's such a treat and my back and neck are happy too! kellen has been pretty good, although the combination of a too scary halloween story and a new house with new noises and shadows has had him a little fearful and calling out for us to make sure no one was coming in and that the shadows were nothing to be afraid of...err. just when we get one sleeping better the other has trouble!

i took a picture of each of the kids in their bed before we moved and then a shot of each of the kids fast asleep in their own new rooms on their own new beds (really mattresses on the floor at the time!).

to make things really exciting...the week we moved was also kellen's first day of preschool! it was a big day and i won't lie...i felt a little emotional, but let's face it...i dropped him off at stringer (the nike child development center) for 9-10 hours a day, four days every week for 2 full years. but, we had been home together for the last full year and it definitely seems like such a milestone! we chose a great, play-based preschool called small friends. it's pretty hands on, as the parents volunteer in the school once every 4-5 weeks (which i really love) and the teachers seem wonderful (have been there for 15 and 20+ years). he is loving it and i think we both wish it was either a little longer or at least one more day per week. right now in the younger class he goes just tuesday/thursday from 8:30-11:45. he will often ask us if it's a school day yet! here are some pics from his first day:

big preschooler - ready to tackle the first day of school...after the first night in our new house!

little sister getting in on the picture taking action...notice the lock box still on the door and maya's pj's and crocs!

getting comfortable in the classroom with dad at the potato head table

maya running through the halls of kellen's school!

in other news, aa and i both turned 35 in october...sounds sorta old, but we really don't have time to dwell on it. and i honestly don't have any problem with getting older (at least yet!). definitely feels like a milestone...so much closer to 40! we talked about taking a little trip - maybe to sf...but it's looking like we'll take a kid-free night or two to the beach and save our pennies for the house. it's crazy to think that when we met we were 19 (nearly 20) years old...and yet here we are, solidly in our mid-thirties, with two little darlings and a lot to be thankful for - especially each other!

...and how could i even mention my birthday without mentioning our big TWO year old??? i'm sure this deserves a post of it's own...but let's be honest, if i wait it might not happen! ugh. october 21st is really about my girl. i can hardly believe she's two...it's flown by and yet feels like she came into this world just yesterday. she's the sweetest, fiestiest thing ever. she weighs 21 pounds 10 ounces...actually up to 24th percentile on the growth chart, but still quite a peanut. her height is 32 inches (and i didn't catch the percentile on that one...typically second child slight!). some of her favorite phrases are: "me do it" or "maya do it" (and watch out if you don't let her!), "how about me" (or how about maya/nellen/mama/dada...the girl is always looking out for her fam!), "no, nellen" (her second version of kellen...at first it was nennen) and "go duckies!". she has very strong opinions about almost everything...especially what she wears and what she eats. she talks up a storm, loves her big brother, is both a mama's girl and daddy's girl...but at different times. her favorite books in the last few months are: 10 little dinosaurs, my car, baby faces and baby born. her two year molars have yet to make an appearance. she loves to eat protein (chicken, turkey, salami, eggs, peanut butter...straight from the jar!) and isn't a huge fan of whole grains, although rice is pretty good. she's a total junk food junkie - chips, candy, cookies, chocolate, cupcakes, ice cream...you name it, she doesn't seem to have ANY problem eating any of those options. she LOVES babies...and will randomly name off her favorite babies - baby tato, baby adelynn, baby molly, baby nammy, etc. she doesn't however love baby dolls or really anything very "girly". anything her brother loves - she loves. for example, thomas the train, lightning mcqueen, etc. she'll push trains or cars around in her little doll stroller all day long. when given an option to do anything, she will usually ask to play trains and build tracks...just like her nellen.

all she wanted for her birthday was ime meam (ice cream) and bawoons (balloons)...so because I did nothing for her for her first birthday (well a little family party...but nothing with any friends) and since we had just moved...we invited some of her favorite baby friends and some of my favorite mamas over to a playdate birthday party...complete with ime cream sundaes and a balloon animal making clown. the clown was a hit with most of the kids...although it did frighten a couple of them! it was utter chaos with 19 children 3.5 and younger, but loads of fun. maya wasn't sure at first, but warmed up right away. and after talking for weeks about wanting balloons...was too overwhelmed by it all to want one when it was time.

and here she is...hiding behind the couch, not so certain of what is going on with the clown!

"two!!!" ...and those are rice crispy treats, orange because of the strange pumpkin marshmallows the kids picked out!

on sunday, we ended the birthday celebrations with a family birthday lunch...full of paninis, homemade soups and ice cream cake with yummy toppings!

topping choices, minus the gummy bears...which were devoured on friday!

enjoying every last bite of her ice cream cake with papa!

this year she had NO problem getting into the present opening!

enjoying some fun times with uncle bry...otherwise known as "oh bry!"

as i said on my facebook update on our birthday...my baby girl decided to make an early appearance and surprise me on my birthday. at the time, i wasn't totally thrilled. today (oct. 21, 2011), i think it's the greatest thing ever and can't wait for all the birthday celebrations to come.

it's true...i truly hoped she'd hold off until oct. 22 that night, but nope...11:57 pm she was pulled outta me and i really couldn't believe it. and now i feel so lucky to share the day with her. i envision mani/pedi's, shopping sprees and many more exciting adventures as she gets older for our big day. and with that...i'll try to post halloween pictures/updates before december arrives! no promises though...clearly that would not be worth betting on me for that!

busy!

2011-09-08T23:44:00.000-07:00

ah. life is so busy. i often wonder what i was thinking when i thought my college days were SO busy. i wish i could tell my younger self that i seriously had NO idea! two classes a day, four days a week, couldn't work out until 2 in the afternoon...rough life that girl had! perspective. i mean, i wish i could tell my only slightly younger self how easy one kid was...aa and i had good quality time with our boy, work was still somewhat manageable, we could get time together, some time to ourself, life was good...but it seemed SO stressful. perspective. now, life is crazy busy, we barely have time to shower or pee by ourselves, i had/got to quit my job cause two kids and my crazy job were just not meshing, despite my extreme exhaustion, i find myself up past midnight because it's the only time i have a silent moment to myself and i still have a to do list a mile long. perspective. i'm sure in 18 years, i'd die to be back in my almost 35 year old shoes with my almost 2 and 4 year old. perspective.

but once again, that is not what this post is about. i'm trying to do a bit of catch up on this little ol' blog...if anyone is still reading! we've had SO much going on - i finally took a break from the little side gig i've been doing since april and in the meantime, we've bought a new house, rented our current little house and are getting ready to hightail it out of here in the next few days. it's with mixed emotion that we do this and it's frankly LONG overdue. poor miss maya never has had a space of her own and because she was such a terrible sleeper early on, she has gotten mighty used to cozying up between aa and i. i/we tolerated it for almost two years now since we were somewhat in survival mode and we were getting sleep and it wasn't like we really had space to give her a room of her own. now almost two years in, we are O.V.E.R it. we never intended to co-sleep and while i justified it in that she was my last baby and it really was kind of sweet to snuggle with her...we're ready to take back our bed for ourselves and get her to sleep through the night. in fact, we are so over it that the poor girl ends up sleeping on the couch for as long as she will until she wakes and then i bring her into our bed. AND...last week, sept 4 she actually slept through the night, ALL night from 8:30 - 7am on the couch...first time ever at the age of 22 months. poor baby girl...on the couch, but let me tell you, it felt so good to sleep in the bed without her! anyway...that is not what this post is about (ha!)

i just wanted to do a tiny bit of catch up from the last couple of months, starting with fourth of july (seriously, how embarrassing is that...blogging two months later? but this blog is mostly for me and documenting some of these things so i have it years down the road...and i've always been a bit of a procrastinator anyway!).

this year was super fun - 4 of july that is...reminded me of the joy it was when i was a kid. k and m were both really into it, but especially k. i bought a few little firecrackers and we decided to take them to the "big" fireworks show at tigard high school. after a VERY long wait...the fireworks started and literally 5 min in (and over 2 hours past his bedtime) k asked to go home. so we trekked our way back to the car! the highlight was probably the $10 worth of fireworks that i bought at the grocery store and aa set off in front of our house in the broad daylight! the kids loved em.

"our stash!"

"first sparkler...loved it!"

"smoke bomb!"

"loving every bit of it! please note her festive dress...saved and thankfully remembered from a mini boden purchase nearly a year earlier!"

this summer we've also tried to get out and explore some of the many different spray/water parks around the city. seriously, where were these when we were kids?!! one sunday we headed out to lake oswego millenium park and let the kids splash around and followed it up with a happy hour at blast burger. i highly recommend both activities! we all shared a kiddie burger and fries, the kids had a root beer float (a first and a HUGE hit!) and aa and i had a beer or two. great little spot, good food and drinks and fab outdoor seating.

and yes, we bought a new house. it feels like it took so long, but really it was a pretty fast process. only looked at 12 houses in person (after LOTS of passive looking online) and found a great, great house (at least we think/hope so!). doesn't fit the search criteria that we had initally set forth, but we think it'll be a great place for us to be for as long or as little time as we want to be there...excited to move and start making it our home. a little bittersweet as we've been packing up our things - especially caught off guard by the emotion that was stirred up as we took the things off of kellen's walls and realized that some of the art pieces might not go back up in his new big boy bedroom. anyway, i'll write more about the new house as we get moved in (we actually already own the home...ah...hard to believe we own TWO homes (!), but get the keys on monday after a rentback) and settled (hopefully it won't take as long as the fourth of july pictures!). so with that...i'm off to bed!

xoxo

cloth

2011-08-23T14:36:00.000-07:00

of all the things i could blog about right now (4th of july, our new house, all the summer fun we've been having...), i choose cloth diapers! ha. i've been meaning to update on this for a long time and i figure i need to soon before diapers are a thing of the past. yep, i actually see a light at the end of the tunnel in regards to diapers. not sure if it's a girl thing or the fact that maya watches kellen go to the bathroom...but this girl has been going on the potty now since she was about 18 months old. the first time i thought it was a fluke...she said poo poo and pointed to her booty. i asked her if she wanted to go sit on the potty and lo and behold, the girl pooped! now she goes anywhere from 1- 4 times a day. she almost always goes first thing when she wakes up and often her diaper is dry in the morning. crazy - probably the only thing that is holding her back from being fully potty trained is me!!! it's so much work out and about ensuring that two are all set potty wise and that there are no accidents. but, moving on...this post is not about potty training!

it's about my switch to cloth diapers...almost a year ago!!! after much research and good intention, i finally switched to cloth after i quit my job (seriously, it's been almost a full year now!) and probably a good four months after i bought my first FOUR cloth diapers! there is no denying, a cloth diaper booty is way cute and really, the laundry hasn't been bad. but it is a lot of extra laundry. i probably wash diapes 2-3 times a week and it takes two cycles (1 cold wash with extra rinse, followed by 1 hot wash with extra rinse). in terms of better for the environment, i feel SO good about not putting bags of paper diapers in our trash, but there is a lot more water usage.

i went with mostly pocket diapers...fuzzibunz are my faves, but we also have a blueberry and some katydid diapers. i have a few all in one, which i didn't care for as much, but have found they make a really great night time diaper. i also have a couple of bamboo fitted diapers that require a cover and for that i have a few thirsties duo covers! on top of not having to buy paper diapers, i bought most of these diapers on super sale via daily deal sites or amazon (got several practically for FREE when they had $10 off purchase and 30% off diapers coupons in magazine...those were total scores!).

almost a year into it and my diapers are holding up really well...although i think they are starting to stink a bit! need to figure that out...but all in all, i'm so happy and proud of myself for making the switch. i did buy a pack of diapers when we went on vacay to hawaii and i have some left from that. we use a paper diaper every now and then when i don't have any clean/dry diapers or when i think her booty just needs a break (the moisture doesn't wick away from the skin with cloth like it does with paper). now if i can just muster the energy to potty train this girl, we'll say goodbye to the cloth and hello undies forevah!

wowee...

2011-07-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

MAUI! i'm so late in posting about our maui vacation...what fun we had (no post would do it justice!). 11 days/10 nights in paradise. we have our friends the schmole's to thank for giving us the motivation to take the trip. ironically, we had been thinking about going to hawaii with the two babes before maya turned 2 (and thus required a paid plane ticket!) and after we they told us about how difficult their trip in december with their two babes we decided somewhere a little closer would probably be best. when they suggested we all go together, we were a little surprised (given their trip in december!)...but took little influencing to make it happen! another family friend of ours also met up with us in lahaina (after a week or so on kauai!) and stayed in the same condo complex as ours (they were next door, but quickly moved out of that crap hole and into a more updated unit!).

the first 7 nights we stayed in 3 bedroom condo in lahaina with our friends - who have 2 boys, each approximately 3 weeks younger than our kids. sure, it was hectic at times with two three year olds and two one year olds...but so, so fun to have playmates and another family who knew what to expect with vacationing with little ones! we had the perfect balance of hanging and exploring together and then downtime on our own. we even managed to pull off a night out for the six adults - thanks to an awesome sitter that we hired through an agency (brilliant idea, mandy and kari!). it was pretty great to be able to enjoy an amazing meal in the company of good friends with an incredible view and setting! if you are in maui, i highly recommend merriman's in kapalua - and get the pina colada...you won't be sorry!

after we said goodbye to our friends, we had 3 more nights. thanks to my old banfield job, i had some hotel points to use. unfortunately they were at two different resorts, but the savings was worth it! so we stayed 2 nights in wailea at the marriott and 1 night at the westin in kaanapali. after the first week in a condo, it was nice to be in a resort with the different pools and beautiful grounds. one afternoon aa and i each traded about an hour of alone time at the adult pool. we were both looking forward to it, but honestly i ended my time early because i was a little lonely and missing my peeps! aa ended up feeling the same! now if aa and i could have been alone together, i'm sure it would have been a different story...but unfortunately the sitter we had used earlier was not available.

some of the highlights of the trip:

shave ice and ice cream in the afternoon with the kid

ladies night out with the girls...including a stop at the local gelato shop

a group "hike" at iao valley state park

deciding to stop at airport beach after the kids had fallen asleep in the car and enjoying some snorkeling and quiet time on the beach while the kids napped under a beach umbrella (they BOTH stayed asleep while we transferred their sleeping selves from carseats to the beach!)

the above mentioned parent's night out

eating at some of our favorite spots from our last trip to maui - the fish market, honolua store, aloha mixed plate

watching the little ones play together nicely (and sometimes not so nicely!)

a couple hours to enjoy a happy hour/dinner alone thanks to mandy and filip watching our kids

simple but delicious bbq dinners out on the lawn with our good friends

lots of fresh pineapple and papaya (maybe mixed with a little coconut rum and ice!)

exploring the little town of pa'ia after our plans of going to baby beach were foiled when the kids fell asleep in the 5 minutes it took to drive there

hanging on black rock beach with everyone and watching k squeal with delight as he jumped the waves with his friends

just being together (especially walking along the beach watching the sunset and hanging on the hammock in the evening!)- with young kids, life can be crazy and it's easy to not slow down and enjoy. i'm thankful for the ten days we had together as a family. i know the kids loved having aa for ten whole days...they have been missing him lots and have really been in a daddy mode (no mama...daddy! is something i hear often) upon our return

we've now been back for a month (make that over two months!) and i keep dreaming of our return, especially with this crappy portland summer...AGAIN! until then, i guess we have pictures and a sound machine set to ocean waves!

thomas

2011-06-29T14:20:00.001-07:00

a couple of weekends ago we made the long trek out to hood river to visit a special friend - thomas the train! thomas has been a mild obsession around here for about the last six months or so. i never quite understood the fascination with him (have you seen the show? it's a little strange!), but our boy really loves thomas and all of his friends. we're starting to build quite the little collection here. anyway, thomas comes in real life to hood river once a year, so of course we had to go see what is was all about!

our little engineers!

yep, after a few days of sunshine it decided to rain on us. fortunately it stopped while we were doing all of the outside activities.

