Tess's 3rd Birthday

We celebrated Tess's 3rd birthday with a small get together of just immediate family and a few close friends.  We had about 20 people join us for swimming, a delicious Mexican feast, cake, and presents in the backyard of our wonderful Aunt Debbie and Uncle Dick.  We thoroughly enjoyed having everyone together to celebrate our sweet girl.  Below are some pics of the day, and a video of Tess taking her first successful bike ride. 

Tess seemed to have a lot of fun playing on the trampoline and swimming with her cousins and best friends.  Baby Kate was the star of the party, though, making her first "swimsuit debut" and taking her first dip in the pool.

We had Tess's cake made by Barb's Cakery in Fresno -- they make delicious cakes and are becoming a family favorite for us!  I sent them a picture of the party invite and they were able to match the colors and décor, no problem.  Of course Tess managed to get her finger in the side of the cake before I could even take a picture of it....but it was her cake, so that's okay!

 

 

 

 

Happy Easter 2014

We had a lovely Easter this year, and how FUN it was to have two darling girls to dress in matching outfits!

 

We attended church with Chad's parents Barbara and Paul, and then headed out to American Avenue in Reedley for an afternoon lunch with lots of family: my parents Cliff and Melody, Barbara and Paul, Chris and Kristi and their daughters Elise and Everlee, and my Uncle Randy (visiting from Thousand Oaks).  The girls enjoyed an impressive, color-coded Easter egg hunt and filled their baskets to overflowing!

 

Speaking of Easter egg hunts, some of the pics in the slideshow below are from a MASSIVE Easter egg hunt we attended at The Southgate Church in SE Fresno.  Pastored by my aunt and uncle Dave and Gloria White, The Southgate puts on this 2,000+ egg event for families in the surrounding communities. We were blessed to get an invite this year and Tess brought home lots of little treasures! 

Christmas 2013

Here are some slide shows from various Christmas-related events this Holiday season! 

First up...decorating our Christmas tree.  Since it was our first Christmas in our new house, we weren't sure exactly where we would put our tree (and where it would fit best). On Thanksgiving I managed to score a really skinny artificial tree for about $50 that I knew would work until we had some experience with our new space.  Tess had a blast helping decorate it, and true to toddler form, most of the ornaments she hung ended up on just one or two branches of the tree.  It was a joy watching her open each ornament and exclaim, "Oooh, this one's SO pretty!"

Next... our Holiday gathering with Chad's extended family, the Drydens.  The majority of the Drydens live in Hollister, and the whole clan came to Fresno for a party at Chad's parents' home.  Tess had so much fun playing with all of the cousins and it was wonderful to spend time with everyone!

 

 

Below are some pics from our Christmas Day.  Tess awoke to the special present Santa had brought her: a play kitchen!  After getting ready, we headed to Reedley for our traditional family breakfast (stuffed blueberry French toast casserole) and opening stockings and presents with the Unruh/Haas family at American Avenue.  From there we headed to River Bluff Drive, where Chad's parents Paul and Barbara joined the Unruhs and Haases for Christmas dinner.  Tess enjoyed watching Grandpa's model train circle around the Christmas tree, and listening to us sing carols around the piano.  In the early evening as we headed home, we stopped to visit Chad's parents Geoff and Toni and open a few last-minute gifts there.

 

It was an exhausting and wonderful day!  In all of the excitement and busyness, we totally neglected to take a family picture...at least not one I can find in any of my saved photos anywhere.  I'll keep looking!  Hope everyone had a blessed Christmas this year!

 

 

Easter 2013

I was excited about Easter this year, since Tess is now of the age where Easter baskets are more exciting and the Easter-egg hunt is a viable source of entertainment for her. (Well, let's face it, it's really more for us.) We had a couple of Easter celebrations this year, given our extensive family tangle....we started with pre-Easter dinner in Reedley with my parents and Aunt Debbie/Uncle Dick, where Tess did a "dress rehearsal" of the big hunting event. What a hoot! Grandma had made real, dyed Easter eggs which Tess was able to run around and pick up with her basket. However, whenever she bent over to pick up one egg, another toppled out of the basket. For a bit, we thought the hunt would go on forever! It was quite funny. Next up, she modeled her Easter dress for the family and we attempted to take some backyard pictures. 

