A New Year, A Blank Slate, and Everything I Wanted to Post about Last Year But Couldn't (Or Didn't)

Yes, I know the title is long, but I need it to be.

It's a reflection of the length of the post... so get ready.

Grab a glass of wine, a beer, some coffee and get ready.

Don't grab a glass of water.

I don't like water and this post deserves something more exciting, like chocolate milk or a nice cold Coca-Cola... aaahhh.

There were so many things that I need to share about last year before I can really, I mean REALLY, go ahead with this promising new year.

(Which I am SUPER pumped about, by the way)

Here I go with some pretty awesome events of 2010, in no particular order:

My little sister Brookie got married in September... she was the last of us girls.

I come from a big-ish family, if you can't tell. There are some sisters, step-sisters, half-sisters, half-brothers and adopted brothers if you want to get all technical.

But, when you get down to it, family is family and you will end up driving from Michigan to Virginia, non-stop, all by yourself, at the last minute in order to make it to one of those people's weddings, or whatever it may be.

Because family is family and it's just what you do.

And if you didn't, there wouldn't be these awesome moments caught on film, or memory card.

Yup, Brookie got married, Christine was about to burst, Chloe had just announced she was expecting... and Staci and Traci and I were just rubbing that belly!

It was so much fun to have us all together :)

Congrats Brookie and Hunter... or Mr. and Mrs. Weeks!

My little Nugget turned 2 in August!

She did, she really did.

Wow... she's just so fantastic I can't even believe that I had something to do with her existence.

She's this whole person now, not just a baby. She knows the words to tons of songs and dances like a rock star and loves her Daddy and has a great arm and she can dribble a soccer ball and likes her nails painted and doesn't like bows in her hair and she likes her music LOUD and loves trains and planes and robots and Play-doh and she still likes to sleep in the "big bed" with mommy and daddy even though she has her own "big girl bed" and, man...

I just love her.

And now I would like everyone to meet Gabe:

Our nephew was born on Thanksgiving. How amazing is he?

My hubby was at the hospital with Graham and Michelle all day, waiting, and then we all went up there after Thanksgiving dinner... to wait.

There was so much waiting...

...but, when after all that waiting, you get to hold a brand new baby, I will wait 'til the moon falls right out of the sky because there's nothing better than holding a brand new baby.

And we all got a turn...

Go here to see an amazing slideshow/video my hubby's sister Emily put together of Gabe's birth. It's awesome.

Graham and Michelle, or, more appropriately, Mommy and Daddy :)

photo taken my sister-in-law Tracy and hi-jacked from facebook...

Welcome to this crazy thing called life, Gabe!

Then there was this awesome Farmer's Market lunch I concocted one day and dubbed "The Masterpiece" that was so good I feel the need to share:

Here are the ingredients because you need, repeat: NEED, to make this when you are all alone so you can eat it nice and slow and savor every little bit of it:

1.) warm and fresh homemade italian bread right out of the bread maker

2.) juicy and delicious tomatoes from the vegetable stand with the smiley guy

3.) fresh basil from the round and rosy lady with all the pretty flowers and herbs

4.) fresh mozzarella from the cheese stall with the guy who always makes you feel really good about yourself somehow when all you really discuss is cheese and the occasional cracker or spread

5.) olive oil, sea salt, and cracked pepper

Directions: Layer ingredients in a way that suits your fancy and broil in oven until ooey and gooey.

Eat and love.

You're welcome.

My sister Christine also had a little baby boy, Triston, in October.

Sadly, I haven't met him face to face yet, therefore I have no pics of my own, so I will share these other hi-jacked facebook photos of him with you:

I wish I could have been there!

Big sister Gabi meeting her new little brother :)

Mom, Dad and Baby Triston

I can't wait to meet you Triston!

And here's a few pictures of the latest nursery set to leave WillowBean Creations.

I know the pictures are crappy, I'm not sure what was going on with my picture taking skills this day.

Sorry.

Front of patchwork crib quilt:

I love all the fun and funky bright florals with a few smaller, simpler, two-tone patterns.

Pieced quilt back:

And I'm not sure if you can tell, but the binding is a hot pink zebra print (Party Animal in Pink). Love it!

Close up of the crib skirt:

... and a really bad picture of a runner that I couldn't even fix in iPhoto:

I don't usually get all pumped up about the New Year, but I think 2011 is a little different.

My Willow will turn 3 (sniff), my hubby and I will celebrate our 4 year anniversary (yippee), and there are so many opportunities just waiting to be scooped up and tried out. We are rearranging the house. There might be some painting, some redecorating, some change.

I think I like change.

It's like there's this huge blank slate titled "2011" and we get to fill it in with whatever we want! I'm planning to make it the best, most detailed, most colorful, crazy, beautiful slate one has ever laid eyes on.

Watch out world, here we come!

I want to get messy. I want to get wild and crazy. I want to remember every little bit I can.

I'm going to soak it all up and let it all sink in.

I'm not one for New Year's resolutions, but I think that sounds pretty damn fun, don't you?

I can't wait.

Stay tuned for some seriously BIG news. I mean BIG. I just need to find the perfect picture to go with it...

Now, if you excuse me, I have to go beat my hubby in Jeopardy for the 4th night in a row...

A few things I forgot to add first go 'round that happened in 2010:

I turned 25.

That means I'm 5 years from 30, 15 from 40 and half way to 50.

Holy. Smokes.

I had a fight with some ice and it won. Big time.

(the winter-frozen-water kind, not the illegal-drug kind)

Oh, and I painted my bedroom grey.

There. That's all.

