Crockpot Bolognese

The house smelled delish when I got home from work (amen the snow didn't stick and the roads were okay!)  I was a little nervous putting raw hamburger in the slow cooker but it made the recipe beyond easy.  Fel ate a HUGE bowl of spaghetti bolognese and then passed out on the couch -- carb overload!

Top 10 of 2012

1.  My 30th birthday - Rang in another decade with friends and family.  Fel serenaded me on the guitar, we drank way to much wine and noshed on delicious snacks.

2.  Restaurant Week @ Justus Drugstore  - the chef came by the table and chatted, we dined on local farm-raised food, and had great company with the Powell's.

3.  Finding out I was preggers!

4.  Grilling with the hubby - one of our fave lazy weekend activities.

5.  Winning the "Professionalism in Residency" Award.  Ever since I was a medical student it was my dream to be awarded this honor.

6.  KU CSA - It was SO awesome to have fresh and local produce, bread, flowers, canned goods, dairy, and meat each week to pick up at KU.  This even trumped Door-to-Door organics. (Kinda funny how so many of my top things revolve around food!  I think it was the pregnancy.)

7.  Finishing my first lace knitting project - whew!

8.  Graduating Residency

9.  Babymoon in Columbia - Fel had the "best steak of his life."  Maybe next trip will be Colombia!

10.  Becoming a momma.

Fashion show

Isabella has SO many cute clothes that she hasn't even had a chance to wear (sleepers are SO much easier!)  Since we had some free time the other afternoon I thought we'd at least do a mini-fashion show.  Made it through 3 outfits before she had enough, we'll give it another try soon.

Reading is Fun: The Baby Whisperer

I LOVE reading parenting books, its my new obsession.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, right?  Miss Bella is an AMAZING sleeper and I want to be sure to catch any hiccups early before I am any more sleep deprived.  Even with such a sweet little lady I'm exhausted.  Something about not getting more than 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep. . . . .

Looking Back

2011 - Christmas in Arkansas

2010 - Hosted the Ladies of Urology for dinner.  Made chicken and dumplings.

2009 - Huge snowstorm and a shopping spree at Urban Outfitters.  Still wear this coat!

2008 - Cornish game hens

Reading is Fun: Obama

Finally finished reading Dreams from My Father, which I started WAY back when Bella was in my belly.  I can hear grandpa giving me grief now, but I really enjoyed the book.  I had no idea he had such an interesting path.  I hadn't read non-fiction (other than parenting books or cookbooks) in ages and it was a welcome change of pace.

Christmas, Part III

Felipe and I did it again, we absolutely couldn't wait until Christmas morning to unwrap presents.  It actually was quite nice though.  Monday night after Bella went to bed we poured ourselves a glass of wine, put on Christmas music, and exchanged gifts.  Again, maxin-relaxin' reigned supreme. I scored a monogram robe, slippers you heat in the microwave, an aromatherapy candle, and a new memory foam pillow.  I love that these are all things I can treasure for quite some time which will help me relax and slow down for a minute (something I frequently find hard to do.)  

Christmas morning was still special, despite having already opened our gifts.  We all cuddled in bed, enjoyed some coffee, and had an EPIC entourage marathon.  We finished up the 7th season and most of the 8th.  Only 2 episodes until the series finale!

Christmas dinner was shepherd's pie.  My first shepherd's pie and it did not disappoint!

Christmas, Part II

Christmas Part II did not disappoint in the food department.  Abuela made the most delicious beef tenderloin and Fel's Tia made an amazing lime mousse for dessert.

Bella chilled in her bouncer while we feasted.

TONS of pressies all around.  Bella got a jumper that I just know she is going to love plus TONS of super cute new outfits that I've got all washed up and hanging in her closet.  Fel and I scored big with some warm and cozy pj's and socks.  These have not been washed, after 3 loads just didn't have it in me to do a 4th.  But soon.  Cannot wait to snuggle up.  Seems like someone knew we were homebodies these days (even more so than before the little lady!)

Fun with gpa

Christmas, Part I

Christmas began with a bang this weekend.  Mom and Dad came up for lots of food and lots of Isabella time.  She is loving her play gym (and I'm loving any toy where she can entertain herself!) 

