Baby's First Christmas

 We spent Christmas with my family this year.  

Leland opened his first present and was more interested in the paper than the actual gift.

He crawled around from family member to family member as they opened their gifts,

 eventually he wore himself out.  He's hardly bigger than his stocking!

 My mom took Leland for a ride around the yard in her wagon.  He loved it!

 Bryce joined us on New Year's Eve and we headed up to Mark's parents house to celebrate Christmas all over again!  We enjoyed our time at the Peoples' it was perfectly relaxing.

* Merry Christmas *

* CHRISTMASTIME *

Bryce was here for a week during Thanksgiving break, so we took a family trip to the Johnson Tree Farm in Boulder Creek.  If you have not been there, you should go.  They are a delightful, family owned and operated local tree farm.  Farmer Ron (Johnson) greeted us as we brought our tree down the hill to the shaking machine.  He told us he has been caring for our tree for 7 years and that he had given our tree a "haircut" in January to shape it into its perfect Christmas tree shape.  We drank hot chocolate and apple cider near the picnic area and firepit (where you can roast marshmallows).  There is a quaint gift shop too in case you need to pick up any more holiday decorations.  And we took a hayride up the hill, led by our very own neighbor and hayride conductor Tim Folkert!  

At Johnson Tree Farm

Bryce found our "perfect" Christmas tree.  Its name is "HOLIDAY"!

This is "the one", we are sure of it!

Success!

Pumpkin Rolling 

Leland checking out the goat.

* HALLOWEEN *

This Halloween our costumes came together at the last minute.  On Sunday afternoon (the 30th) we were busy creating.  Well mostly Mark, he always goes the extra mile for his costume.  I didn't, I found mine at the used clothing store Moon Zoom downtown Santa Cruz.  All I had to come up with was Dorothy's ruby slippers.  Mark had some red spray paint left over from some job and I bought a bottle of red glitter and voila my gold heels are now ruby slippers!  Leland's warm costume came from the Little People's store in Scotts Valley.

We headed downtown for dinner at Hula's to celebrate Brenda's birthday then on to the informal parade down Pacific Avenue.  We felt famous, everyone wanted to take our photo or be in a photo with us.  It was fun for a while, until our cheeks hurt from smiling.  We've already started tossing around ideas for next year... though I'm sure we wont get started making the costumes until the last minute.

Here we are with Glenda the good witch and the wicked witch of the east.

Here we are with a wicked witch, the scarecrow and a flying monkey.

We even stumbled across the gate keeper to Oz!

* Firsts *

How fitting to write about Leland's "firsts" on November 1st. 

(Where did the entire month of October go???) 

Since the last post Leland has has his FIRST taste of real food.  He is enjoying rice cereal, pureed carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes and banana.  He LOVES to eat, he wants anything that his daddy & I are eating and when you feed him, you can't shovel the food in fast enough.  He had his FIRST drink of water from a sippy cup.  He can roll and scoot and maneuver anywhere he wants to.  He hasn't quite made it to his FIRST crawl, but he gets up on hands and knees and rocks quite often.  At 6 months old he broke the 12 lb. mark by 1 oz.  He had his FIRST Halloween yesterday!  I'll blog about that tomorrow.  I'm afraid if I don't record these firsts somewhere I may never remember them.

 

* working mama *

Its been almost 2 months since I started back to work 4 days a week. It has been quite an adjustment.  Every morning I find it hard to say goodbye to Leland and so far it hasn't gotten any easier.  I don't expect it to get easier, really.  Today is my day off though, and I plan to enjoy every minute I have with him.  And to do irrational working mother things like... hold him in my arms for the entirety of his morning nap.  Why put him in his crib when I can snuggle him in my arms until they go all tingly?  

* where has the time gone? *

My baby is 5 1/2 months old already and not a single post on this little bundle of cuteness!

Leland James Peoples (taken June 9, 2011)

I am determined to blog more, mostly because I want to have a record of photos and stories of Leland's babyhood. So I start today and hope to be a frequent blogger.

My little baby is not so little any more. He weighs 12 lbs now, is 24 inches long and wears 3 month clothing and some 3-6 month outfits too. He smiles often and with his whole face not just an upturned mouth. He loves his satin monkey blanket and his pacifier to go to bed. He rolls over front to back and back to front. I even caught him rolling straight into the living room closet (I left the door open and he was curious). He loves to look out at the world, up at the sky and the trees, and to be read books.

