It’s a Merry Christmas at Marissa’s

This may be a rather long post, as I haven’t posted all month and A LOT happened this month.

A few days after we returned from LA from Thanksgiving, Todd’s parents arrived from New York to celebrate a very Matthews Christmas. We’ve been holly jolly all month at our house, kicking it off the first weekend in December. It was wonderful to have Mimi and Papa J visit. We went and got our tree as a big family and all decorated it together, then we were able to celebrate Christmas with gifts from under our fresh beautiful tree. Maisy was particularly fond of the tree. Every morning when we came down stairs, she’d ask to make the tree “Magical”. Then we’d let her turn on the lights.

_{Told you Maisy loves the tree}

The family tree

Maisy placing the angel on our tree. The angel was used by my family since I could remember and is the same one my sister and I would trade years putting it on.

The Matthews had Christmas that Sunday. It gets more and more fun each year as Maisy gets older.

Maisy and Papa J entertaining us with a Christmas song

Merry Christmas, Mimi, Papa J and Steven!

We were lucky enough to get to celebrate Papa J’s birthday with him while he was out too!

Good news soon followed. Todd’s company, Heroku, announced that they had just been purchased by another company, Salesforce.com. Congratulations, Todd and Heroku!! Great work and wonderful news.

The girls in their Heroku shirts with Daddy

We did lots of fun things in December. We took Maisy to see Tangled which she, Todd and I really loved. It’s one of the best Disney films ever made. We went to Zoo Lights at the Oakland Zoo which seems to have become a tradition. It was a nice family event. We made it to the Zoo Lights after visiting Santa in the San Francisco mall. Santa was less than super jolly, was drinking Mountain Dew and charged us $20 for a photo, but it’s all worth it!

Santa with Maisy and Maren

Maisy refused to sit on Santa’s lap, but said it was fine for Maren to. We asked that she stand there and hold Maren’s hand to help Maren be brave, well, and we bribed her with a candy cane.

The day before I asked Maisy what she wanted from Santa. This is what she wanted.

Real wings so she can fly, the ones she has don’t really work- she’ll take me with her when she goes flying (so sweet).

Her Tinker Bell doll to talk to her because she doesn’t talk very well.
Her baby doll’s hands to open because they are always closed.
The baby to close her eyes because they are always open
and a baby who talks
a bib for her baby
a placemat for her baby
and sunglasses for her baby

and drum roll please….. An iPad for herself.

Since we had a long weekend together Todd and Maisy got to spend some quality time together. One morning while I was napping and they were drawing, I awoke to this beautiful drawing Todd had made of Maisy as a Christmas Elf.

Maisy the Sweetest Elf I’ve EVER seen

Todd and Maisy also got to work making a few new mustaches.

Todd and Maisy work on the ’staches

Maisy has gotten very articulate in her language and is also excelling at drawing. Here is a drawing of the Mean Queen and Maisy using red crayon on her new easel.

Maisy and the Mean Queen in red

Maren is growing growing growing! Her cries are not newborn sounds any longer. Her cry has a babbling sound to it. Some times in the morning I have to really listed to tell if it’s Maisy or Maren trying to get my attention. Maren has also discovered her hands and she loves marveling at them! She’s also quite chatty. She is wanting to sit up a lot. While laying down, she does little baby crunches trying to get up. She is still sleeping super well and only wakes once or at most twice a night. There is not rocking or cajoling her to get to sleep. We pretty much just put her in her crib and she goes to sleep. She is taking 2-3 naps a day. Some naps are 2-3 hours and some are only an hour. She loves bath time and watching her big sister. She is a little lover, she loves to smile and coo. Maren has really started to play with toys and can hold on to them and get them into her mouth. She has her 4 month shots later this week. Happy New Year, Maren! We wish you health :-)

Maren having a grand time watching her hand (she seems to watch her right hand more than her left)

Daddy and Maren

Christmas Eve was fun because we were all full of excitement AND it was my birthday! Maisy was sure to tell me happy birthday several times throughout the day, which was super sweet. Todd and the girls got me a necklace with with two M pendants and 2 birth stones, one for each girl. I also got a locket and a mani/pedi day. Thank you!!

Happy 33rd!

Getting Ready for Santa

Moving on to the main event, Christmas! We so enjoyed being home this year. It’s the first year Todd and I have been home for Christmas in almost 10 years! So happy we did. It was so nice to be in our own house and have a relaxing family Christmas without anywhere to go! We were very thankful and happy to join friends for dinner at Kevin and Marissa’s. Yum!

