Welcome Fenwick Mandle

Fenwick David Mandle joined us on July 30th, 2010. He was a solid 8lbs 4oz and very long (20 inches) with a full head of beautiful hair. As many of you know due to some last minute birthing complications we did have an emergency c-section to get him out. This saved his life. Due to some trauma in the womb the poor little guy was in the neonatal intensive care unit for the first 2 weeks of his life. It was a hard time, one of the most difficult either Rob, or Myself have ever experienced, but we grew closer together because of it, came to appreciate and understand what the truly important things in life are, and saw what a fighter our little guy was and is! With so many people praying for us and the help of loving family, we managed, blurry eyed to be at that hospital for Fen every day, sometimes two times a day!  

Although Fen had a rough start to life, he is doing more than fine now. He is growing every day and discovering new abilities. He is loved beyond measure. Below are a few pics chronicling the first two months of his life - Enjoy!

 Fen in the NICU

 Nana visits Fen!

 Grandpa visits Fen!

Special ear muffs and batman-visor

 First time Daddy held Fen!

 First time Mommy held Fen!

 Omi visits Fen

 Opi visits Fen

The first day we brought Fen home could not have been sweeter:

The rest of August flew by with plenty of cuddles and curiosities:

Baby Mandle

 A lot has happened since our Snowpocolypse post back in February of this year and we apologize for the hiatus. Believe me, it was not for lack of post material, but rather that we were too busy to post! By now most of you have heard that baby Mandle, affectionately referred to as the Little Guy, is imminently due. We have been busy bees this spring preparing for the Little Guy: entertaining, spending quality time with family and friends, nesting, planning events, designing, and so much more. In an effort to catch many up to date we would like to share some highlights that capture a little bit of what we have experienced and accomplished February - May.

Mom and Aunt Leslie visited us this winter - It was a cozy, chatty trip. Thanks Rob for putting up with us!

A visit home, to Orcas Island in March. Me with my Dad visiting one of the houses he built.

My Mom and I enjoying her garden and walk outside!

I surprised Rob for his birthday - A house full of people dressed for a Mad Men, or should I say Mad Mandle Night!

Party people, Mad Mandle style! 

More party goers

Part of the surprise birthday party was to have Rob's parents and little brother down for the weekend from CT - Thanks Mandles!

Dan, Catherine, Jackson, and Amelia visited us this April from MN - Jackson loved the Cherry Blossoms and hanging out in this tree!

In May I visited Lynnette and Clay in NC with Heather for a long weekend. It was so great to see the newly engaged couple and celebrate with them!

To wrap this series of spring highlights up, we will leave you with an image of our Little Guy. This ultrasound was taken in March.

Snowpacolypse coming to an end

We had our fun in the snow, but last weekend I had had enough! Fortunately the weather gods have heard my plea and DC is starting to warm.....slowly, but surely the giant snow mountains piled high around the city are starting to melt away making the walk from our house down to the Metro much easier.

As a farewell to this season I thought it only appropriate to post a few photos documenting our attempt at building a snow army along Rock Creek Church Road. We tried to recruit, but in the end we were an army of two. The snow men came out great though and we left that day feeling victorious in our efforts!

The makings of a snow army

Rob's lovely snowman

The artist at work

Rob leans in for a wet one

In appreciation of Rob's creation

Valentine's Day 2010

Does Valentine's Day inspire you to be crafty, or creative? For us - it does! Rob woke this morning (much earlier than I of course) to my paper heart treasure trail leading to various hidden German-made gummy bears wrapped in tissue. Additionally, he found a series of six handmade 2"x2" square Valentine's Day boxes also containing gummy bears on display in the dining room.

Not to be outdone, I awoke this morning to a curious, fuzzy, red object hanging above my side of the bed .... oh wait, I didn't have my glasses on yet. I soon discovered the fuzzy object to be a three dimensional hanging paper heart with a string attached to a love note from the wonderful Mr. Rob. I was indeed impressed!

We spent the rest of our Valentine's Day eating a late breakfast at Busboys and Poets, saw the movie Avatar, and wrapped everything up with a cozy evening reading our books here at the green house. Enjoy the photos!

 

  

  

Living in DC's Snowpacolypse

Getting hit by two major back to back snow storms had us reliving some of our most vivid memories of massive snow falls while at Bowdoin College in Maine. We never thought we would see snow like that again living in the mid-Atlantic. The combined snow totals of Feb 5-6 and Feb 9-10 have come to about 31 inches! Add in the storm just before Christmas (just over 12 inches), a few other snow showers, and you have the snowiest DC winter since 1884 and one of the top 10 "snowiest" major cities in the country this season.

