gold

make new friends, but keep the old.  one is silver and the other gold.

its difficult to decipher now who my new friends vs. old friends are.  my newer friends feel like we've been friends forever.  but these 3 ladies, we really have.  ok, not forever, but for 10 years since our days in grad school.

it's been 2 years since we've all been together, and we were able to reunite over break when our long-distance friend, tara, flew in from arizona.



pictured left to right- tara with eli (marci's son), marci with paige (hers as well), tara with blake (hers), me with the girls.  we missed our oldest buddy, tara's (on left) son, ethan.  we've known ethan since we've known tara.



we had a fabulous time chatting and gabbing and catching up and gawking at how different our lives are from 10 years ago and how big our kids are getting.  i miss these girls.  to go from seeing each other daily, supporting each other through long hours of clinic and exams and internships, to vacations together, to first jobs, to second jobs, to moves, to children, to second children, we've been through a lot.  to me, these 3, and the memories we share between us, are my gold. ♥

winter wonderland

hey, where's winter?

cause we're snowsuited up and ready for sledding...



and snowmen...



and catching flakes on our tongues.



we keep looking, but so far, it's been sunshine and mild days.



i'm certain we'll see snow sooner or later.  until then, we'll be waiting.



and maybe stripping off our hats for a while enjoying the freedom.





apologies for the number of photos of my little marshmallow in her new puffy whites.  i couldn't decide which ones to pick.

so here's one more.



oh, wait, we did have a dusting of snow while we were on break, and we used every flake in our front yard to make these adorable little snow babies.





and while we wait for mother nature to sprinkle some winter wonderness upon us, we have fun in other ways.  we've played lots of games, including hide and seek.

guess who these little legs belong to...



and the hand...



oh, have you figured it out yet?



it's crosby!  happiness abounds this little girl.  and she's on the move.  officially crawling now.  and cruising.  and we're keeping busy.  more to come.

gluten-ous

glut·ton·ous

adjective

1.

tending to eat and drink excessively; voracious.

2.

greedy; insatiable.

hello january 1.  hello twenty-twelve.  hello once again to the new years resolutions.  and mine are filled with challenges this year.  starting with my friend, danielle's, monthly challenge for several of us in the mom's/recipe club- spend the month of january gluten free.  given that i have been nothing but gluttonous on junk since, well, halloween, i thought it best to give it a shot.  from the "just one more" fun size candy bar, to the stuffing and pumpkin pie on thanksgiving, to my first annual cookie exchange in december where we shared 10 dozen delicious concoctions, and culminating with more food and desserts than one should consume over the several christmas holiday get togethers and christmas gifts from co-workers and parents, my body is screaming for some reprieve.  mind you, i am actually fairly close to my pre-harper weight thanks to lots of running with my friend katie and weekly spinning classes that i started attending in november, but that doesn't mean my overall health doesn't need some tweaking.  so starting tomorrow, michael (he's agreed to try it with me) and i are saying bye-bye to gluten.  stay tuned for updates to this challenge, and check out danielle's blog.  she provides so many yummy and good-for-you recipes and lots of fabulous information for good health.

pre-challenge, though, we spent new years eve at home, quietly enjoying some steak with zip sauce and champagne.  michael, harper and i stayed up til 11:15 watching movies on the blow up bed.  and while i'm certain harper could have made it to midnight and the ball dropping, us parents just didn't have it in us.

we also had some fun with the camera's self-timer and my fabulous little photographer in the making.

one thing i will never change being gluttonous for, however, is my girls, and that's why i post lots of pictures.  and here is the wee one at 8 months...


pulling herself up to standing and being very adventurous...



always smiling...



and cracking us up with her new head tilt.  when she's trying to get your attention, or just trying to play with you, she takes a side view.



these two are starting to interact much more, and i can't get enough.



oh, and then she went ahead and turned 9 months.

she's standing and cruising, and braving it by holding on to something with only one hand.  she's waving and signing milk.  she's eating, but prefers small bits of finger foods to being fed with a spoon.  she's saying dada and mama and nana and yaya and lala.  she's a regular chatty cathy.

she is always happy.  she is always smiling.  she is pure enchantment and deliciousness.

she is a horrible night sleeper, and is often waking us up 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 times a night.  thank goodness she's always happy, cause when she smiles at you at 2 in the morning when you go get her from her crib, you can't help but smile back.  she's got our number and she knows it.

ok, off to check the cupboard and make sure there is nothing else that could satisfy my gluten-ous cravings before the challenge begins in less than 3 hours.  here's to good health, good changes, and an exceptional 2012.

hope your new year was a happy one.

happy 2012!

hard to believe we are coming to the end of 2011.  it's been a busy year for us, and a happy year.  and we're looking forward to more happiness in the new year.

we held our second annual new years eve morning pajama breakfast, and invited our friends mr. jeff, ms. katie, bryce, graham and reed over for breakfast burritos, bread pudding with banana maple sauce, homemade cinnamon rolls, and adults-only mimosas.



graham surveying the scene...


and smooching on my little crosby.  he always has a kiss for "baby cosbees."


we ended our visit with a sparkling juice kids toast.


excited that we spent the rest of this day doing nothing but enjoying our little family.  made a nice dinner, snuggled on the blow up mattress in our family room while watching some new movies, and toasted to the memories of last year and the new ones to come.

cheers and happy new year!

girls just wanna have fun

with the marriage of jen and pat, we've gained a niece/cousin.  we are thrilled about this, and decided to have her for a sleepover during our winter break.  last night, jen and pat brought her over, sleeping bag and all.  harper was so excited and couldn't stop talking about how mallory was coming over and they were going to eat ice cream, watch movies and sleep on the blow up mattress in the family room.  and that's pretty much what they did.



they logged screen time on the DS and iPad, watched the smurfs while munching on popcorn and ice cream sundaes, slept in til after 8 o'clock, were served a pancakes and smoothies breakfast-in-(blow-up) bed.



and got pedicures from emily's mobile spa. : )



can't wait to do it again soon.

{side note: actually, i'm blogging right now from that very blow up mattress, harper slumbering next to me.  we have decided to leave it up for a few days.  it's too fun not to.  especially for tomorrow night, where we can huddle together to ring in 2012 while watching the ball drop and snuggling with our (most likely sleeping) girls.}

tea for two

a bit of a delayed post...

we had a tea party on our summer to-do list and wanted to accomplish it before summer was behind us and fall rolled around.  so we invited our girlfriends kellie and anna over for a very fine tea party, complete with dress up clothes, fine china, tea sandwiches and cupcakes.



the girls feasted on pb&j while the moms enjoyed pb&m (marshmallow) sandwiches, along with fruit kabobs and veggies.



they got to ice their cupcakes themselves in chocolate frosting.  lots of chocolate frosting.



since anna is dairy-free, we were introduced to these aaa-mazing cupcakes by stonybrook kitchen.  coconut oil was substituted for butter and made them absolutely delish.



and no tea party is complete without jewelry and hats.  these were located in my mom's basement, and belonged to my grandmother on my dad's side.



fabulous friends.  hope it always stays that way.