personal

Christmas 2011

The time between Christmas and New Years is my favorite time of the year. I love setting goals and making lists and plans, it feels so good! We had a small little Christmas with just the four of us. Paul set up his animal installation with their old toys to help make a big impression for Christmas morning (I explain this little tradition right here.) Another thing we’ve done the last few years is mark each present with a giant letter ‘M’ or ‘R’ so the kids can find their presents. I uncharacteristically planned ahead and purchased the pajamas last year from Crewcuts in a post-Christmas sale and saved them. We decorated the tree with these lights and they saved our tree by making our sad looking decorations look festive. Even though our family is small and kids are little it has been fun to start our own traditions. (ps: See pictures from last Christmas here.) Do you have any fun family traditions that you’ve started yourself?

Roman’s Birth and Labor

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For Roman’s birth we asked one of my best friend’s (who is also a photographer) Aubrey Trinnaman to come and document it. It might seems a little strange to have a photographer join you for the birth of a baby but I am so happy we have these. I look at these and I can remember so many details (including how bad it hurt!) I loved it because Paul could attend to my needs instead of worrying about documenting everything. We barely have any photos for Moses’ birth for that very reason. Would you ever invite a photographer to a birth?

All photos by Aubrey Trinnaman. A San Francisco based photographer and one of my favorite people in the world.

I’m partnering with Federated Media to host a little contest on Flickr where you could win a $500 gift certificate to Best Buy. All you have to do is upload a photo to Flickr that captures a family memory. Then make sure the photo is tagged public so we can see it and then add the tag: #CapturedPhotoContest_OhHappyDay You can find the official contest rules right here. The contest ends on December 24th, and you can enter up to five photos! I love the submissions so far, if you want to check them out you can see them right here.

6 Months in Paris

I was in disbelief when I looked at the calendar yesterday and saw it was August 1st. That marks 6 months since we moved to Paris. I cannot believe its half over! We originally planned to be here a year but are trying to extend six months (if we can) because a year doesn’t feel like enough time.  Moving here has been so inspiring and life changing. I think that I’ll always look back on this as one of the happiest times in our lives. It makes me a little emotional to think where we were a year ago. We were deep in the middle of medical bills and surgeries and trying to work 60-70 hour weeks in order to pay for them. It was a really difficult time. One year later we are living in Paris. I’m so grateful for the lessons we learned, mostly that if you are going through a hard time in your life, just put your head down and work. Really good things are just around the corner.

Happy Birthday Paul

My favorite person in the whole world was born today. Usually I do some surprise for Paul but this year I asked him what he wanted and he said he just wanted to explore Paris together without kids. So today we’ve been out going to a ton of stores and tonight we’re going to the D’Orsay and trying a new restaurant then afterward we’ll stroll along the streets of Paris late at night, which is my favorite thing to do. These pictures were from lunch at Merci today where we had an amazing meal. (And green soup!)

Paul is the best person I know, I’m so lucky I found someone who is talented, supportive, an incredible father and just a really good person. Paul, I love you to the blue blue sky.

Here are some of the things I’ve done in the past for Paul’s birthday.

Follow the red yarn.
The Break Dancing Grizzly Bear.
Give a Speech Party.

Moving Day

Today is the day the movers come. We’ve been trying to eat our last meals at our favorite spots in San Francisco. I’m going to miss the food here. I am not very sad about moving except when I think of leaving our apartment. It’s not that it is an especially great apartment–it is just that this is where we brought our boys home from the hospital and this is the only home they have ever known. When I think of all we have been through in the last 3.5 years I get a little teary eyed. It feels like the end of a chapter in our life.

I took pictures of our apartment before I tore it apart and I’ll do a proper house tour in a few weeks.

I also write for Babble.com Here are my posts this week.

Gasp! These are amazing.
Um, did you hear all the buzz about the Astrological signs changing?
I love the new Target line. Stripes!
These look kind of like the one I got from the French Flea Market.
I got one of these when Moses was a newborn and I LOVE them.
Could the French make a more charming toy than this?