Movie Reviews!

So, I NEVER get to go to the movies and I took full advantage of getting to see a few over the holidays.  While at my parents for Christmas we have a tradition of going to the movies on Christmas Eve.  This year me, Dylan and my Dad went to see The Fighter.
The Fighter
The Fighter is a true story about a boxer from Massachusetts who's brother is a crack addict but also his trainer.  It stars Mark Walburg, Christian Bale and Amy Adams.  It was really good!!  Now, keep in mind you will be hearing the F-word ALOT but the acting is so great.  Watching Mark Walburg train made me seriously want to get back in shape.  Amy Adams is such a tough chick and her accent was awesome.  If you enjoy boxing I would recommend the movie.
Black Swan
I was so happy to get to see Black Swan yesterday.  We were sent home from work at 1pm so Dylan and I raced to see the 1:55pm showing while Isaac was still at school.  Black Swan is beautiful!  Natalie Portman was amazing.  Natalie Portman plays a disciplined ballerina that wants to earn the role of Swan Queen in Swan Lake.  Her relationship with her mother and with the director are so twisted that it's good.  I jumped a few times and was thrilled by the beautiful music.  There are a few sex scenes so don't say I didn't warn you.
Hopefully you'll get to go to the movies since there are so many good ones out right now.

Christmas Vacation!

We had an awesome time visiting my parents in Lancaster, PA.  We did so many fun things that it felt like we were only there for 2 days.  Since so many different things happen I'll try and share our time together day by day.
Wednesday - We flew from San Antonio, TX through Atlanta finally landing in Baltimore, MD.  We didn't get to my parents house until around 1 am.  It was a long day.
Thursday - We hit the ground running by going to one of my childhood favorite places.  The Hands On House!  Back in the days, this was literally a house where a kid can be a kid.  Each room has a theme and fun things to play and learn with.  Now it's a perfect size kid museum with one "room" leading into another.  The whole time kids are learning too!  Here is Isaac loving every minute of it.

Isaac putting cars together and racing them down a track

Isaac with Grandpa in the snowball cave

Fishing with Grandma

Building block towers and knocking them down!

In the machine area, he was outfitted with an apron and safety goggles.  The goggles didn't last long.

Hitting the assembly line

Ok, I could post probably 30 more pictures but I'll stop for now. :)

Thursday - Christmas Eve.  We went as a family to the Central Market.  Here, many locals, bring homemade goods to sell.  I stocked up on some Whoopie Pies.  Isaac had fun people watching and listening to some musicians play Christmas music.

Friday - Christmas!!!  We had fun enjoying our last year not having to open presents at the crack of dawn.  Around 10 am we hit the presents.  It was so fun to watch Isaac tear into them.

Wearing his adorable Grinch PJ's I got from Zuilily

Opening his stocking with Daddy

We then had an amazing lunch with everyone.

Sunday - We had a great time at church and spent the rest of the day relaxing.  It also started snowing!!  There ended up not being enough snow to sled and it was also way too windy for Isaac.

Monday - We had a great time eating lunch with everyone at the local Mexican restaurant.  Actually it's like the only one there which was a big change from Austin.

Tuesday - We woke up at 3am, headed to the airport and back to Austin.

We are definitely looking forward to the next time we can come back and visit!

Babies are like fruitcakes...

I saw this in my Parenting magazine this month and I thought it was too cute not to share.
Babies are like fruitcakes..
1. The minute they enter the room, they start getting passed around from person to person. 
2. They're incredibly sweet-- and consider yourself warned, also can be slightly sticky. 
3. Eighteen years later, they're often still found just sitting around your house. 
4. Everyone compliments everybody elses but secretly thinks they made the best one. 

- Deborah Skolnik

Celebrating Christmas - Cyber style

Today was really fun!  We opened Christmas presents with Dylan's family over Skype.  Seriously, I don't know what I would do without Skype!  Isaac received an awesome Leap Frog Dog, Scout.  We programmed it so it says, "I love you Isaac".  He also got an alphabet Elmo from Granny Lola and a super soft pillow pet from Aunt Gina and Uncle Wade.  He just loved ripping the paper and helped Dylan and I open ours.

I was super excited about my presents.  I got an adorable, monogrammed bag from Gina and Wade from thirtyonegifts.com, some great slippers and a wonderful peppermint candle.  I also got the Reebok EasyTone shoes!! I'm hoping any walking I do from now on will be more productive.  :)  Also, in my cyber stocking (email) I had a Groupon gift card waiting for me!!!  I love Groupon and I can't wait to see what amazing deal I can put this towards.  I can guarantee it will be massage/spa related.

I'm feeling so blessed and happy to have such a great, giving family.  Only a few more days until we travel to PA!!!!

Isaac with his Elmo.  He saw an airplane at the same time too.

(Don't you just love that it's Dec.19 and we aren't wearing jackets outside and it's sunny!)

Kitchen Sink.

Over a year ago now I was in HEB and they had wine samples.  I actually ran into my friend Judy and we both thought the wine was super good!  Since then it's almost the only wine I buy.  It's called Kitchen Sink.  Now there is another wine that's called Everything But the Kitchen Sink but my wine is not this wine.  Mine is around $8 a bottle, the other one is $39, totally not in my price range.

