our merry little christmas

it came.... and went....

and was the best christmas since the real santa came to visit years ago

it was our first christmas as and with the nate clark family.

christmas for 3.

it was nice. low key. good for a 9 month old.

as much as i wanted/tried to establish every single family tradition i could think of for our first official christmas, life always has different ideas

life's first idea was on christmas eve.

we planned a delicious king crab leg dinner, christmas gift delivering, cookie making, and of course the christmas pajama opening.

but because we had an over nighter the day before where little man did not sleep... christmas eve consisted of opening pj's at 5:30 pm and putting little man to bed at 6:00 pm without participation in the king crab feast.

it was just a better option.

he was so tired.

so i went against all my christmas tradition instincts and put him to bed. 

we'll try do better next year.

he was chipper for his christmas jammie opening though

and we have all 8 minutes of the first 'gift opening' on video

i've been dreaming of having my own baby in christmas hanna's for years

they've never looked cuter then on a brig

he loves tearing my scandinavian goat apart 

mom and dad's christmas feast for two

it was lovely and delcious and i had to document that crab steak i harvested.

serious. biggest single piece of crab i have ever seen.

christmas morning arrived 

we did video and forgot pictures.

santa came

brig opened present from 6:30-12:00 with one breakfast and one nap in between

it took him that long to open 6 gifts. 

but he did seem to love all his toys and the slow unwrapping process.

i got this from nate 

:) 

we're going to be awesome bike riders in 2011

the rest of christmas was spent lounging until we headed over to bryce and lisa's for a christmas feast

soooo sooo nice to have some family to share the day with.

they were perfect hosts and we had a very fun gift exchange.

and now christmas is gone.

but it was a very merry one indeed!

a little christmas spirit sf style

not having much family around leaves your days around christmas vacant of family gatherings

it's not a bad thing or really a good thing but it did make it so we could head into the city for an overnighter on the 23rd

oh it seemed like a grand old plan!
get us in the christmas spirit, help nate find a fantastic gift for me, eat a delicious dinner, look out our hotel window onto union square all night...

and it was.

we got the beautiful hotel overlooking union square, a delicious italian dinner with a happy boy

then we tried to retire for the evening....

no one slept.

and how do you let a baby cry it out in a hotel?

and plus he just sat on his tummy the whole time whaling and staring at us.

a parent can only watch their child do that for so long.

so we didn't sleep.

but when morning finally came around 

we were able to feed our chipper little duck loads of pancake pieces.

then we went on a search for the perfect gift for me

with brig in a comatose state.

no perfect gift was found :( stupid size 5 feet

and finally we made it back home for a very drowsy christmas eve

it snows in windsor every night

well at least that is what the sign lead you to believe..

the local shops sponsor a 'snowing' at the town green two times a night every night in december

the snowings are at 5:30 & 7:00 which are both not brigs favorite time of day so it took us nearly up to christmas to see what it was all about.

brig was beyond exhausted for this 5:30 snowing but he was not going to miss this in my books

so we headed over and...

it bubbled.

the snow i was so excited for was bubbles 

bubbles that look like snow and kind of even feel like snow

but bubbles.

alas... i guess it is what we californians must settle for

briggy did kind of like it though :)

oh and of course nate did too if you can't tell by his face

in case we missed you....

we sent something like this out for or holiday card

and if we missed you

happy holidays!

after our first christmas alone as the nate clark family

we're headed back to utah for a few days with family!

hopefully i can get a few more christmas posts up during nap times

*ooooober thanks to my mom for taking our pictures when she came out for thanksgiving

she did a great job!

christmas sunday 2010

all these firsts are so exciting for me

we had our first christmas sunday!

i got to dress my fam for our first christmas sunday!

it was fun... it will just be even more fun when i have more kids to match :)

brig has two things to share with you while in his tux

his two teeth that came in

and his coat tails 

(hehe)

every time i went to pick him up sunday i just had to chuckle at how silly he looked

of course i mean silly in the most cutest/handsome/dapper way

although sunday's are really hard with kiddies (naps anyone?)

brig was cute as can be and i'm sure he liked all the christmas songs :)

and our fam
christmas sunday was so nice
we are so grateful for our Saviour's birth
for mary and joseph for caring for him
for this wonderful time of year to remember it all
for good tidings of great joy


"glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men"
luke 2:14


merry christmas sunday.

there's a first for everything right?

uh oh...

i did something the likes of the 'sister judy's' in the world would frown upon

but it just sounded so fun to take brig to mcdonalds for lunch.

so i did :)

he seemed to like chicken nuggets and french fries

and i just felt crazy for taking my 8 month old to mcdonalds

but there's a first for everything

and come on,

what kid doesn't like mcdonalds?

we just won't make it a habit :)

one tree please!

ohh the many many reasons i love have a house.

