8.9.12 - It's a Lovely Day for Tea - Day 67 - 70 DOS

I had a plethora of activities I wanted to do with Eleanor this summer since I feel that I deprive her during the school year while I am working and with the huge project that was our house (that I feel will never be finished) we just never got them all done.  I could list all the things I wanted to do but didn't but I also know that I have this summer's blog posts to show me that we really did have SOME fun.  Today, was one of those days!

We decided last week that we wanted to host a tea party.  Eleanor is ALL girl so she is of course in love with having tea parties...the pretend kind that is.  I decided I wanted to spoil her and go ahead  and have a real one...well as real as you can get for a 2 year old.  We invited a few of her friends and in doing so realized she has a lot more friends that are boys than girls ha!  We invited Katie Jo, her best friend and pretty much twin as they were born two days apart, one of her other friends who she doesn't get to see but once a year but whose momma I just love to pieces and worked with at Aikin - Madeline,  a family friend who we have known for a while and don't get to see often either, Nyah, and our sweet new neighbor, Anna.  Three of them had to cancel today and it ended up being a fun little tea party for just Katie and Eleanor.

I might have had more fun than the girls preparing everything and making it as girly as possible.  We started the playdate off with a craft "craf" as E would say.  The girls used stcky foam hearts to decorate their foam crowns and then wore them for their party.  They loved them!

Since I was fearful that they wouldn't like tea, I used Eleanor's plastic tea set (they aren't ready for pink depresion glass I decided...maybe someday) and filled the tea pot up with raspberry lemonade.

 

The first course consisted of sliced grapes and strawberries in an ice cream cone.  The girls loved it!  After that they had crustless jelly sandwiches complete with a halved grape for the center of the flower.  Eleanor DEVOURED hers!

 

The girls continued to sip their "tea"...well gulp it actually.  They probably had 10 cups each (that might be exaggerating but their cups were also teeny tiny)  

 The next course was homemade strawberry ice cream.  Eleanor loved helping to make it almost as much as she loved eating it.  I portioned the ice cream scoops in individual cupcake liners and sprinkled them with pink sugar sprinkles so all I had to do was plop them onto their pink depression glass serving bowls.  

 

  

After the ice cream came the next course - pink white chocolate covered oreos with of course, sprinkles on top.  The girls enjoyed theirs along with some more tea!  They ended the meal with a pink covered strawberry and as if they knew everything was finished, politely asked to be excused (both of them to my surprise) and darted off to the playroom.  

  

 

The mommy's enjoyed their "tea" - a new and easy drink I came to know and love this summer - Asti champagne with rasberry pink "Simply Lemonade."  As I said before, this might have been just as much fun for me as the girls.  I got to use a lot of my depression glass china that never gets drug out because well, it is pink and green, and who doesn't love a girly tea party!?

 

Our day wasn't over yet!  Kortni had to get her hair done so I insisted she leave Katie so the girls could play since they have both already had naps.  We then discovered we were both serving left overs to our families so why not combine them for a buffet with a plethora of choices?  I also made a salad...here are the comical pics of our "dinner" tonight with the Vaniceks!  So thankful to have them as friends!

What a Year - 2011/Christmas Card Letter

This, our third edition of the Reinberg Family Christmas card, leaves us feeling utterly blessed by an amazing 2011. We have so many things to celebrate and give thanks for this year. We thought last year was full of firsts and realize that only continued into this year as well. Our family also encountered some trials and hard times that still leave us feeling though, how blessed we are. We pray for those who have endured suffering and strife and are amazed at their strength and faith that God would pull them through.

"These are a few of our favorite things" from 2011:

January - We celebrated our first New Year as a family of three and enjoyed a wonderful celebration with our dear friends, the Vanicek and Jones Families. We decided it would be the first of many New Years Eve parties with kids included and Eleanor had a blast at her first NYE party with friends, Katie (2 days younger) and Garrett (2 months older). Eleanor also crawled for the first time on New Years day!

