Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas from the "O" Family

Adam, Kaitlin, & Maeve

Our year has been a busy whirlwind of activity; so busy we didn't even write a letter!

 But a quick update about our family would be to say: 

Adam spent the last fifteen months recruiting for a staffing company in the DFW area and just made the move to an internal HR recruiter for a nearby company. He will be working across the street from his good friend Mitchell--they already have weekly lunch plans lined up. He is brewing more than ever---Half-Bath Brewery is going strong! As I type this, he is writing up a very complex recipe to try when we get home; a Smoking Dubbel Barrel. His brewing means our fridge is always full of new concoctions (we never arrive at parties or dinners empty-handed), friends are always piling into our tiny town home to brew, bottle and taste-test, and our downstairs half-bath is barely accessible as his equipment multiplies with each passing holiday! 

Maeve is a walker and a talker. Ever our "do-it-myself-thank-you" girl, she is quick to run off and do things on her own so long as she can see us trailing behind. She's been walking (and quickly there-after running) since shortly after her first birthday and has been talking non-stop since as well. She has recently begun saying "bless you" when you (or the dog, she's not picky) sneeze or cough, likes to tell you food is "delicious!" and will periodically announce "I LOVE you!". Though, admittedly, it sounds more like "I lob twchoo" She is in love with our Boston Terrier, Dutchess and is convinced they are soul mates  We constantly find her in Dutchess's bed reading books with her, trying to pick her up and giving her hugs and kisses. She also loves reading and copying just about anything Adam & I do; especially pushing the cart at the grocery store. One day (in the far, far future) she'll make a great big sister, no doubt. 

And then there is me! I continue to stay home with Maeve and have also been teaching ballet for my own dance program, Wonderfully Made Dance since last May. I teach three days a week, and have students ranging from pre-school through adult and I LOVE it!! I am so enjoying sharing the passion of my heart with friends and strangers alike and seeing them really learn, grow and fall in love with ballet too! If you're ever in DFW and want to give plies a try....well, you know where to find me! 

Happy Holidays & Happy New Year from The "O"s!

 We wish you love, luck and happiness in 2013! 

12-12-12

So, while I am nearly a week late in posting, I tried to capture our day on the once a century date! Originally I thought we'd do something really special to remember: eat something in twelves, make a time capsule, do a craft. And then I remembered Maeve is only fourteen months old and our day went a lot more like: read a lot of 'ooks, play with our babies, and driving around in our cozy coupe. 

So, excuse the normalcy of our 12-12-12 pictures, but I still wanted to capture the day for my sweet babe. Can I tell you just how awesome she is? We're running all over the place and up to over 45 words. Her favorite thing to say right now is "oh reeeeeally!" She's a talking machine and it's H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S! 

 In and out and in and out of her little house door. 

 Playing a little tune on her piano.

 Ahem, please excuse that bad case of curly-girl bedhead.

 Carrying around "baBYYY!!"

Maeve and her best bud.

I adore this silly girl!

Bell Ringing

A friend of ours through church always organizes a day of bell ringing for the Salvation Army. For every hour of volunteering the Salvation Army is able to feed an additional forty people. We haven't rung in the past, but decided to give it a try this year. I figured we'd trade off chasing our little running elf and the hour would fly by. 

And then I had to teach a makeup class. Ooops. 

So, Adam braved it alone with miss thing strapped to his chest in their matching Christmas red. He's attributing their 70% success rate to his well-timed bell ringing...and to Little Red's back-bends of "Hi!!! Helllllo! Hi!", waves and kisses blown to strangers.

Wouldn't you donate to a great cause, if this lil bit was asking you? 

Snippets

Greetings from the least wintery December we've seen in awhile here in Texas. Today is a shivery 70*, thanks to a cold front that moved through last night. Yesterday, 82*. Let me remind you that yesterday was also December 3rd. On a fluke day last week we had enough breeze to warrant Miss Maeve's sweet little beret. 

The rest of the week this is more true to our wardrobe choices...

 I love her sweet little curls!!

 "Yay!"

 Chasing "Titri" (Kitri) 

 Our big girl is talking more and each day. She's up to just over 30 words. Yesterday she shocked Adam and me by exclaiming "Bless You!" TWICE when I sneezed! The first time it happened she was a little muffled and I thought I misheard her, but the second time it was clear as a bell. The friends we were with even whipped around to look at her, crazy! I think that's one of my favorite things about motherhood is seeing all these amazing things she learns, and watching her become a little person. 

 My two loves at the park.

