The McDaniel Family

The Boys Turn 1

2009-02-26T20:32:00.001-06:00

Pretty unbelievable that Ethan and Lucas are 1! Or actually, this post is a bit late, almost 14 months. They have gone from teeny newborns to running, giggling, hilarious little boys so quickly! And such different personalities which makes it all the more fun to hang out with them. And of course, they are the luckiest set of twins we know since they have their awesome big sis, Emily, who will soon be directing them to do all sorts of things we're sure.

Here's some more fun action shots from their birthday party.

Seriously Love Him

2009-02-24T20:26:00.005-06:00

Never thought that I would be so interested in the President of the United States, but he is amazing! He just made us laugh while watching his address to Congress. And is good looking to boot!

I Don't Get It

2009-01-19T09:55:00.004-06:00

I'm still not sure why Ryan wants to get a fake tree for Christmas next year. What could be better than picking out a tree, the fresh Christmas-y smell when you get home from work and throwing out the tree year-after-year over our balcony?

Maybe, maybe it is the thousands of needles that we could hear falling from the tree on a daily basis, or the amount of needles that we are continuing to find around our house.

No matter how our tree ends up (see example), I still love getting a live tree every year. Maybe next year we'll try buying one from a tree farm rather than a parking lot.

Quite Possibly the Best Gift Ever

2009-01-17T10:19:00.003-06:00

When opening gifts on Christmas day in Jacksonville, Ryan and I were surprised to open a deck of cards and even more surprised at the excited look on my mom's face. Then as we read what was inside, we were nothing less than delighted.

In this deck is 52 cards representing 52 restaurants in Chicago - categorized by cuisine and neighborhood - that are a $10 giftcard that can be used on food at that particular restaurant. We were thrilled to see some of our favorite restaurants - Sola, Deleece and Spacca Nopali, but even more excited to see a ton of restaurants we wanted to try and had never even heard of.

Last Saturday, we chose from the deck and came up with Mixteco Grill in Andersonville. It was delicious! A quaint, BYOB Mexican restaurant that was bursting at the seams with people. The food was AMAZING and we will definitely be returning - all because of this little deck of cards. We expecially loved that we could enjoy our cans of Miller Light that we had brought in a brown lunch bag.

The ticket we got on our car afterwards was not amazing though, so we will be spending this weekend battling the City of Chicago. Oh snow and negative 35 degree temperatures, when will you go away?

Merry Merry!

2008-12-28T19:03:00.006-06:00

As I downloaded my photos from Christmas in Jacksonville, I noticed 95% of them were of Mya ;) How can I not take that many pictures when she is this cute! Our hearts melted each time she yelled "Auntie", or tried out "Mabolls" (Marbles) and "Uncle". And we all laughed every time she said "Cockle-doodle-do" and "Up! Up!".

Now we just have to figure out to post her Christmas card with her on Santa's lap.

Simon Family Christmas

2008-12-23T20:28:00.006-06:00

Our Christmas celebration came early this year with the Simons. With -25 degree temps outside, it was nice to be able to sit by their Christmas tree and eat some delicious Chili's. If only we could celebrate every year with Chili's.

While there, we got to open gifts, put together puzzles and watch the boys tumble around. It is pretty unbelievable that Ethan and Lucas are walking and are already toddlers! And we still get to giggle at the different things that Emily says like "Accidents happen" and " I get to crawl into my mommy and daddy's bed because there are monsters in my room."

We got to open our gifts from the McDaniels as well and we got our NEW LIGHT! Yeah! Can't wait to see Ryan put it up in our dining room! Oh, and of course, to have it displayed will be nice as well.

Da Bulls

2008-12-21T20:32:00.004-06:00

Here we are at our third annual Bulls game. This year we had the best seats yet - we weren't in the last row of seats, nor did we have any unruly fans to deal with. Bulls won against the Jazz 106 to 98. It was of course, good to see Deron Williams as well.

Afterwards, we enjoyed one of our Chicago favorites - Ed and Jean's where we took too many Apple Pie shots. Delicious! But, this could be why I had to take a 3 hour nap today. Woops!

Now we're off to enjoy this wonderful -25 degree weather!

