Thanksgiving 2015

Thanksgiving was just yesterday, right?!  I don't know how it got be December because I swear we were going to the splash pad just last week, but the weeks and months just keep flying by.

This year for Thanksgiving we traveled to the Horning's to stay for the week.  As per usual we were generally spoiled and fed very well.  My kids did not want to come home!  Personally I really enjoyed the girl time with Adam's mom and sister and creating some fun memories as a family.

One of the days before Thanksgiving we went to Silver Dollar City to see all of their amazing Christmas lights and a Christmas parade.  Their Christmas production was actually very Christ centered and all of the lights were so fun, but a lot of other people apparently thought so too.  There were SO many people, but Amaia really enjoyed the parade and lights and has been performing Christmas parades for me ever since.

On Thanksgiving morning it was 60 degrees!!  I was very thankful for that, coming out of 6 inches of snow at home just the week before.  

On "Black Friday" just the girls (minus Vera) went shopping.  I hope it's the start of a new tradition because it was so fun.  Amaia came with us and was a shopping champ! She was so patient during all of the big girl shopping and I was so impressed with her.  She is becoming such a big girl *tear*

Vera started waving during our trip and it is basically the cutest thing I've ever seen.  Until she started clapping and crawling this week. She just keeps upping her cute game.  This is her and Ashley during the Hawkeye game, in which they completed a perfect regular season!!

It was a great Thanksgiving!

4th of July Festivities

We had a great 4th of July this year! The weather was practically perfect and Amaia is starting to get old enough to really appreciate the fun of it all.

We started our day off at a parade and it was CRAZY with so many people, but we were able to find a spot and Amaia enjoyed herself, so it made it worth the craziness :)  She didn't have to try hard at all to come away with quite the stash of candy, which she will be sharing with mommy and daddy. 

Haddon didn't care too much about the parade yet, but he sure looked cute!

We then went out to a nice lunch and ice cream with grandma and grandpa and then went home for a full family nap - always included in a good day!

Then we went out to a party that our church was hosting and ate lots of watermelon - among other things.

Lucky for us my parents now live very close to where the fireworks are shot off from - so convenient.  We hung out in the backyard and I let Amaia stay up waaaaaaaay past her bedtime to watch the fireworks for the first time.  I am normally very protective of my kids sleep schedules, but she is getting to the age where it isn't as hard for her to stay up.  I think she thought they were going to be scary before the fireworks started, but she ended up loving it.  I wish I could of taken a picture of the awe on her face in the first few minutes.

So thankful that we live in the best country on Earth!

Mother's Day 2013

My Mother's day 2013 in pictures.

I started the day off with my very first gift from Amaia, facilitated by Adam of course :)  It promptly went on the fridge.  I love it!!

I am trying to start a Mother's day tradition of having a picnic and playing at a park.  This one was quite chilly, so we didn't last long, but it was still a beautiful sunny day.

We look cold because we were!

After our cold park adventures we came home and every member of the family had a glorious nap.  Haddon was up earlier than Amaia and Adam was the grocery store so we had some nice one on one time and he was just as sweet as can be....as he is pretty much every day of his life.  My sweet guy, I love him so, so much.

The rest of the day included resting and fabulous grilled dinner by Adam and his sister Ashley.  So yummy! It was really a sweet, relaxing day with my family which is exactly what this mommy wanted.

Thanksgiving Tree

I crafted and it turned out well!!  This was possibly the easiest craft project of all time, but crafts don't always turn out well for me, so I was excited about this one.  I have seen this idea floating around in the internet world and really wanted to make it happen. 

I simply asked my parents for some branches from their yard and then placed them in a big vase.  Then I cut leaves out of red, yellow and orange construction paper and tied them onto our tree.  Many more leaves will be added as the month of November progresses.  

I want to do this as a yearly family tradition to teach myself and my kiddos how many things we have to be thankful for.  

"It is not happy people who are thankful, but thankful people who are happy"

I asked Amaia what she was thankful for today and she said "Elmo" go figure :)

Halloween 2012: My Eskimo Girl

I am learning that Halloween gets a lot more fun with little ones in the house.  You get to dress them up as whatever you want AND you get to eat their candy!!  Ha.  I know this will most likely change within the next year, so I am living it up while I can :)

I found Amaia's costume on the clearance rack at Target last year and I think she made a stunning little eskimo girl.  Truth be told, she was not a huge fan of all that fur around her face, but all in the name of cuteness, she tolerated it for her mama :)

This year we didn't go trick or treating (because I knew she was too young to want to do that) but we did visit a few of Amaia's favorite people in costume.

