Thanksgiving 2010

This was a specail Thanksgiving. If any of us could have guessed we wouldn't have bet on Grandma Koch being here this year to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. 100 years of life in this woman. And it's fitting that after all the hardship and scares she's been through in the last few months that she would be here, for she is the most thankful person I know. Brad and I are both belivers that a main contributer to her living to be 100 has been her positive spirit. When I asked her how she made it this far she said, "know the Lord." Well, though I call it God, I know it more and more the more I open myself up to it, and it sure does make life easier and feel better to be in touch. And when life is better it's easier to live.

I'm sad that I haven't had the chance to get to know Grandma better in her younger years, though I'm not sure that even matters. It took all I had to hold back tears when I saw her, which tells me I know enough to love her. And from her perspective she's knows me just as "little" and loves me just as much. Poweful. 

Ava took a long nap and Brad and I spent that time sitting with her by the window. She was sweet and gracious as can be. It meant a lot to her and to us. We asked her about her life and told her about ours. 

I rubbed her shoulders and photographed her, which helped me feel even more connected to her. 

The way Brad tells his childhood stories, I know part of my love for her in based on my love for my own grandparents. She was very much the same. Loving and so happy to see us. That's an important part of a child's life. Ava is beginging her expereince of that too. I still know what my grandma's house smells like and think of them any time I eat an M&M. She'll have those kinds of things close to her heart someday too. 

Ava sat with Grandma for a few minutes when she woke up

And helped Grandma decorate the tree too.

Ava found the nativity. I caught her peeking inside. 

Favorite ornaments found! 

Aunt Pat & Uncle Ray

 The train is up and running too! Along with my absolute favorite Chirtmas story. I cry at the end. 

every time.

Christmas is coming!

Oh, yeah, and we had Thanksgiving dinner. It was delicious. Uncle Butch made sweet potaotes and cranberry sauce, Aunt Pat made pecan and apple pies, I made pumpkin. Turkey and mashed potatoes and voila! (time for Christmas)! 

But that's just how it is at Grandma & Grandpa's house. Thanksgiving gives permission for Chirstmas to come alive!

Hailey's 1st visit to the new house!

oh, how this little Ava has missed her sister. She asks for her all the time. Almost a month had passed before we saw her. Just too much going on. But the long awaited visit finally came! Now, you're not going to beleive this: Hailey gets in the car at the fremont mcDonalds (designated pick up spot) and says to Brad (and I quote) "it's been so long, Daddy. I missed you guys!". There was a day I wouldn't belive those words were uttered from her mouth, but it just goes to show that time heals and love is stonger than words. She feels it here and she knows it's true and she knows it's safe to say that she loves us too. It was a long wait for that.  I'm going to drink that in. Ahhh.

So, in other news, this is the only thing Ava will wear. She calls it her "cinder-a-ya dess" (Cinderella Dress). She dances around in it singing a dream is a wish your heart makes, and walks down the staircase screaming "please! wait for me!" (that's what Cinderella says in her 1st attempt to get to the ball). I'm really not exaggerating. Come over, it'll happen. As you can imagine, she is still 2, so we have absolute melt downs when mommy says you have to atleast wear tights and a shirt underneath. "I'm NOT cold!" She protests on these 50 degree days. 

I caught her looking out the window, talking to herself the other day. I love these photos of her.

So, little miss Ava is a princess and Hailey is a writer. She spent lots of the weeeknd writing stories, and running in to the room I was in to read them to me. She's a really good speller. 

Between the 2 of them life is a lot more interesting when they are together.

They get along so well.

 Meanwhile, if I am taking pictures, Ava is too. :)

 the house was fully explored. They found old shoes to play dress up

and spent lots of time in Hailey's room. How sweet is this? A mother's dream come true: children sitting queitly entertaining themselves. HA! This lasted maybe 10 minutes, which is actually pretty good!

This is when you know you need to intervene. Time to go outside!

 Across the street is a playground for the middle school. We played in the puddles and on the equipment. I love photographing these two. My favorite subjects, my little models. Hailey gets really into it, she'll actually pose. Ava, I just catch her in her moments. Like this one:

sneak peek!!

Since things are not so together around here I haven't taken any photos. But Mom keeps asking to see, so ta-da! This is our kitchen (and the new rug I found to keep my feet warm while I wash the dishes). That's all you get for now :) Come visit if you want more!! haha!

so behind..