#1 on my list right now?

being able to justify a real tree!!

we've had the same 5 ft ugly target fakey for the past 4 years 

but really? in an apartment or a hotdog town home there was no point.

but my home know fits it perfect.

so we went to cut down our tree!!

really though.

down the road in sebastopol is grandma buddy's christmas tree farm.

cutest white farm house 'splade' with greenery.

rows and rows of trees to pick from.

however, i left my camera at home :(

yes i do dress myself and child for specific outings... if you looked close enough at brig's jacket it has a christmas tree on top of a car, and i wore my boots and fur. nate however, dressed for the weather cause it was 70 degrees out!

well this is the one we settled on.

nate said "i don't feel like we should have a very big tree because we don't have a very big family" 

i agreed 

this one was per-fect

i staked out our tree while nate went to find a saw.

to my chagrin he came back with a guy with a chainsaw for our trees 3 in diameter trunk :)

he didn't know they had hand saws  :)

i guess lesson learned for next year 

anyway....

our fj and a douglas fur were made for each other.

and 

it turns into this when you get home

which is just magical :)

dear dear santa

he's a jolly old elf.

maybe next year we can convince brig of that :)

the two week itch

well... not really nate and i just parted ways for the 2 week period

his not so new-ish job finally sent him to training.

only downside.. it was a two week training in new jersey in december.

we planned things perfectly though.... he left on a sunday and i left on a sunday :)

here's nate in front of his 'home alone' dream come true on the weekend

the only difference in our plans of departing on sundays was...

nate flew first class to new york

brig and i braved the sierra nevadas with my parents on a 13 hour winter road trip.

our savior?

rice puffs, ella's kitchen baby food that so conveniently squeezes out of the pouch, and jewel's lullaby's.

phew....

we did arrive though and i spent 10 days just not being alone. 

that was wonderful.

i took no pictures though so these are all stolen from phones, others blogs, etc. it is going to appear as if the trip threw up.

but

it will be documented!

love my almost twin sister brooke.

she came down for a sleep over one night and we decided to visit thanksgiving point's lights.

she's a bit romantic and convinced us that a "hay-ride" through the lights would be so much more fun than just driving.

served her right... she and my mom froze but briggy and i sat in the middle and stayed pretty darn toasty,

as for the lights... cute-ish but brig's not that into them.

then i spent many more days at my mom's just hanging around, meeting up with kennan and brooke for lunches, santa visits, tangled viewings, and dance performances. 

with the 3 hour time difference and me actually having people to be with... i think i talked to nate for 20 minutes the first week!

then the following sunday i headed to the clark's.

it is kind of mega fun visiting them without nate.

they are so nice and basically treat you like a queen.

and

for some reason brig sleeps like an angel in their house?

still trying to figure that one out cause traveling with baby makes for not very good sleep patterns.

even dr brown concurs.

we shopped, and ate, and went to visit the lights at temple square.

coleen's feet were hurting so jaydee and i braved temple square together. 

we got there at maybe 5:20? not very many lights were on.

so we thought we'd ask the sister missionaries for some information.

*note to visitors*

they are not there to help

not-a-one companionship knew when the lights would go on

they did however, have a great interest in where we were from :)

finally they popped on.

and it was quite fun to be there for the 'ta da' 

then just like that my 10 day trip was over.

i wanted to stay longer but the poor dogs were home with the dog sitter.

thank you mom and dad for letting me come home.

thank you jaydee and coleen for treating us like royalty.

thank you nate for finally getting home.

now for christmas!!!!

brig DID turn 8 months old

just cause things got a little busy around the 22 of november i failed to give brig his monthly update....

so now that the 9 monther is on the horizon i thought it was a good idea.