i have to admit, he was pretty cool! we approached the train station and there he was in all his smiling glory! the look on kellen's face made the almost $100 in tickets/paraphernalia totally worthwhile. we were running a little late due to an accident along 84, so we were almost the last ones on the five car steam engine (which actually worked out well as we didn't have to stand in line with all the other thomas fans!). as we took off, the engine had us "help" thomas by chanting push, thomas, push and of course the all familiar thomas music was playing in the background. the actual train ride itself was pretty insignificant (especially since the kids and i had just taken a 35 minute train ride around washington park and the zoo a few days before!). we literally went down the tracks about 10 minutes and then back (with a pull, thomas, pull chant of course!).

see the line of people waiting...ya, it went back about 2 full train cars! the "official" picture station is just to the right of the kids and aa!

after the train ride you could stand in line with the other 500 passengers to get your picture taken with thomas - starting at only $12! aa was a smart one and pulled us out of the line and took us to the exit, where we could get the same shot with our own camera for free!!! here is the money shot:

we then met sir topham hat, who both frightened and facisnated maya at the same time. she wouldn't go near him, but kept saying "ata hat! ata hat!". i finally figured out she meant sir topham hat and she'd shout it when he was out of her sight. there were also lots of train tables with trains, blocks, a kid sized train to ride, temporary tattoos, coloring, a thomas movie viewing area (which was a highlight for kellen - really did we need to drive to hood river to watch a thomas show!?), story hour, bounce houses (k was not a fan!) and of course the mother load of thomas toys, trains and trinkets under one giant tent. fortunately we made it out of there without having to purchase another train!

love kellen holding maya's hand! also note his diesel 10 tattoo!

after a couple of hours of thomas overload it was time for lunch...and a beer! we headed up the hill to big horse brew pub for some grub and then over to mike's ice cream for a little treat before the kids and i settled in for a little nappy on the ride home! all in all, a good day.

this girl is trouble!!!

kellen's "don't take a picture of me...funny face"

**side note: we made the mistake of telling kellen about this little adventure on monday when our thomas engineer hat and whistle arrived in the mail. bad idea. every day, every hour we had to discuss when we were going to see thomas!

sneek peak

2011-06-10T17:25:00.000-07:00

i've sat down several times to document our maui trip and just haven't found the time to complete it! to move on from the below post, here's a sneak peek. we had so much fun!

boogie boarding in the grass!

my hawaiian girl!

the kids playing in the shallow waters of baby beach in lahaina

enjoying one of many hawaiian shave ice, or "ice sundae" as k liked to call them!

the best nap - right on kaanapali beach with the REAL ocean sound in the background (as opposed to the ocean sound machine we all sleep with every night!).

family pic

self portrait family pic in the hammock (grumpy maya!)

daddy and his babies

mama and m taking a snack break

i'll post more details soon!

finally

2011-05-05T23:34:00.000-07:00

maya finally has grown an attachment to something other than me! i've been trying basically her whole life to have a lovey (like k has his teddy and blanket). when maya was born and we learned she was a girl...the one thing i wanted was a pink version of the blanket kellen LOVES. i figured since kellen LOVES his blanket so much, maya would love it too. wrong. not that she dislikes that blanket...she could just care less about it. one of many things to remind me that she is a different baby/person than her brother!

in preparation for her to someday (it really will happen!) sleep in her own bed, i really have wanted her to have a blanket and/or object that she is attached to and finds comfort in. i had heard great things about this blanket called the dream blanket, so when i stumbled upon a great sale i figured it wouldn't hurt to try. amazingly, she took a liking to it! she calls it "b" and every night when it's time to get ready for bed, she looks around the house for her b. the moment i knew she was really attached was when it was dirty in the laundry basket and she tried to pull it out crying, "beeeeeee, beeeeee!" at around the same time she took a liking to a stuffed bear that was given to her at birth. she calls him teddy, just like kellen's teddy and she needs both b and teddy to settle in for bed. i'm so thankful she now has these two to love and snuggle her and i really believe that soon they will help her to make the transition out of my arms at night!

ps. she does have a space of her own, really a corner in the office. i realize if we want to get serious about her sleeping, we should probably put more effort into giving her a room and a bed that she could actually sleep in. but we have been unwilling to give up the office or too lazy to make the change. we really just need a bigger house, but that also takes effort! here's a couple pics of her corner.

mama, i hate this crib!

the walls of her corner

ok - i guess i don't have the greatest pics of her space! i actually took these a few months ago, hoping to document something for her baby book, but never finished the photo session because she was hating it! here you get a glimps of the rug. it's pink, orange, green and cream striped and there is also a little white floor lamp and a chair to sit in...but no pics of the entire space. sorry! my sister loaned us the crib - it's a mini crib that folds up and is actually sort of cute. but as you can see...she hates it!

paycheck

2011-05-04T22:23:00.000-07:00

as i mentioned below, i have recently started a little side contract that really just came out of the blue. today marks the start of my fourth week and so far so good. i'm working 15-20 hours a week, from home and on a temporary/contract basis. i'm actually still a little shocked to find myself working (for a paycheck...cause really, i've been working my butt off the last 8 months!), but it's kind of a perfect situation. i get to use my mind a bit, make a little money to restock my dwindling savings account, keep my resume fresh and current, but still have my focus here with my family. it's also make it easy knowing that i have an end date and the whole summer to look forward to with my babies!

so here's the scoop...a couple of months ago a former nike co-worker of mine reached out randomly to see if i was enjoying staying home and oh by the way would i be interested in a full time position (not at nike, at a company called knowledge universe). i replied that i was loving it and not looking for a full time role, but if he ever needed some part time help, i'd be happy to do it from home (thinking there wasn't a chance and really not looking for something!). Lo and behold, he replied right back that he might indeed have a need for that and that we should talk. a few weeks later, i found myself with a laptop, blackberry and back earning a paycheck!

side note: it does feel good to earn money. i don't think it's hugely important, because i do believe i'm doing my fair share contributing to our family, but money and the value we place on it is a weird thing. i recently applied for a credit card and had to put $0 income for my own and to my surprise (although i'm not sure why) i wasn't instantly approved. i've never had that happen and i won't lie, it felt a little odd/sad. i then applied under aaron's name and indeed, instant approval. i also am realizing that i've made virtually spent no money on myself since i quit my job (ie. i haven't had a haircut in 8 months) and now that i'm making a little money, i suddenly feel ok scheduling a hair appt for myself.

i feel really fortunate to have the type of career/experience that allows me the flexiblity to do this kind of work. when i quit i thought that i could always consult/contract if i wanted/needed and it sure feels good to know that it's possible. i remember back when i graduated from uo and was offered the job as a recruiter. at the time i knew nothing about recruiting as as career choice (i think it was still fairly new to specialize in recruitment) and can't tell you how many times i had to explain to friends and family what i do (to do this day, some of my family still just think i'm a headhunter!). i've definitely had my highs and lows and moments where i questioned my career choice, but it does pay to be a recruiter if/when you are looking for a job and to have a bunch of recruiter colleagues and friends!!!

seven

2011-05-02T22:47:00.001-07:00

yesterday was our seven year anniversary. we ate a bunch of great food (toro bravo for dinner, papa haydn for dessert, then simpatico for breakfast the next day), had the house to ourselves for an entire night and then marveled at the last seven years. the day was beautiful, warm and sunny - just like the day we were married. i remember it like it was yesterday - it was perfect (except for the 300 missing candles that still haunt me to this day!!!!).

this was the first year we stayed home for our anniversary. for our first we went to cannon beach for a long weekend - there happened to be an art festival going on that we didn't know about and all the galleries had receptions with free wine, food and music. we enjoyed it all and then went back to our room and dug our forks into two cakes made by the baker who did our wedding cakes (who is sadly now out of business). our second we spent at skamania lodge. it was nice for sure, but skamania felt a little like an older crowd and just wasn't for us. for our third i was fairly early in my pregnancy with kellen and we spent a long weekend in victoria. we almost missed the ferry cause aa was parking the car and taking his sweet time. we rented a condo right off the harbor and had a great weekend walking and exploring a new city. for our fourth, kellen was five months old so we decided to stay closer to home and went back to cannon beach. we stayed in the same place, hit up all of our favorite spots and enjoyed our first anniversary as parents. for our fifth we wanted to do something a little more special and decided to have our first night (really three) away from kellen and headed down to san francisco to explore. i was also just finishing my first trimester with maya. we stayed right downtown and despite the rain and not so great weather, we walked and ate our way all over that city! so much fun and while we missed our boy, it was so nice to have that time as a couple. finally last year, for number six we again decided to go back to the place that never fails us - cannon beach. this time with our six month old baby girl. k stayed in salem with grandma and papa. what fun it was to celebrate and also have a little weekend with just our girl - a real rarity for #2!

i love this picture of my nephew when we were cutting the cake! he's now a teenager...ah! where does the time go?

we would have loved to have a little weekend away this year, but with a hawaii vacation right around the corner and a baby girl who still really hasn't slept through the night without a little comfort from me it just didn't feel right. but, we did have a night to ourselves because auntie molly was kind enough to take both kids for the night (knowing full well that maya might be a challenge!). we were actually going to play it by ear and possibly pick maya up after dinner and then drop her off the next morning again so we could go out to breakfast...but my sis texted at 10 to say they were all going to bed and that was that. maya was a dream - woke up once at 1:30 and rocked back to sleep until 8am. sure, she was with my sister the whole time, but boy did it feel good to know that she could sleep without me! {and somehow this post about our anniverary has turned into a post about maya!}

a close up of the angie and aaron bobblehead dolls that aaron's parents had made for us!

back to our wedding/anniversary...it was everything i hoped it to be - short and sweet ceremony, surrounded by our most loved friends and family and then a big party to celebrate where everyone enjoyed delish food, good drinks and danced their booties off! not to mention the fact that i married my best friend...truly. lots has changed these last seven years and it hasn't always been easy, but i'm so so so fortunate to have aa as my #1 teammate, partner and love.

random

2011-04-11T13:01:00.000-07:00

last friday was such a nice dose of sunshine. i didn't realize how much we needed it! the kids and i hung all day with our friends - literally, they couldn't get rid of us! we walked to the park, had a picnic and then just chilled in their backyard while the kids ran around. so nice! it also became clear to me that maya is really no longer a baby. she climbed up the play structure and went down the big slide - ON HER OWN, and toddled around trying to keep up with the big kids. so cute, but makes me kinda sad! kellen has decided that gracie is his new best friend! the next day we woke up and the first words out of his mouth...are we going to gracie's house?!

did i ever mention that we are down to just a one diaper household?! after a frustrating day of attempting to potty train, i posted a vent on facebook and after some good advice, tips and comisseration i realized that it was really me not fully committing to no diapers. so february 24 was the last day we used a diaper and aside from an accident here and there (although they seem to come in multiples, hmm.) we are potty trained! we do wear "nighttime undies" aka pull ups, to bed...but honestly 90% of the time he wakes up with them dry! he wears his undies to nap and (knock on wood), we've yet to have an accident in his bed. it feels so good! the one downfall...getting him down to bed can sometimes be a challenge now. he is up as often as five times each night, telling us he needs to go potty or even "the poop is coming out!" and lo and behold he usually comes up with something. oh and the other day after telling me he needed a little space, i came to check on him to find him painting his toenails! opps!

last saturday i coordinated a little baby celebration for my sister in law who is about 4 weeks away from having our second little gassner nephew. we're very excited to meet the new little guy! most of her closest girlfriends gathered for dinner at mother's bistro (appropriate, eh?!) and to make it a little more special i made this paper flowers for each place setting. they are so cute, although quite time consuming to make! super fun though...the kit was from paper source, one of my favorite stores to browse and buy when i need to be creative! paper source will always have a special place in my heart, as all the supplies for our wedding invitations came from there...long before they opened a store in portland.

big girl maya started refusing her high chair about month ago...so she's moved onto a booster seat! my how time flies! where did my baby go again?

kellen finally is tall enough and the weather nice enough for him to ride his skuut balance bike. we've gone out a handful of times in the last few weeks and each time he gains a little confidence and gets a little better at it. no balancing yet, but he gets faster! can't wait to see him gliding along on it. and maya is loving taking over his froggie trike (sadly i guess i don't have a picture of her riding the beloved trike.)!

one of the nice things about being at home is we can also spend with the kids' cousins! we don't do it all that often (let's get real...having a 3, 2, and 1 year old is a little crazy!), but when we do it's tons of fun! in the last month we had bennett and maisy over for a day (one at a time!). it's fun to see the three cousins together - and near impossible to snap a good picture of three kids at one time!

oh, btw...did i mention that i started a little side gig?! more on that later, but yes...i am doing a little work and so far so good.

love.this.girl.

2011-04-02T00:15:00.000-07:00

love my boy something crazy too, but his response to me taking his picture these days is "NEVER!" (his new response to many things!). and yes, that is dried egg yolk on her mouth...probably her favorite breakfast right now...fried egg with a runny yolk!

for uncle bry

2011-03-31T21:49:00.000-07:00

lazy, i know...but here are a couple of very recent videos of my babes! the dancing one is long...so sorry!!!

siblings

2011-03-05T16:01:00.000-08:00

she has beautiful, dark brown eyes and has had them from day 1.
he has beautiful blue-y grey eyes and has had them from day 1.

we both have brown eyes (aa's lighter brown, mine darker brown).

his first word was "dada".
her first word was "mama".

he is cautious and concerned by things that could cause him harm (the oven door...don't even think of leaving it open a crack - it scares him!)
she is fearless and oblivious to danger (the oven door...just a handle for me to help myself climb up on the stove!)

she took her first steps at 15 months and never looked back.
he took his first steps at 13.5 months, but didn't walk until around 16 months, unless you count walking on his knees!

he often asks her for sloppy kisses, cause that's how she gives them. he never did that!
she loves to "pat, pat, pat" his back.

she loves veggies, especially broccoli.
he hates them - won't touch em, except spinach blended up in a smoothie or french fries (do they count?!).

he is more of a carb guy - bread, pasta, rice.
she is more of a meat girl - chicken especially.

they both love chocolate chip cookies and ice cream.

she is a terrible sleeper...has NEVER napped 4 hours (we're lucky to get an hour!) and can't sleep without touching me.
he is a good sleeper...used to often take up to 4 hour+naps and would go right to sleep in his crib (with teddy and his blanket of course!)

he loved his ba (pacifier).
she hated them all...and we tried many different kinds!

they were and are both snugglers (lucky us!).

she looked like her daddy when she was born.
he looked like his mama when he was born.

they now both look more like ME! (i write the blog, so i get to say ;-p !)

food thoughts

2011-03-03T14:47:00.000-08:00

i've always been a fairly healthy eater (with a weakness for a sweet or salty treat here and there!), but in the last few years i've become more and more concerned with the food that goes in our mouths...especially my two little ones! it can become increasingly overwhelming to make the right choices...not to mention expensive. farmed vs. wild, organic vs. local, fresh vs. frozen, bulk vs. packaged, vegetarian vs. vegan vs. locavore, glass vs. plastic (bpa-free, of course!) . my head is spinning!

is there anything better than local, oregon strawberries?!

here are a few things that we do to feel good about the food that nourishes us:

i try to follow this list of the top offenders in regards to pesiticides when making my organic purchasing decisions (and this list to feel ok about not buying organic!).
loved making baby food for my babies...providing them with much more healthly and fresh purees, not to mention saving us money made it a joy and not a task - and really it was SO easy.
we've been csa members for the last four years. the first three we were members at Sungold Farms and last year we checked out Dinihanian's Farm. both of these farms delivered right nike every week - it was so great! i'm now researching other csa's and feeling a bit frustrated because the pick up locations are so far from me! i'm actually leaning towards going back to Sungold Farms and picking up at Nike (shh...don't tell!) or they also have a Lake Oswego drop off. if you are interested in joining a csa (and we highly recommend it!), check out local harvest - it's a great resource. yes, you will get fruit and veggies that you have no idea what to do with and you will have to cook a lot of veggies, but it's so fun, healthy and worth it.

a couple of pictures from the June 2009 Sungold Farm day for CSA members - hayrides and exploring the farm + lots of strawberries!

