October 09 - Halloween with a Princess and her Dragon

Halloween is obviously the most exciting thing this month. It was a lot of fun carving a pumpkin with Sasha - however she wasn't into touching the insides, too messy so I had to do all the scooping. Throughout the month we made pumpkin bread, pumpkin pancakes and had lots of apple cider. We unfortunately were too tired to get to a real pumpkin patch, last year we went down to Half Moon Bay's big fall festival, but think Sasha still enjoyed herself. We went on some fall walks and collected colorful leaves as a family but have to admit this is the time of year we most miss being back east. Halloween itself was a great day and we went to our neighborhood's parade with friends. The costumes were great- we saw a bunch of little yoda's, a lot of princesses and some creative costumes such as a baby taco. It ends at the cemetery near our house, designed by Julia Morgan, which has a little park at the base and it had 5 bouncy houses and a pumpkin patch where everyone got to take home a pumpkin. Sasha spent about an hour bouncing and it was hard to tear her away. Then after a nap we headed over to a friends Halloween party for dinner and played pin the grin on the pumpkin as well as a Monster Mash freeze game. After the kids went out for a little trick or treating [to 5 houses on our block] which Sasha decided to ride her new bike with training wheels, we headed home exhausted and with a good amount of lute. Alex just finished fixing and painting Sasha's new free bike so he was thrilled she wouldn't go anywhere without it. She's doing really well on it and it's a lot of fun to watch.

Noah I think had a good 1st Halloween- he mostly slept throughout the parade but with all the stimulation seemed happy just hanging out watching. Thank goodness he's so chill. He's growing unbelievably fast- he was 11 lbs. at 7 wks. after being born 6 lbs. 12 oz. so we're enjoying all of his chubbiness. He's a super smiley baby and really only cries when hungry. He even goes to sleep wide awake in his crib without a pacifier, nightlight or music...Sasha still requires her paci so we're thrilled. He also had 2 nights of 7 straight hrs. of sleep which we're hoping to see more of!

Enjoy this months pictures!
http://picasaweb.google.com/amyres/Oct09?authkey=Gv1sRgCJCP8ePzkIzbHw&feat=directlink

More September

Still sleep deprived but luckily the kids are cute! This month Grandma Nellie came to visit and we had a really nice time. Alex and I even got to go on a date [to a new restaurant Marzano] and have some time alone. You all know I'm a talker and Sasha does not fall far from the mommy tree in that regard...sometimes it's even hard for me to talk! So unless Noah is like us, he'll end up the sweet silent type like his Daddy. He's super smiley these days and it's getting more fun by the day. He's a chubby baby [which we never had with Sasha] so we're really enjoying all of his sweet baby rolls- we captured some of that in these pictures. We have been busy this month but the weather is still warm and we're enjoying our backyard. Sasha is back at school and we're hopefully getting into somewhat of a routine figuring out how to shuffle two kids and work. It's been challenging and did I mention tiring?...but good. Enjoy the pictures I'm headed outside to go for walk with the family. Hope all is well with you!

http://picasaweb.google.com/amyres/Sept09?authkey=Gv1sRgCLnq9rDx14-Z2QE&feat=directlink

2009

Well September is here and we haven't posted anything this yr. until now. It's been a hectic year to say the least and somehow time has flown by like a big blur. We now have Sasha, a 3 yr. old girl, and a 7 wk. old little boy named Noah. Why does time speed up as you get older? I was just at a birthday party and was talking to a Dad who was trying to figure this out as well. He has a 5 yr. old and a 3 yr. old and brought up the topic. We both agreed that through college time moved at exactly the right pace. In high school time feels slow b/c you want to be more independent and older so you can make your own decisions. In college you have the illusion of being on your own, which is perfect. Us lucky ones have this great safety net financially and emotionally [our parents] to help navigate through this time period and help you make good decisions but only when YOU ask for help. Thanks Mom + Dad! Then you get out and work and get a taste for the real world and time seems to move a little faster. Once you have kids it goes into warp speed!

Our guess at why this happens is because the speed of time increases with the more things you try and juggle. So when you're just out of school and you're working, paying off debt from college, maybe dating and enjoying your friends and hobbies time moves a little faster than those college days but it's still at a great pace. Then you get married and start thinking about a future, your job gives you more responsibility and time speeds up again. Then you have kids, and you are now trying to juggle your marriage, the kids, work, in our case remodeling our home, any hobbies you may have had before and your social life and don't forget your kids social life! No wonder time is flying by because we're all so busy doing so many things the weeks and months zip by. Then we get a moment to stop and we're amazed at how quickly the year has passed. We're not saying this is bad, for us the majority of the things that are keeping us busy are things we enjoy!

So to summarize, overall 2009 [so far] has been a wonderful year and I apologize for not keeping up this blog letting people know all the fun things that we're up to. But I can tell you we feel so fortunate and are incredibly happy with our growing family, it's been so fun watching Sasha develop and we were so excited to have Noah [or Noey as Sasha calls him] this July! I think Alex would agree that we could use a little more time for those hobbies...but maybe when the kids are a little older we'll pick them up again. In the meanwhile, Alex will continue to learn harmonica on his commute [he's quite good now] and I will hopefully play soccer again next spring [a little goal of mine].

Hope everyone is well and enjoys all of the pictures from the past 9 months! I'll warn you there are a lot and you may want to visit the blog a few times to see them all!

http://picasaweb.google.com/amyres/Feb09?authkey=Gv1sRgCK-msImxhP_1fg&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/amyres/March09?authkey=Gv1sRgCLuBv4fXlriz7gE&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/amyres/April09?authkey=Gv1sRgCMis2r60qq3f-AE&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/amyres/May09?authkey=Gv1sRgCO_Xh43dquXGPQ&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/amyres/June09?authkey=Gv1sRgCOWl-LSfsdTxIQ&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/amyres/July09?authkey=Gv1sRgCIujyJnS8K2fSw&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/amyres/August09?authkey=Gv1sRgCL_x_eHgzYKllgE&feat=directlink