3 months!

Eliza Wren is 3 months!  

Can't believe how much this little sweetie is growing.  

She is a strong and cheerful babe. :)

Gotta love this hair :)

She spontaneously laughed for the first time on her 3 month birthday too!  

Really hope to hear more of that this month...

Bye-bye folks...

Drawing

Meredith surprised us recently by drawing faces!  

She can whip one up in seconds, and is very enthusiastic about her work. :)

Weekend Trip: part 2

On Sunday afternoon, 

we drove over to Houghton, NY to visit with Isaac and Emily.  

It was chilly-willy there, and Meredith and Erik popped off these beautiful icicles for a mid-afternoon snack. :)

Monday (President's Day) we had a leisurely morning filled with a delicious brunch and lively conversation. :) 

Later that afternoon we took a beautiful snow walk just up the road from our friend's home.

Eliza snoozed through the whole walk snuggled up tight against mama.

Meredith had a tough time walking on the ice-covered snow, so she enjoyed riding along with Daddy and Mr. Isaac.

Thanks so much, friends!  

We are so thankful for a wonderful weekend of rest and refreshment!

Weekend Trip: part 1

We took a road trip this past weekend to western NY to visit some dear friends.

First stop was Rochester to stay with Roman and Heather! :)

 Both girls loved Roman and Heather!  Lots of giggles and sweet times together :)

Thanks so much for a lovely visit!  Can't wait to see you guys again! 

Belated Valentines Post

Our Valentine morning began with grapefruit, a delicious egg-bake made by Daddy, and scrumptios heart biscuits. :)

Meredith then decided to go all out and dress up for the occasion!

We had a very fun play date with sweet Lily for the morning. :)

Making heart cookies filled our afternoon (as well as much needed naps for the girlies)

And, since my sweet husband is wonderfully romantic :) .... he left these post cards outside our door for me and the girls to find.  

And, a beautiful bouquet of flowers for me when he popped back home for five minutes (in between the workday and his evening gig as a strolling minstrel at an Italian restaurant.)  Even though every Valentine's Day for the past 6 years we've spent entirely apart, E sure does a fine job to make me and our girlies feel his love. :)

friends + crafting = one happy mama

I gathered some friends for a Sunday evening crafting time in our home this weekend.  It was a delightful time of lively conversation, tea, sweets and crafting.  Everyone brought their own projects to work on - mainly crocheting or knitting.  It was so much fun, and so helpful to make time for crafting.  A huge refreshment for me, and a fun excuse to make my favorite cake (coffee walnut). :) 

mid-week snuggles

Love these snuggle photos of my girls.  

Is it just me, or does Eliza Wren look so much more grown up?!

birthday 29

My birthday was this past week.  We celebrated as a family over the previous weekend because my actual birthday, Feb. 5th, was a very busy workday for Erik.  

We had a lovely dinner of Kale Potato soup (my favorite!), salad and sourdough bread.  

 Erik made an incredible cake for me - Cardamom Cake with Whole Pears.  It was out of this world!

Sunday morning I experimented with a porridge recipe I had been itching to try.  It was mixture of quinoa, buckwheat groats and amaranth grain - soaked and cooked in raw milk and served with blueberries, bananas and a drizzle of maple syrup.  It was very filling and hearty with a complex mix of flavors.

Museum trip

Saturday morning we popped into center city for a trip to the Museum of Natural Sciences.  We had never been before and boy was it fun!  We were very impressed by how inter-active many of the exhibitions were - very kid-friendly and great for toddlers!

Meredith loved all the seeing all the life-size animals.  We were amazed at how incredibly done the scenes were - so real and accurate!

They had a fabulous exhibit of butterflies - a whole room filled with butterflies flying freely.  We were able to get very close to many of them, and even have them brush by us a few times. 

  I had fun snapping a few photos at just the right moment.

 The dinosaur fossils were really incredible and a totally new experience for Meredith.  She'd never been around anything so large before!

Erik took her to pose inside the mouth of a T-rex.  I don't think she actually understood they were inside a mouth...but, maybe it's better that way at this point! :-p