February 2010

Time really flies around here. I just can't believe how fast it goes. In effort to keep you updated with all things Huffman Family related I am going to try to remember the things we did in February. I am hoping the pictures that I have will help guide my memory. But they are not in a particular order.

One very exciting thing for me is that I went on my first official business trip to Canada. We flew into Vancouver the Monday before the Olympics started and left on Wednesday. We had decided to move our product to a new warehouse and went up to get them started. I was really honored to have been invited on this trip- it is not often that we get to go places. Especially places in another country. I was really nervous. Being a girl, I was mostly nervous about what someone wears on a business trip that involves a warehouse. Being so young, I wanted to look professional and so I set off to Ross with some Christmas money and was able to get some nice outfits. The trip was a lot of fun, and while there was not a lot of sight seeing, we ate good and I was able to meet a salesman that I have been dealing with for at least 8 years now. It was really fun. And now I have been attempting at dressing better. "Dress for the job you want, not the job you have" a friend advised me. So I am slowly building a more professional wardrobe despite the somewhat casual workplace.

That being said- my purse my mom made me (Which I loved) was starting to fall apart and I have been wanting a new one. So I set my heart on this purse. Most people would have to agree that this purse was made for me and who I am. I had the nice lady who made it add a flat bow to give it a slightly more feminine touch.

We were able to get down to Santa Cruz and spend an afternoon with Justin's Grandma. It is always such a delight being around her. We wish we could spend more time with her. And it always makes me miss my grandparents more.

Justin's brother Dan came and brought our niece Teagan up for a visit while his wife Michelle was judging a gymnastics tournament. I just love holding such a little baby again, and it did make me think harder about another one. But trying to take care of Paige while I was holding Teagan proved to be difficult. I think we will definitely be getting a sling or something for the next one because I need my hands free. And Paige had a hard time watching me hold another baby. But I enjoyed every second.
Justin's team- THE COLTS- made it to the Superbowl this year. So for one day, Paige & I dressed up in Colts Gear (My mom had bought a kids jersey for her a while ago- so even though it was big- she wore it). Unfortunately they did not win but it felt good to be able to root for the same team for a change.

Other than that, I think February was somewhat uneventful. We are looking forward to the warmer weather, and are being teased by mother nature right now.

I had a photo shoot in 50's style dress and the car- I will try to get to posting those pics soon.

Richie & Jenna's Wedding

At the end of January, Mikaila, My mom and I hopped on a plane to Detroit for my cousin Richie's wedding. It was nice to be able to see some of my family, but wish we could have all made the journey. But it was also nice to have a few nights away. The wedding and reception were beautiful, but it sure was cold there.

There were a few interesting stories. The one most blog worthy was our plane ride/car ride there. On the plane we were not all able to sit together, so my mom sat by herself and met a nice young lady. She was from South Africa, had met her boyfriend on the set of a movie. He is originally from Detroit so they had spent Christmas there with his family. Then they went to Hawaii and had spent the time recently in SF while he was working on another movie. It was time for her to head back home, so she was going to Detroit to get the rest of her stuff and then would be on her way to South Africa on Sunday. Anyways, she was going to be taking a cab to her boyfriends parents house because they were out of town. She was maybe 23 or so and the thought of her taking a cab late at night to an empty house freaked out my mom. They looked on a map and it looked like the house was on the way to the hotel. So we gave her a ride. She was really nice, but it was pretty funny.

Also, my mom brought some beautiful lemons from her tree. We each had a bag. She gave them to the people at the car rental counter, the guy who checked us out of the car rental lot, the hotel clerks and even the security guard at the wedding reception. It was so cute! But very funny and so my mom. She also gave them to our family and Jenna's parents!
Here are some pics but they are not in any particular order because I did not pay attention while I was uploading.

Gaven had a great time dancing and playing with all of the kids.

Cutting the cake

Grandma and Aunt Cheryl

The candy table

Our table

Alicyn & one of the groomsmen.

Richard & Jenna with the grandparents

Kayla and I freezing taking a picture by the frozen lake

A pretty view.

The cop that asked us why we were on the side of a freeway after pulling out from the lookout spot. We were waiting for another car in our caravan to pull out. Grandpa & Doris pulled out as soon as the cop pulled up to talk to us, so the cop is right behind their car.

Kayla & me

Aunt Trish taking a picture of me taking a picture of her.

January Photo Dump

Typically a photo dump has a lot of pictures, but for lack of a better word, this is January. Not too much happened it seems like. Not sure if I mentioned her sudden fear of the bath, but that was fun. Although it was a decently quick phase as she is taking baths again. Here are a few pics.

She loves dressing up in her bunny suit (Thanks Aunt Trisha)

Christmas Eve/Christmas at our house

Christmas this year was difficult for me. I am used to setting a budget (Yes- I have a spreadsheet to keep track)- but I pretty much go a little over budget on almost everyone. Luckily- we have a holiday saving account which was a big help this year, but we not only had to reduce our budgets (Mainly Paige's, and ours), but I had to learn how to creatively stick to them. I want to spoil people so I really learned how to stretch that dollar. Ultimately we had a great Christmas and I think I did a good job at doing just that.

Christmas eve we ended up at my parents house in the late afternoon while we waited for the Boston Pidgeons to call us on Skype. They all gather at Christmas eve, and last year we started a gift exchange over the internet. It can be difficult at times, but it sure is fun. And my dad got the computer to show on the big screen so it was way easier to see everyone this year.