Christmas Vacation

2008-12-06T18:01:00.002-06:00

Now all we have to do is wrap the mountain of gifts that is in our guestroom. I wish we would have had a camera as Ryan and I walked home with our tree today through the snow. We found it a little more difficult to get a tree home now that we don't have an SUV. Luckily it wasn't too cold. Again, Ryan did a great job negotiating the price of our tree!

Yes He Did

2008-11-05T20:53:00.012-06:00

Laura and I were lucky enough to participate in some history last night. This giant video screen was as close as we got to President-Elect Obama at the Grant Park rally, but just being there with the crowd of 65,000 was exciting enough. Here's how I described it to my parents:

It was really great. The atmosphere at Grant Park kind of reminded me of Wrigley Field this summer when there was a sense of inevitability that things would go our way...fortunately Barack performed in the clutch a little better than the Cubs! It was great to see the mix of attendees at the rally - young, old, white, black, you name it. It was amazing how many people showed up, and everyone was in a good mood and very respectful of Mccain's concession speech, so that was nice. Speaking of which, I'm glad that McCain no longer has to pander to the crazy folks and can get back to being the sensible guy that he's always been. I really do admire him and either with a spot in the cabinet, or as a leader in the Senate, I'm sure him and Barack will be able to work together. CTA ran very smoothly (as did the whole operation) considering the massive amounts of people they were moving around, Daley had all hands on deck as I'm sure he wanted to prove that we're ready for the Olympics. It was surreal to see Michigan Avenue swamped with people after the rally, chanting Yes We Can!

As for Barack, John Kass had a great column today about how far we've come - It wasn't too long ago that MLK, on a visit to Chicago, was hit in the head with a brick and experienced some pretty violent racism. 40 years may seem like a long time to us, but in the context of history it really isn't. It really is inspiring that we live in a country that can not only evolve enough to elect a black man as president, but can evolve quickly enough in 8 years to realize that George W. had this country on a terrible path and we needed to send a message that we were fed up with it.

Here's what the crowd looked like right before they announced that Obama had clinched it. I'm looking forward to showing this post to our grandkids when they're old enough to understand.

Dr. Seuss Would Be Proud

2008-11-02T18:30:00.007-06:00

Although we didn't win any awards at the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Halloween party we were at, we did have "the most original costumes" according to a couple of guys standing outside the Belmont El-stop.

In my eyes, that's a better first-place than the party - the guys must have seen atleast 1,000 costumes pass by that night, right?

New York, New York

2008-10-31T08:35:00.006-05:00

(photo taken at 4:30am at SNL after after party)

Another fun trip to NYC to visit Pavun and George and of course, to see SNL. Unfortunately, we did not do much sightseeing besides walking around SoHo in the rain, but we did get to watch SNL from Lorne Michael's office (where Eddie Izzard and the cast of Mad Men were also watching it!).

Jon Hamm, from one of our favorite shows, Mad Men was the host, and Coldplay was the musical guest. Ryan will probably even admit that Jon Hamm is one of the most attractive men we have ever seen.

After the show, we attended the cast after-party (where I once again chickened out on getting a photo taken with a celebrity), then the after-after-party and needless to say, I am just now beginning to feel normal. Guess I can't stay out until 5am anymore. Nor should we stay out all night, then fly the next day. Especially when the pilot lands at O'Hare, decides it is too windy, then proceeds to take off again. Scary!

Looking forward to a few weekends of not traveling, but also thinking about our next trip to NYC, whenever that may be.

Pool Party

2008-10-16T21:31:00.010-05:00

A couple weeks ago we had the honor and pleasure of being half of the godparenting team for our two favorite little dudes. It was obvious that Ethan and Lucas both had an excellent time at the baptism. What with all the oil and swimming that was going on they probably just figured they were at the local pool. As you can see they broke out their best threads for the occasion. You'll probably see James Bond sporting the same tuxedo in his next film.

After the baptism, we had a great lunch at Maggiano's courtesy of the Simons. Lucas made sure that we would always remember his big day by giving his Auntie Laura an unconventional parting gift...the contents of his partially digested lunch. Now, his big sister Emily likes to talk about her 'highs and lows' of the day every night at dinner. Seeing the look of amusement on Laura's face as she realized what just happened would have been my high for the day, if not for the whole godfather thing. It's great to have a wife who takes things in stride, and a nephew who's willing to exploit that to provide me with a cheap laugh. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before Uncle Ryan is the butt of the joke...I will remain vigilant.

