16 Weeks

Well, I did forget last week, but here's a picture of baby kumquat at 16 weeks! According to babycenter.com he/she is now the size of an avocado and has started growing toenails. What a miracle.

A post about Whiskey

Mom insists that once baby kumquat arrives our affections for Whiskey will go entirely by the wayside. I have even caught her whispering soothingly to her, "Don't worry Whiskers. When the baby comes I will still love you."
And while I imagine our attention will turn towards the baby and away from the kitty, I'm pretty sure this is a change she will welcome gladly. Less of me picking her up and cradling her like the infant I've been dying to have, less of Joel suddenly grabbing her by the skull and shaking her head back and forth in what he insists is a gesture of affection. In fact this first picture just might be the result of a little too much head-shaking.



Actually she's just enjoying our spring sun. It was hidden away for so long, we were all going a little crazy. Here's another picture of our adorable kitten, just so you all know that we still love her. I took the liberty of editing it so she wouldn't be embarrassed.

Baby Kumquat

Look at me, posting a picture on our blog the same day it was taken! I'm so very on top of things right now, eh?
A friend of mine, Tamara, had the great idea of posting weekly pictures of her growing baby belly. This is the first time I've remembered to do it, and I can't promise I'll be very consistent in posting pictures, but it's worth a shot! I also stole her nifty idea of holding up cards with the number of weeks. Thanks Tam! :)
We started calling our baby by the name of whatever size he/she was that week (e.g. 7 weeks=blueberry, 14 weeks=lemon), but once we got to kumquat (10 weeks) the name kind of stuck. So now I've started calling him/her baby kumquat, until a better name comes to mind.

So here I am at 14 weeks!

Valentine's Day Party

I just found pictures on my camera from our Valentine's Day party. It was such a blast I thought I'd post them even though it's been several months. :)

First the decorations: Kathryn provided these beautiful gerbers for the occasion.


We hung crepe paper around the apartment (Valentine's Day seemed an acceptable time to be a little cheesy with the decorations) and placed candles all over.


These adorable paper hearts were hung above the food table.





Here's a view of the food table prior to everyone arriving with the food!



We also made the dessert. Check out these adorable cookies:






And here's the table after everyone arrived:



I remembered to get a few pictures of real people! (Sorry Samantha and Audrey! Somehow you guys didn't make it into the few photos that I took of the guests).

Seth and Naphtali:



Morgan, Lesley and I:



Kathryn and I:



Morgan, Lesley and Lauren:

My new favorite part of our place

I had trouble decorating this corner of our apartment, since the windows are a little too low to put a couch in front of, and I didn't actually know how to successfully decorate window space. So first I stole these three cute blue chairs from my mom (I will have to give them back at some point, but I'm on the lookout for chairs of my own), and then I found these adorable topiaries at Pottery Barn.



And ta-da! A corner that I am now very happy with. Next I'll have to post a picture of our tv-disguising hutch.

Christmas 2009, part two

How pathetic that I'm still catching up on Christmas posts in March. But better late than never, especially when I promised to explain some of the more cryptic pictures in a previous post (recall the cow and the somewhat creepy masks).
So, during the Santa Cruz portion of our Christmas vacation, Meris and Kusie + kiddos took us to Carmel-by-the-sea. It's an adorable little town a short distance from Santa Cruz that has row upon row of perfectly manicured lawns and quaint houses, plenty of very expensively-dressed citizens walking their dogs, and practically no kids. We toured the Carmel Mission Basilica, which holds the shrine of Fr Junipero Serra. It's a beautiful Parish/School/Museum.



On the way home we stopped at this amazing view of the ocean. It was incredibly windy, but through the telescopes you could see a rock jutting out of the water, and hundreds of very fat and happy seals sunning themselves.



And here's the cow, in case you forgot her.



Joel and I spent a day in Gilroy, shopping at the outlet malls and touring local wineries. While we were trying to find the winery we found ourselves very lost on some rural back-road. Since it's prudent to drive fairly slow on those small windy roads, we were happy enough to spot this old gal enjoying the sunny afternoon. She seemed pleased to have a visitor drive by (it gets lonely being a cow), so we had to stop and take a picture.

And of course, the infamous mask photo. On a recent trip to Europe Sunny, Howard, Tio Benjamin and Aunt Lisa picked up these masks. With the wonderful details and the perfectly shaped eye slits they are eerily lifelike. They brought them out while we were over at Benjamin's house one night, which provided us with plenty of entertainment. Here's another picture of me, Joel, Daniel, and Cousin Lilly. Please take a moment to laugh at how short I am compared to them.


And lastly, no trip to Santa Cruz would be complete without some good home-made Mexican food. Meris taught me how to make tamales (yum!) and we also made home-made corn tortillas for the shredded beef we had on Christmas day. It was delicious. Don't we look domestic? :)

Christmas 2009, part one

We had the privilege of visiting California to kick off our holiday festivities this year, and we had a great time! I got to snap lots of shots of my adorable nieces and nephew (the girls were a lot more willing to ham it up for the camera, what a surprise!).







This is one of my favorite pictures. Not just because I'm holding my adorable youngest niece (who insisted on being shown each picture taken of her, and then would giggle and stamp her feet in a delighted little dance), but because of the AMAZING weather we had during our vacation. I'll be honest, I started looking more seriously for jobs for Joel in Santa Cruz once we got home....