All Smiles

Carolina is quite the active little girl and gets into everything and always with a smile. So here she is...

Playing with the iPad...

Trying to grab the camera...

Finding Mama's shoes

Playing with her food and making a mess...

Working hard on the computer (she'd be smiling if the pacifier wasn't there)...

Saucer ride in the snow? Apparently, not so much!

Mariana, on the other hand, was in snow bunny heaven :-)

Happy Valentine's Day From Carolina & Murray

I staged a little photo shoot for a Valentine's Day card that I made for Kevin and, what do you know - it only took one take to get the PERFECT shot. Well, not really but this was the best of them (and I think it's pretty darn cute).

Murray was the perfect model. If only I had given him a bath... Oh well, I suppose a so-so card is better than no card at all :-)

Packers Win the Superbowl!

The Packers won the Superbowl on Kevin's 38th birthday and he was there in Dallas with some of his closest friends to be part of it all. He was on cloud 9.

Carolina and I stayed behind but were cheering for them the whole time!

I Quit My Job... Now What?

Yesterday was my first day of unemployment, and what did I do? I started writing a business plan.

OK let me back up for a minute. I woke up remembering that, on this beautiful California Tuesday morning, I had no office to drive to.  My 'sabbatical' had officially begun. I spent time with Carolina, playing, walking and exploring, and wondering how her eating and sleeping schedule got so completely and insanely messed up, committing immediately to figuring out a way to get her back on track (ideas welcome - thanks).

I worked on RingSpotters which, by the way, has some very exciting stuff in the works so please come visit us, lied down on my bed chatting on the phone with a friend, watched a little American Idol, worked out, and began preparing delicious braised short ribs for dinner. I was reminding myself of the importance of creating a routine for my new flexible lifestyle (my list of things I want to accomplish grows daily), when I decided to sit at my computer, open up a Word document and began putting an idea on paper that I had been toying with for some time. And I wrote, researched, and wrote some more.

I am excited about the idea of creating something, unfamiliar as I am with the process. Yes, I left my job to be actively involved with Carolina, and this will always be my priority, but I also left because I wanted the freedom and flexibility to live, work and create on my own terms.

So what am I working on? I'll give you a hint - it has to do with clouds, a far away distant land and a bit of technology.

An Attempt at Simplicity

For those of you who know Kevin and I, you'll know that we're clutterbugs. We don't know how to throw things away. Behold my nightstand - terrible, I know:

And when Carolina gets older, goes to school and starts bringing home dozens of art projects, drawings and other schoolwork, well - we could be in some real trouble. So my first post-work project is to get rid of "stuff" - from Prince Fielder bobble head dolls to random magazines to old nail polish, I have my work cut out for me.

It has to get worse before it gets better...

But i'm thankful to have such a helpful assistant in Kevin...

Actually no, he's making things worse, but he's very supportive.  Now that this is out there, I must finish :-)

Playing All Day Long

Watching Carolina the toddler is a real treat. Every waking second she is so genuinely curious, happy and engaged.  I suppose when you have a working environment as colorful and inviting as this, how could you not enjoy your day?

And love taking a morning phone call?

Or taking the baby out to do errands?

Oops, you're forgetting the baby!

Life is fun. Take time to play.

I am Taking a Sabbatical...Indefinitely

I think everyone knows by now that I resigned from my job at Razorfish, which will certainly be a big change for us in 2011. I could no longer bear to be away from my dear Carolina and knew that it was time to move on.

I am dubbing this new phase my sabbatical. We always talk about all the things we would do if we took a year off from our careers, if we had more time,  or if we could do it all over again. Yes, being a stay at home mom is a full time job in itself, but it doesn't mean that we can't have time for ourselves.

So here's to a year of exploring, learning, creating, parenting, growing, traveling, playing, blogging, imagining, simplifying, and much much more. One thing's for sure - we won't be lying around... much :-)