Cookie Time!

Well it's about time....Emma had her first cookie today! We made Christmas cookies and she helped me make a huge mess!  

Emma is walking!

6th Annual Girls Christmas Party

We had our Christmas party last Thursday and it was a blast. Kelly walked away with a Snuggie.....oooooh! And for some reason Sylvia "stole" the infamous acrylic hand from Holly in the white elephant exchange. I must say that I'm very happy with my Paul Mitchell fancy travel dryer. Now I just need someplace to go! I did a horrible job at taking pictures but I do have one of Emma. 

Every girl loves shoes!

Emma is starting to walk more and more on her own now. She's taken 3-4 steps so we thought that it was about time to get her some shoes! Grammy and I went shopping at UTC for Christmas and ended up going to Stride Rite for Emma. Here are a few pics... 

Party Time!

Sylvia and Rob did it again! They hosted the best Christmas party this year and Emma had so much fun that she stayed up until almost 9:00. Despite the rain the party was a success! Most of our friends were able to make it and no benches were thrown into the front yard! I am ashamed to say that my mom stayed out later than I did!

It's cold San Diego!

I had a seven year old tell me that my baby should wear shoes when it's cold outside. The sad thing is that she was right! Emma doesn't like shoes or socks so I'm trying to figure out how to get her used to them although I can't really blame her. Here are a few pictures....note the jacket with the fur so she could keep warm, please! 

Time to decorate!

Emma can say "tree" although it sounds a lot like "tee." Everywhere she goes she points out the Christmas trees. Here are a few pictures of her decorating our "tee" at home! Yes, she has on two different outfits because it took us about a week to decorate.

Emma walks with a little help!

Emma turns One!

Our Emma girl is one! We had a circus birthday party for her and it was so much fun! Emma seemed a little overwhelmed when she woke up from her nap and saw almost 40 people in the living room who were all there to celebrate her birthday. She ended up warming up and having a good time. She wasn't exactly sure what to do with the cake at first but ended up eating it and making a complete mess! 

More Twins!!!

Not for us but for The Bhavnani's! Sam and Jen are due in January and since most of you know them I figured I would post pictures from her baby shower this past weekend. I was one of the hosts and got off easy! I was only responsible for drinks and decorations (the fun stuff). We're so excited Emma and the new baby will have friends close in age.
http://www.studioduvagallery.com/slideshows/jenbhavshower/

Hawaiiiiiii!

We went to Kauai and had such a great time with Emma. We swam everyday, Ryan attempted surfing everyday although there weren't any waves, and I slept a ton! It was the perfect relaxing vacation. To our surprise Emma was the perfect angel on both flights and in the hotel. She must have been on her best behavior so she is guaranteed to be invited back to Hawaii.

It's Fall!

Emma loves pumpkins! We went to Bates Nut Farm with Danielle and Jason over the weekend and Emma loved it! It's a pretty far drive and they don't have traffic under control way out there but it's worth it. There is a petting zoo, great food (baked potatoes, yummm), plenty of rides, and a ton of pumpkins to choose from. An inside tip, grad a wheelbarrow when you are headed in. They are hard to come by and you'll have to follow someone to their car if you don't!

Boston, Finally!

Everyone who knows me, knows that Dunkin Donuts is my favorite coffee. I have tried for the past 4 years to plan a trip to Boston. Everyone who knows Ryan, knows that he doesn't like going east of the 5 or coffee but we finally managed to pull it off! It was cold the first day, rained the next and was warm and sunny the last day. Typical east coast fall weather. We had dinner at two of the most amazing places Moooo (steakhouse) and Marco, which was the best Italian food we have had in the U.S. Both places are a must if you visit Boston. We also jumped in on a tour of Harvard (http://www.harv.unofficialtours.com/index.php), which was great! I also got to shop and hang out with Kiley who recently moved back to the area and stayed out until the late hour of 10:00 one night!

Check out Emma crawling!

Ryan won!!!

Despite the economy, Ryan's business is doing really well and he won an award this month from The San Diego Metropolitan Magazine. The magazine recognizes San Diego's finest business people (their words, not mine) for the 40 under 40 awards. It is a great accomplishment and we're happy that he was recognized for his success!

