Halloween 2012

Friday - Jackers wore a pink bandana at the daycare for breast cancer awareness. What a sweetie!

Friday evening - I dressed up as Rosie the Riveter for a friend's Halloween party. Jackaroo liked it. We dropped him off at my parents' house and headed over to D's party.

We can do it!

At grandparents' house

A & S

D & T

Happy Halloween everyone!

A wedding and a 5k road race

On Saturday my dashing husband and I attended the beautiful wedding of my gal pal from graduate school. Everything was so classy and marvelous. My friend R looked stunning. Plus, I got to enjoy the company of a couple of my other two friends from the MBA program and their husbands. It was all lovely: the music, the ambiance, the food...
 I'm so happy for my friend.

On Sunday morning, I met with my mom and sisters at the Des Moines Marathon where we ran/walked the 5k race with some of our coworkers and thousands of other people. We are going to make it an annual tradition with the goal of improving our time each year. It was such a great event.

Ready to roll

Jackers was happy for his mama

Maybe next year he can join us

Overall, a fun-filled weekend. Wish I had one more day to recuperate.

A boy and his puppy

So last night our "puppy" decided to snuggle up to our baby boy and sit in his lap. Jackers was delighted. He smiles every time Wally makes an appearance, and bursts out in happy baby laughs whenever Wally does something funny... which seems to be everything Wally does. They definitely have started a bond.

Jack "holding" Wally

Snuggles

My happy little boy

My heart bursts at the seams from all the love I feel for this little guy

I am so grateful for these moments. Jack is growing so fast and I want to preserve every giggle, smile, and baby noise he makes. Speaking of which... here is a video capturing his fit of screams and "mama". I adore this baby.

Peppers

When I was a little girl, I spent many misty, breezy, early spring mornings in the garden with my beloved grandmother. We would fetch some water from the nearby brook and water the pepper plant seedlings, the earth that we poured onto turning a deeper shade of brown. After harvesting the fruit of our labor later that summer, my grandma would prepare a simple but flavorful dish of peppers. The kitchen would fill with aromatic smells and I would devour the rich flavor of these peppers.

My grandmother has passed away not long ago, the brook has dried out over the years, and the plot of land that bore these peppers has been overtaken by wildflowers by now. But the scent of this vegetable still takes me back to that place and time when life was simple and wonderful. All I have left is a memory of unconditional love, a warm, cozy home, and an idyllic childhood.

My father has inherited my grandparents' green thumb. He has a lovely garden in his back yard and often he and my mom pack some vegetables from the garden into brown paper bags to take home on my visits. This time, it was the peppers. Tonight I decided to prepare the dish that my grandmother made and my mom still makes, with minor modifications.

The peppers are cut, generously salted and sauteed in oil until they are very tender. At that point, heavy whipping cream is added (but in my case, I used a slightly healthier plain Greek yogurt) and left to soak up all the peppery juices. It is so simple, cheap, but means so much to me.

Another knitted hat

I just finished knitting another hat for Jackers. He got a beautiful grey wool coat with black clasps from his grandparents and he needed a hat to go with it. After having to re-knit the hat to make it bigger, it is finally done. I like how it turned out. Of course we had to have a photo-shoot this morning.

Warm cashmere blend yarn hat with earflaps

Hello world!

Yummy shoe... and Wallace photobombing

Mama's handsome little boy

Okay - enough pictures, mama

Jackers at the daycare

My mom and I visited Jackers at his daycare today around lunch time. The daycare he attends is right next to our workplace, which is so convenient. Here he is, at 7 months, standing with support of a bench with his buddy. Mama is so proud.

They are so cute. The other boy is also a Jack, and only 3 weeks older. Sweet baby boys.

Zoo visit

It's been a while since my last post. Not much has been going on, but I do have to post about a Sunday visit to the zoo with our friends. Jack and his little friend got along so well. It was fun for everyone involved.

Jack and Lilly holding hands

Watching otters together

He was mesmerized by the floaty animals

Love those little ears sticking out :)

Lilly was so caring - what a great buddy

Lilly is a beautiful little girl

Sweetness overload

Seeing a giraffe for the first time

It was such a great afternoon with very dear friends. Definitely something we'll repeat.