Author Archives: Vale

Kiera’s ChristmasBirthday Party

18 Dec 2012

A couple of random iPhone snaps to remember the awesomeness of the night.


Oh YOU KNOW there were some amazing Christmas cookies…


Awww. (Behind Chief you can see the photobooth backdrop)


Surprise Guest! UJ!
Whaaat!? Such a fun surprise!
And we got Aunt Pam on the phone, and it was some great Gott family love.

You might want to know,
There are much better photos over here at (the
NEW & IMPROVED) Natural Light Photography Website!

We put the kids down in Kiera & Cole’s bed so we could stay longer…

Fun times. Happy Holidays, and the best year ever (twentynine!) and a new
apartment layout, and festive jammies, Cherry M&Ms?!, ancient rap reggae, best friends, family, and a new NLP website…

dare I say?
Epic

Gingerbread Houses

17 Dec 2012

Not Like Mom Used To Make.

But, still super fun. Trader Joe’s Kits have the genius of architectural gravity on their side.
You can erect the walls, raise the roof, and put the candy on with no waiting.

Nanu, thank you so much for coming over and helping me uphold the tradition!
And for bringing candy too – We just made it!
The “giant” amount of icing I made? Was just enough. (#Itoldyouso)

The kids want to eat these SO BAD.
I told them they need to wait until the evening of the 24th.

Poll: Shall I keep my word, or shall I cave early?

Tree Hunting (Or, How To Obtain Your Tree In 3 Visits To One Lot)

12 Dec 2012

Oscar and I made a pact to bring home the same type of tree as we had last year. We fell in love with it’s elegant style, and we want to make this type of tree “Our Tree”.
It’s known (at this lot, anyways) as a “Silver Tip”. Grown at high elevation, it’s not cut from a tree farm, and comes in limited supply. What else can I say. It’s special, and we had to have it.

We planned for a Friday evening, and went to the same lot as last year.
Upon arrival, we had fun, acted silly, and only noticed a little later that they had ZERO Silver Tips in our desired height range (8 to 11 feet).
7 ft. was too short, and 12 ft., too $$$!

The tree people said they were getting new Silver Tips in the next evening. So we left. Lucy was heartbreakingly sweet, pointing out how many perfectly good trees there were, and how we really should bring one home. She cried. Mark looked up other lots, but no one had Silver Tips. We did a Delancey St. drive by, but they didn’t got nuthin’.
We distracted our sadness with Bi-Rite Ice Creams.

When we arrived, they said they Did have the trees we were looking for. However they were still locked on the truck, and they didn’t have the key. They said come back in an hour. What? Mark got someone to take our phone number so they could call us. We went to stall at the Stonestown mall.
Oh yeah, and when we left the lot, again, without a tree, Lucy cried.

We got the call. We arrive on the now very familiar scene. The woman said to me, “Well, we have them, but they’re not so great. Follow me.” UGH. So we walk to the back, where it’s poorly lit, and there are palates strewn around a big dark wet ditch. She picks up a perfect height Silver Tip, straight as an arrow. I say, “I’ll take it.”
(who knows what trees she had been looking at, but clearly it wasn’t ours).
Hooray!!
By the Way, Lucy cried again, leaving the lot – this time because I wasn’t actually carrying the tree, and she thought we were leaving Again with out a tree. Now Lucy, that would be a little crazy, don’t you think?

Ta Da:

Isabella’s Birthday Party

12 Dec 2012

I just so happened to ABSOLUTELY LOVE this party.
Isabella turned Seven! The party was held at American Gymnastics Club, and even though Lucy was the littlest kid there – she was SO into it. (I would love to know what she was thinking in her head. Probably, something along the lines of, “can I move in!?”) She was shy for about 59 seconds, then she jumped to it.

Sweet Kiera made the cake – Rainbow! With Fondant Icing! And soooooo delicious.
(Here’s her post.)
Thanks for having us, Kelly Family! xoxo

PS. This is a phone snapshot (Instagram) of Oscar and Isabella after watching City Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker, at the Palace of Fine Arts, the day before.