totes adorbs!

the cute factor in this video is off the charts!

happy birthday Jesus, and merry christmas y'all!

I haven't fallen into a black hole in case you were wondering

I'm baaaaaaaack!

My brief blogging hiatus was not intentional. No...I've been suffering what is called 'my6montholdMacdiedandthebatterywon'tcharge' syndrome. It's been quite severe and as you can well imagine it was painful. But, with some patience and a christmas miracle she came back to life. So here I am!

I missed it! My blog, and friends, and comments, and your blogs. I will need a few days to catch up on everything that has happened in your ya'lls blogospheres.

Christmas has come and gone but the good memories stay. Baby's First Christmas was a success. But frankly I don't know why I bothered to buy toys...I could've wrapped my tupperware and he would've been fascinated! My in-laws showered him with gifts of course, but thank goodness nothing sings/lights up/plays annoying songs. My sister in law Amy and her husband Mike [along with their tiny yappy chihuahua Bella] where here to share the holiday with us too. It was a full.house. But it was fun. We ate, and ate....and ATE for 5 days straight. My skinny jeans look painted on now. Cue 2011 New Year's Resolutions [Pilates]

But back to the food - I made the infamous Pumpkin Cream Pie and Spicy Molasses Ginger cookies all by Pioneer Woman. DEEEEELISH. And Ina's Engagement Roast Chicken [shaaa-mazing]. Ohhh and I can't forget to tell you about Christmas morning breakfast : Bourbon French toast & pepper bacon. Uh huh...yep. I was redic-ulicious!

Our tree was packed with presents, our bellies were full, our fire roared, & our house was cheery. It was indeed a good holiday and a wonderful end to a beautifully strange year.

2011, I can't wait to see what you have in store.

Road Warriors/Having too much fun to take pictures

A candid thanksgiving [in so many ways]

Looking glam at Dave & Jo's wedding [in my mom's Diane Von Furstenberg dress]

'reading' Dr. Seuss

Mah lil turkey

The littlest brink, the biggest road warrior of us all

new highchair!

hanging with Great Grandpa Frank

'Having too much fun to take pictures.'

That's what I realized when I looked through my small photo album from last week. Too much fun to remember photos. We drove and drove and drove [which was surprisingly fun] and made lots of pit stops at Ikea and Anthropologie and our friend Matt & Cassie's house. We drank lots of coffee, and sang silly rhyming songs to keep our little beeber entertained for 27 hours of travel in 4 days. YES FOLKS. 27 HOURS. After an overnighter in CT we eventually made it to Maine; [but not without a pit stop to the NH tax free liquor store] only to wake up and drive back down to NH for Thanksgiving day's festivities. We hugged the family, chatted it up, drank some drink, had inappropriate table talk, ate just enough to feel icky, and watched Rue shine as the star of the show. He was loving the attention.

It was a grand, lovely, simple, joyful day.

We returned home saturday [with another stop at the NH liquor store.....gotta stock up for the holidays!] just in time for our friend David and Johannah's wedding. Most of the photos that my husband took of me were while I was dancing after I had a few drinks. OH, so not flattering.

Hope you had a lovely holiday!!

holiday road trip

Tonight at 5:30 our little family will be hopping in a car and driving to New England for Thanksgiving! Road Trip!!!

A lot of my husbands' family hasn't met Mr. Baby yet, so we are excited to spend this holiday with them and have them meet the first grand baby of the family! [shhh...don't tell, but next year there will be a cousin to join Rue's crew...as there is a bebe baking in the oven right now...and no, I'm not pregnant ;) but someone in the family is!

Armed with organic puffs, a front facing car seat, a crinkly book and silly faces, this mama is prepared to entertain baby Rue for 20+ hours in 4 days. Wish us luck!

In case I don't get to post again before the holiday, I want to wish everyone a very very happy thanksgiving. I hope you get to share the special day with loved ones and delicious food.

xx, Y

T-day

T-Day.

Turkey day.

Thanksgiving.

Whatever your preference....

we all can agree it's a happy day of [over] feasting with family!

I love Thanksgiving.

But; I have a confession.

Two actually.

1. Almost always, I think turkey is boring and horribly dry.

2. I don't REALLLLLLY love pumpkin as much as one is supposed to. I do, LOVE the flavor.

But there is a weird texture thing. And something is just, MISSING?

Thankfully, I found a kindred spirit who feels the same way. The Pioneer Woman. I just stumbled upon her blog, and oh mah word, ya'll. All her food looks killer! She is sarcastic. [Food and Sarcasm = the girl is speaking my language!] And to make her an even more credible food blogger I will name drop and say she was recently featured on Bobby Flay's Thanksgiving Throw Down. So I don't know about you, but I think tis' wise to make the food of a woman that held her ground next to Bobby.

