It's the Most Wonderful Time...

WE'RE REHEARSING FOR THIS YEARS HOLIDAY VIDEO, PEOPLE!  

Hooray!  

After last year's bust, I think this year's video is going to be extra special magic sauce.  We're trying to get Lua used to taking direction and being video taped by herself (last year she was really scared), but as you can see, I don't think we'll have that problem this year;)

Click HERE to watch!

PS - this video has zero things to do with our Holiday video, so don't go gettin' any ideazzzzz!

happy baby.

Sorry we've been MIA lately! It's been such a crazy week. I worked 6 days in a row for the first time since I've been back, which just about killed all of us and took a major toll on our holiday spirit :(. Andrew was great about keeping me updated with photos and videos all day, but, to be honest, it kind of made the day stink more. Every time my phone buzzed, I cried knowing that I was missing some big smile or giggle. As you can see in the photos and video below, even with her first cold, she is the smiliest/happiest babe in the land:)

We (andrew mostly) dog sat this weekend for the uncles in the west village and what little time I was able to spend with the family there was fabulous. Sometimes it's so nice to just get away from your house for a few days - even if it's just a subway ride away!

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone has a safe and merry weekend!  Enjoy our annual Holiday Video :-)

christmas past.

...in the last post, i mentioned our annual cao christmas card, which is well on it's way to completion for this year.  i took a second to revisit our first two years of christmas cards and thought i should go ahead and share/re-share them with you, so you can see where we've been!  i think we'll always do our holiday greetings this way and i'm so excited to have beetle around this year to make her debut!

yes, that's andrew and i singing, too :)

snapshots.

So, I just found the coolest iphone ap - picture show.  I've been looking for something like instagram - which I love - but, without the requirement to post the photo right away (sometimes I take too many photos of beetle!).  Picture Show features totally edit-able photos, plus some pre-fixed actions/filters for quick adjustments!  Check out the snapshots of the beetle this week :)

P.S. -  Yes! We got Lu a Christmas tree this year :)  She loves looking at all the twinkly lights and I love having something green in the apartment, if only for a couple months.

 

P.P.S. - can you tell I LOVE the film strip frame!?!

holiday cheer.

the Cao family has started this awesome annual tradition:  Holiday Decorating party/contest! we love our friends, playing games and being creative, so this party is just about perfect.  the first year we did cookie decorating, but the last two years have been a graham cracker extravaganza!  my little brother myles and i made chili (which was a big hit!) and got pretty loaded on sweets ;)  lua handled all the excitement fairly well, considering she was on the verge of a cold and it was way past her bedtime!  merry merry!

i asked everyone to give me their best "game-on" face :)

love all the pics of the family throughout the years :)

all that candy for decorating!  we're serious here, folks.

the beetle judging everyone's piece.

the beginnings of chili!

our friend jake, caught in the act.

making palm trees for my "welcome to paradise" piece.

becca dolan "dolanator" working on her graham "packer" field ;)

we love each other ;)

i hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season as much as we are.  i go back to work soon and so am really trying to soak up every lovely second with my family and friends!