2012 - The Year in Review

It's New Year's Eve and I'm sitting here all by myself (Chris is in Florida for the Orange Bowl - go Huskies!), so I thought I'd do a post on our year. It's been one heck of a year with Eva's arrival, Ethan turning 3 and all the normal things that happen to a family with little kids in the course of a year.

There is so much more than words can say, and if you've been following my blog, you know how much I love to talk about my kids.

In the end, this post and the accompanying pictures (some have been posted on the blog before, others are new) are about kids, family and love. Please enjoy!

January - Ethan picked out his own outfit

February - Ethan and his brand new baby sister

March - smiles for the camera!

April - showing Eva around the yard

May - sibling love <3

June - one sided sibling love <3

July - jammin' in our jammies

August - yet more sibling love (do you see a theme here?)

September - sitting still for pictures is hard work!

October - ready for some candy!

November - sharing a lollipop

December - bring on Santa!

Christmas

This Christmas was a pretty big Christmas - it was Eva's first Christmas and the first time Ethan really had a grasp on what was going on. 

We've settled into a semi tradition of spending Christmas Eve with my family, Christmas day with Chris's family and have a semi-reunion a few days after Christmas when out of state relatives come into town!

It was nice being able to spend all the time with family!

Chinese Christmas!

Eva in her sailor suit

Going to Grandma's is exhausting!

Walking around with Great Auntie Dixie

Great Uncle John with his sunglasses/moustache disguise!

"Is this one for me?"

Great Uncle John and Grandpa Barber with their Santa shirts!

Eva, puffs, and a hairpiece that makes her look like a gypsy fortune teller!

The back view

Cousins - it's tough getting 3 little kids to smile and look at the camera!

Kids lose interest quickly!

The post holiday get together - Uncle John is taking the picture

Christmas Decorations!

Now that Christmas and the post Christmas craziness is over and things have settled down, I have time (and energy!) to do my blogs about Christmas related stuff!

This post is devoted to Christmas decorations :)

I love snowmen - they are fat, round, happy and just adorable, so many of my ornaments are snowmen themed. Also, my mother in law found and got me a snowman tree topper last Christmas! And for anyone who knows me, I LOVE food, so I also have lots of food themed ornaments (one of my favorites is a set of cheese ornaments). 

I have TONS of Christmas things already, but in a manageable amount. The majority (naturally) was purchased during post Christmas sales, so you can be sure I got a great deal!

Without further ado, the pictures!

Our tree surrounded by some gifts - notice the wreath hanging from the tree? Ethan made it at school as a Christmas gift for us!

Close up of the snowman tree topper!

My collection of singing, dancing snowmen

The foyer table with my snowmen figurine collection

Snowman door hanger

Instead of a wreath, I hung a snowman sign from the front door this year

Caroling

One of Ethan's favorite things to do at my parents' house is to sing and play the piano at the same time...

Happy 16th birthday to me!

If anyone asks (sadly, nobody did), I'm 16! And I think I'll stay that way for a few decades :)

Today is my actual birthday, but Chris and I went out for dinner last night because our favorite restaurant, Niche, is not open on Sundays. It was nice getting out without the kids and having to get dressed up.

I love taking pictures of pretty food and Niche is an excellent place to do that - everything looks good and tastes good too!

Me and my eggs (so many nicknames in Chinese have to do with eggs, ie bao bei dan for precious egg, etc)

The Pink Lady - I have no alcohol tolerance anymore. Not like I had much to begin with, but after spending 4 years being pregnant/nursing, you really don't drink much!

My appetizer - crab salad and biscuits - this was seriously cute and dainty. I will have to remember this for when Eva is older and can have tea parties!

Chris's appetizer - duckopitas - a spin on spanakopitas!

My dinner - on the left is roasted cod and deep fried goat cheese on a spicy tomato sauce. On the right is roasted veggies! Fish and vegetables are healthy, right?

Chris's dinner - beef vindaloo - a fancy Indian dinner with filet and a veggie and potato medley.

My dessert - gingerbread topped with poached pear, lemon curd and honey marscapone. It was so yummy!

Chris's dessert - praline bar, chocolate and crunchy nutty goodness!

10 months old!

Another month went flying by and oh, how much has changed!

