Halloween 2014

As a child, and even as a teenager, Halloween was never even close to my favorite holiday. In fact, dare I say I dreaded it/almost hated it? I know, I know -- who hates Halloween?? Eek, this girl (did).

Okay, big disclaimer here: I love my parents, I do; we have an amazing relationship, and they are the best parents I ever could have asked for. My mom is the most hilarious, kind-hearted, generous, thoughtful and helpful person I know. She has insane amounts of energy for ANY age, let alone hers, and she's constantly giving her time, energy and/or gifts to others just to make their lives a little easier and better. And my dad? Ugh. Anyone who knows me knows I am 110% a daddy's girl. I hate the bratty connotation that comes along with that phrase, but I can't help it -- I think my dad is THE BEST. He genuinely has a heart of gold, and like my mom, he's incredibly kind-hearted, generous and thoughtful. He's that guy that's always willing to give you the shirt off his back and will help anyone in need -- from a slow turtle crossing a busy street to a homeless man in need of some food to his 10-year-old daughter who just crashed into a swamp while bike riding. My parents are amazing people, and every single day I feel blessed to be their daughter and to call them Mom and Dad.

. . . BUT if there is one thing they're lacking--and they totally admit this, so it's okay I'm posting it to the world--it's creativity. And because of their lack of creativity, my parents were never the parents who asked their children what they wanted to be for Halloween. In fact, my parents--bless their hearts--were barely the parents who even offered to take my brother and me costume shopping. It's not because they didn't want to and/or didn't care; it was always because they just kind of forgot about the whole costume part of Halloween (I know, right?). Because of that, I never really got into dressing up and never really loved the holiday. Fast forward to college--and keep in mind I went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, home of the biggest college Halloween party in the nation--and I still didn't really care about Halloween. My college costumes were like walking Pinterest fails. Literally.

Perhaps my best costume to date.

In recent years, however, I've come to LOVE Halloween. I love the decorations, I love the festivities, I love the costumes...I love it all. So much in fact that I couldn't even wait until October 1st to start decorating our house this year (sorry, Jordan).

My mom came out for another quick visit to help take care of Sydney while I worked on some projects around the house and also to see Sydney's first Halloween, and it was wonderful to have her here. Now that Sydney is at home with me during the day, I find it sometimes even more challenging to get certain projects finished, so it was really helpful to have her play with Syd all day.

My mom must have worn her out pretty well because she took a loooong nap in the afternoon, and I found myself with time on my hands -- enough time to make a CAKE. Well, "cake."

Okay, fine, not a cake at all. I made these teeny-tiny Nutella things (you can't tell, but the cake above is like a 2" x 2" cube -- so cute!). I didn't really have a recipe; I saw a version from The Pioneer Woman and later on Jessica Garvin's blog Little Baby Garvin, but I threw these together using the things I had on hand: instant cake mix, Nutella, frosting and Halloween sprinkles from the cupcakes I was planning on making before Sydney decided to roll around in flour like a little piggy in mud. I made the cake following the directions on the box (that's about as good as it gets, people) and then cut it into squares. Next I spread Nutella on one of the squares and topped with another cake square. More Nutella and then another cake square, and then I popped the cakes into the 'fridge for a little while to harden up. I frosted the cube-cakes and then sprinkled the tops and voilà! I'm your girl, MasterChef.

When we took Syd out of daycare, I was so sad to realize we were going to miss their Halloween parade -- but Syd's teachers were so awesome they welcomed us back for the day solely so she could participate! It was adorable and so nice of them. We arrived to see none of the infants participated in the parade, but we still had a lot of fun watching the other kids and spending time with the other parents.

Our little monster's first Halloween . . .

We went trick-or-treating with two other families, both of whom have kids around four years old, but we still had fun walking around with them. Sydney went up to a couple of houses (with her tiny "boo" candy bucket!), but for majority of the time she was in her stroller and bundled up with blankets. She looked SO DANG FUNNY in her monster costume! She was so warm and soft and squishy! And such a good trooper -- she never cried or fussed once.

Hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Halloween. I love seeing all the kiddos in their costumes on Instagram and Facebook and may have already have started planning Sydney's costume for next year!

Xo

Apple Cider Sangria

My love for all things fall lives on . . . with apple cider sangria. 

I contemplated baking Halloween cupcakes, but it's been a rough week (teething) and when Sydney made full body contact with the flour today, I said F cupcakes. I'm always on the hunt for new seasonal drink recipes, and I've seen a few going around on Pinterest and thought I'd give it a whirl.

I love sangria but I'm tough to please because I don't really like sweet drinks (oxymoron, I know). Still I started with all the ingredients listed in the recipe because what do I know -- maybe this lady is a sangria wizard:

• 1 bottle (standard size) of pinot grigio
• 2 1/2 cups fresh apple cider (or, in my case, generic grocery store-label cider)
• 1 cup club soda
• 1/2 cup ginger brandy
• 3 honeycrisp apples, chopped
• 3 pears, chopped

I began chopping and soon began to think this was far more fruit than I wanted in my sangria (JUST GIVE ME THE BOOZE), so I only chopped up two apples and two pears -- and even that was a little aggressive for my taste.

