I Love Paris, er, Napa in the Springtime...

10 Reasons to Love Spring in Napa, CA1. Wildflowers.

2. Alston Park.

3. Oak Trees (and wildflowers!)

4. Enjoying the great outdoors with your husband and baby.

5. Dawn.

6. Hot air balloons filling the sky right after dawn.

7. Playgrounds. (aka Isabella's turf)

8. Eating the wind (or attempting to).

Playgrounds!

9. Swinging.

10. Isabella (my #1 reason I enjoy Napa)

We Moved.

After a long blogging absence, the Holsten Family Blog is back. We moved to a new apartment in Napa. Details and photos will come in a future post, but for now meet our new neighbor.

Cow.
We are country dwellers now.

Hyper Baby

January 2009: A New Era, a new house, and a college scholarship

Political opinions aside, I am thrilled to see such history made in my lifetime and at the beginning of Isabella's lifetime with the election of President Obama. I am also happy to feel an attitude of positivity surrounding government and politics in our country. A new day has come (sing it, Celine!) and I'm all about an attitude of service and a spirit of asking what we can do for our country.
I am hopeful for a brighter future for our country. And by that I secretly mean, economically. And the secret behind that secret is that I secretly hope that this year will by my year for prosperity, even if it just happens to be free. With my new found hope I have embarked on two campaigns to better my life and the life of my family: the HGTV Dream House sweepstakes and the Beautiful Baby Search on Regis and Kelly. The Dream House is located this year in Sonoma, just a few miles away from Napa--I'd be crazy NOT to try to win a new house and car, right? As for the Beautiful Baby Search...I hesitated on this one after two family members and 2 friends told me about it. That is, until I found out The Beautiful Baby will win a $125,000 college scholarship. Cute babies, move over! Here's Isabella's winning shot. It screams: personality! poise! adorability! If all I have to do is send in a picture to have Isabella's college education potentially paid for, isn't that worth a little exploitation?! Any responsible mother would do it...

Another January milestone: Isabella sits.

As it turns out, sitting and smiling for the camera are two skills that
actually require a little coordination.
Attempt #1

Attempt #2 we're almost there...

Attempt #3...and we have it.

Another acquired skill: finger foods. Isabella rejects anything that's not pureed.
See the fear in her face at the prospect of eating a Cheerio?

Mark demonstrates how to eat a Cheerio (yes, that's intended to be singular.
Hopefully she'll be eating Cheerios by the time she's a teenager)

We wish you and yours a joyous 2009. Happy New Year! If all goes according to our New Year's Eve Panda Express fortune cookie fortunes, Mark will be taking me on a trip to China (right after we move into our dream house and send out Isabella's college applications)

Skiing with Curley and Moe

My Dad and Steve Stiefvater have been friends since their days at Cal, 125 years ago. They've also been ski buddies for about that long. They've taught their children, friends, and various boy scout troops to ski. Over the years they have fine tuned their methods, skills and (since I've been gone) their ski day schedules. Since I would be going skiing with them this time (after a long absence) I was given specific instructions on how our day would unfold.

I must say it was executed with impressive precision.

5:00 a.m.: wake up, leave Mill Valley by 5:30.


7:15 a.m. : arrive at the Rocklin Starbucks to meet up with Steve. Transfer ski equipment into one car.

7:30 a.m. : Stop at Safeway (grocery store) to pick up power bars (for the 10 am snack) and sandwiches (for the 12 p.m. lunch). The lady at the deli counter is to make the lunch order to exact specifications: Two roast beef sandwich wraps cut in half and individually wrapped. (The "wrap" is key so that they can stuff one 1/2 in each of their parka's pockets. This is so they don't have to return to the car to get their lunch, at high noon. I, of course, did not know the system and ordered my roast beef on a sandwich roll--too big to stuff in my parka. I guess that decision made me the 3rd stooge) 7:45 am: Final leg to Tahoe begins. Conversation of politics, stocks, housing crisis and the problems with
education begins. "What do you think are the top 5 problem Obama faces when he takes office?"
The conservative in the front seat asks his audience.

1. Health care
2. Housing crisis
3. Financial crisis
4. Education reform
5. The war in Iraq/Afghanistan
The moderate, independently-minded but tends -to- lean- conservative
audience in the back seat, responds.
No national problems are solved on this car trip , but we arrive on time to
Sugar Bowl at 8:57 a.m. (ETA 9:00)

The transformation from old business men to expert skiiers begins with the donning
of the ski apparel. Of course, the older these two get the longer it takes for them to get ready.

I realized as I pulled my ski poles out of the car that it'd been a few years since their last use.

I don't know what Steve's excuse was (his boots, last used last year had
as much dust and as many cobwebs as my poles)

Sandwich-wraps and power bars strategically placed in the parka pockets.

Normally on the top of the mountain by 9:30, my presence and my need to
rent my equipment (+ the crowds that day) delayed the start by an hour.

10:30 a.m.: Finally on the lift.

10:30 am - 12:00ish: a group effort to help me with my form.
Dig your edges into the hill!
Keep your weight on the bottom ski!
Lean forward!
Fluid movements!

12:00 p.m. Lunch at the lodge.
2:30 p.m. Last run
3:00 p.m. Meet the Dads back at the car. Katie drives home.

4:30 p.m. Christmas gift exchange in parking lot before leaving Steve off at his car. His gift from my Dad? A halitosis detector. (You'd think these two were still in the frat. house)
Mary, Kate: next year you need to come and save me from our fathers. :)

The advent of Advent: New Traditions and Old...

New Tradition: Isabella

I loved Advent calendars as a kid. I don't remember them with chocolates or toys--just good, old-fashioned Cost Plus paper Advent calenders with little pictures hiding behind numbered squares. Isabella's Advent calendar had chocolates hiding behind each numbered square, which I ate faithfully, each day.

Isabella just ate the calendar.

Family photo card pictures...none of which I used.

Vintage knit, circa 1974. This was my dress as a baby.
I love how it matches Isabella's eyes.

Early Christmas at Nana and Papa's.

New tradition: Progressive Dinner with the Wentzels, Stephens and Carrs.
(I should probably inform them of that).

We did soup and rolls at Brooke and Aaron's, a drive-by of Dave's new place, salad at Heather and Joel's, main course, gingerbread cookies, sweater lint removal and carols at the Wentzels.
And after all that, I took only two pictures. I'll take more next year--when we do it again. :)

Old Tradition: Santa and the Pigwidgen. Years ago, my mom cut out a serial story that appeared in the newspaper called Santa and the Pigwidgen--a little tale about how Santa came to be Santa. She'd pull it out every year at Christmas and read it to me and my brother. I was excited to carry on this tradition with Isabella, but she was more interested in eating it.

Thank goodness for laminating machines.

During the hectic holiday season it's nice to have an 8 month old around to
remind you to take time to relax.

Put your feet up...

All you really need in life is a pacifier and a boppy. An elephant t-shirt doesn't hurt either.

Helping me mail the Holiday cards...

My apologies to whoever got this one.

A first Christmas

Isabella's Christmas morning breakfast: Prunes and Oatmeal

Mark and Katie's Christmas morning breakfast: Pecan Sticky Buns

New Tradition (which I may re-think): I had this idea to make some kind of sweet roll on Christmas morning--something Isabella could look forward to every year (because prunes and oatmeal will probably only go over for so long). I started making the pecan sticky rolls at 8am and didn't finish until sometime around 1pm.
At least they were good.

Last new tradition: Fondue. Actually the idea was to do Fondue on New Year's Eve.
My mom surprised us, though, with a little fondue pot,
so we decided to test in out on Christmas Day.

Yum.