Our little Emilie

It has been a while since I've posted on Emilie... I LOVE HER.

She has blossomed so much lately. If I could pick one word about her it would be: smiles. In the morning when I get her out of her crib, she turns over and smiles. When I feed her breakfast: smiles. When she's playing on the other side of the room and we exchange glances: smiles.

Of course, she is definitely getting more of a personality and has her share of cries during the day, but she is smiling so much, I can't stop but smile with her.

She is doing her first sign language! She basically does it to everything- but at least she's doing it! This is the first time she signed "more."

She is mobile and out on the loose. I need to child proof my kitchen asap before there is a major disaster sometime soon.

For good and bad, Maddie grabs her, and moves her around the house at will all day long. Fortunately, Emilie likes it 50% of the time.

I love this shot because it's semi distorted, but so funny. She doesn't like it when I hold my camera, because she wants to hold it...

I love this little face.

She is obsessed with grabbing our kitchen chairs and pushing them around the house. It's her little walker.

Loves them.

Well, only until one of us rescues her b/c she can't let go.

love you emi.

Giving Tree

I usually drag my feet into the month of December...it's not usually my favorite. But, this year, I helped coordinate The Giving Tree for our church and it definitely has put me in the right Christmas spirit.

We anonymously adopted 16 families in our community from a local elementary school as well as our church community, and made sure that each child received a gift, and the family had Target and Safeway gift cards to help with what they needed.

We collected donations and I was AMAZED and very HUMBLED by the generosity of people around me. Not just in money, but in their time...

One donor spent hours making baby blankets for each baby on our list...

These are the canisters we put candy in with their gift cards.

Fruit/treat baskets.

One of the fellow elfs that is really more like angel than an elf.

I wanted to to use shrink wrap over our gifts, but it didn't seem to work like I wanted. Oh, well. I think it looked good enough.

Operation Giving Tree is done! YAY.

A bit overdue

I think this might be the longest since I haven't posted... urgh!

So- I'm going to summarize as best I can...

Maddie's Birthday
- Maddie's Birthday was on Thanksgiving!! We threw a party for her the Saturday before the day of thanks for obvious reasons. The theme was NEVERLAND. She loves Wendy, and I'm a little burned out on princesses, so we were excited to go with it...

It was a little out of control, I'll admit. But, it was fun, and I was only tired for 1 day after :)
I made Peter Hats out of felt and we bought Tinkerbell crowns from the party store for all the kids to wear. Here are some highlights:


We made a shadow wall were we traced their bodies (remember when Peter chases his shadow?) I think I liked this more than the kids!!

My friend made the cake- yes amazing. We went back and forth about what it should look like, and I thought having peter and wendy flying over the city would be cool... and she nailed it. She even made the figurines out of clay. amazing.

Maddie loves blowing out candles and was practicing almost everyday up until the party.


We made a pirate ship and waves around it for lunch. Unfortunately, I don't think the kids liked the spaghetti, but whatever! I should have bought mac and cheese! The pirate ship was cool... I give all the credit to Steve. He even put a monkey on the top of the mast.

Another shot of the table.

Outside, we played in Mermaid Lagoon- we threw black water balloons (canons) on the "x marks the spot."
Maddie's throw!
Then, we searched for seashells in the sand...

Steve made a plank for the kids to walk off and jump on a mattress. I thought it was a pretty cute idea- again, props to Steve.

And- we had a tipee. I can't find a picture. But, it was cool, and also made by Steve.

So- all in all, the party was fun and I think Maddie had a good time!! Now, our baby is 3. It is going by very fast!

Thanksgiving

We were invited by our very gourmet friends to Thanksgiving- they went all out. It was such a nice treat to not cook. But, let me say, it is not easy to have kids at Thanksgiving. It was basically impossible to sit down, but Steve and I took turns. I felt bad for the other guests... but, what can you do? I guess this is why you get invited over less the more kids you have! Ha ha ha.

Emi, with her very serious face!!!

They were so nice to make Maddie her own Cherry pie and sing for her. So cute!


Grapefruit Sorbet- yes, very fancy.

Delicious.

The day after Thanksgiving, we were feeling sad to not have left overs, so we decided to cook another Thanksgiving, and had some neighbors over. It was a hoot- two single women... picture click and clack from NPR. We were entertained for hours.

What happened to November?

Photography
I have been very blessed to be busy with photography sessions this season- so it has been fun and a little hectic. But- I'm so happy because I've saved enough money to buy my NEW CAMERA and LENSES! YAY. All with my very own hard work. Hopefully, I can get them sometime in the next month and start adjusting....

Europe
Steve has been burning the midnight oil for some new prospects in his job for a company in Europe. We had some visitors this last week in our garage (aka Steve's den of medical device madness). I can't believe that he starts companies in garages ( I could never in a million years do that), but I guess it has been done before...

Those are the highlights. CONGRATULATIONS if you've read all the way down to here!

Back Pain

Steve hurt his back 5 days ago now? It has not been very pretty. At first, I didn't believe him, but for the first 3 days, he couldn't work... and has been basically laying on his back all day. Yesterday and today, he hasn't been able to sit, and can't really go anywhere (because you have to sit in a car).

We managed to get him in the car last night to drive to Sweet Tomatoes. And, the poor guy had to eat on his knees at the table. Aside from the weird looks, I just felt really bad for him. No one should have to eat dinner on their knees.

