A Santa Claus Mystery Solved

Ever wonder how Santa has enough time to make all his deliveries in one night?

On Christmas morning, before we let the girls out to the living room, Nate teasingly said to Cate, "I don't know if Santa made it last night. I didn't hear any bells, so maybe he ran out of time."

To which Cate replied (in all seriousness), "That's not true. Santa had enough time because there's lots of bad girls and boys."

Santa Visits the Maynards!

Look who stopped by our house the other day! Santa must have known Mom and Dad didn't want to wait in line at the mall.
The girls were (of course) totally terrified of him. But Cate did get a chance to make her Christmas wish...Barbies.

Later that night I said, "Wow! That was so cool that Santa came to our house today!" Cate replied, "Yes. It was magical."

Happy 5th Birthday to Cate!

Cate's birthday post is overdue! I was going to do this the night of her birthday but ended up crashing on the couch with a major cold as soon as she went to bed that night. Still not over it and Cate is sick as a dog herself. Poor thing. Hopefully we'll all be better by Christmas!

Cate had a GREAT birthday! It was the school holiday party that day, which she loved. And it was Cate's family party year, so we went to a special dinner at Cheesecake Factory.


In addition to the birthday ice cream sundae that the waiter brought out to her, Cate also got to pick her very own giant piece of cheesecake as her birthday cake. She chose Oreo and she still has a little bit left - it's been so cute how she's rationed it out to last so long. When we got home she opened her pile of presents from family members - thanks to everyone who so dutifully mailed presents to the girls! I know Christmastime is crazy, but it means so much to them. THANK YOU!


I can't believe you're FIVE years old, Cate. She can't believe it either...she kept saying that all day. It was adorable. We love you so much, Cate. You are an amazing little girl with such an empathetic heart. We love you!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Anna Louisa!

It's official, Anna is 2! Yesterday she started singing "Happy Birthday"...we didn't even know she knew the song. She just knew her birthday was coming, I suppose!


Anna had a good day. She played all morning, had a nice lunch, took a LONG nap, then woke up to a Spiderman cake in her honor. Yes, she loves Spiderman. You can almost always find her with at least one Spiderman band-aid on an arm or a leg. And, yes I love how her cake came out! Cakes scare me, they're hard...so I was RELIEVED more than anything with how this one came out. Anna really liked it, which is all that matters in the end.


We had only two friends come over to party with us...Jackson and Thomas. They both love Anna (and she loves them)...but Jackson really loves Anna. When they were leaving he just couldn't resist giving her multiple birthday hugs. It was really sweet.


Cate did a good job helping Anna celebrate. In fact, the first thing Cate said this morning when she woke up was, "It's Anna's birthday!" She went to bed tonight very excited about the fact that "on the next daytime" she will be 5. I think Anna's birthday being the day before really helps get Cate revved up for her own birthday.


That shiny pink nightgown that Anna is wearing in all the pictures was her favorite birthday gift. It's a "Mormon Handicraft Classic" that comes complete with a sheer robe. Pretty funny...I had these nightgowns when I was a kid and LOVED them, so my Grandma Blomquist got one each for my girls. Anna opened the gift and immediately started to put it on. She left it on all night and went to bed with it over her pajamas. What can I say, she's a woman of diverse tastes...Spiderman, frilly satin sleepwear...it's all good.

My favorite part of today was when Anna woke up from her nap. All she wanted to do was cuddle. I picked her up and sat in the armchair with her for a little while. It was quiet, the Christmas tree was on and I could hear Cate chattering in the other room. I started to sing Silent Night to Anna and, of course, got choked up. Having our babies at Christmastime has always been really meaningful to me. It's such a crazy time of year I don't get many moments to appreciate it. I'm really glad Anna is such a big cuddler so that I could have one of those moments today. Holding her in my arms this evening I felt an overwhelming feeling of peace and gratitude. Anna, I'm so happy you are part of our family. We love you!

pennsylvania maynard

cate just said to me, "don't you think pennsylvania is a pretty name?"

"sure, cate. so pretty. do you know that's a state, like california?"

"that's the name of a state?" cate asks, with complete astonishment.

"yes it is."