oh sweet boy! these pictures are from you 8 month 1 week birthday

it is hard for me to say what happened in the 8th month because so much has changed this last two weeks and i can't remember what it was like before.

mostly month 8 you were busy chubbing up.

you were the happiest baby all month 

and pretty easy now that your a proficient sitter.

i can just set you down wherever i need to.

you are very curious and very detail oriented.

if i give you a toy you are only interested in the tinie tiny details.

like your vibrating strawberry toy, it has a little lady bug on the handle that spins.

your favorite part is manipulating the lady bug so she spins.

oh, and if i wear jewelry? i'm the best mom ever. your also very slow and deliberate with your movements. you see what you want and you slowly,gently touch it. sometimes however, you go for the kill.  that's when you slowly gently go for something then your pinchers get it with a death grip. your favorite victim for this game? dad's nose :)

at 8 months of age i feel like your eating me out of house and home. really it's a wonder you don't weigh 30 lbs. those little rice puffs? you will eat those endlessly, dad aptly made the comment when i told him you weren't ready for your bath yet cause you were still eating "i've never seen him stop eating those"i had to laugh and let him get you out for your tub. you like when dad baths you too cause he has started the bath time dance. this involves your adorable nude body on the vanity shaking it to dad's rendition of the chicken dance. you, of course, have a smile from ear to ear  :)

you really are the sunshine in our life and anyones shopping trip if they happen to be there the same time as us. i feel like it is a calling from above for me to take you to the store to cheer people up. 

well, that's all i can come up with without it getting all muddled with what's been going on the past few weeks. 

so my boy. that was your 8th month!

xoxo

mommy

our turkey day.

i know i am very late with this

and i usually post-date all my posts but i just gotta get caught up.

in summary nate and i:

hosted thanksgiving

parted ways for 2 weeks

have returned home to try to catch christmas

unfortunately our pictures of the 2 week separation are meagre at best... so i'm not sure there will even be a  post about it.

but on with thanksgiving.

 i  we hosted!

these were our guests

my poppa, my momma, lisa, asher, miranda, and brycey

the best company. a fantastic dinner.

 enjoyed.enjoyed.enjoyed.

we all gathered about 1 o'clock for lovely hors d'oeuvres

anyone in my family knows what a joy this image is

nate stayed perched in his man-nest while we all prepared

our lovely spread.

i really can hardly believe this image.

i feel so grown up :)

even if i did have lotsa family there to help

we feasted and all discussed our 3 most thankfuls for 2010 

and really 

we all felt so blessed and were so happy to be in one another's company.

ah... dungeness crab

the end of november is the opening of the dungeness crab season.

according to the chronicle, many bay area families have forgone turkey and replaced it with crab

thanks to bryce, we got both.

he and my dad drove out to bodega bay and literally got 7 crab from the boat. 

they were fresh, they were delicious

but

i will eat them as an hor d'oeuvres next year

way to much work when you have a mountain of other foods in front of you.

after dinner the rule was no dishes for nannie. 

so she cuddled up with her grand babies while nate pretty much whipped those dishes into shape.

he was impressive, he only had one small casualty of throwing away almost the entirety of my coveted home-made blackberry jam :(

this girl....

she was the first grandbaby and i don't think she even understands how much this lady adores her.

something about the first you know?

nate and i disagree on mostly everything about our decor... 

from our dining room chairs, to the paint color, to my drapes, to the furniture placement. 

really, the list goes on.

but

said furniture placement provided the perfect opportunity for all these grand baby snuggles. 

i mean come on, our chaise lounge converted alcove-daybed is ingenious!

 and this man... making one of his favorite faces.

i reserved my parents for thanksgiving way back in june when i knew we were going to be moving up north close to bryce and lisa. it is a known fact that this man can be quite unpleasant on his own turf.  i have found however, the further you get him from his house the pleasanter he becomes. since i live the furtherest away he naturally will be the most pleasant on my premises. and so it was! he helped prepare food, he shelled all the remaining crab for crab bisque, he was interactive, he was silly, he was all the things i love about my dad. although you may be deceived by one of his favorite faces, he was pleasant company. my mom of course was pleasant as always and us and the bryce williams family got together everyday they were here for wonderful, non-confrontational, little drama, lots of fun time.

and that

was our

thanksgiving

come again soon!