O' Christmas Tree!!!!

For the first time since Mike and I were married....we actually have room for a Christmas tree. I guess we would have had room the first year, but we were packing to move to DC...so that didn't make sense. We were also traveling over Christmas, almost every year that we were in DC. So....now we are finally in a house big enough for a tree, and staying home for the holidays....so off we went to chop down our tree!

checking out the lot!

sawing....sawing...sawing....

cute cute boy

Damon LOVED helping carry the tree to the car!

let's go!

Christmas Boutique

A few months ago, my sweet friend Maren, (who I talk about ALL the time) suggested that we get a group of friends together, and have a Christmas Boutique. I had never done one before, but she has done a few....so she spread the word....and after a couple of weeks we had a group of friends who were all excited to join in.

I decided to make treats, and then got some things in New York, and from my aunt to sale.

So....I had a week full of very late nights. Which most of you know is not normal for me....and my kitchen looked like this for a few days....(pictures above and below)

I made caramel / chocolate dipped pretzels, white choc. peppermint oreos, and hot chocolate dippers (candy canes dipped in choc.)

I made tags for everything, and tried to make a cute little presentation for everything.

the girls...minus Liz who left before we took the picture...Ashley, me, Maren, Brittani, Latasha, Brittany, and Missy. What a fun day!

my stuff. :)

It was so fun! can't wait to do it next year!

Thanksgiving!

I hosted my first Thanksgiving! But....was way too nervous to cook the turkey. So our sweet friends, the Laytons, were joining us....and luckily, Maren wanted to make the turkey anyways! It all worked out! The turkey may have taken longer to cook than we planned....but WHO CARES! It was delicious, and we had a super fun night. Our sweet friend Tiffany had to work until 7 pm that night, but her husband and kids came over to join us, along with two of Mike's classmates. Jasmine and Alexis. It was fun to have Jasmine with us because this was her first time ever experiencing Thanksgiving!

Maren's hilarious thumbs down, due to her stress over the stubborn turkey. :)

the two pies in front are the pies that we made at the King Arthur Flour class....the one on the left is my lemon chess pie, and on the right is Maren's fall fruit crostata. yum yum!!!!!

King Arthur Flour!

So about a week after we moved to New Hampshire, the CEO of King Arthur Flour (big east coast company) - spoke at one of the orientation meetings at Tuck. That afternoon Mike came home and told me all about it, and said that they have baking classes at their headquarters (about 10 minutes away from our house) - he suggested I sign up for one if I want to....so I went outside, told a bunch of my neighbors...and we all signed up! (a few ended up on the wait list, so sad)....

So we signed up for the Holiday Pies class, which was the Monday before Thanksgiving....it was SO much fun!

me, with maren, liz, brittany, and emily....and I don't think Amy was there yet when we took this picture

We made a Lemon Chess Pie - yummy! and a Fall Fruit Crostata. Also, delicious. (I'll show the pictures in my Thanksgiving post. We learned about how to make the perfect crust, and all kind of other things. The instructor was such a funny little lady, and it was so fun to sit in this huge room and bake away with such good, fun friends!

Besties.....

First, a big thanks to Deborah for letting me steal this picture.

These are two of my very best friends from college.

Deborah (middle) was my roommate, and is still, and will forever be one of my closest and dearest friends. We have done road trips, cruises, Vegas trips, double dates, cry sessions, laughed so hard we cried, more road trips (like across most of the U.S.) and everything else you do with a best friend.

When I moved out Deborah moved into another apartment with Syndi (left). We all had some super fun, crazy, hysterical times back in the day, and these two friends mean so much to me. Oh the boys....oh....I laugh just thinking about those crazy dating days!

But it all worked out.....I introduced Syndi to her future husband in 2000 (I think), and a few years ago they actually moved to Virginia....about 30 minutes away from where i lived in Maryland. So over the last couple of years Syndi and I bonded about motherhood, marriage, living far from family....etc....We also have boys who are very close in age, so playdates were always a blast.

This past summer Syndi and I both happened be in Utah for the month of July, so we all met up, and laughed some more. Love Love Love you girls.

Damon....ski jump....from our porch.

Mike built this ski jump for Damon.....he's OBSESSED. it's pretty fun to watch him go down, pop out of his skis....carry them back up, climb up, put his ski's back on himself, and do it again. So fun!

snow!

so....we had our biggest snow storm to date the day Tuesday night / Wednesday day before Thanksgiving. We were all up early (at least Brixton and I....) Damon wasn't far behind....then Mike remembered about the storm and jumped right out of bed. By the way...Thank heavens for seasons passes to Killington Ski Resort! The boys packed up the car, Brixton and Damon were seriously out playing in the snow at 6:45 a.m. I'm not kidding.....Mike and Damon left, Brixton and I went in....but came back out later when we saw one of our little best friends, Olivia, outside playing.

Olivia's mom and I were dying at how cute they were in all of their snow gear!

Olivia also taught Brixton the art of eating snow! It was so funny, until he started picking the snow up off the pavement. haha!

