Annmarie Turns 2!

Dear Annmarie,

Today is your 2nd Birthday! Happy Day! I can hardly believe two years have gone by and I as a think about that I can’t help but well up with tears. Every day I tell you how much I love you and mean it with every fiber of my heart. I just love watching you grow and my heart has grown right along with you. Watching you grow and learn has been pure magic.

Oh how I love you…….

I love your jibber jabber talk. Your language skills may be considered a little delayed, but at 21 months they started to kick in and they have been expanding every day since. I would say your top ten favorite words would be; mama, dada, babe, hat, hot, help, up, shoes, cracker and juice.

I love your rockstar bed-head in the morning and you have the sweetest head of curls. We have yet to cut your hair and I love the way you take your whole hand to get your hair out of your face.

I love the way you run. You started walking when you were a little over a year and now you run. Everywhere. When you want to get some place you’ll take off running. This walking thing seems a little too slow for you. This thrills your father to no end.

I love that you still will cuddle with me at night. I love it when you rest your head on my shoulder and wrap your long legs around my waist. This has to be one of my favorite times of the day. You often prefer your mama to put you to bed at night, but there are nights when you will jump into Dad's arms and he'll put you to bed. You are still a great sleeper and will sleep anywhere to 11 to 12 hours a night and take a two hour nap. Don’t get me wrong, you have had your days, but they have been few.

I love the way you dance dance dance. You use to sway back and forth to the beat of the music. Now you like twirl (which makes you extremely dizzy and you fall to the ground and laugh) and stomp your foot and clap your hands when you dance. You love music.

I love that peek-a-boo or hide-and-seek is still one of your favorite games. You will hide in corner, close your eyes and say Ann-me for me come find you. I love that it’s the simple things that make you so happy.

I love watching you play with your baby dolls. All effectionally named bay-bee and all them a bit scary looking. You absolutely love taking care of them all. You feed them, play patty cake, sing, brush their their nonexistent hair, hug and kiss them, take them shopping in shopping cart, put them to sleep, undress them and then ask me to put their clothes back on. It is so sweet. It’s not sweet when decide you have had a enough of them and throw them up in the air and then yell – boo-boo. We are working on changing that one.

I love that you love books. Your favorites change all the time and before bed you pick out the books that you want to read.

Oh how I love being your mama.

I’ll stop the gushing and just say thanks for being such a fun, loving, caring kid. I am so proud of you.

Happy Birthday sweet Annmarie.

All my Love,
Mama
P.S. And don't worry we will have ice cream for you today!

P.S.S. At your two year check-up you weighed in at 24.5 lbs and about 35 inches.

Running Machine

This weekend Jamie will be embarking on his 5th marathon! His four previous marathons include:

1. San Francisco (July 2006) - 3:55:44
2. San Diego Rock n’ Roll (June 2007) - 3:33:43
3. Eugene, OR (May 2008) - 3:28:42
4. CIM (December 2008) - 3:17:39
Jamie will be running CIM again this weekend in an effort to qualify for Boston. I know he can do it. He has been training like crazy and waking up at only God knows what hour to get his running in. He has perfected getting out of bed and out the door (most times) without making a peep in order to not disturb Annmarie. He often trains on the trails in Marin, where you’ll find him wearing a light on his head and talking to turkeys and deer. He also trains with his running group – Tamalpa and does long runs on the weekends. I don’t know how he does it.

Jamie documented his first marathon journey and I thought it would be fun to share. He describes in detail, by mile, all 26.2, what he was feeling and what was playing on his iPod.

See below for report. (You'll need need to click on Fullscreen and then zoom for it to be readable)Jamie Marathon Report


Good luck honey!

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Sending Birthday wishes to my brother all the way in Sapporo Japan.

Thankful

For Thanksgiving we decided to do what we did last year and go out to Mezza Luna in Half Moon Bay. We had such a nice and calm experience last time, we thought why not do it again. They have a great Thanksgiving special.

Prior to going in the restaurant we tried to capture some pictures.

This is some of what we got. Annmarie was not having it.
She saw some cats earlier and wanted to go after them.
Put me down!!!
Here we are last year and this year.
And she wants to get away.

Here is some of the wonderful food we had.
We also had a nice pastry plate for the table for dessert.

