see.snow

We finally got to share in the snow frenzy that is spreading across the North East Coast. The other morning we woke up to this!

and some of this...

So much snow!!!

Notice all the pictures are from my front door... I was letting the dog out and did NOT want to move any further!

Brrrr!!!!As you can see... we are Miles deep in snow!

see.pumkin

From Jan. to March of this year I have been and will be babysitting every Sunday morning. I met this family when I was unemployed as a means of additional income but now I just like hanging out with their adorable and sweet 2 year old!
I am only there from 7 to about 10 AM and then I head home to start my day.
The little boy's name is Miles (hmmm sound familiar?) and his parents are attending classes at their new church and needed a little help so I said 'why not?'
For Mike, the concept of getting out of bed any earlier then 10 AM on a Sunday is unfathomable so my babysitting gig is a little extra money and probably saves us from morning person vs. night person woes.
When I do get home around 10 AM, I am still energized from running around with a 2 year old and Mike is happy because it is late morning. So we usually take this time to have a nice breakfast together. My sister (she has 3 children) sometimes will call and say "hey what do young people with no children do for dinner? or hey, mel, are you just now having breakfast! it is 11 AM!?"
The answer is... yes we sometimes eat breakfast 1 hour before lunch time. ha ha

For breakfast this past Sunday: Pumpkin Muffins
A can of Pumpkin was an item we found in our 'care package' from Florida so we thought... why just have pumpkin at Thanksgiving time?
Mike's mom suggested we make pumpkin muffins, and so we did. Although we did not have spice cake mix, we just made do with what we had (and they came out so so so good)

I am completely smitten with a new website/blog I have found and it is where we got the pumpkin muffin recipe:
smitten kitchen
The woman is my hero, she is a lot of fun to ready, and very honest about her food. She messes things up, puts in the wrong ingredients, tells about great things that happen and terrible things that happen in the kitchen. Oh and she cooks in a itty bitty kitchen in New York. So if she can do we can do it!

Suger and cinnamon for the muffin top. Everyone's favorite part!

Mike made these and he is very particular about getting every single speck of ingredient mixed together. This drives me crazy. I am a hurry up lets get these things cooking- type.
So I take pictures to keep me busy.

Then I noticed Miles. He is staring out of the window AGAIN!
Since we showed him the window- he is here about 90% of the time.
No joke. And usually standing.
We have created a monster.

Muffin drop.

Muffin top.

Done.

see.we.wonder

Every so often Mike, (and now Mike and I) will get care packages in the mail via Jeanette, Mike's mom. These typically contain lovely teas, little snacks, tooth brushes, some of Mike's misc. mail, and a few other thoughtful items. I wish I could send everyone I know a care package! They are a lot of fun to get, because you feel like you are opening a treasure box! OK, at least that is how I feel.

Moving on.
This time around, the care package had a few additional items we were sure The Ribak's (Jeanette and Mitch) had laying around the house. Items that... may or may not have been purchased late at night when one of the Ribak's (ahem Mitch) couldn't sleep... (see below)

Yep.

TRIPLES CLOSET SPACE!!
Enough said.
What else could I do but at least try it out!

These are pictures of our pre-wonder closet.
So sad!

Simple instructions.
This is good because I don't typically read the instructions after step 3 (takes too much time!).

OK. At this point I am getting very excited!

Boom! It's done!
I had to call Mike in to watch me do it again, because he wouldn't have believed me if I tried to explain how easy this thing is!!!

The package contains 8!
Can you guess how many we now have hanging in the house?
Yep. 8.
Our closets never looked so good.

see.we.eat

When there is not much to blog about... I can always blog about food!
I happen to enjoy food; eating it, shopping for it, and cooking it. Saturday night, we made homemade pizza.
What a treat!

For an appetizer I prepared some fresh bruschetta.
Sometimes I like to jazz up bruschetta with cheese and garlic and then bake it on the bread = YUM! but this time, I kept it simple.
Tomatoes
Fresh Basil (from our plant, her name is Basil)
Fresh Oregano (from our other plant, his name is Jose)
Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper.

Chop it all up!

Spoon onto fresh cut french bread. So Good!

Now, Say Hello to my little friend: Dough.
We experimented with flour this time around. We made the dough with half whole wheat flour and half all purpose white flour. The dough takes about an hour longer to rise. It was still very good!