Grandma & Grandpa's house.

 And Aunt Ashley's apartment!  Amaia has a special love for her Aunt Ashley.

That was the extent of our Halloween festivities this year.  I am excited for next year when she will hopefully find more enjoyment in dressing up.  I am even going to skip the sale racks this year in the hopes that she will have a request of what she wants to dress up as next Halloween.

Mother's Day

I had an absolutely wonderful second Mother's day as a mom.  We slept in a bit and then headed out to the enjoy the perfect weather: sunny with a high of 75!

Adam prepared a picnic lunch for us, complete with (in true Adam style) the biggest sandwich I have EVER eaten.  Seriously, look at these!

I could barely fit the entire thing in my mouth, but the funny thing is that I finished mine and Adam did not :)

Me and the pretty girl that made me a momma.  I wish she would smile for the camera, but she doesn't like to be confined these days.

She is happiest when we let her freely explore the world.

Then we explored everything the park had to offer. 

Truly, I got exactly that I wanted for Mother's day - time outside in beautiful weather, quality family time, great food and new nail polish!!  However, as I write this recap I feel so blessed that I don't at all only feel appreciated as a mom on this day.  I can honestly say that I hear and see and feel this from my sweet husband pretty much every single day of the year.  

The end :)

LOVE: Food Style

"The way to a man's heart is through his stomach"

A common saying and so very true for my man.  He loves food.  He loves good food and he has very good taste!  So I really, really try to be good cook.  I occasionally fail.  For example, our first Valentine's day together as a dating couple I attempted to make salmon and completely burned it.  I believe the smoke alarms even went off.  Needless to say I was scarred by the experience and no longer attempt to make salmon :)

However, sometimes I am quite successful!  I found a new recipe for Thai Basil Chicken and Adam loved it!  I made it for the first time last week and thought it would be perfect to make for my love on Valentine's day.  Do you have a husband that loves spicy Asian foods??  You really should make this! Personally I find Asian recipes intimidating to make on my own, but this one was actually quite easy and quick.  It is actually pretty healthy too with the exception of the fish sauce which is a bit high on sodium.

Thai Basil Chicken (adapted from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons chili oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 hot chile peppers
• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 5 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 cup fresh mushrooms
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 1 bunch fresh basil leaves

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat, and cook the garlic and chile peppers until golden brown. Mix in chicken and sugar, and season with garlic salt and pepper. Cook until chicken is no longer pink, but not done.
2. Stir fish sauce into the skillet. Mix in mushrooms and onions, and continue cooking until onions are tender and chicken juices run clear. Remove from heat, and mix in basil. Let sit 2 minutes before serving.

A couple friendly tips:

*I buy the mushrooms that are already sliced.  They cost the same as whole.
*Buy a good quality fish sauce!  From what I hear it makes a difference.
*I served over brown rice

I also made chocolate covered strawberries to celebrate! Last year we went to a local chocolate shop that shall remain unnamed and purchased ONE chocolate covered strawberry for $6.  This year it cost less than $6 to make ALL of these and I am pretty sure they were just as good.  Just sayin'  :)

It was a tasty Valentine's day!

LOVE: Family Style

Happy Valentine's day to you and yours from me and mine!!!

We are really, really enjoying the start to our first Valentine's day with our little sweetie.  Amaia and I brought daddy a mint condition coffee drink at work this morning!

Daddy loves Amaia.

We also tried to do a little photo shoot.  Amaia is not currently a fan of photo shoots.  In her opinion there are far more interesting things to do.  She is probably right :)

But she is just so darn photogenic.  

Amaia doesn't know it yet, but she is going to have strawberries and her first taste of nutella this afternoon for her Valentine's day treat.  Yum!!

The Big 3-0

This weekend I turned 30!  Woot!  Woot!  I think turning 30 is supposed to be depressing and I am supposed to feel old right about now.  However, I do not feel old and I DO feel super blessed and thankful for all the amazing, loving people in my life, so 30 is feeling pretty great!!

Adam promised me a four day extravaganza to celebrate and he did not disappoint.  I don't know what I did, if anything, to deserve such a wonderful husband, but I am now 100% convinced that he the best husband of all time.  Hands down.

Our festivities began on Thursday night where we went to dinner at an undisclosed location with undisclosed people.  Adam tried to trick me into thinking we were going to Chipotle, but it was actually Centro with a couple of my dearest friends.  It was just pure fun!  Great conversation, great food, great people.

