"There's no outdoor plumbing"....

Hello family and friends....that above quote comes from the sonogram tech. at Kaiser hospital today....Kirsten and Adam had the "big" sonogram....and yes, that's right...."there is no outdoor plumbing"!!

IT'S A GIRL!! "Little Peanut" is a GIRL!! Yay!! We are sooo excited! We get to keep buying pink! We've been inundated with pink for almost 3 years with with McKenna, and my niece, Shareese, just had a baby girl, Gabriella...so we'll just continue on with the "pink brigade"!

Now, Grammy (me) would have been happy with either a boy or a girl, of course!

They already have a name as well..."Madyson"!! (no middle name yet) Adam has always wanted a little girl named Madison...so that's what her name is! Kirsten just added the "y" instead of the "i".

We can't WAIT to meet our sweet little Madyson in about 19 weeks!! (mid-Aug)

Stay tuned!

In the meantime...hop on over to Kirsten's blog for her fun account of the day's news!

http://startingforeverwithfabulous.blogspot.com

We are off to Vegas this weekend.....I get to see the Donny & Marie show at the Flamingo....as I mentioned in the previous post....I'm READY for a little weekend away...

Take care and keep in touch, everyone! We'd love to hear from you!
Cindy

I'm 50!

Yes, it's true....I'm officially "old". I'm half a century old...I'm no longer in my 40's... "over the hill....whatever you'd like to call it....I'm 50!! Yikes. When did that happen?!

My SWEET girls, Kirsten and Kayla, and my cousin Jody threw me a surprise party last Sat. night! It was so much fun! They tried to fool me by saying we were going out to dinner, and I "bought" it for awhile, but then several people said some things that made me "suspicious"...so I knew something else was going on, but wasn't sure what. The party was held at Jody and Bobby's house in San Diego. Here is some of the decor....

Here's McKenna having fun with a balloon.

The BIGGEST surprise was that my sister Becky (on the left) flew in from Charlotte, NC for the party! I had NO idea, so THAT was the big surprise! That's Kirsten in the middle and her hubby Adam on the end...

Me and Jody!

Me and my sweet sister!

Me and my "BFF's"...Bren, Annette and Maureen!

The girls and Jody made tons of yummy food (all my favorites), and we played a silly "Donny Osmond Trivia" game, (made up by Kirsten)....most of you know that I still love my Donny...and if I answered the quetions correctly, I won some Donny" prizes"....a framed poster of him, some lapel buttons, a pillow case with his picture on it, (all bought on Ebay!)...and the grand prize...they got me tickets to see Donny & Marie's show at the Flamingo in Vegas on April 4th! Wow! Another major surprise!

I can't tell you how amazing my girls are!

We all had a great time... HUGE thanks to Kirsten, Kayla, & Jody for giving me possibly the best birthday ever! You don't know how much it meant to me.

Bring on being 50!

Hello family and friends! We have a very exciting announcement....we are going to be grandparents for the 2nd time! Yay!!! Kirsten and Adam are expecting!! We were a bit surprised that it happened so soon, but they are very happy and excited!

"Baby Lakose" is due August 16th! They had their first doctor's appointment this week, and had a sonogram. They were able to see the baby pretty well. Kirsten emailed me after the appointment and said, "There is definitely a little peanut in there!" So...that sweet little bundle of joy will be called "Little Peanut" until we find out if it's a boy or a girl!
We are so happy and grateful that another precious grandchild will be joining our family soon!

Any guesses ...boy or girl?? Hmmm....right now I'm guessing it's a boy. McKenna wants a baby girl cousin....anybody else care to get in on the guessing game? (they hope to find out the sex of the baby around April 1st...) We do know there is a BIG possibility that Little Peanut will emerge with red hair...(Kirsten's hair is auburn and Adam has some red in his hair and beard)....IF any hair at all....most babies in our family tend to arrive with very little hair or totally bald.... and very long fingers and toes! (from Adam...)

We'll of course be thrilled with a boy or a girl and just want Little Peanut to be happy and healthy.

Also, I became a "Great Aunt" for the first time last week...my niece Shareese, who lives in Chattanooga, Tenn., delivered baby Gabriella on Jan. 22nd! She's a cutie!

