Happy New Years (9 days late)

We celebrated the new year in style, well, at least, in my style. New Year's eve we spent at a friend's house. We made it all the way until 8:30 pm before Aubrey's company was no longer so welcome. At least she got to show off her snazzy shoes and we had some time to spend with good friends.Over the weekend we went to eat at a local Italian restaurant called Piccolo Forno. If you know anything about Pittsburgh, you know that it has a gazillion pizza/Italian restaurants to choose from. If you know anything about me, you know I like to go to the local places and not chains. So this was right up my ally. It was inexpensive and authentic (Since my ZERO trips to Italy make me such an expert, but I did read Eat, Pray, Love). We only got to enjoy the atmosphere there for 20 minutes or so before giving up on struggling with Aubrey and eating our food in the car while she watched, you guessed it, Mickey Mouse.

Can you tell they're related? :)
Afterwards we went to Hartwood Acres for the Celebration of Lights. You never get out of your car, so it's a good activity to do with kids in the cold weather. And we only had to wait in a line of cars for an hour to get in!And last but not least, we went to Phipps Conservatory, since it was the last weekend for their holiday displays. I couldn't pick just one picture, so here's 6.

And finally, for my new year's resolution. So here it is. I want to be better. A bit broad and vague right? Specifically I want to be a better mom (i.e. less mickey mouse and cheetos for Aubrey), eat healthier (less cheetos for me too, darn it), be a better wife (sometimes cook dinner for Zach, rub his feet in spite of the appearance of his toenails), and be better spiritually (maybe hide my scriptures inside my US magazine instead of my US magazine inside my scriptures). Well there you have it! This goal will be harder then all of my last year ones combined, but, more rewarding and definitely more needed.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas with my side of the family always consists of lots of family time and lots of food. There must be some genetic trait we share that makes us incapable of exercising willpower around food. For example, my sister made a pie that requires 2 hours to chill before serving. Did the pie even make it into the fridge to chill? No, not once in the 3 times the pie was attempted. We polished it off still warm and oozy in about 30 minutes every time. Other then eating we did get several 1-hour massages (for $15 mind you at local massage school) and did lots of shopping.

Have you ever seen a barn like this? Rock City is a local scenic attraction where I'm from. At one time there were over 900 barns painted to advertise this atttraction from Michigan to Texas and in between. The barns themselves are an icon, at least in the south. However, I had never actually been to Rock City, so we made it a priority this trip. It's funny how the locals in an area usually haven't seen what others travel from far away to see.

I'm loving my circa 1970s outfit. I figured wrong that the south would be warm still and had to borrow my mom's college cold weather gear.

Me and my sister and her daughter

After waiting 20 some odd years to go to this tourist attraction, I wasn't sure what to expect. I certainly wasn't expecting these friendly faces. Is this what nightmares are made of or what? Notice Gretle and the pig thief have been dismembered and Goldilocks is in need of an exorcism. Rock City had a whole cave full of the twisted fairy tales. Kinda weird huh?

My sister sneakily caught these pictures of me in some of my finer parenting moments. Me asleep, Aubrey watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on her dvd player.

But I redeemed myself here right? Cuddling my sick little girl. All of the kiddos had a really rough time and freely passed around their illnesses. Even though Aubrey looks so beat here, I was so happy in this moment to actually have a moment to hold her, she usually doesn't allow that.

Everyone, meet Adam, my nephew. He is 4 months old, but he and Aubrey wear the same size clothing and weigh the same. Here he's modeling Aubrey's pajamas. Instead of being complimented that he liked her style, she attacked him.

The relevance of this picture? None, I just love her little outfit here.

I'm very glad we got to celebrate Christmas with my family. Another highlight was that we got to talk to my brother, who is currently serving a mission in California. Stay tuned for another creatively titled post called "Happy New Year".

baby pics

I gave another go at taking baby pictures. I've decided that just as much as I need help with my photography skills, I need to take a class or something on how to work with infants. Despite having a kid of my own, I'm seriously clueless! I'm not sure how to get them into all the cutesy little positions I see on real photographers sites without making the baby seriously ticked off. I'll be honest, I'm a bit terrified of those itty bitty babies.