As you can imagine we have been enjoying the good life in our little green house with the old steam radiators pumping out heat on a regular basis. Can't wait to see the gas bill! Below are some pictures of our adventures in the snow. We have had certainly had a lot of fun and are happy to report all is well!

 The Green House with a coating of White!

 

Rock Creek Church Road - Our Street

  

Maria and Mini-Mandle Enjoying the Snow

  

Walkies with Bowdie

  

Bowdie Surveying the terrain... Or just addressing his cold feet...

  

Rob clearing the snow from the porch roof!

 

 Bowdie stands guard!

Bowdie makes use of his snowy run in the side yard!

2010 ... here we go!

 

It has been almost two years since Rob and I have updated, or used our blog.....and we find ourselves back here again, ready to document, and stay connected to friends and family far away yet again. 2010 finds us much changed with a new house (the green house) in our lovely neighborhood of Petworth, D.C., a dog named Bowdie, a baby on the way, and a whole host of exciting work and life experiences under our belts for 2008 and 2009. We look forward to sharing our adventures great and small with you yet again and anticipate an extremely eventful 2010!

Maria is International!

Maria's design work for the Crystal City BID's 21-week James Bond Film Festival, From Crystal City With Love, has passed the borders of the US!

Cool!

http://www.007magazine.co.uk/events.htm

Back in the Blogging Saddle

It has been nearly 4 months since Maria and I posted a Blog Entry and it is time to start getting back into the blogging saddle. Maria has put in her notice at Trilogy Design Group where she has been working for the past two years. At the end of the month, we will be moving her up to the DC metropolitan area where we will be living in Arlington, VA in a brand new apartment, the Gramercy at Metropolitan Park. It is a pretty nice place, but we are hoping to only be there for at most 12-months while we search for our own little piece of the Washington area real estate market! Needless to say, we are both EXTREMELY excited to bring our households back together and leave the long-distance marriage in the past!

I have been keeping busy at the Crystal City Business Improvement District as the Operations Director. I have actually been spending a lot of time working with Blogs on my largest project to date, Crystal Flight. I have been documenting the progress and providing information to artists, sponsors, media, and the general public via the Crystal Flight Blog. Stop by, take a look, and tell me what you think! I hope to provide more frequent posts in the next few weeks so expect to here more details soon!

Regards,
Rob

Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas

The holiday season is in full swing...with Thanksgiving behind us, over-stuffed bellies flattened, we are back in shape and ready for Christmas. We feverishly mark off our list of presents and join the ranks of people succumbing to mass consumerism due to the holidays with those mile long wish lists in the middle of malls, botiques, God forbid highways thick with traffic...not to mislead everyone, I am no doomsday writer, but rather filled with the utmost amount of holiday cheer and generally delighted by the festive Christmas songs, trees, and lights.

I only wish to point out that people could make more of an effort to give the gift of handcrafted items to family and friends alike. Now, this is a wonderful standard to uphold oneself, but it is harder than you might think. An incredible amount of planning is involved with this route and I apologize ahead of time to those of you who might be secretly wishing for some delightful Maria-Made gift this Christmas only to be sorely dissapointed and bummed out. Never fear, there is always next year!

In all seriousness, I have been occupied crafting another type of holiday gift for the masses, one that will hopefully reach many, frustrate few, and delight all. I invite you now to take a look at, download, and print off my handmade holiday gift, courtesy Me, Maria Mandle with Trilogy Design Group.


Click here => http://www.thinktrilogy.com/ for your holiday gift and get ready for an evening of fun filled, origami ornament making!

Like so many, I am very excited for Christmas, but can't help reliving that delicious pie I had over Thanksgiving.....Thank you Daddy Mandle (Sr.)! Rob and I spent this past Thanksgiving in C.T. with the Mandles. It was a beautiful and slow train ride up. We felt like such comfortable travelers with our neat bags, books, laptops, art projects, enjoying each other's company.





The Mandle house was very relaxing with candles burning, a delicious Thanksgiving dinner...Thank you Sigrid and David! Unfortunately we did not take many photos on our camera. I have only a couple from this trip and all three of which were taken on a crisp day with David, Rob, and myself visiting the vineyard in Wallingford where we purchased the wine from our wedding....always lovely to return here! http://www.gouveiavineyards.com/



The weeks following Thanksgiving were filled with Christmas tree purchasing and decorating, crafty Rob and Maria projects to be disclosed at another time, a performance of the Nutcracker, and general fun listening to and in Rob's case, singing along to Christmas songs.










a vip after party at Bobby Woods for the Nutcracker!

Take a look through the remaining photos and enjoy the details of our tree. For my family so far away, I hope these images warm your hearts and make you feel closer to me....see our Wee Tree in our cozy apartment!? Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!!!!!!

Much Love,

Maria