 

On Easter Sunday we drove up to Modesto with Paul and Barbara to spend the day with Chris, Kristi, Elise and Everlee. We joined them for church at Calvary Chapel, and then had a delicious lunch while the babies (Tess and Everlee) napped. In the afternoon, Kristi staged a MASSIVE Easter-egg hunt, which included a few dozen "real" (dyed) eggs and then about 10 dozen plastic eggs filled with candy. This didn't work so well for Tess....every time she came across an egg, she plopped onto the ground and wanted to open it and eat its contents. OR she wanted to run off with it ("put it in the basket" was like speaking Chinese to her) OR chase after the neighbor's dog.  This REALLY was the hunt with no end in sight, so after about 15 minutes of trying to get her to comply we decided to just take the little ones inside and open Easter baskets.

 

Here's a big "thank you" to the Grandmas (Melody & Barbara) for making sure Tess is always the most beautiful/adorable baby girl in sight....I absolutely loved both of her Easter dresses!  Below are pictures and video of our fun family day.
 

Mini Staycation...

Sometimes you just need to get away.....even if it's for 24 hours (or less) and even if it's in your own backyard (almost). As much as we wanted to take a full weekend and go to the coast, we managed to coordinate a quick overnight getaway last weekend -- in Reedley, of all places! We had wine tasted at Cedar View Winery before, and decided to give their B&B a shot. After a long, leisurely, and super-satisfying dinner in Fresno at Parma Ristorante, we headed to the countryside for a night of quiet, restful sleep -- and sleeping in -- and a delicious home-cooked breakfast. We owe a BIG "thank you" to Tess's Grandma and Grandpa in Reedley for keeping her overnight for us!

 

Baby's First Easter

We had a lovely Easter Sunday, celebrating with local family and friends!  In the morning we attended our small church group and after the meeting had a lovely brunch together.  From there, Chad and I headed to Reedley for a beautiful Easter dinner at my Aunt and Uncle's house out in the country.  I managed to get some adorable pics of Tess out on the grass with a little Peter Rabbit from her very first Easter basket (thank you, Grandma!).  While we ate and visited in the backyard, Tess napped in the warm, fresh air in her Pack 'N' Play. In the afternoon we left Reedley and headed to Chad's mom's place for a light dinner and dessert, and another Easter basket for our little Tess.  See below for pics from "Baby's First Easter" -- we were so blessed to have such a wonderful day for this milestone!

Baby's First Christmas

Our Christmas this year was quite extended, which is to be expected, I guess, when you have an adorable "first Christmas" baby to show off! We spent five straight days celebrating with family, the good news being that we were able to spend each day in one place. The pics below are from Christmas morning and were taken at my aunt and uncle's place in Reedley.

One of our first "family" Christmas photos

 

Tess in her Christmas finery ~ one of her two special "first Christmas" dresses.

On Friday, December 23rd we drove over to Hollister for a Christmas gathering with Chad's extended family.  His Uncle Ted and Aunt Diane hosted, with a special appearance from Santa Claus. It was great to see everyone and take pictures of all the great-granddaughters together.  (Yes, all 6 great-grandchildren are GIRLS!) This was also Tess's first time meeting her extended Dryden family.  We had a great night!



Five of the six great-granddaughters (Everlee was missing)

Tess with Santa (aka Uncle Ted)

On Saturday (Christmas Eve), the Suich family (Ron, Meg & Uncle Richard) and my Uncle Dan all came up for a visit and present exchange.  It was one of those relaxing days where we all hung out at home in comfy clothes, and so Tess didn't get a special outfit OR much camera time!

We spent Christmas Day in Reedley.  It started with a wonderful breakfast (our traditional stuffed blueberry French toast casserole ~ thanks, Valerie!), church at Reedley MB with the family, and then presents and Christmas dinner at American Avenue (my aunt & uncle's place). 

The day after Christmas, Chris, Kristi and the girls (Elise & Everlee) came down from Modesto and we spent the day at Paul and Barbara's.  We also arranged for Kimi-G Photography (who did my maternity photos and Tess's newborn photos) to come out and take portraits of the girls (Elise, Everlee, and Tess) in their matching Christmas dresses. 

On Tuesday the 27th we went over to Geoff and Toni's (along with Chris, Kristi, Elise & Everlee) for a belated Christmas celebration with Tess's Great Grandma Vida and Toni's family (Michelle & Kevin, kids Toby & Kyra, and Melissa and daughter MiKayla).  It was really special to have Grandma Vida there and get pictures of her with Tess. 

By Tuesday night we were exhausted and I was coming down with a cold that lingered for most of the week!  It was great that Chad was still on vacation so that we could relax and recover together.  On Friday we got to see our friends Brian and Colette (visiting from San Diego) and on Saturday our friend Susanna (visiting from Israel) came over for a visit.  SO many people got to meet Tess over the holidays, and we had a great time showing off our precious girl!

Below are some pics of the various festivities.  The formal pics from Kimi-G Photography will be posted as soon as I have them!