family, woodworking, photography, K-pop
I was bummed that we missed Halloween with the kids because of the trouble we had getting out of New York so the day after we got home I put the kids back into their costumes so I could take a few photos.
We even walked across the street to an understanding friend’s house so I could hear Mimi chirp “thick or treat!” and drove to my mother-in-law’s so she could see the kids in their costumes.
Vacations are awesome (even those interrupted by hurricanes) but it’s great to be home.
It wasn’t all out-of-control fires and mandatory evacuations around here this week: N and I got to see The Beach Boys in concert!
For our anniversary back in May I gave N tickets to Stadium of Fire, this big concert/fireworks show they put on every year in BYU’s football stadium. There were a few musical acts, including one of the American Idol winners (Scotty something) but they reason we went was to see the Beach Boys. N is a big fan and I think they’re great too.
When I was a teenager I kept the radio in my car set on the oldies station and so it was incredible to actually see and hear them play all these songs that have been ingrained in my brain for so long. A few of band looked a little frail, especially Brian Wilson, but they sounded amazing.
As part of our pre-concert festivities N’s mom helped E make a flag cake:
It was awesome.
photo by Sister72 on FlickrHappy Valentine’s day! I hope you have a lovely day and someone nice makes you feel special.
After we had a horrible experience with an overpriced fixed Valentine’s day menu a few years back I swore off fancy Valentine’s day dinners. Instead I’m heading to the grocery store in a few minutes to pick up the ingredients for a simple steak dinner at home. And then hopefully this weekend or next we’ll make it to a nice restaurant for a leisurely kid-free meal.
I know I don’t talk about him a lot here, but I’m grateful for my Valentine. N is the best sweetheart and friend a girl could ask for. He’s funny and thoughtful and dreamy and kind. He supports my various endeavors and inspires me to be the best person I can be.
And on top of all that, he bought me new countertops for Valentine’s day! I’m a lucky girl 🙂
The kids had a great Christmas. E has been anxiously counting down the days until Christmas and had a blast unwrapping presents from us and Santa and thoughtful aunts and uncles and grandparents.
This was Mimi’s first Christmas and while she was oblivious to most of it she has been having a great time playing with the new toys and books.
I am so grateful for this little family of mine.
Some years I send out a Christmas card, some years I don’t. But since this is Mimi’s first Christmas I wanted to send out a card even though time-wise it’s cutting it a little close.
So yesterday I plopped the kids into their matching Christmas jammies and tried to capture the magic. (Previous years’ photos here and here.)
Let’s just say that getting a nice photo of both kids was harder than I anticipated. I ended up with a few decent shots but it was only by bribing E with a lollipop (at 9:30 in the morning) and by using some creative cropping. C’est la vie, I guess.
I hope you have a nice weekend.
I do most of my Christmas shopping online but I did make a quick run to the mall this week. It was surprisingly uncrowded–there wasn’t even a line to see Santa so I took the kids to meet the big guy himself.
E was thrilled while Mimi (predictably) was not.
We had a low-key Thanksgiving which is my favorite kind. N’s mom was excited about her first stateside Thanksgiving in 3 years and went all out and cooked an incredible meal. Our contribution was a vegan pumpkin pie for E and some oven-roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon.
The day after Thanksgiving N’s dad help us return our defective TV to the store and pick up the replacement set. For the rest of the weekend we mostly stayed home watching movies and playing video games together. I made some more progress on painting our kitchen cabinets and on Saturday night we drove up to our favorite Korean restaurant for some soon dubu to take a break from leftovers.
It was a lovely, relaxing weekend before the busyness of the next month.
At N’s office party.
This year E went up to the doors by himself–he’s getting so big!
Surveying the neighborhood ripe for plunder.The hits kept on coming all weekend; it was so much fun to spend time with family members we hadn’t seen in so long. As predicted, E loved hanging out with his cousins. Every morning when he woke up the first thing he wanted to know was where his cousins were. Things were so busy that unfortunately I didn’t take many pictures but we did manage to snap a couple to document a few firsts:
Mimi’s first Fourth of July
E’s first sparkler