One of my fave christmas presents was free babysitting last night so Felipe and I could go out on a sushi date  (DATE #2 since the birth of our little lady.)  Got to wear my new lilac skinny cords - thanks momma!

Christmas menu

On the Christmas menu for this weekend - 

2 Rachel Ray recipes!  Not usually a Rachel Ray fan, but these sounded pretty tasty.  They're from her 30-Minute Southern Hospitality Party menu.

First up, spiral sliced ham with jezebel sauce.  Accompanied by biscuits, mashed sweet potatoes, and grandma's cranberry relish.  Dessert is great grandma's peach cobbler.

You know you've got a good menu when two of the recipes are named after dear family members!

Snow day

Luckily, didn't work until 10am today so I got to sleep in a bit and miss the worst of the traffic.  I called Felipe when I woke up, and he said that the roads weren't near as bad as we feared so I was pretty confident when I loaded Bella into the car.  Still pretty confident as I backed out of the drive.  Less confident as I went back, back, backwards down the hill.  My poor little Prius does not do well on snow.  After about a half-block of spinning my tires and slowly going backwards down our street I decided to cut my losses.  Left my car just a bit in the neighbors yard (hope they don't mind!), unloaded bella, and marched through the snow back to the house.  Tried to get Daphne out again this afternoon, thought the sun may help melt things, but its even icier than before.  I started about 10 feet from a cleared street, and am now a good half block.  I think I'll have to back ALL the way down our street and go around the block to get back in our drive.  I HATE being the person that calls into work, but sounds like I'm not the only one (though I am the only one who had a PRESENTATION today.)  Sigh.

On the more humorous side, check out this awesome card from my aunt.

Jackson actually did this last year, so very fitting the cat looks JUST like him.

Got to spend some nice time with Isabella in our pj's -

And I ordered some awesome new boots to keep my legs warm this cold winter!

New 'do! (and crockpot Monday)

The curls were post-salon, they absolutely cannot let you leave w/o blowdrying, flatironing, curling, fluffing, and using lots of product.  It looks a bit different today.

For crock pot Monday we are having posole.  Can't remember the last time I ate hominy.

pics

2 months old!

Izzy celebrated her 2 month birthday by sleeping through the night!  A rather AWESOME present for momma and papa.  She usually goes to bed around 630 or 7, and then wakes up around 7 the next morning.  Granted she feeds twice, but it's all business and then right back to bed.

The less fun birthday present was her 2 month vaccination.  6 in all, with 3 pokes.  She took it like a champ, but I had to close my eyes.  If this was so traumatic for me, lets hope she never breaks a bone or needs stitches.

This morning we got to snuggle in bed until 9, think she was feeling sleepy and yucky from her immunizations.  I took advantage of the opportunity, she's such a good little snuggler!  

And then Fel suprised me with some delicious McD's coffee and this afternoon I'm getting my hair cut and colored.  Bye bye sparkles!  (aka grays).  Sorry mom, it's going short!!  Hope you don't quit speaking to me, b/c if you do I'm holding your granddaughter hostage:)

Sorry for the lack of pics, she's not so photogenic in the am when I wake her up (kinda like her pops, HATES getting woken up).  And by the time we get home from daycare, she winding down for bed.  Maybe we can snap some good ones this weekend.

By the way, daycare went awesome this week.  She's the only baby, the other kids are ~17m old and love her to death.

New pics

Saturday

We're starting to try to get Miss Isabella on a bit of a schedule.  Daycare uses "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Kids", so I figure I might as well too since she will already be getting it during the day.  The premise is that a well rested kid = a happy kid = a well rested parent = a happy parent. 

 I kind of like that.  It also emphasizes naps, which I also like.  Currently she is taking her first nap of the day.  She's been asleep for 42 minutes and counting!  Just enough time for me to eat some of the yummy banana bread I made Wednesday and start on a quinoa salad.

AND we have the resident urology christmas party tonight - Yule Feast.  For some crazy reason we decided against a baby sitter.  Miss Izzy is going to be a partygirl.
Made some oatmeal raisin cookies and still need to find a white elephant gift.  Luckily we have tons of junk around the house that will be perfect.