Christmas Photo Shoot

We have been very busy getting ready for Christmas and visiting Santa Claus in Northern and Southern California. Last weekend Catie and I flew to Pasadena for a couple of days while Colin stayed at home and worked. Catie visited Santa Claus at Annandale...I will tell you more about that in the next post.

In the meantime, we took Catie to Union Square to see the window displays and all of the Christmas decorations. Before we walked around Colin, Catie and I grabbed lunch with our friend Marni and my sister, Auntie. Then we had a photo shoot in front of the Christmas tree.

Tomorrow we are headed to the Olympic Club to see Santa Claus. Tomorrow I will post pictures of Santa Claus at Annandale and Santa Claud at the OC club. Until then... Merry, Merry!

Body parts

We are working on eyes and mouth. Stay tuned....

Thanksgiving 2009

So several people have commented on the fact that I haven’t updated my blog for awhile- sorry guys! Things have been busy but that’s no excuse. I will try and post more often and I will include some more videos. We need to put the Flip to more use!

Things have been going well for us and I swear that Catie has gotten even funnier. Example- ask her to point to her nose and she will….but 9 times out of 10 she will point to it by sticking her finger up her nose. It cracks me up every time…and her too!

Catie has begun to take steps (when she feels like it). She will stand on her own for a while and walk every where holding one of your hands but she is still working on walking on her own. The doctor said not to push it. She will do it when she wants to. I just think she crawls because she can get places faster....and man is she fast!!

To recap the holdiday weekend, it was wonderful!!! We had a terrifc Thanksgiving and as usual it went by too fast. My sister and I have lived in Northern California for 7 years and this was the first time that my parents came up to celebrate the holiday. They really wanted to spend Thanksgiving with Catie (and I guess my sister and I too) and they want to spend time with the O’Connell’s (when it wasn’t at a function like a birth, baptism, etc).

For Thanksgiving dinner we went to the O’Connell’s house and had an amazing meal of turkey, stuffing, green beans, sweet potatoes, salad, cranberry sauce and more- the whole nine yards! It was delicious and was so fun to just sit around and talk. My dad was finally able to see the shrine (Colin’s bedroom and all of his trophies) and loved see the pictures of Colin and Joe DiMaggio on the wall. It was a great evening and we all really enjoyed ourselves.

On Friday afternoon we went over to the Sternberg’s to celebrate Lizzie’s 40th …I mean 30th (ha, ha) birthday! It was a great party filled with family, friends, good food and wine. Happy Birthday Lizzie. Thank you for being such a special friend. I love ya!

On Saturday we carried on our tradition of going to cut down our Christmas Tree. My parents, Barbara and Tom, and my sister all joined us as we headed to Petaluma to find the perfect tree. We had a great time and Catie loved it. It is amazing to look back at last year's pictures and see how much she has grown and changed.

A great moment was went Catie sat on Colin while he was cutting it down and tapped him over and over (cut it down faster dad).

The weather was terrific and the day successful (both the O’Connell’s and my sister got their trees too)!

So friends, it’s official, the holidays are here. As most of you know this is my favorite time of year. The Christmas tree is up, the house is decorated, and the Christmas music is playing. Catie even has her own Christmas cd with songs that have her name in them (thanks mom and dad). Cheers to the holiday season and we can’t wait to celebrate with all of you at some point! XOXO

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween.

Love your little monkey!!

One year later

Oh how the year has flown by. One year ago today I decided to start our family blog. So much has happened in the past year. When I started the blog Catie couldn't’t even sit up and now she is a toddler who loves purses.

We recently flew to New York City for 5 days to celebrate the wedding of Mark and Jayme (Colin’s cousin). We had an amazing time and Catie was terrific on the trip. Hands down, Catie’s favorite part about NYC was riding in the taxi cabs. If we lived there we would go broke on taking taxis to entertain Catie. She would tap the glass, hold the strap, laugh, smash her face on the window, and wave to people. To her Disneyland is taxi cabs!

Catie on the airplane
Catie loved the type writer in the hotel lobby

Catie in her party dress

We had a lot of fun at the wedding and walking around the city and the weather was amazing! On our last day in the city we walked around Central Park and Catie rode the carousel. It was neat for B (Colin’s mom Barbara) because her grandfather use to take her to ride the carousel in Central Park when she was younger. Her grandparents lived in NYC so she grew up spending time there. At first Catie was a little scared but towards the end she really liked it. After it she had an ice cream cone and then took a long nap. Don’t worry, she woke up just in time to go to FAO Schwartz. We all had so much fun and we can’t wait to visit again. Catie can’t wait for another taxi ride!

This past weekend we took Catie to the pumpkin patch. This year’s experience was much different then last year. Last year we tried to prop Catie up on the pumpkins for pictures and this year she was all over the place.

I was not sure if she would like the straw but she didn’t seem to mind. She loved riding in the wheelbarrow, standing up while holding onto the pumpkins and even trying to sit on them!

Next baby supermodel?

So I decided to enter Catie into the Gap Kids modeling contest. If you feel like voting for her go for it!

This is the picture that I submitted (thanks Dana)!

Christmas in September

Today is the first official day of fall, although it is suppose to be in the mid 90's. I can't wait for the brisk weather, bundling up, and the holiday season to begin.

This past weekend was not the best for the Trojan football team but it was fun for the O'Connell family....especially me. Sometimes I get homesick. Don't get me wrong, effective October 1st my sister and I will have lived in the bay area for 7 years. It has been an amazing 7 years and I love it....especially Marin. However, sometimes I miss home. I miss my parents, I miss my grandmother, I miss Pasadena, and I miss my friends in LA. It's funny because my sister sometimes feels this way too. We are however lucky because we have three cousins that live in Northern California and they all have amazing kids (and sometimes they even get homesick despite the fact that they have lived in Nor Cal for over 15 years). Well, when Susie and I need our family fix we can visit one of them.


On Sunday we went out to Alamo to celebrate my little cousin's Ella's 4th birthday. Baby Catie (as she is know by the kids) loved spending time with the older kids and watching everything that they did. She even had a cupcake which ended up all over her. It was such a fun party (great job Jenny and Kelly). Colin caught a glimpse of his future....15- 4 year old girls running around, crafts, face painting, pinata, bouncy house, etc. Ah, the future birthday parties.


After all of the kids left Colin, Matt and Kelly watched football and we (we being my three cousins Kirstin, Michele, Jenny and my sister) watched Ella open her gifts, had some wine, and spent some quality time together. We all stayed for dinner and then headed home. It was great to spend time with my family and as my cousin Jenny said several times, "It's feel like Christmas with us all here". One of the many reasons that I love Christmas....family.


Here is a picture of Catie having her Sunday night dinner. Such a fun day and a great way to end the weekend. xoxo