We'll keep you posted on Little Peanut!
Cindy

Christmas...a little late!

Hi everyone! One of my goals this year is to update my blog more often...oh boy...I've failed miserably on that one so far! I'll work on it!

Here is what we did this weekend.....yes, THAT is the beach, and yes, it was 81 degrees! In JANUARY! Sheesh!



McKenna loves the beach and asks to go there all the time. We actually hadn't planned on going to the beach, just to Balboa Parkin San Diego, but it was so warm we decided to take her there for a little while, even though she wasn't dressed for it.

Here are Kirsten (Auntie Kiki) and McKenna on the merry-go-round at Balboa Park! McKenna loved it so much she rode it twice, and also road the little train there.

And now...better late than never....Christmas photos!

Kirsten and Adam help McKenna play with her new toys! (We started calling Adam "Grizzly Adam", since he grew a beard!)

McKenna LOVES the movie The Lion King. In fact, it's safe to say she's obsessed! So Santa brought her this tiny Simba lion cub, and here she is "re-enacting" a scene from The Lion King...where Rafiki holds up the baby Simba!

She also got a new Dora bike! Her first words when she saw it: "Now I need a helmet"! We're not quite sure how she knew she needed a helmet to ride a bike!

Grizzly Adam and Mark, on trash duty!

Auntie Kirsten and Adam brought McKenna a GIANT stuffed Simba and she LOVES it!

With every new gift McKenna said, "What's inside THIS one?"

We had a nice, relaxing day. Instead of a big dinner, we had a brunch, and just munched the rest of the day. We spent Christmas Eve at Kirsten and Adam's new place in downtown San Diego, and they cooked us a yummy dinner! It was a very nice Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Hi everyone....I'm sending out my Christmas greetings via this blog this year. I can include more photos and more text this way...plus, it's a "green" way to send some "holiday cheer"!

We are pretty much ready for the big day....the outside lights went up Thanksgiving weekend, as did all the inside decor. I like to put decorations up as early as possible, to prolong this wonderful season as long as I can!

Our plans include having Christmas Eve dinner at Kirsten and Adam's new home located in downtown San Diego (they are renting a condo there, and Kayla has moved in with them), and a Christmas Day brunch here at our house.

We've had a whirlwind year with Kirsten and Adam's wedding in Oct. (Brandon was married in Feb., but , as most of you already know, the marriage did not work out, and he is now divorced...which ended up being a GOOD thing...) Kirsten and Adam's wedding turned out just beautiful, and the newlyweds are well and happy and settling in to married life. Adam works for Progressive Insurance as a claims adjuster, and Kirsten works in the provost's office at San Diego State University.

Kayla is still loving her job as a social worker with Child Protective Services in San Diego. She just moved in with Kirsten and Adam, (so they both can save money on rent...condos in San Diego are expensive!), and she is still dating her boyfriend AJ. Kayla and Aj have been traveling alot this year. They traveled to San Francisco, New York City, Alcapulco, Mexico, EUROPE (London, Paris, Barcelona and Rome in 10 days!) and they went to Vancouver and Calary, Canada, over Thanksgiving weekend!

Brandon is working on his teaching credential and master's degree all at once, and is working as a substitute teacher. He's a great dad to McKenna. He has her every weekend, and she loves it when he takes her to the park.

Travis is doing pretty well. He's still maintaining a pretty positive attitude, and he is looking forward to taking more college classes in Jan. He has a job, pushing people in wheelchairs to the cafeteria every morning and evening. We are looking forward to visiting him next weekend. We try to visit him every other month. (it's a 5 1/2 hour drive) He has about 20 months left.

Mark is still with Southwest Traders, and he is on the board of the local NJB basketball league, and he's also coaching a team. He enjoyed singing in a "community Christmas concert" a few weeks ago. His favorite pastime is playing with McKenna!

I am celebrating my almost 18 years with Close To My Heart! Business is still pretty good, and I still love my job, and it keeps me pretty busy.

I also LOVE being a "grammy", and I'm having so much fun with McKenna! She is so smart and funny and keeps us laughing constantly!

