Mary Pace & Steve Ulrich
(Daughter of Robert Leslie Pace)

We were married August of 2009 and live in Redwood City, California. Steve has 2 beautiful daughters, Kayla (20) and Kelsey (22) who are both in college here in California. Kayla goes to University of San Diego and Kelsey goes to UC Santa Barbara. We love living in the San Francisco Bay area and frequently take advantage of all that there is to see and do, from the beaches, to the mountains, to the big City. We were very proud of our world-series champion San Francisco Giants this last fall!!

Mary works in Silicon Valley for a corporate travel management firm, as Vice President, Managing Director, where she has been for the last 7 years. Steve has just started his own Integrated Marketing Consulting business, after completing his Masters Certificate last year from the University of San Francisco. We love to travel, play music/sing, hike and spend quality time with family and friends.

California Girls......

Girls with their electronics. I don't remember traveling like that growing up. Our road trips consisted of 5 kids stuck in an old station wagon with no air conditioning and definitely no entertainment. Remember the good ol days when you actually had to entertain yourself?

We stopped off in Carlsbad for a quick bite at this great fish and chips joint.

Yes, Halloween is around the corner and I am just posting our pictures from this past summer. It has been a whirlwind the last 4 months around here. We had a great family vacation. We were able to spend a month in Los Angeles. My sister Jean was expecting her first baby and it was such a special treat to be able to be there for the birth of her adorable baby girl Jia. The girls and I headed off to L.A. the end of July with my younger sister Patty. This has become an annual trip for us and I love that we are able to sneak away for the summer.

We did a lot of eating, shopping and swimming. I was 5 months pregnant at the time and I did not feel guilty about eating everything in front of me. In fact, I gained 8 lbs in the month of August! Scary!

The girls were able to swim everyday and Chloe finally learned how to swim without any floaties! Big goal of ours this past summer. Ava loved being in the water and was quite the little dare devil jumping in from the deep end.

Once Robert joined us we headed down the coast to San Diego. What a beautiful drive. The girls do really well on road trips so we thought we would drive down PCH along the coast. Palm trees and ocean is all we were able to see for miles. I love so-cal.

Losing Steam....

Okay, I'm feeling a bit guilty because I do not have the energy to entertain my girls all day. I can usually survive the long summers but being 6 months pregnant on top of it all makes for a very long and exhausting day! Oh, how I wish I had me a nanny. I'm lucky that my girls are pretty well behaved. Yes, we have the occasional tears from slapping and pulling hair but at the end of the day the girls love sleeping together. I don't think I could ever seperate them even if we had another bedroom. I love to hear the conversations they have at night. They talk about everything from how much fun they had that day to how mean mommy was when I yelled at them with my crazy eyes! I don't want them to grow older. Oh, how sad that makes me.

4th of July

We had a great Fourth of July weekend here in Chicago. We decided to have a staycation and play tourist. The weekend was filled with a riverboat tour, a quad bicycle ride along the Lake,

fireworks at Navy Pier, a trolley ride, lots of walking along the Magnificent Mile and of course deep dish pizza. It's great to live in such a wonderful and vibrant city. Sweet Home Chicago!

Baby Oh Baby!

Yes, that is a positive result. We are soo excited and couldn't be more thrilled about having a 3rd! Due date is set for Dec. 6. Can't wait! Sleepless nights here I come!

My Girls

Chloe is 8 years old! I have an 8 year old. That makes me feel soo old and I'm not even old! She is almost done with 2nd grade and I can't believe she will be starting 3rd grade in the fall. This girl never ceases to amaze me. She is smart, focused, determined and full of life. Show that girl a party and she will show you a good time!

I think she is the only 8 year old I know that comes home from school with a wad of cash and her classmates shoes-no literally she has come home with a pair of shoes. I think she is secretly running the Chicago mafia. Is it wrong of me to be going to my 8 year old for cold hard cash

I can't believe that she is mine because we are really opposite. I don't think I was that focused and intense when I was her age. I was probably still mindlessly playing with barbies and dolls. Watch out because this little girl is going to run a Fortune 500 Company one day!