Now, I'm not sure what's going on with the cover of the magazine because he's pictured with two blonds. Since they cut of half of "our" faces (me and Holly) we'll just act like it was because they weren't sure who is wife was but of course it does make him look good!

http://sandiegometro.com/2009/09/10th-annual-40-under-40-awards/

Emma's first bruise

Emma banged her head today on the coffee table...not once but twice. So I'm not sure if the bruise was from the first or second bump since it happened within two seconds of each other. She cried for about five seconds and then started smiling! So I guess she's okay and we don't have to childproof the coffee table with bumper pads. Whew!

However, we may have to put a lock on the toilet in her room since she figured out how to pull herself up on the toilet and play in the water. Gross I know, but a funny sight! I'm sure there will be many more bumps, bruises and interesting stories to come now that she can pull herself up!

Holly and Garr's Wedding

Wow! What an amazing weekend we had for Holly and Garr's wedding. They got married at The Grand Del Mar, which is one of the nicest hotels in San Diego nestled in "The CV." We had a few friends staying at the hotel so we were able to take full advantage of all of the VIP amenities! The pool is amazing and as you can tell from the pictures I worked on my tan while taste testing margaritas. Emma got to meet Jen, Jeff and Kristi and chowed down on some fabulous toast and crab benedict!

Holly was the most relaxed and beautiful bride I have ever seen. The wedding food was amazing, the music was fun, the speeches were great and everyone danced all night long. Oh, I did have to tell an uncle off...but that's a small detail we can leave out!

Kristi and Jen finally meet Emma!!!

Two of my friends were in San Diego and they were finally able to meet Emma. They were instantly BFF's! Kristi now wants a fourth baby and tried to sneak out of San Diego with Emma. Oh my Talledega Nights girl!

Emma is back in the saddle!

Emma is feeling better! Thank you all for keeping in touch and checking in with Emma. Her fever is gone and she's feeling 100 percent better. This picture is from this morning and you can tell she's back to herself.

Emma is standing!

As you can see Emma is a healthy girl. She's almost 9 months and has two teeth now. She's in the 75th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height! Ryan claims that height will be the only thing ever that she measures up to as "average."

I heart New York!

Wow! What a great city! New York is so much fun! One of the running jokes was "Hmmm, I need a breath of fresh air. Step outside of your hotel and that will cost you $20.00." Eight girls from all over the place took a trip to New York to celebrate the marriage of Holly Heid. We had the best time and whenever you get eight girls together you know there's bound to be a lot of laughing, crying (although I don't think anyone cried) and pure silliness from our group. We went on a shopping tour of the fashion district and got to meet Kara Janx (Project Runway), we went to about 18 different pizza places, ran in central park, did a lot of shopping, dancing, eating, and even took a tour of the American Girl doll store.

I put together a lists of quotes and sayings from the weekend that if you weren't there, you may not understand them but if you were I bet you're laughing right now!

All I had to eat today was a bagel and two french fries. (Must have said it 10 times)

Brazilians....oooooh. Oh yeah!

He was a marsh mellow.

I can't kiss anyone, yell at anyone, or cry this trip.

Get away from me, I'm not kidding. Don't touch me. (Cane in hand, talking to the "entertainer")

Rays pizza, I want Rays pizza. Rays pizza is the best.

That's HOT (Insert robotic voice here)

What? That was a gay bar we went to last night, are you sure? How did you know? Really? (Apparently the drag queen singing karaoke didn't tip you off?)

There's just too many of you, there's too many girls.

How much for all of you??? Response "Too much for you buddy. Too much."

I can only take 3 of you. That's it. There's too many girls.

The last time I bought a married chick a drink it cost me $186.00.

I just kissed another midget.

I only eat lunch or dinner (Or 5 slices of pizza at 4 am)

You mean to tell me that you can't give me the tracking number for a package that I sent to myself from myself? (Which then prompted...I want to talk to the CEO)

The only time I get stressed is when foreigners come to visit. (Meaning girls from CA, FL, and TX)

I'm allergic to cheap jewelry.