csa's are typically around 18 weeks, so this year we decided to receive a weekly delivery from organics to you. every thursday we get a box full of fruit and veggies delivered to our doorstep. when they can, they try to stock their boxes from local farms...but right now there isn't a lot growing in our area, so there is a lot from california. it's a bit spendy ($33/wk for a small box), but if you have a chinook book there is a coupon for 1 free box after you buy 4 boxes and you can also use it twice. we've enjoyed it so far and will continue until our csa starts up again.

the contents of our delivery from today (look at the size of that beet!)

we rarely eat fast food and when/if we do...i can almost guarantee it'll be burgerville! not sure if it's much better, but at least i feel good that their food is fresh, local and sustainable. (and their current special of portabello mushroom wedges, yum!).
we eat very little packaged foods...although trader joes sure does have some winners that we do enjoy! (organic trader joes o's...basically spaghettios!, tempura battered halibut for easy fish tacos, mandarin orange chicken, snap pea crisps)
we've tried to eliminate or greatly reduce our "white" food intake. we cook with mostly whole wheat flour (or brown rice gluten free flour for maya!), brown rice, quinoa (costco sells a big bag of organic quinoa for a steal!), dave's killer bread (another awesome costco item...although winco now sells it for just as cheap!).
and just so you don't think we are totally health nuts - you can almost guarantee to find anywhere from 1-3 cartons of ice cream in our fridge at any given time and we have at least a couple of pounds of m&m's in our snack drawer. but...we used to buy dreyers slow churned, until we decided it didn't quite taste like ice cream (a little chemicall-y) and now we typically buy tillamook or umpqua, which tastes delicious! should it be organic though? ah. it's dessert, so it doesn't count...right!? ;)

some things we are thinking about - going vegan for a week (thank you oprah, for the idea) and/or eating vegan/veggies at least 1x week. kind of opposite, but also thinking about buying a quarter/half of a locally raised, humanely slaughtered beef - anyone else interested? i would love to have a garden, but i know myself too well and know it would just be a chore for me and not enjoyable!

here is a delicious and healthy recipe a friend recently shared with me: Quinoa Red Lentil Stew. it's super easy - the recipe is a crock pot recipe, but i didn't have time and cooked it on the stove in just over an hour. it's also very adaptable...you could really use any combo of veggies. i had rutabaga (from our weekly delivery) and added it. didn't have cinnamon stick or ginger, so left it out. don't love rosemary, so left it out! wanted the kids to enjoy it so left out the jalapeno. maya ate it up...although by the third night of eating it was done! kellen was a little hesitant but with a little enouragment ate the whole bowl. i actually added organic chicken thighs (more fat and iron for my kiddos!) to it and it was delish.

what food choices do you make and what do you use to base your decisions on? anyone else csa members and recommend your farm? do you struggle with these things like i do? please share!

three

2011-02-22T22:05:00.000-08:00

is a tough age so far. forget the terrible two's, it's the terrible three's in our house! my guess is it's probably not that bad, but we've had such an easygoing little guy that these temper tantrums and fits of anger that he expresses are a bit of a surprise. he's not afraid to tell us no if he doesn't want to do something. i must ask the question, "who makes the rules?" a couple of times a day...to which he answers, "mommy and daddy", but apparently he just doesn't follow them! while three has been a little tough...it's also filled with so much goodness. he's such a little man now - sometimes i can barely remember when he was a baby (cue the tears!).

a few things about my boy:

*one of his favorite things to say these days is "when i'm big like daddy i can..." as in, "when i'm big like daddy i can watch scary shows" or "when i'm big like daddy i can use sharp knives". it's super cute.

*he also will often ask me if i want to see how big he is and when i say yes, he stands up very tall, with a big, proud smile on his face.

*thomas the train is the lastest obsession. pretty much started when he turned three and is showing no sign of slowing down. one of his favorite activities is to read the catalog of thomas trains, sets, accessories that comes with the trains. he has many of them memorized...mostly thanks to grandma reading it with him over and over!

*every train/lightrail we see is a thomas and he has to know which one it is. the max is named...max and the wes is wes...other times we have to get a little more creative. we've had porty, keizer and a few others that aren't coming to me right now.

*i think he might be close to dropping his nap. he only naps about 65% of the time right now and on those days nightime is such a struggle...sometimes he isn't out until 9 or 10. days that he doesn't nap he, drifts right off to sleep. i don't know which is worse.

*he loves to help me cook. oatmeal, pancakes, banana bread and cookies are some of his favorites!

*his imagination has come alive and it's creating monsters in his head. he's been waking up at night quite a bit and we think he's having nightmares. he talks about a monster who bites his hair and lives in the forest a lot. his pillow actually has a hole in it and when i asked him how it happened he claimed the monster did it.

*potty training is not going so well. he can totally do it, but just isn't always super interested...even when m&m's, junior mints, stickers and handy manny tools are involved. most of the 2/3 crowd we run with are potty trained, so it's making me feel like a bad mama! (yes, he did pick out the pink potty...insisted and after i suggested different colors a couple of times i stopped...nothing wrong with a pink potty! someday he will probably not be too happy about this pic being posted...he clearly wasn't happy with it being taken!)

*he often calls me "mama gassner". not sure where he came up with it, but it is quite funny...he usually uses it when he really needs me or when he is just waking up.

*he can be so sweet and so menacing with his sister in the span of 15 seconds. he often asks her for sloppy kisses...nothing cuter than your baby girl giving your baby boy sloppy kisses and both of them laughing with delight. 15 seconds later he will be body slamming her and there will be lots of tears. ugh.

despite the challenges that the threes are bringing, i couldn't be happier to be home with him and to be able to soak up all the goodness...and the not so good (makes the good so much better!).

fiesty

2011-02-10T22:19:00.000-08:00

as in maya is one fiesty girl! she has for sure crossed over into that "no longer a baby" stage and is one fiesty toddler. cute, but fiesty! one of her favorite words, "NO!", with a little snarkiness is heard out of her mouth throughout the day. she's a girl who knows what she wants and don't even think about changing her mind! seriously, where did my baby go? oh and did i mention that she is finally walking? yep...right on her 15 month birthday. she took off and hasn't looked back.

a few other random things about my girl:

*she loves chicken...it's about the only thing that i can almost guarantee that she'll eat every time.
*words she says: mama, dada, papa, duck, mil (milk), mo (more), change, no, wawa (water), book, dog, baby, bye-bye, night-night, ouch, cat, shoe, all done, brrrr (as in it's cold outside!), nana (banana), poo-poo, yuck, lion...there may be a few more, but we're still trying to figure out what she's saying! she definitely has a sound for kellen/brother...but i can't quite decipher it yet.
*signs she uses: milk, more, all done, change (when she poops and needs her diaper changed, she comes over and signs it!), eat, water, wash, book, thank you
*she loves music and dancing...even when she's not feeling well or just about asleep, if she hears music her body just can't help but move to the beat!
*she loves the water...bath or shower, either one she's a happy girl.

*she has a bit of a sweet tooth; well actually she's a junk food junkie - chocolate chip cookie (gluten-free, of course!) or pirate booty, she's good with either!

*she's not afraid to get into a little roughhousing with daddy and kellen

*her hair is long enough for a little pony in the back now...so cute, but of course i have to distract or trick her, cause if she knows anything is in her hair she promptly takes it out!

*she likes to brush her teeth, but only lets me brush her teeth if she's laying down on my lap with all three of us (kellen, aa and me) saying "AHHHHH" the whole time.
*she's an itty bitty and just moved up to a size 3 diaper at 15 months...by comparison, kellen wore a size 3 diaper at about 7 months (but didn't move up to a size 4 until just recently...now we are working on just switching to undies, but that is another post!).

*when she was born, most people said she looked like aaron, now we are getting more comments that she looks like me. what do you think???
*she may be fiesty, but we sure love her!

back to normal

2011-01-17T22:35:00.000-08:00

we are finally back to a "normal" routine post-holiday and duck game here in the gassner household. the last week or so was a little rough as maya had a bug that caused her some problems on both ends if you know what i mean. let's just say that i've had more than my share of bodily fluids on me. ugh. we experienced our biggest blowout of all time within 30 minutes of landing in arizona...i just thank god that it didn't happen on the plane. in fact, she was such a trooper on our trip to arizona to watch the ducks in the national championship game. with all the puking and pooping that went on...none of it happened when it would have really, really sucked. she was good on both flights (including a layover for each) and for the tailgater and game (almost 10 hours where we had access to nothing but public restrooms at best!). just this weekend she started getting back to normal and i see her appetite increasing daily (thank god...i have such a tiny girl on my hands!).

arizona was a ton of fun - despite the bug and the loss. it felt wonderful to get some warm sun on my skin and to say i was excited about the game would be an understatement. thanks to rick (aaron's dad), a 30+ year season ticket holder, we had the privilege of using 2 of his 4 allotted tickets. i was really hoping that maya would be the lucky charm given the fact that attended all of the home games except portland state (we were in sunriver and seriously, it's portland state!) and they were undefeated. unfortunately that wasn't the case, but oh what an exciting game - when they scored the touchdown and 2 point conversion with a couple of minutes left in the game it was beyond thrilling. i thought i was going to cry! maya of course slept right through it all! she fell asleep with 12 minutes left in the second quarter and didn't wake up until we got to the car. poor kellen was left behind to play with grandma (which he loved and probably preferred...thanks, jan!)...he requires a ticket to get into the game and those were going for $1500+ and he wouldn't sleep sweetly in the ergo for the whole game!

we were able to meet up with one of our great college buddies and my roommate for a year for a pre-game beer or two...fun to relive those college days. why on earth did i ever think it was hard - those 2pm work outs and classes 3 days a week sure were rough! what i wouldn't give to know then what i know now. but i guess that is what life is all about. the joy of growing older and more experienced...the ability to appreciate what we've learned and the path to get there!

even though he wasn't in attendance...he was showing his duck spirit all week long leading up to the big game!

maya looking cute right before she boarded her first flight!

maya girl feeling a little anxious right before heading over to the stadium for some tailgating and then the big game. she was the cutest little duck fan there - i must have had at least 20 people take her picture!!!

our family at the tailgater...hosted by our arizona gassner family. such fun times and good margaritas and pulled pork!

mama and maya - such high hopes for a duck win.

daddy and maya - not so pleased to be wearing the headphones...but an absolute must. it was LOUD in there!

with the new year here, we are excited at really settling into our new normal again. these kids are so much fun and so much work. there are definitely moments where i wonder if i'd be a better mama to these kids with a little break...but i'm trying to cut myself some slack and just enjoy and be thankful for this time i have. so we'll be enjoying music classes (maya's favorite...she's a music and dancing girl!), art classes (cool place... my masterpiece art studio - check it out and if you want to go to a friday mini masters art class let us know!), playdates with friends, cooking together, lots of reading and playing together. the simple things in life. i'm so lucky.

bath time...a favorite pastime for when we are feeling bored or cooped up in the house during the winter!

GO DUCKS!

2011-01-08T21:18:00.000-08:00

We've been chanting this all week long! Hope our efforts pay off for a big win on Monday!! GO DUCKS!!!

decade*

2010-12-31T09:08:00.000-08:00

wow, it just dawned on me this morning that this decade is over. what a ten years it has been. so much to look back on. ten years ago i was a 24 year old, account manager, two+ years into my first real job - at maxim group/tek systems selling computer consulting services to companies in north, northeast and southeast portland and vancouver/camas/longview. i was making good money, living with my boyfriend of ~ 3 years and feeling on top of the world! we were dink's and didn't realize how easy life was! today i am a 34 year old, stay at home mom (a term that still makes my heart race...both because it scares the heck out of me and it makes me so happy), wife of 6.5 years, making NO money and tackling the most challenging yet fulfilling job of my life.

some highlights of the last 10 years (via my digital photographs, which i bought in 2003, so 2003 is when it starts!):

january 2003 - free trip to cancun with maxim group/tek systems! lobster, room service whenever we pleased, swimming with the dolphins, dance party, tequila shots...all free and so much fun! why did i quit that job?! oh...i hated it at the end!

may 2003 - aa and i spent 3 weeks in japan - - to visit adam and (his then girlfriend) sarah, our friend brad and my uncle/aunt/cousin. such an incredible cultural experience. i don't know that i fully realized it at the time, though! would love to go back...but there are so many other places in the world to see!

august 16, 2003 - we climbed mt st helens with jan, bryan, adam, stacy and a few others.

july 26, 2003 - aaron popped the big question at salishan on the beach on one knee. elated! finally! ;) sadly...no pics!

september 2003 - we made an offer on our first house - planned to live there for 3 years max...that was 7 years ago and yes, we are still here!

january 2004 - started new job at banfield the pet hospital as a college recruiter. traveled around to different colleges around the country recruiting doctors. fun seeing all college campuses, but the travel got old real fast!

may 1, 2004 - our wedding day! tied (with the birth of my babes) for my favorite day in life.

and 3 week honeymoon in Belize - pure bliss!!

april 12, 2005 - my first day at nike as a recruiter - LOVED working for this brand/company. great people, employee store discounts, challenging work, sample sales, cool events...yes, i was in the audience while phil interviewed mj in honor of his 25th anniversary with nike.

may 2005 (five weeks after i started my new job!) - traveled around peru for 3 weeks and hiked the inca trail to machu picchu w/ the gassner family. amazing!

sept/oct 2006 - 3 weeks in africa in celebration of our 30th birthdays and a big hoorah before we attempt to start a family.

october 22, 2006 - ran the nike women's marathon in honor of my 30th birthday - my mom and mother-in-law came along to celebrate!

march 2007 - december 5, 2007 - pregnant w/ kellen, due date was november 22 (thanksgiving of that year), but 13 days overdue!

august 2007 - babymoon #1, kauai, hi

december 5, 2007 @ 10:46am - our boy is born...first family photo

may 2008 - my first mother's day!

may 1, 2009 - 5 Years! our first night(s) away from kellen for a long weekend to san francisco.

august 2009 - babymoon #2 - maui, hi...a little different with a 1.5 year old!

october 14, 2009 - one week before giving birth...kellen comes down with croup - first ER visit, then ambulance ride to emanuel and overnight stay - 9 months pregnant! poor sick boy, poor pregnant mama.

october 21, 2009 - my 33rd birthday and maya's birthday @ 11:57 pm - our first photo with our girl!

july 2010 - our first family road trip to northern california - super fun and many good memories, but probably our last for at least five years!

september 3, 2010 - my last day at nike. such a bittersweet day. i view it as a sabbatical - extra long and hope to find myself back there when the time is right for us. for now, i'm loving this time and can't wait to see what the next decade brings.

cheers and happy new year/decade* to all.

* i realize acutally that we are probably a year into the official decade, but since this is my blog...i'm counting my last ten years!!! :)

moves

2010-12-08T16:41:00.000-08:00

inspired by some awesome tribal sounding music yesterday, maya decided she'd start standing up on her own to do a little booty shake. i love how she waves her hands in the air with her finger pointed...a signature move she learned from her daddy. when he is in the room, she searches for him to make sure they both are doing the same move!

bye bye ba!