February - Eleanor got to experience her first real snow and a week of Mommy and Daddy held captive in our tiny apartment as school was cancelled due to icy roads. Andy enjoyed a week of playing old school Nintendo games and Lindsay of course couldn't sit still and organized the entire apartment from the Tupperware cabinet to the ribbon drawer while of course also enjoying a week of non-stop sweet baby girl! Don't worry - none of that organization lasted more than a month or so in our teeny little shoe box.

March - We enjoyed a celebration of Eleanor's first St. Patrick's day complete with a lake house spring cleaning, green beer, and a new family favorite - Lindsay's first attempt at creating Irish Potato Salad - Colcannon.

April - Eleanor's first steps were just in time for her first Easter. It was her Daddy's wish that she be able to Easter egg hunt and boy did it come true. She had so much fun picking up the eggs and putting them in her basket. We had a wonderful time celebrating our Lord's Passion, Death, and Resurrection with the Aldons and awaited only a few weeks until our sweet baby turned one!

May - Eleanor's first birthday will never be forgotten. Her day began with a party thrown by Lindsay's 4th graders complete with animal crackers and goldfish to share. After her first party, she ventured to Houston's with Mommy, Daddy, Marmi, and Aunt Mary for her birthday dinner. Houston's is a popular Reinberg hangout for all things celebration including where Andy and Lindsay went to celebrate pregnancy and finding out Eleanor was a girl so it was only appropriate that we celebrate her first birthday there. The night was capped with Lindsay and Eleanor covered in her first chocolate sundae. Andy's favorite part of May was spending hours and lots of words that shouldn't be repeated putting together our birthday girl's present - a brand new kitchen. What first birthday would be complete without a party? Eleanor enjoyed her pastel pink themed party, cake, and most of her family and friends who also dressed in pink (even her Daddy!). Her smash cake was so super cute and wonderful from tart bakery - Mommy and Aunt Jenna (also her godmother) made the cupcakes, cake balls, white chocolate dipped pretzels and strawberries and the hamburger lunch. There was even a pink drink that many of the mommies enjoyed - a copycat of Cheesecake Factory's spiked raspberry lemonade.

June - Andy and I, after much urging from our parents (on both sides) were blessed with the opportunity to attend a Worldwide Marriage Encounter Weekend where we got to stay in a nice hotel and basically just focus on each other for a weekend. It was a nice break but we also missed being away from Eleanor for the first time! Our first family plane trip brought us to visit Andy's sweet grandparents, Grace and Gene Reinberg in Ft. Davis, Texas. Eleanor had a great time on the plane opening and closing the window and peering behind the seat incessantly saying, "hi" to the man passed out behind us. She wasn't ever phased that he never responded. She also gave us the first of, I fear, many scares as a parent. On this trip (in the middle of nowhere), she hit her head and passed out, and taught us a new trick of hers - she tends to hold her breath when she gets too worked up and makes herself pass out if we don't remind her to take a breath. This is what the EMTs who said she was fine when we rushed her to the local fire station (don't worry, an ER was over 30 min. away) told us and we later learned Andy's dad used to do the same thing as a child.

July - Another first - a trip across the country and Eleanor's first 20+ hours straight in the car to visit Lindsay's Family in Virginia, the Thomasons, Andy's first encounter with our Nation's Capital and any Civil War/Revolutionary battlefield he could get his hands on, a beautiful wedding of Lindsay's cousin, Jessica and her new hubs LJ, and visit to Lindsay's Dad's side of the family in Baltimore, Pop Pop's hometown, then to travel south along the coast to visit Lindsay's 95 year old Grandmother, Grandmary and Aunt and Uncle in Pinehurst, and introduce them to Eleanor for the first time, topped off with a few days by the beach in Florida on our way home. Eleanor was a champ on the trip and loved meeting all her family members along with the waves and sand at the beach. Andy and Lindsay celebrated their second wedding anniversary in pieces this month - one date was a day alone to road trip to Gettysburg, PA, their favorite battle of the Civil War (nerds), another was a date alone to tour the capital, and the third was a steak dinner cooked by Andy with in tow on the actual day - July 18th.

