bounce...bounce...bounce

The Easter bunny left Cori a big gift in the backyard on Saturday morning (no, not THAT kind of gift as rabbits often do!). Cori loves her bouncer and insists that we come in and play with her. The bouncer also collapses very easy so we can take it with us to reunions and such. We anticipate some fun playdates ahead!

Pre-Easter activities

Easter Saturday we went to Trax with one of my best friends and her family. Our daughters are close in age and had a great time playing together before, so we met for some Easter fun!

A visit from the easter bunny!

The Easter egg hunt was more of an egg gathering as they just had eggs spread out in a small space and the kids were given a basket to gather them up. Cori wasn't all that thrilled with the idea, mostly because it interefered with naptime. Notice the cranky face in the shots!
Afterwards Carli and Cori rode the train, which was probably the highlight of Cori's day! The girl is really into trains. She proceeded to scream something awful when the ride was done and she had to get out of the car.

After Trax and a very short nap (isn't that always the case??) we dyed eggs.

After another very short (15 minute) nap, we saw Grammie and Cori got another Easter basket of goodies, most of which can be used outside (much to her delight!)

I just think this picture is adorable, so I had to add it.

our dancing star

We had a jam-packed fun weekend, and have more than 150 pictures to proove it. But until I have the time to go through the pictures, here's a little video from tonight. Cori discovered Dancing with the Stars and LOVED it! She danced during the entire introduction, but we only managed to captured some of it on Dave's iPhone. Sit back and enjoy the laugh!!

For Auntie Kacey & Uncle Mark

Yesterday afternoon Cori received the sweetest Easter basket from her Auntie Kacey and Uncle Mark! I snapped a few really blurry cell phone pictures to share. She was fairly uninterested in looking at the camera as she kept yelling "BUBBLES!" and "CHOO CHOO!" and moving all over the place. (Apologies for the poor pic quality) Cori was so excited she wouldn't stop to even take off her rain-coat.

We had to test drive the choo choo immediately!

Thanks again for your generosity and thoughtfulness Auntie Kacey and Uncle mark (and little Cooper too!)

Piano

Cori is the next Ludwig Van Beethoven; she's playing on the piano that I played when I was a child.

Sour note perhaps...

Pigtails!!

First time ever!

goat cheese drop biscuits

I don't often put recipes up on the blog, but today I made these again and realized they are too good to not share. These biscuits are from Chef Art Smith and his Chicago restaurant Table Fifty-Two. I love goat cheese, and I love biscuits. The goat cheese adds a bit of sweetness and the light consistency and slight outer crunch is only riveled by the soft fluffy insides. These are not as labor intensive as they may sound.

• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 Tbsp(2ozs) cold butter in small chunks
• 4 Tbsp(2ozs) goat cheese in small chunks
• 1 cup (8ozs) buttermilk
• extra melted butter
• some grated parmesan cheese

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Cut in the butter and goat cheese. (If you aren't a baker - like I'm not a baker - just add it in and use your hands to crumble it up into the dry ingredients. You should be left with small chunks throughout the mixture.) Add in the buttermilk and mix until moistened. (You may need to add an extra tablespoon or two of buttermilk to get everything moist.)

Place a sheet of parchment paper onto a baking sheet or jelly roll pan. Place 1/4 cup batterfuls of the mix onto the paper. (I just eyeball it - you want to get 12 biscuts if you can.) Brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter and bake for 15 minutes.

Take the biscuits out of the oven and sprinkle with shreded or grated parmesan cheese. You may want to place them back in the oven for a minute to melt the cheese fully. Enjoy warm!

Welcome March!

So happy that it is March now, and the sun has been shining for 4 days in a row! I'm hearing birds in the morning and it's staying lighter longer too. I'd venture to say that even mother nature is happy it's March!

We've been doing okay over here. It's so nice to be able to be excited about the new house and count down the days until we break ground! (About 143 days). Dave got to spend a nice weekend away in Philadelphia last weekend; he hung out with his dad and brother at the WVU / Villanova basketball game for Mark's birthday. It goes without saying that having 2 nights of solid sleep isn't anything to complain about either!

I've been doing okay. The commute still stinks but it's manageable. The new job is okay too. I'm supposed to be traveling somewhere west next month for a few days of meetings. Not sure where or when yet, which is a great test to my ever-planning self. I'm hoping it's LA or Denver so I can stay a few days longer and visit friends. I am worried that my ocular rosacesa is back though as my eye is burning, dry, and ultra sensitive to light. It's usually brought on by stress (at least with me) which I find ironic, as I've been more relaxed since closing on the old house. In "fun" news, I got about 6 inches of hair cut off (more in the back) and am loving it! Excuse the bad cell phone pic - I seriously cannot take good photos of myself with my Blackberry.
Cori has been going through a wonderful language explosion. She is talking in 2-3 word sentences and has a few new words daily. I'm just shocked by the words she knows and often find myself thinking "when did she learn that word?!". I guess I forget that she is learning in daycare too. This morning she shocked us by counting up to 10 along with us. It was only a few weeks ago she knew up to 4 and would then stay silent. Time sure flies.