Annmarie did so great at dinner and enjoyed Turkey Meatballs. We treated her to a scoop of vanilla ice cream afterwards. To say she enjoyed it would be an understatement.
Cathy and her boys.
It was a nice mellow day, even if Jon made fun of me the entire time about Twilight. At times it feels a little weird to go out for Thanksgiving, but it's been nice and stress free and that fits us. Cathy is going to make a Turkey on Saturday and we will be treated with some leftovers.

And I would like to add.........

I have so much to be thankful for.

I'm most thankful for.....

Family and friends. My health. I am thankful for my husband, because without him life would certainly not be as fun. I am thankful for my Annmarie, who is growing and learning everyday and because she has completely made my heart whole. And because of Annmarie she helps me to remember this everyday.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

The Day After

The day after the New Moon extravaganza, Bonnie, Vanessa and I met up at The Plant at Prier 3 on the embarcadero for a recovery brunch. It was divine. Check it out and bring your friends. We sat out on the heated patio and enjoyed our wonderful meals and critiqued the past evening.

Here is what we enjoyed.

Drinks.
Bonnie's tofu scramble
Vanessa's veggie burger.
I had the Fall scramble.
And I'll just slip in Annmarie and I sporting our t-shirts.

New Moon Party!

This is going to be long. Really long. Are you ready?

I’m just going to post everything, well not everything, this is a family blog.

The evening was awesome. And it was so much fun. I want to do it all again!

Let’s start from the beginning.

I created these little movie ticket looking invites using Picnik. I saw something similar on-line and knew I could do it myself. I thought it would be fun for the girls to get something in the mail.Please note most of my inspiration came from the Internet, my last little party and my cousin’s party (I’ll try to include links through-out the post). Speaking of my last little party, there was no restraint this time around. This party was taken to a whole new level.

I did the favors in advance on Veteran’s Day with the help of Bonnie. We both had the day off. I burned copies of the soundtrack and packaged them up with a little quote. I also picked up some Eclipse gum and wrapped them up with a red bow. We also came up with the menu that day and asked a couple of the girls to bring dishes or wine.

On the big day, Bonnie and Vanessa came over to helped with the preparation and also helped occupy Annmarie.
Bonnie created the game – Twilight/Vampire/Werewolf Jeopardy game. Bonnie is notoriously known for creating off-beat, albeit fun party games! We decorated the cupcakes with 'Forks' with quotes and this cool sugar glitter. We had vegan red velvet and chocolate devils food.
There was also a batch of mini cupcakes with Italian flags.
A shrine of the books was set-up and I printed out some quotes that I found - here.

As everyone arrived they were greeted with this sign on the door.
Edward was at the door to greet people. He is watching over Michele and I.
Michele brought this awesome bottle of wine from the Cullen's family winery.
People started snacking on the food and working their way through the wine.
Food not pictured included, a mixed berry salad, bruschetta and olive fig tapenade.

I was given this darling tee for Annmarie and I also got one too! Pictures of Annmarie wearing the tee coming shortly.
We all took our prom photo's with Edward.



Bonnie was going in for the attack.
We played Bonnie's Jeopardy game. Gotta love Bonnie's unique questions, I mean answers.


Then took some fun group photos before heading to the movie.

We had tickets for the 10pm show. The show wasn't even sold out. I think we got lucky with a 10pm show in the city, it wasn't your typical Twi-fan demographic.


So excited for the movie!
So I LOVED the movie. I thought it was a lot more polished than Twilight. Loved how everyone gasped when Edward first appeared on the screen. I thought Jacob was, er, adorable. I didn't think he could pull it off, but seriously, he's one hot young thang. I'll always be Team Edward and would never switch sides, but can see the draw to Jacob, especially the movie version. I also liked the way it ended.

So. Much. Fun.

This whole Twilight craze has just been SO much fun. I loved the books and was competed taken with them. The movies provide another exciting element, different from the books, but a totally awesome companion. And the parties just bring it all together. It's been so fun sharing this with other girls, smiling and laughing. Just love it and just had a ton a fun.The end. For now. (And BTW, I'm not sure who took this photo. I believe it's Susie!)

And Yes! Already can't wait for June 30th!