August - Andy and Lindsay BOTH had amazing opportunities come in late summer. Andy, a Varsity defensive football and Head Track Coaching position at Ranchview HS in Carrollton and Lindsay a 5th grade position at Town Center Elementary in Coppell. She has dreamed of working in Coppell since HS and not only was she granted the opportunity to work in Coppell but at (in her opinion) the best elementary school in the district gifted with amazing parents, innovative technology available to students, and a wonderful crop of students with a desire to learn like no other, and a 5 min. commute (as opposed to her 1hr+ to Richardson). Andy had been awaiting an opportunity to coach at a Varsity level and now to also earn the head track coach spot made him even more excited to take on high schoolers! Both miss their friends from their old schools but are so thankful for this new opportunity.

September -Varsity football consumed our lives this month and next. Eleanor loved going to the games and was a trooper staying awake until sometimes as late as 10pm so she could run on the field and see her Daddy at the end of the games. We also earned a whole new family at Ranchview - Lindsay with some wonderful wives to accompany her in the stands, and Andy with a most uplifting and positive coaching staff he could ever dream of. Eleanor also has made friends with the coach's kids.

October - Lindsay celebrated her 27th birthday and Andy never failed to make it special. He arranged for Aunt Mary to babysit on a weeknight and took L to Nordstrom to get her makeup done and some much needed new products seeing as she hadn't bought new in almost 2 years! He also treated her with some perfume and a dinner at none other than, Houstons. October brought a two month wave of viruses for Eleanor - poor baby just couldn't get well. One of those we could actually name being 5ths disease. Eleanor also enjoyed her second Halloween. She was a butterfly (butt-bye as she said) and though she still had a terrible rash from her 5ths disease (she was no longer contagious), she went to a couple houses, including Marmi and Pop Pop's and LOVED her first candy! Lindsay's Uncle David also suffered a heart attack and a couple of months in the hospital and though we missed having Marmi around, were so thankful she could be there with her brother to help. We were SO thankful for the friends and family who helped with Eleanor in Marmi's absence. We are so blessed!

November- Eleanor's sickness continued with high fevers and more we really don't even want to write about which kept us from traveling to College Station to see Andy's family for Thanksgiving. My family also decided not to got to the farm so we had a very last minute/impromptu Aldon family Thanksgiving at mom's house this year topped off with two versions of homemade stuffing I made and LOVED - I will never use a mix again! We also enjoyed our first ENTIRE WEEK off for Thanksgiving break - what a treat!

December - Eleanor finally began to feel better come December and we had a wonderful month preparing for our Lord's birth. A new tradition we began in the Reinberg house as we counted down the days of Advent was that Eleanor got to open a new Christmas book each day. She LOVED practicing unwrapping the gifts and looked forward to opening her new book every night before bed. Lindsay ran her first half marathon this December finishing in 2:08.?? and feeling great! She is either going to run another half and hope to better her time or do a full or maybe both in 2012. She couldn't have done it without the support of her husband and sister Mary (who watched Eleanor and stood on the sidelines cheering in the rain) as Andy ran the last 4 miles with Linds. Andy celebrated his 28th birthday with a 3rd annual trip to Billy Bobs - this time to see Jack Ingram. Andy's almost entire coaching staff game along with his parents for the first time and brother, Tim along with Lindsay's sisters Mary and Kel and Andy's best friend from HS, Greg and girlfriend Michaela. It was a fun weekend as always! Christmas was spent at home and Santa came for the first time to the Reinberg house. We enjoyed 5pm Children's Christmas Eve mass for the first time in a long time and said goodbye for probably a while to midnight mass. After mass we enjoyed a spaghetti dinner and agreed it was a new tradition - way easier than a Turkey and all the fixins. Eleanor put cookies and milk our for Santa and woke up in her own bed, so excited to see what he brought along with eat the rest of his cookies! We then traveled to the Aldon's for a day of fun and just can't reiterate enough the blessing of family.

