It's Christmas Morning!

[Written by mommy]

This morning Taylor slept in just enough to let us take showers. We woke her up early so that we could take our time with presents but finish early enough to get down to Nanny M and Papa Bill's house to enough Christmas with them as well. This was Taylor's first year that she truly understood Christmas, that she had to wait to open her presents until that morning, and that Santa would be bringing her more presents when she was sleeping. It was a truly magical year for BJ and I to see our daughter so amazed and so excited about the entire Christmas process that we are creating for her as our family tradition. Christmas has changed for us, from looking forward to opening gifts with our parents to spending time with family and seeing the joy and excitement in our daugher's eyes.

Taylor first seeing what Santa had brought!


Her first go at the presents


Her first stocking stuff present to open of 2009


Nerd's Chapstick (she LOVES chapstick!)


And there she goes...


Wow, jewelry!


Santa brought books...just as she asked!


A special present from daddy for their weekends of football watching when mommy is at school


Two of her favorite things...Tinker Bell and books!


Santa brought mommy and daddy matching tray tables


Ooooh, a tool bench to work on with daddy in the garage


A sleeping bag of her very own for camping (from Nanni and Papa'Al)!


A baby which she has named Baby Julia (after Cadin's sister)


Helping Papa'Al build all her baby's furniture


So cute...she immediately put the blanket over the baby in bed, just like what she sees with the babies in their car seats at mommy-and-me.


Daddy's surprise gift from mommy...what is it?!


No way! His wedding ring that he lost years before and mommy found the week before Christmas behind the shoe rack.


The "after-Christmas" mess


Taylor all ready to go with her new vest from Riley (for her birthday), her Christmas comfy outfit, her warm beanie and scarf from Santa, her purse from mommy and daddy, and of course, LOTS of chapstick on.


Notice the chapstick

Christmas Eve

Today daddy had to work but mommy was able to stay home so we had a relaxing Christmas Eve. We slept in, nanni and mommy went shopping, daddy came home a little early, and then we ordered take-out from Il Fornaio for dinner. Boy do we love the food but they got our take-out order wrong so after mommy got home with the food she realized we had a wrong dish. Although the last thing mommy wanted to do was to be driving around on Christmas Eve, she was determined to have her special meal that she always get so on the road she went. In the end the bill was cheaper because they just took off mommy's entire meal! After dinner we said goodbye to Tinker Elf, we made a plate for Santa and his reindeer (carrot, biscotti, and animal cookies), took a few more pictures and then headed to bed so Santa could come. Thank you Nanni and Papa'Al for making this Holiday Season so special and being here to share it with me.













After Taylor went to bed mommy and daddy caught the Elf sitting next to the cookies...he even took one for himself!






A cool picture of just the tree shining

Holiday train at the Metlox

[Written by mommy]

Nanni and I used to go get massages throughout my pregnancy at Trilogy Spa in the Metlox in Manhattan Beach. Now, my mom gets all these emails from them and one was about the trackless train that goes through the Metlox on Tuesdays and on weekends. So, today my dad, mom, Taylor and I headed over to the Metlox to ride the train, have some lunch, and let Taylor play around. My dad took more pictures but those are on a disk that has a sticker (from Taylor) on the back of it so we'll have to get another disk from Papa'Al with those pictures. Below are cute ones though.

Nanni and Papa'Al on the train


Nanni and Taylor at lunch




Playing in the water after lunch


Notice my cute outfit from Sienna for my birthday (thank you!)








I was copying a girl here but she got up...


And here she is, I liked to walk around with her and do what she did

Christmas Celebration at Joy's

After Taylor's birthday party this morning we headed home and put her right down for a nap. We all took a few breaths, got some food shopping done, and headed over to Joy and George's house (BJ's cousin) for a Holiday family get-together. They were so nice enough to invite my parents as well so we had a Wickett family get-together with the DuCharme's present as well. Joy and George planned a wonderful taco bar with so many other mexican dishes...it was truly wonderful (especially after realizing that they were flying out that night to go back East to be with George's family for Christmas!). Not only did they have a cookie station for the kids to decorate cookies but Aunt Kay had ordered a beautiful cake to celebrate Taylor's birthday, and just by chance got Taylor a Tinker Bell balloon. It was such an amazing day and it ended by being surrounded by special family. We missed all of the family that could not be there and hope to see them all soon.











