Christmas with the Hupps

We celebrated Christmas with the Hupps early this year since Debbie will be working on Christmas and can't head up north to Lodi. We had dinner, opened presents, and went out to look at a fabulous display of Christmas Lights.


Classic Christmas Shot (hard to coordinate smiles)


Kaitlyn gets a bath tub coloring book


Kaitlyn trying to give Gideon a kiss (Gideon appears to still be shy around the ladies!)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. Well it actually FEELS like Christmas much more than it LOOKS like Christmas. No snow, no tree, minimal decorations. Such is the life of living in San Diego and trying to sell your house during the holidays. Despite the lack of physical atmosphere we've been playing lots of Christmas music, drinking hot chocolate, and shopping. We had a few Christmas Parties on Saturday including Team Lodi's annual bash as well as Sam's company party. Hopefully I'll make some time to bake cookies.




An afterthought.......should have gotten Kaitlyn dressed up for the impromptu family photo :(

1-2 Buckle my shoe

Kailtyn loves shoes. From the time she wakes up in the morning to when she is in her PJ's ready for bed she is always looking for her shoes, my shoes, or Sam's shoes. She will bring them to me and want them on. She is even fairly accurate at bringing the right shoes to the right people. Maybe this is the natural consequence of having a daughter. But my gut thinks it's her way of expressing what she likes to do best....go outside. Home is just the same old toys with the same old people. Outside is where the people are, where the action is. Outside she can climb, slide and swing. My high energy daughter wants to be where the energy is.

Fall is here, but not down here

With fall comes a change of weather, crisp air, colorful trees, and warm clothes. Well, we don't always get to experience the lovely change of seasons down here in San Diego (not that I'm complaining about the weather here even a bit). I was delighted to experience the change in seasons at Lodi Lake over the weekend. The trees had changed colors and were shedding their leaves. It was beautiful.

Halloween

I'm in Lodi again this year for Halloween. We visited with family, neighbors, and went to the church Halloween Party....ugh, I mean Fall Festival.

Getting out of the house.

I take Kaitlyn to the park close to every day. It is a great park for her size, she loves to get out of the house, and it is only 2 blocks away.


We went to the zoo today to pass the time when our condo was being shown to a group of realtors and potential buyers. It went on the market today and the idea of moving makes me very anxious. I'm really not ready, but we really could use more space. We'll see what happens....
While at the zoo we visited the children's petting zoo for the first time. She, predictably, liked it.

Home sweet home

Sam and I got back from our vacation to France last Thursday night. With high hopes of being greeted by smiles and clapping, I was instead greeted with a confused blank stare and a molar breaking through. Very disappointing. She is still struggling with the tooth (and runny nose, fever, etc that all come together), but has quickly warmed back up to us.
We had a great time on our trip. By the end we were ready to come home (mainly because we really missed our daughter). Check out a few more pics from our trip here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/43698347@N03/

Getting ready for Paris

We leave for Paris in 6 days! While I feel less organized for this trip than any in the past (due to less me time), we have all of the major items all lined up.


Babysitter for Kaitlyn, check.
Flights, hotels, rental car reservations, check.
International cell phone (emergencies only!!!), check.
A new set of eyes, check. That's right...I got LASIK surgery about a week and a half ago. I now can leave my glasses, contacts, solution, etc all at home!

Just 1 more Target run and we'll be set. We will for sure need to run through our Rick Steves' tour books on the flight over there!

Au Revoire

Labor Day weekend pics

Better late than never....

He throws her around and she loves every second of it


Family pic @ Heidi's house. This is after swimming in her pool and before the BBQ

Aaron chillaxin at Petco


A day at the zoo. Kaitlyn now likes to point at the animals.


This is at Gideon's b-day party the next weekend.

Gabby's Wedding

We went up to the OC last Saturday to celebrate James and Gabby's wedding. It was both a beautiful ceremony and reception. It was great to see some old friends from college as well as be out for a night with Sam. We left Kaitlyn with my parents who were down for the long weekend.


Note: Allison is pictured on her "good side"


It's not too often we get all dressed up these days


College friends

Baby tricks

Kaitlyn is starting to do cute little baby tricks. It started a few months back when she learned to wave. Now it has progressed to this:

Kaitlyn walks

Kaitlyn took her 1st steps alone about a week and a half ago. Here's a video I took a few days back. When given the room and encouragement she can actually walk across a whole room. She still prefers to crawl everywhere.

Kaitlyn's 1

Kaitlyn turned one on Sunday. We celebrated by throwing her a party out at Balboa Park. Kaitlyn enjoyed the time outside and was exhausted by cake time. Once she got a taste of the frosting she lost all motivation of ripping into the cake (aka banana bread). Here are a few pictures from the day.

Kaitlyn and Grandma Marks hanging out before the party


A family shot before the guests arrived


A before shot of the cake


Kaitlyn testing out the frosting


Testing out her new stroller and doll



Taking a rest with Grandpa Marks

Things got a little out of hand at the after party


All of us together


Opening presents on her real birthday with Grandma Harper

5 years strong

Sam and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary on Friday. We will be going to Paris in October to celebrate, but wanted to have a special time together on the actual day We had tried to get a babysitter for the night, but everyone was out of town or already busy. I worked all day and Sam surprised me with flowers and dinner when I got home. It was great and better than going out because of the time, thought, and effort involved. The absolute highlight was the chocolate lava cakes fresh from the oven. The were so good we ate them before taking a picture for the blog despite getting my camera out before with the intentions of a good blog pic. Oh well, web images are good too.

Too cute

Heidi came back from Costa Rica with a new dress for Kaitlyn. She looks great in it!

Vegas Baby!

After our family vacation in Lake Tahoe, I flew down to Vegas for Gabby's bachelorette party while Sam enjoyed a few days in Lodi with his mom and siblings. I realized that my body has aged and cannot handle early morning bedtimes. All in all it was a good time with some old friends.

Family Vacation

We spent most of last week up in Lake Tahoe with Sam's family. We rented a beautiful and large house so that we could all spend time under one roof. It was nice to get away from the city life and retreat into the crisp air of the mountains. We did lots of relaxing, some hiking, and a few beach days. And of course there were a couple of Starbucks trips mixed in!

Eagle Lake Hike:




At the beach:




This early morning trip to Emerald Cove saved us from food poisoning:



Kaitlyn with Kevin and Beckie after bedtime:



Kaitlyn playing bubbles with Jon, Kate, and Ashya:



Kaitlyn and Gideon cruisin' around:

Happy 4th of July

We celebrated the 4th of July with family from out of town. Sam's grandma and mom stopped by for a few nights on their road trip to Lodi from Iowa. It was a low key weekend and it felt relaxing. Diane and I even made it out to the harbor to watch the fireworks show. Here are a few pictures from our time together.