The real reason for pizza night? To try out Mike's Christmas present from my mom. A pizza stone. Yes, Mike got a pizza stone for Christmas, what can I say... he is a man after my own heart!

I'm just going to admit it now... I do not care for Chicago deep dish pizza. *GASP!* I know, terrible right? I am just not a fan of the sauce on top. When we do eat the deep dish pizza I always put tons of grated Parmesan on top so it seems like a "normal" pizza.
Moving on... I think I was just over red sauce in general so I decided to make a white sauce pizza with garlic, spinach, mozzarella, and goat cheese.
The white cheese sauce is very easy to make and takes no time at all.
All you need is a little butter, flour, milk (or heavy whipping cream) and shredded cheese.

Close up!

Are you hungry yet? There were no left overs but just give me a ring if you want to stop by and we will whip this little baby up for you in no time :)

see.dog.t.v.

Miles, our dog, is a funny little dude.
He has a short list of favorite things consisting of:
socks.
squirrels.
going for runs.
and
He has been known to watch t.v.
He is not an avid watcher, but he will watch when there is something he deems interesting on. I first discovered his interest in t.v. when we lived with my dad in Florida for a few months. My dad and I enjoy watching tennis. We had a match on and noticed Miles not only watching the t.v. but following the ball back and forth across the screen!

Here he is in front of dad's t.v. Caught in the act!
Now, we no longer have t.v. channels set up and use the t.v. for movies and playing the wii (neither of which interest the dog)
However,
We recently took our Christmas tree down and moved the furniture back to it's "normal" place and I noticed something. I realized if I move the couch back 2 feet, Miles can look out the window.
Once I introduced Miles to the window...

He stood there for almost 3 hours!!
He found squirrels (which made him so excited he almost lost window privileges due to his attempts to scratch through the plastic window covers), neighbors, snow, and whatever else happened to be in the back yard today.

I have a feeling this may be where we find Miles on most days from now on!

see.WHAT?

The weather lately...
I thought people in Florida were being complete babies about the cold until I realized it was almost the same temperature in Florida as it was in Chicago!
Brrrrrr!!!!!

Gainesville, Florida

Chicago, Illinois
Good thing it only lasted a few days in Florida!
Chicago (we) will have to tough it out for a bit longer... :0(

see.we.thank

It is difficult to begin a new year without looking back at the year you are about to leave behind. 2009 brought so many wonderful things into our lives! So many things to be thankful for and it wouldn't feel right to step out of 2009 and into 2010 without saying
'wow, what an amazing year!'

Miss Charlotte!
Born Jan. 2009

Sweet baby Henry!
Born Jan. 2009

Sweet baby Owen
Born October 2009!
A huge, fun, scary, and exciting move across the country, an ENGAGEMENT!!, a new job, another year of amazing friendships, our health! and the love, support and encouragement of family family family!!
We have so much to be thankful for 2009!!
Cheers to you!
The only resolution for 2010 (for she) is to simplify! To look at what I have with happiness and joy and want less!

As we said good-bye to 2009 and "hello!!!! 2010" we celebrated with a few things we received in the mail from my dear friends Melanie and Kris.

Homemade Doggie treats for Miles!

They were totally 'human worthy' so we all had a bite! Yum!

We filled our new labeled glasses "mel's malt and mike's malt" with sparkling blueberry juice from TJ's to ring in the New Year!

Homemade vanilla flavoring!

Sun dried tomato pesto from Mel and Kris' garden. Their tomatoes straight off the vine are heaven!

A scrumptious meal of homemade goodies to warm our stomachs for a new year!
Thank you Melanie and Kris!!
!!!!HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

see.snow.person

It has been snowing here for the last 2 days. Snowing and snowing and snowing.
So we decided to brave the elements and play a little. At least until our fingers and toes were numb.

She.
I'm trying out my new cozy warm hat! Thanks Jeanette!!

Miles, he likes to lick the snowflakes off of his nose!

For the Florida readers. When you live in snow, it is best to try out a few things like... snowball fights, snow angels, and the making of snow-people. (pc)
As seen here, I am creating a lovely little snow ball bomb to hit mike with!

He.
retaliating

Snow much fun!
haa haa... that pun is for you dad!
Warning!
After playing in snow for hours you could have adverse effects such as:

Going from an otherwise normal looking person to:

Frost-tina
and...

Frosty!