The L.A. Dime

….that’s a song Miss Sophie has been singing a lot these last few weeks so we took her lead and got Hamlin House ready for the big event. Below are some of the traditions we’ve started with her this year as she seems to understand the happenings around her a little more than in previous years and I feel it important to pass those traditions on to her:
- One of my favorite Christmas memories growing up was the Advent calendar – I loved coming downstairs every morning and choosing one of the lovely little red bags that my mom had so lovingly stuffed with chocolates, stickers, pens and every once in a while, a $5 bill; while I’m a little late, I did finally finish filling the bags tonight and can’t wait to see little Sophie’s face tomorrow morning when she gets to experience the same joy (PS: We are lucky to have 2 Advent calendars – one that my grandmother made & I’ve decided to use this year as it’s Sophie’s first year to experience this tradition and one that Ines made for us that for this year, we’re using as a beautiful decoration
- St. Nik’s was also always a big deal growing up…my parents would provide me with a brush and remind me to polish my boots if I wanted them to be filled overnight; with Sophie was excited to find some chocolates and fun snowman pajamas this morning
- The “Elf on the Shelf” is a book that Nana gave us last year and is a great little story that we’ve been reading almost every night….the elf of course watches Sophie’s behavior and will surely be reporting back to Santa
- The nativity scene are composed of pieces that my Aunt Moni has been sending us over the last few years and now is complete with wise men, animals, angels and shepherds….Sophie loves playing with it while we make dinner

- Some upcoming activities/events I’m hoping to partake in this holiday season are: Drinking a cup of egg nog while reading by the fire, heading to the snow in the surrounding mountain areas, making a Gingerbread house, letting Sophie watch her first holiday movie (we have Rudolph and Frosty ready to go), taking walks all bundled up and just trying to slow things down as much as possible

What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?

When we had Sophie, we wrote a will where we identified my cousins Ines & Fabian to be “cultural advisors” to her and any future kids we might have. We wanted to be sure that our youngens would have a strong tie to their heritage and Ines & Fabian stepped up to take on the role of helping us teach and encourage German customs and the language.
This week we were lucky enough to have Ines (and her very sweet and helpful boyfriend Christian) come for a visit. There was lots of talking in German, singing German songs and adding new titles to our growing German Book Library. Thank you so much you two for visiting, helping and lots of playing. And a big Thank You to my aunt Moni who sent along lots of great toys and clothes.

Our friends the Shepherds hosted a Halloween party on Saturday so we headed to Santa Monica to enjoy some goolish music (watching 20 pre-schoolers dance to the “Monster Mash” was hilarious), yummy treats (it was a potluck and every one was super creative in their halloween dishes) and a variety of games like pumpkin bowling, toilet-paper-mummy-making and the “grave yard of broken toys”.

Since our neighborhood hasn’t been great for trick-or-treating in previous years, we joined our MyGym friend Mia and her family to fill our pumpkin basket with sweets on Sunday night.

We’ve had a busy fall/Halloween season already and still have a part and the actual “trick or treating” left today and tomorrow. We started the celebrations with a trip to the pumpkin patch where we got to experience watching our very first pig race! Yesterday was a Halloween celebration at Sophie’s school which included trick-or-treating in each classroom, a parade and a carnival. We ended the day with carving a pumpkin. As you can see, Sophie choose to be “Cindumbrella” this year and showed her deep understanding and knowledge about this particular princess by telling me in the morning that I’d forgotten to buy the blue gloves, necklace and headband that are part of Cinderella’s outfit. Below some pics from our excitement so far….

For a while now we’ve been trying to figure out how to decorate the kids’ room in a way that represented both the cute toddler girl and sweet baby boy residents. Part of our big dilema was that the walls are a light blue and we really didn’t want to paint them a different color.  So after much discussion and checking out a couple of ideas online, we took a trip to Ikea last weekend hoping for some inspiration. Just as it has many, many times before….Ikea delivered!! Brad had a great idea about adding a cloud so that we could pull the blue wall color and the yellow sun into a cohesive look. Our dear friend Mark volunteered his talent and time to make that idea a reality within about 2 hours.

Take a look at the finished product….(well, except for the curtains which we’ve decided don’t really go with the decor anymore and are going to be replacing soon):

Brad and I love having family and friends come to visit. It’s so wonderful to catch up in person, have the house full of voices and it seems that those are the times we tend to take full advantage of what wonderful sights and experiences LA has to offer. With Mom-Mom and Pops spending the last 10 days here, we had a beach day (Clays’ first and he really loved the ocean sounds and fresh air), a Sunday brunch at the “Inn of the Seventh Ray” to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary, a really fun dinner at Bubba Gump and a whole lot of hanging out at home and the pool just chatting or being silly with the kiddos. Thanks for the visit you two!!

