4.13.10

One of the awesome parts about our condo at the Chula Vista was that there was a hot tub in the room! After the kids went to bed, we sat in it, talked and ate snacks....and in the morning Cooper used it to play with his toys.

As far as the water park at the Chula Vista goes, I have nothing to compare it to since I have never been to any of those Dells resorts, but Gina said the Kalahari and the Wilderness were much better. I thought it was decent though - and I am sure it would be much better when the outdoor park is open also. The room was GREAT though! We had a 2 bedroom condo - with a full kitchen, 2 bathrooms and a hot tub.

4.12.10

I spend Sunday through Tuesday at the Chula Vista in the Dells with Gina and her family. We had a blast, despite the fact that this little guy wasn't too happy most of the time. He might be teething because he had a real hard time calming himself down. We got him in between fits to get a few pictures though and I thought these 3 were pretty hilarious.

4.10.10

Our friend, Lisa, celebrated her big 4-0 on Saturday. There was a surprise party in her honor...and surprised, she was. Apparently she had been treated with a number of surprises all day - and they ended up at about 4:30 at her house where all of her family and friends were waiting for her. It was good times. 40 looks good, doesn't it?

4.8.10

We grabbed these tulips while grocery shopping to make our Easter dinner a little more festive. I must say, days later they are still very festive and makes the room just a tad more cheery! I might have to make a point of buying fresh flowers more often.

13/52 - things that start with J

Jamison.

Our nephew. He is so sweet.

Jon.

My husband. At this point, I'm not sure why he is surprised I am taking pictures of him.

4.4.10 pm

Easter night, we had my family over to our apartment for dinner. We had a pretty delicious meal, if I do say so myself. We had salad, grilled steak with onion strings, and my father-in-law's famous sesame potatoes. The onion strings were a recipe from the new Pioneer Woman cookbook and let me tell you that they were so good, so easy to make and seriously tasted like they were from a restaurant.

Of course we had another egg hunt for Coop, too! My mom and I set this egg hunt up with string wrapped around trees and other freestanding things in the yard. It made it easier for him to focus and find all the eggs rather than having a free-for-all. A great idea for little ones, right?

4.4.10 am

Easter in the AM was spent with Jon's family. They had an easter egg hunt in the backyard for the kids. This series cracks me up!

4.2.10

I work for a Catholic organization, which meant no work for me on Good Friday - woop woop! So, I headed to Milwaukee for the afternoon to get together with some friends from high school and their kids. Times are a changin', folks. When we were all in town in the past, we would get together at bars at 10pm - now we get together at parks at 2 in the afternoon. It was a blast though. The kids could play and we could catch up! Afterward, I dragged them all to Pizzeria Piccola :) Here is Dre and Molly's boy, Spencer, cheers-ing. Ha! hilarious.

12/52 - things that start with I

Ice cream.

Confession: We went to get ice cream just so I could take a picture of it. However, no one had to twist our arms too far to go either.

Infant

This is Henry. He is my friend, Lauren's, boy. Isn't he the most handsome thing? He is a perfect representation of her, I think.

Ice.

Ipod.

3.27.10

On Saturday, I turned the big 29! It was a great day. The whole family was in town, so we hung out, laughed at how hilarious Cooper is, played Wii and had dinner. It was my choice since it was my bday and I chose the Tuscani chicken alfredo pasta from Pizza Hut. Yup - I'm a total cheap date. Don't knock it until you have tried it though. It is so freaking good. After family time, I met some friends and family at The Great Dane. I played a few games of shuffleboard - all of which I won. thankyouverymuch. It was so fun! Thanks to everyone who came out.

3.19.10

On the same night I was at Meghan's last week, we listened to some tunes and chatted while the picture taking and cookie making was going on. When Newsies came on, none of us hesitated to sing along at loud and obnoxious levels - making sure we hit all the right words with the correct NY accent. I mean come on, I know you are singing "Since when did you become me mudda?" in your head right now, in the same way Crutchy did. Do not deny the Newsies love!

11/52 - things that start with H

This is a week late. I am really going to try hard to be better at posting these sooner - and also I am going to try and take and post more pictures of my every day life. Those are kind of more fun than these to me anyway since it is a little more personal.

Back to H week. While Meghan was making cookies, the rest of us tried to find things around her house that started with H. Without further adieu

Hair

Hand off.

Hershey bar

Hair dryer

High heels

Hunter boots.

Houndstooth.

Gosh, she is having a grand ole time making these cookies, isn't she?

3.19.10

Friday night I went to Meghan's. She made the infamous Nieman Marcus cookies while Tom, Eva and I thought of things that started with H to take pictures of. These cookies were SO good! A little more complicated and more steps than the standard Nestle Toll House recipe, but very much worth it I think.

Here's the thing though, I texted Meghan today to get the recipe and when I did not get an immediate response, I decided to just Google it. (gosh, I'm impatient) Apparently there is an urban legend where someone got charged $250 for the recipe instead of $2.50 that she thought it cost, so in revenge she sent out the recipe to everyone on the internet. Snopes said this is completely false....and Nieman Marcus has posted the actual recipe on their website as damage control. Either way, this is still an awesome recipe that I highly recommend! As a note, this made a TON of cookies. It might be a good idea to half the recipe. I also don't remember Meghan putting any nuts in her cookies. I just ate one too and didn't taste or see any in them - so I would say that is optional. Here it is:

2 cups butter

4 cups flour

2 tsp. baking soda

2 cups sugar

5 cups blended oatmeal

24 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips

2 cups brown sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 king size Hershey bar (grated)

4 eggs

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. vanilla

3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)

Measure oatmeal and blend in a blender to a fine powder. Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add chocolate chips, Hershey bar and nuts. Drop onto cookie sheet

Bake at 375 for 8 to 10 minutes, or 10 to 12 minutes for a crisper cookie.

