Emma Photoshoot

When Aunt Nats came to visit, she helped Kate with a couple photo shoots of Emma and Zoe (mostly Emma). I've finally had time to poke through them and get them up on the blog. It sounded like it was pretty amusing trying to get these two girls to sit still long enough to get some pictures.

Grammy's Little Buddy

Zoe has been Grammy's little buddy for the past couple weeks. They've been sleeping buddies since Grandpa left, which also means they've been early morning buddies (which Mom and Dad LOVE!). The big hit though has been Grammy projects. Grammy always has a project to be checked off her list and Zoe loves to help out. The big project right now is stripping the wallpaper off our family room wall. That was a BIG hit for Zoe. She's also helped out with watering the plants, planting new flowers out front, making rice krispie treats (with sprinkles!), making weefles (with sprinkles!) and making birthday cake (with sprinkles!) ... notice a pattern?

Zoe has also been having fun with her various gifts - a homemade sandbox and waterbox, new clothes, bibs, burp clothes, and diapers for her babies, her picnic table, and her whole new 3T wardrobe that finally fits again (and is super cute). Unfortunately for Dad, Zoe has the shoppers personality and loves to try on all her new clothes and shoes.

Thus far, I've been able to capture more of Zoe and Grammy together than Emma and Grammy. By the time Zoe lets her free and she's done with her projects, Grammy always seems to be having her time with Emma at night and it's always too dark to get any good pictures. Needless to say, we'd sort of be lost without Grammy right now!

MeMaw and PaPa's Visit - Part 1

Brian's parents flew out for a two week visit over Thanksgiving - and part of the trip included driving down to Santa Barbara for several days.  Everyone had a blast!

Here are some pictures of playing in the wagon with MeMaw and Happy Hollow.  Santa Barbara pics coming soon...

Yosemite Trip

We are playing catch up on our posts... it has been a fun and busy Fall.

My parents came out to visit in late October.  We went to Yosemite, and of course, we also stopped in Lodi on the way out to taste a few wines.  It was a great mid-way stop and broke up the drive for Zoe.  She loved the animals and pumpkins at one of the wineries.

Day One in Yosemite: We stopped on our way in to have a picnic by the Merced River, Zoe loved splashing in the water!  We also visited Yosemite Falls and the Ahwahnee Lodge.

Day Two: Hiked part of the way up to Vernal Falls, visited Mariposa Grove and stopped for a snack at the Wawona Inn

Day Three: Stopped by Bridalveil Falls on our way out of the park

 Overlook of Yosemite Valley

Yosemite was beautiful in the Fall and we enjoyed the trip with my parents!

Midwest Visitors

Uncle Tim, Aunt Karen, and Amanda came to visit a couple weeks back. It's been so busy since then that we're just now getting around to posting about their visit. It was a crazy busy visit...but then again, when isn't it crazy when Uncle Tim is involved?

Tuesday they arrived, Wednesday they came up to our place to visit before I went in to work, Thursday everyone went to Happy Hollow, Friday it was the Monterey Bay Aquarium (and more importantly Ghirardelli sundaes), Saturday was the beach, and finally Sunday was brunch at Uncle Mark and Aunt Amy's before they went to the airport. Zoe took a 2.5 hour nap the day after they left and still went to bed early that night.

We all had a great time visiting and Zoe especially loved having Amanda around. They are a really cute age and watching them interact was pretty funny. Amanda was awesome playing with Zoe; giving her hugs and kisses every 5 minutes, bringing her toys to play with, and even sharing Maggie with her! Zoe thought it was great to have a big kid who was obsessed with her to chase around and learn the ropes from.

Kate forgot the camera when they went to Happy Hollow, so they missed out on some cute photo ops. Amanda and Zoe were holding hands while they walked through the park. The aquarium was pretty funny because while we technically went down together, it was more like 3 families who just happened to be at the aquarium at the same time. Each was on a slightly different enough schedule, and moved at a slightly different enough speed that I think we all just ended up waving in passing. So our pictures ended up being of them at the beach playing together. (And can you tell which one is crazy about the ocean?)

Playing with Mema & PawPaw

Mema and PawPaw came to visit this last weekend for Catie's 1st Communion. They stayed at the zoo the first couple nights and then finished with a spa visit with us. Zoe loves to see anyone but her parents sometimes, and she especially loved PawPaw because he left all kinds of fun toys around for her to try and play with (and by toys I mean his little pile of 'necessities' that he keeps around and gets up every other minute to check and / or apply). Zoe also loved PawPaw's cup and would seek it out whenever she could.

MeMa didn't let Zoe out of her sights for too long and taught her to love the fan and pull all her books out in her room. She was also in charge of bedtime duties and managed to actually put her down while still awake and even crying! Big steps for Mema...

The best part of the trip for Mommy and Daddy was getting out for two date nights. We even got Mark and Amy involved (though it was a bit more pulling teeth than one would imagine for those two) and we had an absolutely awesome dinner at Tamarine. Its too bad Mema and PawPaw couldn't stay longer...

Definitely Mommy and Daddy's daughter...

Spring Time Visit

Grammy & Grandpa were going through a bit of Zoe withdrawal (especially Grandpa), so they used some frequent flier points and came out for a visit. It was perfect timing for Mommy and Daddy too because we were itching for a night (or several) off!

Zoe had lots of fun playing with her grandparents. They are much more entertaining than her parents! Grammy got lots of snuggles in since she was on sleeping duty the whole trip. Zoe didn't like when they left and she had to go back to Mommy and Daddy's stricter ways. And Grandpa got all kinds of giggles and belly laughs performing for Zoe.

This was definitely a trip for Grammy and Grandpa to see Zoe because we barely spent time with them. We hightailed it out to dinner on Friday night, and then took off mid-morning on Saturday for a trip along the coast in Marin, and then over to Santa Rosa for the night. It was a great drive and we got to stop off for some wine tasting and to refill our stash. We also had a great wine country dinner that night as well. By the time we came home Sunday, Zoe could care less who we were, just as long as Grammy and Grandpa were around.

Here are some pictures from the little time we all did spend together...mostly hanging out at the local parks.

Grammy & Grandpa bought Zoe her first piggy bank. It also brought out a bunch of giggles...

Super Nanny - Part II

Prior to the holidays, we had been narrowing our search for daycare / nanny for Zoe. Come January, both of us were going to be working full time. Well, when our potential nanny share didn't quite measure up to what we needed, then Kate had a meltdown after visiting the first daycare, and me having a freakout after visiting the second, we decided the best person to take care of Zoe would be her mom of course!

However, that was decided about 2 days before we left for the holidays and we needed to come up with a plan for someone to care for Zoe while Kate worked her final 2 full weeks. So Grammy, with minimal nudging, flew out the week after we returned to be our super nanny. Seriously! We were once again spoiled with dinner every night, a clean house, laundry never piling up, and all our clutter organized, not to mention a super happy little girl everyday. Zoe loved having her Grammy here and was a little crankier in the mornings since she's left.

Now Kate is working part time at home and we have arranged our schedules so that one of us can take care of Zoe. It's a big relief for us not to have to drop her off at the depressing day care, thinking about her getting shaken to sleep in a crib instead of snuggling with one of us. It would have never been possible without our 2 super nannies.

Grammy & Zoe

Blowing raspberries