We are so thankful for all those who are in our lives and pray that God Blesses you and yours this Christmas and in 2012. If we haven't seen you in a while, our door is always open - you might have to squeeze in Eleanor's room on an air mattress but are always welcome!

Love,
Andy, Lindsay, and Eleanor

A New Year - Here's to 2011

Eleanor and Garrett playing

Katie's new thing - she loves to stick her tongue out!

Sweet little Garrett, we loved getting to spend some time with him finally!

Blocks were the hit of the night - probably should wash them after the three babies drooled on them so much!

Play time in the morning while all the Daddy's sobered up :)

Silly David...

We decided to take a shot after midnight to toast 2011...Wes and I had Patron, Andy and David had Jack, and Ashley Peppermint Schnapps, and Kortni champagne. I think that was my first shot in over a year and a half ha!

Hard to believe it is only our 2nd New Years together as Reinbergs! And we have a 7 mo. old!

The Vaniceks, Kortni and Wes

The Jones', David and Ashley

The Jones', Reinbergs, and Vaniceks celebrating a new year - 2011!

So sweet! Eleanor loves grabbing feet

The Coaches and their Babies

Eleanor and Garrett playing waiting for Katie to get there on NYE

PS the pictures are backward in order of when they occurred but I can't get my computer to let me move them so in the very "Beautiful Mess" fashion they will stay as is :)
This year we decided we would celebrate New Years with friends who were in the same boat - a baby under 1 and no money to pay a babysitter/spend a lot on an evening out. We all agreed that decision was so much better than anything else we could have done. The Jones and Vanciek Family spent NYE 2010 with us and we had a great time!

Here is what the Reinberg family did to ring in the new year, 2011:

We invited the Vanicek and Jones families over for a New Years Eve celebration, babies and all. With my dad and sister being gone, mom and Kel were so sweet to take the twin beds in the office and offer up all the queen/king beds to us. So each couple got a bedroom and brought their pack n plays for their baby to sleep in. We put the kids down around 7:30 and spent the rest of the night enjoying food and drink!


I wish I could have taken a pic of the food spread. We had appetizers including spinach and artichoke dip, chips and guac, perrano and brie cheeses with crackers and grapes, veggies and hummus, meatballs in an alfredo sauce, and pepperoni pizza bread. I hope I am not forgetting another. Ashley made this really fun poinsetta punch with 1 part vodka, 1 part cran, 1 part pomogranite and 1 part champagne. The girls enjoyed that drink while the guys drank beer and whatever else they could find.


After playing a few games on the Wii to work off all the heavy apps, we sat down to eat an amazing brisket Andy and Wes had smoked all day. Along with the brisket we had a green salad, cornbread, pinto beans, and a very special recipe for green beans and new potatoes we got from the McGehee family where you put the two veggies in the bottom of the smoker to let them steam and season from the brisket drippings. Probably SUPER unhealthy but it was good!


We then toasted at midnight with my favorite, Martini and Rossi Asti Champagne (well it isn't from that region of France so it technically can't be called that but I call it Champagne anyway). All the women then hit the wall as we usually are in bed way before midnight. We tried to stay awake and chat but eventually all petered off to bed. The guys stayed up playing "champagne pong" and who knows what else.


The next morning brought babies ready to party nice and early. I got up with Eleanor and we made blueberry and apple cinnamon muffins and put out a fruit spread. Everyone stayed to hang out for a while and then went home.


Andy, Mom, Kel, Eleanor, and I rotated napping throughout the day and then the Vaniceks came back for dinner. We have made it tradition to eat chicken fried steak ( I refuse to cook it more than once a year) with mashed potatoes, homemade bisquits, and black eyed peas (and of course a salad or some kind of green vegetable to make us feel a little healthy), and gravy on New Years day. Usually it was to sop up all the alcohol from the night before but I didn't have that issue this year. Also, it is tradition to eat black eyed peas on New Years day for good luck in the coming year. Not sure why but we do it...we enjoyed the rest of the evening once again stuffing ourselves and have now resided that meals in the Reinberg home will consist of salad, vegetables, and lean meat - probably chicken breast, until bathing suit season! I have GOT to get the rest of this baby weight off!


