Dashing Through the Snow

My parents got a sled for Audrey over Christmas and she LOVED it!  The "hill" she went down wasn't very big but she'd laugh all the way down and she kept wanting to go over and over again.  Here she is in all her cuteness, bundled up in her little sled.

 Up the hill.

 Ready to go!

 Whoosh!

I Smell the Turkey Lurkey!

This year, we spent Thanksgiving in St. Louis with Bill's parents and went to their close family friend's house to eat the big turkey lurkey.  We were excited because unlike last year (she came home from the hospital on Thanksgiving last year), Audrey could actually eat all of the goodies - turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes!  And so could we - needless to say, last year was a bit hectic.  :)  She ate everything!  The title of this entry, by the way, is an hommage to my late grandma Helen (which is also Audrey's middle name), who said this phrase while the turkey was cooking every Thanksgiving and is now a family favorite.

Everything is already gone from her tray!

 First time using a crayon.

Audrey's 1st Birthday!!!

I'm playing catch up with these next few posts.  Audrey's FIRST birthday was back in November, the day before Thanksgiving.  I cannot, cannot, cannot believe that she's one! This year has flashed by in the blink of an eye and it couldn't have been more fun.  Watching her change, grow, learn, experiment, crawl, walk, talk - every moment has been amazing and I am madly in love with her.  She is truly the center of our world and we wouldn't have it any other way.

I was really excited to celebrate her birthday because I wanted to get cupcakes.  Not only did she eat her first cupcake on her birthday to celebrate, she had two more birthday parties - one in St. Louis and one in Iowa City.

On her actual birthday, it was me, Bill, Lolo and Lola (Bill's parents).  I don't know what Audrey thought of the whole thing but I think she had fun!  She did very well with the cupcake until she touch her hand to her face at the end.  She wasn't so happy then.

 Opening a present from Gammy (my mom).  It was a phone because she's obsessed with my Blackberry.

 Texting already!

That weekend, while we were still in St. Louis, Bill's mom threw a party for family friends.  Lots of kids were running through the house and while Audrey was tentative at first, she wanted to join them by the end!

I LOVED her outfit!

A week later, we had a few friends over at our house with their children - age 3 or younger.  It was nice to have a few hours with everyone to catch up and hang out.

 Had to do the outfit again but maybe the hat was overkill?  :)

 After she changed outfits and we put the hat back on.

 All is well in Daddy's arms.

 Our little family.

Parsnip Fairy

I believe there is a Parsnip Fairy at my work.....either that or I'm being stalked.  True story - I bought parsnips for the first time about a week ago so I could make parsnip puree.  The only person who knew this was Bill (or so I thought) and he and I had discussed going online to find a recipe to make sure we did it correctly.  I've been procrastinating and just haven't gotten around to finding one.  I came into work today (after being out sick yesterday) and ta da!  On my keyboard was a print out (in color, no less!) of a Tyler Florence parsnip puree recipe!!  I'm excited to use it and will let you know how it goes.  I wonder what else I can just think about and have it magically happen?  :) Thank you, Parsnip Fairy!

The Breakfast of Champions

I realize that I said I was going to start eating better but resolutions are only for breaking, right??  I've never been a huge donut person and I'm sure that in the past, I've gone years at a time never even eating one.  I do, however, have fond memories from my childhood of waking up on random Sunday mornings and finding out that one of my parents had already left the house that day to go and bring back donuts.  I also always looked forward to mornings at my cousins' house because they'd get donuts for us to.  In my adult life, I haven't eaten many except when I was pregnant - I craved them like mad.  So much so, that Bill and I scoured this town for donuts one morning and ended up at the local grocery store because no one had any.  Enter my co-worker.  He lives about 30 minutes away in Cedar Rapids where they have stand alone donut shops.  He would bring in donuts every once in awhile and I finally asked him if they had my favorite - chocolate covered, cream filled (white cream, not that yellow custardy stuff - yuck!) long johns.  To my delight, they did!  Now, about every other month, I have a surprise breakfast waiting for me at my desk (the sprinkles aren't normal - those are just for Valentine's Day):

YUM, YUM, YUM!!!!  And I love the bonus frosting on top!  Oh, and did I mention that he always get me TWO?!  :)

New Year's Resolutions

I don't typically "do" New Year's Resolutions.  I like to think that I am continually striving to make myself a better person all year round so why should I only start fresh upon the new year?  This year, however, after some serious reflection about some things I haven't liked in my life, I decided that I would embrace the New Year thinking and take some action.

1)  I will actually call people to talk rather than just text.

The trend of people not speaking to each other on the phone kills me.  Unfortunately, I find that I now do the same thing.  It's so much easier to text someone something quick than call and GASP! have them answer and have to actually talk to them.  But what does that say about us?  Is it really that hard to speak to our so-called friends?  I'm not saying that I will never text anymore, I'm just saying that I will think twice when I try and contact someone.

2)  I will take better care of myself by working out and eating right. 

