Catching Up

The past month has been fun but busy! Here are some of the things that happened...

My birthday! It was a fabulous day! I got to sleep in (so I stayed up really late the night before! Hee hee!), we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, I talked on the phone a lot, we went on a walk, I got to shower and get ready with no interruptions from kids (a rare treat!), then Mark and I went out to dinner and to see Breaking Dawn. It was such a fun day! Thanks to my wonderful husband, family, and friends for making it so great!

And here was my birthday cake when we went to my parents' house to celebrate a few days later. It was delicious... chocolate cake, chocolate icecream, and chocolate ganache frosting!

Thanksgiving. It was my first time making a big huge turkey... and I'm not sure that I ever want to again :) Here's the table all set and ready to go.

Mark and Ethan are doing man stuff... tightening the legs on the coffee table. Ethan is such a boy! He loves tools and cars, it's so fun to see his personality and interests developing.

Thanksgiving dinner appetizers. Thank goodness for these! The turkey took hours longer than I expected, so these saved me! Everyone was pretty patient about dinner getting done since their tummies were full of appetizers (deviled eggs, caramel corn, cinnamon walnuts, and a veggie tray).

My sister-in-law and cutie niece.

Mom, Dad, and Cala.

Finally ready to eat... phew!

A few days after Thanksgiving we celebrated my father-in-law's birthday with dinner and cherry pie.

I've become obsessed with Pinterest! I'm sure a lot of you can relate, am I right?! I saw this idea on there and the kids LOVE it... glow sticks in the bathtub with the lights off. You can buy the glow sticks at Target (15 for $1)... can't beat that for a little afternoon fun :)

Another idea from Pinterest. I made this pillow cover and love it!

We've also decorated for Christmas. One of my favorite new decorations was covering these canvases with red fabric and using painted wooden letter to spell Noel.

Here's the before...

And after...

After Christmas I can take off the fabric and save for next year!

We also got our Christmas tree. We found a Christmas tree farm nearby up in the mountains where you get to cut down your own tree. It was so fun! Much more of an experience than going to the corner basketball court and picking out a tree in 2 seconds like we used to do in New York.

And then last week we went to a ceremony where Mark took an oath for admission to the bar. I was a proud wifey as usual :)

And there it is, the last month. Lots going on just like I like it :)

Esquire

Today is Mark's second day of work as a lawyer! I meant to take a picture on his first day but he was running late and then I realized the camera battery was dead... so I got a picture on his second day. I think he was a little embarrassed that I was making him stand on the front porch so I could take a picture of him and I'm sure that he loves it even more that I'm posting this on our blog, but I'm so proud of my lawyer! I sometimes hope that one day I'll be able to say to someone, "Hold on, I need to call my lawyer!" It has been a long road to get here, 7 years of school, months of studying all day long for the bar, months cleaning windows for work while waiting for the bar results, and then the job hunt. Way to go babe! He's working part time for a law firm doing all their employment law stuff and then part time for another firm doing criminal defense. We're hoping that soon the part-time employment law thing will turn into full-time, but for now it's all good experience and he's loving it!

Dresser Redo

I'm so excited about this dresser redo, my only regret is not having better before pictures. Here are the before pictures with the drawers already out. There is a drawer sitting in front of the dresser in this picture but the handles had already been taken off. This dresser is about as old as Mark. His mom used it as dresser and changing area for the kids when they were little.

It had taken a beating over the years as you can see, but no worries that worked fine for the look I was going for.

This $800 buffet from Pottery Barn was my inspiration picture. I love it but definitely couldn't afford it :)

And here it is finished! I took out the top drawer and put a piece of wood in to make an area so we could use it as a TV stand. I sanded, primed, painted, used stain to antique it, distressed it a bit, and then finished with a coat of polycrylic to protect it. The hardest part was being patient and letting it dry overnight in between steps.

Here it is in the house. I couldn't be happier with how it turned out!

Tea Party

Ethan and Cala are starting to play together. I love it! It doesn't last for very long, but it's so cute to watch and I'm looking forward to the day when they will be able to play together for hours.

This picture is blurry but you can still tell how excited Ethan is :)

Cala is pouring Ethan some tea.

Girls Trip

Last month I got to meet my best girls in Chicago for the weekend. I have the sweetest husband to be so supportive of this trip! Last year we went to New York City and decided we should make it a yearly event. During this past year almost all of us have moved, and we now live in 4 different states all across the country. I was so excited that we actually made this trip happen!

Cindy met Nicole and I at the airport and she even had signs! How fun!

Tiana didn't get in until later so we ended up spending the afternoon talking and laughing in our hotel room.

Of course we had to have a ton of junk food! The bananas were just for looks, I don't think we actually ate them :)

After her flight being delayed a few times, Tiana arrived and we were together at last!

The first night we got some Chicago deep dish pizza for dinner. Check out all that cheese!

We even had matching PJ shirts!

The next morning we slept in and then went for a run.

We got all fancied up and were ready for our day in the Windy City!

Shopping here we come.

After a day of shopping, we stopped for some cupcakes.

They were delicious!

A girls trip would not be complete without a pedicure.

The next day we went to church in the morning. We got a surprise when we walked into the chapel and realized we were the only non-hispanic people there. Turns out we had gone to the spanish ward, one of the members was nice enough to sit behind us and translate.

We went to the Bongo Room for brunch. It was amazing! We had pumpkin pancakes topped with a sweet creamy sauce, chocolate banana french toast, and delicious omelettes.

The pumpkin pancakes were our favorite.

Matching shirts. I love the lacy back!

Matching watches with very different price tags :)

We finished the day in the hot tub.

During the 3 nights that we were there I think we got a total of about 12 hours of sleep, gained about 5 pounds each from all the food we consumed, and laughed almost non-stop. It was a great weekend!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is such a fun holiday! Cala got to wear her costume to preschool a few days before Halloween. All the kids in her class did a parade around the administrative offices and the parents were invited to stay and watch. Cala did so well and was so cute!

Tonight we took Cala and Ethan trick-or-treating and it brought back such fun memories, I think I enjoyed it more than they did :) I loved trick-or-treating when I was younger, I would be out right when it started and stay out until the last minute to get all the candy I could. I thought every kid was like that, but Mark was telling me tonight that he would go out for only about 40 minutes. It looks like Cala will take after him and Ethan will take after me. We still have a little snow on the ground and it was pretty chilly tonight. Cala and Mark were getting really cold, so they went home early and Ethan and I stayed out for a while longer. Ethan caught on really quickly to how trick-or-treating works and was braver than Cala when it came to going up to doors and getting candy.

Here are the kids with grandma Chris before they went trick-or-treating. Ethan was a shark and Cala was Rapunzel.

My two cute boys.

Thank goodness for strollers!

The kids in action.

The stash! I have to really enjoy raiding the kids' candy while I can!