My Girls

So, looks like Ava discovered her pout face. This happens every time she dosen't get her way. Kindof makes it hard for me to say no but I try and stick to my guns. Ava is growing by leaps and bounds. I kid you not this girls feet have grown a whole size in 2 months. She's also grown about 3 inches. She use to be my petite one and now I'm sure she'll be taller than me by the time she turns 8!

I love Ava for her sweet spirit and how she observes the world around her. It's nice having two kids who are completely opposite in every way. Makes life interesting around here for sure. She finishes her last day of school on June 9 and I can't believe how quickly the year has gone by. It brings a tear to my eye knowing that she will be in school everyday next year. I asked her the other day if she was sad that school was ending and she looked at me with those big brown eyes and said "No mommy because now I get to be with you". Ahhh...I love 5 year olds!

Ava loves to read and play teacher. She is quite the artist. She has come a long way this year with her alphabet and numbers (thank you Mrs. Beights) . I love that she is starting to write her own sentences and she loves to make her own books. Ava is not one to hog the spotlight and never likes to be in a crowd of people. She is compassionate, thoughtful, smart, and witty. I love this girl!

I've been lazy

So, I just realized that the last time I blogged was back in February. I really have no excuse. My girls are both in school leaving me 3 days to get things done. I need to get a better system going around here.

Since February we've been keeping quite busy. We decided to take the girls to Toronto Canada for spring break. Rob and I have never been so we thought we'd make it a family trip. We were brave road warriors and decided to drive the 8 hours (which really ended up taking 10!). Other than the occassional "stop slapping me Chloe" and the "get your suck fingers out of my face" It was definitely worth the trip. We had a lot of fun exploring the city of Toronto and the people were very friendly there. It reminded me of Chicago because they are along Lake Ontario which they refer to as the Harbour Front. We were able to explore this city and do all the sightseeing it had to offer. Of course, by the end of the trip we asked the girls what was the best memory and they said it was swimming in the hotel. If I would've known that earlier I would've said "screw the 8 hour drive, we'll book a hotel downtown that's 2 minutes away with a pool and call it a spring break vacay" Lesson learned.

We also made a quick pitstop over to Niagra Falls. It was beautiful. The weather was gorgeous and the falls was really quite amazing. Once I got over my fear of bridges we were able to cross over to the Canadian side and enjoy the view.

Sonoma Valley, CA

Wedding Party

Mary, Steve and Mom and Dad Pace

Sonoma Valley, CA

Mary and Steve's August Wedding

Leslie (Robert's sister), Bruce, Abby and Griffin

Mary, Steve, Kayla and Kelsey

Scott (Robert's brother), Paige, Pierce and Sloane

Mark (Robert's twin brother), Grace, Morganne,

Camille, Weston and Davin

My sister-in-law Mary got married back in August in beautiful Sonoma Valley, CA. The wedding was absolutely gorgeous. There's nothing quite like wine country. We were able to rent a house on top of this hill overlooking the vineyards. What a great escape from the hustle and bustle of the city.

It was also a great opportunity to spend some quality time with the Pace side. We are all spread throughout the states from Chicago, to Florida, Colorado, California and Washington! It's not often we get a chance to all be together so this was a great trip this past summer.

"Annie"

This past weekend Chloe and I were able to go see "Annie" on broadway. What a great show! We dragged my sister Patty along because I'm sure she would want all of you to know this but when she was 5 she would watch Annie everyday. No kidding. I thought taking her with would bring her full circle with Annie:>) I can't believe how talented those little girls are in the show. What a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon with Chloe.

Oh yeah, I just realized the purse I'm carrying is as big as me!

Do we look alike?

