Winter Wonderland

Ok, not really because it is beyond hot here in Miami but "Winter Wonderland" is my favorite holiday song and we are definitely in the holiday spirit around here. We bought our Christmas tree last week and Cati had so much fun helping us pick it out. How tiny does she look in this picture?

Minus the outside, our house is all decorated. Cati has been surprisingly good with everything and doesn't really touch or play with any of the decorations. She loves to turn on the Christmas tree lights so our tree is lit as long as she is home. She has also become quite obsessed with our snowman. This snowman is out year-round but she seems to have only realized it. The day we put up the tree, she spent the entire time dancing with and carrying the snowman around the house. The snowman has gotten more action in the past two weeks than he has gotten in the entire year we have owned him.

This past weekend we took Cati to see Santa and the little booger freaked out on us. She was completely fine the entire time we were there and would even exclaim "Santa!" but the minute it was our turn in line, she had a meltdown. She refused to go near Santa. We ended up doing a family picture and, even with Alex holding her, she was still freaking out. She liked Santa just enough for him to give her a candy cane and then she was out of there.

I suckered one of my good friends into coming over and taking a picture of us for the holiday card. With Alex's schedule being so hectic I knew it would be almost impossible to set up a professional portrait session. We ended up taking a picture in front of our tree and I love the way it came out. I won't share the card just yet since I only put them in the mail yesterday but I will share the family picture I used and two other pictures I just love.

I can't believe Christmas is next weekend! I'm looking forward to celebrating it with Cati and I am super duper thankful Alex managed to get the weekend off. I know this isn't something I can expect every year so I'm thankful that he'll have it off in a year where Cati actually has some understanding of the holiday.

A Little Organization

Yesterday I wrote about how Cati has made a mark in every room of our house and how that mark is part of what makes me feel like we have a messy house. Obviously, not everything is messy and there is organization. It's just that having to clean up the same mess multiple times a day, day after day wears on me. While things may be mostly messy there are definitely areas that are never messy and since my post yesterday was about Cati, today's will also be about Cati. And her wonderfully organized closet and dresser space. She does share a closet with Alex but she has a whole full-size dresser to herself.
Everything is as color-coded as possible and this organization of her things is my moment of sanity in a life filled with drop-pick up-repeat.

Home Improvement

I apologize for the lack of food posts lately. Alex is on vacation this week and, although we are here in Miami, I feel like we are vacationing outside of the city. Our days are full and I am beyond exhausted by the end of the day. We are definitely getting a lot done around here and spending some much needed family time together. One thing I can always count on when Alex has time off is getting things done around the house that make the house feel more homey. Every time we put something up on the walls I feel like the house is becoming more and more alive and like it is reflecting us more. One of the things we did was put up our mirror and silhouette prints. Alex had been dying to get a sunburst-style mirror and I had been dying to get silhouette prints of all of us. We both got what we wanted over Christmas and the mirror and prints went up in our bedroom over our dresser. I love the way it looks. Here are the prints from Etsy seller Personal Touches (I highly recommended working with Vanessa):

Here is our new and improved wall with space left for the future child's silhouette print. For now, I am going to get a print of Perla done to fill in the wall under Cati's silhouette:

One thing we both realized is that while we love the color of our room (it's a light green), the color is just right for making everything else in the room look green. You can see what I mean when you look at the prints above and then when you look at the prints on the wall; the prints have gone from cream to green. Still looks cool though.

Cookies for the New Year

Gosh, I feel so behind. I have spent the past few days just trying to catch up with my reader and I'm not even close to having everything read. I feel so out of the blogging loop. The past few days have been particularly hard because Perla has been sick and I'm feeling more and more uncomfortable each day. I can't believe tomorrow marks the beginning of the year our daughter will be born. I can't believe we have been in Miami for over 6 months now. We started the year living in Boston and are ending it living in Miami. It's crazy and amazing how quickly and drastically things can change. I'm excited to see what 2010 has in store for us.

Christmas was only last week and it's already a blur. We had a lot of fun dressing the house up this year. It was great to have a real tree to put gifts under and a mantle to put up some of our favorite holiday pieces.
I also made cookies. These are cookies Santa would definitely approve of because they are like Christmas in a bite. Perfect with a glass of milk, these cookies are chocolaty with just the right amount of peppermint flavoring. My cookies puffed up instead of thinning out, but no one complained about that :)
Chocolate Peppermint Crunch Cookies
Source: Two Peas and Their Pod (here)

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup canola oil
4 ounces 99% unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
5 candy canes-crushed up

1. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the oil, chocolate and granulated sugar and blend on medium speed. With the mixer running, add the eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. There may be some small clumps of sugar in the batter at this point. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed, stopping once to scrape down the sides. Mix until just incorporated, 2 to 3 minutes. The dough will be sticky.

3. Gather the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.

4. Position the racks in the lower and upper thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with Silpats or parchment paper.