European Vacation

2008-09-30T21:36:00.008-05:00

Best. Vacation. Ever.
Or atleast this year. We started off our trip in Barcelona (Sagria Familia, Gaudi Park, Port Olympic - all on the highly recommened Double Decker Bus Tour!) then boarded the beautiful Gem. We grew to realize the boat design was pretty obnoxious, but the inside was great (and by inside I mean rooms and restuarants, not the carpet).

First stop was in Valetta, Malta. The most interesting thing there was that was where Troy was filmed, although St. John's was pretty cool. We then continued on to Capri (photos in previous post), the most beautiful place I have ever seen.

Next up was a run through Rome. I mean it when I say we ran. That place is huge and of course, all of the places we wanted to see were on opposite sides of the city - St. Peter's/Vatican, the Colluseum, and Trevi Fountain. We left the city with a sheen of sweat. Thank goodness we came in a season when it wasn't too hot! Rome was incredible with all of the history. We will definitely be planning another trip there soon.

Then there was Florence where we waited in line for an hour to see David and it was well worth it. Then climbed to Michelango's Park where we got the best views of the city and the countryside. Seriously some of the most amazing views. Everything almost looked fake it was so beautiful. Plus, it was awesome since Ashley studied abroard there so she mapped out the entire day.

And finally we headed over to the French Riviera where we visited Monte Carlo, Monaco, and Villafranche. Another beautiful day of wondering around and enjoying the sites. Maybe one day we will have enough money to drive our Bentley to the Monte Carlo Casino and play the $100 slots. Or not.

We would definitely recommend visiting all of these places and are hoping to visit most of them again. It was a bummer when the vacation ended, but luckily we got to come home just in time for the Cubs to start the playoffs. GO CUBS!

CA-pree

2008-09-28T20:26:00.007-05:00

Thinking about retiring here in a few years. More Europe photos to come. This is just the place I am missing the most right now.

CakeBeard the Pirate

2008-09-14T20:41:00.005-05:00

All ye who enter, surrender your sweets and your treasures. Look on in despair at the plunderer of cakes and the destroyer of frostings.
- Mya Verticchio's Journal 8/31/2008

I happened to see Mya's journal laying open on her workdesk the day after her 1st birthday party, and that's what she wrote. I'm not surprised that such a sharp little girl has already taught herself to read and write, but the pirate dialect she writes in was pretty impressive. I also admire her ability to concisely describe how completely she dominated her personal birthday cake. And she even managed to strike a nice pose for the cake papparazzi.

We had an excellent Labor Day weekend with Mya and all of her friends and family. The weather was great, Tony and Kristy threw a raging party with plenty of beer and cake, and the Ohio River fireworks were spectacular. The only negatives of the weekend were the terrible Illini defense against Mizzou and the disturbing sight of two rather portly Ohioans getting a little too romantic during the fireworks show. But when you've got CakeBeard the Pirate to keep you entertained, it's hard to get upset about anything.

Oh Chicago, How I Love Thee

2008-09-05T19:09:00.004-05:00

Two weekends ago we got to enjoy our city a little bit with some out-of-towners. Nicole had a friend in from California so we decided to show off Chicago in a way we hadn't ever seen it before - by taking the Architectural Tour. I was so surprised when I got the pamphlet as we boarded the boat and saw the photo that you can see posted here. I wondered how I had never seen this building before and was excited to see it that day.

Ryan later politely told me that that was just a picture, the building hadn't been built yet. Woops! Looks like I still have a lot to learn about Chicago. The tour was awesome even though I didn't get to see everything pictured in the pamphlet.

Later we joined Ryan's family, including Margaret and Rob from England, at Ravinia. How have we missed out on this for the past 5 years? A $15 ticket to see a concert (we saw Tony Bennett) where you bring a picnic and all you can drink? We will definitely be training it up there again. Although I don't think we will ever be having our picnic catered with waiters and candelabra as some North Shore folks did.

115 Degrees and Rising

2008-08-21T20:18:00.002-05:00

Yup, that's us, posing around a trashcan...early Sunday morning. And yes, that is a travel scarf around Sarah's neck.

