hat

I forgot to show you burke's little get-up for church on Christmas Eve. He even (mostly) kept the hat on! Funny kid.

christmas

burke's favorite gifts- books... oh, and aunt leslie's presents

Can you believe that it's already December 28th? December always passes in some sort of whirlwind for me... I can't believe Christmas has come and gone already!

Despite an inordinate number of fabulous and thoughtful gifts, Burke was just not really into Christmas morning this year. I would bet that I will never write those words again. But I think he could've stopped after opening three presents and been perfectly content (in fact, we have all of our gifts for burke still wrapped and under our tree... we're going to spread them out over the next month or so).

Us grown-ups, however, have developed the stamina required for the present opening and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Y'all will never guess what Adam got me... well, unless you read the kojo blog. He got me a legit, computerized, programmable, monogramming sewing machine. He spent about ten times his budget, but also came up with a complex plan to fund his purchase including selling things on ebay, using budget from elsewhere and chipping in some money he'd put aside. Weasel. Sweet, thoughtful weasel. I'd never even think to ask for such a gift, so to say I was surprised is putting things mildly.

Adam's big gift was a Wii and Rock Band, so our last few days have been full of me reading the sewing machine manual and practicing on scrap fabric and Adam and Aaron playing Rock Band. More of that to come I'm sure.

Hope y'all had a fantastic Christmas!

***I forgot to tell y'all about the kojo blog giveaway this month... as I write this, there are only about 40 entries (including all the new blog followers and blog writeups), so you have a pretty good chance of winning! And you'll win personalized medallion stationary that you could make into much needed thank you notes, or just personalized stationary. Anyway, head on over and enter before new year's eve!!!

dental school prom

You know that feeling when finals are over? It's glorious, right? Pair that euphoric feeling with 200 or so dental school students who study. all. the. time. and you have a scenario ripe for a huge celebration at the end of the semester.

Enter dental school prom. There are beautiful people all dolled up and tons of dancing and plates of delicious food. And finals are over. It's fantastic.

staying in

Snowy backdrop. Hot tea. Christmas music. Comfy lounge clothes. My favorite 1 year old. Sitting in the living room, looking at the Christmas tree. Adam finishes up his finals this afternoon.

I love today.

surprise birthday party!

I know I told you that our friends went all out on this party, but let me elaborate:

-the decor was gorgeous (martha stewart pom pom flowers, a couple of banners, paper poppies... just gorgeous). Even better, I got to keep all of the stuff they made... the pom pom flowers are currently hanging above my couch. Burke loves them more than I can tell y'all- more about that later.

-the food was fantastic! they made all my favorites (using mostly recipes from the kojo blog- I love it!)

-the drinks deserve their own mention (brandy slush with pomegranates, limeade, pomegranate sparkling cider, eggnog delight, all sorts of hot tea, dark chocolate hot cocoa, coke zero... y'all know how I love drinks and they did it up right!)

-they made favors (paper poppies and bags of chocolate covered blueberries... they even tucked little kirstin quotes in the favor bags!)

-there were pomegranates EVERYWHERE. Glorious.

-the theme was 'hostess with the mostest' and I got to KEEP all of the servingware- platters and cake stands and monogrammed gems and pitchers and tablecloths...

-they had a flower folding station where people could make paper flowers that kimiko is going to fold into a garland I've been wanting... maybe one of my favorite parts of the night was looking at the flower folding station to see both ben and paul folding flowers- classic! :)

Seriously, I can't tell y'all how loved and cared for I felt... if you have anyone in your life that loves to throw parties and showers like I do, have one of these parties for them! I can't think of a better way to celebrate my birthday!

surprised and spoiled!

I can't wait to show y'all pictures from the amazingly thoughtful surprise party our friends threw for my birthday... Let's just say that they went. all. out. and that my birthday memories of our foray into winter camping in the ChickFilA parking lot are fading fast. Spoiled- very spoiled! Here's a quick preview-

More to come...

we survived

Thanks to my husband's genius purchase of a tent heater that kept us toasty warm despite subzero temperatures (ok, to be fair, the actual temp got down to 7, but the "feels like" feature dropped us below zero), our First 100 Round 2 at ChickFilA went swimmingly. We didn't sleep much (not because of the cold but because of the people chatting outside our tent through the night), but we got these:

Fabulous, just fabulous!

Also, for my willingness to venture into the wild world of winter camping, Adam has promised a beach vacation and that he (and I quote) "owes me for the rest of his life." I feel like those things might be as valuable as the free chicken. :)

what am I thinking?

Remember when we camped out at Chickfila in April? We got a bunch of free Chickfila, met some new friends, and (this will be crucial in a minute) the weather was gorgeous, seriously gorgeous. Note the t-shirts and shorts and sunshine involved.