5. Pour the crushed candy canes onto a plate or into a shallow bowl. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and roll each ball into the candy cane pieces, so that all sides are covered. Place 2 inches apart on the prepared sheets.

6. Bake for 10 minutes for soft, chewy cookies, or 12 minutes for crisp cookies, rotating the pans halfway through baking. The cookies do set up, so if you want them soft, take them out at 10 minutes. Let cool completely on cooling racks. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for 3 to 4 days.

I hope everyone had a great holiday season! 2010 is hours away (and in some places it's already 2010!) so I hope everyone is reflecting on 2009 and celebrating the end of the decade. Either way, here's to many great things in 2010!

So Proud of Myself!

I am beaming right now. I did something and I am extremely proud of myself. When we lived in Boston we purchased a dresser. When we found out we were moving to Miami, this dresser became a sore spot. Alex wanted to sell all our furniture and leave Boston with nothing but our clothes. I, on the other hand, wanted to leave Boston with our furniture. I managed to convince him and the dresser was brought down to Miami. As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I became fixated on the dresser. I decided it would go in the nursery. But before that, it needed a face lift. My plan is to have all the furniture in the nursery white and the dresser was not white. I looked up how to refinish the dresser and, because it seemed easy enough, I did it myself. I spent the day sanding, priming, and painting. The end product is gorgeous and exactly what I wanted for the room. Every time I look at the dresser I can't believe I was able to revive and remodel it.

The best before picture I could find.

Sanded down.

Primed.

All painted and done! I love it! Now I just need to find some great looking knobs.

It's Official!

I am a homeowner and I made my first mortgage payment. Yipppeee! We finally moved into our house 3 weeks ago-a whopping 6 weeks after closing-and I couldn't be happier. There were quite a few bumps along the way and, while it could have been worse, I am still stunned that it took us 6 weeks to move in when we didn't do any huge renovations. We did a lot of little things that helped transform the space into a space that reflects us. The house is slowly coming together and we still have a long road ahead of us but at least now I have privacy, space, and a kitchen at my disposal. Buying a house is exhausting and moving is even more exhausting, but it is so worth it. I love my house more and more each day and I can't wait to see what else we do with the space. Here are a few before and after pictures:

Family room before:
Family room after:
Master before:
Master after:
Bathroom before:
Bathroom after:

Some Comic Relief

The last week has been very stressful in the home department. I have learned that I need to listen to Alex more when he says things like, "don't mix family and business." Unfortunately, things didn't go quite as planned and people have been hurt. That's another thing I've learned, when you own a house nothing goes as planned. The smallest repairs end up being the biggest repairs and things you thought didn't need attention end up needing attention. It's all a roller coaster of emotions because you go from being severely disappointed to extremely happy. I was on the disappointed end of the emotion spectrum when I went to the house on Friday, but I left the house on the happy end. Friday was the first day I actually felt like I did something in the house. I figured Perla's presence in the house would lift our spirits so I took her to the house so she could get a feel for it. She definitely got a feel for the house and even marked her territory. No, I don't mean she peed in the house, I mean she walked on wet paint and left her paw prints all over the second bedroom.

A Housing Update

Things are finally moving along with our house. It's our home and all our stuff is there, yet we aren't living there. It's the oddest feeling ever...to own a house and be spending money on it but to not be living in it and enjoying it. We are literally bleeding money and the house consumes most of our free time. Actually, it consumes Alex's free time since most of what's going on in the house can't be done by me. I'm just there to smile when he gets frustrated. We saw progress for the first time weekend. The walls are getting patched up, the bathroom is usable, and our front yard has been completely transformed. It went from being a dirt covered jungle to tropical lushness. I'm still holding on to my hopes of living in the house by July 1st.

Before:

After:

Coming Clean

I cannot believe my last post was LAST month. May 31st to be exact. I am seriously slacking. I have a good excuse too...I promise! Moving from Boston to Miami was a good excuse, but the one I have for you now is even better. I mentioned having a big secret in one of my posts and now I can tell everyone what it is. I have been keeping my mouth shut about this secret since the beginning of April and that's all because I was afraid of my dream not becoming a reality. But now that everything is said and done and that our collective debt has officially increased, I can share.

Alex and I bought a house! We are homeowners!

Woo hoo! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would own a house at my age. The house is gorgeous and exactly what we wanted. The whole home buying process was grueling and my fingers are still hurting from all the crossing I did. Prices on homes may be down in Miami, but the desire for them is not. There were 4 other offers when we submitted ours and there was a back up offer just in case our offer fell through. I was on pins and needles the whole time. Our closing date was pushed back a few days, but nothing significant. We closed yesterday and I couldn't be happier. The house needs a little work and a lot of love and I am so excited about being the one that gets to love the house and really make it our own. This is one of the reasons why I don't have kitchen access and why I haven't been able to post as much. Buying a house is so emotionally involving! I wouldn't have it any other way though. Life couldn't be better. I need to take some better pictures, but for now, here's me sitting on the swing of MY HOUSE(!!!!):