Art Museum

I took Owen to the Art Museum last week for the first time! We met my sister Jamie and her boyfriend Nigel there to walk around for a bit and it was pretty amazing watching Owen experience something so new to him. Owen lasted longer than I thought he would and was well-behaved the entire time. I did have to step in a couple times when he got excited and forgot he couldn't get too close/touch the artwork but there were no mishaps/alarms/guards reprimanding us. I can't wait to take him again soon!



Owen and Aunt Jamie



Owen took this picture of me in front of a painting I liked.





Posing!



This is one of my favorite pictures!  We were nearing the end of our visit at the museum and Owen was just so tired he had to lie down for a minute.



Desserts!

I let myself get behind on posting and now I'm all backed up! I'll be posting things randomly and out of order to try to catch up. I'm going to start with a post just about some of the treats we made this month.

Spiced Apple Cream Cheese Coffeecake (sidenote: this recipe calls for cardamom which is so expensive at the grocery store I almost skipped putting it in (even though it's one of the major flavors in the recipe) until we found it for a cheap price at World Market. Get it there!)

A slice of the coffeecake! This recipe was so good and even though it had three layers and lots of ingredients it wasn't actually that hard to make.

Meatball cookie-this is not a very good picture but I forgot to take a picture until we had only one left and my camera battery was so low I had to take it while the camera was plugged in to the wall.

Peanut Butter Cup cookies-not sure of the official name of these but these are super minimal effort for a super tasty result. I ran into my neighbor at the grocery store one day and she convinced me to make them. Just a pouch of peanut butter cookie mix and a bag of peanut butter cups.

Sugar cookies-we needed more cookies for Santa so we decided to make these with the kids. Next time we'll make them first and let the kids decorate them...Paige just munched on the dough and Owen spent the whole time trying to roll it out. We had fun though as you can see by the mess!

And We Waited...

We've had to get our cars fixed a couple times recently and I think it is now one of Paige and Owen's favorite places to go because...
1. There is room to run
2. They have complimentary bagels from Panera on Mondays which is when we always go
3. They have a large television
I get to read bad magazines while they watch cartoons.  So if you're looking for some wintertime entertainment...there you go. You're welcome.



Figgy Pudding!

Every year, my mom and I make a "traditional" Christmas dessert that we've never made before. This year we tried figgy pudding. We used a "modern" recipe to avoid the weird/unavailable ingredients that were used a long time ago. I don't think anyone will say it's their favorite dessert ever but I was surprised I liked it as much as I did and it was even better the next day. In past years we've made a yule log, rugelach, sugarplums, fruitcake, a gingerbread house and rum balls.

Topped with whipped cream!



Out of the oven! (also cooled...)



Outtakes

I post our Christmas card outtakes every year so here they are! We took our traditional picture in front of the fireplace and tried in front of the Christmas tree but ultimately went with some photos we got done at a studio. Enjoy :) Also, here are outtakes from past years... 2010, 2009, 2008


The kids looking for Santa



In this picture, Owen was already getting up to get the camera because he wanted to see what the picture looked like

We had a lot of issues with Paige's bow because she kept taking it out between pictures and when we would try to put it back in really quickly it always looked crazy

This might have been the winner if the lighting had been better and that Reese's ornament wasn't so prominent...

Boots!

At some point, every little kid figures out how fun it is to put on an adult's shoes and try to walk in them. It's cute. Every time! 

Winter Parade!

One of my favorite things about our town is that there are so many community events. Most recently we went to a parade that was followed by fireworks and free rides on a carousel! The parade was great and even though the fireworks were a little too close for comfort (Paige was terrified by the noise and part of a firework flew into the crowd! Aaah!) the carousel ride made up for it. The last time I tried to take Paige on a carousel she wasn't too pleased but this time I had to pry her hands off while she was sadly shouting "horsieeeeee." 

Getting bundled up!

About to sit down for the parade

We ran into our neighbors there and got to hang out a bit before walking home

Fun on the carousel

Listen!

Just in case you wanted to hear the best sound in the world.

Yay! Friends!