We are so blessed to have been given another year of gifts and blessings and look forward to see what surprises 2011 may bring. 2010 was incredible and I don't know how we could top it but I am sure God has many more exciting events in store for the Reinbergs!


Here are our "Top 10 in 2010":
1. The birth of our first child and daughter, Eleanor Ann Reinberg - May 18th, 2010
2. Celebrating our FIRST wedding anniversary - July 18, 2010
3. Eleanor's reception of her first sacrament and becoming a member of the Catholic church in baptism - June 4, 2010
4. Moving to Lewisville, closer to family and St. Ann - April 2010
5. Getting to meet so many of our friends' children all within months of Eleanor (we can count at least 10 and are probably forgetting some)
6. Trips to College Station to visit Andy's family - August, November, December 2010
7. Introducing Eleanor to one set of her GREAT - Grandparents, Grandma and Grandpa of Maverick, Texas - June 2010
8. Eleanor's firsts including smiling, rolling over, starting solids, clapping, talking (in of course her own language), Halloween, Thanksgiving, St. Nicolas Day, Christmas, haircut, crawling, NYE
9. Andy's nearly (by one game) undefeated football season coaching 7th grade football
10. Lindsay's first time teaching 4th grade and every subject (it has been a learning experience)


Happy New Year and Here's to 2011!

Christmas Blessings and a WONDERFUL 2 Week Break

Our Home this Christmas...

We had a wonderful Christmas visit with both our families! Our break began with Andy's 27th birthday on the 18th of December. His brothers, and best friend, Greg came up to celebrate and his cousin, Elizabeth, along with my sister and dad and our neighbors, Robbie and Cami, and David Jones, Andy's friend, along with Jake and Courtney, our friends from college/Andy's old roommate joined us at Billy Bob's for Reckless Kelly. It was a fun concert and we enjoyed listening to the good music! The pictures below are at dinner in Sundance square before dancing.

Andy's sheet cake with 27 candles on it - he got them ALL out in ONE blow!

At Billy Bobs...

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out with Andy's brothers and cousin.

Then we got serious and finished Christmas shopping/gift making (my family's tradition), baking, laundering, and cleaning before we could leave town. I also had to start and finish my defensive driving course ha! A lot to cram into only a few days but we did it! We finished mopping the floors/showering/packing and loading the car by 8:30 just in time to leave. With the car packed to the gills with Christmas presents, enough pre-made food to last Eleanor while we were gone and all of the "stuff" necessary for 4 days in college station we stopped by Which Which and Costco gas and headed for College Station.

We arrived around 11pm Wednesday night and Eleanor, rested from her 3 hour sleep, got to play for a few minutes with Grammie and Grandpa as they reunited after a few months of not seeing one another.

We put Eleanor to bed and enjoyed the conversation with Andy's parents for a few hours. This was the beginning of many late nights at the Reinberg household. I sit here exhausted and decided I need another week of vacation to get back into my routine and relax from my vacation...typical though.

Eleanor was up bright and early on Thursday morning and excited to play...Daddy ws not ready to wake up...

Thursday morning we got a special visit from The Wentrcek family. Eleanor hadn't seen her godparents in a month or so and it was so wonderful seeing sweet Reese Wentrcek!

She has grown so much since we saw her when she was born!

We enjoyed catching up, eating Layne's (Andy's FAVORITE fried chicken finger place only found in sweet home College Station) and the girls' first real time to interact and play on the floor. Well, Eleanor was kind of rude and more interested in her toys than talking to Reese but Reese was so sweet and just stared at E the whole time. Soon they will be playing together and will be the best of friends! :) We just love that sweet little bug and hate that we live so far from our dear friends! After they left we made a quick trip up to St. Mary's, where Grammie works, to let Eleanor meet her coworkers and also people Andy and I worked with when we worked at St. Mary's in college. We snuck into Grammies office for a few shots, this is my fave of Eleanor in Grammie's chair :)

Thursday night we went to Koppe Bridge, Andy's favorite burger place, and his childhood friend, Amber, joined us.