Makes about 10 dozen cookies.

10/52 - things that start with G

This week was kind of a bust. I only got green pictures.

After the Shamrock Shuffle, we went to Brats. We had some green beers, listened to some bagpipers and sat thisclose to Charlie Shortino. Yessss.

9/52 - things that start with F

Five Guys

It is a shame how much I love this place. On this particular visit, the guy calling the numbers was telling stories about the guy who was on the floor cleaning tables over the microphone. At one point we all clapped for him because it was his last day. See, I go back for the camaraderie, not the delicious burgers and fresh cut french fries. Nope not for that at all.

Footprints.

I was in a race against the weather to get this shot! We have had a heat wave here so a lot of the snow has melted, but I actually found a patch of snow to get this shot. I thought that I wouldn't be in the position to able to take pictures of footprints in the snow again this season, but I have been proven wrong. Snow in the forecast for Saturday. fml.

Fajitas!

Let me tell you a sad story. For about 3 years, we were on a streak of going to Chili's about once a week. Judge all you want, but Chili's. is. good. I would rarely switch up my order, always getting the chicken fajita pita. It was a more efficient alternative to the regular fajitas. Instead of getting 4 plates and having to assemble my own dinner, it came already stuffed in a delicious pita. LOVED IT. Unfortch, about a month ago, they redid their menu and TOOK OFF THE CHICKEN FAJITA PITA! Yes. It is the truth. Sadness. On our return trip, we got the regular fajitas. Basically the same, but so not. :(

Fisher.

My nephew. He is about 4 months old now. He has been battling some mean cradle cap...poor kid! Word on the street is that he got some meds and it has cleared up. Yay!

Frontage road.

Flamingo

found at M. Schettl's off 41 between Appleton and Oshkosh

3.14.10

I ran the Shamrock Shuffle with my pal, Gina, on Sunday morning. Jon took it upon himself to take some pictures of the race while we were running. Bless his heart, he had it on shutter priority 1/10 the whole time. It was probably my fault for not switching it before handing it off to him though. Needless to say, most of the shots ended up like the one below. (that's me on the left!) I still think it looks kind of cool...

...and afterward we indulged in a few green beers. (More of that in G week)

3.13.10

Stacy and Jordon are getting married in Jamaica next January! Their family threw an engagement party for them on Saturday to celebrate. It was in Spring Green at the House on the Rock resort/golf course (or something like that). note: my sister and I were OB-SESSED with that place as children. I was a tad disappointed that I couldnt see the house peeking through the trees or something. I gotta get back there someday! I mean, remember the infinity room?? I think I was too scared to go all the way to the edge. This is about Stacy and Jordon though, not the HOTR...We are so happy for them!

3.6.10

Cooper turned 2 on the 4th, so Gina and Todd threw him a Sesame Street bday party. Gina made the adorable cupcakes and her baker friend made the cake. Aren't the cupcakes awesome? They look just like Elmo and Cookie Monster.

Gina and I made these place cards for the kids the night before the party with her Cricut too. Adorable, right? I am sure the toddlers really appreciated our hard work.

Here is the big 2 year old. This kid doesn't stop much and hardly ever poses for pictures or smiles nice, so this picture was sort of a miracle. I can't believe he is already 2!

3.2.10

IDizzy had her baby at about 9am on March 1st. A little girl named Charlotte (but she will go by Charlie). I headed to Milwaukee after work on Tuesday to see her and ooooo, she is precious. She had quite a voice on her for only being 1 day old, but that doesn't matter much when they are so small and cute, does it? I got to hold her for most of the time I was there, so I didn't get any good shots of her. But trust, she is SO cute and I think bears much resemblance to Dizzy.

Here is Andy doing a little multitasking :)

On the photo front, I need to get better at evaluating things before I take pictures. Sometimes I see an oppotunity (like this one) and just get excited and click away...even though the settings were set for a pic I took earlier. In this case, the shutter was open too long and I had to do some damage control in the post processing. Ugh. Like most things in my life, I need to take my time so I don't make mistakes. This happens often when I am cooking. Jon says it is because I don't put any love into it :-/

8/52 - things that start with E

Ear




Eight Ball.



Ella's Deli.

Who has heard of this place? The funny thing is, before I knew Jon and spent some time in Madison, we would always go to this place when we were in town. When I thought of Madison, I thought of Ella's Deli. 6 years later (4 of those living here), I have never gone there. I have never thought of going there either...and I dont think I am alone. I'm not sure people who live here think this place is that cool at all. I don't think it is just my Milwaukeean family who equates Ella's Deli with Madison either. I'm pretty sure most Milwaukeeans think this place is the bomb and makes sure to visit when they make their yearly trip to Madison. Am I wrong and maybe just out of the loop? Like maybe people with kids go there? I don't know many people with kids in this town, so that is a definite possibility. The peeps I know frequent watering holes, not deli/ice cream shops with a carousel in the front. Either way, I visited this place to get my E picture and peeked inside to remember what it was like. I have to admit, it is pretty cool. I'd like to make a point of going back this summer when the carousel is open, the sky is less gray, and maybe at night to see it lit up.