I got to celebrate Nicole's bachelorette party this weekend in Vegas at Planet Hollywood. Needless to say it was amazing! How could it not be with 13 ladies, a play-doh contest and two free tables? I am still trying to catch up on sleep, but looking very forward to our upcoming trip to EUROPE!!

The Best Excuse

2008-08-10T21:30:00.009-05:00

Slumber party with Emily = Treats for Ryan and Laura

I'm not sure who had a better time this weekend - Emily got to eat Uncle Donald's, build forts, visit the zoo, and eat a Brownie Earthquake from DQ (if you haven't tried this yet, we highly, highly recommend that you do), but we got to do all of those things plus hang out with her!

And we learned that she has developed an excellent vocabulary!

For example:
"Oh, what a nice breeze."
"Is this kind of healthy, or really healthy?"
And my favorite, in response to Ryan asking why she continued to throw Stinky Ducky, "Because you keep picking him up."

Like Mother Like Daughter

2008-07-21T20:54:00.005-05:00

I mean really. If you don't recognize her, you're not looking hard enough. Bright eyes, trendy pink butterfly ensemble, a pose that says "What? You're taking a picture? Well thank God I look so gorgeous."

It's Lucy Carter!

We were lucky enough to catch up with Darlene and Lucy this weekend in Jacksonville after attending the Cardinals / Padres game in St. Louis. She is so much fun and impressed us with her roly poly moves and her scooting abilities. Plus her smiles and giggles are amazing! Can't wait til the entire Carter family comes to stay with us when the Cubs go to the World Series!

Read more about Lucy and family here.

David Blaine is a Hack

2008-07-08T21:18:00.007-05:00

Well, I've managed to fool Laura yet again. Obviously, my first and most important illusion (GOB would be proud) was to trick her into marrying me. My latest ruse was even more important...convincing her to STAY married to me for an entire year. You might be asking yourself - how did I manage to pull off such an impressive feat? By distracting her with a trip to beautiful San Diego, of course!

Our trip out west to celebrate our anniversary was quite a success. Other than a few complaints about the ballpark (as you can see on the right), we saw an exciting Mets-Padres game and feasted on a couple foot longs to kick off the weekend. The next day, we did what any sensible married couple looking for romance would do...went to the zoo. The San Diego Zoo was quite impressive...we both got to spend some time with the panda bears, and Laura got to check out the koala bears that I'd already seen in Australia (no big deal). That night we had a great Mexican meal, at a place where some nice old ladies prepare your tortillas from scratch. We took advantage of the great weather by spending our last day checking out a surf competition at Mission Beach (no Laird Hamilton sightings) and dining outside at a nice Italian place. I'm already looking forward to our next anniversary trip - I hear downtown Detroit is beautiful in June.

It's been long enough since our last post that we've had some other good stuff to report. We spent a great 4th of July weekend at the beach in Michigan. We fattened up on some Redamak's, watched a hellacious display of illegal fireworks (now I know what Brad Gardner's version of heaven looks like), and got to spend some quality time with the family. I challenge any of our thousands of readers to tell me a better way of celebrating the birth of our great nation.

And finally, the Cubs just traded for Rich Harden. Sure it's a big if, but if Rich can stay healthy, he and Big Z will be quite the tandem when October rolls around. Then I can use my powers of mind control on Laura for my most daring stunt yet...to convince her that we should buy World Series tickets.

One Year Later

2008-06-16T20:54:00.003-05:00

Hat's off to Gladware's - Press 'n Seal. After one year in our freezer and a weekend of thawing in the fridge, our wedding cake was more delicious than I remember. Maybe that's because I didn't eat more than a nibble the night of our wedding, but I am still impressed.

Pretty unbelievable we got married a year ago! As we celebrate more weddings this summer, it's nice to relax and reminisce about our own.

Life Only Goes Down After College

2008-06-04T21:34:00.003-05:00

Or at least that's what we learned at Avenue Q on Monday night. Not your typical broadway show, Avenue Q is made up of a cast similar to Sesame Street - both actors and puppets.

The show was hysterical with songs like "Everyone is little bit racist" and "It sucks to be me" and included acts with puppets getting frisky after having too many Long Island Iced Teas and Gary Coleman as a landlord in a NYC apartment building. I would definitely recommend it. The only bad part was when I got yelled at for having my feet on the chair ahead of me.