McKenna is now 2 1/2, growing so fast, and is just a sweet little girl! She's at our house every weekend, and we see her several times a week. She can count to 20 and knows her ABC's, colors and numbers, loves to sing, and LOVES to watch "The Lion King" movie! (she's obsessed....even acts out the parts and sings the songs...it's so cute!)

Our wish is that you have the most wonderful Christmas ever, with family and friends close, and the "reason for the season" in your heart! We love you all....keep in touch! We love hearing from you!

Much love,

Mark and Cindy Baker

Halloween Fun!

I'm a little late with sharing these Halloween photos, but better late than never...

First, we took McKenna to a local pumpkin patch the week before Halloween. She LOVED the little petting zoo they had there. Here she's checking out a goat and a duck....
This was hilarious....I was trying to get some feed out of the machine, to feed the goats and chickens and the duck, but this smarty pants goat was lying under the machine, and when I put the quarter in the machine, she stood up and kept her mouth right under the flap...I couldn't get the food out! I had to just open the flap and let her have all of the feed. I was laughing so hard, we gave up and went to another machine to get the feed...that goat was NOT moving!

This creature was a strange mix of what looked like a goat and a sheep....sheep's wool, but a goat face and horns...weird!

Feeding the goat that was behaving....

Our little punkin' trying to choose a punkin'!

On Halloween Day, McKenna's day care/preschool had a Halloween party. Here she is dressed like a cat, saying "Meow"....but it was more like a roar...

With one of the staff at ABC Child Care...who dressed like a kitty, too!

A kitty in a purple tu-tu!

On our front porch before she went trick or treating! She had a blast trick or treating!

With Pa Pa and his "costume"...not sure why they were making the number "3"...

Trick or Treat!

It was a fun Halloween, because McKenna "gets it" now and really loved it! She is now looking forward to Christmas...she is already seeing toy commercials on TV and saying..."Santa will bring me that"!

Just have to share a funny thing McKenna said the other day. She wanted to take a doll with her in the car, as we were on our way to preschool, and she had it in her hand. She dropped it though, and I said, "Don't you want to take your dolly with you in the car?", and she says...."Um, actually not." !! A 2 1/2 year old saying, "actually"?! She's one smart "cookie"!

Take care!

Cindy

Kirsten and Adam Tie the Knot!

Hi everyone....the wedding was a huge success and turned out beautiful! It went fairly smoothly, with only a few small glitches. (okay one BIG glitch....Kayla put her bridesmaid dress on and the zipper completely broke! We had to sew her into the dress just minutes before the ceremony!)

Kirsten and Adam are SO happy, and everyone seemed to have a really good time at the reception. Here are a few photos that I was able to take...we are anxiously awaiting proofs from the two photographers, and I'll let you know when they are up on the photographer's websites.
This was the ceremony site: (Carmel Mtn. Ranch Country Club)


The bride and groom

Mark walked Kirsten down the aisle, then officiated the ceremony. I caught him with his eyes almost closed here...he really wasn't sad or anything!

After the ceremony....Brandon, McKenna and Kirsten

The happy bride!

At the reception....the "wedding tree"...it's hard to see the crystal strand hanging from the branches...it was stunning!

The "candy buffet"....guests scooped out the candy and filled little boxes to take home as one of their party favors...it was really fun!

One of the centerpieces....we used the bridesmaid's bouquets on six of the tables at the reception.

The other six tables had these wire trees, with crystals hanging from them...those crystals are hard to see! The food at the reception was awesome, and the DJ was AMAZING! Everyone had a great time! (if anyone local ever needs a good DJ, I can totally recommend ours!)

The newlyweds and their first dance!

The cake!

Kirsten and McKenna (flower girl)

Cutting the cake

The happy couple

Leaving the reception under a canopy of sparklers!

Woohooo! We did it!

The lovebirds are now sitting on beach somewhere in the Dominican Republic, on their honeymoon, hopefully relaxing and getting some much-needed rest. They will be back on Friday.

Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate this special day with us, and to everyone who helped out. We couldn't have done it without you!

Again, we'll let you know when we have more photos from the photographers to share! ( I definitely need more practice taking photos!)

Cindy