I want a DELI sandwich. (We heard this 20 times a day)

I'll let everyone in except for HER (Meaning Holly)

Apocotherapy, Apotheke, Apolothey ???

She wants me, she just won't give it up. I swear she's a lesbian. She just touched my shoulder again!

I can baptize you right here and make you a Muslim right now.

.....and that's why I can't take fat people on this tour.

Oh, how long have you and Garr been married? What? She's not married yet that's why we are on the bachelorette party.

Oh, we're at Apotheke. You can't find it? Just Google it.

I had game in that place. The first place I finally had game and we had to leave.

Emma goes to Atlanta ya'll!

Emma had such a fun time in Atlanta! She was an angel on the plane and reached out and touched just about everyone in sight. The last vacation we took to Florida Emma slept in the laundry room- well this vacation she was upgraded to a closet! We stayed with our cousins Gail and Wayne who sent a "limousine" to pick us up so we started off our vacation in style! We had fabulous BBQ, southern food, mojitos (not Emma) and sweet tea! We were able to visit my grandparents and spend a lot of time with a lot of our Auburn relatives. It was the perfect relaxing vacation we were looking for.

The first week of July

Wow! July 4th weekend was busy and full of fun times. Emma went on her first train ride to Orange County where we met my parents and celebrated my mom's birthday. Some how Emma ended up with more toys and presents than my mom did and I managed to get out with a 20.00 block of fabulous cheese. Leave it to my Dad!

We also went to the San Diego County fair with Mark and Kelly and didn't leave a looser.....well we did loose about 100.00 between the four of us but did come home with a bright green and and black snake courtesy of Val's plate breaking shenanigans.

On the Fourth of July we headed over to Jen and Sammy's in "The CV" for a great pool party and missed the fireworks (darn) while hanging out at The Grande Del Mar with Holly and Garr. If you are ever in San Diego- The Grande is a must!

Emma is talking and waving!

Emma just learned how to wave- she's going to be very friendly! She was practicing waving last night to Ryan while being rocked to sleep. This morning when she woke up from her nap we came downstairs and she waved and said "Heyyyy." It was very cute and it sounded like she has a southern accent too! She keeps waving to everything she sees...now if I could just get her to say Mommy....or Daddy!

Santa Barbara

Ryan and I went to Santa Barbara for the weekend and it was great! We "camped out" on Chris and Matt's boat, which is about as close as I get to camping and stayed at the Bacara the next night. The Bacara was so amazing that once we checked in we never wanted to leave. They actually have a hawk on the property that is trained to keep the seagulls and other birds away from the hotel....now you know why I didn't want to leave.

Emma and Cassus stayed in Long Beach for two nights and from all of the pictures my mom took it looked like she had a great time. We thought that we wouldn't pick her up until later in the afternoon but missed her so much that we decided to leave Santa Barbara right after our "Fathers Day" brunch at the Cantina. For those of you who don't know about the Cantina, they have the best breakfast burritos and it is in Ryan's college town. We ate there both mornings...it was Father's Day weekend after all.

We did it! 26.2 miles!

Ryan, Holly, Garr and I ran a marathon last weekend. Yes, you read that right- a marathon! We met our goal by 38 seconds thanks to Ryan's pep talks/ quotes from sports movies....of course that I have never seen!

I'm sure Emma will miss our long runs since we trained with her for the entire 18 week program but I have to say that I am happy to have our Friday nights back! We're crossing marathons off of the list...at least for a while!

Emma is Six Months Old!

Emma is six months old now and is doing great. Ryan says that she is the perfect daughter- she's in the 80th percentile for weight and 25th percentile for height. Short and chubby, just what a father would want for his daughter!
She is sitting up on her own now, eating baby food (a lot of baby food), and loves when Cassus gets into trouble or barks. If you all know Cassus he's always getting into something and most recently just ate an entire power bar! Package and all!

Unlike her Mom, Emma loves loud noise! We took her to a Padres game over Memorial Day weekend she loved all of the cheering and clapping. Anything that makes a lot of noise- Emma loves!