Icee and Milk Party!

Emmy is just starting to "pretend." She'll "talk on the phone" and has started taking bites of the pretend food that she makes. She'll also move her play animals around like they're flying in the air or running across the room.

Today we had her first official tea party with Violet, her dog, and the new monkey that Boppa and Lannie gave her for Valentine's. Emmy served mile and icees with Tomato Paste. YUMMMM-Y! She gave everybody drinks of her drink and gave them "bite bites" of the tomato paste. Now this of course lasted about five mintues but I'm counting it.

Here's a picture of the festivities!

Now right after this picture, Emmy threw grapes all over the floor, carried the chairs across the room, and was jumping up and down in one of them. We need to have a little talk about party manners =)

Monkey Bizness

Blake had a little time off today so we took Emmy to open play at Monkey Bizness, a jumpy place. I took Emmy there a couple months ago to see if she wanted to have her birthday there and the answer was HELL NO. Now it's kind of fun! Emmy really dug going down the slides all by herself.
We only had to pay five bucks for Emmy and Blake and I were free. I think I'll let you see who they SHOULD've charged for =)



Emmy did so much jumping and sliding that this is what she did on the way home.. for about 15 minutes. Continuing her day of fun, we headed over to Emmy's Valentine's party at school. It completely amazes me that at home Emmy will barely sit in her high chair and throws food all over the place. At her school eleven 12-18 month olds sat around the table and nicely ate their food. Peer pressure is a amazing. After eating about ten Ritz crackers, half a dozen vanilla wafers, one gigantic cookie with loads of hot pink icing in about ten minutes (and completey ignoring the nice spread of fruit and cheese on her plate) Emmy suddenly stood up, started dancing and told me she was "All Done." What she really meant was she was all done for the day. Jumping around, large amounts of hot pink icing, and no naps mean that we went to bed at 6! Hope everyone has a happy Valentine's Day!

Laura's Sendoff

We took a little time out from tube recovery weekend to send RaRa off on her big trip. She's going to Macedonia for work so we decided to have our traditional Maggiano's and Desert Gallery family dinner. Laura is going to recruit people from Macedonia to help support out troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. She'll be gone for one-two months so please say a little prayer for her safe travel and her safety while she's away.

Emmy also made some Valentine's cookies with GiGi and Pops. Mom swears that she decorated them all herself.

Then she tried on Pop's Aggie hat and got a major case of hat hair...

So she had to do a little curling to fix it up before dinner.

Tube recovery has been interesting. She seemed like it wasn't going to phase her at all for the first day of surgery, and then after that it seems like she's getting more fussy and groggy as the days go by. I keep hoping to wake up and the snot will be gone, but instead we're doing breathing treatments and the snot keeps on coming. On top of it all she's getting another tooth. We haven't seen a tooth in a couple of months and of course it happens right when she's not feeling good at all! Hopefully we'll be turning the corner here soon.

At the Playboy Mansion (No, not that one)

Over a year ago, one of Blake's contractors gave him and his boss, Hugh, a gift certificate for a stay at The Victorian Inn in Galveston. We finally got around to using it and took the trek down with the Payne's this weekend. Of course, it just so happened to be freaking freezing Mr. Bigglesworth. Just what you want when you go to the beach!

The mansion was owned by a concrete baron from the 1900's. It's now owned by a former Playboy Bunny. Yep, we hung out with pictures of Hugh Hefner this weekend. And you just thought YOU were cool! Marcy told us all kinds of stories about being a Bunny, hanging out with Hef, and the commercials and ads that she shot. She lived at the Playboy mansion for 10 years and was on The Girls Next Door if you've ever watched that show. Kind of makes you wonder what on earth she's doing in Galveston now. The house is of course, decorated in bunnies, and there's real live bunnies in the backyard. Here's Blake touching a Playboy Bunny's Bunny. Insert your own comment here.

After getting the tour of the house and hearing about it's history, we headed out to Rudy and Paco's for a yummy dinner.


