Christmas 2012 in Chicago

We had a great Christmas in Chicago with my enormous extended family. It was busy busy busy, but we packed in lots of qt with parents, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, high school friends, downtown shopping, deeelicious food, and even a snowfall on Christmas morning!

Yay for time off and wonderful family to spend it with!

Wishing you all the happiest of holidays!!

Scarlett's first stage performance

It was a very surreal experience to be at my daughter's first Christmas program tonight. Is this real life? #WowImOld. But, also kind of cool. Christmas pageants = for real parental obligations!

I was pretty sure it was going to go badly considering the problems she's been having at school lately. When I picked her up this afternoon, the teacher said she refused to go on stage during rehearsal. Great.

We showed up with expectations low. Definitely knew she wasn't going to sing, that was a given. All I could do was hold my breath that she would get on stage with the others and not throw a serious screaming fit.

Well, prayers were answered. She did get on stage! Only after being carried there by her teacher, however.

And then...she proceeded to pick her nose for the whole performance.

Seriously. Finger up her nose the.entire.time.

Here's a special clip where she takes a little taste. #soproud

Classic toddler scared of Santa

Scarlett's terrified, Tripp's unfazed.

Alphabet soup

Oh hey! I missed you! How are you? Good to see you again!!

Yeah, I'm sorry for the extended pause. Long story short, past few months have stayed pretty crazy with continued construction requiring more stints staying with family and friends, David traveling frequently for work, seemingly nonstop colds and coughs for everyone, and general chaos of life with two little munchkins...

But, the great news is that life is settling pretty nicely now. Work is finished on house, we are finally unpacked and it's definitely feeling like home. We are balancing two work schedules, daycare and nanny situation is improving, and we are establishing good routines with friends and activities. Yay!

AND, I miss y'all! And miss recording events big and little in our lives!

Here is Scarlett cooking this afternoon in her new kitchen, and Tripp being the cutest boy on earth, per usual.

Love these kids and so grateful for my little family and our little house and making it a home. And I love looking back at our memories on this blog, so here's to taking the time to post about it all!

Thanks for checking in. Talk again soon!

New house! First bath!

Oh, hello again! Our time in Breckenridge has ended...We are back in Austin!

We've been home(-ish) since last Saturday, but had to spend a week at my mother in law's friend's because house was stillllll not ready.

Inspection not completed so couldn't turn gas on, which meant no hot water, and then the air conditioner broke and then a bajillion other little things, you know, like electrical problems, that prevented inspection from
happening, and we kept being told inspection will take place "tomorrow" for like five days in a row...

But!

After a stressful week and a half of starting a new job and kids starting new daycare and intruding on someone's home with our loud (especially at 3am and 530am) brood, and really no sleep at all, we are finally in the house and *most* things are functional! Yay!

Not to mention new and beautiful!! Double yay!! We love it!!

Unpacking has been a slow process because house/boxes/furniture/everything is covered with an inch thick of dust and debris, and it is difficult to properly unpack when plumbers and carpenters and painters are still working on your house, but it's coming along...albeit slowly.

It has been nice to uncover some old pretty things that were packed away LAST October when we prepped our condo for listing on the market. Wow! And then we've basically been living semi-haphazardly out of boxes and suitcases since December 18th when we left San Francisco! Double wow!

Well! It's not only good to be HOME, it's awesome to be home! And in OUR home! And I told the hubs we are not moving for a looooooooong time! (exclamation points!!)

Gave kids their first bath tonight in the new tub. Tripp was laughing as always, but Scarlett was a little too busy to smile for the camera. Not the best pics but wanted to update that we are In.The.House!

So happy with how things have turned out. Can't wait to share more pictures of kitchen and bath soon!

Teething Town

Tripp's first tooth is coming in...

Scarlett's back molars are coming in...

Let's just say yesterday and today everyone had a fun time in teething town!

Fingers crossed for a better night tonight.

Last date night, Breckenridge

Things you shouldn't say to your wife while on a date after you've flirtatiously grabbed her ass:

"Nice Spanx!"

Awh! C'mon! I've been going to body pump 3x/week for over a month now! Don't call me out on the spanx so quickly!

Well...I didn't take offense because we joke about spanx all the time (night spanx?! 30 rock ref?!) and I know he thinks I have a nice behind sans spanx, so I proceeded to devour a ton of delicious sushi!

Who knew there'd be amazing sushi in the mountains?

Family friendly hike

Lower-Cataract Lake Trail.

We didn't bring a carrier for Scarlett because this hike was labeled so "family friendly"...

After a face plant trip and a mouth full of dirt, Scarlett didn't want to walk anymore. Not surprising! And of course she only to be carried by daddy, so daddyD ended up with double time kiddo duty.