  

I guess I didn't take any pictures on Friday - oops!   I came downstairs in the morning to find Adam sitting in his chair reading.  I was so confused!!  Haha! Adam took the day off work to spend the day with me.  We went to La Mie for breakfast and watched, "the Help" in the afternoon.  The only downside of the weekend was that I was sick pretty much the entire time.  However, it was really, really nice that Adam was home while I was not feeling well.  If you are a mom, I am sure that you understand that is doubly not fun to be sick when you have a little one to take care of.  It was such a blessing to have Adam home to help me take care of Amaia and allow me to even take a nap!!  Friday night we went on a date and it was a wonderful time to just talk and enjoy one another.   It was lovely.

Saturday was my actual birthday and it was actually one of the more uneventful days of the weekend.  It was sweet though.  Adam took me to World Market and let me have free reign to buy whatever I want - within reason of course.  Well....go figure, but I couldn't really find anything when the pressure was on.  I only got one small vase.  Every other time I go there I want to buy everything in sight.  Then we went out to coffee and to lunch.   

My and my little sweetie at Caribou.

I had the afternoon to myself and then we met Adam at church that evening.  Our typical Saturday.

Now, let me just say here that I already felt like this was the best birthday ever on Saturday morning.  In fact, I am pretty sure that I even said that to Adam.  Sunday, we had our typical morning routine...breakfast, coffee and face to face time during Amaia's nap.  After that I was under the impression that we were going over to Adam's parent's house for cake (cake made my Adam's mom is something to be very excited about in and of itself!) and a "special guest" was going to be there.  Well that was the understatement of the year! I was blindfolded and walked into a room of almost all of my dearest friends and family to a surprise party.  I had no idea!  I wish that I would have taken better pictures, but I didn't really think of it until after the fact.  Looking around the room there were so many details, just for me!  I feel...sort of embarrassed/overwhelmed as I recount this.  I felt so loved and so blessed by my family and my amazing husband and friends.  The food included all of my favorites: crepes, pretzel m & m's, chocolate galore!, scones, chocolate crinkle cookies, salted caramel chocolate cake and more!  There were pictures of me all around and even a slide show playing.  There was even a quiz all about me!  It was absolutely perfect and I feel like I cannot say thank you enough to all of my dear friends. 

Several people had left by the time I made everyone take a group picture with me.

 Amaia's friend Lainey (daughter of my dear friend Sarah) clearly shares my love of chocolate!

 Some of the decor in mid tear down mode.

From what I hear my dear, dear friends Allison and Julie had A LOT to do with this.  Ah....these girls....I have no words....they are soooo wonderful.

And now....I have enough chocolate to last me for the next 30 years!!  Of course it will not last me for even close to that long, because I don't have the best self control in this area.  Do you want some chocolate?  I have A LOT!  Please come over and help me eat it!!

I also have beautiful flowers gracing my tables.

They are making the letdown from the weekend and little bit easier to bear.

Christmas 2011

Wow!  Am I behind the times or what?!  I am finally doing a recap of our Christmas celebrations.  Let's see if I actually remember any of the details....

I know that we most likely won't live within blocks of both of our parents forever, but it is oh so nice while it lasts!  We got to have two full days of Christmas celebrations this year.  On Christmas Eve Day we celebrated with my side of the family.  My sister and her hubby came from Iowa City for the day.  We had brunch, opened gifts and then just hung out.  We are always trying to get a good picture of Jessica, Steve and Amaia.  We will keep trying to get Amaia to look at the camera :)

We looked in our stockings first and Amaia helped me.  One of her favorite pastimes right now is taking everything out of a container or in this case a stocking, so it was right up her alley.

 Clearly this is my favorite picture of all time!  I'm only sort of kidding :)   I never get tired of Amaia deciding to cuddle with me.  I only hope that as she gets older it lasts for more than 5 seconds at a time.

After we left my parents house we came home and had our own Christmas.  I knew that Amaia would get many wonderful things from our families, so we only got her two small gifts this year.  The first one was practical: a cup with a straw.  She is obsessed with my water bottle with a straw so I thought she should have one of her own.  She also got her first Bible and I love it!  It is a little beyond her current attention span, but I hope that she will love it someday too.  The illustrations are beautiful.  

Adam and I also exchanged gifts and he gave me a ring with the initial "a" for Amaia to wear on my right hand.  I love it!!  Now I have a ring to represent both of my loves.  For Christmas Eve dinner I had a can of soup and Adam has a frozen burritto - Oops!  With all of the plans for the day I didn't really think about making dinner for us and I felt so bad.  Next year, I want to either make potato soup or learn how to do fondue.  Is fondue difficult??  Either way, we are not having the same Christmas Eve dinner next year.  After dinner we went to the DTC for their first Christmas Eve service!!