My underage assistant just wants the booze as well.

I combined all the ingredients and stirred, stirred, stirred as the recipe dictates, but it was a bit too sweet for my liking when I tasted it -- so I added a 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon, a little more club soda and a little more brandy, and it was DELICIOUS. But warm. Like lukewarm, gross-warm. So I sadly put my sangria into the 'fridge to chill and pouted made dinner and got Sydney ready for bed.

But now? Now I am typing this and drinking my deliciously chilled, not-too-sweet apple cider sangria and am obsessed.

Clearly not a food photographer (or any photographer for that matter) and the sangria looks like apples soaking in less than ideal bodily fluids, but I promise you it's AWESOME. 

Cheers and you're welcome.

Updates

Summer is finally here, which means my diet now consists of avocados on top of avocados on top of Doritos. I LOVE avocados (and, separately, Doritos). I could be the third competing female in that Subway avocado commercial (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to click here NOW). The irony that is my life is I'm allergic to avocados. My mouth gets really itchy and depending on how much I've had starts to kind of swell---but whatever because those are small prices to pay for that subtle yet complex flavor of summer. And last summer, in the midst of my pregnancy cravings, I created the best avocado summer salad EVER.

Or not because I soon learned it's actually a super common recipe, lol. Of course---I watch a few episodes of MasterChef and suddenly I think I'm the next Gordon Ramsey. To be fair to myself, I only started like avocados about a year ago, so I'm a little new to the scene. Here's my 'recipe' for this simple yet delicious salad. (I feel I'm offending you even typing out these 'directions.')

INGREDIENTS

1. avocado
2. cherry tomatoes
3. feta cheese
4. salt & pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. Slice avocado into cubes.
2. Halve or quarter cherry tomatoes.
3. Mix together with feta cheese crumbles.
4. Sprinkle with salt & pepper.
5. Add some balsamic vinegar if you want to get crazy (YOLO).

I mean, I'm probably going to start my own food blog soon.

And if my food blogging career doesn't take off, it's okay because I got a new job to fall back on! Kind of. Returning to work after maternity leave was a little weird, and knowing I was going to have to tell my director and CEO I wouldn't be able to travel anymore didn't make it any easier. With Jordan's new job, he has been traveling much more than either him or I expected, which meant someone (Mommy) needed to be home with Sydney. (Did I discuss this? Last December Jordan left his employer after nearly 11 years for a senior sales position with a competitor. ELEVEN YEARS! He's like a martian.) Anyway, I'm absolutely the most awkward person when it comes to life these kinds of conversations at work, so I was incredibly nervous because I knew what a tough position I was about to put both my superiors in, and I hate letting people down. Plus, I was devastated. My company is actually fairly small at headquarters - we have a rather large system (over 250 franchisees with over 600 open and operating units worldwide), but we're a small corporate office, which translates to small budgets, and I knew they wouldn't be able to keep me on staff in addition to hiring someone to open retail locations and do site visits across the US. I loved the company, I loved my boss, I loved my co-workers, I loved our CEO... Was I really willing to give up a co-worker that brings flowers to all the women in the office just because? A boss who bought Sydney's coming home outfit from the hospital? A CEO that delivered delicious fried cheese curds to my desk while I was pregnant? A receptionist who manually picks out all the pink Starbursts in the candy dish just for me?!?

But I had to. Simply put, Jordan's job is more important than mine was, so I finally grew a pair and had the difficult conversation. And I cried. Cried talking to my boss about it, cried again talking to our CEO about it, cried again during our follow-up meeting. I'm like the poster child for the complete opposite of the empowered working woman.

But you know what? Shame on me for not realizing how truly wonderful my company is because their reactions were so amazing (which perpetuated the crying for sure). They were really disappointed to let me go but so incredibly supportive and understanding -- and even told me they wanted to do everything they could to keep me, which was flattering and felt so good to know I was so valued. They asked if I'd be open to doing consulting work on a contractual basis, which I had never even considered that to be an option. I took some time to weigh my options and ultimately decided it could be an awesome opportunity, so here I am, all self-employed and loving it. The best part is that I'm able to create my own schedule and work in my own environment; the flexibility it's afforded me has been a dream!

Anyway, shortly after my meltdown at the office it was Mother's Day, and I was premature in thinking it was summer because this happened. All damn day, and all day the next day.

Mother's Day in Colorado was a blustery, cold and snowy day, but I actually couldn't have been happier because it gave us the excuse to do exactly what I wanted without feeling guilty: curl up on the couch and soak in all the baby snuggles that I could get. The day started off like your typical Mother's Day...with a Mexican birthday present.

Jordan and Sydney took me to my favorite breakfast establishment, Snooze, and I got to bundle my little bear up in her tiny little winter clothes for the last time. My little doll.

We spent the rest of the day cuddling and playing inside and staying warm. It was absolutely perfect. Gracias to my sweet husband and my sweet baby for making my first Mother's Day so wonderful!!

All for now, clearly way more to come, but enjoy these pictures.

Bossing me around while I organized and cleaned her closet

Back at the pediatrician's office...ugh

Couldn't bear to bring her back to daycare, so she came with to the office :)

And she was so good!

My sweet husband