Bath time at NanaSue's

Two different babies, two years apart, same bath in the sink at NanaSue's house!

Gone with the Wind

FINISHED!

When my daughter was first born and I'd tell strangers and friends alike that her name was Scarlett, I'd receive an array of reactions all referring to the main character in Gone with the Wind.

People would immediately respond with "I just don't give a damn!" and "I'll think of that tomorrow!" One stranger old lady went so far as to say, "Well, you just gave her a name that will cause her problems the rest of her life!"

I didn't get it.

What was so bad about this Scarlett character?! Not only was my Scarlett not named after Scarlett O'Hara, but I had actually never read the book or seen the movie!

I decided I must read this book in order to understand these mostly negative references placed upon my sweet little new baby girl...

Well, after almost two years of (non-continuous) reading, I have finished Gone with the Wind!

I LOVED IT!

I'm so emotional right now!

I finished this afternoon. Ironically, I felt a little like Scarlett O'Hara herself when, with only ten pages left, my Scarlett woke up from her nap and I couldn't be bothered with her at that moment. (Eek!) I went to David, with tears streaming, "I'm almost finished and I'm crying!" He instinctively understood, and took a break from work to watch Scarlett while I read the last pages.

Wow!! All I can say is, "WOW!"

Who else has read this and wants to have a book club discussion with me?! I have so many thoughts and feelings right now!

Also, all I want to do is watch the movie immediately to see the epic story portrayed on screen, and, of course, see Vivien and Clark in action! I searched high and low on streaming video websites to no avail, and I called about 10 no-longer-in-business video stores throughout Summit County. Oh, why have all the blockbusters gone out of business?! The nearest Target and Walmart didn't have the DVDs in stock either. There is no way to watch it tonight! Waaah!

Seriously, I am crestfallen.

If I don't find a way to watch it, I will scream! But I guess I'll just have to think about that tomorrow! I must find it! I will find it, and watch it - tomorrow!

Recent Tripp

Tripp's trying to get up on all fours! This boy's going to be crawling in no time. He already amazes me by transporting himself across the room via rolling and kicking. Sometimes he looks like he's doing the worm dance move. (Hopefully he keeps that skill for a cool party trick later in life.)

In the meantime, no teeth yet, but they are definitely on the way. Constant gnawing on fingers or whole fist, and its drool-city over here. Scarlett calls it "barf" despite my best efforts to teach her otherwise. Awesome.

His appetite is becoming impressive, but still doesn't seem ready for cereal. He also continues to enjoy a 3am bottle, which isn't his best trait, but we'll work on that when we get home.  

Finally, if you haven't noticed in pics yet, please pay close attention to Tripp's pretty severe widow's peak. And if that wasn't enough of a hairline, there is a huge cowlick behind it. It's a perfect circle swirl, and the hair sticks straight up! No joke. And it seems to defy gravity more the longer it grows.  

Could continue to be the cutest thing ever, or he'll just need to have a buzz cut his whole life. 

Either way, he's still the most handsome boy in the whole world!

I'm sure you agree, don't you?!

Side Pony

Scarlett this morning

"Mamma, I playing!!"

Still in Breck

Perhaps all my loyal followers (which y'all are of course!) have noticed that it has been more than 27 days of Breck...

Yes, we are still here. 

Our house remains uninhabitable (ie: no functional bathroom), so we are staying a little longer here in Breckenridge while things are finishing. Countertops go in on Friday in the bathroom so that's a major step towards becoming functional. Then the sinks and faucets can go in, and then plumbers will finish other important plumbing things like, um, the toilet, and then final inspection can happen. And then we can live there. Yay! Progress!

The rest of our time here will probably be more chill, less adventures. Previously, we tried to do a fam activity each morning until around 10/11, and then David would have to work the rest of the day. But this week, his free time has been less and will be the same next week too.

So me and the babes are just keeping busy. We've checked out the Breck library and are going to the pool/rec center; there is even a pretty neat children's museum here. So basically the same stuff I do at home, except not currently 100 degrees and humid. Instead a crisp beautiful mountain backdrop. No complaints here! (I do miss my friends though! Do y'all remember me?)

But pretty soon, it's back to reality. And probably a harsh one for Scarlett and Tripp to swallow as daycare starts and mamma goes back to work right when we get home. Eek! Might be harsh for mamma too!

Meanwhile, the kiddies are just being as cute as ever. NanaSue took some adorbs shots of the S&T on the couch this afternoon. Soaking up all the sweetness!  

New job...

I had to drive an hour and a half today to take a pre-employment drug screen for my new job, which starts two days after we return to Austin.