We headed over to the piano bar at the San Luis. Now I'm thinking, Piano Bar, there's gonna be some Bon Jovi...After being there for a while there was a lot of elevator music and not a lot of rockin so I went and requested Livin on a Prayer. That's right...I brought the party. He had to actually learn the song and played it for me. Awesome!

Since the Hurricane, there's not a lot going on in Gaveston so we woke up a late, ate breakfast twice (you know I don't pass up a bakery) and did some light shopping in the few shops that are open on the Strand. Really, there's like five. We found some good stuff in this shop because what you really want to shop for when it's 25 degrees outside is beachware!

I like this picture because a) becasue there's a sense of irony with conch shells, gloves, and jackets and b) I just like to say the word Conch. Enjoy.

On the way out of town we stopped by the Texas Flight Museum. It's a BIG ol'warehouse full of WWII planes. Blake and Hugh have become big World War II buffs so they were excited about seeing the planes. It was a quick stoll but we had to take a picture for Emmy. She's very into planes right now, so this is Blake making the sign that Emmy invented for airplane. (I'm typing this so when we look at this picture later and go, "what the hell are you doing?" we'll remember.)

We froze our booties off but it was a fun weekend with the Paynes and we got to me a real live Bunny. What more can you ask for really?

A visit to KidTropolis

Today we headed down to the Children's Museum with the Graessers. I've been wanting to try it out so I was so glad to get to do it on a weekday when there wasn't 800 million kids running around and being nuts. It's such a cute place! There's tons to do. When Emmy gets a couple of years older she's going to LOOOOVE it.

The museum remodeled a year ago and built a "kidtropolis!" It has everything a city has and the kids can perform jobs to earn a "salary" and then spend thier salary in shops. It's really cute. Hannah decided she would be a news anchor for her job. This was so cute. You could sit in front of the green screen and other kids could change your background, type words for you to say on the teleprompter and add sound effects. I would've eaten this stuff up at about 7.

Emmy decided to be the fire chief.

And Benjamin and Ellie decided to be brother/sister PoPo's on patrol.

Since the rest of the kids were on civil servant budgets, Hannah took a trip to the ATM, pulled out some cash, and decided to treat us all to a trip to the grocery store! There's a little mini-HEB where the kids can shop for groceries and then ring them up on REAL registers. Again, something I would've LOVED. Here's a picture of what Emmy put in her cart. Perhaps we need to have some serious discussions about nutrition.

Ok, to be fair, she did grab a rotisserie chicken first, but it kind of freaked me out a little so I made her put it back. She also found a box of crackers that we have at home and brought them to me. She didn't QUITE understand why she couldn't have any of the crackers she thought were inside.

After all that shopping we decided to express our artistic side and paint. The girls are expert painters by now, but Emmy and Benjamin managed to express thier inner Picasso with only a little carnage to their clothes. Emmy somehow has a blue spot directly in the middle of her butt. How the paint manages to find its way directly to the middle of her butt is a very strange phenomenon indeed. Benjamin just sported a little green patch of hair. Very punk.

We finished up with some playtime at the Tot Spot. It's like a Mall play area except WAY more clean, it doesn't smell like feet, and the adults actually watch thier children. Amazing concept. Emmy had a blast climbing up the stairs and sliding down the slide. There are also tons of other cool things to do like a gigantic lite brite, tunnels, a tea party house, spinning flowers, and lots of things to turn off and on, shut, and open.

We only hit a little bit in the few hours we were there, but it was pretty fun and I can't wait to go back and explore more!

This is so worth it!

So I just had one of those "wow, this is so worth it moments" of motherhood and I had to share. At this point I've put so many hours of time into working with Emmy on shapes, letters, numbers, animals, and sounds. Since she doesn't talk a whole lot yet (it's coming), you don't get a lot of feedback on your efforts. You know you're doing good and you just have to trust it.

But we just pulled out her Baby Einstein book that the Boyers gave her for her birthday and I asked her "Emmy, where is the.....?". She can point out every single animal in the book by its' name and noise!!!!! She got the horse, cow, frog, sheep, pig, duck, bird, flowers(ok flowers don't have a sounds) and even the owl!! I had no idea that she could do this! All those months are worth it in one second!