"This is the theater lady!"

See Ya Gas Hog!

2008-05-28T21:37:00.006-05:00

Just in time. When our brakes began to squeal and the cd player ate our cd's we really began to hope that the third Honda dealership we were visiting would have the car we were looking for.

Three hours of our Memorial Day spent in Lisle with Ken (see picture) were worth it when we walked out with our Honda Civic. And we walked quickly hoping they wouldn't come running after us to tell us the deal was off, that our trade in was actually worth nothing. But luck was on our side and we drove off into the sunset with the soothing voice of our navigator pointing the way home.

Did I mention we just went from 15 miles/gallon to 30? It makes the excruciatingly high gas prices not seem quite so bad.

It's Business Time

2008-05-18T20:50:00.009-05:00

The Chicago Theater has been good to us. We got some excellent pictures in front of it on our wedding night, and saw a great concert there on Wednesday.

If you haven't seen The Flight of the Conchords on HBO, I'd highly recommend you add it to your Netflix queue. Especially if you like awkward situations and singing New Zealanders. We loved the show when it aired last year so it was a no-brainer to check out Bret and Jemaine's live show when we heard they were coming to town.

The Chicago Theater is really cool...interesting decor and an old-fashioned feel (so old-fashioned, in fact, that cell phones don't work in there). We had a really good view of the stage from our seats in the lower balcony.

A standup comedian named Arj Barker was the opening act and he didn't disappoint. He had interesting and hilarious takes on gay marriage (we should support it until we can 'find a cure for them') and how difficult it is to be an uncle (it's exhausting playing with kids for an hour or so before heading home...tell me about it) before he introduced 'the two guys from New Guinea'. A good warm up to the main event.

The Kiwi musicians put on quite a show. Here's a detailed review with all the highlights, but I have to say that the banter in between songs was worth the price of admission...Bret's imaginary family with his miniature grandchildren and Jemaine's concern for the issues (no issue in particular...just 'the issues') were particularly hilarious.

Sometimes we get annoyed with living in Chicago (it's expensive, the commute sucks, etc.) but nights like these make me realize how glad I am that we're here. Whether it's a restaurant, a concert, a game, cooking classes...there's always something new to do.

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo

2008-05-06T07:15:00.007-05:00

Drinking margarita's, eating carne asada with homemade salsa verde....with 24 strangers and a chef named Tobin. Oh, and Nicole and Louis, our awesome cooking table buddies.

Last night's class at the Chopping Block was much, much less intense then our first one. But the laid back atmosphere - we made the churros, salsa verde and carne asada while the other tables made the guacamole, queso fundido and mexican rice - provided us with much more time to sip our margaritas and beer. (I am assuming this is why I heard Ryan grabbing for the Excedrin Migraine in the middle of the night.)

The Chopping Block keeps adding more good looking, good cooking classes, so I am looking forward to our next time there and hoping that Tobin is our sous chef. I think he is good luck.

17 & 11

2008-05-01T19:38:00.007-05:00

Only 83 more games to go and I'll get a new Prius.

Okay, maybe not, but that is what I am trying to convince Ryan that we need to get since gas is near $4 a gallon. Or maybe some matching scooters...

Even Aramis is Excited by the Cubs' Hot Start

2008-04-20T20:58:00.013-05:00

Yes, we haven't even seen a full month of games. And yes, half of the wins have come against the hapless Pirates. But what a pleasant three weeks of baseball this has been. Aramis appears to be fully healed from Cesar's "how's your father" from last season, and the Cubs have completely excised the unseemly goiter of Dusty Baker's influence on this team. How refreshing is it to watch a team that works the count, takes walks, and forces the opposing starter to actually exert some energy? After a long trek through the Neifi Perez-Corey Patterson-Jacque Jones wilderness of 'aggressive' at-bats and dumb baseball, we've got a group of guys who have a plan:

- Han Soto. The guy is making my choice of jersey look very wise. Under the tutelage of the burly wiseman, Hank White, he's turning into one of the best catchers in the league. Going into today he was leading all MLB catchers in OPS, he isn't afraid to make a visit to the mound when a pitcher is struggling, and he's done a nice job blocking pitches in the dirt. His one weakness has been throwing out basestealers, but if last year was any indication, he'll be fine in that area.

