Sunday, December 6, 2009

Crockpots and Thanksgiving

I love cooking soups and crockpot meals in the winter. A friend and I went to the cheapie theater to see Julie/Julia today and I came home all inspired to make Beef Bourguignon next weekend. In my search online for a recipe, I came across this website: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

Much in the spirit of the movie, a woman decided to use the crockpot every day for a year. There are a lot of interesting and easy recipes so I thought I would recommend checking it out.

Also, a bit delayed, but here are some pics from Thanksgiving.








Monday, November 2, 2009

Remodel

For those of you who don't know, Don and I have been working with a builder on a pretty major remodel of our main living spaces. We have an older ranch home and it had a traditional layout of a large front living room, dining room, small kitchen and small den. All of these spaces were divided by walls so the home always felt very small and claustrophic. Except for a huge front living room that we never used! We decided to bite the bullet and tear down the walls, get a beam put in above the ceiling for support and basically to create one big open room with a larger kitchen. We're still decorating and settling in, but we are very happy with the results.












Sunday, November 1, 2009

Party Time

We had some friends over to watch an outdoor movie last weekend and Declan and his friends started an impromptu dance party.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Moving on Up

Well, tomorrow is the first day of school down here in Atlanta and Declan will also be making a transition - moving up to the ranks of Toddler II at his daycare. :) I actually have been looking forward to this . He moved into the Toddler I room in January and he was a lot younger than some of the other kids. It was a bit of a tough transition - no cribs, only one nap a day, eating at a little table, etc. He learned a lot and I loved his main teacher, but overall the room just always felt WILD. Every time I walked by Toddler II they looked so much calmer, there is such an amazing developmental difference between kids that are around 18 mos and those that are 2 years.

So I am excited he is moving on up. But at the same time it is really starting to hit me that he is not a baby anymore. He now uses two words together - my daddy, it's mine, apple juice, mama here - and is constantly surprising me by what he knows. The other night we were on the web cams with my parents and he found a coloring book. We all commented on it, then he ran into the kitchen and pointed at the drawer that holds the crayons. He rarely colors and I had no idea that he knew that we kept crayons there. Just makes you realize how much he is absorbing and learning. It will be interesting to see how he does with the new room. I'm sure he will miss his teachers Loretta (Ett-a), Lubov (Bu-ba), Corterra (Tar-a) and Michaela (Ya-La).

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Summer Fun

It has been a HOT weekend but we've had a lot of fun. Friday night we went to Decatur Square where they had a beach party. Each year they bring in truckloads of sand and create a beach. We also spent some time at our neighborhood pool and then set up our own waterpark in the front yard. We wrapped up our Saturday by having an impromptu movie night - projecting Indiana Jones on a bedsheet in front of the carport. I just love summer.


Declan loves going to the pool and is quickly learning to jump in and put his face underwater.







Who can resist this face????






MN Trip







Chicago Trip




We spent a weekend with the Johnsons and Aunt Lisa and Uncle Sean a few weeks back. Declan loved going to the neighborhood park!

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Keeping Cool








Sunday, April 12, 2009

Easter