This weekend she kept putting her hands abover her head and waving them when we were outside. I knew it was a sign, but I wasn't sure what she was trying to tell us. I asked her teacher today at school and she told me they learned the sign for airplane at school last week. She was already putting two and two together to tell us she saw an airplane in the sky!

It's so amazing to watch her grow and learn. I can't believe that just a year ago she couldn't even move around and now my little baby girl is so smart. It's just incredible!!!!!!!!!

duh-dide... (Emmy speak for outside)

After about a month of being sick and being cooped up because it was cold, we finally got a nice mild day where we all felt relatively good so we took advantage of it and played in Emmy's favorite place... OUTSIDE!!! She wakes up in the morning and points to the door. All she ever wants to do is go duh-duh....so today she was in heaven!

Ever since she's been about six months old we've taken her to the Gleannloch Farms park to play, swing, and feed the ducks. She's never really cared anything about it.... until today! I'm so glad that she's finally ready to have fun! She loved climb up the stairs.....

......over the sqeaky bridges and then down the slide.


Then in typically Emmy Kenieval fashion, that got old and she wanted to start climbing up the slides and then coming down by herself. We're in trouble becasue she has my grace (that is sarcasm there) and absolutely no fear!
After we went to the park we had to go run a few errands and we stopped off for a quick lunch at Panera. I decided to be cool mom and not push the veggies for a meal. Emmy had an entire mac and cheese lunch. I think she inhaled the entire bowl in 2 minutes.

When we got home we contined the fun. Emmy roamed in the grass.....

....took some rides in the car and on her motorcycle (yes, she has miltiple vehicles)

,,,,and shot some hoops.. she's a natural =)

13 months: No cupcakes involved

Since we no longer have month pictures, and cupcake pictures (a wee bit feeling sad that my baby has outgrown these) I figure that I still need something to keep me posting. I use the blog a lot of times to look back at what Emmy was doing at a certain point in time. For some reason I can't seem to write it on a calendar, but I will blog =) A lot of my friends do this kind of recap, so if you're not up for the Emmy roll-call of awesomeness, just keep scrolling down for an recap of Napa from the Hubs....

Since Emmy is a big 13 month old now she:

• Still only has 4 teeth (with a BIG ole gap in between the front two) I'm starting to wonder if there's any more in there
• Sleeps from 8-9 on a good day, 8-8 pretty typically. They swear that she sleeps at school, but is still not napping for mom. I'll take the late sleep in over naps though. I'm not complaining.
• Signs Please, More, All Done : although sometimes she'll just run through these in a random order for fun, whatever works
• Says: Mama, Dada, Uh-oh, Hi, Bye-bye, Dog, Baby and can mimic just about anything you say.
• Will point at a cow and tell you it says moo - sounds like mmmmmmmmmmm
• Gives awesome lick sugars on the cheek, usually in rapid succession to anyone in the room. She's an equal opportunity kisser, everyone gets one.
• Is WAY into booty dancing and clapping. She will sqaut down, put her elbows on her knees and lift her little butt up and down in the air to music. She's especially fond of doing this to what Blake calls "church jams". If there's music on somewhere, she's dancing.
• Wakes up in the morning and wants to go outside immediately and ALL DAY...
• Will spend hours taking the things out of the bathroom cabinet, putting them in the bathtub and then doing it all over again. This NEVER gets old
• LOVES to read. She will grab the book, walk over to you, turn around, back up, drop into your lap and put her hands in her lap to read the book. It's pretty much adorable. Until about the 15th time that you read the SAME book in a day.
• Has somehow determined that if she sits on the floormat under the sink in the kitchen, she will get the food that she wants. She'll point at the cabinet and then go sit on the mat and wait. Sometimes signing please if she's REALLY putting it on thick. She is in love with grapes, cheese, anytype of crackers, and noodles.
• Is the official greeter of wherever she is... she has actually followed people down the isle at the grocery store waving at them and saying Hi until they acknowledge her. If they don't smile than she'll contine to wave and say "hi" louder and louder until they say hi to her how she wants them to. She followed one poor guy around Macy's while Blake was trying on clothes for about fifteen minutes. Yes, I kept letting her do it because it was funny and I was bored.
• Has developed a new "cute face" to charm her daddy. She puts her chin on her shoulder, and looks up at you from under her eyelashes. Yes, we're in trouble.