Some friends were in town for the Thanksgiving holiday and we were lucky enough to spend some time with them! We met at a park we all frequented when we were younger and had a great time playing soccer, walking a trail and following Paige and Owen on the playground. We went out to eat afterwards and made a waiter take our picture:) Paige fell asleep in about 5 minutes during our drive home (pretty rare for her!) and Owen thought it was hilarious.



Me, Pat, Owen, Alex, Brian, Zandra and Paige




Paige fell asleep! Owen was laughing so hard (as quietly as he could!)



Our Happy Thanksgiving!

Ah, Thanksgiving. Ours was really great, helped along by the wonderful weather and the fact that Pat and I got to spend it with both of our families! First, everybody spent a lot of time watching the parade while I recleaned what we had already cleaned and then messed up again. Then we got the turkey in the oven and I went out for my Turkey Trot (I missed the 5 mile run downtown so I did my own!). When I got back I checked on the turkey and realized the oven wasn't hot! The turkey hadn't been cooking! Ahhh! Pat had locked the oven thinking he was keeping the kids safe but it really it turned the heat off...we fixed it and *spoiler alert* the turkey cooked just fine and was delicious. Meanwhile, we  heard from my parents who locked themselves out of their house after coming back from the race downtown! They still made it to our house in a timely manner though. We played outside with Pat's family while we waited and then we hurriedly made the rest of the food and ate a ton. So. Fun. So much to be grateful for. Happy Thanksgiving!

Some of us watched the parade in mismatched pajamas, clutching a waffle. All morning.



I remember taking this picture because Pat was super pleased with himself for finding this casserole dish.
Good job Pat!




My favorite Owen smile of the day!




Group picture!




Proof that I was there too!



Thanksgiving Crafts!

Owen does many, many crafts at preschool but I still wanted to do a couple at home this week. The whole family was able to participate in the first one we did and then Owen and I worked on the second one.

I think it's pretty obvious how this one was put together...but in case it's hard to see...we traced all of our hands and then layered them to make turkey feathers. Saw this idea here.

Owen and I put together some napkin rings for the big meal tomorrow. We used his thumbprint for the body of the turkey, then I drew the face and Owen took care of the feathers. Then we glued them to strips we cut from a paper towel roll. They're all very...unique:)

Yum!

I know people that can make amazing homemade ravioli and sauce like it's no big deal (ok, everything they make is amazing...). I'm talking about you guys, Lisa and Alex. They invited us over to eat and then threw in some football and soccer to round out the evening.  

Pat helped





Paige was very excited too



Nature

I'm so dreading having to hide in the house when the snow comes that we are fully embracing every nice moment outside. Yesterday we ran outside before dinner even though it was about to storm because the temperature was nice. These pictures are from last week when we picked up Owen from preschool and went straight to the park. It was a part of the park that we've been to before but don't go to very often and I ended up carrying Paige up and down 135 stairs. Totally worth it.


This is a classic Paige face.




Run!






Chillin' in the nature center

Owen was trying to hug Paige for a picture but I think she thought she was being tackled:)

Visitors!

Pat and I have a lot of the same friends since we went to high school and college together but most of them don't live near us so we were really excited to have a small group of friends from college all visit at the same time! There were some kids that had been born since the last time we were together and it was fun to see how all seven kids interacted. Anytime we get the chance to see friends I wish we could do it more often and promise myself we will. Hopefully this time it happens!  

Paige gets up close and personal with Abram

Owen and Julianna were fast friends

I can't believe we got a picture this good with 15 people!

Silly picture!

Let's Revisit...

...Halloween! Sure, Halloween was 10 days ago but we never really "talked" about it. Paige was very protective of her bag and wouldn't let anyone help her hold it even though that meant dragging it through the leaves. Owen did not get sick this year (yay!) and was on a mission to get to every house as quickly as he could. The kids never got tired of trick-or-treating but we led them home anyway because they had plenty of candy.    

The family. Pat and I aren't dressed up so you can save your jokes about how scary we look :)



We had pancakes in Halloween shapes. That's Owen's crazy Halloween face.
Or he thought he was smiling normally. You decide. 





See? A bat.




Hugs.




Aww! Paige is cute! You can see Owen sporting this shirt back in 2008 by clicking here.




Another cute one! I messed with this one using the Instagram app.