Sledding with Friends

A friend of ours invited us to go sledding with them Monday morning in Central Park, right after a nice snow fall. It was Isabella's first time sledding and playing in good snow. (We've played in the snow right outside the apartment building, but really, that snow is pretty gross.) She, okay, we all, had SO MUCH FUN! She almost fell asleep on the short bus ride home.

Perfection

Central Park early morning on MLK day.

Pancakes for Dinner

Brian had to work late, late, late tonight. It's 10:30pm and he just called saying he's on his way home. Isabella requested pancakes for dinner. And, hey, why not?! A little applesauce and bananas makes it healthy, right? See below for my favorite pancake recipe.


Fluffy Pancakes
via allrecipes.com

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup shortening, melted

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Combine the egg, milk and shortening; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
2. Pour batter by 1/4 cupful onto a greased hot griddle. Turn when bubbles form on top of pancakes; cook until the second side is golden brown.

And, of course, the silly animal faces that come with a pancake dinner:

Monkey

Fish

Winter Survival Techniques

So far this winter has been the most cold and bitter out of our four winters we've lived in New York City. I definitely like to hibernate during the winter and enjoy trying to find creative ways to keep busy and happy in our warm, cozy apartment. Here are some of our favorites:

Hide and seek. She's getting a little too good lately.

Arts and crafts. It's really fun now that she stays focused for a while.

Sitting on the windowsill watching the snow fall.

Having friends over. And giving them the Heimlich...I mean, hugs.

Making cookies.

Riding the "cooter" in the hallways.

We also read a lot of books, snuggled on the couch or in our cozy bed.

Olivia's Blessing

Angela and Jon's sweet baby, Olivia, was blessed in Connecticut while we were visiting. I got to play photographer and practice a ton with my Nikon. All the models were so patient and fun to photograph. I snapped 300+ photos of the event and had a hard time picking my favorites.

More Christmas Photos

Cousin Devon

Cousin Roman

Cousin Sabrina

Aunt Heather

Grandma Carini, aka Mimi

Shepherds

Favorite Christmas Photos

This girl loves her gum!

Jumping into daddy's arms.

Taking a break from unwrapping gifts and dancing!

Sad face.

Happy face.

Sweet, kissable face.

Sharing.

Christmas LIGHTS!!!

We got a car for a couple hours last week and went down to Dyker Heights in Brooklyn to see the amazing Christmas lights display. It's one of those neighborhoods where every tries to outdo the others in their fancy, crazy, amazing show of lights. We played Christmas tunes on the radio and drove slowly around the neighborhood for about an hour. I've never seen lights like these before! Here are only a few:

This photo doesn't do this house justice.
The home is huge and the Santa and toy soldiers are massive towers!