Book Club Christmas

We had a great time at book club Christmas...Aunt Patty made "I Love Bookclub" shirts for the bookclub mascots...Ellie, Cole, and Mateo. And Marnie hosted the pre-dinner reception at her house. We were back the next night for an Italian feast that Marnie and I made. And most importantly, we set dates for our Italy 2008 trip. We will be at a villa in Tuscany for a week in June, and then people will add on side trips as they want to. The group voted that Jim & Marnie and Matt & me should be the planners as we have both spent time in Italy before. Matt & I honeymooned there...and Jim and Marnie visited for a pre-kid trip. We have talked about it for a long time, and now it is becoming a reality. How lucky are we to have such good friends to spend such a great time together. I am certainly blessed!

Let there be cake!!

Mateo had a great first birthday party...he got to hang out with the book club girls, who outfitted him with stylish clothes and with some good books. Aunt Rachel & Uncle John hooked him up with a Tupperware Shape Ball and a Fisher-Price Farm set-up. And his Silverton party had all our close friends who helped him open presents...and they even got treat bags to boot!

Mateo used his birthday as training grounds for learning how to open presents...a skill which he has mastered now after many weeks of present opening! Mom and Dad are a bit overwhelmed though...seems like there are WAY TOO MANY toys now. Perhaps we will have to celebrate half-birthdays instead.

Anyway, thought you would enjoy the cake eating pictures...he had it everywhere...we even found some in his ear the next morning!

Hugs from Oregon...Sarah

Mateo's birthday is coming...

HI friends,

Sorry it has been so long since our last post. I don't have a good excuse...it's just been a crazy three weeks! We're off to Boise tomorrow to have Book Club Christmas to begin planning our big excursion to Italy in June 2008.

Mateo finally recovered from his gastric issues, so we have begun the treatment for the TB exposure. Now of course, he has another cold in his chest, but he likes taking "Little Bits" (i.e. Triaminic or Baby Tylenol).

It seems so crazy that he turns one on Friday...in the past few weeks, he is totally walking all over the place...we used to have 1-3 minutes to react when we set him down...now if we aren't careful, in 10 seconds he is in the next room digging in the pots & pans drawer.

We finally got our tree up last weekend, just in time for our annual Christmas party! We had a great time surrounded by our friends and family kicking off our holiday season.

More pictures from the various birthday celebrations this week...hope all is well. Love you and miss you, Sarah & Matt & Mateo