As you can see, I have fallen very behind in family blogging. On the other hand, my photography blog has been updated regularly! I have been booming with clients and having a blast! I feel so lucky. At first I thought, I can't handle this, but after a good talk with Jill she gently suggested that maybe it was a good disrtaction, since I can lose my mind over chaos. So, unlike me, not every box is unpacked. I know, sometimes I can't even believe that. The house is definately not put together and that's okay. i realize now that there is nothing to really rush for. If my sanity depends on taking it slow, so be it. 

Anyway, we are loving our new home. It feels more like our home everyday. We miss our neighbors and haven't even seen them since the move!!!! It's been THAT busy. Things are slowing down though and I like that :) 

Last time I posted Halloween was fast approaching. Well, obviously now it's come and gone. We moved that weekend, so sadly, there was no trick-or-treating on the actual day, but we GOT trick-or-treaters!! Poor things. I had NO candy to hand out :( 

The week before Halloween auntie hsiaolei asked invited to come to Santana Row for trick-or-treating. On a whim, we went! Thank goodness! So I have some photos of Ava trick-or-treating (treating really). truth be told, I would not go trick-or-treating on Santana Row again. Much too crowded, but things work out in funny ways. I'm so glad to have gone. Ava was into it and had her first lollipop! She ate it the way my mom described me eating my 1st ice cream cone (that I stole from my grandpa). I coudn't get it away from her! She slurped it up!

Can you see her fangs? They crack me up! Who did she inheret them from...? well, they work well on halloween!

And Mommy dressed up as Snow White. We went to our music class together as snow white and the wicked queen. we re-inacted the poisoned apple scence for daddy. 

true love's kiss. It's a beauitful thing. Especially when it's from Ava.

Thank you for being patient. Stay tuned. We had a really nice Thanksgiving and so many photos to share...

we made our pumpkin pie! And ate it (and shared it too)

Sunday was a rainy day, so we stayed in while Daddy went to work in the morning and made pumpkin pie. It was fun and came out perfectly!! (thanks, mom). When Ava woke up from her nap it was cooled enough to have it for a snack with a cold glass of milk. yum. She talked our ears off!! You can see that in the video :)

Yum yum yum, in our tum tum tummies!! 

if you were a fly on the wall at our house at meal time....

this video is almost 7 minutes long, but it's exactly what we experience every evening we share a family dinner. It such a good example of where she is at. She wants to be in control of who talks when, experiments with testing us (what are they gonna do when if I play with my food or don't?), and her imagination is soaring (especially with all the halloween decorations around these days)!
Enjoy sharing a piece of pumpkin pie with this little monkey! we did! :)

pumpkin carving

I debated whether or not to carve a pumpkin with Ava this year. I wondered if she would be interested. I wondered if we had time, but she really wanted to do it, so we bought our pumpkin at whole foods--picked it out in the drizzle together, climbing the built-in hay stacks to make sure we picked the best one, and I lugged this ridiculously heavy pumpkin up the stairs. Ava insisted on a scary face pumpkin and waited SO patiently while I cute the top open. She was interested in what it looked like inside, but when she found out it was goopy and slimey she wouldn't touch it. Such a dainty little girl, my gosh! I told her, as I scooped out mounds of pumpkin flesh and seeds that this was my favorite part as a kid. Brad heard me saying that and proceeded to shove his hand in and take goop out, saying "me too!, try Ava!" But she wouldn't. 

 She took a good look inside though

 And then decided that she would try to touch it...."daddy! are you weady? come see me. I'm gonna touch it!" we gathered around her and this is what she did: With the tip of her finger she touched a seed! (I had her re-inact for the photo). Again, can you say dainty?! :)

 But we sure did carve a cute (I mean scary) jack-o-lantern! 

 It was so fun to watch her in awe of it. How did a plain old pumpkin change to this in a half hour? Spooooooky!

I'm so glad we carved the pumpkin. It made life feel normal and calm, when right now it feels full and chaotic. I think I'm going to stop putting off making my pumpkin pie too. I'm gonna make time to make it because what would fall be without pumpkin pie? And after all, that is my nickname that my mom calls me, and she dug through her recipes to send me just the one she always makes for me, so it's settled.