 The month before Maeve's birthday, we tried sliding for the first time and little miss landed on her face. Needless to say, for awhile anytime we got close to a slide she would freak out. To my delight, since walking, she has fallen in love them. Down we go, over and over, and over. And occasionally we scramble at the bottom, hoping to defy gravity and move straight up the plastic wonder. 

My funny honey during bathtime. We call this her "stank-face." ;)

Turkey Time

Thanksgiving this year had us in Corpus for our frousin holiday. Oddly enough, with two bouncing one year olds and a mischievous three year old, it felt like one of our more relaxing years. Shannon and I went waaaaay overboard with all the food and dessert. Between the two of us our spread included; a beautiful turkey, wild rice casserole, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, green beans, carrot casserole, spinach souffle, cranberry-apple sauce, spicy pumpkin stuffing, two different pumpkin pies, pumpkin cheesecake, apple pie, buttermilk pie, faux-pecan pie and about 70 cookies. 

Yes. For four adults and three toddlers. On the upside, it was all yummy and we didn't cook again the whole four days! Our time was spent at the beach, taking Christmas card pictures, playing with silly girls, late night conversations, puzzles and scrabble for the guys and even a late night movie get-away for the mamas! 

Our holiday in pictures: 

Thanksgiving morning at the beach!

Dads with two jumping girls. Alice Virginia much preferred her mama and digging.

Me and my Maevey

Believe it or not, this was the best picture we could get out of three tries. Oh well!

Observing the work in process.

Working in the kitchen with the girls.

                                    A very good trip, and we were sad to see it end. It was nice to come home and sleep in our own beds though, and I had almost forgetten we were all decorated. Driving up, and walking in the house was twinkling and even spells like pine. Yay Christmas!! I've been craving that sweet potato casserole like mad though....it may make it in to next weeks meals....

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from our little band of storybook lovers to yours! 

 We spent the evening at a local church carnival with games, animals, bounce houses, and so-much-candy!

 Little Red running through the woods with her basket of goodies. 

While Maeve didn't have the love for cotton candy her Mama does, she did think it was hilarious to feed it to me, giant clumps at a time.  

That's right, she walks! While in DC she went from the few steps she'd been doing for a month, and just took off. She spent all of Halloween walking and hasn't stopped since! 

Whirlwind

These past two months have been a whirlwind of change, growth and activitiy. My parents visited in early September, then we were lucky to have my frousin and her girls here for Maevey's birthday, then a week later I was off to DC to help my parents for three weeks! I've been home for a week and a half now and plunged right back into busy. 

You are looking at a five foot tall bear my parents bought for Maeve.

 It is as tall as my mother. 

Maeve loves him though, and while I don't know where in our little townhouse he and his two buddies (Oh, did I leave out that they bought a Minnie and Mickey of the same size? Cause they did.) are going to reside, he is quite soft and I'm looking forward to snuggling against him for storytime. 

Maeve and I spent most of our visit hunkered down at my parents house, but we kicked off the visit at a local pumpkin festival complete with slides, hayrides, animals and fair food. It wasn't until we got home hours later that I discovered poor little Maeve has a 102.6 fever....so that explained the mellow mood for the day, she was actually in a fevered daze. 

Here she is with her Faja!

They had miniature tractors and farm equipment scattered around for the kids to play on. 

While we're happy to be home, we miss you guys very much!! Hop on a plane and come back to Texas!!!

Happy Birthday Baby

Today, at 7:30pm, our Maevey-bean turned one and was ushered into toddler-hood from infancy. 

Not quite a baby, and not quite a little girl. 

This last year has been a whirlwind of tears, exhaustion, joy, frustration, un-ease, laughter, exploration and learning. Right after Maeve was born, I asked the nurses if we could change her into pajamas and a hat we had brought for her. My questions were met with laughter and the exclamation "Of COURSE! She's YOUR baby!!" The thought that we were in charge, that we would know best, that we would steward her for the next eighteen years was too overwhelming to really comprehend at the time. Now, a year later, it still seems unreal. 

Every day I'm almost surprised there's a third person in our house. A little girl I'm learning more about every day. Who loves bananas, grapes and whole wheat bread. Who gives kisses, and waves and brings you books to read her. Who loves her puppy, the water and climbing and jumping. Maeve brings us so much joy, and I am overwhelmed at times by my love for her. And each time she can do something new, and independent I am incredibly proud and a little sad all at once. Last week she began feeding herself with her bowl and spoon and I found myself crying. What happened to my little baby I had to nurse every two hours? What happened to that fragile little creature and who is this little independent spark?

