The Picture Starry Night

M's first poem....

The picture starry night is beautiful.
The picture starry night is windy.
The picture starry night is peaceful.
The picture starry night is big.

Snow Play

An ARose Icey

A Chicago Sunset

A view from the El. I love this city!!!

Best of Friends

So sweet!

The Comfort of Fresh Pasta

My comfort food is chicken n’ dumplins’, biscuit and gravy and coconut cake—shocking, I know, for a Southern girl!  The rest of my family’s comfort food is pasta.   My family simply LOVES pasta—any shape, size, filling, sauce (well, the kids have some limitations on the fillings and sauces).    It is no secret that both Chris and I are very sentimental about where we come from, our relatives, etc.  One of Chris’ childhood stories from his Philly days that he often shares with me and the kids is his memory of making fresh pasta with his grandmother (MomMom) and her sisters on Mom Mom’s kitchen table.  Over the years, he has carried on many of those types of traditions, but for some reason he has only made fresh pasta a handful of times.   Time involvement, ease, whatever the reason.  As I am sure you can understand, I’ve never, ever attempted to make fresh pasta.   I would be setting myself up for disaster, I thought.   How can I live up to that memory and MomMom’s pasta?!

Well, I decided this was crazy talk.  Over the weekend I gave pasta a whirl and made tagliatelle.    

    

I felt sort of silly at first.  How do you drape the pasta over your forearm, crank the machine and pull the dough from the machine---all at the same time?  Doesn’t seem possible!  Thankfully, Chris was there to guide me through this foreign process. 

And, success.  Isn't this beautiful?

While it was definitely time consuming as compared to opening up a bag and poring into water, it was worth every bit of effort.  Fresh pasta really does make a difference.  The pasta was pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.  Chris (and this could be ---definitely is—him being a good husband) thought it was awesome.  I used Lidia Bastianich's recipe (love her!).     Eventually I may even graduate to stuffed pastas….but let’s not get carried away!  

Love Shots

I ran across these photos from the Fall (yes, I'm not quite as on top of pictures I once was...ie, pre-kiddos) and couldn't resist sharing. As M says, I am "in love" with these shots!

A Pfour Weekend

After Key Lime Cove we headed up to Milwaukee for the weekend to be with our friends, the Pfour. It was wonderful. No real plans other than spending quality time together.  Just perfect...car brake down and all (not ours, but sadly ours isn't doing much better). There is something very warm and comfy when we visit.  I think of it as home.  Thanks guys. Miss you already.

I was on a true holiday.  I was terrible with photo logging our time together but Ang was in form as usual so check out her blog for some cool photos (my favorite is the beach photo!!).  On NYE, Ang had a great idea of serving mutliple courses through out the night.  Perfect for a couple of reasons.  It goes without saying we like to eat good food so eating for hours is a natural high for us.  However, it served a very practical purpose as well since that was the ONLY way we were able to stay awake until Midnight.  I know, sad!!  To add to that sadness, Chris and I ran to the bedroom within seconds of the stroke of midnight.  What can I say!  Good times!

See you guys soon!

Key Lime Cove

We started off our New Years weekend with an impromptu road trip to one of the many nearby water parks. We originally thought we would take the girls snow skiing over the break. M took lessons last year and loved it. (I sat inside and watched all of the action...and loved it ...hehe). But with the lack of snow so far this season, we decided to wait . It just felt weird.

Good choice. The girls had so much fun in the water. We were all exhausted in the end wanting to snuggle in our towels and give it a good cry like ARose.....aww!!

3 Down, more....

BEFORE lunch...ah, that gorgeous smile!



AFTER lunch...ah, that same gorgeous smile with a window!


I swear, this girl can't get any cuter!!! She was VERY happy the tooth fairy found her all the way in Milwaukee. That fairy is a crafty one. What is M doing with the extra cash you may ask yourself? She is adding this whopping $2 to her recently slated " bedroom redo" project. Too much iCarly, I'm afraid! I think we may need to start a parent match program if she wants the project done before she leaves for college (hehe).