Weight - a little over 16 pounds
Clothes - the 6 month pants have been temporarily removed, they are fine in the waist, but getting a little short, especially with this cold weather! The onesies and shirts still fit fine. We wear some 9 month outfits and a few 12 month shirts.
Diapers - smallest setting for cloth diapers still. No change :)
Sleep - No change - Eva wakes up around 6am. First nap is 12:30pm (after I nurse her) until 3/3:30pm. Nap #2 is 6:30/7pm until whenever my bedtime is. There might be a catnap or two in there.
Eating - still a good eater. She loves it when we share table food with her - her favorites are muffins, tortilla chips and grilled cheese.
Likes - peekaboo (she will pull your hand down and squeal with joy, then put your hand back up to play again!), eating, hugs, graham crackers
Dislikes - other people when mommy's in sight, other people eating in front of her, sitting still for mommy to do her hair
New tricks - cruising! She's really good about walking along furniture and going from the couch to the coffee table. She can also pull herself up on some things if they're not too high. Laundry baskets are good, couches are still a little too high for my peanut :P

Crawling through the tunnel

Crazy bed head!

Super cute snowgirl outfit

Pulled up on a box of wipes

"Just keep walkin'..."

The anti-boyfriend picture! We had an emergency bath exit and Ethan was so proud his sister pooped in the toilet

Monthly picture

Monthly sibling picture

Homemade Ricotta

This is a pictureless post, but that's okay - just use your imagination! :)

Williams-Sonoma has these free technique classes several times a month - you get to sample tasty treats and you get a 10% discount (sadly sale stuff and the good stuff, aka vitamixes and Shun knives, is excluded) on class day. A few weeks ago, there was a class on homemade holiday gifts, and one of the items discussed was homemade cheese! Williams-Sonoma does sell the cheesemaking kits, but if you do any amount of cooking, you probably already have the ingredients at home for a fraction of the price.

Ingredients
-1 qt milk (I used whole, but goat, 2% or 1% should also work - just make sure there's some fat in it)
-1 tsp salt (more or less to taste)
-1/4c lemon juice (or plain white vinegar)
-cheesecloth

Instructions
-Line a sieve with the cheesecloth (my brilliant suggestion is to binder clip the cloth in place so that when you pour the curds in, the cloth stays put) and set the sieve over a large bowl.
-Place milk and salt in a non-reactive pot (stainless steel or Le Creuset). 
-Bring to a gentle boil (it will look like the top of a latte) over medium heat. This will take some time, so don't leave the stove (that's when milk boils over) and keep stirring to prevent scorching.
-After the milk has come to a boil, turn off the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Curds should form immediately. Pour into your prepared cheesecloth/sieve/bowl contraption and drain out the whey (don't throw this out - it's super nutritious and you can use it in smoothies, over cereal, pancakes, etc). 
-Refrigerate the curds in the refrigerator until serving time. This will result in a relatively firm product, so you may need to thin it out with some liquid (like that whey you saved).  This is just a very wonderful lemony ricotta.

If you're wondering how much ricotta this made, there was enough for a 13x9 pan of lasagna!

Eva and her hair

I did a lot of babysitting in high school for kids of all ages. One time, I was watching this little girl (I think she was 3 or 4) and she had this beautiful thick hair that went all the way down to her butt. I swore that if I ever had a girl, I wanted one with hair like that.

Eva is only 9 months old, but given her current hair situation, I think I might get that hair I swore I'd have! See below for evidence.

Braided pigtails!

Messy pigtails with curly clips!

Neater pigtails with a snowman clip - you can't tell from this picture, but she's wearing a snowgirl shirt :) Oh, and notice the super cute 2 bottom teeth!

Asian Spinach Salad

I've had a craving for salad lately. I'm not sure why - maybe I'm secretly trying to balance out the junk food bingeing that will inevitably come with Christmas? Anyways, I made this really good salad for lunch today and just had to share it - it's that good!

It's super healthy too - we could all use a little immune boosting help this time of year!

Ingredients

-spinach (or a nice spring mix would be tasty too)

-1 carrot, grated

-chopped roasted bell pepper

-1/2 cup edamame

-Asian dressing (I used some leftover ginger soy dressing from an Asian Wonton Salad from Corner Bakery Cafe - this is a REALLY good salad!)

Instructions

Put your greens on a plate. Add your toppings. Drizzle with dressing. Eat!