2010-12-04T21:41:00.000-08:00

today was a big day in our house...the day we would trade in all of kellen's bas (pacifiers) for a toy of his choice. we'd been talking about it for a little while - that when he was ready (or by the time he turned three) he could take all of his bas to the toy store and get any toy he wanted. we've offered it up several times before this and he would say he wasn't ready. well...today was the day - good thing, because tomorrow he turns three! he was very excited this morning rounding them all up - all three of them, including his favorite ba - the orange and green one! we headed out to thinker toys and he zeroed in right away on a thomas the train set. knowing that he might have something like that coming his way for his birthday and hanukkah, we tried to find something else equally as exciting, but in the end it was thomas that came home with us! when we went up to the counter, he handed over the baggie with his three bas. they guy looked at us like we were crazy, but luckily the women next to him knew what was going on and played it up for us. what a big boy...trading in his pacifiers for a toy! kellen tells us that new babies can now have his ba and that he still has his teddy and blanket!

our big, ba-less boy loving thomas!

what fun he had setting up the train and playing...but it might have been the catalog of other thomas engines, sets, accessories, etc that he enjoyed the most today. what is this one's name, daddy? how about this one? as fun and exciting as thomas was, i was a little worried about how bedtime would go, which is the only time that ba is actually used (well, naptime too...but no nap today because of civil war!). he did ask for it...mama, where is ba? i want my ba. i reminded him that we traded it in, that we have thomas now and that bas are for babies and he is a big boy. 10 minutes later he was sound asleep! crossing my fingers it continues to go that smooth. and guess who else made it into the bed...thomas, of course!

see thomas sticking out underneath puppy! teddy is there under the book (a recent request each night, bookie please!).

go duck

2010-12-03T13:59:00.000-08:00

last night at bridgeport village there was a civil war pep rally featuring benny the beaver and puddles the duck. kellen is a BIG fan of the duck, so we couldn't miss it! it was cold and a little drizzly, but my boy was in awe! couldn't wait to see the duck "being funny". we were there for close to two hours and only pulled him away by convincing him that the duck and everyone else was going home to go eat dinner and go to bed, too. the marching band starting up again as we walked off didn't help.

maya looks up and realizes something is not quite right!

kellen was a big hit too...little did we know when we put on our colors to head out the door that one of us would be crowned best dressed little duck fan! yep...kellen won the fan vote of best dressed. it was pretty funny - in the final round (yes, it went from about 10 kids down to top 4, to top 2 based upon crowd applause!) he was up against a kid dressed up in a full duck costume and it was deemed a tie. kellen was clueless about what was going on, but happy to walk away with a little duck football that plays the fight song.

kellen is a bigger fan of the duck from a distance!

afterwards we walked over to whole foods for dinner. kellen couldn't stop slamming the football on the table to make it plays the fight song and maya was quite happy to dance to the music! fun night.

miss one and mister two

2010-11-13T14:36:00.000-08:00

for six weeks and three days we officially have a one and two year old in our house. crazy.

maya has been gaining mad skills over the last few weeks! one of her favorites is to shake her head back and forth - NO! she doesn't say it...just gets this spunky look on her face and shakes her head fiercely. like today at gymboree when all she wanted to do was ride on the rocking horse! she's just starting to stand up on her own for brief moments and loves to walk around holding onto our hands. she's climbing up on things - chairs, tables, the couch, etc. she's not so good at getting down, but starting to catch on that feet first is the way to go! the other day i found her standing on one of the little chairs reaching up to grab something on the kitchen table. yikes! she loves her big brother - thinks he's the funniest. likes to pat his hair and basically do whatever he is doing. she loves to crawl into his room and wake him if he's napping. she's becoming much more vocal...but mostly yelling and squawking but she has a few "words". she says more to go along with the sign. signs all done, eat and more. says mama and dada. she's quite a stubborn girl. hates to be fed...wants to do things on her own! she's very sweet though and we love her more and more each day!

kellen is no longer our baby or toddler - he's turning into a little boy. the things he says just make us laugh! like the other day when talking about food. "it goes into my mouth and into my belly, then into my poop!" he has no interest in potty training...even after picking out his own potty chair (pink!). he for sure knows when he is pooping because he runs to his spot behind the curtain and says i'm going to poop. when i ask if he'd like to go on the potty he says no, i'm already going. yesterday he even went so far as to get a book to read while he did his business. seriously kid...i think it's time to get out of these dipes! when he's not knocking her down, squeezing her out of the way or putting something over her head...he's the sweetest big brother! anytime she cries (even if it's because of something he did) he runs to get her a toy that he thinks she'll like. he call her my or my-my. in the last month or so he's gotten very into rough housing and wresting around. he loves watching football with aaron, but is concerned when players get hurt - who did that? he'll say. he and aaron have a game they play with the ball - basically rolling around on the floor trying to snatch the ball from each other and he loves it. let's play funny, he'll say. he'll yell out - bubba, bubba (which actually means fumble!). he's our "big boy" as he likes to remind us daily but will always be my baby!

trick or treat!

2010-10-31T22:36:00.000-07:00

it's official...halloween is a million times more fun with kids!

cookie monster! *made by me! easiest costume...ping pong "googly eye" balls sewed onto blue hooded sweatshirt. felt cookies stiched onto body of sweatshirt. after halloween...snip the thread and it's a blue sweatsuit!

chocolate chip cookie! *made by me! even easier...felt chocolate chip cookie safety pinned onto brown shirt w/ brown pants and brown socks!

cookie monster and cookie!

maya and her buddy torsten, stuck in the strollers while their olders sibs trick or treat!

chocolate chip cookie has had enough!

cookie monster, pinkalicious, pilot and robot fairy!

earlier in the week we had some friends over to paint pumpkins. these are all of my nike mom friends who are all now staying home with their kiddos. so fun to "work" together again!

very proud of his pumpkin!

big boy bed!

2010-10-22T21:54:00.000-07:00

we waited for so long...but finally last week, we decided to take the side off of k's crib to turn it into a "big boy" bed or "big boy" crib as he likes to call it!

the transition has been relatively easy, although he did fall out of the bed the first night. i heard the thud and waited for a cry or for him to call for us, but nothing. i woke aa up and he went in to find a dazed and confused kellen. aa helped him into bed and that was that! in the morning i asked him how he liked his bed - good he said! i asked him if he had fallen out and he said nope, but my ba (what he calls his pacifier...yes, he still sleeps with a pacifier. that or potty training is next!) fell out!

he has been waking up more often in the night - usually asking for his teddy who has fallen out of the bed. surprisingly he does not get out of bed in the morning or at nap by himself. he still calls for one of us to come and get him and still greets us with a smile and says "i woke up!". so cute.

a new favorite pastime of the kids - jumping on the bed. probably shouldn't let them do this...but they have so much fun!

my sweet maya girl's birth day

2010-10-20T23:57:00.000-07:00

i sit here 24 hours before my girl turns officially turns 1 and i'm finally taking the time to document her birth story (bear with me!)! what a day that was...my very first day of maternity leave from nike. i had actually hoped to be off the previous friday, but of course, there was so much left for me to do, that i decided to work monday and tuesday and would have wednesday, the 21st...MY birthday be my first day of leave.

since aa and i have very few moments to ourselves, we decided to drop k off at school and set out to celebrate my birthday all day long! a couple of things happened that morning...1. my mucus plug (sorry, tmi...i know!) was lost and 2. i heard "i gotta feeling" by the black eyed peas and it ran through my head all day.

after we dropped off k, we went to starbucks to decide how we would spend our day together. i decided to splurge on a chocolate old fashioned donut since it was my b-day! :) we decided to go see a movie, since we rarely had the opportunity and knew that it would be even harder with "rolo" on the way in 10 days (give or take). we headed to bridgeport to see the informant (with matt damon...i recall it being pretty good). before we went into the movie, we stopped by the at&t store because i had been wanting to get a memory card for my blackberry so that i could take pics of rolo when he or she was born.

as we watched the movie, i started paying attention to the tightening in my stomach...but wasn't entirely sure that i was experiencing contractions. i really had convinced myself that i would not go into labor, since i was two weeks overdue, on pitocin for 25 hours and then c-section with kellen. but...there was a small part of me that thought, hmmm...this is interesting. we finished the movie and decided to go enjoy a nice lunch at meriwether's before my doctor's appt at 3pm. lunch was yummy. saint cupcakes was conveniently nearby and since it was my birthday, we picked up some cupcakes for after dinner! toasted coconut cream for me of course.

we were set to discuss our plan for this baby at the doctor's appointment. we had been trying to figure out if we just wait to go into labor and try for a vbac, induce in hopes of a vbac or schedule a c-section. just like with kellen, i really struggled with picking the birth date by scheduling something - i SO wanted it to just happen. the good news is that i had progressed from 1 cm to 3cm at that appt. i told her about the plug and about the tightening/contractions and she was hopeful that my body was showing signs of going into labor on it's own and thought that a vbac was a strong possiblity. with that, we decided to just let my body do it's work and if nothing happened by monday, november 2 (2 days past my due date of october 31), we would go in that day to either induce (if things had progressed and with the option to call it at any time to go for a c-section) or just go for a c-section. feeling great about our plan, she gave me a hug and said she'd either see us at the next appt or hopefully sooner!

immediately after we left that appt, the contractions started stepping it up...but i was still unsure about what i was actually experiencing. not wanting the day to end, aa and i headed to hall street grill for happy hour. aa had a beer or two and i had tempura green beans. we finalized our a girl middle name, should we have a girl and confirmed the spelling. we started timing the contractions. they were 2-3 min. apart and started to become uncomfortable. i still didn't believe i was in labor and we continued on to new seasons to buy groceries for my birthday dinner. as i walked into new seasons, i actually had to stop and catch my breath with each contraction - i still did not believe i was in labor. but, we decided we should hustle, get kellen at school and get home. just. in. case.

aa made dinner - halibut parmesean. i checked my facebook and at 6:11 posted his status update: "feels VERY loved by all her friends and family! Thanks for the bday wishes...had a great day...movie, lunch and happy hour with my hubby. now my boys are making me dinner and st. cupcake for dessert. it doesn't get much better!" if only i knew! the contractions continued still around every 2-3 minutes and quite painful - but i still thought this can't be the real deal. so i ate the whole dinner and the cupcake. we put kellen to bed and i called my sister to tell her she might need to be prepared to come over. i then called my friend andi and described the situation - plug gone, contracting through the day, in pain now...could i be in labor? yes!

it was about 8pm. from here, we decided to get serious about timing the contractions. i laid on the couch and for about 45 min we timed them...they were anywhere from 1-2 min. apart and this is where i realized i might be in labor. for real. i had aaron call the hospital to describe my situation. they made me talk despite my having to breathe though each contraction every minute or so and after describing my situation they said that i better hurry up and get to the hospital because we were having a baby! ah!!!!!!!!

my sister was called. i took a shower. packed a bag and waited for my sister to arrive. she showed up. took some pictures of us and we hit the road. time is about 9:45pm. about 2 minutes away from our house, i realize i forgot the special paper that i had intended to bring for the baby's footprints. i insist we turn around and get it. back on our way and aaron is driving in the right hand lane on 217 with cars passing us. i am clinging to the handle and ask him why tonight he decides to follow the speed limit. all i remember thinking/saying is that i wonder how quickly i can get an epidural and that i can't think clearly to decide if i really want to go for that vbac until i get an epidural!! we arrive in the ER parking lot and i go in and am immediately placed in a wheel chair. aaron comes along toting our 50 pounds of crap - but forgets the paper!!!

we arrive in labor and delivery around 10:15-30pm. they confirm just by my demeanor that yes i am in labor and i ask for an epidural immediately. they start doing their business of setting me up, prepping for epidural. dr barrett arrives and she is excited. the anethesiologist arrives and begins putting in the epi. dr. barrett sits and watches the monitor. once the epidural is in she tells us she wants to do an exam because she saw the babies heartrate go up quite a bit and she wants to make sure everything is good. instantly she says something is not right - she feels something and believes it is a tear on my cervix. she continues to check it out and within minutes she says the vbac is off and that we need to get the contractions stopped and baby out. (by the way...only dilated to four - seriously...was so painful and only to four!!!) we could tell that things were quite serious, but i was never worried. i was given a shot to stop the contractions and things were pretty frenzied. i was watching the clock very closely now because it was approximately 11:30pm. i ask if she thought the baby would be out before midnight and she said absolutely. hmm...selfishly i think to myself...i don't want to share my birthday! i also have doubts that it will happen because the second doctor had not even been called at that point and he would still need to arrive!

by 11:40 i was being wheeled to the OR, aa had his scrubs on and i was all prepped and just waiting for the oncall dr (dr davis) to arrive. he flew in and true to her word...our baby was delivered at 11:57pm on wednesday, october 21, 2009. SHE was beautiful!!! she weighed 6 pounds 13 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. i could hardly believe it...she was a she! what fun it was to not find out. tonight was a good night. even though the vbac was not accomplished...i couldn't be happier with the way things happened. it was thrilling to experience going into labor and it was meant to be because it just happened. my baby girl was meant to share a birthday with me (by the way...i share my birthday with my uncle who is 9 years older than me. so that means my grandma, my mom and i have all delivered a baby on oct. 21st! crazy!).

while baby girl was being measured and cleaned...i was being examined and then the tear was confirmed and repaired (so thankful for my wonderful doctor...disaster averted!). aaron and i enjoyed our baby girl in the wee hours of the morning. aa finally needed to get some sleep, but i was on pure adrenaline and couldn't take my eyes off of her. she ate right away and slept peacefully in my arms. pure bliss. {oh and it was a good thing that i stopped and got the memory card for the blackberry! text and picture announcing her birth was sent out!!}

we had a very quiet hospital stay due to h1n1. i was only allowed two support people - aaron and jan (who was wonderful to skip a family wedding and stay with our boy!). i missed my boy terribly and felt awful that he couldn't come to the hospital to see his baby sister. i was able to see him one time during the stay - we met in the cafeteria and i couldn't believe how big he had suddenly become! four days later we arrived home as a family of four. what a ride this last year has been! i couldn't be more thankful for my sweet baby girl.

happy birthday to our maya girl! we love you baby girl!

the patch

2010-10-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

one of the nice things about me being at home and aa having a weekday off every other week is that we can do some of our family activities during the week sans the weekend crowds! yesterday we enjoyed one of our favorite family traditions - the pumpkin patch. in fact...we've been going for around ten years - we started years ago when my nephew, tylre, was kellen's age! crazy. it was the perfect day - so warm and sunny!

this was actually maya's first strip to the pumpking patch. last year we went three days before she was born! miss no nap was a trooper and enjoyed the hayride out to the pumpkin field. but her favorite, was just sitting on a pumpkin! we sat her there for a photo op and she just continued to sit there like it was a chair. k and aa hunted around for the perfect pumpkins and finally ended up with a tall, skinny one and a short, round one - bert and ernie is what we've been calling them around here! carving will commence this weekend (hopefully!).

oh and the one downside to going during the week - no corn on the cob or elephant ears!

dairy-free, gluten-free {almost!}

2010-10-11T21:56:00.000-07:00

as i mentioned below, we are having major issues with maya and food. because of a persistant rash on her face from about the time she was four months old, we suspect she has some food intolerances, gut issues and possibly (but hopefully not!) food allergies. because i am still a food source for her, my diet can have a major impact on her, so that makes it even more challenging to figure out what triggers the rash. she has been seeing a naturopath for the last several months and i believe we are making strides. one thing that i believe has helped is eliminating dairy from
our diet. truth be told, we/i haven't completely eliminated, but we've greatly reduced and aren't eating anything straight dairy. where i haven't been so good is looking at every ingredient on things like bread. i've also tried to reduce the amount of gluten in my diet and maya has been completely gluten free.

this can be challenging. every time i am weak and eat a bit of dairy, i feel terrible if it results in her face breaking out. talk about major mama guilt! anyway...i stumbled upon a delicious and healthy, gluten and dairy free salad that i thought i'd share. i tasted it at new seasons and then happened to find the exact recipe on marthastewart.com.

{marthas stewart}

Quinoa and Apple Curry Salad

1/4 cup raw almonds

1 cup whole grain or white quinoa

1 tsp honey

1 Tbsp finely chopped shallot

1 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp coarse salt

2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

Freshly ground pepper

2 Tbsp EVOO

2 Tbsp dried currants

1 small McIntosh apple, diced

1/4 c. loosely packed fresh mint leaves chopped

Directions:

1. Toast almonds on a sheet pan in a 375 degree oven. Cool and coarsly chop.

2. Rinse Quinoa thoroughly in a fine sieve; drain. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add quinoa; return to a boil. Stir, cover and reduce heat. Simmer until quinoa is tender, but still chewy, about 15 min. Fluff with a fork and let cool.

3. Whisk together honey, shallot, curry powser, salt and lemon juice in a large bowl. Season with pepper. Whisking constantly, pour in oil in a slow, steady stream. Whisk until dressing is emulsified. Add Quinoa, currants, apple, mint and nuts;. toss well. Garnish with mint.

of course, i had to make a few adjustments. i didn't have shallots, so instead of adding them to the dressing, i sauteed a little bit of onion and garlic in a pan and just added them into the salad. i also could not find currants, so replaced them with dried cranberries and didn't have mint so i left it out! you can also use any type of apple you might have in your house. i used one off of our tree! this salad is delish and the quinoa packs a healthly punch of protein, so it can make a complete meal!

