New Years "Resolutions"

1) Blog more

2) Grow my cooking repertoire to include more challenging and unique foods, and actually BLOG about what we cook

3) Start a raised bed garden in our backyard...which admittedly, our whole back yard is the size of the garden I grew up with. Oh how I love city living.

4) Continue to explore making our own dog food.

5) Finally finish all of our planned major home projects (we should be done these by February), and to tackle any new projects in a timely manner.

6) Remodel our wine cellar. The previous owners installed it "upside down", ie: corks up, and it needs some serious TLC. Let me also note, that it also needs to be stocked...it's so hard to keep a bottle in it!

7) Enjoy every moment, both challenging and easy, with Anders. 

8) Take more pictures!

9) Laugh more. 2010 was a rough year for us all. It's time to enjoy life and take things in stride.

10) Focus on that which is important and ignore that which is not.

Happy New Year!
S, M and A

Christmas 2010

This Christmas was our first in Nebraska and it brought quite a few changes. We celebrated Christmas with S's family in Florida in early December, and my parents came out to NE for 10 days to celebrate with us. Traditionally, we spend the day, and Christmas Eve, running around to different homes to meet up with all of our family, and cook a huge meal to enjoy with everyone. This was our first year "offically" hosting Christmas for our family, and it was very calm, quiet and different.

We did not do a good job taking pictures, but, thankfully, my parents did. More pictures to come as they settle back into their lives in Vermont!

Hello December

how is it December already? I hate to say it, but it as been almost a MONTH since I had 5 minutes to sit down and blog....yep, I am a blogging failure!

In life news: Thanksgiving was a bust-S was getting over the stomach flu, A had a sinus infection and I had a nasty little cold. We all hunkered down with our turkey and caught up on our DVRed shows. Sad, but true. We went to Florida to visit S's parents and grandmother at their homes down in the sunshine. It was a great way to spend a cold December week, and it was wonderful to finally get to fly with S for a full trip! Right now we are all getting ready for my parents to come out for Christmas-which means that it may actually be time for us to finish decorating our house. We are so behind in all things home/life related simply because since the first week of November one member of our family has been sick with one ailment or another.

On the baby front: Anders is 6 months old! Woohooo!!!! He is becoming more and more of a "real child" (as S likes to say) every day. He can sit unassisted, he has outgrown his bouncer, swing and infant car seat, he eats a boat load of "real" food and he is learning how to self entertain.

One of the cutest things is to watch him eat solids. He loves pears, apples, peas and anything mixed with cinnamon. He's indifferent to green beans and sweet potatoes. This kiddo loves his food.

Oh yeah, and he is huge. Here's our stats over the past appointments:
Birth: 7 lb 8 oz, 20.5 inches
2 months: 12 lb12 oz, 25.5 inches
4 months: 17 lb 12 oz, 27.5 inches
6 months: 19 lb 9 oz, 29 inches
We are in 12 month clothing. Sadly for A, they are all too wide, so we spend the day pulling his pants up...which, of course, he hates.

Last weekend we went to see Santa, and A was wonderful.

He loved Santa's real beard, and Santa loved that A only touched it instead of pulling it....just you wait one more year!

Hiding under S's golf hat

Family shot at S's family Christmas in Florida.

Jolly little 6 month old!

Mildly Dreading Thanksgiving....

This will be our first Thanksgiving without our close family, and I am not looking forward to it. This will be our first "serious" holiday where it is just S, A and I, and, of course, S and I also have Friday off, so it will be a long weekend filled with thoughts about what our families are doing.

So, in order to minimize the loneliness, we are remodeling yet ANOTHER part of our house. We moved in 1/1/10 and have remodeled our dining room, living room, one spare bedroom (turning it into our nursery), our master bedroom stairwell, and all of our flower beds (that's 5 beds....and they were a hot mess). Left on the list includes: our first floor bathroom, first floor hallway, repainting the master and updating the outside trim. Let me just take a moment and say, we have a 1395 brick tudor, so everytime you touch something everything around you falls down.

For Thanksgiving we will be remodeling our first floor hallway and possibly our guest bath. Our hallway will be getting a new paint color, all of the trim (which includes 4 doorways and doors) painted ivory, a new ceiling and a new light. We are hoping to tackle the pink bathroom also...all depending on how much Anders naps!