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

Beach Babies Holiday Program

Below are pictures from Taylor's annual holiday program at daycare. This year she was a present, singing...??? The large class pictures were new this year and created such a beautiful look while the parents waited for the program to start.



Taylor is on the bottom right








The after-party






Sillies...both looking at the screen...haha!

Getting our Christmas Tree

In between mommy's school, studying, planning for work parties, and planning for my 2nd birthday party, we made some time to run over to our favorite Home Depot Tree lot and get ourselves the perfect 2009 Christmas Tree! I really enjoyed it this year, as you see in my pictures below. Enjoy!

















I LOVED putting ornaments on and doing it ALL BY MYSELF ("I do it!")










This is the best picture...one boot on, no pants, no underwear, just went pee, found books and got excited so ran with books and luckily the box covered you know what

Happy 2nd Birthday Taylor!!

Birthday wake-up call breakfast (chocolate chip pancakes)




Birthday Dinner at CPK

San Jose Children's Museum with Sydney

Over Thanksgiving weekend up at Nanni and Papa'Al's Nanni, mommy, daddy, Uncle Alvin, and me and Sydney headed over to the Children's Museum. They have so much cool stuff...see some pictures of our fun time below.