- Fukudome. He's an actual baseball player - he has a great approach at the plate, he's an excellent defender with a good arm, and knows his way around the basepaths. And for those of us lucky enough to be at the ballpark, his ninth inning home run on Opening Day was about as memorable as it gets.

- Derecles. It's good to have him back. The wrist is healed, he's pulling the ball with authority, and he might just get that MVP trophy he was screwed out of in 2005.

- Reed Johnson. I'm still a Felix Pie fan, and I hope he can figure things out eventually. But there's no way you can take this gritty, grindy, scrappy son of a gun out of the lineup. Ignore the mindless blather that he's a throwback to a time when men were men and dirt was used instead of Neosporin - just pay attention to his .408 on base percentage.

So don't let racist T-shirt selling morons or miserable old farts bother you - we've got a really good team to watch this summer.

No Tigers

2008-04-08T20:58:00.002-05:00

It's official. Emily is a big girl. She not only brushes her teeth, eats McNuggets and draws works of art, but now she has had her first slumber party. Two Friday's ago, after a delicious meal of Uncle Donald's and running back & forth 50 times in our place Emily was ready for reading and bed time.

Promptly at 6am the next morning we heard "Out" from the baby monitor. We were impressed she slept through her first night over. Saturday, we got to enjoy the Lincoln Park Zoo, but made sure to avoid the tigers and lions after some reminding from Emily. I think if anyone would have seen us trying to keep her awake on our ride back to our place, they would have thought we were ridiculous. Oh well, it worked. Who knew that all of us would have ended up taking a 2 hour nap.

Can't wait for our next sleep over! Maybe next time we'll take all 3 Simons........

And then the dryer broke

2008-03-27T18:54:00.007-05:00

Are you serious?! Have you seen a cuter smile? This was definitely one of our most fun holidays because we got to spend it with Mya! Who knew that seeing someone scream every time MiMi entered the room would be so entertaining.

Despite our fun times in J'ville, there was no warning that this Easter was going to be our most unlucky. After getting stuck in our garage with Ashley & Byron on our way to the train station (because someone had crashed into the garage door due to the SNOWY! conditions) we managed to have a semi-truck back into our car, get a flat tire, and finally come home to a broken dryer. Sheesh! Good thing we had Mya around to cheer us up!

We're Old

2008-03-09T18:41:00.009-05:00

We went to the South Side Parade today, which was an interesting experience but served as one of those semi-frequent reminders that things have changed a lot since our zany college days. Back then, we could drink green beer all day, scarf down a couple slices of Bonnie Jean's pizza, and wake up the next day feeling as refreshed as a newborn babe. Now we have a hard time believing that we used to party as hard as the young whippersnappers we saw today. The two sweethearts passionately making out while standing in a puddle of vomit in the port-o-potty line...the three gentlemen who covertly urinated on the leg of their oblivious buddy...the kids posing for pictures on top of an overturned port-o-john. It's fun to think that we were way to cool for these kinds of amateur stunts, but who are we kidding? The best we can hope for now is that the hooligans in question were high school kids, because they looked really young to us. If they were collegians, we're in big trouble because we're even older than we think.

Some other random stuff:

- A couple good things about Bill Foster's win in the special election for Denny Hastert's old spot in Congress. First, Jim Oberweis is a weenie and it's nice that his sleazy fear-mongering attack ads backfired on him. Second, and most importantly, we will no longer be subjected to the nonstop advertising blitz that has been on our TV for about a month now.

- The summer, and everything that goes with it (including baseball), can't get here soon enough. I can't tell you how happy it makes me that this dude is no longer in the Cubs dugout. Nice to have a grown up in the dugout.

So Fierce!

2008-03-06T18:49:00.005-06:00

My stomach actually had butterflies in it as we waited to see who would be declared winner of this season's Project Runway. And yes, I admit I may have gotten a bit choked up when Christian cried.

With the season over, it's official, Ryan predicted every winner, every week. Looking forward to next season and hoping somehow Santino and Christian will have their own show together. I love reality tv.