We all must have been super good this year, because Maisy got an easel she’s wanted for quite a while with a Terrance and a Tinker Bell doll too. Maren got a kick and play gym that will grow with her. Todd and I must have been so super extra good, because Santa left us an XBOX with Kinect! It is so much fun! My favorite game is Dance Central. Todd and I battle on the regular now. Sorry, no pictures of that!

Christmas after Santa arrived, but before presents were opened

Maren trying out her new toy

In honor of Todd’s mustache interests, I got him this fancy pint glass.

Todd’s beer mustache

The girls got too many toys for words. It’s fun, but also overwhelming. I got two HUGE plastic bins to put away older toys in the attic for a bit to make room.

After Christmas chaos before the big clean up

Maisy playing with her Kitchen from Grandpa

Maren playing with her new doggie from Nana and Papa

Can’t wait to do it all again next year!

Hoping you all had a wonderful Christmas and the year ahead is full of happiness, peace, love and health.

Much love, Todd, Becky, Maisy and Maren

Maisy in her holiday get up

Well it’s been a while since we’ve updated. I guess the holidays just took off and we went a long for the ride.

We enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving at home with friends and family with a deep fried turkey! Yum. Maisy wasn’t too keen on the turkey- she’s not really a meat fan. I’m beginning to wonder if she’s actually my child! ha

Christmas morning #1

Joan (Mimi to Maisy) and Joel (Papa J to Maisy) came for an early Christmas at the beginning of December. Uncle Steven came over and we all had Christmas morning in the first week of December. We had a great visit and it was a wonderful way to kick off Christmas!

Maisy and Papa J

Maisy had her first meeting with Santa at the Oakland Zoo for Zoo lights. She was NOT a fan. As a matter of fact, she was down right upset about the meeting. She calmed down to check out the Zoo lights, which she LOVED, however on the way out, Todd asked, “Do you want to go see Santa again?”. She burst into tears and said, “No, No, No way, no way!” We couldn’t use the “S” word around our house for a few days, but she eventually got over it and by the time Christmas rolled around, she and Santa were on good terms again.

SANTAAAAAAAwaahhhhhh!

Maisy had her year and a half doctor’s visit in early December. Maisy is now 2’ 7’’ tall and weighs 22 lbs and 5 oz. She’s talking constantly and has more words in her vocabulary than we can count. She is making sentences and likes to “sing”. We continue to go to music class and library group each week. She really enjoys seeing the other kids. The only issue is that she gets a little too excited and ends up being too rough. We are really working on “gentle hands”. Maisy is really into babies, drawing, Snow White, books and her tea set.

Living the life!

We headed off for warmer weather about mid-December for LA. We were lucky enough to get to leave Maisy with Nana and Papa for a week while Todd and I went to vacation in Ilsa Mujeres, Mexico. It was a wonderful childless vacation. Maisy didn’t miss us a bit, although we missed her terribly- however it was nice to get away. Maisy never freaked out or even looked for us when we were gone. Actually when we called she wasn’t even interested in talking with us. I’m glad she was so happy and getting along so well with Nana and Papa.

Maisy and Nana playing stickers

We arrived back in LA on Dec. 23 just in time for my birthday and Christmas. My mom made me and Kim our favorite dinners (lasagna and stroganoff) and got us some cakes. It was so fun to celebrate with my sister just like old times!

Happy Birthday to US! Becky- Dec. 24, Kim- Dec. 19

Maisy had a great time Christmas morning with her cousin Elijah. Santa was very good to both kids. They must have been extra good this year. Elijah is going to be Michael Jackson when he grows up and all he wanted for Christmas was a Michael Jackson hat and an MJ microphone and Santa delivered! Maisy got a Skuut walking bike that she’s still a bit too short for. But she was still very excited to see it.

Maisy and Elijah AKA Michael Jackson

The New Year began in our living room with friends and their little ones. We celebrated the New Year New York style at 9pm. The kids were all losing it and getting quite silly by that time. Maisy had a great time with all of her friends. By 9:15, all the families had returned home and we were in bed well before midnight.

Happy New Year!!!

More later! Hope your year is off to a good start and that you had a happy holiday season.

Much love, Todd, Becky and Maisy

Todd and Maisy taking a walk down the grandparents’ street

W e headed east for Christmas on Dec. 23 and after 17 hours of travel we finally made it to our destination! Maisy handled the trip like a trooper with NO meltdowns. We did find out that Maisy is a food snob. I bought her some jarred baby food for the flight and she refused to eat even her favorites if they came out of a jar. This girl has quite the sensitive palate.