We ended up with a $25 Home Depot GC which Justin was, of course, thrilled with. But I had the Night Before Christmas book from Hallmark, read and recorded by my Nana and it was taken from me. I am glad that Maddy and the next little O'donnell with get to enjoy it, but am sad that Paige will not.

We went home and put Paige to bed. Santa came and dropped off a few stocking and a nice toddler size trampoline (Thank-you Craigslist!).Paige saw it first thing and tried to go and jump before we even took off the stockings!
We opened up stockings and some presents for Paige.



After we had fun playing around and enjoying the massive amount of stuff we already seemed to have, we headed over to my parents house. Chelsie wasn't feeling that good, but she was a trooper. We enjoyed opening more presents including a Nintendo Wii for Justin & Me!!!

Justin really loved this License plate!

We had a nice relaxing afternoon in our PJ's. Set up the Wii.

Christmas with Justin's Family

We are learning that with divorce comes changes. There are days that Daniel has his kids and days where Sarah has them. And Holidays are no exception to that rule. Dan won't have them every year on Christmas Eve. So even though Christmas Eve has been celebrated by the Huffman's for a long time, we learned how to be flexible this year. Plus, Dan's wife- Michelle was due with their first child together on 12/23/09. Since they were hosting the event, we thought it would be better to schedule it for the Saturday before Christmas.

Keith was able to drive the boys in from the mountains so we did not have to go and pick them up (Secretly I love spending that extra time with them- but it was nice to not have to spend and extra hour or so on the road with a 2 year old).

We had a wonderful- relaxing day. No extra traffic because of the Holiday. No rushing back to get to the skype call with my east coast family. It was an almost perfect day. We played with the kids, relaxed with Grandma. It was a blast opening up presents and watching the kids open theirs. And even though Lucus broke the marshmallow shooter about 2 seconds into playing with it- Family moments like these ones are priceless.

Christmas Train & Christmas Parties

A few weeks before Christmas, Denise & her family invited us to join them on the Sunol Train of Lights for their test run. They go every year and we had never been able to go before. I didn't really even know what the train of lights was. But when that train rolled into the station, I figured it out quickly. It was so neat, and Paige really had a great time. We had a little wine, some snacks and lots of warm clothing. Paige just loves to be social so she spent a lot of time chatting it up with Denise & Mike. Our friends Geoff and Ashley were able to join us too. I hope we get invited again next year. This is a tradition I would love to take part in.

Then a couple weeks later it was time for the Annual Sun-Maid Christmas party. My mom/dad took Paige for the night and we sure let loose. We closed the party down which I haven't done in years. I could have possibly had a few too many glasses of wine, but I had a lot of fun dancing the night away. Additionally I won a $50 American Express GC, and 4 sees candies gift certificates. I gave away 2 of the sees GC to some people at my table who didn't win a prize and gave my parents one for watching Paige. My coworkers really know how to have a good time.

Colleen, Me & Teresa

Surprisingly the next day, we were invited to the Chapmans annual Christmas Bash. Again, it was the first year we were able to go, but we hope to go for many years in the future. They know how to have a lot of fun, and we took part in the craziest gift exchange I have ever been to. Everyone opens a gift of their choosing. Once everyone has opened (We are sitting in a circle), they set a timer for 10 minutes. There were 3-4 trays with 2 dice each. Each person holding the tray rolls the dice one time trying to get doubles. If you do, you get to go steal the gift of your choosing. If you don't you pass it on to the left and wait for the next tray. It gets pretty crazy. There was a bottle of wine that was flying around the room, and the other item that was getting fought over was a bullhorn. It was loud, but so much fun. And Denise took a good family shot us us, which was nice.

Paige at 2 years old

I hage lots of things to post about Christmas Parties, Christmas itself and the birth of my new niece, but for now I just wanted to write down some things about Paige at 2 years old.

My mom got us the "Elf on a Shelf" last year so we started the tradition this year. We had to name the elf so we named him Egiap (Paige backwards). Paige just calls him "My Self" and she loved to find him.

She can count to ten- kind of. She normally starts with 3, but she usually makes it all of the way to ten.

She loves to hide. She wants to go under the blanket. Most of the time we are hiding from CLO-E who has no intention of finding us, but Paige just laughs and laughs.

She insists on having 3 blankets on her at bedtime. Sometimes she will ask for another blanket, but I usually stop at 3.

She has been working on jumping lately. She doesn't make it off the ground, but she sure tries.

You can almost always find her with her finger up her nose. We are still trying to figure out how to get her to stop.

She is very polite- she always says Thank-you. She is getting better at saying "Please". And she says "I'm Sorry" at really random times for no reason that we know of.

She "cooks" Justin bacon & eggs almost every morning at her play kitchen.

Everything is hers. It is "My ______" or "Paige's _______"

She just loves to be tickled which is having different parts of her body rubbed lightly. She especially loves her tummy, back, arms and legs. Sometimes she says "Tickle Me" and even if you are it is like you aren't doing it right.

She is very opinionated and will let you know what she wants and how you should do it.

Most of the time you can find her striking up conversations with random strangers, but sometimes she can get really shy.

Paiges visit with Santa

Paige does not particularly like Santa. When I took her to the mall for her 2 year pics I thought I would take her to see Santa. She was not having that. She hid in me and didn't even want to look at him. If we went into a store, she would be fine. But the 2nd she walked back into the mall she wanted to be picked up and hid again. Like she knew he was out there somewhere and he was going to find her. I thought about not putting her through the torture this year, but one day when Justin was bored with her at home- I told him to go ahead and take her. And it was worth it for the pictures. I put last years picture first for comparison.