"if we have another baby girl {editor note: no, this is NOT an anouncement}, can we name her pennsylvania?"

all I have to say is no other maynards better steal that name from us - it's ours! ;)

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween has started out nicely...we had bagels with pumpkin cream cheese and we're going to carve a jack-o-lantern in a few minutes. Cate also recorded some lovely Halloween songs to brighten your spooky day!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9s8sy2XpoY

I'll take better pictures of the girls in their costumes later today when we're all dressed up...but here they are at Cate's preschool this week! As you can see, Cate was very happy that day...but Anna was having a rough day. Maybe because her mom smashed three of her fingers in the car door? That couldn't be it, could it?

And here are the girls in their Halloween shirts on the preschool pumpkin patch field trip!

prepare to be thrilled...

nate's brother jake's girlfriend mary is awesome. we love her. we always knew she was cool. but now she's proven to be far too cool for our family. check it out!



mary is in front, second row, on the right, olive dress and dark hair. you are frighteningly awesome, mary.

if this doesn't make you smile...

...I don't know what will. :)

(sorry it's out of focus. moments like these are better captured fuzzy than not at all!)

The Pumpkin Patch!

We made our annual trek to a faraway farm to pick pumpkins! Here in Menlo Park we like to drive down to the coast to Arata's Pumpkin Farm. They have tons to do, and everything is set up with hay bales and hand painted signs, so it's really cute instead of ugly and cheesy.

Anna's favorite part was probably walking through the corn field. She would just laugh so hard plowing her way through. She walked around carrying that tiny pumpkin a lot of the time...oh my goodness, how can she be so cute? Oh, one more thing I don't want to forget...whenever we'd say something about the "pumpkin patch," she would say "PATCH! PATCH!"

Cate has always been a champ at getting her face completely dirty. It's very endearing.

This was the PERFECT spot for some pictures. Too bad Cate takes after her dad and can't handle the sun...and Anna simply refused to look at the camera.

I do love this one.
We joined a bunch of friends from playgroup at the farm. We drove down with Michelle and Thomas Garff (Cate and Thomas are really good buds, it's SOOO cute). I just love this picture of them! Sad that big brother Jackson was at school and missed out on the fun.

The girls got to do pony rides. They were both unbelievably relaxed, it was great. Cate said this was her favorite part of the day.

Anna on her noble steed.
(I don't even mind that that guy is in the picture...he was so kind and good with the pony and the kids. He was telling me about how long each of the ponies had been doing rides, etc...it was cute.)

In addition to pony rides, we decided to try out the hay bale maze. I've never done one and for some reason was very intrigued by it. Well, it totally lived up to my expectations! The maze at this farm is HUGE and very well done, completely with hidden doors! Michelle and I were split up for a while (Michelle had Cate & Thomas, I was with Anna)...neither one of us could figure it out and we were in there for a WHILE. We gave up and decided to go in through the exit to see where we were messing up...believe it or not, it was still really hard even backwards! Kind of surprising. Anyway, Michelle and I had fun, Cate & Thomas loved it, and Anna had a blast...she was seriously SO CUTE the whole time.
(if you want to see the above picture better, just click on it...they're so cute.)

move over bob dylan...

anna's been eating crispix a lot for breakfast lately. this morning I decided to mix it up, so I pulled out the cheerios and said, "do you want cheerios today?" anna responded, "Yes!" then she started singing...an original song!

"I, love, yeh-yeh-yo" (in case you want to sing along, "I" "love" and "yo" are held out a little longer.) she sang her little song over and over. seriously, the next mozart? or at least the next bob dylan? I think so.

for the record...I'm not entirely sure if she was saying she loves cheerios or cereal...she says them both exactly the same. but that's alright, can anyone understand what bob dylan is saying?

the other morning she was laying in bed between nate and I...I was trying to find something and talking about how I couldn't find it. anna said, "what happened?" it was so funny.

oh - one more thing - yesterday when I was getting her dressed, I took off her diaper and she was standing up, then she started moving her hips in circles, very shakira-like. it was so funny...then she grabbed her bum and said, "da poop." okay, this may just be funny to her parents, but honestly, it was so so funny.

tooth update...#8 popped through this week...one in the back, which is totally out of order. not only are her teeth slow, they're confused.