I Don't Usually 'Do' Christmas...

It's true.

I usually don't.

In my whole adult life I had never put up a tree, or ever really wanted to.

I've never owned a single Christmas decoration save for the (very) few that have been gifted to me over the years.

And to be completely honest, I have no idea why.

Not a clue.

I like Christmas, I do. I love seeing family. I love getting everyone the perfect gifts. I love wrapping stuff. I love seeing how other people decorate for Christmas... but as for me 'doing' Christmas?

Yeah, notsomuch.

That is until this year. This year I wanted lights because Willow loves them. I wanted a tree because Willow wanted one. I needed ornaments because Willow thinks they're "SO bootiful". I couldn't wait to make her list and then go fill it.

It's weird what kids will do to you...

So, I 'did' Christmas. I didn't go crazy, mind you. But I did amp it up, like, 1000 points from last year (since we did NOTHING last year).

We *Drew* put up a tree. A fake tree, but a tree.

Hey, you have to start somewhere, right?

And then Willow and I decorated the tree, which I have to admit was WAY more fun than I remember it as a kid.

WAY.

Like how only 1/2 the lights work? Yeah, me too.

I'm pretty sure people build up their ornament "stock" over several years.

Not me. No, I went to Target and knocked out what could be about 10 years of ornament hoarding.

Apparently I'm one of those instant gratification kind of people.

So thanks, Target, for having super-cool ornaments that have nothing to do with the colors red, green, or gold.

Because I like my Christmas to be hot pink, teal and purple, thankyouverymuch.

The only thing missing for the tree was a topper (I couldn't find one I liked that didn't cost 309480980 bucks) and a tree skirt.

I saw one at Target that was fantastic and lime green with lots of sequins, but, I'm sorry. I am not spending $30 bucks on a piece of fabric that's only going to be used for about 15 days out of the year and covered with presents so you can't even really see it in the first place.

Maybe it's me. I think that's crazy.

And get this... I didn't just get stockings - I made our stockings. I hung our stockings. I decorated around our stockings.

And I even filled our stockings.

Don't look too closely, though, because not a single one of them is completely finished. Ha!

I'm pretty sure some are even hanging from safety pins...

And then there was Christmas Eve!

Oh, how much fun it was making sure Santa had wrapped all the presents and placed them just so around the tree to make sure Willow got the best view as she was coming down the stairs...

We (I) totally forgot to make cookies for Santa and leave him some milk... but I'm thinking maybe next year we'll have this whole thing figured out a little better.

Sorry Santa!

There's a lot to learn.

There are no words to even express Christmas morning.

I'm pretty sure I was never even that excited as a kid as I was this year.

Not kidding.

I could not WAIT for Willow to wake-up Saturday morning.

A few side notes: my daughter calls Santa "Santa McLaudus".

We have no clue why.

Not even an idea where it came from.

But it is frickin' hilarious.

My kid is so weird.

Also, when we woke up Christmas morning, still in bed, my hubby told Willow,

"Santa came with presents last night".

What's the first thing she says ?

"Oh man. I'm on the naughty list."

We both cracked up.

I know some parents bribe their kids into being good by threatening such placement onto the naughty list, but not me.

Not us.

That's why I think it's so funny!

She must have been dreaming about being naughty...

Anyways, no words can even express Christmas morning, so here you go:

Awesome...

I think her favorite presents were the train set (Thanks Em and John!!), her Mr. Potato Head (best $7 bucks ever spent) and her hot pink soccer ball.

You know I had to get my girl a soccer ball.

She's already got the cleats and the soccer shorts and it was ALL I could do to keep myself from buying the little itty bitty shin guards and socks.

Let's just say I'm ready for soccer season.

I will be her coach and we will win.

Just watch.

I will be that mom.

I know I'm way behind in the whole Christmas posting thing, but seriously?

It's freaking busy. There's a lot going on in December.

Not to mention I had a birthday and broke my foot.

Not cool, but whatever.

No Christmas wouldn't be complete without the aftermath, would it?

I think it's one of my favorite parts.

I like to let it just stay all day because it reminds me of all the awesomeness that was.

Does anybody else do this?

I also decided I was going to start a new tradition by making homemade cinnamon rolls for Christmas Breakfast.

You know, because I'm all about Christmas traditions...

A few days before I checked my recipe books, found a yummy-sounding one, double-checked my ingredients and looked over the recipe to make sure I would know what the hell I was doing come Christmas morning.

It all looked good.

20 mins prep time, 40 mins bake time... no big deal.

Yeah, well in between the "prep time" and the "bake time" there's about 6 freaking hours that I didn't account for.

Apparently, the dough has to rest, chill, rise, and rest.

Hell, you might as well make it a drink while you're at it.

Needless to say, the 1st annual Christmas Morning Cinnamon Rolls were scratched and that is a tradition I doubt will ever be attempted in the years to come.

6 hours?

Really?

Yeah, so we had some kind of muffin instead that was on the opposite page in the cook book.

And some coffee from the hubby's new coffee maker...

I think we might officially be grown-ups now because we actually own a coffee maker.

That's right, people. We've never had one until now.

And I have taken the position of morning coffee-making person. I think it's fun.

That sentence makes me laugh and I don't know why.

Willow got her Daddy a new coffee mug and some new ties for his awesome new job...

It's true. He is the best dad.

This guy cracks me up. I think we should all have one of these and we can just change the pieces depending on our moods. I like this pic so much it may just be our Christmas card next year.

Which we WILL do, you know, because I'm all about Christmas traditions.

Hope everyone had a Merry Freaking Christmas!