Christmas Pictures

This one's especially for you Julie - we missed you but hope you enjoy these pictures.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Twins?

Who does Claire look like in this picture? I saw a twin of Emma - what do you think?

Address for cards or letters for Julie

Julie Bordua, PCV
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 5796
Accra North, Ghana
West Africa

It seems that Julie has not received some letters and cards sent to her so she thought this old address may be better. They go to the peace corp office in Accra. She absolutely loves letters and pictures. We have to make a real effort to keep them up. She sounds great when I talk to her. I have a trip planned for January 7th. Sheryl Lessard is going with me which will be wonderful. Should be interresting and certainly adventerous.

The hunt for the perfect Christmas Tree

So we decided to switch it up this year and me, Claire, Mere and Dan went to cut down our own Christmas trees today. Here are the lessons learned:

- Go early, otherwise you have to wait forever to drive up a one way muddy road (1 car up for every 2 down!)
- Bring work gloves, because the trees and prickly, and they hurt - dish gloves work well too!
- Two trees won't fit on one car - there was some discussions on this and we ended up taking one car and Dan had to run back after lunch to pick up the 2nd tree
- Make sure to get all of the ice off of the tree BEFORE they net it, because mud and white carpets don't mix well
- The trees will look MUCH bigger in your living room than the did on the field! We knew we were in trouble when we brought the tree in to my apartment and cut the net. It was HUGE!!!!!

Here is what it looks like after Dan chopped a bunch of branches off of the bottom.


Here is Mere and Dan's - it's from Mere's blackberry so it isnt' too clear but you get the idea!


So if you haven't purchased your tree yet, just remember it's going to look way bigger in your house than it did outside. Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Ghana! I am currently staying with my pediatrician's son in Accra and I'm going to the Ambassador's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Its going to be great. My friend Beth even brought a football for us to throw around to feel like its an American Thanksgiving. Anyway, just thought I'd say hello. I hope to talk to you guys today and I hope you all eat until your stuffed and have a nice nap after!

Happy Birthday Elizabeth and Joey!!!!

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday dear Elizabeth and Joooooooooeyyyyyyyyyy!!!
Happy birthday to you!


We hope you both have a GREAT day and we love you both very much!

Happy Birthday Erin!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR ERIN!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Have a great day and an even better weekend celebrating! Welcome to your almost late 20's :-)

Happy Birthday Sr. P!!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday dear Paula

Happy Birthday to you!

We all love you very much and wish you a wonderful day!!

Dancing Baby

There isn't anything else that needs to be said for this......Enjoy.

Kristin

Here's wishing Kristin a very speedy recovery and lots of new clothes :-) ! All went well and this morning she said she felt okay as long as she didn't move too much. Hopefully she will be home soon and recovering in her own bed.

Recipe and more...

Lucky for me, Dan likes to cook as much as I do and he is always scouring for new recipes. Last week he picked out a recipe in Bon Appetit to try and it was delicious!! Not too many ingredients required and really quick and easy to make. Try it out and let me know what you think.

Steak with Mixed Peppercorns and Pomegranate Glaze

1.25 lb top sirloin steak
coarsely ground peppercorn
1.5 tsp chopped rosemary (it calls for fresh, but we used regular)
2.5 tsp olive oil, divided
1 cup pomegranate juice
4 tsp packed golden brown sugar
2.5 tsp balsamic vinegar, divided
4 cups arugula

Sprinkle steak very generously with coarsely ground peppercorn and salt. Sprinkle each side of steak with half of chopped rosemary. Heat 1.5 tsp olive oil in large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add steak; cook to desired doneness, about 5 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer steak to platter. Add pomegranate juice, golden brown sugar, and 2 tsp balsamic vinegar to skillet; boil until reduced to scant 1/4 cup glaze, stirring occasionally about 5 minutes. Season glaze to taste with salt.

Toss arugula with remaining 1 tsp olive oil and remaining .5 tsp balsamic vinegar in medium bowl; season to taste with salt. Divide arugula evenly among plates. Slice steak; divide and arrange alongside arugula. Drizzle glaze generously around steak and serve.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm

On another note...Not sure if anyone has watched the news and saw that Johnson & Johnson will be laying off 7,000 - 8,000 employees by the end of the week. Say a little prayer that this will not directly affect Andrea, but I know she has a looooooong week ahead of her regardless. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed.

Habitat for Humanity

So I lead a team at work to help improve morale and increase team building within IT. I was asked to expand this and include people from other sites in the activities. As part of that, I get to plan Community Service days and we recently finished 2 days with Habitat for Humanity.

The first day it SNOWED all day. It was so cold! But that house was pretty far along and we hung dry wall, moved wood, and prepped the 2nd floor for drywall.