Too Much Cream

2008-03-01T17:11:00.006-06:00

Ugh. That is how I would describe how I felt all day on Thursday after taking our Italian 101 cooking class at the Chopping Block. On Valentine's I surprised Ryan with a gift card for a cooking class at the Chopping Block - he surprised me by booking a class at the Chopping Block. I guess we're already beginning to think alike!

Wednesday evening was the class and we were paired with a 30 something girl and her father who had taken the Meat 101 class the night before. It definitely made a difference that we were cooking with such a fun couple of people. While Ryan and Wayne cranked out homemade pasta for 2 hours, Rhonda and I made the sauces for the lasagna and filling for the ravioli. We switched with the boys to make the green fettucini noodles and they made the HEAVY 4 cheese sauce for the fettucini and some butter sauce for the ravioli. Needless to say everything was delicious, but I helped myself way too much to the sauce soaked fettucini. By the time we got home, Ryan was ready to sign us up for a second class. I quickly silenced him letting him know I would puke if he mentioned food one more time.

Thursday I woke to work out and promptly went back to bed fearing I was seconds away from throwing up pasta everywhere. Luckily I made it through the work day, but barely. It wasn't until we went to Sola with my parents and had a beer to burp up the bad stuff did I feel better. We are definitely signing up for another class, and will try to drag some friends along with us, but I will be prepared and try not to eat more than one helping of each thing we make. Woops! It was just so good! This photo definitely does not look pretty, but please note that you can't see the green noodles because they are drenched in cream. I think I am starting to feel ill.

Emily Turns Two

2008-02-17T09:30:00.013-06:00

Look how much Emily has changed over the last year. Her hat went from a frilly pink explosion to a hip and cool Elmo. The princess on her cake escaped and a sunshine took her place. Some hippies in tie die shirts snuck into her party. And she has also turned into a smart little walking, talking mini person. About the only thing that stayed the same is Ed's shirt, and how sane him and Allison still look, considering they usually get as much sleep in a night as Emily does in her afternoon nap.

It is amazing how far one can get in life using just three words:
mm hmm, no, and Minnie. The first is helpful when mom asks if you if you want more ketchup (dip) with your hot dog, the second is a favorite response when dad asks if you want to go night night, and the third is an easy way to summon your best bud to the TV.

Who knows what she'll be doing by the time birthday #3 rolls around...giving wedgies to her brothers, building a replica of her house using Play-Doh, or writing the next great American novel.
You'll have to check back to find out.

Best Valentine's Ever

2008-02-15T08:35:00.007-06:00

Why would I say that this has been the best Valentine's Day yet? I think Ryan would agree with me on this one. It's because we learned our friend Siyad is part of the Oceanic Six. [And WOW! am I impressed with what a straightening iron can do for him.] Ryan did predict Siyad would be one of thie six. I am still rooting for Sun and Jin.

Oh, and we did have some good chow at Club Lucky. Although the seven piece band didn't ever show up.....

Why Blog?

2008-02-13T19:16:00.004-06:00

So we have a blog, what do we do now? I guess when we are old and grey, we can look back and read about what we had to say when we were youngish. And I can prove to Ryan I am right whenever we can't remember the specifics around something....

I guess I'll start with the reason why we started this blog (flog). Darlene Carter has been driving us bonkers about starting one. I think so she can just catch up on us without picking up the phone, which honestly makes sense. So I'll pick up where she left off and tell everyone else - START A BLOG.

Quick catch up on our lives:
2000 - we met
2001 - we fell in love
2007 - we got married - Whoa, we have known each other for awhile.
Oh and in 2006, 2007 & 2008 we became an Aunt & Uncle - see photos on the right. Can you tell we are crazy about our nieces and nephews?

Welcome to Our Flog

2008-02-12T21:44:00.001-06:00

Hello there fellow interweb users. The word on the street is that internet addresses are being gobbled up faster than Laura eats popcorn at the movies, so we figured we should get our foot in the door before it's too late. Apparently flogging (family blogging) is all the rage these days, so this will be an easy way to keep you up to date on the latest happenings in our family. That means that you can look forward to all sorts pictures, words, and homemade claymation movies filling you in on our death defying stunts, hilarious antics, and heartwarming tales. Stay tuned! If you want to. Actually there's probably a lot of stuff you can look at right now that's way cooler. Like this.