Willpower

Two chopped Ghiradelli chocolate bars + one batch NY Times cookie dough + one more day before you can eat any of it = Willpower.

Results Are In

You may recall a few months ago, we shared our program with you for how we would pump Colton up. Well, the results are in, and I think you can see that after only 6 months on our program, he has made significant progress. Take a look:

He now basically fills the entire basinet. (Don't worry, he doesn't actually sleep there. He is free to turn circles in his nice big crib.)

He also fills up the bouncy chair.

Oh the days of feeding him with a tube and syringe. He dropped below 5 lbs, so we had to supplement him with formula. Now when I give him a bottle, he holds on to my fingers with all his might...as if he's afraid I'm going to pull the bottle away before he's done. It's pretty adorable.

I think this shot is a great illustration at the manly pecs he's been working on. His arms have also made significant progress. (And can you believe how big that newborn diaper looked on him?)

Look at that tummy! Colton has realized that bathtime is nothing to cry about. In fact he loves splashing (although, I admit that this picture was totally staged. He gets his bath in the tub now, but we stuck him in the sink for comparison's sake. It's shameless what Colton must submit to in the name of a blog post).

He also doesn't mind getting dried off anymore either.

I love the picture on the right. You can see his cheeks have gotten nice and round...and his drooling has increased dramatically.

His legs were once the size of our friend Matt's thumb. Now he has about four good fat rolls on each thigh.

Six months later, and he's still not exactly sure if that daddy person can be trusted.

When we first put him in his car seat, I was worried he was going to choke on the buckle, and I thought to myself "good thing we bought the bigger version." Well, he wasted no time filling it up. And still has no problem drifting right off to sleep in it whenever we start moving.

And last, but certainly not least, his weightlifting abilities have improved substantially. He's up to 8 pound weights (which is more than I can say!).

Isn't amazing what a difference a few months can make?

Personal Record

Despite my propensity to randomly flex in pictures, I am really not that into exercise. (In fact, I may have actively campaigned against it from about 1996 until after my mission.) I want everyone to know that I have exercised six days in a row. I think this is my personal best since I quit my high school soccer team in 1995. I thought it should be recorded for posterity.

Under Contract

Those of you who actually read to the end of my last post may have noticed that I mentioned that the offer we put on a house has been accepted. Well, we now have a contract on the house and are working toward a January 22 closing date. Wahoo!! The house itself might not look very big, but we assure you that the mortgage is... It is a cute little house in an historic district (seriously, it's on the national historic registry for being a track house built in the '50s) in the perfect location for us. We are quite excited.

Here are some pics. Descriptions are above. For example, this pictures shows the exterior of the house featuring the for sale sign.

This is the view of the living and dining room and into the kitchen from the front door.


Here's a shot of the kitchen and dining areas. (The dining area is pretty small...like 2 feet.)

Here's the kitchen. It's all brand new...

Here is the bathroom that we will be sharing with our children. Nothing brings a family together like sharing a tiny bathroom.

This room will be the nursery as it is the smallest and quite fitting for the smallest member of the family.

This room is the master. You can't really tell it apart from the nursery in the picture, but it is quite a bit bigger. There's another bedroom upstairs as well, but apparently I forgot to capture it. That's okay, it would look pretty much exactly like the other two anyway.

The staircase downstairs is in the kitchen. Here's the view coming up the stairs.

There are two bedrooms in the basement, although the previous owner knocked out the wall between them. Putting the wall back up is already on our project list. We're going to use one as a storage room and one as a guest room (for anyone who wants to come visit!).

There is also a full bathroom in the basement. My favorite part about it is the shower that I can barely stand up in because the ceilings are low. It shouldn't be a problem as long as our kids aren't tall...

Most of the basement has normal ceilings. There's just one little corner that is really low. The bottom of that light comes down to my nose. Project #2 - take out that low fixture and put in a recessed light.

Here's the view of the staircase coming down into the basement.

There's a nice sized rec room downstairs. It's also a walkout basement, so it's nice and sunny down there.

We have a nice little back yard (featuring a ginormous shed). Justin is already planning to put a grill/smoker/woodfire oven in that corner.

Here's the other side of the yard. Notice the bike path 2 feed out the back yard. Prime location for a family that likes to bike!

I'll post more when we actually buy the house, paint it and move in. Here's to thirty years of house payments!!

Snow Day Craftiness

So what do you do when it randomly snows two feet overnight? I decided to make Christmas stockings. Actually, I was already planning on making the stockings that day, but not being able to go anywhere definitely reinforced the plan. You see, a few weeks ago I decided that I would make a Christmas tree skirt, so I bought a whole bunch of fabric only to realize later that we actually bought a tree skirt last year. Oops. Good thing that I also had it on my list to make stockings as well.