The Cake which says "Taylor is Two Cute!"


Thank you Aunt Kay for the bears and book!


Me and Aunt Joy


Nanni M reading my book


Thank you Auntie Anne for the toys!




Night-Night everyone...

Taylor's Under The Sea Birthday Party

The morning before Taylor's birthday party was so smooth...I was so thankful to be having this party at a venue that took care of most everything for me. Thank you Under The Sea!!

The cupcake drama!!!

[Written by mommy]

This year because there was so much going on in life from finishing up my first semester of my Ph.D. program to planning for my work Christmas party and planning for Taylor's birthday party, we decided to buy all of the food for the party (instead of trying to make it); although, I still had to make the cake and cupcakes. It is one of those mommy things that I don't think I'll ever let go...just like my mom did for me. Well, the cupcake drama got a little out of hand!!

I found these really cool Tinkerbell cupcakes that I thought I'd make and then I'd also make some normal cupcakes since I knew I couldn't make 60 tinkerbell cupcakes. So, I spent quite a while researching them, consulted with my mom, and was fully prepared for these ganache covered flower cupcakes with Tinker Bell on the top.

Friday before Taylor's birthday came and I got all the cupcakes baked (both the flowers and the normal ones) by 8:00 am. I was doing good! Then came the normally decorated cupcakes and that's when the drama began. I followed a buttercream icing recipe on the back of the powdered sugar bag (which shows the shortcuts I was trying to make due to time) and it turned out horrible! A half-a-dozen cupcakes were thrown in the trash (and boy did it feel good to get those ugly things away!) I then headed to Ralphs for more sugar to make it all over using my favorite recipe from Wilton.com.

After making great frosting, the normal cupcakes were done and turned out great. I put them in the new cupcake holder that I bought from Target a few days earlier and the lid was cracked!!! This is just a hint at what my entire day was like. I decided to get out of the house, head to Party City for more tinker bell tops and candies to make the tinker bell cupcakes, go to Target to find another cupcake holder that wasn't cracked, and treat myself to a Starbucks chai latte, per my mom's recommendation. I got my Pary City stuff, more stuff for my work party that night, and headed to Target. No more cupcake holders and my chai latte was HORRIBLE! Again, would you have doubted it based on the way the day has gone already??

When I got home it was ganache time. Horrible, horrible, horrible. I won't even go into reasons. At that point I knew I had to get all of my appointments at work covered. I called and Victor was so nice, telling me that I needed to stay home and he'd cover all my meetings. Whew! I kept trying and trying at the ganache but by the time my parents showed up from the Bay Area I decided to give up on the cute tinker bell idea and make normal cupcakes for all 60 guests. More cupcakes thrown in the trash...and again, it felt so good!

Luckily my mom jumped right in and helped out. BJ showed up from work to get ready for his work party (which I was missing for the first year). I found out it was going to be a special party because of the announcement of WHT (the new company BJ is part of) and so I make a big decision and bailed on my work party (remember all those party supplies I bought for the party earlier in the day?!). At that point I felt like I was the worst boss, a horrible cupcake maker, and I needed a glass of wine! So, I quickly got dressed and headed to BJ's party with him. We had a WONDERFUL time.

Below are pictures of my cupcake process and the resultant cake that my dad so lovingly put together for Taylor out of the ruined ganache cupcakes.

The beginning of the ganache tinker bell cupcakes...not working to well.


My kitchen


The "normal" cupcakes that I loved!


Me throwing away ganache cupcakes when my parents arrived


The cake my dad beautifully put together for our loved Taylor Fairy