2010-10-09T23:38:00.000-07:00

this week maya learned her first sign - more! we sat on the kitchen floor with some chicken and after just a few times of me showing her the sign and then giving her more, she caught on! we did the same thing with kellen, only with veggie booty! not only is she signing it, but she says it as well...mo, mo. she was so excited the about her new skill that she woke up at 4am the first night signing and saying more! it's the cutest thing when your baby can start to communicate with you and seriously makes me burst with joy! she doesn't always use it in the right context, but she's only 11 months! i'm pretty sure that milk is up next and we're working on eat and water as well.

{in case you are wondering, my kids both signed more with one finger to the palm. i believe the main (correct) way to sign more is the two fingertips touching, although the finger to the palm is quite common. also...you may be wondering why maya always has a rash on her face. we are wondering too! actually, she has some major food intolerances (hopefully not allergies) that we are working with her doctor and naturapath to figure out. it's actually much better (although pretty bad in these pictures) and we're hopeful she'll grow out of it. it does make me sad though to see her pretty face constantly covered in a nasty rash.}

why couldn't we have gotten a sleeper?!

2010-10-07T22:13:00.000-07:00

when kellen was a baby, aa and i were pretty sure that we had been lucky enough to get an "easy" baby. not that we didn't have our challenges, but he was pretty easy-going, rarely cried and slept relatively well (not through the night for a long time, but went to sleep on his own practically!). it didn't take long after maya was born for us to realize that what we thought about kellen being an easy baby was in fact VERY true! don't trust them when they say second babies are easy!

very few things about maya has been easy. feeding - not easy...not a bit! sleeping - THE worst! and as a parent of a toddler, sleeping throughout the day was not an option, so into our bed she came. we all seemed to get the most sleep that way and we thought it wouldn't last long. SO wrong! she is STILL in our bed...but only if i am in it does she sleep comfortably, so we've created some very bad habits. in fact, if you read any of the sleep books out there, you will find that i am breaking every rule.

an article from one of the parenting magazines i receive had an article to inform parents of the five habits that make nighttime a nightmare for parents.

sleep trap #1: feeding or rocking your baby to sleep - yep! maya searches for me at night when she is getting tired and wants nothing to do with anyone else...she just wants the goods. i don't know how to break her of this. i actually wish that she took a pacifier, but of course...no pacifier for her, I am her pacifier!

sleep trap #2: picking up the baby each time she cries - for sure! there are a couple of reasons for this - but mainly because she's in our room/bed it makes it hard to let her cry because we need our sleep and i know that if i just hold her, she'll go right back to sleep. also don't want kellen to wake up...but seriously that kid sleeps like a log, so it's probably just an excuse...i don't like to hear my baby cry! here's another thing...the girl pukes if we do let her cry. i have actually tried a few times and every time she's puked. just wasn't worth it!

sleep trap#3: extending night feedings - of course! remember, i am her pacificer and i feed her to sleep and i pick her up or snuggle her every time she cries, so of course in order to get her back to sleep, i feed her. ugh.

sleep trap#4: napping on the go - duh...she's the second baby! that is the only time she gets a nap! especially now that i'm home and we don't want to just stay home. besides, i've tried to stay home and create a nice napping routine, but the girl hates to nap...unless someone is holding her that is!

sleep trap#5: letting your baby stay up too late - well, she only sleeps with me and i'm not interested in going to bed at 8:30! but seriously, we have tried tried tried to get her to go to sleep at a decent hour, but she just doesn't like to go to sleep before 9 or 10! i so used to judge parents for not putting their baby to bed at a decent hour and now i'm that parent.

yikes! poor girl sleeps on the couch until i'm ready to go to bed and this is how i found her the other night when i came into the room! it was the first time she's done something like that...i'm just so glad she didn't fall off...cause that would have for sure woke her up! ;)

you'd think that because she is our second baby we would know better...but i'm truly convinced that it is more about the baby and what is going on inside of them, then it is about the parents doing something right! at least that is what i keep telling myself to make myself feel better.

when she was about four months, i thought that perhaps the sleep thing was coming around - she had actually slept in her own bed from 11pm - 4am. that my friends is the longest stretch she has ever slept and it happened ONCE! i'm starting to feel like she may never be out of our bed, but really that is not an option for us! i know there will come a point where i/we will have enough and we'll come up with a plan. i'm pretty sure that the first thing we need to do is really create a room or space of her own. poor baby girl doesn't actually have a bedroom. that would probably be a good start! she has a pack and play in the office, but i haven't been able to get her to sleep for even a half hour in it for about a month.

Aa taking a turn at holding her before we all retire to bed.

so...any sleep advice for me? i actually think i know it all and that really i/we just need to be ready. but there is part of me that is starting to feel like i'm failing her by not teaching her to soothe herself and wondering if she is actually getting enough good sleep. so, just in case you have some miracle solution...please let me know.

in the meantime, i'm actually just going to enjoy it as much as i can. waking up to your baby with her arm around you and being able to kiss her head before you drift off to sleep isn't the worst thing in the world. i'm not having any more babies and i know how fast this goes, so i'm just going to be thankful for it...because there will be a time when all i want to do is snuggle up with my girl and she will roll her eyes at me with disgust!

if she's not in one of our arms, we can usually get the boppy to simulate the feeling of her being held...but she'll only be tricked for so long until she wakes up and we have to soothe her back to sleep again! she sure looks sweet though!

happy birthday, aa!

2010-10-04T23:16:00.000-07:00

happy birthday to the one we love the most!

go ducks {catch up}

2010-09-28T10:37:00.000-07:00

september 4th was the duck season and home opener against new mexico...the score - 72-0, making it the perfect game to bring the kiddos! this was kellen's third game - he has attended one each season and maya's first game - she'll likely be attending every game that i attend this year as she is the ultimate mama's girl!

kellen has become the ultimate football and duck fan! just like last year, he really got into the game experience - taking any opportunity to give everyone high fives, loving the duck doing push ups with each score and even sitting on the lap of the guy in front of us to "discuss" and watch the game! we went out to the car at half time with the ducks up A LOT to nothing prepared to go home, but kellen refused to go home...he wanted to go back to the game!

maya was great - wore her headphones the whole time, napped a bit and sat with either aa or me taking in all their was to see at autzen!

unfortunately no pictures from the tailgater, as we got there a little late and eating/drinking were priorities over the camera! but here are a few shots from the game.

sunriver {catch up}

2010-09-27T13:52:00.000-07:00

with two little ones, we decided that our vacation this year should probably be low-key and close to home...so we went back to a favorite of ours - Sunriver. this is the perfect time of year to go because the weather is still really nice, there are less people and it's the low-season so there are lots of deals to be had on vacation rentals. we always find a great house that offers a 4 for 2 or 6 for 3 (stay for 4/6 nights, but pay for 2/3 nights). side note...the house we rented this time was the identical floor plan as the last time, which was pretty crazy!

Here is our trip in pictures:

we took lots of walks to the village and fort rock park.

A trip out to the stables to check out the horses and ponies.

we attempted a hike and picnic at benham falls, but as we laid out our blanket to have a picnic the mosquitoes started swarming so we ended up walking and eating to run from the bugs who got the best of AA and me.

Aa and K enjoyed daily sessions of peanuts in the shell and male bonding!

good food was enjoyed by all!

lots of love and kisses from our baby girl!

kellen "i'm a puzzle guy" and daddy (in the background) working on their puzzles.

There are over 32 miles of paths and lots of tree stumps, but we managed to find the same exact spot on the path where we took a picture of k on a tree stump last time. what a difference two years makes! we'll have to remember this spot the next time we go back and make it a sunriver tradition!

of course we had to get one of miss maya as well!

our two babies!

we had hoped to go biking as a family, but injuries prevented Aa from being able to ride and i wasn't up for going alone with two babies in a trailer! i did manage to get one bike ride in for the week. so thankful for the time we had together and can't wait for our next trip back - although i will say that i'm itching for a warm weather, tropical vacation next!

my promotion

2010-09-20T21:58:00.000-07:00

i'm officially 17 days into my new job - full time mama to my babes...check that my big boy and my baby! what a crazy last few months it's been juggling work, kids, home, life, etc. i'm so excited to be able to focus on my number one priority - my family. i'm really hoping to find some peace, calm and simplicity in just enjoying this time while our kids are still young.

while i know this is the right thing for us right now...this decision was both the easiest and the hardest decision i've had to make. hard because i loved my job at nike - it gave me/us so much, both personally and professionally. i will miss the challenging work, the awesome friends and co-workers, the amazing opportunities, the employee discounts (!), the paycheck & benefits, the feeling of professional accomplishment and growth, the ability to grab coffee, lunch, run an errand, workout or just have a moment to myself and the opportunities it afforded our kids (friends, teachers, learning, bonding, experiences at Stringer). i won't miss the ~45 minutes it took to drop off and pick up both kids, the logging on for a few hours of work a couple of nights a week, the rushing into the Stringer at 5:55pm and feeling like the worst parent on the planet, the chaos of getting a decent dinner on the table before rushing the kids off to bed and the constant feeling of being just average at home and at work (whether it was true or not!).

i'm lucky, because i have many friends who have already made this decision and i thank them for giving me the courage to do the same! i'll be approaching my new "job" similar to how i would approach any new job. i have plans to meet with all my friends to learn their "best practices" and will be scheduling regular 1:1 and team meetings...make that playdates! today i started a spreadsheet of all the free/inexpensive activities to do during the week (library and bookstore story times, music peformances, art classes, gymboree classes, etc.). i need to figure out our routine for balancing fun with errands, cleaning, cooking etc. also, with a busy busy 2.5 (almost 3!) year old and a demanding, hates to sleep and eat almost 1 year old, i need to find some extreme patience. i'm going into this expecting that this job will actually be harder then my old job...but oh so much more fulfilling!

how lucky am i to be able to spend my days with these adorable babies? watching them grow, learn and love each other...i couldn't ask for a better gig!

i'm mostly thankful to Aa - for supporting this decision and working so hard so that we can do this. i <3>

busy mama, lazy blogger!

2010-07-16T13:54:00.000-07:00

the life of a full time work outside the home mom of 2 kids, wife to 1 husband has kept me very busy...this blog (amongst many other things!) keeps getting neglected. i have great intentions, but they just don't always happen - sleep or just catching up on other blogs seems to always win out!

we just got back from a road trip to northern california - first to attend aaron's cousin in the mount shasta area, then on to sacramento to visit our great friends, mike and mel and two of their kids, macen and shea, finally landing in san francisco for a few fun days as a family! i'm not sure i'd recommend a road trip with a 2.5 year old and an 8 month old, but we did manage to have lots of fun between the long stretches of driving that maya especially grew to detest! oh and check it out!!! i submitted our adventure on one of my favorite sites, Ohdeedoh and they featured it today! that cement slide was super fun - grab a piece of cardboard that are scattered around the bottom, climb up the stairs and you whiz down! i highly recommend.

quick update on the kids:
maya is just about 9 months and really getting personality. she babbles about, has just started to scoot (army crawl) and is FINALLY starting to eat some solids (just today she took down a half of a banana mixed in with 1/4 avocado!). oh and she also is FINALLY taking a bottle from her teachers at school...yahoo! her hair is getting thicker and longer. she is loves to be held, especially by her mama and daddy and lights up with joy at the sight and sound of her brother! kellen is the only one who can make her laugh easily! it's super cute!

kellen...my big boy! he's 2 1/2 and it's just amazing to us how we can carry on full conversations with him now. his language is just exploding and he's becoming such an independent little guy. he keeps himself entertained, whether with his sesame street guys or playing in his kitchen...and the whole time he's singing songs (which i just love!). itsy bitsy spider is probably his favorite, but he's not afraid to bust out, bringing home a baby bumblebee, slippery fish, you are my sunshine or the abc's. some of his funny sayings - "sounds like a plan", "oh my goodness!", "not quite yet". i'm sure there are more, which is why i should be better at keeping this blog up!

bubble bath for two!

2010-06-18T12:46:00.000-07:00

oh sh*&!!!

2010-05-14T13:30:00.000-07:00

a recent (within the last couple of months!) conversation with my boy

kellen: oh sit (as he drops something on the floor)

me: what did you just say?

kellen: oh shit (a little more clearer, with a big grin on his face)

me: kellen, that's not a nice thing to say. why don't you say, oh, man!

kellen: oh shit, man! (with an even bigger grin on his face)

me, thinking to myself: oh shit!!!

fruit salad

2010-04-18T10:36:00.000-07:00

last month kellen's classroom held a fruit salad party. each child brought in a different fruit and then for the afternoon activity and snack, they made and ate the salad. kellen's fruit was banana and he had a hard time giving up all of his banana's to the fruit salad. he scarfed down a whole banana before giving the rest of the bunch over to be cut up!

everyone took a turn dumping and mixing. kellen loved serving up bowls of fruit to all the parents. he served himself a giant bowl and then of course just picked out the mandarin oranges and pineapple.

as much as it's a near daily struggle for me to be away from my babes all day while i'm at work, i am sure thankful that they are able to go to the school right on campus. it's so nice to be able to easily drop in and say hello or participate in the variety of activities they have available. i keep telling myself this, because as much as i know that it's a great place, i still really struggled this last week now that maya has started going to "school'. she is in kellen's old infant class, little torch. it's right across the playyard from kellen's classroom, toggler...so on nice days when both classes are outside playing the kids can see each other.

things i'm diggin

2010-04-15T06:22:00.000-07:00

here are a few more things i thought i'd share with you...who knows, maybe i'll make this a monthly project - seems like that's the only way i actually get on here and blog!!

1. amazon subscribe and save - this feature is AWESOME for so many reasons. first, find your favorite items...so far, i've subscribed to pampers, gogo squeezes (portable fruit sauce - kellen digs these!), rice cereal and a couple of other go to snacks for kellen. you choose how often you'd like to send it (every 1, 2, 3 or 6 months.), can cancel anytime (even after your first shipment), free shipping AND 15% off the regular price. there are thousands of products - food and snacks, health and wellness, household supplies, personal care and beauty products, baby & child are products. how great not to have to run out to babies r us, the grocery store or target...instead, just have it delivered, for free and typically cheaper!

2. in honor of tax day - turbotax.com i've been using turbo tax for the last 9 years and it basically allows me to wait until the very last minute before sitting down at the computer and banging out those taxes. never a fun job, but turbo tax makes it easy for me!

3. wholesomebabyfood.com and onehungrymama.com - as i inch days closer to having a six month, the thought of feeding her some goodness other than her mama's milk is creeping into my mind. as i did with kellen, i plan on making the majority of her food. it's so much easier than it sounds and i actually found it very rewarding to steam up those great organic veggies and fruits, puree and then freeze in ice cube trays for a freezer full of fresh and healthy food for my babe. the wholesomebabyfood site was a good to site when i was making food for kellen. onehungrymama is one that i've only recently discovered in my quest to look for healthy and good recipes that i can make for the whole family. you see, kellen is a bit of a veggie snubber, so i've been trying to figure out ways to incorporate veggies into his diet and this site has a number of great meals that do just that! i love how you can search by age - so once maya is eating a wide range of foods, i'm hoping to pretty quickly transition her to table food so that we can all eat the same meal as a family!

4. csa's - community supported agriculture. we just signed up for our fourth season of our csa and while we're still a few months away from receiving our first week of veggies - i thought it'd be a good time to share with two sites with you all so that you too can sign up and embark upon a relationship with a local farm to share in the harvest and enjoy fresh, local fruits and veggies (another reason why it was so easy to make my own baby food - i had fresh, organic veggies delivered to my work weekly!). i'm lucky in that i have an option of two farms that will deliver my weekly harvest to my work - so it makes it super easy! most farms deliver to several different local famer's markets - so you should be able to find one that delivers to your neighborhood farmer's market! this year we actually decided to try out a new farm, really for no other reason than to check out something new! i feel a little guilty - like we are cheating on the farm we've gotten our harvest box from for the last three years - but i know that they always sell out their harvest boxes, so i'm just opening up a spot for someone else who has been wanting one! in fact, most farms sell out rather quickly - so if you are interested in joining a csa, i recommend you get on it fast! here's are a couple of websites that list local csa farms - Portland Area CSA Coalition and Local Harvest. my next quest is to find a farm that raises grass-fed beef and buy a portion of a locally and ethically raised and butchered cow. has anyone done this or have recommendations?

first swing!

