First Snow Experience

In the beginning of February, we finally got enough snow to take Emma outside and throw her in a snowbank. It was right before her nap so she was a little less than thrilled. It was still fun for us. :) [Sorry the pictures and video are kind of dark... the sun had dipped behind the houses.]

First time sitting in the snowbank out front. 

Kind of ridiculous looking... :)

She seemed curious but reserved... lol.

Her snowsuit was a little big on her.

She started to get into it...

What...?

Yes, I'm having fun. :P

Here's Ian forcing her to slide...

...and a slow slide. :P

When we brought her back inside, she was little rosy cheeked! ...and crazy looking. :)

Christmas Recap

[Still not too late to talk about Christmas right?] The picture above was our Christmas card. It took about 5 million pictures to get 1 that looked okay to use. I think it turned out nice.. but man, is it hard to capture a moving target on camera! Below is a slideshow of everything we tried. The moose was going to be a last resort.

Before my family arrived, we got the decor ready. We put Emma in her snowsuit for the first time since it was so cold out! She was less than impressed. 

But she looked pretty cozy in her car seat!

We put her in the snowsuit because we usually spend an hour walking around the nursery looking for a tree. We spent all of 5 minutes picking it out this year. :| She was a little freaked out when we loaded it up.

She's okay! :)

Back at home, Ian worked on getting the lights up...

Emma seemed to enjoy the tree. Thankfully for most of the time it was up, she seemed slightly scared of it. :)

I made this cool video using the Kringle app. Santa visit our house!!

On Christmas Day, Emma was little more interested in it...

...but also a little tired. :)

Ian and Em got to work on their stockings.

By far, the cutest thing was her inspecting her big gift. Adorable!

Later that day, Pops turned Emma into a present. :P

Emma enjoyed her gift from Pops and Mamie - an Elephant Car! :)

She then "helped" Pops put together his new popcorn machine.

Here's Ian and Emma hanging out during the Matheson Family Christmas Party.

We got to meet Ian's Cousin's new baby, Noah. Emma had a knack for making him cry. :P

Christmas 2014 was a wonderful time. We got a ton of gifts - almost all of them games. :D I got to spend time with my family which I am always super thankful for. We visited with Ian's extended family. It was really nice. Christmas is different when you have kids... but just seeing Emma light up looking into the bag makes me realize how much fun the future will be! 

Kitchen Adventures: Secret Steak

Full Title: Secret Steak & Chips with Garlicky Green Beans = YUM!

Ingredients: Baking Potatoes, Olive Oil, Rosemary, Button Mushrooms, Onion, Heavy Cream, Dijon Mustard, Frozen Green Beans, Flank Steak

We tend to shy away from any recipe that has a cream sauce... Cream sauce never sounds good and is usually unhealthy. This bucks that trend! It is another recipe from Jamie Oliver but this time it is from the Save with Jamie cookbook. It's not that hard to make... bake the "chips" with olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper. Make the cream sauce with diced onion, only 3 tablespoons of heavy cream and the dijon mustard. Cook up the green beans with some olive oil and garlic. Season the steak with salt and pepper then cook it with a little olive oil and rosemary. Super yummy. A large portion will cost you about 549 calories. Pretty good in my book!

TableTop Fun: Istanbul

A bustling bazaar of fun!

From BoardGameGeek:

There's hustle and bustle at Istanbul's grand bazaar as merchants and their assistants rush through the narrow alleys in their attempt to be more successful than their competitors. Everything must be well organized: wheelbarrows must be filled with goods at the warehouses, then swiftly transported by the assistants to various destinations. Your goal? Be the first merchant to collect a certain number of rubies.

I wasn't sure about this one but it was on Ian's wishlist. You have a stack of tokens representing you and your assistants.. You move them around I would say in a "mancala" style way - dropping them off at different stalls and eventually going back to collect them. The goal is to get to 6 rubies in a 3 player game. I like it. I worry about replayablity <-- not a word but sounds better than "replay value". The setup is random as the tiles get set out in a different order each time.. but you're always using the SAME tiles. I think it would have been better if they added a few more tiles and just limited how many get put down. Still a good game though.

Emma was SUPER cute for this one.

Post Swimming Faces

The Countdown to going back to work has begun.. and I'm starting to acknowledge it! As difficult to wrangle as Emma is, I'm really going to miss our swim classes. She's worn out and happy after them. :')

Reading Time with Emma

I try to capture the times Ian sits down to read with Emma. It's so sweet how she sits cuddled up against him (usually) and is totally engaged in the book... unless it's Curious George. Curiously, she hated that one! :P

This has got to be one of the best times though. Emma had a food incident right before bed. They decided to read books before getting into PJs. Cute!

I'm not sure if Emma was doing it here... but I think Ian passed on his "teapot stance" to her.