In Lake George we celebrated Christmas with Todd’s parents, brother and grandmother. It was nice and relaxing to all be home together. It’s rare that we are all there at the same time, so that made it extra special! Todd’s Grandmother came over on Christmas day for the festivities and a yummy Christmas turkey dinner prepared by Steven and Joan. Mmmmmm

Christmas Feast

We enjoyed a nice leisurely day of opening presents and enjoying everyone’s company taking time out for naps and playing with new toys. It was a beautiful snowy view of the mountains and Lake George through the living room windows.

Maisy reached the very exciting milestone of sitting on Christmas Day! She continues to add syllables to her babbling and now says, Da-da-da, Ma-ma-ma, La-la-la and raspberries.

A Maisy sitter

While we were visiting we were able to catch up with Uncle John, Aunt Dee, Thalia and Lonny for lunch. We were also lucky to see Uncle David several times as well as Chris and Aunt Rebecca. It’s so nice that we were able to see so many folks in such a short amount of time!

As always time passed quickly and we found ourselves back on a plane heading toward home. Our trip home was smooth and uneventful. The next day was new years eve and we celebrated with Mike and Angie over at their place. It was Maisy’s first night out passed bedtime. She went down for bed at their place without a problem. Todd and I made it just past midnight, rang in the new year with friends, gathered Maisy and headed home for bed!

Happy New Year!

We wish everyone love, peace, happiness and health in the new year. The past year has brought so many joys and wonderful firsts, we cannot wait to see what exciting adventures await in 2009!

Much love to all-

Todd, Becky and Maisy

Maisy taking her first ride in a wagon

M aisy had her 6 month doctor appointment at the beginning of December. She got all her 6 months shots including her first dose of her flu shot. We are trying to stay as healthy as we can! She now weighs 15 pounds 6 ounces and she is 2 feet and 1.75 inches tall.

Maisy has lots of new tricks! She can roll over both ways, grab toys and move them from one hand to the other, she can grab anything and everything within reach and shove them with confidence into her mouth. She is eating like a pro now and the variety of foods she is eating just keeps growing. So far there is nothing that she refuses to eat. Pears are definitely her favorite.

Maisy is close to sitting, she just has to get that whole balance thing down. There is no stopping her though when Maisy is on the ground! She scoots all over, forward and backward. She gets up on her knees and rocks back and forth. It’s just a matter of time before she’s off and crawling. Maisy has a bunch of sounds she likes to practice vocalizing. La-la-la-la seems to be her favorite sound at the moment.

On Dec. 11 we flew down to LA for the first part of the Christmas celebration. We all had a great time seeing many family and friends and staying at Mom and Charlie’s.

Auntie and Maisy

Kim, Rigo and Elijah were able to spend a couple of days and a night with us there too for a fun sleep over. Elijah is a constant source of hilarious entertainment!

Cousin Elijah and Maisy playing in the “extra-saucer”

We were so thankful and lucky to get to visit with Perla and James at Perla’s for lunch, it was delicious! We had a great time on Sunday with the whole family at a large family photo shoot and our family Christmas celebration. It took months to plan to get everyone the day off and to try to figure out what to wear, but the pictures came back and they look wonderful and it was all worth it.

Maisy opening her first Christmas presents

On Monday we had the chance to go visit with Auntie Pam, Uncle Bob and Cousin Sarah. It was so good to catch up and have a visit. Then on Tuesday we got to go out to lunch with Aunt Diane and Jim. It’s always a pleasure to see them! Maisy was a trooper through all of our outings. Unfortunately upon our return home, we all came down with colds and we think Maisy is cutting her 2 bottom teeth, so she has been especially touchy. Poor baby!

Next Tuesday we head back east for the Christmas holiday to Todd’s hometown. We can’t wait to see everyone and have a white Christmas! We have 3 connecting flights out there- we are just hoping the weather cooperates and we don’t get stuck anywhere in airports along the way! We also are hoping that we are all nice and healthy by then.

Much love to all- we hope your holiday season is off to a great start!

Todd, Becky and Maisy

Maisy’s maiden voyage on a merry go round

T ilden Park in Berkeley has a merry go round that they do all up for Christmas. We took Maisy there on Saturday for a spin. She seemed a bit concerned about all of the lights. There was so much going on and she spent most of her time just trying to take it all in.

The wild wild west tree

All in all, we had a wonderful first Merry Christmas Go Round and hope to make it a family tradition!

Lights!

Much love to all- we hope your holiday season is off to a great start!

Todd, Becky and Maisy