She's just a silly, silly, happy girl right now and is so much fun!

I Own A Restaurant!

...not really, but some people think so. When you have never gone on a vacation with another couple, what do you do, go on two in one year. Following up our vacation to Mexico with the Castille's in July, Kristen and I went with The Graesser's to Napa for a long weekend. Now it can be hard for two families with four children between them to find a chance to get away, so while on vacation we learned it is most important to live every moment to the fullest.

We arrived in San Francisco on Thursday morning and after getting the rental car made our way to northern Sonoma county by way of the Golden Gate Bridge. I don't think I could ever get tired of this piece of Americana. Only my second time to cross, but I was even more excited than my first. Kristen, Ann and Andrew made fun of my excitement as we passed over the bay and out of San Francisco. Of course I got into the California spirit calling out directions, "take the 101 to Golden Gate..." The trip had officially begun.

When you go on a trip to the wine country, and you leave Frisco, what do you do? Go check in at the hotel? No. Wander around a small northern California town? No. Drive an hour and a half to your first winery, barely stopping to grab lunch? Yes. Only making a pit stop to grab a sandwich at the Oakville Grocery, we made our first stop in Headelsburg at Ferrari-Carano. Ann's aunt had given the recommendation and the place did not disappoint. Walking a few steps toward the production facility, Kristen made a very astute observation. "It smells like wine out here!" Until that moment we had all been clueless as to our motive for coming so far. Thank you Honey! Reassured, we continued our walk towards the tasting room with a "trip term" in tow.

Ferrari-Carano is built to resemble a Tuscan winery. Tall Italian Cypress trees line the walkways, breathtaking views of the rolling hills greet you in every direction and each building built as villas, all helping you forget you are in...Napa...Wait, sounds like something we should have in Houston. I want to feel like I'm in Napa when I'm in Napa. I want to think I'm in Tuscany when I'm in Houston. As if one the second most beautiful place on Earth was not good enough, the owners did their best to make you feel as if you were in the most beautiful place on Earth. Good thinking...amazing place.

You know the trip is going to be a success when you have a great time with your first tasting host. Phillipe, originally of Paris, France, kept it light and shared his knowledge of wine with the four of us as we sampled some of the best Ferrari-Carano had to offer. They had very large wine glasses for tasting at the bar. When we acknowledged their size, Phillipe asked how much wine we thought would fit into one glass. We called out everything from a quarter to a half a bottle, so he decided to show us. Finishing off a bottle of Cab, he filled the entire bottle with water and poured the entire thing in one glass. Even more remarkable, there was still room left in the glass. He was eager to point out that if you get pulled over, regardless of how much wine we had tasted, we could always say that we only had one glass.We thanked him for his time, took in the beautiful basement bar and bought some beverages for home consumption. One down, so many more to go.

After making the drive back to Napa and checking in at out hotel (btw...1801 First is great place to stay and Tony/Linda are great hosts), we set out for what was the first of three amazing meals. For those of you that have not been to Napa before, it is home to some of the greatest restaurants in the world owned and operated by some of the most successful chefs on the planet. For graduation, Kristen had given me a gift that I had been looking forward to for some time, the tasting menu at Bottega. Of course, upon arrival we felt special. Not only did we get our own menu, but it was a whirlwind of amazing food and wine pairings (not found on the regular menu)at the best table in the restaurant, the Queen's Table, as Chef Michael Chiarello was quick to point out. He, after all, came by our table to greet us as we sampled the black truffle risotto that was laid before us. I was starstruck, he said he was honored to have us as guests, and Andrew was quick to point out that he thought Chef had just called me a queen. "Trip term" #2 had been born...