Maeve has brought surprises with her from the beginning, and yet somehow I realize after my initial shock that I've sensed it all along. Right before I began to push, the nurse asked me if I wanted to know the baby's hair color. I was a little thrown off, but equally excited, and said "yes". She told me she saw bright red hair, when she left the room I told Adam she was probably wrong, yet out came our red, curly-haired baby. I was shocked, until weeks later when my cousin Shannon pointed out I had written her about my red, curly-haired baby when I was about five months pregnant. Or the other day, when Maeve climbed out of her crib and fell to the ground. When I ran upstairs it almost didn't click, I kept thinking "How did you get here? How are you on the floor?" but Adam reminded me we had talked about our worry it was coming weeks earlier. 

One year and one week old. Oh my!!

I am so thankful to have Maeve and while it feels impossible a year has gone by, I also can't imagine our family without her here. I feel like she's always been here. She makes our days brighter and makes us laugh so much. I had no idea how much I could love until our mischievous little Maevey-bean came into our life and I cannot imagine life without her. 

Taken at exactly 7:30pm tonight. Happy Birthday baby!!!

My Sweet Birthday Man

Today my wonderfully sweet husband, and Maeve's favorite daddy, turns twenty-seven. 

 Haaaaappy Birthday Adam! 

In celebration I would like to tell you, in no particular order, twenty-seven things I adore about the main man in our lives:

1. He is an amazing father. The perfect kind for little girls, (and maybe one day little boys) he plays tea party, cradles dolls, reads stories and has the bow-dress coordination down pat. Watching him father our daughter makes my heart melt. 

Blowing bubbles for our sweet girl .

2. He is always gentle and kind.

3. He makes me laugh harder than anyone I know. In fact, he makes Maeve laugh harder than anyone else. He has us both soundly convinced he's funnier than any Brian Reagan or Elmo. 

Yes. This is Adam, in a dress, groping another guy...in a  dress , at a youth group retreat.
We were 15 and 16.

4. He is always encouraging and lifting people up. He sees the good, the potential, the gift in everyone and is often the first to say he's proud. 

5. He is committed to me no matter what. Giving love and devotion I often don't think I deserve, he always reminds me he's in this forever.

A throw back picture.
18 & 19 and so in love!

6. He encourages me to dream. When I finally shared my desire to teach, Adam was all support He helped me arrange meetings, get the word out, work through ideas and even built my ballet barres! 

7. He is amazingly sensitive to my needs and my sometimes difficult-to-decipher emotions.

WTAMU Annual Bonfire Fall 2005

8. He respects and honors women.

10. He adores his Maevey. She'll giggle or smile or do something new at and he'll look at me and say, "She is SO awesome. I love her!" 

Father's Day 2012 with my goofballs

11. He never yells when he's angry.

12. He craves learning and exploring new things. Our house is bursting at the seams with different hobbies and projects of his.

Skiing Santa Fe. Yes, that's a Tigger suit.

13. I don't think he ever stops thinking, wondering and dreaming.  

14. He is confident, but not arrogant.

15. He loves his pipe, fedora and suspenders because he's secretly from 1950. 

Straight out of the blues.

16. He loves his bike. In Amarillo he would get all dressed for work and ride it downtown, taking it up in the elevator. Here in the metroplex he mourns his bike-less commute.

17. He can build and fix anything. Our porch swing is just sitting in the storage closet waiting for a proper porch to be on!

18. He has unshakable faith that I envy and don't quite understand. 

The peaceful Pudget Sound in Seattle.

19. He has a beautiful singing voice. When we were first dating and I was in Hawaii, he would learn songs and serenade me over the phone; now he does the same for Maeve. He only sings for his girls and for God.

20. He is NOT a sporty-mcsport guy! I did not grow up in a huge sports house, but Adam did. He loves to play sports, especially baseball, but not watch. Last year he didn't know who was playing in the Super Bowl day of. I love that!!

21. He's not afraid to speak his mind, but always treads lightly when doing so.

22. He is really good at surprises. He had my engagement ring for a year before he proposed. 

In our house. In our closet. In his suit pocket. 

Moments after he proposed. Someone saw the whole thing take place on the beach.

23.He would live forever off of Chinese, Indian and fried okra if he could.
24. He loves the arts. 

25. His desire to have adventures together. The first summer after we were together we took a trip to New York and DC together and stayed in a hostel, exploring everything until the wee hours. We were 18 and 19. The adventures have just built from there. 

NYC

26. His unexpected taste in literature. His favorite books are "Walden" (Henry Thoreau) and "At the Mountains of Madness" (H.P. Lovecraft.) 

27.  I don't mean to brag, but have you seen this guy? He is incredibly handsome!