On Christmas morning we went to Adam's side of the family for a Christmas brunch.  We brought a friend from church, so I got to sit in the back seat with Amaia.  She was being a sweet, smiling cutie and I was trying so hard to get a picture of her two bottom teeth that are starting to come through, but this is all I got from her.

After brunch we came home and the entire family took a nap!!!  I thought that was a great thing to do on Christmas and as Amaia and hopefully future kiddos get older I doubt I will get to do that very often on Christmas day.    After we woke up we headed over to Adam's parents house for another Christmas celebration.  We opened gifts, ate an amazing meal and just got spoiled in general.  

I didn't get a ton of pictures, but we did take a couple as our family of three in front of the Christmas tree.

It was a wonderful couple of days!  I hope that Amaia understands more next year and we can add more Christmas traditions to our family celebrations.  It really is true that Christmas is more fun with kids!

All Amaia wanted for Christmas...

...was her two front teeth.  I promise they are there if you look REALLY close in this picture :)

 We had a wonderful first Christmas as a family of three.  I always leave Christmas feeling so blessed by our families.  More details to come on Amaia's first Christmas.  Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Traditions

I fully plan on having many, many Christmas traditions as Amaia gets older and we add more children to our family (Lord willing!!!).  I am still brainstorming on potential Christmas traditions, so we don't have very many built into our family Christmas celebrations YET, but we do have one!!  Every year for the last three years Adam and I have gone to Starbucks to get a warm drink and then we drive around looking at Christmas lights and listening to Christmas music.  I was so excited to take Amaia out this year!!  We ran into a few bumps in our Christmas merriment road, but they did not deter us.

Bump # 1:  Last year we found this crazy, wonderful house in Grimes. It was decorated with a million lights and huge blow up lawn ornaments.  It was cheesy and festive and wonderful.  They even played music and you could get out and walk around and look at everything.  I have been REALLY looking forward to taking Amaia to see it.  I cannot say this with absolute certainty, but I think it was quite possibly the #1 thing I was looking forward to experiencing with Amaia for Christmas.   Well, we found the house last night and they apparently are not doing it this year.  Insert huge sad face here!!  Needless to say I was a bit dissapointed.  However, Adam did a find a consolation for us.  I really wanted somewhere that I could take Amaia out of the car and show her the lights so we did find the Grimes public library.  It wasn't nearly as crazy, but we could still get out of the car and walk around.

Isn't she a vision in her new winter coat??  I decided that she just must wear it even though it was 50 degrees in December at night and Adam was wearing flip-flops :)

Bump #2: Amaia did not particularly enjoy our tradition this year.  And by that I mean that she cried almost the entire time that we were in the car.  She has to enjoy it more next year, because I don't think that she could enjoy it any less :)

We do have one other tradition - we attempt to watch Home Alone 2 every year.  It is one of Adam's favorite movies and I honestly have never seen anyone laugh so hard at a movie before.  Typically he laughs at the movie and I laugh at him.  It is great fun :)

What Christmas traditions does your family have??

thanksgiving

We had a wonderful but fairly uneventful Thanksgiving.  Uneventful in a very good way of course.  I only say that because I don't find myself having a lot of things to say about our Thanksgiving this year, but I just had to have a reason to post this picture...

If ever there was a cute turkey, here she is :)   Do other people ever get over how cute their kids are??  Because sure do not.  

We had two Thanksgivings to attend on the actual day of Thanksgiving this year.  I was quite proud that I paced my eating well and I was actually hungry for our second meal of the day. First, we went to my cousin's house, and then Adam's parent's house, both of which happen to be within 5 miles of our house.  I am not sure how we got so lucky! 

I wanted to get a family picture taken, but it didn't happen, maybe if you can imagine that these two pictures mashed together....

Adam did learn to carve a turkey this year.  He claims that it is easy.

We let Amaia try a few foods.  She seemed to like pumpkin bread and rolls, but she was a bit skeptical of mashed potatoes.

And now....as of last night it is officially Christmas season at our house!!!  Woot!  Woot!  I am excited. I have to admit that I am ready for it to snow a little bit.  Due to Amaia's jumperoo taking up limited room in our living room I was considering not putting up a Christmas tree this year.   Adam's mom ended up lending us a slim tree that she had and I have to admit I am really, really happy that we put it up.  I don't think it would feel quite right without it.  There is something wonderful about relaxing in the evening with the tree lit up and candles burning.

Amaia doesn't seem to notice the tree unless I bring her right up next to it.  She reaches her hand out to touch the tree, but then retracts and soon as her fingers touch the needles, then repeats the whole process.  So dainty and cute.