mommy&me cookie exchange

Since Colson was 6 weeks old, we've been going to a weekly mommy group at Kaiser called "moomy & me." It's a great group of moms and we try to get together once a month or so outside of the weekly groups too ... this month we did a cookie exchange -- everything was yummy! And thanks to Jen & Kyle for hosting :)

Monroe & Colson: partners in crime

Trying to get a group pic of all the babies

Meltdown

Mamas & bebes

Colson is finally crawling!!!

January 4 - this is the date that Colson officially began crawling!! So exciting! I can't believe it ... most of his other friends have already been crawling for some time now. Colson has been army crawling for weeks, but the other day something just clicked and he started really crawling :) Awww, our little boy is growing up!

And coinciding with the crawling, he can now push himself up to a sitting position too. I've been anxious for him to start crawling for so long now, but the house is not done being babyproofed yet!! And he is also pulling him self up on anything he can get his hands on.

Breakfast with the Gouges

On Sunday the 3rd, we got together with Matt, Katrina and Ryan for breakfast. It's always fun to get the boys together and watch them interact. Thank you Matt and Kat for the yummy breakfast!

NYE

We decided to invite a couple of our friends who live in our neighborhood over for a New Year's Eve dinner. Crystal (who works with me) and her husband Conor and Julie, her husband Justin and their baby daughter Monroe (who we met through Crystal and Conor). It's so nice that they both live just a few streets down from us. It was a little bit of an impromptu get together, but worked out nicely! I picked up some fresh crab from the asian market, Julie brought over s0me ribeyes and twice baked potatoes, and Crystal brought over a yummy white bean salad, roasted carrots, and cheesecake for dessert. We had our surf and turf dinner before the kids got too cranky. I put Colson to bed around 8:30 and Monroe followed at about 10. We got in a game of Apples to Apples before Monroe woke up ... and she was ready to party! She actually made it past midnight and got to watch her dad and Nick play with some fireworks in the backyard :)

A very Asian Christmas

So our last stop for Christmas: southern California to celebrate with my family. Nick Colson and I hopped on a plane Saturday the 26th for a short plane ride to John Wayne Airport in OC. Well, originally we were supposed to fly into Burbank. That was until we missed our flight. We had already gotten a bit of late start that morning -- let me just say though, that ever since our family has grown to 3, we are always running late, which doesn't help matters, because I am always late already!
So we pull into the airport and the lot we usually park in is full, so we head into the daily parking lot and find a spot. Unstrap Colson from the carseat, unload luggage, strap Colson into backpack carrier, take elevator down to ground level cross the street into the Southwest terminal. As we are crossing the street, I remember thinking "hmmmm, why is the skycap line so long?" Then as we walk into the check-in area, I see that the inside check-in line is worse - way worse. Longest line I have ever seen at the Sac airport! The end of the line was past the escalators that take you upstairs to the security area! By now it's almost 8:15 and our flight leaves at 8:55 am ... so not looking too good. I asked a Southwest employee if we could get called ahead as it got closer to our flight time, but she said they wouldn't do that and there were way too many people to ask if we could cut ahead in line. So we just waited in line as we heard the announcements for our flight boarding and then departing. When we finally got to the counter, we decided to take the next flight into OC instead of Burbank because it was leaving sooner.

After getting through security and making it to our gate, I found out that our original flight had never even left the tarmack because of some mechanical issues. So our original flight was delayed and left after we did. So everything actually worked out for the best.

That Saturday night, everyone got together at my aunt's house for dinner and presents. All my other aunts and uncles and cousins had waited for us to get there to exchange gifts. We even had a surprise visit from Santa (my uncle)! So we also missed our flight coming back home ... ummmm ... but that was just poor time management on my part ... oops. Everything takes so much longer with a baby!

Christmas Day with Bebe

Later on Christmas day, Nick's mom, sister, brother-in-law, nephew, and aunt, uncle and cousins came over to our place for linner (late lunch/early dinner). Ever since Nick's nephew Elliott born, Nick's mom (Barbara) has been going by Bebe - instead of grandma. Now we just shorten it to Beeb ;)

Colson's First Christmas

This year was our first family Christmas :) Even though Colson is too young to understand Christmas, I still wrapped a bunch of presents for him and put them under the tree. He kind of gets the concept of unwrapping a present -- or maybe it's just fun to tear paper, any kind of paper! So the three of us sat by the tree as Nick and I helped him open. Santa even left a couple gifts for Dad under the tree! Mom got a new camera that Santa brought earlier in December as requested by mom ;) It was fun to share the holidays with Colson and we can't wait for the years to come so we can start our own little holiday traditions ...