Monday, July 4, 2011

what's better than 2 nephews?...

4 nephews!!!
the mobley family has grown exponentially (literally, in fact) within the past few months, and we couldn't be happier!


on may 17th, 2011, keith david willeford made his grand entrance into the world! jason, diane, and big brother scott are thoroughly enjoying the beautiful addition to their family, and we were lucky enough to meet the sweet little fella on our most recent trip back to nc. admittedly, we are quite smitten!



just a few weeks later on june 21st, 2011, edmund james schroeder surprised us with his arrival exactly 1 week prior to his scheduled birthday! charles + sarah are completely overwhelmed with joy having edmund join their family and tasman is already a fantastically loving big brother! we are just itchin' to hop over to denver and meet our newest nephew... c'mon southwest, throw some sweet flight deals our way!



as you can see, we sure do love our nephews... we are an exceptionally blessed uncle + aunt!
congratulations to the willefords + the schroeders on their adorable baby boys!!!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

months in photos...

we've been lacking blog posts (again)... but hope that these photos from the past few months will help redeem our blogging delinquency :).

in february, we hopped over to denver to visit our most favorite schroeders in the world and were able to spend some fabulous quality time with the best 1 year-old nephew ever... melt my heart. (seriously, we do not live close enough to these people.)




our dear friends, craig + kelly, welcomed their sweet little daughter ella into the world towards the end of february... it is a truly remarkable thing to witness people you love grow into such fabulous, unconditionally-loving parents almost instantly.

my brother (a.k.a. one of the most favorite men in my life) came to visit us during his spring break from college... the 3 of us always have such a memorable time together... thanks for visiting, bug!

paul was able to go visit one of our best friends, mark, in boston as mark is finishing up his master's in public health (while also in medical school) at harvard... can you tell we're a bit proud of him? :)

in an effort to save some moola + reduce our carbon footprint, paul sold his beloved honda accord (fondly known to some as 'old blue'). although 'good-byes' are tough, paul is at peace knowing that 'old blue' is out there making some retired engineer's life that much more beautiful.

we went skiing for the first time together in tahoe... i had not been skiing since my middle school or high school years. back then, i was such a good skier that after attempting the first slope, i volunteered to stay back at the cabin and make grilled cheese sandwiches for the rest of the weekend... it went that well. needless to say, the hubs is a patient man to re-teach me how to attack the slopes (it should be mentioned that paul is an amazing skier who thinks that single black diamonds are a little too easy). we did have a great time... i even managed to accidentally go down a black diamond and walk away unharmed... go me!

my sweet momma + aunt debbie came to visit for a few days in april... we had an absolute blast touring wine country, piddling around the city, and celebrating several birthdays. we are so lucky THE sisters came out to visit us!







paul + i headed up to filoli a couple of weekends ago for the afternoon (an estate that is know for it's gardens... paul has been craving to visit for years now). we enjoyed wandering around the numerous gardens and were inspired by it all! maybe one day we will have a home with a similar landscape... here's to dreaming!


in other news, we have recently begun attending a new church and we are loving it! it's such a blessing to finally find a church that both of us are comfortable in and are learning a lot from. last week, we spent our sunday attending easter service at the new church and then traveled up to south san francisco for the evening to celebrate with our 'west coast family' (the rosaias + the collins). a big thank you to cathy + wayne for always making us feel like a part of the family... we love you all so very much!

thanks for being patient while we continue to sporadically update the blog... one of these days we'll get the hang of consistency :). until then, we hope all of you are enjoying these beautiful spring days, and we are sending all of our love from the west coast!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

24 hours of yosemite!

the mobleys and the paschals were lucky enough to take 24 hours to head to yosemite last weekend where we enjoyed and adored northern california's natural beauty. as i mentioned before, lindsey + trey have become good friends of ours over the past few months. the paschals moved to the bay area when trey was transferred for work last year and we are so blessed to have them out here with us! they are an absolute riot and are always up for any adventure!

we left the bay area around 3pm and got into the park around 10pm with heavy fog slowing us down. when we arrived, there wasn't any fresh snow on the ground (only dirty, shoved-aside snow) and we were expecting rain in the morning. luckily, after a surprisingly warm night in our heated tent cabin, we woke up to a heavy snowfall! it made for a beautiful day of short hikes and snow shoeing!

here are some shots from our quick weekend get-a-way...










happy 82 to you, nanny poo!


my adorable, talented, brilliant, witty nanny turned 82 on january 30th this year! words cannot describe how much i love and appreciate her. nanny, thanks for always being there for me - whether it be for a quick lunch at zest, shoe shopping, talking about the meaning of life, telling the story of the opossums, watching the shrimp boats come in, eating cinnamon sugar donuts together, or just when we are being whimsical, we never fail to have a fabulous time together! i hate being so far away from you, but know that i think of you and send you good thoughts everyday! i love you, nanny... happy birthday!