Tomorrow, we embark on an adventure that is a little the same and a little different than that little camp out... You see, there is a Chickfila opening down the street from our house. We've known this for awhile and been planning the grand opening as our The First 100 Round 2. However, if you check weather.com, you'll see that the high tomorrow in Denver is 22 degrees. Yes, twenty two. That's below zero in Celsius. And at night it'll be 12 degrees (another gem from weather.com? It says "feels like 7" under the 12 degrees...7!?!?!). If you know me well (or at all, actually), you know of my less-than-cordial attitude towards cold weather. I am a sunshine girl, through and through. Oh yeah, and did I mention that this little winter camping experience occurs on my birthday of all days? Seriously, could life be more ironic???

But I love my husband... and he thinks this going to be quite the adventure. And there is a decent amount of free food involved. And my mama and dad have outfitted me with Yellowknife-approved gear, which is a definite bonus in this case. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

lessons from Up

I know that y'all probably saw the movie Up ages ago... but I am just getting on that bandwagon now and so you get to hear my musings months after you've thought this through.

This is what I'm thinking now:
1. I want Adam and I to be that cute and in love when we're old. Heck, I want us to be that cute and in love now.

2. I don't want to spend so much time bogged down in life that we don't live. We have no shortage of grand plans (ok, mostly I have no shortage of grand plans). I don't want to get to the end of our life and wish we'd actually gone out and done some of them. There will always (ALWAYS) be something to save for, something to plan ahead for, some reason that the dreams don't make sense. The nature of grand plans is inconvenient and incompatible with normal life. I know that the rearranging and sacrifice is worth it- I hope we can keep that in mind and see that as we allocate our time and resources.

3. On the flip side, I want to stop and see the adventures we're having right here and now. So much of life happens in the mundane, the everyday, the 'glorious middle.' There are chances for really miraculous stuff in my daily life- taking the opportunity to read with burke and really be present with him, giving up sleep to stay up late to create something that is just on the fringes of my imagination, taking a minute to kiss my husband, using my conversations to speak life and encouragement to my friends and family. These are the things that make life well lived. I hope I can see that too and not just always be waiting for the grand plans to come to fruition.

I'll leave y'all with a cute picture that Jordi took of us... the glorious middle indeed. ;)

thanksgiving goodness

I know y'all already know this... but it bears repeating: I. love. my. family. Also, I love thanksgiving. Delicious food and time with mom and dad and jordi, drew and the girls this week has been pretty darn great. If only kiji, aj, trish and patrick were here.

Yesterday was a grand conglomeration of food (everyone's favorite recipes mashed into a thanksgiving feast o' glory), lots of fun people (gpa & judith, cody & the kids, jess & matt along with our fam), thanksgiving-ish decor (y'all know how jordi and I love doing that stuff together), a mini photo shoot (check out those family pics! I always feel like there should be a disclaimer on jordi's pictures: 'subjects in photos are not as cute as they appear') and football. Fabulous.

Mama and dad even kept all three babies overnight so we could do the black friday thing this morning. Again- fabulous.

I hope y'all had a terrific thanksgiving as well!

ps- Just a quick reminder that if you want to take advantage of jordi's photo christmas card deal (the one where you get 100 free cards and envelopes when you order), the deadline is the 29th (Sunday). I wouldn't want you to miss it... She's working on ours today- I'll show y'all when she finishes it. :)

rocks-giving

Yep, my supersmart hubs thought of that title. And it's the perfect way to sum up our pre-turkey Thanksgiving festivities. There were costumes (don't you love Jordi and Drew as School of Rock? and Adam's and Burke's gold "G" chains? and the Anglins as Billy Idol and Cyndi Lauper?) and music and food and lots of laughter. I think this may need to become an annual affair!

naughty squared

the pictures were taken AFTER I scrubbed him... ink stains EVERYTHING (even skin)- imagine that

Hmmm... well, even after burke's before-bed resolution to reduce the naughtiness factor around here, we are still in knee deep.

The latest and greatest? Pouring out our ink reserves on the floor (cleanable, no problem), the down comforter (bleachable, no problem), my cashmere sweater (not so cleanable- a big problem), that blue shirt he's wearing (again, not cleanable... and I LOVE that one... and it's not even ours!) and himself. At least the fits have died down a bit- those are the part that eat my lunch. Can terrible two's start at eighteen months, by the way?

Weasel. Weasel. Weasel.

***Also, if you're planning on ordering Christmas cards from Jordi, our printer just raised their shipping prices, so the shipping will cost $6.00. Just FYI.

photo card superdiscount

Sorry there's been so much kojo stuff on here lately... you'll want to hear this, though! Jordi is offering a deal to her friends that she said I can extend it to y’all as well.

If you order one of her digital jpg Christmas cards before November 29, you’ll get 100 printed 5x7 photo cards (and envelopes to send them in) FREE! The jpgs are $15.00, so you could feasibly get all of your Christmas cards for just $15.

Here are the details:

*Choose a photo card on the etsy shop (www.kojodesigns.etsy.com)

*Order from the etsy shop and follow her directions (you need to send her the picture(s) you want her to use)

*In the “notes to the seller” let her know that you’re ordering the cards as part of the friends & family deal…

*Be sure to include your email address (it’s required to set up your photo account) and your mailing address

*Wait a couple of days and get your oh-so-fabulous super-deal cards in the mail!

Just thought I’d let you know. :)