Happy New Year!

2010 here we come!

I can’t believe how fast the 2009 has flown by! It’s been a busy, fun, exciting year:
We bought our first house
Carey and Jason got married
Jack moved to a big boy bed
We danced...
Took on Chicago…
Jim donned a mustache for a whole week…
Met a special train…
Laughed a lot…
Loved a lot…

And Jack...well Jack was the best part of any of it. In one year, he has gone from a baby to a toddler, and I’m so, so proud of him. He’s my ABC-singing, slipper-wearing, wet-kisses-giving, independant, comedian-to-be!

So 2009 is over...which means that we have a whole new year to start making new memories! I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the future!

Are you there world?

...it's me, Jen!

Well helllooooo! It’s been a whole 20 days since I last updated my blog! Someone has been slacking! (PS: That someone is me!). It’s been so busy the past few weeks, that when I do have a spare minute, I’d rather sit in front of the TV and watch Jersey Shore intellectual public programming, than update the blog, so I apologize!

Like I said, it’s been busy: someone very special turned 2, and oh yeah, Christmas came and went!

So prepare for a picture-heavy post in an attempt to rewind and playback the highlights of the past few weeks!

Here's Jack blowing out the candles on Christmas day.


And here he is showing off the outfit that Poppy bought him for Christmas Eve mass...please disregard the brown shoes with the black pants! Mom's mistake!

He doesn't look quite so happy with Daddy, but he loved dressing up all fancy!

And for Jack's birthday, we had a fire truck party...complete with a (pinkish) fire truck cake! (Seriously, how do you make red icing, because I used a TON of food coloring and it still came out pink!)

Jack and CC loved the cake! Oh and speaking of CC, it's her birthday! Happy birthday to the bestest aunt ever! Jack loves you soooo much, Care! It's just too bad you're so old! ;)

Icing kisses!

And the best, smartest, funniest, loving-est 2 year old I know. I'm beaming proud of the little man Jack is becoming. Everyday he amazes me...my Fireman Jack!

SLIDE!

Here's jsut a few quick ones I snapped from our adventure to The Magic House! Oh what fun we had...can't you tell?

The perfect shot!

Oh my little fickle, funny boy! When the camera is safely hidden, he does the cutest things, makes the sweetest looks! But as soon as I turn the camera on him, out comes the goofball in him! Luckily, I am persistant and manage to take a bazillion pictures just to capture the one perfect shot…although, the goofball ones aren't too shabby themselves!

the.perfect.shot.

just like Dada!

Just two men, shaving...

And being goofy...

I am Thankful...

Happy Thanksgiving 2009.

Caramel Apple FAIL!

I thought it was brave of my good friend Laura to blog about her foodie fail: managing to mess up Macaroni and cheese! But then, she totally redeemed herself and made an amazing looking turkey.

So, I thought I would tough it out, and attempt to make Caramel Apples for Jack’s teachers using Hope Studio’s guidelines. She is either a food witch or way to crafty, because mine look like the ugly step-children of hers!

My fails:

#1: Each caramel was individually wrapped and a pain in the arse to unwrap! Plus, I had 6 big apples that required 2 bags of caramels. Really?!?
#2: I managed to burn off a few layers of skin whilst “testing the temperature” of the caramel…good to know: IT’S HOT!
#3: I am not a pretty dipper! Apparently, it’s like an art form or something!
#4: I didn’t grease my wax paper well enough, and that damn caramel is sticky! (Refer to #2 in which the caramel successfully removed layers of my skin!)
#5: My white chocolate didn’t melt well. I managed to burn the first batch, and the second batch was not as smooth as my chocolate, which made it look all jabberwocky! UGH!

Can I get an “E” for effort?!?! Hopefully, my Thanksgiving cooking will be more successful: sweet potatoes, the best 7 layer salad ever (seriously, this is like all I eat on Thanksgiving!), and a secret dessert that I’m not telling my mom and sister about so I’ll talk about it more next week! ;)

Gobble, gobble, gobble!

Our Saturday...

Our Saturday was full! Full like a bag of wet leaves. An appropriate analogy seeing as the better part of our Saturday consisted of blowing, raking, funneling, stuffing, bagging, dragging, hauling, all of the leaves from our yard.

Here's Jim looking misleadingly happy...actually, scratch that...he probably was happy because it was the last bag!

Luckily, it was an awesome day outside…and I always complain that Jim and I never spend any quality time together…well, we got it. :)

35, count 'em...THIRTY-FIVE bags of leaves!

And I felt it necessary to demonstrate what a dirty job this was. My hands were (and possibly still are) stained orange, along with my shirt, and the look was complete with dirt under the fingernails. (I'm sure Carey will think it's gross that I showed this, but whatever, Care!)


Oh, and our biggest tree, has barely begun to drop leaves, so we will have a bunch more to come. (Check back for the sequel!)

jack and elmo

Wish I was here...

Christmas Photo Shoot...

I can't believe that Christmas is going to be here before we know it! I'm trying to get things done ahead of time to avoid stress, which includes our family Christmas cards!

So this weekend we had an appointment at the Picture People, and the result...a complete FAIL! Jack cried the entire time we were there, so needless-to-say, we did not take family pictures!

But if I'm looking for an upside, it's that we got to have a photo-shoot day at home, and Jack loved every minute of it. He's my handsome little model who loves hims chocolate milk and Big Bird!