The picture above is one of my favorites, its the screen saver on my desktop at work but my baby doesn't look like that anymore, he looks older. His looks seem to change from week to week, sometimes over night!

Leland being kissed by Aunt Victoria

Leland sitting upright, with lots of help from his little seat.

* nesting *

With 8 weeks left to go, I've definitely hit the "nesting" phase of pregnancy. The crib we ordered arrived 2 weeks ago. I could hardly wait to get it assembled. Once assembled, I started obsessing over the crib bedding. We bought a "mini crib" to fit in our mini house, which made finding bedding that I was in love with in stores or online extremely hard. Luckily, my mom offered to make bedding for me! So I made a little trip to Beverly's las week and then to Harts Fabrics. Below is a picture of what I chose. I can't wait to see it finished!

The polka dots will be 2 different crib sheets. The artwork I ordered last month from this shop on Esty. All in all this nesting stuff is kind of fun, though I'm sure my husband would beg to differ.

I think I am driving him crazy!

* family photos *

Here are a few shots from our "family photo shoot" days before Christmas.

I tried to get Christmas Photo Cards sent out this year, but they turned into New Year's Cards. The photos were taken by our friend, Mike Murrow, at the Felton Covered Bridge. Don't feel bad if you didn't get one of the above mentioned New Year's Cards, I did not order enough and many friends were left out. I promise to order more next year!

Just for fun!

* 2010 Catch-up *

I have been in such neglect of this blog... to make up for it, here is some serious photo catch-up of 2010.

Over Labor Day we visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

After the Aquarium we had to play at Dennis the Menace Park.

October means HALLOWEEN. Mark & I both love this "holiday".

Mark went all out decorating our front yard.

We had a pumpkin carving party at our little cabin. Our friends Sara, Tim and Baby Asher, Brenda, Jackie, Lipert and my brother Bill joined in the fun.

For our costumes we decided on Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Werewolf.

That's all for now, I'll post Christmas soon.

* G R E E N update *

I'm reporting on my recently implemented going green changes...

1. Reducing Junk Mail... I collected all of my mail for one week in this pile

to show you how much I currently receive. Here are the steps I took to reduce my junk mail.

Step One: Collect all mail in one spot all week to see exactly what you recieve and from whom. (You may have to do this multiple weeks just to make sure you recieve those once monthly mailers as well.)

Step Two: Locate phone numbers or websites in periodicals or magazines. Call or email the companies to request your name be taken off their delivery list. I did this with the Scotts Valley Times, Press Banner & Business Week.

Step Three: Find out which of your bills offer e-billing or paperless statements and sign up for these, again online or by phone. I was already receiving quite a few bills online, but I went thru the rest of the accounts to sign up for "e-bills", "eco bills" or "online biling". There are a few though which I cannot opt out of.

Step Four: Log on to the Do Not Mail website and fill out their "opt out" form. This will stop other unwanted mailings. You know the kind that dont have a phone number or website to contact.

This process only took me 25 minutes, once I had saved my mail for the entire week, 25 minutes total to call, email or log on to end my paper billing or mailings. Not bad! I should see results within the next month. I will continue to save my mail up week by week to visibly see how much I am reducing.

2. Reusable Bags: I have faithfully brought my reusable bags with me everywhere, and even remembered to bring them into the stores with me. Thanks to Erin, I am also washing these regularly to avoid nasty germs like E. coli. Now what to do about the small plastic bags for my veggies (you know the ones that are sometimes wet from the veggie misters)??? I don't bag most of the produce I buy but sometimes you almost need to. And what about the handy plastic bag for meat products, I definitely do not want meat juices to touch my other foods. I'll let you know what solution I find.

As I continue to work on the above steps I will also concentrate on:

* Reducing household electricity usage

* Reducing waste.

going G R E E N

I recently forced my husband to watch the documentary "No Impact Man". It chronicles a year in the life of writer, Colin Beavan, his wife and their daughter as they attempt to have zero impact on the environment. What's great about the documentary is the wife is reluctant to go 'no impact', though she is willing to do so in support of her husband and his "project". For her, it was difficult to give up electricity, toilet paper, cosmetics, and shopping. I thought it was refreshing to see her struggle with the desire for the things which are typically so easily accesible, yet she willingly gives them up for the sake of her husband's project. The other part that made the movie palletable was that they went no impact in stages. I won't ruin the movie completely, but they did not go no impact "COLD TURKEY". I think it was this part (the stages) that has encouraged me to make changes in my own life. So here is my plan... I"m going to share my minor attempts at going green on this blog. Mostly for accountability but also because there are some truly minor changes that can make a big difference for our environment now and for future generations.