First off, let's look at the name of this place!

Second, the woman taking the sample and entering my info in the computer was telling me about her upcoming cataract surgery. And then actually said to me, "whoopsies, I was entering the numbers wrong!"

Umm....

Chances that my test is negative for any substances: 100%

Chances that the correct result will get delivered to my new employer: ????

Yikers!!

Mohawk Falls Hike

Our favorite hike!

This was one of the first hikes David took me on back when we were dating. We have a photo over the falls in 2004, and then we have another photo of us plus 9 week old Scarlett in 2010.

Now here we are in 2012 as a family of four! (and now all I have to do it find those first two photos. Eek!)

Until I have the trifecta, enjoy these pics of our hard, but worth it hike this morning.

Red Mountain horseback ride

NanaSue, Christine and I went on a 4 plus hour horseback ride today. It was incredible! We rode up mostly single track trails to Red Mountain just outside of Breck. Sometimes we weren't even on a trail and I felt like a real adventurer!

NanaSue and Christine are excellent veteran riders, but I think I held up pretty good on my own! Definitely love the fast cantor but need to work on making a smoother gait. It's a fun and cool challenge learning to ride. Yay!

Slowly becoming a legit cowgirl...

More delicious dinner

My sister in law Christine is in Breck for the weekend. She brought along her new boyfriend, Lucas, and her friends Ben and Brinda.

Lucky for us, Ben is in culinary school and is an amazing chef. Last night he made us all chicken piccata and summer vegetable risotto.

It. Was. Amazing!! 

I want more right now. 

Thank you so much Ben!

The game of things

Have y'all played this before?

the game of things

It's super fun!! Highly recommend for a game night!

Family Dinner

Steak.
Sweet potato fries.
Garlic sauteed spinach.
Buttered mushrooms.
Red wine.
White wine.
Homemade cherry pie.

House progress

Sneak peak of cabinet installation. Not a Breckenridge picture, but exciting and beautiful (to me at least) nonetheless!

Getting cabinets installed seems like a big step to me. Still a lot to be finished, but it's exciting to see progress is happening.

Tripp: 5 months

Rough night?

Looked that way at breakfast this morning!

Indiana Creek Trail

We hiked along Indiana Creek this morning, which opened up to Goose Tarn Lake. I love reflection photos!

It was a short hike so we decided not to bring the carrier for Scarlett since normally she prefers to walk. See video if you need a reminder.

Of course she asked to be carried at least a hundred times.

But, I just can't say no when she says, "Mamma, carry yoooou? Mamma, carry yoooou, peeese?" when asking to be picked up. I'm a sucker for language development mistakes. Too sweet, right?

Also, I couldn't say no to picking her up because it was taking a million hours to hike back.

Balding. Again.

Post-partum hair loss. It's horrible. And worse than the first time I fear. 

Every time I touch my hair, GLOBS are falling out. The bathroom floor needs to be swept more often than a hair salon. Though of course it is not, so it's just wholly mammoth central. 

And why is it always a handful of rich brown colored hairs? Why aren't all my gray hairs falling out?

Or, better yet, why don't I go bald on some other body part? 

Like my knee caps, for example. No matter how many times I shave over my knees, there are always awkward strays sticking out! Know what I mean?

Ugh, the prices of age and beauty we pay for these precious littles...don't even get me started on my boo...

Chili con carne

This morning, we went on a hike that led us into town and enjoyed pancakes at blue moose cafe as a reward. Yum!

But instead of warming up post breakfast, it kept getting coooolder. Brrrrr!! Though I'm sure y'all in Austin or Chicago or anywhere hot don't care to hear about that...

But, then it started to rain, and it rained alllll day. Boohoo!

To stay active, I went to body pump class and Scarlett played in the rec center daycare. When we returned I thought what better to cook for dinner on a cold rainy afternoon than chili?!

So I started some chili, and then spent the rest of the afternoon searching on Craigslist for a nanny. Fyi, I'm returning to work when we get back to Austin, and we need someone to help between the time when daycare ends and I get home from work. Of course that is all dependent on IF we ever get back to Austin, more and more delays on the house...ugh.

Well, good news, right as the chili and cornbread were almost ready, the skies cleared and Scarlett played outside with daddyD, Pop and the doggies, while NanaSue and i enjoyed some nice white wine on the deck. Turned out to be a pretty beautiful evening. As ever, so thankful to be here!

**i followed the Betty Crocker chili con carne recipe, but then added some of my own special secret ingredients. Turned out pretty deelish!!

Breckenridge Rodeo

My first time at a rodeo. It was really fun! Pretty cool mountain backdrop too.

It was an experience for sure. Real 'merican event!