wow, did i say i would be better about blogging?

hello again! i think it has been... well... forever since my last post. september? oh my. well, i will try to update you thoroughly (yet briefly) about all that has been going on since we last spoke.

as i mentioned in the previous post... i took the physical therapy board exam over labor day weekend. after much angst and stomach panging, it turns out that i passed! whoo hoo! i now work as a pediatric physical therapist for california children's services (ccs) in the county we live in. while it is challenging to start any new job (let alone, a career), i feel blessed to be working where i am. my supervisor is fantastic and my co-workers are so supportive and encouraging. of course, the children i work with are incredibly inspiring and teach me new things everyday (for example, one of my 6-year-olds recently told me that i really should be whitening my teeth more... oh dear :)). it is a great place to learn and grow as a new pt. i have been there for about 4 months now and am just starting to feel like i'm finding my groove... finally!

amazing things are coming from paul's lab as he works full days/nights to get closer to finishing his phd. in the past month or so, they finally achieved combustion and have been moving full-steam ahead ever since! despite breaking a quite expensive sapphire window in his experiment earlier this week, paul managed to still give a fantastic presentation to a bunch of important people which - i'm sure - will result in some great funding for his project! (i have to brag on my hubs... several people told him that he had the best presentation of all at the conference... way to go, love!)

in other news, i have made a pact with my dear friend meghan (she lives back in nc) that we will run the san francisco marathon together this coming july! that being said, training has begun and, thankfully, i have several girlfriends out here that i run with pretty regularly... they are such great motivators! i'm quite excited to achieve this long-time goal of mine... stay tuned!

i will leave you with several photos to visually catch you up on what we've been up to over the past 4 or so months... here's to hoping i update y'all more often!

todd + maria mack were married on september 18th! maria + i went to college together, suffered through being biology majors together, were in axo together, and lived together... can you tell we love each other? :) we traveled back to raleigh to celebrate and it was an incredibly special day to see these 2 finally tie the knot. thanks for letting us be a part of your special day, macks!

our sweet nephew, scott, turned 2 on september 19th... my, how time has flown! continuing with the celebrations, we learned that scott will have a little baby BROTHER come may this year! we are so pumped to have another precious nephew in our family to spoil!!! congratulations to diane, jason + scott!

i turned the big 2-5 this year and got to celebrate a little early with the fam while we were home in raleigh. sweet granddaddy is such a good sport - every year he lets us decorate him with our birthday bows... what a sweetheart!

our other little nephewlette, tasman, turned 1 on october 28th! unfortunately, we were not able to be in denver to celebrate with him, but i'm sure he could feel our love flying across the country towards him! his uncle paul + aunt megan got him his first klean kanteen with sippy-cup top attachment this year... as his adorable momma would say... "moosh!" we also learned on tasman's birthday that he will also have a new little brother or sister this coming july! how exciting!!! we love that our family will have grown to have 4 little ones running around within 3 years... we sure are blessed to be an uncle and aunt to these wonderful children! congratulations to sarah, charles + tasman!

paul carved a great pumpkin this year, which is definitely blog-worthy (even though it doesn't include unc at all)! look at that talent! (+ i might say, that pumpkin has one great stem!)

livi learned how to play frolf (frisbee golf) in golden gate park!...

... and she took her first visit to fort funston in the city!

we became those people who dress their pets up in t-shirts... well, at least on rare occasions when we thing it's hilarious :)...


we went to tahoe for our first thanksgiving on the west coast with some of our friends from stanford!

livi LOVED the snow... and even loved swimming in the frigid lake tahoe!

paul especially loved snow-tubing behind our condo. it's too bad that all of the fun ended with his thumb badly sprained! (i don't think that will keep him from wanting to do this again, though... i mean, look at that smile!)

we made gingerbread houses with our thanksgiving clan after getting back to the bay area...

we longed for the puppies that were in the windows of macy's and saw the big tree lit up in union square with our friends, the paschals, during the holiday season (we went to high school with lindsey and now she + her husband, trey, are living out here! we are so lucky!)


we took our christmas card picture with our new family of 4! (the following is 1 of many takes)

we made the trek back to nc for christmas with our families and enjoyed some great snow while we were there! unfortunately, we didn't get to take that many pictures with our camera, but trust us... it was a blast! such a wonderful holiday blessing to be with family and friends who we don't see very often! (this is one of my personal favorites of me + my sissy cuddling with scarlett, the clarke family pooch)

our friend chris (c-mac) came to visit in january while he was on a business trip in san jose!


and that same weekend i went up to ukiah with my dear friend deana to get her new puppy, sig! here is deana, her husband danny + siggy after arriving back to sf.

finally, to round out january, we cheered 'happy birthday' to our sweet livi-dog on january 20th as she turned 1! i can't believe our puppy is not technically a puppy anymore! where would we be without this face?...


did i say i would be brief? thanks for sticking with me... that was one long update! 'til we meet again... much love!