ChriStMaS* 2010

We had a really nice holiday. All of V's family came over to our house.. lots of presents, food, games and fun. Vito cooked an amazing dinner, it was nice spending a lot of time with his family.

I baked a lot on Christmas eve.. cookies, breads and two cheesecakes. I probably won't be doing any baking for awhile. I got my fix.

V went out of town on a "man trip" with his brother and Ali for a few days so things have been quiet around the house. While he's off hiking miles in the snow I've been snuggled up on the couch getting in some serious down time. I'm really going to enjoy this last week off work.
Aside from having a girlfriend over for dinner, today I have absolutely nothing planned... I can't remember the last time I've had a day like this. Super nice.

Hope you had a great holiday. xo

MovinG.. and other adventures..

We've moved! .A few weeks ago actually, to a great home Northeast Parkhill.. super close to Stapleton. We are really excited! It's been fun getting settled and unpacking boxes. I only have a couple more to unpack and then I'll post some more pics. Unpacking Christmas decorations at the same time has been a bit time consuming but really fun. We've been spending our week nights and weekends exploring our fun new neighborhood restaurants. We had a delish B-fast this weekend and a fun dinner with friends on Saturday night.And... the baby's a comin'... only 8 weeks to go! The ladies at work threw me a baby shower last week. It was actually for 3 of us! Lots of pregnant ladies in my school this year. 5 of us! I was obviously super excited about the cake.Jenn, Rachel and I are all due within days of each other. I got soooo many super great gifts from people, it was really really nice.

This is normally such a busy time of year but this year seems to be super CRAZY! But this is my last week of school and then I've got two weeks off for the holiday break. I'm really looking forward to some down time with friends and family. Hope you're having a lovely December. xo

QuiEt AfteRnOOn with friends...

Last Saturday the weather was amazing (considering it's almost mid November,) it was in the 70's! We met some friends for some early evening apps and it was such a strange feeling to sit in front of open patio doors and not be freezing cold! I'm thinking it was probably the last warm evening we're going to be experiencing for quite some time. It snowed two inches last night. Goodbye Fall...

Time for a new season!

IdaHo in the FaLL

We took a trip up to Idaho to see my family over my Fall break a couple of weeks ago and it was super restful. The landscape was so pretty and it was really nice to get out of Denver for a week.

My parents just finished building a guest cabin that is actually just a super mini version of the cabin that they live in. We were their first "guests" and we fell in LOVE. It was really cozy, perfect for the two of us... and Cassius of course.Every morning we would wake up, build a fire, sip our coffee and stare out the windows at the cool Fall fog.. just typing this makes me wish I was still there. In the past we've stayed in my parents cabin, which is nice, but really cramped. It was so great having our own tiny space to hang out in.We built tons of fires, drank plenty of warm beverages, went for LONG walks and got TONS of sleep.Cassius was in heaven. We also celebrated Thanksgiving with my family while we were up there so it was a lovely week full of turkey and pie. I spent some fun time with my mom and her friends... listening to my mom and her friends is so funny. They all get together a few times a week for lunch or coffee and "cluck away..." as I like to call it, chattering up a storm. It's really funny and cute and makes me wish I lived closer to join them more often.We also went to the ONLY really great restaurant in town with my fam the night before we left... super yummy.We did manage to peel ourselves away from the fire a few times to do a little EXPLORING! One of our favorite things to do while we are up there is find old abandoned properties waaaaaay up in the middle of nowhere and poke around. We found some dandies this time...
This place was so freaking creepy.
Whoever lived here with their family should be on the show 'Hoarders.' Piles and piles of stuff everywhere. We always leave asking ourselves so many questions... "who were these people?" "where are they now?" "Why is their stuff EVERYWHERE!?" "Why would someone live up here??" No running water, no electricity, no neighbors.. just really really long winters. Creepy.

Spoooooky to visit this place a few days before Halloween. Eeek!

It was a really great visit especially knowing that I won't be up again until summer... wish I could visit every season.

It was a great break. xo

SmeLLs like FaLL*

Fall is my favorite season. I love the changing leaves, cool mornings and the mess that the leaves make all over the streets. However, we've been having crazy hot weather the last couple of weeks so it doesn't feel like fall at all! It just starting to look like it. We spent the weekend at a Wine festival in Palisade with some friends and it was a really great way to wrap up the summer.

At the beginning of summer Vito bought a boat and we've been taking it out almost weekly.. it's the coolest boat ever! Super vintage and retro and we love it. V has had a fun time working on it and I've really enjoyed having little picnics on the water. We've probably only got a few more weeks of warm weather to enjoy until we wrap it up for the winter.

My parents came into town for a week at the beginning of the month and we had a really nice time with them. Dinners outside, a fun Rockies game and their help with some projects around the house. It was nice. They also came with us to our ultrasound while they were here... we're having a BOY! We're excited. I'm 20 weeks pregnant this week and can't believe I'm already half way through this... it's going really fast. My belly feels like it's growing by the day, it's such a strange feeling. This picture was from a couple of weeks ago.. This week my book says that the baby is 6 inches long (from head to rump) and weighs 10 oz.
Thanks for reading!
xo