We both look a little weird in this picture....but I love it anyways, and love all the snow around us!

yes, this was taken before 7:00 a.m.

Olivia's dad came out and built this fantastic snow man....cherry tomato eyes, asparagus nose, and peas mouth. We were laughing so hard.

Oh New York....New York....

When I was in Utah this summer, my mom mentioned that she, her best friend Judie, and two of my aunts were in the middle of planning a trip to New York. Hmmm....New Hampshire = 4 hours from New York....woo hoo! (okay, 5 hours on the bus, but whatever). I moved to New Hampshire, a month later bought my bus ticket (thank you Dartmouth Coach!), and started counting down the days until I got to go on a trip, for 3 days with no husband, no kids....just girls! My mom joked that I'd just be hanging out with a bunch of 60 year olds....I DID NOT care! We had sooooo much fun!

Macys, beautiful Macy's. What an overwhelming place to walk into! 9 stories tall!

Christmas shopping!!!!!

My Aunt Anne, Aunt Cookie, and Mom!

a bus tour! mom, Judie, my cousin Brooke, her son Landon, Anne, and Cookie

My cousin Brooke was also in New York! Her husband had business there and so she and their son came along! I hadn't seen her since her wedding! It was so fun to catch up with her a little bit. We've always joked about being twin cousins....(born on the same day, same year....just on opposite sides of the world!)

Awh! I love my mom!

My mom and her BFF Judie! So glad Judie was able to come. It was her first time to New York. It's so fun to be there for someone's first time to the Big Apple!

waiting for our tickets.

me and my Aunt Anne....shopping on Canal Street. Such a great place! (maybe slightly annoying, but still so fun! )

Judie and I. The sculpture behind us used to be inside one of the World Trade Towers.

Judie, my mom and I - big fans of Project Runway.....we were so excited to drive past this building during the bus tour!

bus tour :)

bus tour... :)

Had to take this one for Brixton.

Thanks for the most amazing trip Mom! I loved spending so much time with you and all the ladies! love you!

Half Marathon!

So...I've enjoyed running since I was a teenager...and probably when I was 19 or 20 started running in a couple of 10K's each year....then we moved to Maryland, had kids....etc...I still ran and worked out, but come on, most of us know how much harder it is to prioritize ourselves when life gets in the way. So...we move to New Hampshire....I meet some amazing friends....who are all runners....I mean, like real runners. Maren, Andrea, and Tiffany.

My good friend Maren looks up some races and in September, tells me...."There's a half marathon on October 29th, let's sign up for it". I didn't really even contemplate....I just signed up. Like a crazy person! Slight roller coaster - starting out as #44 on the wait list....figuring we'd never get in, then moving to #13 on the wait list, then actually getting in.....So Maren, Andrea and I get in....Tiffany didn't end up signing up because after hearing how far we were on the wait list we never thought we'd even get in!

little did we know! CAPE COD HALF MARATHON......here we come!

by the way....I promise my head is not really 3 times bigger theirs....they both just have really small heads! I look like a monster!

It was freezing when we got there....we got our bibs, stayed warm inside for a while...threw our coats in the car.... then headed for the starting line. By the time we started I think it was 43 degrees....so really, not that bad....

I wanted to see how far I could run before I had to stop and walk....I made it to mile 11....which was a huge accomplishment for me. Granted...miles 9-11 were SLOW, I had majorly slowed down, "hit the wall" I suppose they'd say, so at mile 11.... I walked to 11.7, then ran the rest of the way.

Thankfully, since this was my first half marathon, I had zero expectations, besides actually finishing the race. I knew that if I finished it, that would be a miracle in and of itself. It's a good thing I didn't have any expectations, because my finishing time was awful, but I was still really proud of myself. Which honestly is a feeling that I don't get very often. On the last turn towards the finish line, this nice volunteer man looked at me and said "50 more yards to go!".....I started crying right at that moment. Word to the wise....don't start crying when you're already feeling like you're going to die! It makes it really hard to breathe!

My sweet friend Maren, who has now run 13, count them, 13 half marathons - stayed with me the entire time. Even after I repeatedly told her to go ahead. go ahead. go ahead....she'd just say "I'm fine!" Andrea ran with us until about mile 6, we could tell she was "antsy" and was itching to run a little faster...so we sent her off. She got an awesome time...and even walked back after getting her medal to meet up with us and finish the race with us.

Cape Cod was beautiful. We ran through the small town of Falmouth, and around part of the Cape. Past little farms and light houses....It was beautiful. I definitely should have taken more pictures.

me, andrea, and maren. Love you girls. Such great memories.....

Halloween 2011

This Halloween was a big deal for us, once again, because of our living situation....and actually living in a neighborhood with lots of kids....as opposed to a giant apartment complex with only a few. It was so nice to just walk around the community, and actually have trick or treaters come to our house.

A pirate and a train engineer.

Our awesome neighbor, Emily, planned a little neighborhood Halloween parade and pizza party. It was soooo much fun. The husbands even took a break from studying to join in the fun!

Pretty sure he's saying "choo choo...."

AAARRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!

Happy Halloween!