Missing Food Club

I haven't been ofor girl's night dinner/food club since September...BUT...the holidays are coming and they grant loads of recipe daydreams...that keep me nicely preoccupied on early chilly mornings. 

And, since Elizabeth easily consumes half of my plate each night, leaving Dave to sympathetically offer me some of his dinner, I'm growing excited by the notion that I can teach/expose her to some awesome flavors at such a young age. For example, the other night she gnawed on roasted asparagus spears, popping equally roasted cherry tomatoes, packing gobs of pinenut couscous into her palms while trading off on pieces of lemon pepper pan-seared bassa, scallops and shrimp. Food snob already! 

I secretly realize that she will likely turn a page and stop wanting anything aside from bread, cheese, cookies and ice cream in another 6 months or so, but I'm holding out hope that she'll skip that phase!

Back to Rachel Ray and Bon Appetit!

Overdue

Wow - sorry for the overdue posting here - I'm going to have to make it short, since Ellie's on her way up from a nap. 

I realized it's been almost a month since I last posted!  Crazy. Quick synopsis of the big things that have come and gone:

• Trip to Germany and Austria (basically the reason I went missing on the blog for a month). Lots of funny stories from this trip that deserve their own post.
• Baby play dates that get so much better each week!  Because the 'play' date actually involves 'playing.'
• Dave has been shooting a LOT. So there's lots of post production that I need to get on - thus, my time normally spent blogging went toward my 'other job'. Which I enjoy just as much, albeit keeping me away from my fun social avenues. :(
• Switching rooms around in the house so that Ellie now has almost an entire room to be safe and play in.  I'm sure the commitment to the kid is much to Annie's chagrin, but it's nice that I can be in the kitchen and keep an eye on her destruction.
• David has been super Dad.  He took on watching Ellie all day yesterday from awakening to nearly  sleeping - he was exhausted when I got home and said, "I don't know how you do it every day." (HUGE GRIN HERE)
• She's started sleeping through the night!
• Nana visited and saved Mama on a few occasions.
• Oh yea, and we're pregnant!

All of these items deserve their own post, so I'll have to get on that!

Glad to be back!

xoxo

Berry Festival - with Molly & Michael

After she's tasted every berry there...

And with her own chair!

Aunt Molly!

First Thing in the Morning

So with all of the new Slaugy babies on the way...Congrats Aunt Molly and Uncle Michael - due in December. Congrats Aunt Mary and Uncle Garret - due in January/February. :)

We were finally able to visit Molly and Michael in Maryland...and prepare them for parenthood! :)

Silly Grandpa - he was helping play dress up

Pants on the Head

Shore Trip

I headed to the shore for the first time with baby. Dave and his buddies were meeting up in Harrisburg for a guy's weekend, so off we went with Annie, Dan and Mary Helena to Sea Isle City, NJ.  The weather was unbeatable!!! Just fantastic. 

Watching the little girls interact was so new.  Mary squeals when she sees Ellie.  She's been doing that for a while.  This time around, Ellie seemed like she was able to comprehend the buddy-system she will have with her cousin.  She just stared at Mary and smiled, watching her like a hawk!  We threw a blanket onto the floor and made it sort of home base for the girls' toys.  Mary was crawling everywhere, but didn't go far when Ellie was down there too.

Can't wait to see them by the end of the summer!

Why it's hard to leave for work...

Dave sent me a text including this picture (that he snapped early one morning right before he left) with the words, "it's so hard to leave you two." We couldn't do this without him.  He's my constant; our protector. He makes all of this possible, with God's guidance.  We wouldn't be able to raise our daughter the way we want without his hard work and the small sacrifices on both of our parts.  Small, because of the gigantic gift being able to stay home and raise her provides.

Thank you dearest, sweet husband.  We love you so much.

Caption: It was nearly an all-nighter - this is what recovery mode looks like.

Aunt Molly

Molly and Michael came to visit and we were thrilled to have them. People think that when you have a baby that you don't want company... WRONG! you crave it; or at least we did. It was so nice to spend some time relaxing with family and watching others love your child. It really makes my heart smile.

I was saying, M&M came up from Baltimore to visit and they were a bit later than it should've taken them. Well we found out why! They came in with so many bags of groceries and yummy food - I'm not sure how we could've gotten through these first few weeks without their loving stock-up!  So sweet and a cute picture od the baby in a porcelein pink frame to top it off. Her first and still the only framed picture that we have of her.  Love you Molly!!!

Baby's 1st Christmas

Christmas was nice - we all gathered in Flourtown with the 7 month-old Mary Helena and 2 week-old Elizabeth Grace.

We were surely still figuring things out and working on sleep.  We were all in bed well before midnight and most of us were passed out on the couch before 10 watching A Christmas Story (well, Grandma deemed it too violent).

Generally, nice time to relax and rest up.