9 bottles of prosecco...

No - I didn't drink all 9 by myself.. i had some help from a few good friends. Over the weekend, we hosted our first "Holiday Kickoff/ December Birthday Celebration" December is always such a crazy month with holiday parties, shopping, Christmas cards, wrapping - add in the fact that BOTH Kurt and I have December bdays (yay sagg) - we rarely throw ourselves a bday party - this year was different - we decided - "what the heck" lets have some fun with this. We invited a bunch of friends - and naturally being that it is the holiday season, a lot of our pals sadly couldn't come... but that didn't stop the party people that did show up from having a great time. We had a very special guest on the guestlist - MINI :) my bff... she came in on thursday and stayed through Sunday - it was SO great to see her, and she was an amazing help to have while preparing for our fete!

We sent out our e-vites about a month ago asking people to bring their favorite appetizer along with the recipe to share - this was a GREAT idea - not only did everyone bring their A-game.. it meant I didn't have as much to do.

We had:
- baked brie en croute w/ bacon and mushrooms with a brandy reduction (OMG)
- gorgonzola and walnut crostini topped with fig and drizzled with honey (OMG)
- prosciutto and bocconcini skewers (yumm-o)
- endive, pear and gorgonzola one bite salads (MMM)
- mac n cheese balls (thank you trader joes)
- goat cheese, tomato and pine nut crostini (tasty)
- 7 layer magic bars (toasty coconut!)
- red velvet cake balls with crushed peppermint (oh yes we did)

AND we had a prosecco bar! that is how we easily downed those 9 bottles... some straight up - but mostly sprinkled in with a little pomegranate juice / peach puree / limoncello etc. etc.

just some holiday decor - we filled that bowl w/ kettle corn :)
Here is mini working hard on the one bite salads!

here is the NON-alcoholic bar (tucked away all the way in the back)

And the prosecco bar!

We also had a traditional bar set up when you first arrive... nothing like being greeted by an open bar!

Me and mini - moments before the first guest arrived

some pals having a toast (kim, gina, rich, ryan)

red velvet deliciousness

this is what the little trash can looked like in the morning - i think this even had been emptied at one point during the night.

CHEERS!

happy holiday kickoff!
and happy birthday to all of the December bdays!

blessed... abundantly!

Thanksgiving has come and gone... and without a blog post from me.... Not that it's means for a bah-humbug... just that we are SO absolutely abundantly blessed, we have just been busy living our delicious, amazing, beautiful life.

We are so thankful. So thankful for SO many things...
to name a few:
our family, friends, Liam's school, our small group, our church... our health, our doggies, food on the table, fun to be had... just life... sweet life.

Liam - you make this life simply.... lovely! Who knew one sweet little boy could bring so much joy?

We spent our Thanksgiving morning with good friends and family - of course, we forgot to take pics... but we LOVE you todd/kam/grammy M.! Thanks for a fun kickoff to the day.

We were lucky enough to get to spend the evening at Heather and Jims... we DO have some pics - on another camera... i hope to post them soon - Heather's Dad made the turkey on the Weber... hands down - BEST turkey EVER! Gracias to all the peeps of Casa Tequilla!!! xoxo

Here is a glimpse of what has been happening in the last week or so...

just another day in the life of a rockstar!

he don't need no stinkin' door!

In case you didn't know - Liam's sense of style is un-matched... especially when the weather calls for LOTS of accessories!
Teddy bear jacket / moto-x pants / woody boots / island hat - i wouldn't have put it all together - but its FAB.
A birthday dinner for Kurt with good friends - impromptu Bolognese!!!

The first of the ornaments on the tree!
(YES, those ARE his mummy pj's from Halloween... he loves them...they fit...they were clean - we pick and choose our battles around here)

The elves that watches Liam to make sure he is being "nice" and NOT "naughty"... i am not quite sure HOW he gets this concept... but he does... a Christmas miracle! Daddy - putting the star on top!

This is what happens when you throw a snowball to a two year old and expect him to catch it!