Andy's childhood friend, Amber, who also sat with Eleanor as she slept while we were at Midnight mass. Thanks Amber!

We were going to go to Santa's Wonderland but the line was over a mile long so decided to go home and play games/watch Christmas movies instead.

Friday morning (Christmas Eve) we woke up and 'Nell and I went to get pedicures. What a treat, we even picked out red for Christmas to don our toes (and my fingers). We just hung out the rest of the day wrapping presents and watching more Christmas flicks and then ate tostadas, another one of Andy's favorites he usually can only get in CS (I am not one to cook refried beans in bacon grease and then dolloping them on grease saturated fried tortillas so I leave that to his mom and dad ha! Maybe one day I will attempt to learn to make them. Anyway, tostadas were Andy's birthday request and we celebrated his birthday with his family on Christmas Eve.

We showered and put Eleanor down after putting cookies out for Santa. My only regret was that in the rush of getting ready for mass we forgot to read Eleanor "The Polar Express." My family's tradition is to read it before going to midnight mass/before Santa comes. We kind of also hesitated reading it because we thought Pop Pop might read it when we got home but it never happened. Oh well, Pop Pop will read it next Christmas when Eleanor is a little older and can understand.

Mass was beautiful, Fr. David's homily perfect and the music beautiful! We came home and Andy's family kept up with their tradition of eating tamales and shrimp cocktail before going to bed. I had a glass of wine trying to keep my eyes open ha! We put our stockings out and went to bed to so excited, almost as much as when I was little, to see what Santa had brought. We didn't go to bed until almost 4 that night AH! Not good when your 7 month old wakes up at 7.

Eleanor let us sleep in a little on Christmas morning and we awoke to her talking and clapping excited to see what Santa brought (or just in a good mood ha but we can assume what we want).

I fed her and then we went down the hall to wake up the rest of the family.

We had a wonderful time opening presents and for me watching others open what we gave them. That is my favorite part! Grammie loved her apron with "Grammie" monnogrammed up top and Eleanor's handprint and the date at the bottom. It is going to be somewhat of a "charm bracelet on an apron" as Eleanor and other grandkids to come will stamp their handprints each year at Christmas! It will be fun to see how much they grow and who all appears over the years! Eleanor got a little kitchen from Santa and a star stacker that lights up and makes music that she loves from Grammie and Grandpa.

Andy's and my favorite gifts were relics that Andy's mom had blessed and touched the relics of my saint, Maria Goretti, the veil of Mary, and Andy's touched Saints Andrew, Jude, Anthony, and all the apostles. An incredible gift we will always love. Andy's relic is a rosary and mine a gold cross on a necklace.

Eleanor also was given an "elf outfit" by Andy's parents and she ended up wearing it all day...it was quite hilarious!

Andy's dad smoked the most amazing smoked turkey I have ever tasted for Christmas dinner and we stuffed ourselves with that, all the usual sides, and wine of course. We loaded the car so we could leave first thing the next morning and enjoyed visiting with Amber and her mom, Linda and drinking wine/eating desserts along with playing a very boistrous and wild game of "Apples to Apples."

Our visit in College Station was super special being our family's first time to celebrate Chrsitmas with Andy's family AND Eleanor's first Christmas. We feel like we don't get to see his family enough so it was great getting to spend a few days with them and not have an agenda! We truly got to just relax and hang out which was much appreciated.

With it being my first Christmas away from my family you could only imagine my excitement to make it to Dallas to see them and spend time enjoying Christmas #2. We arrived right around noon on Sunday the 26th.

Eleanor all ready to open more presents, now at Marmi and Pop Pop's

Marmi and Pop Pop, Aunt MEA, and Aunt Keekda were ready with cinnamon rolls in the oven and coffee made. We started opening presents as E had just awoken from her road trip nap and was in good spirits. Eleanor got so many more fun gifts including a piano you can hook up to the TV...what will they think of next!? My Aunt also sent her this adorable little mailbox that she loves!