The second day was yesterday - it was so nice out! But because of the location and the recent rain we have had, saying it was a mess doesn't give it justice. The head of the worksite called me on Wednesday and asked to make sure everyone wore boots, the foundation work they had done so far had caved in and there was a lot of mud. I didn't know what to expect but I can tell you that I did NOT expect that much mud. It was crazy!!! After we moved buckets and more buckets and more buckets of mud, and removed 2 people from the mud after they got stuck, we were able to move to some less messy activities and it ended up being a gorgeous day. Here are some pics from yesterday that people have sent me so far...

Before we got started...you can see from behind we didn't have too much space to work with

Check out all that water!!! You can see the water line where it had creeped up to over night...we were able to get all the water out and fix the foundation around it by the time we left - I think everyone slept good last night!

Happy (almost) Halloween

So where will you be tomorrow? Let us know and you may get a visit from a certain Trick or Treat-er and her traveling dance party....(that is your hint - any guesses?) Kristin and I will be taking her all over after her nap so let us know if you'd like us to stop by and we'll see what we can do!


Also - to promote the new J&J estore, they have a deal of $4.99 flat shipping for orders placed by Sunday (Nov 1). The new store can ship directly to you - no need for me to bring it to you anymore. So if you would like to place an order, let me know and I will get you set up.

HAPPY FRIDAY and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Gotta love the internet

So Dan and I couldn't decide (or agree upon) what Claire was going to be for Halloween. I was looking on the internet and found a cute costume that we both liked. I wanted to order it, but I HATE paying for shipping. So I googled One Step Ahead coupon code and found a code for 15% off your order. So I put it in, it worked, and I was happy to save some money, who isn't these days?

Yesterday I ordered a sweatshirt from LL Bean and gave good old Google another shot at coupon codes. Sure enough - a code for free shipping. Happy again!

And of course you know good things come in threes. We have had our eye on Puerto Rico flights for a while now. When I first looked they were $300 each and we didn't buy them. Of course the price kept going up, up, up so I set a fare alert so I would be notified every day the price was under $350 (thank you Kayak!) . I have been getting the E-mails randomly that the tickets were $350 or $330. Yesterday I said to Dan that we should just buy them at $330 and stop worrying about it. We didn't buy them last night and guess what was in my inbox this morning? The price dropped to $300. Dan, Andrea, Claire and I are now proud owners of 3 tickets to Puerto Rico (Claire is still a free lap child). And to make it even better, we got bumped last year and Andrea still had a $300 voucher left, so she is essentially flying for free.

This is why I love the internet :-)

You should check this out...

So Miss Claire is learning new stuff every day. Over the weekend, Peter and Peggy came to babysit for Claire on Saturday while Mere and Dan had a date day and I had a friend visiting from college. Saturday morning we were playing and learned Claire has a new word - PIPERE!!! And Papa so Grandpa Pete and Grandpa Don should be very excited! She's still working on Nana and is a much bigger fan of saying Dada instead of Mama but check out the video...

http://snider.aboutmybaby.com/video/115917

HELP BAIL ME OUT OF JAIL, AND HELP ME RAISE MONEY FOR MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY!!!

Hi Everyone:

 

As many of you already know, I am participating in the Muscular Dystrophy Association's Lock-up. They are sending the police to pick me up at work tomorrow, where I will proceed to a restaurant, get a mug shot taken and get one phone call... hopefully to raise more bail money.

 

I have sent some of you emails, and am greatly appreciative to those who have so generously responded. I have raised over $300 thus far, but would love to raise enough money to send one child with Muscular Dystrophy to the MDA Camp,  which costs approximately $800. With your help, we can do this!!!

 

If you are willing to help not only bail me out of jail, but much more importantly, help a child with MD. The money raised helps MDA provide medical equipment, clinical visits, support groups, and so much more to those in need. 

 

Here's the link, I hope you can help me help those with MD. 

https://www.joinmda.org/MyLockup/MyHomepage/tabid/104675/Participant/ncaronbeca/Default.aspx

 

 

                     Thanks!

                        Nicole

Friday Morning Chuckle

I found these boots at Kohls and had to buy them. And of course I had to put them on Claire after her bath (with nothing but a diaper) and take lots of pictures. Is that what parents are for?

OK, admit it....you laughed, I sure did.....

Birthdays of the Week

Happy Birthday Paul, Andrea and Julie

Did you know that Paul and Andrea were born about 18 hours apart and were in the newborn nursery together?

Of course they were the smartest and cutest babies there!

Julie was the biggest in her nursery weighing in at 9lbs 4 oz and very cute!

We hope you all have a wonderful year.

Today is Andrea's actual birthday. Happy Birthday to you!!!

Happy Birthday Paul Andrea and Julie

From the daycare front...

All of these pictures are taken from our daycares site, but I thought you might enjoy them...

This is one of Claires FAVORITE ladies at daycare. She has been with Claire from the very beginning and Claires transition to the toddler room was made much easier when Miss Evelyn got swithced to that room as well.
Lunch time! I am shocked that she doesn't throw the plate on the floor. How do they keep that many kids in check at the same time?
The little cuties
Our precious child, Claire the Bully
I hope everyone had a great week and enjoyed the weekend!