happy new year!

it's 2008! i can't believe it! lots of great things to come this year, a new baby, a few vacations this summer and lots of family time.

so far this holiday season has been wonderful. chris has been off of work for what seems like forever. he doesn't go back to work full time until the 14th. between now and then we have a few meetings here at the house and he as to spend a few half days at school too to get things ready for the semester. but for the most part we STILL have about two weeks of play time left. having him home has been such a treat for max and ME. i've come to rely on him an aweful lot due to me just being so damn huge and uncomfortable. and frankly i'm dreading him going back to work because he's such a huge help around the house and with max.

we celebrated the new year with some friends who came over last night. i made some yummy snacks (they were super delish) and we played left right center for a few rounds. then around 11 pm, they went home, she's expecting and only 8 or 9 weeks along so she's super sleepy and couldn't keep her eyes open anymore. so chris and i 1st broke the tv then as fate would have it by 11:30 it magically fixed itself so that we could watch some rather lame countdown to the new year programming. this is kinda funny actually, i tuned to KDKA's local first night coverage to find them announcing the clarks up on stage. now i'm not a FAN of the clarks by any means but you really can't be a pittsburgher and NOT know a few of their songs. chris and i were then joking around and i said, "oh man i HOPE they play the penny song." totally NOT expecting them to do that since it's sortof a slow song with make out qualities.... but wouldn't you know it, that's the FIRST song they PLAYED? we were both hysterical about that... everyone in the crowd was swaying back and forth and it was totally lame... from there we flipped between the other local stations and a few news channels. midnight struck, we kissed, chris took a few videos of this.... he had been drinking heavilly and thought this was the height of hilarity. he also documented my huge belly and the cats and we went to bed. fun times!

today, i'm not doing much, we took the tree down this morning and put the living room back together. i left the other christmas decorations up though... i don't want to put those away just yet. max went down for a nap after that. and i've been since watching Run's House. my parents are planning to stop by shortly so i do need to go get dressed and make some brownies to take to my sil's house for dinner tonight.

as for knitting and crafting: i need to step on the gas. i have a baby shower to attend in 26 days, i need to knit one more bootie for that and sew the two of them up. i also have to make a scalloped blankie for that shower too. plus i need to sew two more scalloped blankies for max and andrew. i think i mentioned this before that i've decided that andrew is going to bring max's blankie to him as a little arrival gift. i hope max GET'S it. or at least likes the blankie. i've decided the deadline for those is also the 26th. i want to be done at least 2 weeks prior to my due date since i'm convinced that i'm going early. ha! if that isn't a jinx, i don't know what is.

max is totally moved into his new room. he loves it! i've moved his clothes in there too and chris is currently painting a set of shelves that he made for him. they are a sunny orange color that is going to look awesome with the blue walls. photos to come soon, i promise! i put some of max's 12 month clothings into storage, moved it all to his new dresser and put out some 0-3 month items into the nursery. all i have left to do is a very thorough cleaning of the nursery and then andrew is more than welcome to arrive.

i'm now having a hard time coming up with a way to end this post. so i suppose i'll leave you with a photo, my cutie pie:

happy new year everyone!

bumps

my poor little baby.... he has gotten a few knocks on the head before but mostly onto carpeted floors and not very hard.... well today was not so easy for him. we were at my parents and he was getting sorta sleepy and he's standing at the coffee table when he grabbed a cloth mat with both hands thinking he was still holding on to the table, he balanced for about a second then crashed to the floor... the brick floor. he had an egg immediately and a pretty nice scrape. i attempted to put a cold pack on him... my mom had frozen asparagus which didn't really work very well.... then we tried frozen peppers.... he still wasn't having the cold pack on his head even though it as through a towel... my poor bubby.... he then managed to get right back up and then fell again. he has a red mark on his cheek from that one... it's hard to see them get hurt.... he's tough though, he cried but he quickly stopped. he's resilient i guess but it still hurts me to see him hurt himself... poor little maxwell...

first time in the woods in over a year and a really good meal

yesterday chris and i took max for a short hike in at Raccoon State Park - in the wild flower preserve. it was max's first trip to the woods, his first real experience in the Kelty carrier and my first time in the woods in over a year! while i was pregnant with max i was just not able to catch my breath most of the time so that meant that hiking was just not very enjoyable... so last night we kinda make an impromptu decision to pack up max and "the max pack" and drive to a nearby hiking spot for a short hike at dusk. max loved it! and so did i!

here are some photos:
i also made a spectacular dinner on saturday. i was inspired by an italian cooking show on PBS she featured a calamari salad that just sounded so good and a pasta dish with a simple pesto sauce. the pesto sauce was really easy and sounded soooo good so i made it that night.

ingredients:
a few bunches of fresh basil
about two cups or a little less of almonds
olive oil
garlic
red pepper flakes
really ripe cherry tomatoes - i used most of a large container of these from Costco, two small containers would be perfect.
in the food processor, you blend the almonds and most of the basil until it's a crumbly/pasty consistency, then you add garlic and red pepper flakes, olive oil and the cherry tomatoes, blend until it turns this nice light pink color then add the rest of the basil. meanwhile, cook your favorite pasta. once the pasta had been drained, drizzle with olive oil, then toss with the pesto and some Parmesan cheese and serve. oh was this good! no photo of this one this time... we were starved and it was 9 pm and we didn't have much to eat all day... i served this along side chicken breast that i just quickly cooked in a skillet with some seasoning. all very tasty.