Dunkin' our Darling

This past Sunday, we gave Fiona the holy dunk. ;) She was baptized at our church, St. Martin of Tours, with all her grandparents, aunts and uncles in attendence. It was a small but beautiful ceremony and as usual, Fiona was a star, smiling and taking in all the love an affection with grace. Welcome to the family little lady, you will no doubt make us all overjoyed with what you will bring to humankind.

Hot Tamales!

Kai fully embraced the holidays this year with wonder and delight. He even started to learn some of the family traditions. Here are a few photos of him learning to make beef tamales with his Nana.

Merry Christmas 2010!

Just a few photos from Christmas Eve. Hope you are enjoying this wonderful day.

Santa's Little Helpers

The Holidays (and no, I'm not being P.C., just referring to the many holidays between Thanksgiving to New Years) are so much fun with kids. The wonder in their eyes, the gasp, "wows" around every corner. The belief in all things joyful. Needless to say, I'm enjoying festive wear for the kids too. Here are our little Elves in Training.

Turkeys, hams, and various other family members

Last week we were able to spend a few consecutive days in Mesa, visiting my Mom's side of the family. The kids loved staying in one place and just hanging out. I think they left my mom's house a total of 2 times in 5 days. Kai was in heaven.

Here is my grandma and Fiona. Check out her 2 bottom teeth! She now has two more on top too.
Addison & my mom are enjoying a little time on the plasma cars. Way to be forever young mom!

Katie brought over a little tunnel and the kids clearly loved it. I call this photo "pure joy".

Fiona relaxes as Kai, Addison and my mom take turns wheeling her around the backyard. If you look closely you can see Katie's garden in the back. She's quite the farmer these days!

Wow! Here is Fiona with my cousin's son Evan. He's a month older than Fiona. I'd say they even look sorta related! Ha ha.

Here is Kai & Taisi playing at the Iwan's house. Kai, ever the rock star, loved the microphone.

Mom, again exhibiting her youth, playing with sweet Fiona.

Addison & Kai were grooving to my mom's funky disco album. Boy those kids have the moves!

It was a great trip. I only wish we could do it again soon. Hope you all had a great turkey day!

Cheers to you Sammy Cuba

We recently were in Tucson celebrating Brendt's Uncle Paul (a.k.a. Sammy Cuba) and his 60 glorious years on earth. Here are some photos from yet another fun and fabulous shindig at the breathtaking Wilson abode.

Just around the corner.

In a few more days, she'll be rounding the corner. She'll be getting those top two teeth. She'll be crawling so fast that Kai won't know what to do. She'll be expressing herself in words instead of just facial expressions and sounds. She'll be more than we could ever imagine.
But for now, she's all we ever hoped for.

Sorry for the sap, but it all moves so fast and I'm doing what I can to embrace every moment instead of thinking about when the kiddos will be something other than what they are right now.

Childproofing?

Kai got into the Aquafor and I'm not sure these photos show what a goopy mess it really was. AWESOME. He was so proud of himself.

Christmas Preview

Here is a link to a little preview of our holiday photos. They were taken at 3 different locations in Balboa Park. We love working with Arika. She's so incredibly talented and elevates the family photo to something so artistic.
http://www.arikareed.com/?page_id=9

She's on the move!

It's not really a normal crawl, but it's a low crawl. Either way, this girl is ON THE MOVE! Watch out world (esp. Mommy, Daddy & Kai), here comes Fiona.

Just because. . .

More photos of Fiona in cute clothes. . . no occasion necessary.

Sweet Dreams

Our two little angels fell asleep together, and oh what a beautiful sight.

Our little winter princess

This is a day that we put Fiona in this dress for just a few hours and then took a picture. Just another wonderful Sunday. And by 9am it was too warm for her to wear it anymore. But for those 2 hours, she looked ADORABLE! Sometimes you just have to put on the dress to get a photo!

Our little fishies

Here are a few photos of our kids during their swim class.

The Big Night Out- Oooh, Spooky

It feels like Halloween has turned into a weekend of fun festivities. Personally, I'm ok with drawing out this holiday (thought he sight of Christmas stuff in the stores in September freaks me out). It's great to see the holiday through the view of children. This year we went out with the Londons and the Styles. The Styles hosted us and invited thier parents and my Dad & Esther over to see the kids off on thier Halloween adventures.

Kai has learned not to go into peoples houses when they open the door, instead he held up his pumpkin and said "Thank you". After a while, he got the hang of the "trick or treat" and then added the "thank you".

Fiona came along for the walk. One women insisted on giving her peanut M&Ms.

Kai was alternating between the funny giraffe (as seen here) and the "pooky" (aka "spooky) giraffe.

Fiona had a little snuggle time with Papou.

Even the grown ups got into the fun. Brendt & I were Zoo Keepers and Toby was a bear.

It was a fun night for all.

At the Pumpkin Patch

Last month we went to Bates Nut Farm. It was a lovely drizzly fall day when the weekend before it was over 100F there in Valley Center. We met up with the Kaschade family and had great time. I love fall!
This blond pumpkin in the wheel barrel is going to to be EXPENSIVE. :)

Fiona loved the giant pumpkins.

Max is all business about his pumpkin selection process. This one passed the test.

Kai wanted to take all the pumpkins home, bu he finally decided on one.

Happy Halloween!

Thought I'd share a few photos of what we're up to on Halloween.

Kai & Fiona with their Jack-o-lantern.

Kai didn't want to get his hands in the squishy pumpkin insides. He said it was yucky.

But Fiona seemed to like her orange friend with one more tooth than she has.

To AZ- Part 1 in Mesa

After our visit to Tucson, we trucked up I-10 to Mesa to visit the Altendorf side of the family.

The kids enjoyed the cool mornings outside on Grandma & Papa Jim's patio.
Addison is already giving Fiona fashion tips. :) Good thing as Fiona mostly wears Addison's hand me downs.

Most afternoons we'd make it over to see Great Grandma & Great Grandpa. Here are a few shots of Fiona with the elders of our clan.