2010-04-12T23:13:00.000-07:00

our weather has sure been crazy - sunny and warm one day or hour and cold, rainy or hailing the next! this weekend, i took advantage of a stretch of sunny weather and a visit from uncle bry to take the kiddos on a walk to the park. once we got there, i realized maya was old and strong enough to be able to be able to give the old baby swing a try! luckily uncle bry had his iphone with him, so we were able to catch some cute shots of the girl swinging - i think she enjoyed her time!

and of course, because she's the second child...she only gets a minute of the limelight to herself. kellen had fun pushing her and then big brother wanted to swing, too. so we put them together in one baby swing...could they be any cuter swinging together? i don't think she minded sharing the spotlight, either!

thanks for the fun and the cute pics, uncle bry!

and speaking of iphones...i am upgrade eligible as of may for a new phone through work and the iphone is now an option. should i make the jump from blackberry to iphone? i know, i know...i'm so behind the times not having an iphone and i should be a no brainer - but i tell you, i'm not so sure i'm a fan of the touch screen keyboard! and really, do i need the iphone to further feed my internet addiction?

my girl and me!

2010-04-11T15:53:00.000-07:00

i love her!!!

monthly project {four people times twelve} // march

2010-04-09T13:51:00.000-07:00

ok - forgive...i'm a little late in posting this! once again, squeaked the picture in on the last day of the month - on our toy covered living room floor! at least i'm giving myself a record of what really goes on in this household - we must pick up these toys at least four times a day.

these pics were taken with the self timer feature on a wednesday (which i currently have off...sort of!), right as aa came home from work and seconds before we start the frenzy which is getting dinner on the table, a bit of play time and then bedtime routine before aa and i crash out just to start our crazy days over again. life with two babes is a whirlwind and to top it all off, i'm now back to work. started back on march 22 - 1 day after my girl turned five months - 5 MONTHS?!! how can it be. i have very mixed emotions about being back to work - on one hand, it is nice to have a bit of time to myself, even in all the craziness that is my work life these days, but on the other hand, i miss my babes so much and i know that this time flies by - my biggest fear is that i'll regret not taking this time to just be home. it's a topic of discussion near daily and really i take it day by day, sometimes hour by hour. we'll see what happens.

kellen has been testing boundaries, limits and our patience these days! we had a rough couple of days early in the month with lots of hitting (of me and maya), throwing things (at me and maya...including a 5 pound weight on the girl! ah.), and all around mischief. i realize that this is all part of his development, but sometimes it's all i can take! the 5 pound weight about took me over the edge! these outbursts seem to come in waves and i can see them coming by the glimmer in his eye and the devilish smile on his face. i've been really trying to focus on showering him with attention, which i think is part of why he acts out - he just wants some attention!

moving on...he's been loving gymboree these days, learned to climb out of the crib this month (yikes!), is really a big helper and LOVES sesame street, especially cookie monster and elmo! he's been adding to his collection of guys and things that have to sleep with him in his crib at night - currently there are the following stuffed animals: two monk monk's (monkeys), big T (teddy bear), teddy (#1!), lizard, doggie and duckie, two cookie monster diapers, his blanket and some assortment of books - anywhere from 3-8 different ones! he's such a funny and sweet boy! i simply can't get enough!

my maya girl...5 months - really almost 6 months! i'm falling more and more in love with my girl by the day. she's still super demanding - don't even think about putting her down and walking out of sight! and yes, i'm still sleeping all night with her in my arms and no, she isn't taking a bottle...which has been a bit of a challenge with me back to work. we are SO lucky that grandma jan has been able to watch her on mondays and that she's willing to bring her to me 1-2 times to eat. my sister has been watching her for about four hours on tuesdays and daddy has been home with her on thursdays and also bringing her to me 1-2 times a day to eat. that is all changing on monday when she will start in the little torch classroom at the stringer child development center at nike - same classroom that kellen started in a year and a half ago. i have such mixed feelings about it - feels like she's so young to be in group care (kellen started at 9 months), but it will be nice to be able to go over and feed her when she's hungry.

the girl is getting so big and learning new tricks - march 7 she rolled over from back to tummy. she's pivoting all around, reaching for everything, grabbing her toes and really expressing herself with her voice! poor girl had a terrible rash on her face the last month, but i think we finally found the trick to keeping her clear - grandma el's ointment (hate that word!). one of the main reasons for the rash - TWO new teeth. the first one broke through march 12 and the second one march 29. those babies are sharp!!! it's hard to believe that solid foods are right around the corner - where does the time go???

the biggest thing in my world has been starting back to work. i'm supposed to be working part time, but there is a tremendous amount of work to be done right now. i'm feeling more and more that i might as well officially go back to full time, since i'm working it anyway - may as well be paid. especially considering that once maya starts at stringer, i would have to pay nike to work at the part time hours! not such a great feeling! back to work, meant finally a new haircut! bye bye pony tail, hello shorter do! i loved it the first and second day, but i've been having trouble doing it myself and i'm starting to think i'm ready to grow out my bangs.

oh - the BOB's are finally on sale! now i just need to figure out which one i want to get - the orange with 16" wheels or the black with 12" wheels!

we've been on a bit of a pancake kick lately. we've been alternating between two different kinds - this recipe for perfect pancakes and a cornmeal pancake that's made with yogurt, whole wheat flour and well...cornmeal (along with some other key ingredients!). i make a bunch of little "baby" pancakes and kellen eats them right up with a little syrup on the side for dipping. the best part is we freeze the leftovers and have breakfast or snacks for kellen on the go during the week!

my book for book club this month was the day the falls stood still. a great read that i highly recommend. we all met up at flying pie pizza for pizza and beer on a friday night. felt so good to be out of the house on my own...it so rarely happens these days!

i'm drawing a blank on anything else that happened this month - may need to start a written log so that when i finally get around to this i'll remember what we were up to! i'll try to do better next month...but no promises! ha.

things i'm diggin

2010-03-19T17:17:00.000-07:00

sometimes things are sooo good you just need to share! here are some things i'm diggin this month:

Cinnamon Bun ice cream by Tillamook

Cinnamon bun ice cream with sticky bun dough, praline pieces and a sweet streusel swirl. not normally a flavor i would choose, but sounded so interested and is OH, so good! (if you click on the link...please disregard the nutritional info...just enjoy the goodness!!!!)

Deal a day sites

i admit...i'm addicted! these sites post a deal (or more) a day and it's like a frenzy because of the "limited" quantity! i'm guessing many of these items are discontinued, out of season or overstock - but they have some GREAT things. reminds me of sample sales at work - people line up for hours ahead of time to score some great deals! some of my faves include: babysteals.com (1 new deal each day), kidsteals.com (1 new deal each day), greenbabybargains.com (1 new deal each day), mamabargains.com (multiple deals throughout the deal, 1 at a time, random), hautelook.com (multiple events on high end brands every day for women, men, kids and home) and gilt.com (another high end site with multiple brands for women, kids, home and gifts...they also have a travel and mens site). if you decide you want in on the action - and haven't registered at hautelook or gilt, let me know because if can send you a link and i think we'll both score some cash if you decide to make a purchase! fair warning - these sites can be addicting...they have some great things to buy!

Relish Meal Planning Service

i read about this on another blog that i read regularly and let me tell you - it's pretty cool! every thursday, they have a new menu with 15 different options. lots of variety - veggie, kid friendly, quick, etc. i believe they also have a gluten free version. anyway...you choose the 4 meals you want to make that week (or more if you want) and then download the shopping list for the week and all the recipes. if you don't like the options for that week, you can look in the archives of hundreds of recipes and choose those. the feature that i think i like the best (besides the shopping list!) is that you can submit your own recipes and then select from those as well. i've entered many of my favorites and they format for you in just a couple of days. oh and you can also adjust for the number of people you are cooking for - 2, 4, 6 or 8 and it adjusts both the recipes and the shopping list. super cool and makes grocery shopping easy peasy and eliminates the nightly grind of what are we going to have for dinner. i am loving it and i haven't even fully utilized it on a regular basis.

Etsy

i'm sure that many of you know about this site of handmade goodness! i just love looking at all the inspiring things that are on here and have made several purchases. very cool to support the individual artist/crafter and get unique, often one of a kind goods in return! things i've purchased include prints for kellen's bedroom, birthday crown, superhero cape, baby announcements, customized notecards, maya's baby book, reusable produce bags, and a big brother to be shirt for k. you can save favorite items and favorite shops. there are thousands and thousands and oh so much eye candy! also lots of inspiration. i found the design for kellen's first birthday invites on etsy, then made them myself!

some things i have my eye on include: these sweet prints, these notecards (would look so cute to have a few framed!), this happy birthday banner, possibly these decals for maya's space, poms (although i think i can make them myself!), and this awesome stuffed digger. there is so much more...but i couldn't possibly list it all! watch out...etsy can also suck you in!

that is what i'm diggin - what are you diggin lately?

you who!

2010-03-18T13:39:00.000-07:00

as i mentioned in the post below...we took the kids to a kids rock variety show at the kennedy school last month. it's called you who , and was started by a member of the decemberists who wanted something fun for parents and kids to do in portland. it is held the last sunday of every month and i highly recommend it. it was a great time! there was a face painter, a little art project (noodle and paper flower leis), and lots of dancing, music and fun. we fed the kellen before we went, but you can order pizzas and drinks and eat it in the ballroom. they have all the chairs and tables which are normally in there for the movies around the edge of the room.

before the main show there were two owls, which i think is their mascot, that came out and danced with the kids. kellen was not too sure about them. he wanted to look at them, but not too close! we weren't sure that he would let the lady paint his face, but he marched right up and asked for a tiger. so cute!

when the show started, a guy came out to introduce the various musical acts. he was dressed up in a french attire, spoke with a french accent and was carrying a baguette. he broke off a piece of the baguette and threw it at the crowd. where did it land? right at kellen's feet...but someone else grabbed it. after the next act, he threw another piece and lo and behold...that piece of bread landed at kellen's feet. this time he was not going to let someone else snatch it away from him. he gnawed away at that piece of bread the whole show and loved every bit of it. the next act, all the kids ran to the stage calling for pieces of bread and he threw it all out to the crowd. kellen looked up at us and said, "i already got my bread!". i think it may have been his favorite part of the show = the piece of bread that landed on the nasty floor! our baby girl was a trooper - she hung out in the ergo the entire time and we really didn't hear a peep from her. she even tolerated the ear plugs that made her look like a baby shrek!

our little camera sucks - the flash is so bright and washes everything out so bad...and i'm just too lazy to correct it right now! it's all i can do to get these posted! ha.

i see in may the dandy warhols are playing - maybe we'll have to check it out again. one thing to note - the final act was a little loud. they sell earplugs, but if you have a little one who is sensitive to sound...it might be a little too overwhelming. we actually ended up leaving a bit into the final act, mostly because we were way past naptime...but the loudness was a bit much at the end!

monthly project {four people times twelve} // february

2010-03-01T15:21:00.000-08:00

we squeezed in a family foto on the last day of february! seems like such an easy task, but one that just doesn't happen unless you make it happen! it's too easy for one of the kids to be sleeping, to not have showered and be looking like crap or just not having the energy to wrangle two kids for a pictue.

these pictures were taken at mcmenamins kennedy school. we took the kids to a concert aimed at kids & parents called You Who!, which was very cool and requires a post of it's own. afterwards aaron and i ate pulled pork sandwiches from podnahs. the kids were both sleeping, so we picked them up to go and pulled into the parking lot of whole foods and enjoyed them! aaron loves pulled pork sandwiches - it's almost guaranteed that if there is one on the menu he'll order it!

kellen is really coming into his own - oh boy that boy is really learning how to push all the right buttons! he's so cute though and daily he does something that will just melt your heart. i taught him how to give eskimo and butterfly kisses - he thinks butterfly kisses are particularly funny. sometimes we'll be laying on his pillow before bed and he'll turn to face me real close with both of his hands on my face and rub noses. my heart becomes a puddle of goo right there!

oh and he started calling me mom this month. MOM! with attitude. mostly it's still mama or mommy, but every now and then it's MOM! or even sometimes Angie. seriously?! some of his favorite phrases include, "not right now!", "two more minutes" (even if we offer five! ie. bedtime in five minutes.), "more in there?"

this month our household was down and out with the flu and colds for about 2-3 weeks. it was bad! maya seemed to start things off with a slight fever and a little bit of throwing up. her case was MILD compared to kellen who started throwing up on a thursday and didn't stop until sunday. the kid is now skin and bones because he literally sustained on water/juice and applesauce for a week. aaron also got taken down by the virus and didn't emerge from our bedroom for about 36 hours. i don't know how i escaped (knocking on wood), but i did! let me tell you, it was a LONG week though. i thought it would never end. on one of the worst days when all three were sick, i think kellen watched 10 hours of sesame street. no mom of the year awards for that day!

sweet maya finally started laughing! kellen and i were being silly and dancing/singing to the freeze song and she busted out a little belly laugh. super cute! she had the one episode and hasn't done it since. i guess we havent' been funny enough. you know i'll pull out the freeze dance song again if that's what it takes for me to hear that giggle! she's still being SUPER stubborn about taking a bottle. aa says she laughs in his face and then gets pissed. we've tried many different kids, all with no luck. this makes for a stressed out mama who is going back to work part time in 2.5 weeks. makes my heart race just thinking about it.

it was my month to host book club this month. it gets even trickier in our small house with two kids to entertain, but we managed! aaron and kellen went over to visit uncle adam and baby bennett, while maya napped a bit and then enjoyed being held by all the ladies! i made brunch for dinner - spinach and pancetta strata and mushroom cheese frittata, along with bacon, fruit and my homemade cinnamon rolls. we discussed the movie the blind side and then had a gift exchange. kind of random to have a gift exchange, but we usually do one in december for the holidays and last december we decided to buy gifts for kids. we ended up missing the little gift exchange and decided to do it this month instead! fun to get a little gift randomly.

we had fun making heart sugar cookies with kellen on valentines day. he LOVED putting the sprinkles on. i attempted heart shaped pancakes but failed miserably! it doesn't work to just put the cookie cutter on the griddle and pour the batter in - the batter sticks to the cutter and the cutter gets HOT!

kellen went to the dentist this month and for the first time had his teeth actually cleaned! he did so good and we learned a few tricks that have been making our nightly teeth brushing and flossing routine go a little easier. now he just needs to learn to spit!

people are telling me that maya is starting to look more and more like me. not sure if it's true, but i'll take it!!

the BOB's still have not gone on sale at rei! errr!! i even went in and chatted up the sales people - they would just tell me that it would happen soon, but wouldn't give me a date. that was a few weeks ago!

it seems near impossible to get one good picture of the four of us! the first five pictures were self portraits and none were all that good. the second two were taken by andi and we just couldn't get both kids to look at the camera! we'll see if we have better luck next month. either way, i'm happy to have the pictures - imperfections and all!!!

nice day.

2010-02-16T21:08:00.000-08:00

{where's waldo?! hint: click on the picture to make it big!}

today was a nice day. nothing exceptional to write home about...just enjoyed going about life with my babes! maya woke up first this morning, around 7:30 and we enjoyed an hour together before k woke up (just in time for m to go back down for a little nap!). kellen and i then had a bowl of cereal and watched some of his favorite cookie monster videos on the 'puter. this boy loves him some cookie monster - sings along to c is for cookie and likes to say "hello there" just like cookie! tells cookie 'no! don't eat that cookie, cookie monster!'.

later in the morning we were off to the dentist for k's 2 year dental appt. they actually cleaned his teeth for the first time and he did so great. i really couldn't believe how good he was considering what a struggle we have most nights with his brushing and flossing. the hygenist was great - told him they were cleaning off the sugar bugs. he loved when she gave him a drink of water with the little water thing. maya was a doll too...slept the whole appt!

both kids went down nicely for an afternoon nap after lunch and i was able to pick up a bit and read some of my book, which was a treat! maya took a long nap, so kellen and i were able to play again 1:1 which was also a treat! the sun was shining and we played outside in the grass, read some books, did some puzzles and put the train tracks together. after maya woke, i was able to take a few pics of my babies outside in the natural light.