She shares my pumpkin pie sentiment. So I was excited to see she created a pumpkin creme pie that looks ahhh-mazing. Lets just hope I can convince my strict punkin' lovin' family to indulge in this little beauty! I told my skeptical husband about it, and he insisted that I try it out first, so it can be 'perfect' for Christmas. See? I told you. Strict Punkin' Lover!

Isn't that pie just beautiful!?

I can't wait to try it.

Recipe found here on Pioneer Woman.

Bon appétit!

Holiday Highlights

our home was christened this year by the first christmas.
some of my favorite moments are:


trivial pursit smack downs

watching christmas movies

not leaving the house for 4 days

making and decorating sugar cookies

eating said sugar cookies

christmas eve dinner

baking apple pie

staring at the tree with my dog neice Bella on my lap

giving presents to my favorite people

the endless ribbing of my sister and brother in law to produce a cousin for our baby
[amy, if you're reading this, know that it won't stop until you call and tell me you're pregnant]

being 8 months preggs kept the fawning at a maximum and the chores to a minimum [SCORE]

giving my husband the best gift ever- a beautiful guitar



it was a sweet sweet christmas indeed!!!

best. christmas. ever. (a.k.a. how do you spell 'recession'?)

What a beautiful, lovely, perfect, sweet, and delicious Christmas it was!
Chris and I hosted the family Christmas for the first time in our little house.
His parents, sister and brother in-love, and Bella, their Chihuahua came to spend the holidays.
(Technically Bella is the first grand baby, or grand dog as we call her. We love her, and she is quite cute and lovable for a small yappy dog. We like to play with her and awww at her cute tricks. But we have started to warn her that soon she will not be the center of attention anymore...there will be a new Little Sheriff in town. Baby Brink will come soon, and he will certainly steal the limelight. As he should! :)

We all seemed to forget how to spell 'recession', which was evident by the ungodly amounts of presents that poured out from the under the tree. When your love language is gifts and you have a family who is the same, it's easy to go overboard. I understand how quickly it can be all about the gifts and have that be the focus, but really when you do it out of a good place of love, then it's not the focus. It's just...the joy of it. I was so happy to see everyone's face light up when they opened something that they truly needed, enjoyed and wanted.

My favorite gift this year was the one I gave Chris. I secretly saved up (and by saved I mean scrimped. Every penny. It's hard when you don't work!) and bought him a beautiful Taylor acoustic guitar. I was crying when I gave it, and he cried when he saw it. It was the best gift I've ever given. And not because it was worth a lot of money, but because it was so heart felt. My husband deserves the world for taking care of me and our house, for selflessly going to work every to provide for our family. He needed to be thanked, and sometimes my words just can't do justice what is in my heart. I wanted to do something for him that he would never do for himself. He is just too selfless. In this season of our lives as we prepare for our baby to come, the needs are ever increasing. So spending so extravagantly wasn't maybe the smartest idea, but it needed to be done. He is worth that much to me.

So as I gave it to him all I could do was cry....I could hardly spit out the speech I had created. I just watched him in awe as he was overwhelmed, and he was speechless too. I can tell you, this 'love' thing....is really SO much better, and deeper and amazing than I expected.

My favorite gift I got? An hour long prenatal massage (thank you chris!!) Other favs included a Jelly Cat alligator for my son. He and Ardi the Arvark will be great friends. What else... Oh!! A harddrive from my dad. So now I can finally free up some space on my overly full computer, restore some order, and begin blogging again. (I would've gone to the library like I said I would, but we had quite the snow storm, and I've already slipped once on the ice. So I don't want to take any more chances.)

There is so much more to write about, but I have to end it here. Coffee and Saturday is calling. I must comply. Future posts: new belly pics & 'Confessions'

LOVE & LOVE, Cheers, Bliss, xo,
Yana

i'm baaaaaack!!!

Holy. Majoley.

My long blogging break was not intentional! In the spirit of the holidays, let's hold hands and thank my overloaded and extremely slow and old computer, that has totally ruined java script and cookies. BAHHH.

So much has happened since my last post!

Firstly, let me say......holly jolly merry holidays to everyone!!!

Secondly, I am becoming somewhat of a spectacle, belly wise. Loves, there is just 7 weeks till my due date!

Once the holidays are over, the leftovers are gone and the in-laws have returned home, there will be just 5 weeks remaining. Which means =Operation Major Nesting will commence. I CANT WAIT!

I really want to post the pics from our recent "babymoon" to San Francisco, but I'm not sure my computer can handle the pressure. It was an amazing and restful vacation.

Augh! I'm bursting with holiday excitement, thankfulness, burgeoning belly, happiness, and many many blog topics. I will be back, I promise. Even if I have to go to a library and type on a dirty keyboard, I WILL blog again. and soon.

love and miss all you readers and friends!!!

xx, Yana