The day of travel mixed with the food and wine left us tired and ready for bed. We awoke the next morning to a grand breakfast at 1801 First. We enjoyed French Toast with Blackberry Compote and Creme Freche beforesetting off to a favorite of mine and Kristen's from our first trip to Napa, Schramsberg. If you have not been to Napa, or if you have been before but not been to Schramsberg, it is one of the best. The morning fog had not lifted, so we drove up the hillside through the fog to the winery perched on top. We learned about the painstaking and long process of crafting a premium sparkling wine while roaming the caves of Schramsberg. Unlike many of the wineries you visit in Napa, the fermentation process for the sparkling wine at Schramsberg happens inside each bottle as they are hand riddled in the caves. There are stacks and stacks of bottles in the caves at times 50 bottles high and 50 bottles deep. Its a feat of balance and perfect placement.

After the tour, we sampled at a table full of people that we should not have been sitting with. Sometime in the middle, our host (who unfortunately, while full of information and doing his best to give us very interesting information, had his fly completely open during the entire thing) caught wind that the couple at the end of the table owned a restaurant in Florida that served their product. It was a game changer. He was instantly focused on them and them only. Its as if owning a restaurant was an intense pheromone. He was in love. I almost spit out my bubbly when the man who owned a restaurany turned my way and asked if I too was a restaurateur. I, of course said no, but Andrew had other ideas. When we made it out of the winery, there was a new plan in place. I also apparently owned a restaurant. We called it a social experience. The trip would never be the same.

We left Schramsberg and visited Graeser and Sterling. At Graeser, Andrew dropped the "Daddy" word on the Owner as we sampled with a host that we felt wanted a little too badly to take over the operation when the current Owner finally passed. Of course, only missing one "S" in his name, Andrew and Ann thought they had a better chance to inherit the place hence the long lost father title dropping. I said he wouldn't do it and lost the bet. Now he has a replica Graeser winery glass for his collection.





Of course the day wouldn't be complete without putting the new plan into action. Andrew had been threatening to lay it on thick at any moment, and when it came, I wasn't ready. As we toured and tasted at Cakebread, with a host that felt along with wine, it was his duty to provide a comedy routine, Andrew let it fly.

"Boss, do we carry these wines at the restaurant?" Hearing this, the host replied, "Do you own a restaurant?" "Sure do..." I said. "A Tex-Mex place in Houston." As this passed through my lips I began to frantically think of an answer to what would inevitably think would be the next question. What is the name of your restaurant? But it never came. Instead, the host focused all of his attention on us, ignoring the other couple that was in the tour (barely acknowledging their presence). At one point, he asked..."What type of bean do you enjoy working with the most?" Now how do I answer this? I'm not a chef, I'm an Owner, and the only thing I can think of due to my long history eating tex-mex is pinto bean. "Doesn't everytone enjoy the pinto bean?" I ask. Hearing this he takes me on a long, strange trip about organic beans and where they can be found in some market in the middle of downtown Napa. I listened intently, but was working my way to the exit. Only then he asked where we would be dining that evening. I said Bouchon, one of Keller's restaurants. He objected saying that some of Keller's lackeys ran the place, and that we would be better served at Bistro Jeanty. He INSISTED that we make it to Jeanty. "They have tomato soup that will make you happy God put hair on your head," he said. He even made us a second reservation at Jeanty. I thanked him for his help and laughed when he suggested that he knew Keller on a first name basis and hung out with him and his girlfriend. In fact, according to him, we didn't want to know Thomas Keller's nickname or how he got it...hilarious...all from "I own a restaurant." Andrew insisted that as soon as it was known, anyone and everyone in ear shot of that statement "wanted to make out with me". Trip term #3 had arrived...