Dad got Tiger Woods golf from the kids and all of us got a Dance game for the Wii from Santa so we played on the Wii all day and enjoyed an amazing dinner ( as you call tell our break has been marked with delicious indulgent and not so healthy food) of Dad's famous London Broil and all the fixins. As you can see, Marmi got an apron as well with Eleanor's handprint.

We capped the night off with desserts and wine with the Walhoods for an impromptu Happy Birthday Jesus party without the cake...

The next morning Aunt Mea and I went shopping and spent the rest of the day preparing her and Dad for their long-awaited trip to visit Aunt Katie in "Nica." That night, Andy and I took the packed car home, unloaded it, and I unpacked and started laundry that still has not been finished and we are now two days out from school starting up again...

Tuesday, I had a hair cut appointment and after discussing with my sweet hair-cutter, Michelle, decided Eleanor needed her first hair cut. Andy brought her up and she was so good. You can see more about that in her haircut post. Afterward, Andy and I made some returns and ran by Marmi's to get the remainder of the Christmas presents that couldn't fit in the car the night before.

We then enjoyed a super fun day with Amanda, Annabelle, and Hallie.

Eleanor and Annabelle playing in her room before we went shopping. Hallie was napping and missed out :(

They came up for a few days and we were so excited to get to spend some time with them. Hallie napped at Granna's and Annabelle and Amanda, and we went to Buy Buy Baby and shopped with the girls and then went back to Granna's and got to play with Hallie for a bit (Eleanor had to get dropped at home for a nap). I miss my sweet bosom friend so it was such a treat to get to catch up and spend some time together and to see her sweet babies who are just growing way too fast! That night, Andy and I made a really yummy tortilla soup and margaritas and watched movies. We have so enjoyed this time to be together and not worry about work!

Wednesday Eleanor and I went downtown for a Dr. appt. and then met up with Heather, a friend from school, and her 10 mo. old son, Jace. We had so much fun with the kids interacting and of course did some shopping.

Eleanor insisted on me carrying her instead of being pushed in the stroller...we will need to break her of that preference! Wednesday afternoon we got to meet Casen Place, Andy's gradeschool friend, Clifton's third son.

He was so sweet and made me probably a little closer to being ready for another baby. We still would like to wait a little while longer but it was so funny watching Eleanor interact with him.

She was actually a little jealous when I was holding him which makes me wonder if she needs a sibling before she gets too old and used to being the only one! :) Until then, we will just enjoy all the babies our friends have! That night, The Vaniceks came over and ate Pot Roast and played 42 with us. The girls played and them went to bed, it is so fun that we can put them down and have time just the four of us to hang out! The girls are such good friends, we love how much time we get to spend with sweet Katie Jo!

Thursday was such a treat! Andy watched Eleanor while Mom, Kelsey, and I (the ones left behind while the other three of our family are in Nicaragua) spent the morning and early afternoon at the Spa at the Crescent. We got massages and then lounged around for a while in the spa, sauna, and steam room, took our time getting ready and then enjoyed a lunch at Breadwinners. What a fun day! I hadn't felt so relaxed in a LONG time! My massage therapist said I need to do this more often...maybe I can convince Andy of that ha though I wished he was able to enjoy the spoiling as well because I know his neck needs it just as much as mine! That night, mom treated us to a date night out. She came over so we could go see "True Grit" at Studio Movie Grill with a gift certificate Andy got from his students!

Friday morning we woke up and Andy headed to mom and dad's with Wes to commence the day of smoking the brisket for our NYE feast. Eleanor and I hung out at home getting random things done such as cleaning out/organizing the freezer, writing thank you notes, working on but still not finishing laundry, and straightening up the house/getting ready to head to mom's for NYE. More New Years Eve dets to come in the New Years post. We had such an amazing Christmas with family and friends and are gearing up to be motivated as we go back to school next week!