And- today he watched the kids while I took lots of photos, even though he was mostly on the floor.

I post this mostly to say "Thank You Steve." And, I hope you get better soon.

What have we been up to?

I can't think of any super fabulous adventure that we have been on lately. But, we have been pretty content with the normal events of life.

Maddie has said and done some funny things lately. My favorite was while we were making Jello last week. I had the box on the table, and she picked it up and spelled "J..E..L..L..O." It was a perfect commercial.

Emilie is all over the place. Although I thought she would never crawl, she has somehow broken out of her shell, and is trying to stand up at any chance. I LOVE this stage.

I have been kind of busy with photography (www.alieleeflang.com), church and starting to plan Maddie's 3rd birthday party!! Since her birthday is on Thanksgiving, we're throwing her a little party with her friends on the Saturday before.

Steve is always busy with work, but he really likes it... and it crossing his fingers for some good things this week.

Halloween Weekend

We had a great Halloween weekend. It started out with one of the best Halloween parties I've ever been to. They spared no expense- professional photographer who took pics of all of the costumes, karaoke, Wii, music, food, and the best bar I've ever seen (not in the alcohol sense). They had spooky glasses of all sorts labeled as "witches eyes" or fill in the blank... and you mixed your own drinks. I wish I had a picture. Martha would have been jealous.

Anyway, we were probably the lamest of all the costumes there, but I am proud of myself that I even got us some costumes! Thanks for inviting us!

For Halloween, we went to the amusement park Gilroy Gardens and had so much fun hanging out with each other without interruptions. I can't remember the last time we've done something like that.

Later that night, we scarfed our dinner down, and got the girls ready for trick o treating!

I give you:

Flounder and Ariel- the dynamic duo! Flounder's costume is obviously homemade, but I thought she was pretty cute, and of course Ariel was bought off of Amazon.

I took the girls around the neighborhood while Steve handed out candy. It was a lot of work!! By 7:15 all of us were exhausted, so quick baths and off to bed...

but we handed out candy until 9:30 or so...

Can't wait until next year!

A great song

I know this song isn't new anymore, but I love "Lucky" by Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat. I love the melody, I love the harmony, I love the lyrics. What a great song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QZVOJCIdEw

But- the video... not so great...but, who cares? The song carries it.

Some organization

Here I sit at 8:15 at night thinking and looking at a house of disorganization. The other day, I popped out of bed at 5 am, went running, took a shower, actually dried my hair, put on makeup, cleaned the kitchen, read scriptures...all before 7:15 when people started waking up.

If only I could do that everyday. Unfortunately, it is more like rolling out of bed at 7:15 with everyone else and trying to survive.

But, for me, if I were to wake up at 5 am, I need to go to bed really early... which is just hard to do...and requires some serious organization and planning.

In a way, it would be really awesome to be a stepford wife... just be able to do it all and look perfect all the time... but BETTER yet, wouldn't it be awesome to HAVE a stepford wife?!

Of course, not really...but these are the thoughts that flow when I don't have the will to pick up one more "fill in the blank."

A night of Magic!

When I heard that Disney on Ice was coming and featuring "Princesses on Ice," I knew we had to take her. The problem is- it isn't cheap! But, nothing that a little craigslist can't solve.


Past her bedtime and going to watch princesses iceskate? Could heaven be any better?

Up the escalators... the smile is worth a thousand words.

The ice skaters were pretty good... we were both thinking how we could get that gig.

The finale was every little girls dream come true- all of the princesses and princes dancing together.

I have to admit, I know a lot of people can't stomach this stuff, but I was grinning the entire time. I think we'll definitely go again.

A few parties later

We have been up to a bit of hosting parties lately! A baby shower on Saturday and a Halloween party on Monday- totally different, but really fun.

I didn't really have time to pick up my camera for the shower, but here are a couple of pics-

The "mom to be" said she liked brown, so I found this brown table cloth to go over our make shift table that Steve put together to sit 10 people. (it will be nice to get real furniture soon). I borrowed the silverware, plates and cups... and I think it went together really well... phew.

My friend made this really cute cake... that I heard was delicious. (so sad I couldn't taste it.)

We made homemade crepes, strawberies, blueberries, homemade cream, homemade jam (steve's special touch), quiche and croissants. It was a perfect menu.

Congratulations B and C!

On Monday, my friend and I threw a Halloween party for Maddie and her cute church friends. It was really fun to put together, but a little chaotic. I hope they had fun?

The menu- I wish I took a closer photo of the cheese ball goblin on the right hand side. It was funny.

The healthier version of black/orange.

Black/orange to dip in the cheese...

I printed these off... I thought they turned out really cute.

We decorated cookies...

Played pass the pumpkin and sang, went fishing for treats...

Had a dance party, and then settled down to a Halloween movie.

Yay! Happy Halloween!

Books, SF and Dad

On Sat, the girls and I visited the Friends of Palo Library Booksale and stocked up on tons of books for $13.00!!!

They had a bin full of Disney books, and of course we went wild with those- especially the Princess series...

M was very excited.

We then headed up to SF to visit some friends...

M had a blast running up and down the steep streets...

...lounging in my friend's very beautiful house...

And last, but most importantly...

WELCOMING DAD HOME FROM A VERY LONG TRIP!!! WE MISSED YOU!