Last year, Justin's mom gave us his stocking that he'd used growing up, so I decided to make one for me and Colton to match. (Warning: Those who are not so interested in craft projects, should probably just scroll to the bottom at this point and look at the finished product.) I started by cutting 2 1/2 inch strips of 5 different fabrics, sewing them together and then ironing them flat.

Then I realized, I should probably have some kind of pattern, so I traced Justin's stocking onto newspaper. This is good because I ended upcutting out two front quilted pieces, two back pieces, four pieces of muslin and four pieces of fusable fleece. I guess I should point out right now that this project took me all day.

Once the front piece was cut out, I had to sew on the toe and heel and embroider around them. (Justin's mom used lace, but it turns out that I don't actually have any lace on hand. Justin thought maybe I could cut up a lacy shirt, but it also turns out that I don't own any lacy shirts...)

Once the front was entirely done, then I just had to attach it to the fleece and muslin and quilt down the front. Then I attached it to the back. I included the picture to show that I actually used pins. Sometimes the quality of my sewing workmanship is seriously hampered by the fact that I am too lazy to put in pins. It just seems like so much effort to pin stuff just to unpin it again. I guess the efficiency of not pinning is undermined by the ineffeciency of having to unpick things and redo them. Anyway, all that was then left to do was sew on the top, and voila! Two of the cutest darn Christmas stockings you have ever seen!!

And what was Justin doing all this time? Well, he was taking care of Colton and finding us the perfect mortgage...because while I was sewing, the offer we put on a house was approved!

A Wicked-awesome birthday

You don't turn 29 everyday. And, in all truthfullness, I didn't actually turn 29 this year. (If you look hard, you can see two little toothpicks aflame...we kind of forgot to buy more candles since Justin's birthday.) But Justin did a great job making this a memorable birthday. He surprised me with a trip to New York to see Wicked!

We started our trip out with a nice workout...running from Metro Center past Union Station to the Greyhound station so that we wouldn't miss our bus. For those of you unfamiliar with D.C. that is approximately FAR (see map). And let's just say that one of us hasn't exercised in a year and one of us was carrying a suitcase. I'll let you decide which was which.

Fortunately, we made it just in time to get on the bus. (And can I say that taking the bus is really the best way to get to NY these days.)

Anyway, when we got to NY, we checked into our hotel and then strolled around Central Park. On our way back, there were suddenly tons of police everywhere and barracades around the street. We were very confused until we looked over and saw a huge tree...and Rockefeller center. It turns out we were there the night they lit the tree. If we hadn't already had tickets we would have had a front row spot for the big event. As it was, we had to push our way through the crowds to get back to our hotel.

We then enjoyed a nice dinner at Carmines. I would highly recommend it. We ordered an appetizer of fried zucchini. Too bad we didn't have an extra 14 people with us to help us finish it...

Let's just say that at Carmines, the portions are large...But it was fun to get all dressed up and go out.

After dinner, we headed over to the show. We had great seats--sixth row, almost center. It is a fantastic show. (And yes, Justin liked it too. For some reason, people keep asking if he liked it. I guess they don't know how cultured he is.)

Justin gets full points for giving me a great birthday! (And Michael and Julie score some big points as well for tending Colton for us.) It was a great way to start a thirty-one-derful year!

Nothing says holiday like Frog's Sugar Cookies

Sometimes you just really need a sugar cookie. When that happens, I always turn to my Aunt Frog's recipe. (You'll have to talk to my mom if you want to know why her sister was referred to as "Frog".) The cookies are soft and delicious similar to these ones, and really not all that hard to make. Here's the recipe:

Sift together (if you do that sort of thing. I always just dump stuff in sans sifting):

3 cups flour

1 tsp soda

1/2 tsp salt

In a separate bowl mix together:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg (unbeaten)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup sour cream

Slowly stir the flour mixture into the wet mixture. Role them out on a floured surface (about 1/4 inch thick). Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 375 F 7-9 minutes (until the bottom just starts looking golden). Makes about 24-30 cookies, depending on the size of your cookie cutters.

Frost with your favorite icing. As for me, I dump in random amounts of butter, powder sugar, vanilla and milk until it looks and tastes how I want it to. This time I added LOTS of green food coloring to make the really bold Christmas trees. And it turns out that sprinkles are a better way to go than frosting tips for the inexperienced cookie maker (such as myself). Yummy! I would seriously recommend you make these this holiday season.