Happy Holidays!

just another day at the park

the mercury has finally dropped below 60 degrees - which in southern california is call for boots, hats, scarves and winter sweaters! it rained most of the weekend - but after the storm - sunday brought us a crisp beautiful fall day. after church we scooped up the doggies, grabbed some take out and headed to our favorite neighborhood park. this park is awesome, it's small but open, the dogs love to run, and the playground equipment is just Liam's style!
We can see the park from our house!
We can see our house from the park!
We always have fun when we come here! It's nothing special... just an ordinary park... just an ordinary day. Don't you wish we had more of those?

Liam and Daddy waving from the tall spirally slide!

A boy and his Jinxie dog. They had a blast running and running and running around together!

Even Ace Face was giving out kisses!

This seems to be the most common view I get of Liam these days - of his back - running away. Always curious about the world - on to the next thing. Growing up way too fast.

Really... you CAN see our house! It's just a stones throw away as the crow flys!

harvest fest at cornerstone and gobble gobble cookies

Liam's preschool had a Harvest Festival yesterday. It was super fun. There was live music by Melissa Green, Arts and Crafts and a Bake Sale! The Bake Sale was created to raise money for some extra programs at school - like for SNOW day - when they bring tons and tons (literally) of snow in for the kids to play on! So - Liam got his "BAKE ON"!

we decided to bake traditional sugar cookies shaped like TURKEYS - because they say "gobble gobble" and Liam LOVES saying "gobble - gobble"

and fall leaves
Liam had a lot of fun cutting out the shapes

IN A-C-T-I-O-N!

he liked kissing the turkeys

and of course - eating the dough!

" no mommy, i didn't eat any dough!"
...busted!

here is how our turkeys turned out - gobble gobble!

all packaged up and ready to sell.

ON TO THE PARTY...

oh... this explains why i inherit 2 cups of sand each time i take his shoes off when he comes home! it totally makes sense now. (those are his friends sadie and ted)

all boy - look at that dirty face.

we pulled up a blanket on the lawn for ths show.

this cutie is liam's friend mackenna - they are good pals!

"hat and glasses OFF mommy!"

the kids LOVE Melissa Green!

... Liam's bake sale intake:

1) Brownie

1) Oatmeal Cookie

1) Chocolate chip Sandwich Cookie

mine... well, thats personal.

whoooosh - its windy out there!

we definitely have that "wind blown" look today! the dust that this wind kicks up makes my eyes all watery and itchy, and every time i look in the mirror, i notice some new particle of the outdooors that has landed in my hair... its a great look.

while i was dropping liam off at pre-school, his beloved basketball hoop blew over! the backboard cracked, and the hoop is all bent up :( bummer.

its hard to capture wind on a still shot - but, whoosh! even the needles on the pine tree are getting blown around.

this umbrella ended up in our yard... it's not ours - i don't know who's it is? if you are missing a green market umbrella - we have it, come and claim it!

this is a little more than just SWAYING in the wind - these poor palm trees... i hope they recover!

stay safe out there - don't blow away!

toy story mania

If you know Liam... you know he LOVES Toy Story. He now has seen all three movies, and is even starting to recite some lines... for example, when I wear boots - he almost always says "theres a snake in my boot"! Sometimes cute, sometimes annoying.... always LIAM"!

In any case, we were thrilled to be invited to Dylan's 2nd birthday party that was a Toy Story themed party! BONUS! Dylan is the son of my friend Tiffany - Dylan and Liam went to the same daycare briefly which is where I met Tiffany, she was a very fun / cool mom, and I had invited her to join my mom's group - where we got to know eachother a little better. Since then, she and her husband Mark have been busy, and welcomed baby brother Cole just over 10 months ago - talk about BUSY! a 2 year old, and a 10 month old! (And this girl ALWAYS looks amazing!) I don't know how she does it!

For halloween, she dressed her boys as Goose and Maverick from Top Gun (genius right?)... Liam found one of the boys helmets and wore it for pretty much the first hour of the party! Yep - he IS eating Doritos - which he has never had before - i think its safe to say he loved them... and probably left some of those super cheese-a-rific fingerprints all over that helmet - sorry Tiff!)

How cool is this cake?

How gorgeous is this family?

Seriously... she has 2 under 2 (well, she did until this week anyway) how does she looks so freaking good??

Liam LOVED the cake.

But NOT as much as he loved the surprise guest! This is what his face looked like when Woody joined the party!

Instant pals!

Liam would be happy if we adopted Woody into our family. Because all of our family portraits would look like this!