Her latest obsessions are planes (odd huh!), Elmo, and trains. It's also funny to hear her say one of her favorite books - Dr. Seuss's "Hop on Pop" . It comes out like "hup up up". She is really into books these days and is getting more into self-playing. We're still dealing with some middle of the night wakings; not sure if they are associated with the move, the developmental transitions / language explosion, teething, or all 3. Here are some photos taken this past Sunday at the Children's Museum with my cell phone; Cori loves the water area as you can see.

Goodbye

I hope we can say goodbye to snow with February on its way out. I'm really over snow!

Today we also officially say "goodbye" to our house; closing is at 3:30 this afternoon. It's bitter sweet for sure. It's really weird to not be there anymore. And while we're focused on the prize at the end (our new house is going to be so awesome) it's 40 weeks until we get there.

And we're having some trouble adjusting. I think we're all getting used to being in mom's house (Mom included!) but Cori seems to be having some trouble sleeping through the night and sometimes getting to sleep. I'm not sure if it's the adjustment or a developmental stage she is in right now. And she and I both are on week #3 of a cold, so that doesn't help. It's certainly trying my patience though.

The most difficult adjustment for me seems to be the commute to & from work - 60 miles round trip and about an hour there and 75 minutes home. (Expect for today; this morning's snow gave me a nice 90 minute commute. Grrrr). The traffic coming home is terrible, and I'm not able to decompress when I get home as Cori wants my full attention. And of course there is dinner time too.

Cori hasn't been doing all that great in the car for me either; I take her every morning now (some mornings she comes all the way to work with me to go with grandparents). Other mornings she gets dropped off at daycare half way. But the afternoons in traffic just plain suck. If anyone has any suggesitons for how to make the car more "fun" for her, I'm open to hearing them! She isn't really big into music (she prefers dancing over singing) and a while back, Dave nixed the idea of a DVD player.

Wish we had more exciting news to post, but I just wanted to give a quick update. The move went fine (aside from getting the U-Haul stuck in ice at the storage facility for 30 mins) and we're just still adjusting. This weekend we have to move storage items from the old facility to the new one. Of course the only time a truck was available was 7AM to 11 AM. Ugh. And Sunday we have church volunteer obliagations. Once that is all done, along with closing, I feel like I can exhale and start to relax a bit. I'm really ready to put February behind us and move on to spring and March!

PS - A big THANK YOU again to our friends and family who came through and helped us move! You are the best and we love you!

Hat 2

Tonight Cori wanted to wear Dada's hat. I think she's the cutest Under Armour model I've seen!

Hat

Cori used to hate all hats, but now she doesn't mind.
She even thought it would be fun to wear mama's!And here she is running with Elmo (her latest fancy).

S(no!!!!!)w

For my friends who aren't from the area, here is what two feet of snow on your street looks like!And I found this picture amusing as the snow pile is higher than the car!

I am really over this winter season!

hi!

Greetings from the snowy north hills! The snow is well underway over here and we're pretty much shut in all weekend. We'll be enjoying out last un-crazy weekend in the house until we move. I guess I can't think of a better way to spend it than all cozy inside, looking at our beautiful wooded view all covered in wet clingy snow!

Cori has a bad cold again with a really wet cough and lots of runny nose. The poor thing keeps waking herself up at night by coughing and having trouble breathing. Here she is today playing, and can I just add that while she has her parent's fine hair, I wish mine looked this cute and full!
The short of the long story about the house sale is that we're moving in 2 weeks (on the 20th) and closing on the 26th. After a lot of vague communication from the buyer about what she wanted fixed / the house inspection report / appraisal information, it basically boils down to 2 issues we need to fix. One is a minor thing (gutter leak) and the other is that the chimney needs repointing. We aren't sure why the appraiser picked this item (especially since both home inspectors said nothing about this)- maybe a brick fell and hit him in a prior inspection. But unfortunately it is fairly costly (about $1100) and this isn't the season to be working with mortar. We asked them if we could give them the money in escrow so the repairs could be made later and the mortgage underwriter said no. So we scrambled to find someone to get the work done. Then today we find out that they will let us place the money in escrow. This is a good thing- we don't have to scramble to come up with the cash and deal with the repairs & weather issue while we are here.

It's really weird to think we won't be living here. We've been here almost 6 years, and I still remember the feeling when we saw it and how it just felt like home. We were so excited!!

We placed a lot of hard work into making it our own. I remember scrubbing the living room floor (days after my miscarriage in 2007) when the ceiling fell in and black dust was everywhere! Evidence below....

Here is the upstairs bathroom before

and after

This is where Dave asked me to marry him, and where we first brought Corinne home. Lots of fun gatherings here and so many memories. I guess it is a good thing home is ultimately where the heart is, and we have a lot of good times ahead!
Now where is that packing fairy????