….include food and anything that goes fast – swings, her tricycle & carnival rides. Below are a few pics from our recent adventures with our little toddler….and a visit from Opa & Nana. Hover over the pic to read a brief description

Yes, we’re still here. Life has thrown us a couple of curve balls lately so we’ve just hunkered down and slowly worked out way through them – the “to do” list is still fairly long but some of the most time sensitive issues have been taken care of.

Please note that the list below is not in any particular order – mainly just my thoughts of why we haven’t been as active on the blog or maybe even been bad family members or friends.

Here’s a recap of what’s kept us hopping these past few weeks:
- Brad got slammed with a ton of school work, plus is on assignment for a re-write (a good thing, but also meant lots of nights with only 4-5 hours of sleep and very little quality family time)
- Our triple-osmosis water filtration system, the faucet that dispenses that purified water and our regular sink faucet all went bad in the same week….Brad, never really having claimed the title of fix-it-man, took on all three projects himself and did a fabulous job!! Thank you also to cousin Ines who helped crawl under the sink when my 7-month belly couldn’t even allow me to bend down and take a look
- Our master bathroom shower has had a leak for a while and after a video-recording (brilliant idea Brad!!), we finally learned exactly where it was. The contractor who initially put it in was called, showed up and fixed it — it’s been drying all weekend but tomorrow morning’s showers will be the real test
- We’ve been spending a lot of time talking and researching various refinance options as our 5-year fixed loan is due in July and we want to be informed about our options beyond that
- Trying to keep some kind of composure and find a way to de-stress through all the above mentioned madness, Brad’s been going to yoga three times a week and is running is much as he can
- My workload has been absolutely insane and while I am blessed to have a job and do enjoy it, I am even more tired by the time I get home tonight which makes spending quality time with Sophie a bit more challenging
- The good news is that Sophie continues to be our little “active, happy and always surprising us with new vocabulary or questions” sanity check – she gets us to laugh when we feel like the house is falling apart, have had yet another “i got glutened experience” or we are absolutely exhausted by 6pm

Overall though, we are healthy, have a roof over our heads and seem to somehow manage keeping income flowing into the household (even as the film industry is completely changing and corporate trainers aren’t exactly the type of positions companies are typically keeping around). We’ve also had 3 wonderful house guests over the past few weeks who reminded us of the importance of family and friends that you can spend an evening chatting with and connecting on that “ah, I feel refreshed again” sort of way.

I also want to take this (rambling) opportunity to Thank all of you for checking in on us and me regarding the pregnancy. We are into our 7th month and baby (and I) are doing well. Lots of movement from the little one and my waist line is growing daily. We decided not to find out the sex so are also working on finding 2 names that we both agree on – see previous post on name options we’re considering. While physically speaking things are going great, my emotional state is a bit all over the place. Obviously I am thrilled to be having another baby and really do enjoy being pregnant, I am constantly struggling with feelings of guilt about how my relationship with Sophie is going to change. I hear over and over again that the love you feel for your first and second child doesn’t have to be split, it simply grows – I understand that intellectually, but my heart is always worried about what I can do (now and later) to never make her feel second or not as important. While I am sure we will somehow find our way through the transition, neglecting her in some way or not being able to do it all, is a constant concern in my mind.

Well, geez….if you are still reading this…thanks for listening. While the above list really is just “material” matters and in the grand scheme of things don’t matter, it does explain why we’ve been so crazy busy and probably not as social as we usually are.

Hope you all are well and feel free to drop us a comment below to catch us up on your lives:)

Not wanting us to have to spend Easter without any family, Mom-Mom came to visit us for 10 days around the Easter holiday. She brought with her lots of Easter activities for Sophie – including coloring eggs, making an Easter bunny bag and learning Easter songs.
Easter Sunday began with Sophie hunting for her baskets – she seemed very pleased with her new book, underwear and candy but doesn’t want to take off her new Elmo pajamas. We then hosted a small brunch for the Dempseys & Perdue/Okanos and finished off the day with a trip to the park where Sophie kicked the soccer ball and we all walked off a bit of the Easter candies we’d consumed throughout the weekend.

Thank you Mom-Mom for visiting and making these memories with us.