5 under 3

Make that 3 and under

Confused?

I'm referring to the second half of our holiday QFT (remember?, Quality Family Time). I know, geez Krista, it's officially 1 month after Christmas. Get with the program. I'm trying. Really trying. I promise.

I suppose I could have just skipped the holiday wrap up, but then you wouldn't get to see these great photos of the 5 days we spent with the other half of our family....in the same house as 5 little ones 3 years old & under! Well, technically in 2 houses.....but most of the time, just 1.

There was lots of playing going on......inside and out. Throw that in with a Harnish family gathering/pool tournament and a bunch of baby holding and that pretty much sums up how we spent our time.....doing it all beside a roasty toasty warm wood stove.

I'll let the photos speak for themselves - with a little help.

Chloe with her wild & beautiful hair!

Grampy snuggling baby Joel
(he was less than a week old!)

Most delicious punch ever.
(White grape juice, Sprite & cranberries)

Isaiah & Addie glued to the tube....Elmo must be on!

Cousins catching up on life

A favorite male pastime - chopping & stacking wood

Hello Mo!

Aunt Meghan & Joel

Sisco & Joel
(we couldn't get enough of Baby Joel)

This little girl loves the big girls!

Guess who loves the freedom of the farm?

Leaf wrestling pit

Addie going out on a limb

Now everyone want to go out on a limb

Check out this 7-month-old almost walker.....little Lewis

Mia & Taffy sliding on the ice

Mia loving life

Grampy & his girls

Angels making snow angels

Uncle Kush & Isaiah

Present time!

Read me a story Uncle Eloy

Lewis & his mom tearing into another present

Proud big sister....and cousin

Auntie love

Grammy & Grampy with their crew of 5

We Are....

Penn State!

In case you didn't know, both Ben & I graduated from under grad at Penn State. And like most Nittany Lions, we have (and always will) a special place in our hearts for Happy Valley (what they call the town of State College, where the university is located). Nestled down in a valley, life is always grand in Joe Pa's town! Actually, most people probably don't know this, but we laid eyes on each other for the very first time at a PSU football game. Can you even image meeting the love of your life amidst 120,000 people? Well ok, the "love of your life" part was unknown at that very moment, but things did blossom a bit later that evening when we reunited at a party, thanks for our little matchmaker (and maid of honor ) Sara Beth!

So lucky for us, Happy Valley is almost exactly halfway between where my parents live in northwestern PA & where Ben's parents live in southeastern PA. Whenever possible we like to make it a stopping point as we travel between our two families. Our holiday trip home in December was no exception. Only this time was extra special because it was Mia's first time!

Check out the highlights.

Meeting the Allen St. piglets

Checking out the old stomping grounds
(aka the cool kids sidewalk that led to my old apartment)

For sure a McLanahan's sub

Meeting old Joe Pa himself....sort of

And of course, a visit to the Nittany Lion Shrine

Our visit was short (and cold) but we had so much fun, we've even chatted about going back for Fall a weekend trip......but probably not on a football weekend. It would be super fun to tailgate with friends and hit another game, but we'd also like to just hang out and chill in town which is pretty hard to do when the entire world is there too!

Snow Day Part II

Yay! Wishes really do come true! Today we had another snow day. Well technically it was more like an ice day, but it's all the same when you're stuck in the house!

At first I was a little bummed as I had planned a big trip to Mary Jo's to purchase some fabric for our guest room curtains (it would have been a perfect day to sew) but then I realized how lucky I really am. A 4 day weekend with my favorite 2 companions? How often does this happen? Almost never!

So I readjusted my priorities and got to work making the most of my day. Since I'm really trying to get on top of things in 2011, I began by paying bills, making phone calls and organizing photos on the computer. I bit the bullet and paid to upgrade my Flickr account so that now I can upload as many photos as I'd like, making it a whole lot easier to share the good ones with friends and family. Since the arrival of my new camera, I've been snapping away just like I used to (before it was stolen). I think I took about 500 photos while back in PA. They certainly aren't all great, but how can I delete photos of our family?