{k LOVES to beep her nose, but often he gets her eye!}

after that we were off to whole foods to buy some fish for dinner and to stop by rei to find out when the double bob's are going on sale! they wouldn't give me an exact date, but said soon. yay!

{i love me some baby feet!!}

peace, baby!

2010-02-07T09:37:00.000-08:00

i'm trying very hard to not make any more baby girl purchases (the online shopping habit makes it too easy!), but the other day i was at new seasons market and just had to buy this hat...

why you ask? too many sweet memories of my boy with the same hat, only green!

at cannon beach for our anniversary

tummy time!

another cannon beach shot!

army crawling!

at the hippie chick half marathon

hanging in the bob waiting for mom to get done running!
looking at these pics gets me all teary eyed!!!

monthly project {four people times twelve} // january

2010-02-04T13:00:00.000-08:00

i have a huge list of blogs bookmarked on my computer. some i read almost daily, others i just check in every now and then. there is a photographer, tara whitney, whose photography style i really like. not sure how i found her, but i check in every now and then...this morning i found a post where she started a monthly project to take a picture of her family each month to post and then jot down notes from that month. i like it. we rarely get a good family photo...make that we rarely get a family photo. i think we have all of two pictures of the four of us! so, i've decided to join in! care to join as well???

i'm going to cheat right off the bat and use this picture taken in december. we don't have one from january and four people times eleven just doesn't sound as good!!! this picture was taken at madison's birthday celebration. we've been on a roll for birthdays with 8 birthday parties in the last 8 weeks (including one this weekend for baby bennett!).

speaking of being on a roll - maya has rolled over from her tummy to her back twice. the first time was a few weeks ago - jan 7 - when she was eleven weeks old. not that i'm trying to compare (but i guess i am!), kellen did it the first time when he was seven weeks old and was rolling from his back to his tummy by fifteen weeks. hmmm...is someone being held just a little too much?!

actually our girl turned a big corner in january - she's finally sleeping WAY more on her own. good thing too, cause my arms were getting tired! january 13 it just happened - she napped on her during the day and then that evening i swaddled her up in some brand new swaddle blankets, fed and rocked her to sleep then actually laid her down and she didn't start screaming for the first time ever! she slept until 2am (ish), i fed her and then laid her back down again until around 6am. could. not. believe. it! was it he blankets? was she just ready? i'll never know and really i don't care. just happy that she's doing it!

kellen's words and language development is just expoding! and he's starting to give up his words for the real ones - ie. no more wa wa, it's water (which is somewhat sad for us!). he's an incredible big brother - always concerned for where baby maya is and loves to give her kisses and beep her nose. he loves books like crazy and tends to want to read the same ones over and over and over! he absolutely loves the garbage truck and every thursday he awakens to the sound of the garbage truck and yells for me to take him outside to watch. the garbageman waves and it makes his day! his two year molars are pretty much all in now, so yay to no more teething! (right?!)

we tried and failed to get a picture with the two kiddos at picture people last weekend. k just would not sit still for a picture with m. he barely stayed still for a picture of himself, but we did get one good one of just him! frustrating, but there was nothing we could do. huess i didn't need to buy those coordinating outfits that i bought for that picture! oh well, we'll try again soon.

we went to the beachhouse for a weekend in january. it's so nice to just relax and not feel bad about sitting on the couch pretty much the whole day! we managed to take one walk to the coffee shop with kellen in the bob and maya in the ergo.

i've been stalking the rei website for their annual bob stroller sale to purchase a double! can't wait for that!!! maybe it will give me the motivation to pick an event to start training for. i was considering the first ever portland half marathon - but it was too expensive (really the half is more than the whole? couldn't do it on principle!).

aa is as committed as always to his workout and physical therapy regime. he gets up daily around 4:45am to get it all in - i am in awe of how he does it.

we've been watching mad men on dvd from netflix. i love netflix! we've also gotten into modern family. the office dissapoints so far! i loved my book club book selection in january - five quarters of the orange. a great read if anyone is looking for a good book. i'm hosting in feb.

i've been trying to cook more interesting and healthy meals for our family. so far the last couple of weeks i have done a pretty good job. my next mission is to get kellen to eat more...make that some amount of vegetables. currently the only veggies he eats is the carrots in the apple carrot sauce i buy him at trader joes! yesterday we made a smoothie and we put a bunch of spinach in it. he ate it up! high five to me!!! :)

also food related...trying to waste less and be more conscious about the food that goes into our mouths. watching food, inc and an oprah about it has inspired me to want to buy a whole cow from a local farmer, well...maybe just a quarter!

i started taking a baby boot camp class at the nike gym. great class, but since it's all nike spouses that take the class...it made me wish that i was a nike spouse (can enjoy all the benefits at working at such a great company, but get to stay home with my babes!). not looking forward to going back to work. :(

me and my babes!

2010-02-03T21:11:00.000-08:00

a couple of weeks ago aa tried to get a picture of me with my two babes - a photo that i'm lacking. it's no wonder...have you tried to take a good picture with a toddler and an infant? it's near impossible!

k...please take a picture with mommy and maya!

not bad, but the girl doesn't looks so happy! let's try one more.

everyone ready?

not having it!

and he's escaped!

i'll settle for a sweet pic of me with my girl!

knocking off the cobwebs

2010-02-02T13:54:00.000-08:00

ah, has it really been over a month? time flies when you are having fun and/or trying to keep up with the kiddos! maya caught her first real cold/sickness this weekend. saturday night she came down with her first fever and she's still dealing with yucky congestion and a nasty cough. kellen is talking up a storm - seriously, it's amazing! yesterday he was sitting at his table playing with a bunch of number birthday candles (of all things!!!)and he busted out his numbers 1-10. aa and i were both pretty surprised. he's counted to ten with assistance, but never that we had heard on his own. of course, we think we have a little genious on our hands - no bias whatsoever!!

there is so much to catch up on that i don't think i'm going to even try! it was actually a nice blogging break, but i hope to keep this thing up a little more often then once every other month and hopefully my two readers will come back and join me! ha. anyone still out there? give me a shout!

i'll start slow and try to win you back with some pics of my cuties from the last month!

my smiley girl!

She's about to roll over from her tummy to her back!

"my two babies!"

first bath together...lasted all of 5 seconds, basically we got the picture and then maya was booted by kellen!

is there anything sweeter than a sleeping baby?

licking the spatula - almond butter!

my two babies LOVE to be swaddled!

helping daddy with a puzzle at the beach!

message from the boy

2009-12-31T17:46:00.001-08:00

in lieu of a real post (of which i have several started in draft form, but not completed or posted!!), here's a message from my boy:

where does the time go?

2009-12-29T15:38:00.000-08:00

this blog has been a little neglected and i have no excuse other than to say having two under two (although i officially can no longer say that!) is NO cake walk! oh, don't get me wrong, we are having fun...but blogging is the last thing on my mind. we are busy it seems EVERY waking minute. as kellen would say, "GO, GO, GO!".

so much has been going on - our boy's 2nd birthday (happy to you as he would say!), maya's short little life (poor girl, i've yet to write a word in her baby book and i'm not doing such a great job here either!), hanukkah and christmas (this holiday season is SO much fun with a toddler who's into it!).

let's see what i can cover in the short time that my kids are both sleeping (including maya who is NOT in my arms for once!).

the stats:
maya 1 month - height: 21.5 in (64th percentile), weight: 9 lbs even (40th percentile)
kellen 2 year - height: 34 in (45th percentile), weight: 24 lbs 6 ounces (11th percentile)
maya 2 month - height: 23 in (75th percentile - although i question the accuracy of this measurement!!), weight: 10 lbs, 10.5 ounces, 45th percentile

maya update:
this girl is a much harder baby than our boy was - although we knew when kellen was a baby that we had it pretty good! the toughest thing is that she does not like to sleep anywhere but in my arms. last night we turned a small corner (maybe, crossing my fingers!), as she slept in her pack and play for 4 hours straight - 10pm - 2am. i couldn't get her back down after i fed her at 2, but it was a start. and she's currently napping on the couch, so maybe we are getting there! she's a great eater, although sometimes a little too great. she has a problem with gorging herself and then it all comes back up. in fact, she's pretty much a puker. there are some days where we both change our clothes 2-3 times. it's sure a good thing she's cute! oh and i'm having so much fun with all the cute girl clothes - man, i might get myself in trouble! must restrain myself and back away from the computer. online shopping is so much fun and way too easy! poor baby girl had baby acne and then a rash on her face for the last 3-4 weeks. it's finally starting to go away! and the smiles - oh the smiles. i forgot how much it makes your heart sing to see your baby smile back at you for the first time. she started smiling around 6 weeks and it's really coming on strong now! along with the cooing and "talking"! this girl is finally starting to give us a little something back and we're eating up every bit of it!!!

kellen update:
he turned two! i can hardly believe it. he's turning into a very sweet big brother, asking for baby maya when he gets up, giving her hugs and kisses, making sure she has her blanket and teddy, etc. super cute to see him being so considerate and sweet. not to say he doesn't have his moments - we've had a bit of an issue with him hitting her every now and then, all while giving us quite the evil smile. not easy to deal with! he was very into his birthday and all the great gifts he received this year. loved blowing out the candles - in fact, we had to do it multiple times! now when he sees a candle he says "happy to you!", which was somewhat confusing with hanukkah being so close to his birthday. he wanted to blow the candles out, but he quickly learned that we "dont' blow" the hanukkah candles and he also quickly learned that after we light candles there is most likely a present coming! why don't they learn not to hit or how to listen as quickly?! he has a very strong will and very clear opinions about things, especially what he's going to wear. we have to learn which battles to fight, but sometimes (like for pictures or holidays) i'd like him to wear something specific and it never goes over well and he usually ends up winning! for christmas, it was a skeleton shirt (although we managed a different, slighly better shirt, on top for a while, but not the outfit we had in mind!) that he insisted on wearing.

ok...i'd hoped to get pictures attached, but no such luck. i'll be back, hopefully soon to post some pics!

smiles warm my heart!

2009-12-11T15:47:00.000-08:00

One of our first captured smiles...sort of!

our boy is two!!!

2009-12-05T23:39:00.000-08:00

the 1st of four times singing and blowing out candles!!!

happy birthday sweet boy...you are the light of our lives.

we can't believe it's been two years!!!

you are so kind, thoughtful, sweet, funny and incredibly lovable...pretty darn cute, too!

you bring us so much joy, laughter, love and occassional frustration

(you are two afterall and have been testing your independence for some time now!)

can't wait to experience this next year with you and see all that it brings.

we love you.

xoxo, mama, dada and maya

fun at grandma and papa's

2009-11-14T12:44:00.000-08:00

i'm thankful that aa's parents have been spending some extra days with kellen the last couple of weeks. these days give great bonding time for k and the grandparents and extra sleeping time for m and mama - today we (maya and I) rolled out of bed around 10:30 (after being up from 1-3:45am with m and then about 4:30-5:30am with k and then 6-6:45am with m). these pics showed up in my inbox today - k was having fun with grandma raking leaves. look at the size of those leaves!

everyday is a marathon!

2009-11-12T06:58:00.000-08:00

wow...it's crazy how much 1 - 6 lb 13 oz little thang can turn your world upside down. especially when she essentially eats, poops and sleeps in that order every few hours. to say we are exhausted would be an understatement. in so many ways this second baby is SO much easier than the first - mentally and physically i feel so much better, so much more confident, stable and relaxed. in other ways, it's much harder...and much of that can be attributed to a certain ~23 lb-er! not only is our boy having to adjust to this new baby girl and sharing the love and attention of his mama and dada...he's about to turn two and really starting the push the limits of toddlerhood! favorite words are no, mine and my turn. actually, he's becoming a very polite, but stubborn toddler, instead of just no...about half the time he'll say no, thank you...in the cutest, sweetest little voice! we have to be careful about asking him questions when there really isn't a choice. for instance...

us: kellen, are you ready for bed?

kellen: no, thank you!

us: kellen, should we change your diaper (stink radiating from his butt)?

kellen: no, thank you!

so cute, but can be oh so frustrating over and over and over!

anyway...while we've had a few bumpy and frustrating moments, overall we couldn't be more thrilled with how things are going. when kellen wakes up in the morning and the first word out of this mouth is baby or when he decides she must be cold and will bring her a blanket or when she cries and he has a pained look on his face and says, "baby sad!"...these are the moments that i relish in and hold onto when things feel a little out of control! ...and boy, the laundry, dishes, contstant clean up of toys, changing of diapers, clothes, etc ...it is truly a marathon everyday!

here are some pics of my beautiful babes:

playing catch up - - -> pumpkin patch!!

2009-11-10T14:39:00.000-08:00

well...since baby girl came along a little (let's say at least a week) earlier than i had expected, i never got a chance to post our pumpkin patch pictures. seems a little backwards to post pumpkin patch pics in november after the halloween picture posts, but that's how we roll.

other things that i still need to do:

update our family photo at the top. believe it or not (you probably believe it!) we have not taken a SINGLE picture of the four of us together. next time any of you who reads this blog is with the four of us...will you please take a picture of the four of us?!
figure out what to do for k's 2nd birthday - uh...it's in 3.5 weeks and we don't have a solid plan. what i do know is that we'll be keeping it simple!

figure out m's birth announcements. luckily i timed my kids right so their announcements can act as our new year's card for the year!!!

figure out what we're doing with's m's corner in the office - yes, that is right...she is not getting a full nursery. we just aren't sure how long we'll be in this house and not willing to give up our whole office, so she gets a corner. the second child is already getting the short stick! if anyone has ideas...let me know. the office is a martini olive green color and i really don't want to paint, so while it's not the ideal color to coordinate with, it's not horrible. oh, she's not getting a crib yet either...so pack and play for her. poor girl! :)

ok, that list could go on and on, but that was not the intention of this post. pumpkin patch pics from this fall - so weird to look at these pictures and see how far we are from that family of three already in just a few short weeks!

our final picture as a family of three!!!

mama & k trudging thru the mud (3 days before giving birth!) & k looking for the perfect pumpkin

dada & k in the field and then on the hay ride back to the farm w/ the pumpkin making a perfect foot rest!

k's favorite part of the whole day - "driving" the tractor & obligatory pile o'pumpkin pic!

carving the pumpkins up with dada!

happy halloween!

2009-11-02T11:15:00.000-08:00

40 weeks ago we found out we were having another little one - due on halloween...a little pumpkin baby, our special treat! because kellen would not budge out of me, i anticipated much of the same. not that it was a huge worry for me, but i did think about what we would do if the baby decided to come right around halloween and we ended up being in the hospital. what would halloween look like for our boy...because he's at the perfect age to "get it" this year - or at least have some fun with it and i wanted to be able to experience that with him. i honestly thought that by halloween i'd look as if i had the giant pumpkin inside my belly and i'd waddle around the neighborhood with my boy and his cousins and then we'd have our little one shortly after. i still have to share the whole labor and birth story, but that is for another day. because our little maya arrived 10 days early, we were able to carry one with our long-standing tradition of trick-or-treating with my sister and her kids. kellen had a ball!

he was a little dinosaur (which was my nephew's costume 10 years ago!) he loved showing off his tail and using it as a sword!

the gang - tylre, britain, madison, kellen & maisy. kellen ended up riding his bike and maisers went stroller-treating!

my little miss pumpkin was much too small for even the smallest costume i could find, so she stayed in all snuggled up as the biggest, yet smallest duck fan! oh yeah...the other concern with the oct. 31 due date - the ducks v. usc at autzen stadium. why we had two fall/winter babies to coincide with football season, i'll never know....but it all worked out and aa made it to the game, without having to be on call, to enjoy a huge duck win over usc - 47-20.

and just for fun...here's a look back at our boy last year - my what a difference a year makes in our lives!

my girl's first dress!!!