Anyway, this past Friday I wanted some Kitchen Sink, BAD!  So we all packed up to go to HEB.  The HEB on Pecan St. was completely out.  Naturally at first I was totally annoyed but then thought, "Hmmp, see it is good wine, I have fabulous taste." :)  So Saturday Dylan ran to the other HEB, Gattis School Rd for other items, not the wine.  When he came back he said they were completely out too and said there must have been a wedding or something and they bought out all the stock.
Now I was totally feeling like I had to find this wine.  I actually went all the way over the the HEB on Greenlawn.  Totally out too!!!  The good thing is at this HEB they actually have a "wine guy".  I asked him about it and his first statement was, "it's a sad story".  WHAT?!  Don't tell me that!!!  He proceeded to tell me that all the HEB's and the HEB distribution center were completely out.  They had submitted two orders to the supplier and didn't receive any of their requests.  They have no idea when they'll get more or what has happened.
I'll be checking back and hoping that my Kitchen Sink is not gone forever.

Keeping up with the Peeples...

So yeah, that doesn't really have the same ring as the Kardashians, oh well.

I just thought I'd give a little update on other things we've been up to.

Dylan and I are both still working away.  Dylan's schedule is about to get really consistent.  He'll be working the same times every day and then 1 weekend every 5 weekends.  I'll be glad because he gets so annoyed when I can't remember his wacky work times.

Isaac is growing up so fast.  He says "ut oh" a lot but 96% of the time it's totally out of context and for no apparent reason.  He has almost all his teeth.  For not getting his first tooth until he was 9 mths old, he's making up for lost time.  His last molars are coming in now.  He's completely obsessed with birds.  He's always looking in the sky for them and finds them in all his books.  He points and says "bur" all the time even if there isn't a bird around.  It will be interesting to see how this obsession/love of birds will develop.

Here is a delicious cookies recipe that I'm making for my co-workers tomorrow.  WARNING!  After you make the dough it has to sit in the fridge for an hour. :(  So, my thought of mixing them up, throwing them in the oven and being done all in an hour was sorely wrong.  I guess the hour is a good time to un-wrap all of the hershey kisses and sip some wine.  I've made these before and they are super good.

Hidden Kisses

Recipe courtesy Paula Deen

Prep Time:

20 min

Inactive Prep Time:

1 hr 0 min

Cook Time:

10 min

Level:

Easy

Serves:

3 1/2 to 4 1/2 dozen cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1 (9-ounce) package chocolate candy kisses (recommended: Hershey's Kisses)
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions

In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla and almond extracts. Stir in the flour and blend well. Add the pecans and blend well. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the dough for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Unwrap the candy kisses. Press a scant tablespoon of dough around each kiss, covering it completely; shape into balls.

Place the cookies on ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 10 minutes. Cool slightly, then transfer to a rack to cool completely. Roll the cookies in confectioners' sugar.

Christmas comes early...

We received a very exciting package Saturday morning.  Isaac's great grandmother sent him an early Christmas present.  I didn't know who it was from so I sent out many texts and finally found out who it was from.  Isaac could barely stand seeing the huge box in the living room and finally Dylan got a moment to put it together.  I was very thankful he was willing to put it together.  It's an ATV vehicle!  Isaac has had a blast playing with it!

Wearing his coon skin cap too!

Serious driving face

Santa

This past Monday Dylan brought Isaac to Barton Creek Mall and I met them at lunch.  The goal was to get Isaac's picture with Santa.  The line was fairly long and ended up taking my entire lunch break.  Isaac was fine playing with the toys by Santa's feet until I picked him up and put him in his lap.  This was his reaction.

Poor baby!  It makes me sad to even look at this.  However, I was able to calm him down for a second shot.

I was happy he didn't feel completely tortured and calmed down.  Hopefully next year he'll be better about it.

Is it really Christmas time?

For those of you that are in the Austin area you probably feel the way I do.  It doesn't feel like Christmas time.  Stores are decorated but not very crowded.  The weather doesn't help at all, 78 degrees every afternoon is killing me.  It's nice, but weird.  It just doesn't feel like that magical time of year.  I'm sure I'm not helping myself by not decorating.  We decided that we're not going to decorate.  It's only 3 weeks until we leave for my parents house and the thought of having to take it down is what makes me not want to.  Dylan mentioned maybe just putting the tree up with lights but no ornaments which we might do.

Yesterday I did do some holiday shopping.  My family decided that we'll draw names.  I was able to buy a gift for Dylan's person as well as my SIL(sister in law).  Since there are hundreds of options I feel I can at least say where I bought the gifts.  My sweet neighbor (who drops of boxes of toys her son doesn't play with, awesome!) was hosting a thirtyonegifts.com party.  I've seen a lot of these lately online and since I feel somewhat obsessed with monogramming, this is the perfect thing for me.  My good friend Kristen came with me and we both behaved by not going too crazy with buying, even though we both seriously considered signing up to be consultants just for the discount. :)

While I was at the party Dylan took Isaac downtown to the UT Co-op to meet the real Bevo!  For a small donation, that goes to feeding and taking care of Bevo, you got to take a picture with him.  Here are some pictures for the meeting.

Seriously, a gorgeous animal!  So happy they were able to see him.