But done with wineries for the day, we weren't. Luckily for Andrew and I, the last tasting happened at our bed and breakfast. The owner/operator of Tres Sabores, a fully organic winery in the valley, had a sampling of her wines available for us to try. She was great. You could see the passion she had for the work she was doing, sharing her premium wines and her love for the planet. But that didn't stop Drew. As she poured her second and most tasty beverage, Por Que No?, Andrew asked me if we carried her wines, and it was on. The rest of the night was a blur as Kristen got asked to a charity event in Houston, Andrew and I shared laughs and a personal bottle of wine provided by another couple staying at the bed and breakfast and our B&B host, Tony, joined in the fun. You could tell he was becoming comfortable with us and shared his opinions on everything Napa. He is a very reliable source of information. After the night cap, we loaded in the car for another fabulous meal at Bistro Jeanty. Upon arrival, we were greeted by the host with congratulations on our anniversary and Ann's birthday (how did he know?) and were led to the best table in the restaurant. The tomato soup was amazing! The rest spectacular! We were getting a little too used to being treated so special, and we knew at some point it would be back to reality...

...but that would not be on Saturday, the last in Napa. Andrew and I did our best to keep it a surprise and we caught the girls off guard in the morning as a limo pulled into the street in front of our bed and breakfast. If we were trying to drop the "I own a restaurant" tag and be normal for a day, this was not going to be that day. The limo took us to Spring Mountain, owned by an eccentric swiss banker, Jackie, who lays out the details for each and every part of his winery. Apparently this man has one of the five largest personal wine cellars in the world, a true sign that he really cares for the product. Rule #1 at Spring Mountain, all wines must be made from wines only grown on the property. That being said, the estate is over 800 acres, ridiculous as far as wineries are concerned. But Spring Mountain is concerned tremendously with quality. So despite the size, they make very limited quantities of amazing wine. I have added Spring Mountain to my list of places I will return to on my next napa visit. That list is now two deep. Schramsberg and Spring Mountain. If any of you have ever seen Falcon Crest, the mansion that the swiss banker stays in on the property is shown at the beginning of that television show. We were lucky enough to be early and alone so we not only got a glimpse of the caves where they store the wine, but also the inside of the Falcon Crest mansion. Jackie has an affinity for interesting pieces of furniture, so her periodically sends the property something new that he finds for inclusion in his pad. Fun life, huh...









We left Spring Mountain and found ourselves at a tiny winery atop an out of the way hill with a 30-something host/owner that made us feel at home in his pod. The place had been suggested by our driver and Manny was gracious for the traffic. I think he was relieved that we were younger and so he jammed to the tunes he had playing and spoke of the wines he shared and the vision he had for his winery. It was funny and refreshing. Not pretentious. Just good wine. We laughed after Manny shaking his head from an apparent night before of partying, stated that this would be the last time that he smoked before coming to a tasting. The winery is still in its infancy as far as accomodations are concerned (see the outhouse and Manny's instructions that I could pee anywhere since we were outside), but the product is there. Totally recommended.

After seeing two polar opposites out of the gate, we finished with a tasting at Frog's Leap, another organic winery. Great scene, but due to our time limit, resticted in what we could do. On the way back to the bed and breakfast we decided that the girls needed a little extra pampering, so we called Linda and scheduled them mani pedi's at a local spa. After a quick lunch at the Oxbow Market in downtown Napa where I got to see my organic beans, we dropped off the girls and headed out for a guy's only tasting at Regusci. Drew and I laughed as we shared the final wines of the trip without the ladies, even getting hit on by two girls from Chico. Party girls as our Australian host suggested. Kristen of course was "amused" with our story, but we were quick to point out that they probably just thought we were together...really together...and just wanted some wine tasting friends...We topped off the rock and roll day with a wonderful dinner at Mustard's. Our waiter was quick to point out that the pork chop was "spiritual" so Andrew and I both jumped at the chance to see if a higher power could be seen in food. I mean, the tomato soup from the night before made me happy I had hair on my head. This had to be just as good if not better.





The next day we travelled back to San Fran and took in Pier 39/Fisherman's Wharf, Chinatown, Lombard Street and some other special features of the city. We even made time to stop at another random Chinatown restaurant for Dim Sum. Quite the experience. We are zero for two when it comes to Chinese food in Chinatown in San Francisco. Overall, it was a great trip. We had many great moments that will be part of our memories forever. We loved celebrating so many special occasions with Ann and Andrew and we hope to go back sometime in the future.