Step One: Reduce junk mail.

Step Two: Use only re-useable bags for shopping.

I'll let you know how it goes!

One Year Ago

One year ago... we were on our honeymoon.

We went to these places... Hearst Castle, Justing Vineyards & the Santa Barbara Mission.

We saw... Elephant Seals near Cambria, rode bikes in Santa Barbara

and went to every beach we could.

One year ago I became a step-mom to this lovely boy.

One year ago, seems like a few months ago.

My how time flies!

*BUSY is no excuse*

Well for the record I have been BUSY, but who isn't BUSY? (If you aren't busy give me a call... I have some projects for you.) And I do realize that my last post was about Halloween, I should show off our costumes but that will have to wait until a later post. Today's post is about HAITI!

My husband is in Haiti right now with a group of 12 other volunteers. They are in the town of Jacmel at an orphanage called the Hands & Feet Project. You can read more about the Hands & Feet Project here. I have been fortunate enough to hear from him twice already; he is absolutely in love with the orphans and has seen some unimaginable devastation. He is already talking about a return trip.

Since their first day in Haiti, Mark & his brother Cameron have been teaching Karate to a group of eager young boys. A few days later he made them Karate Kid headbands out of one of his t-shirts.

I can't wait for him to return so I can hear all about the trip.

I WILL keep you posted.

* wedding photos *

Check out Rebecca Stark's Blog for more photos from the wedding.

I LOVE Halloween! I love costumes... I love candy...

and I love pumpkins!

I am lucky that my husband loves Halloween as much as I do. Yesterday we got to work on our costumes, (stay tuned for photos at the end of the month). I'll give you a quick taste of what's to come... ALICE IN WONDERLAND. I'm planning to be the Queen of Hearts and Mark is working on his Caterpillar costume. Our friends are working on their costumes too. The cast of characters includes the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter & of course Alice. We are accepting applications for a Cheshire Cat, a playing Card, and Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum (or both). Yesterday, we also put up some spooky purple lights and carved our pumpkins.

This is my Cat Pumpkin, notice the scary fangs.

This is Mark's Cyclopse, it reminds me of Monsters Inc.

* marriage = sharing *

I feel as though I have returned to preschool, learning a lesson about sharing toys or crayons with my fellow students. Instead, I am learning to share all sorts of things with my beloved husband. And it doesn't make it much easier to share just because I love him.

Things I have to share with my husband:

* the couch
* the remote control
* closet space
* chores (I think I'm ready to switch, I'll empty the trash & recycle, he can do the laundry!)
* socks (when aforementioned laundry has not been done in a timely manner.)
* Adidas sweat pants (I'm not sure we share anymore, he wears them all the time now.)
* space in the medicine cabinet
* the camera
* holidays with eachother's extended families
* the bed (why does it feel as though he is always sleeping in the middle?)
* a toothbrush (occasionally when we travel... its better than enduring the morning breath.)

But today my husband tried to make me share something new...
my contacts!
After my shower I went to put my contacts in so I could see the world clearly and to my surprise my contact case was EMPTY! This normally wouldn't be such a big deal, except I am now using my last pair of dispoasable contact lenses. I checked my eyes just to be sure I did not sleep in them last night. Then I found Mark's contact case.... low and behold his contacts were still there but he had already left for work. I called him to say he was "wearing my contact lenses".

M: "Are you sure?"
G: "Can you see clearly?"
M: "Well, do you need them?"
G: "YES, I need them. They are my last pair. Can you come home to return my contacts and put in your own?"

Thank you husband. What's mine is yours... except for my contacts!

* Wedding Photos *

Wedding Photos are here!

Check out the slideshow my photographer made...

www.rebeccastarkphotography.com/peoples

* Mrs. Peoples *

I am officially a married lady! Here are a few photos taken by friends.

The bouquets were absolutely beautiful! They were made by my friend Erin of Eadams Designs.

My Dad walking me down the aisle.

Becoming husband & wife!

My husband and I, toasting.


I'll post more when my photographer , Rebecca Stark, sends me her photos....