2009-11-01T12:14:00.000-08:00

i can honestly say that i really didn't have a strong preference either way on whether we had a boy or girl and really...i think if there was any preference, i leaned towards having another boy simply because i already had one and i thought the idea of brothers was awesome - or maybe i just didn't want to get my hopes up, since the trend in the gassner family is strongly towards boy! but really, i wasn't longing for a girl. that being said...i'm giddy over my little girl!

i'm sorry, but i know there are cute boys clothes out there...but nowhere near as cute as the girls clothes! and with that...here is my girl's first dress (with pants underneath - it's cold out there people and she doesn't have any body fat!).

brother and sister

2009-10-25T21:46:00.001-07:00

so much to catch up on...but for the time being, this will have to do! a few pics of my two babies. after about two hours home, kellen decided he'd like to hold the baby. i swear my heart is melting looking at this picture!

it's not going to be an easy adjustment for any of us, but i'm certain kellen is having the hardest time right now. he'd also like to be a baby...needed to sit in the baby swing all afternoon/evening next to the baby and even tried to climb up onto the nursing pillow when i was about to feed maya! has been crying quite a bit today and even went back to crawling for a little bit. it breaks my heart to think about how he must be feeling and i am trying to not get frustrated with him - because so far (and it's only been like 10 hours home!) he's been the more challenging one! why did i think newborns were so hard the first time around?

the thing that gets me through, is knowing that at the end of this...once everyone is settled and reassured of their place in this family...we've given kellen & maya the greatest gift of all - a sibling - and i'm certain they will be the best of friends.

my boy and his helmet

2009-10-05T21:41:00.000-07:00

our neighbor bought a fire helmet for my boy and he enjoys wearing it everywhere...around the house, riding his bike up and down the street, even to trader joes! i think it's pretty cute!

a message from the boy...

2009-10-04T20:55:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADA!!!

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!

go ducks!

2009-10-03T21:13:00.000-07:00

a couple of weeks ago our boy attended his second duck football game. last year the game went so well, but he was also only 9 months - not super mobile and no where near as busy. i was a little worried about how it would go this year and figured we'd probably be making some rounds around the stadium or hanging in the mo for a bit. as usual, my worrying was for nothing - he was GREAT! since the rain was threatening, sarah and i decided to go down a little later to the tailgater with the babies so we wouldn't be hanging in the rain for very long. kellen was the most prepared for the rain and looked pretty darn cute with his rain pants and jacket!

the highlight of his tailgater was "driving" auntie sarah's car:

the game was an all around success with the ducks beating the 18th ranked Utah team 31-24! the boy seems to be taking after his dad in taking these games quite seriously:

2009 2008

we look forward to many more years of family duck moments!

our amazing adventure, part 1 {three years ago}

2009-09-24T05:20:00.000-07:00

it's fun to think back to where we were...1, 2,3, 5 years ago...that is something that i love about having this blog - it helps me to remember not only the big moments, but the very small, and oh so meaningful moments as well. i wish someone/i had blogged my life starting long ago, because i can't tell you how many times my sisters, mom or a friend will say, "remember when...", and i have NO recollection of that memory! if it was in my blog, i could go back and read the words and see the pictures!

three years ago was a big adventure for us...one that i could never forget, but thought it would be fun to take a walk down memory lane. it actually started much earlier than three years ago - because the planning and decision making that went in to it was quite extensive. i remember aa and i were in our 29th year and thinking about our lives and what was next. we had started to think about when we might want to have kids and also how we might want to celebrate our 30th birthdays. on the kid front, we both knew we wanted them, although weren't sure when we would quite be ready (are you ever really ready??). at that time, we had been doing some pretty cool travels each year...starting with traveling to japan to visit family and friends in 2003, honeymooning in belize in 2004, exploring peru and hiking machu picchu with family in 2005. we wanted to celebrate our 30th birthdays in a big way and debated between throwing a big bash for both of us (birthdays just 2.5 weeks apart!) with all of our friends/family or taking a big trip. in the end we decided to be selfish and take a trip - but not just any trip - we wanted to go somewhere really amazing, somewhere that we might not be able to do for a long time if we had kids. i don't think it took us very long to decide (this is where it would be nice to have that blog of my life!) and we quickly zeroed in on africa. after meeting with a travel agent specializing in africa, she let us know that if we might only make it to africa one time in our life that we should most definitely go to south africa and botswana, as there were stricter regulations about how many people could be on a game reserve at a time and it would for sure be the best location for the time of year we wanted to go. we looked at several different packages and itineraries and ultimately created a three week itinerary which would have us leaving pdx on sept. 24 and return to pdx on oct. 13 - just in time for me to run the nike women's marathon in san francisco ON my actual 30th birthday!

so indulge in a little walk down memory lane of what was truly a trip of a lifetime for aa and me:

our first stop was at Honeyguide Camp on the Manyeleti Game Reserve in South Africa. we flew directly into Johannesburg from Washington DC and took a small jumper plane to what felt like the middle of nowhere (and really it was!). our guide picked us up in a jeep and drove us to our tent where we crashed out from the long, nearly 2 days of travel. oh and did i mention that my bag did not arrive with us from dc, so i came to camp with only the clothes on my back!! we were up early for breakfast and our first game drive, which was so exciting. amazingly enough, the first animal that we saw was a a rhino - it was our first and only of the entire trip! we stayed three night here and of course, my bag arrived the morning of the day we were leaving.

the rhino, the rhino and me (proof that pic wasn't taken at the zoo!!)

our "tent" - consisted of a real bed, couch, table, lamp and attached, but open air full bathroom!

1st giraffe sighting, aa & the giraffe

a herd of elephants right outside our tent, see the giraffe in the background?

each day we awoke to the sound of beating drums - bright and early to head out for an early morning game drive (which lasted about 3 hours), breakfast and relaxation time, followed by lunch and then an afternoon/early evening game drive (again about 3+ hours) which always included a sundowner. what might you ask is a sundowner? it's where we would stop at a beautiful location, just as the sun was starting to go down and enjoy a full bar and snacks. these sundowners beat any happy hour i've ever been to! we'd then head back to camp to clean up and enjoy a wonderful dinner.

the "bar", enjoying a a sundowner

aa sitting in the tracker seat, our guide, tracker and another couple out on a drive

our next stop was to Zambia, where we would begin our 8 night safari through the country of Botswana. because the flights were limited, we had to overnight in johannesburg. it turned into a bit of an adventure, with our bag containing aa's passport, all of our cash and plane tickets being "lost" or stolen (we believe by the police) in the airport...only to be found by the police. everything was in the bag, except the passport. after about 20 minutes of searching the bag and arguing with the police that we are certain the passport was in the bag, another policeman walked in holding aa's passport and said he "found" it. they tried to get us to buy them a drink, but we somehow escaped the office without having to give them any money and took off for our airport hotel. it wasn't until the next morning did we realize that aa's nike fleece and uo hat were missing! somewhere in south africa, someone is enjoying that fleece and hat! it was quite a scare, but we are so fortunate to have recovered the key items needed to continue on our with our trip!

we had one night on our own prior to joining our safari and we stayed at the zambezi sun hotel, which was conveniently located right next to victoria falls. sadly, we were there during the low season, but it was still quite amazing to see. our pictures don't do it justice.

the next day was one of the highlights of our trip - rafting the zambezi river! while low season was a bummer for the actual falls...it creates the best white water rafting experience, because the rapids are more accessible. we don't have any pictures, for obvious reasons...but it was one of the most thrilling, adrenaline-pumping things i've ever done. it consists of mostly class 4 and 5 rapids and they aren't messing around! we only had time to do the half day trip, but after going through "midnight diner" #8 and experiencing our boat not only flip, but getting caught in the hole of "star trek" i was ready to be done! yes, our whole boat ended up going through a class 5 rapid - OUTSIDE of the boat. aa and i both seriously saw our lives flash in front of our eyes. i only remember that each time i'd come up, i'd take the biggest breath of air i could before being thrown about again. each member of our boat ended up getting picked up by other boats and we finally made it to the side of the river to walk around rapid #9 - commercial suicide, which is a class 6 and therefore illegal to ride down. there was one more rapid before lunch and then we were on our way back to the hotel to meet up with our traveling mates for the next 8 nights!

...and with that...i'll conclude this long post and finish up another time!

but i'll leave you with a sneak peek from our next day...

elephant butts!

elephant cruise along the chobe river

confession

2009-09-12T15:29:00.000-07:00

when i first embarked on this journey of parenting, i had done a lot of reading and research about lots of different topics (feeding, sleep, tv, - from a variety of sources (babycenter.com, blogs, parenting magazines, books, talking to other moms, etc.) the more you read, the more conflicting opinions you get. it can all be mind boggling and ultimately, i've figured out that you just have to take it all in and pick and choose what feels right for you as the parent of YOUR child!

one of the topics that you hear about all the time is tv - how much is the right amount, when is your child old enough, what programs are appropriate, etc.

"The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that kids under 2 years old not watch any TV and that those older than 2 watch no more than 1 to 2 hours a day of quality programming.

The first 2 years of life are considered a critical time for brain development. TV and other electronic media can get in the way of exploring, playing, and interacting with parents and others, which encourages learning and healthy physical and social development. "

early on this resonated strongly with me and i was adamant about not having the tv on while kellen was in the room - even at a very young and unaware age! in fact, during my five months of maternity leave i don't think i ever turned on the tv once - even while he was napping in my arms or nursing, which was A LOT. over time, this has eased up a bit - it's hard to convince aa that a sporting event can't be on the tv when kellen is playing in the room and here is where my confession begins.

in the last few months, probably around the time the boy turned 18 months and getting ready for work and school in the morning had become more and more challenging...i started turning on the tv to buy me a few minutes! the first show i turned on for him was little einsteins - i liked the music, the art and the interaction the show has with the children - seemed fairly age approrpriate and didn't creep me out like many of the shows that are out there do! at first he had zero interest...would catch his attention for a minute tops, but because he'd never really had meaningful exposure (is that even possible!) to tv he could care less! after a few times - and i don't do it every morning - he would stay in his little chair watching the show for longer and longer time increments - we're talking 1 minute to 5 minutes...but hey, any amount of time for me to get ready in the am is appreciated! we are now to the point where he will sometimes watch the entire 25 minute show and i admit that it makes me smile to see him interacting along with the characters on the show - like when he pat, pat, pats his lap to help rocket take off - SO CUTE!

now i fear he might like his "shows" a little too much. he will pull out his little chair and ask for a show fairly often and sometimes gets upset if we don't let him watch a show. i can see how it's really easy to get carried away with tv time, so we still are very limited in our show watching. he probably gets to watch a show about 3-4 times a week and doesn't always finish the show. there are two things he will rotate with - little einsteins and a dvd called that baby, which is kid and parent friendly cover music with different visuals that kellen really enjoys (and also happens to feature his seattle cousins in a couple of the videos!). we've tried sesame street, although it's just not capturing his attention...but he does like to watch short elmo videos online! he's also seen handy manny and the mickey mouse club, but again - not super interested.

i'm guessing that once rolo gets here, it will be easy to rely on the tv a little bit more and if that is what happens, i'm going to cut myself some slack...although i'll still ensure that we are selecting good shows and not get too carried away with it. i also want to make sure that we don't use tv as a reward for good behaviour - that is not the way i would like to reinforce the tv in our house. but like all things, my views/opinions could change over time - and i'm sure the professional opinions and recommendations will continue to change, which is why you just have to continue to trust your parental instinct!

so, i'm curious...what are your thoughts on tv for your little ones? if you choose to watch some tv, do you have any favorite shows or recommendations for programs we should check out? how about online sites for the toddler age child?

also - just to clarify...my opinions are my opinions and not intended to judge in any way. that is why we all get to make our own decisions about what is best for our own children!!! :)

moving on up!

2009-09-01T23:10:00.001-07:00

it's hard to believe, but my boy has been going to "school" for 1 year now and he's officially moving up to the toddler wing starting next tuesday. while having someone else spend the majority of my boy's weekly waking hours with him is still hard for me to swallow, i'm so thankful that we have this wonderful child development center at work for him to attend. he's made some great friends, created bonds, learned and developed and has had some incredible experiences throughout the year. even better, is that his 8 friends and 4 teachers that he's bonded with over the last year are all moving with him...so the only change is a new classroom that offers many new and exciting experiences throughout the coming school year. there will be adjustments - the napping hours are a bit more strict and there is no longer a separate quiet, dark room to lay out the cots in for naptime. nope...all the children will be napping at the same time, in the main room. not sure how that will go over, but i trust the teachers will work their magic and make it happen. there is also a potty room which contains two very miniature toilets. i don't think they push the potty training on the kids, but at some point i do believe they will start introducing them to the kids - which i'm hoping will help us along with potty training once we decide to go down that path.

a few weeks ago we were given a cd of pictures that were taken of k throughout the school year. amazing to look back at these photos and realize how much he's grown and changed throughout the year. here's a month by month recap:

SEPTEMBER: 1st day of school, basking in the sun, experiencing his first art project, fun in the tunnel

OCTOBER: bubbles w/ friends max and luke, playing at the bo w/ sophia, playing in the cozy cave, another art project

NOVEMBER: pushing sophia in the hallway, naptime on the cot

DECEMBER: day before his 1st birthday (bad haircut, mom and dad...at least bad hair day!)

JANUARY: learning to drink from a cup, more fun artwork

FEBRUARY: playing w/ noodles, loving life!

MARCH: loving art again, playing with magnets, puzzles w/ friends max and sophia, mastering the spoon

APRIL: playing in the sand somewhere on campus, creating his masterpiece for the annual art show, modeling next to his masterpiece, fun at the sensory table

MAY: playing outside w/ teddy, w/ his friends at the sensory table, in the rocking chair w/ sophia and harlow, yes...more art, this time w/ animals!

JUNE: family walk around campus, enjoying a popcicle w/ friends, on a walk around the berm, playing outside in the house

JULY: enjoying a stroll w/ sophia, experimenting w/ new mediums in his art, learning to use a squirt bottle to combat the summer heat, outside in the play area - check out those long lashes!

couple things to note: love to see the progression of hair and haircuts (click on any of the pictures to view the enlarged size) and notice the lack of pictures during the winter months. the months of november - february were BRUTAL for sickness and kellen spent the majority of those months excluded for a variety of illness. so glad to be past that and hoping that those immunities were built up so we won't have to deal with that again this winter!

fridays w/ my boy

2009-08-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

since i went back to work full time right around a year ago, i adjusted my schedule so that i could have every (or just about!) friday off to have an extra day with my boy. in the last couple of months, it seems like i've been having to work, we've been out of town, or something else has interfered with us having that special 1:1 time. this friday, we were back and i forgot how much i missed those days where we are free to do as we please!

this friday we started out with a morning gymboree class. i wish i would have brought my camera along, because he had so much fun running and climbing and going through all the tunnels. it had been weeks since we made it to class and i think he missed the fun. his favorite part of gymboree right now is the very end where all the kids circle around the teacher and get gymbo (the clown) stamps. my always is one of the first to run over and has his shirt up and ready for one on his belly and then puts each foot and hand out for a total of five stamps! it brings him so much joy.

next we went and visited a friend, which is always fun because it means new toys to experience. we didn't stay too long because kellen had been up early and was in need of a nap after all the playtime. after nap, we made one of our favorite snacks. we whipped up a smoothie with yogurt, frozen berries, mango, pineapple and a banana and then took out a muffin tin and filled it with some of k's faves: cheese, crackers, dried cranberries, trader joes o's, olives and freeze dried bananas.

we ate our snack in the living room on the floor with k's favorite guys - teddy, big t and monkey. ever since we returned from hawaii, he's had a strong attachment to big t and monkey. you'll notice they both have diapers. our new routine is that kellen, big t and monkey all get diaper changes together. it's pretty amazing the little things you'll come up with to get your toddler to cooperate...this one works like a charm for the boy who was refusing to get his diaper changed! i love how he is holding their hands in this first picture!

we've also been practicing wrapping up teddy like a baby and rocking him in preparation for rolo. it's awfully cute to see him caring and nurturing for his loved ones...i know he's' going to be a great big brother!

after snack, another friend came over and kellen had fun showing lyla all of his fun toys! all of this excitement made for a tired boy and a great nights sleep for all!

ps. 68 days left until my due date. OMG!