I was lucky; I only gained 25 pounds when I was pregnant with Audrey.  It wasn't really that hard to lose and in fact, I ended up losing more than 25 pounds.  What I found, however, is that my weight slowly crept back up because I was still eating like I was pregnant - my craving for sweets and ice cream only went away a few months ago - and I wasn't doing anything to excercise.  The result?  In a short span of only a few weeks over the holidays, I gained more than I'm comfortable with.  Starting after New Year's Day, Bill and I dragged out our Wii Fit and agreed that together, we would workout 30 minutes 5-6 nights a week.  The result?  After only 2 weeks, he'd lost 2 pounds and I'd lost 3.   Not too shabby.  Plus I just feel better.  I'd been starting to feel achy and missed the flexibility I once had.  I'm getting my groove back.

Bill and I have also come to realize that we eat way more than we should.  Even little things like at breakfast.  I have always eaten an English muffin with peanut butter for breakfast.  I used to just eat half of a muffin until I got pregnant, then I started eating the whole thing.  Sounds minor until you consider that by eating that extra half, I was probably comsuming an additional 150+ calories.  By cutting back to just the one half and smaller portions at lunch and dinner, I figure I'm shaving off enough calories to either lose weight or maintain where I am.

3)  I will be a better friend by responding to emails in a more timely fashion and by checking in "just because".

In the same vein as #1 I will be a better emailer.  It takes me forever to respond to people's emails, if I ever do.  That's not being a very good friend and it makes it seem as though I don't care about them which is definitely not true.  I also find that many of my closer friends will text and email me "just because."  It makes me smile and feel loved.  So the next time I'm thinking about someone, I think I'll let them know with a little note.

4)  I will declutter my life - specifically my email inbox and household items.

My house seems to be overflowing with stuff - mail, items to be recycled, baby toys/clothes, shoes.  In the last few weeks, I went through a lot of my clothing and donated 6 large bags worth, 2 bags of shoes (a 3rd bag went in the trash) and 1 bag of purses.  It felt great!  I still have more to do but I think that since we're getting ready to move, it will be easy to get rid of the junk.  Less to move!

I am embarassed to tell you about my email inboxes.  At work, I have over 1,000 emails in my inbox (and yes, I do archive them!; this is what is left).  My hotmail account also has over 1,000 emails.  Where's that Delete button??

5)  I will post a minimum of 3 blog entries a week with at least one being food focused. 

As I'm sure you've noticed, there's been a flurry of blog activity lately.  As one co-worker said to me, I've posted more entries recently than I have in the last few months.  For some reason, I always get blog ideas in my head and even start to draft the text but then never get around to sitting down and typing it out.  I also really want to keep the "Foodies" side going as well, even if to a lesser degree, because cooking well and drinking wine are large hobbies in Bill's and my life.  Now that Audrey is here, I don't want to lose ourselves and just become mommy and daddy who only make fish sticks and tator tots.  We actually have a life too.

6)  I will go to bed earlier.

Not sure what to say about this one other than it's ridiculous how late I go to bed each night.  There's no excuse for staying up as late as I do so as part of #2, I must start going to bed earlier.

7)  I will read more.

I think this goes without saying but I don't have as much time for myself as I used to.  Reading, not that I was doing it a ton before, has gone by the wayside.  When I lived in Chicago, I could knock out a book a week because all I would do to and from work while on the el was read.  That was awesome.  Santa was good to me this year because I got a Barnes and Noble NOOK.  Yay!!  (If you're trying to decide between eReaders, I highly recommend the NOOK.  Write to me if you want to learn more.)  I'm making a point to set aside time each night and I'm well on my way to catching up on the hottest best sellers.  I may actually read the books my little book club recommends rather than just attending the meetings for the wine!

Cheers to 2011!  May you all find strive to be a better person all year round.

Snow Day!

As predicted we got quite the storm yesterday and overnight.  The wind was INSANE, as was the resulting drifting.  It was fun to watch the wind whip across the tundra and continually reshape the snow as we looked out the window in our pajamas and slippers. We could see cars that were parked on the street slowly disappear under the snow and idiots who thought they could drive through the drifts but got stuck in the middle of the road.  We got an email that daycare would be closed for today and the University, which was originally scheduled to be closed until 10:30am, ended up cancelling classes altogether.  That meant - family snow day!!!  I needed to try and work while keeping an eye on the ever-needy Audrey and Bill spent the entire day studying for a big test he has coming up.  We did get a chance to make hot chocolate and sneak out into the snow for some playtime.

Out our front door:

 Using Audrey to show height comparison.  :)

 Getting ready for some fun in the snow!

 I'm ready!

Playing in the large drift in our driveway.

And just because we had some extra time on our hands....

Blizzard of 2011

Right now, along with the rest of the midwest, we're bracing for a huge snow storm.  We got a bit of snow last night that just made the roads slippery.  Now we're waiting for round 2 that promises to bring 9-14 inches of the white stuff.  (Chicago is set to get 24 inches and I'm jealous!)  On top of that, we're under a blizzard warning due to the wind and the temp is going to fall below zero.  FUN!  Actually, I'm kind of looking forward to it because it's been a pretty mild winter in terms of snow fall.  Last year, we broke a record with over 100 continuous days with snow on the ground.  It seemed like a storm came through once a week - which I got to enjoy from the comfort of my home since I was out on maternity leave.  This year, the temps have been as frigid as usual but not too much snow.  I'm expecting that school will be cancelled tomorrow which means daycare will also close.  It's pretty impossible to work from home with a baby running around but we'll see.  Maybe we'll actually take Audrey out in the snow (once the weather warms up a bit) so she can use her little snowsuit and boots!  :)  Stay warm everyone!