Merry Christmas, Baby

We were in St. Louis for the weekend and, although we had a great time at Susan's 30th birthday party and even treated ourselves to facials and pedicures at the Four Seasons Spa, we managed to only take pictures of one outing - a big trip to the mall to see Santa. The Santa pictures didn't turn out well (do they ever?!?) so here are a few quick shots near the mall's Christmas tree. Maddie and Susan's baby, Kane, had so much fun together!

We are settling back in at home for a couple of weeks before we head to upstate New York to spend Christmas with Bryan's parents. We have had a big 2008 and are looking forward to all that 2009 will bring! 

Ho, ho, ho!!!

1 year check up

This little peanut just had her one year check up. She is in the...wait for it....2% for weight and 17% for height. She weighed in at a whopping 17lbs 5oz, only one ounce more than at her 10 month check up. I think that, since we live in a fourth floor walk up, this is God's way of cutting me some slack. 

 

Garden of the Gods

This place was beautiful!!! (A side note to my husband: These pictures may have turned out great, but it was just a fluke. I still need Santa to bring me a shiny new Nikon....)

More Denver pics....

Okay, read the post below first. I hate that I always forget to post in reverse order...here are a few pics from our hike in Red Rocks.

The sunset from Dad's kitchen window...

Sudoku challenge....

Denver

Maddie and I went to Denver for a quick weekend visit to my Dad and Lisa's. The weather was incredible - upper 60s all weekend! 

We went shopping in Cherry Creek, running at the fitness center, hiking in Red Rocks, driving in the Porsche, walking in the Garden of the Gods, and sightseeing at The Broadmoor. Oh, and I managed to spank my Dad at Sudoku. Twice.

In between, we managed to do our fair share of eating - homemade soup (see below), spaghetti, carrot cake, chocolate chip cookies, and the list goes on and on. Impressive for 72 hours!

Thanks for a great visit!

Maddie loves dogs and anytime she gets near one (and there were a lot of them in Denver) she says "Moo". All animals say "Moo". Even this bronze Greyhound statue in the lobby of the Broadmoor said "Moo". Too funny!

The Garden of the Gods was beautiful! I will post more pics from here later today...

Maddie spent a lot of time on Nonno's shoulders this visit. She also spent a lot of time in my new Ergo Baby Carrier. It was perfect for hiking and getting through airport security. I did, however, manage to walk her right into a large pine tree branch while she was strapped to my back during our hike on Sunday. (My dad has the pictures from the hike on his camera so I will post those when I get them.)

Maddie appeared to have some jealousy issues with regard to how many pictures of Lulu my Dad and Lisa had up in their house. :)

BEST SOUP EVER!!!

We were part of a farm co-op this summer where we got a box of local, organic produce delivered every other week. It was great for making baby food to freeze and for Bryan and I to try a few new things. The last box we got was my favorite - three kinds of squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, garlic, pie pumpkins - and I set out to do something special with it. 

I have never claimed to be a chef, or to even enjoy cooking for that matter, but this soup is so easy and yummy that I have made it 3 or 4 times since then. It is a recipe from the Barefoot Contessa and it can be followed pretty loosely (you can use any veggies that are in season and substitute vegetable broth for the chicken stock to make it vegetarian).

Enjoy! - 

Roasted Winter Vegetable Soup:

1 pound carrots, peeled

1 pound parsnips, peeled (I skipped these and added more squash and sweet potatoes)

1 large sweet potato, peeled

1 small butternut squash (about 2 pounds), peeled and seeded (since these are tough to peel, you can roast them in halves or in slices and scoop it out of the skin after cooking)

1 bulb of garlic

3 tablespoons good olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (I always add a little extra pepper)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Cut the carrots, sweet potato, and squash in 1- to 1 1/4-inch cubes. Roast the garlic whole, in foil.

Place all the cut vegetables in a single layer on 2 sheet pans. Drizzle them with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Toss well. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until all the vegetables are tender, turning once with a metal spatula.

In a large saucepan, heat 3 cups of chicken stock. In 2 batches, coarsely puree the roasted vegetables and the chicken stock in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pour the soup back into the pot and season, to taste. Thin with more chicken stock and reheat. The soup should be thick but not like a vegetable puree, so add more chicken stock and/or water until it's the consistency you like.

Enjoy!!!

Big Girls

Madeleine with her cousin Lulu in Oct. 2007

Madeleine with her cousin Lulu in Oct. 2008

SO BIG!!!

Trick or Treating

We went for our annual trick or treat stroll on Southport on Friday night but, because it was 75 degrees, we did not subject Maddie to her sweat-inducing bumble bee costume. Instead, we pulled Lulu's tutu out of the closet and called it a day. Maddie had a new "trick" to show off to get her candy....picking her nose. Nice!

More first birthday...

This is one funny kid. We know she isn't really all that into solid food, but we thought she would devour her birthday cupcake without a problem. Boy, were we wrong! Even with Lulu and Lili showing her how it was supposed to be done, Madeleine wasn't interested. We were finally able to get her to take two bites of frosting by putting it on my finger and putting a Cheerio on top of it. This baby would eat dirt if you put a Cheerio on it...

After a quick bath, Maddie got down to business opening her presents and playing with Lili and her cousins. She is such a "busy" girl - always go, go, go. She is happy to entertain herself, so new toys were (and still are) such a treat!

I will post more pics later, especially from my sister's visit this week. Thank you to all of our family and friends who remembered Madeleines 1st birthday and helped to make it such a memorable one!

Madeleine's first birthday!!!

Sorry we have been a.w.o.l! I have been busy working, helping uncle Christian move, training for a race in November, and making multiple visits to the dentist's office. After it took four visits to get a new crown to fit right, it turns out I have to have a root canal on Monday. Great. In the meantime, I am completely hopped up on pain meds and it feels awesome! I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I was in more pain with this dang tooth than I was when I went through natural childbirth with Madeleine. After the drugs kicked in last night, I had a new appreciation for how women must feel when they get their epidural. I just might have to ask the dentist for an epidural....

As a distraction, we made a visit to a pumpkin patch yesterday with our friends Marti & Jim and their daughter Liliana. The problem was that it was 83 degrees here yesterday and we were sweating our little pumpkins off! Good news for Maddie, I can't resist a cider donut and I decided to give her a taste of what's coming next week (birthday cupcake!). She had never had anything processed or sugary before and, I think it is safe to say, she liked it!

Quack, quack!

Maddie's first encounter with real ducks and geese. They were bigger that she is!!!

Minnesota

We travelled to Minnesota this weekend for Bryan's grandparent's 65th wedding anniversary this weekend. 65 years! Amazing! I hope I still like Bryan in 60 more years.... :)

We were blessed to have Bryan's sister and his brother-in-law visiting as well. Maddie got in some quality time with them, as well as with the rest of the family. We can't wait to see everyone again soon!