Okay, I totally feel like my girls look nothing like me. I have black hair, Chloe has brown,

I have brown eyes, Chloe has hazel, I have medium skin, Chloe has fair, I am a shorty and Chloe will be taller than me by the time she hits 10. Not to mention I always get asked "are they yours". Of course they are mine fool! Haven't you ever seen Amer-Asian kids before? I know I look young but I'm not 19!

Anyway, I look at pictures of the girls and they are getting soo big! I wish that I could just stop time. I told Ava the other day that I was sorry to inform her but she will not be having a birthday this year and she will have to stay 4. She said "okay mommy" Is that wrong of me? I just don't want her to grow up ever! I think I need to learn to let go...what do you think?

Oh yeah, shout out to my hubby for getting me a new camera for Christmas. I hope I'm better at posting pictures this year!

Christmas in Chicago

This year we decided to stay in Chicago for the holidays. It ended up being a good idea since we will be moving Jan. 31st. Keep your fingers crossed on that one. We really enjoy being in town because the city has soo much to offer during Christmas. The Hancock lights are red and green (we have a great view of that right out our front room), Macy's store front windows are decked out for Christmas, Christkindlmarket at Daley Plaza and who can forget our favorite the Museum of Science and Industry "Christmas trees around the world" display. We have made it our tradition to go every year and it always puts us in the Christmas spirit.

Our girls have been out of school and have another week at home with me. We are keeping busy with play dates, visiting museums, baking lots of cookies, movies and of course along with spending 24/7 with each other comes the regular fighting, screaming and pulling of hair. It's like WWF smackdown here. I know the girls are fighting when I hear from the other room someone shouting out "you little nasty" not sure where that one came from. They share a love/hate relationship but really it's love most of the time.

We spent Christmas eve here and decided to spend Christmas day with my family out in the suburbs. Robert worked on Christmas eve and we picked him up 1/2 a day and headed down to Hyde Park to the Museum of Science and Industry. We love going to the Christmas tree display every year. Such an amazing sight to see all the trees from around the world. It reminds me that Christmas is a holiday celebrated around the world. Everyone has their own culture and tradition but we all come together on that very special day. After that we had it all planned out to have dinner at Smith and Wollensky's for Christmas Eve but somehow we ended up at Rock 'n Roll McDonald's. At least that's a memory that will be treasured :>)

Christmas was spent with my family in the suburbs. We missed my sister Jean who is on a Russian Riveria cruise with her husband and my sister Dee who spent the holiday's in Wisconsin this year. We were able to spend some time with my parents and my brother John, my sister Patty and her boyfriend Ben. I am soo thankful to be near family and feel very lucky to have them so close. As this year will soon come to an end, I pause for a moment and reflect on all the many blessings in my life. I am grateful each day for all that I have and I feel truly blessed to be surrounded by wonderful family and friends. Cheers to a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!!!!

City or Suburbs?

Did I just say that? I can't believe that we are even thinking of moving to the suburbs. We promised ourselves that we would never do that. Someone please talk me out of it!!!!

We're moving!!!!

We close on the sale of our home Jan. 31st....stay tuned......
Not sure where we'll end up!

Happy Halloween

We have made it our tradition to head down to Hobart, IN to County Line Orchards (countylineorchard.com). It's about as far away from big city lights as you can get without heading east to Michigan. Yes, I could go to the local Dominicks and buy pumpkins for 1/2 the price but that's no fun. I've noticed the bigger our girls get each year the bigger the pumpkins get.

Chloe wants to be a witch for Halloween and Ava wants to be a cupcake. Now, the only issue here is I'm going to attempt to make Ava's costume. Jo Ann Fabrics here I come!! Did I mention I don't sew? I'm hoping a little bit of tacky glue and a whole lot of prayer will get me through. It's Tuesday night and she needs the costume by Friday morning for school. Wish me luck!!! I figure if worse comes to worse she could go as a ghost (can you say white sheet and a pair of scissors:>). What a bad mommy I would be if it came to that!