Studious

I took these photos a few weeks back and forgot to post them. But matthew is getting pretty good with using pens and crayons. and does good with only writing on the paper. well until he start the chew on the pen. hopefully that will end once he's done teething. But you cant get upset at him with a smile like that!

our new place

We just moved into our new apartment this weekend! We've been staying with Grandma Helen since about august or so and we are SO thankful for her hospitality for allowing us to stay there so long and until we found our own place. And although we are sad to leave her, we are excited to be starting a new chapter in the apartment with our little family. The best part is that Matthew has his own room for all his toys and away from me so i don't wake him up with my snoring anymore. It was fun moving in especially since its on the 3rd floor!! we couldn't have done it without the help of our friends, so thanks Kalani & Tim, Jon and Amy, Helen and of course U-haul :D. I hope they are not as sore as I am today. I have blisters on the bottom of some of my toes! yikes. While there's still a lot of organizing to be done. We have alot done.
Here's a Quick panorama I took tonight for y'all to get a feel of our new place. Dont worry Better Normal Photos will be coming soon.

Click here for super large view

Playing at the Playground

The weather here in Houston has been really crazy lately. Some days will be down in the 40's or 50's, then in the 7o's the next. Today it was in the 70's and beautiful so when i got home from school we decided to take advantage and head to the Bear Creek Park near us to have some fun time with Matthew. He was kinda tired when we got there but had a ball playing on the jungle gyms and swinging on the swings. There are actually 2 different Jungle gyms set up pretty close to each other so he loved climbing up one, sliding down then running across to the other one and doing the same thing. over and over again. He was a little unsure about the wobbly bridge the first time. but after that he really had no fear. We hope there will be more days like today so we can take him there more often. Check out the photos from today.

best viewed in full screen mode. click the bottom right button in the slide show

Rocking Horse

Matthew got a surprise Christmas present from Grandma Helen and his Great Grandma and Grandpa Ratliff. He's had it only a since Saturday but he's really getting the hang of it. He still has a foot or so to go before he can get on himself but he loves it. Tonight he really got into it and we had to post some video.



NERD Tip!
I posted this video from flickr instead of using the crappy built in blogger video player because flickr does a lot better job trans coding the video so you get a better quality vid. Plus i dont know if you've noticed how crappy your video looks after you upload it to blogger. thats because they compress the heck out of it to save space and bandwidth. flickr doesn't. so you get video that looks 10x better and allows you to view in full screen as well, if you feel so inclined. just fyi

Happy Birthday's

mama and son, originally uploaded by ailona.

I know its this is late. but i wanted to at least put something up and tell you i love you. Even though you might not agree. you are more beautiful every day to me. Im glad we got to spend the day together. and thanks Grandma Helen for watching matthew while we went out to dinner.
I hope you enjoyed today and I look forward to many many more birthdays with you!

and HAPPY BIRTHDAY KALANI!



The Nutcracker Ballet
For christmas Helen took us all to see the Ballet. It was quite the experience. The seats were amazing and we the dancing was awesome. here are some photos together after the show.

Whats for Dinner

Tonight we thought we'd put our new Vita Mix blender to work and make dinner. Chicken Spinach Potato Soup! Made mostly from left over food from last week.
it was delicious!!
If your thinking that you haven't heard of this blender, your probably more familiar with it than you think. Its basically the same blender that Jamba Juice and Smoothie King use to make you smoothies. Theirs are just more automated. you can find out more HERE

Whats for Dinner, originally uploaded by ailona.

*No pot or pans were used in the making of this soup. just the vita mix blender :D

Christmas Day

Thought id share some photos from today for my family and friends back home. We really miss you guys. But We had an awesome day. Thanks Helen for all the yummie food and great presents. you really did great. And thanks to Tim and Kalani for sharing it with us. it really made it special for us.