Take a look at Part I of our holiday in Pennsylvania, where we celebrated Christmas with the Finotti/Master family. It was great! We spent Christmas day with everyone together, just like old times. Mia got to meet her cousins and experience snow for the first time and absolutely loved it all. And of course we had lots of quality family time....and lots of good eats!

The whole Master/Finotti Crew!

Pa loves his Quickbread!

Who knew Christopher had a soft spot for kitties?

Our first white Christmas in a while.

QFT. (Quality Family Time)

Uncle Mark sharing some funny "Dadisms"

Our little family of 3.

Mia showing off her tricks!

Sadie Boo in her Christmas collar.

Could it be more socks?

I thought they weren't allowed on the furniture?

Sister & Brother

Our little snow bunny!

That's quite the cooler you got there mom!

Christmas in Pennsylvania Part II, coming soon...........

Snow Day!

I know, I know. I'm in trouble. With you. I've been a bad, lazy blogging girl. I'm sorry. I really am. I seem to have lost all forms of motivation over the holiday break. Sometimes I look at blogging like going to the gym. It's great when you have a schedule, but if you miss one day, it's sooooo hard to get back to it. This is what has happened to me....with both the blog & the gym!

Honestly, I've been thinking a lot lately about taking a break from this whole blog thing. Don't panic - not yet. I love the way this blog has become like a personal digital scrapbook. I dream of printing out all of my Travel/Guatemala blogs and making it a coffee table book for us. If you know of a resource to make a book from a blog without having to copy and paste every single post into a word document, please please please let me know. My original idea was to end this blog upon our return from Guatemala and begin a new one. And actually that still is my plan. It's that whole motivation thing that's getting in the way. Mostly the it's the physical layout of the blog that is holding me back. What should it look like? How should I structure it? And the worst.....what will I name it? Such big decisions. And I'm a terrible decision maker. Not like I make bad decisions - more like I just can't ever seem to pull the trigger. Ugh. I'd love to hear your opinions on the matter. Maybe they'll give me some motivation.

More for my sake than yours, I'm posing a list of "to-do" items for myself in 2011. Mostly things that have crossed my mind and I have aspired to do, but then never pulled the trigger. These days I seem to be overwhelmed by projects with the move & now fixing up the house. It's killing me. I really want to accomplish these things and hope to try me hardest to do so. I really really hope I can do it.

Krista's 2011 To Do List
1. Finalize & print out our Guatemala photo books
2. Create a new blog
3. Find someone to make our wedding album......after 6.5 years! Oh my!
4. Send in our extra wedding photos to make a Together Book
5. Dedicate myself to learning Photoshop
6. Organize design ideas into binders
7. Create an Etsy shop with my mom
8. Remake & print a few photo books (like our honeymoon & big vacations) that I lost when our hard drive crashed.....if there is any time left over!

What do you think? Doable? I really hope so.

Anyway, on to something more interesting for you. Our snow day! I realize I skipped right over the holidays and still owe you some "after" photos of the house progress. How about I dedicate myself to catching up over the next week or two? And you have my word that I will actually do it and not disappear again!

So all weekend we've been hearing about is the impending storm. Well as of 11:30 pm last night when we went to bed, there was not a flake in the sky, but schools were already being canceled. I know, I know.....we are so not in Colorado (or Pennsylvania) anymore! This morning though when we woke up it was like a winter wonderland with fresh powder covering everything! Of course Mia was thrilled (oops you haven't heard about her first encounter with snow yet - she loves it), so we hit the streets to play for a while, all three of us! Ben had to work from home due to the snow. I on the other hand did go into work but only stayed for an hour and then we closed up the store. In that hour we had 3 customers and negative sales! On the way home I stopped to pick up the supplies for our afternoon project. How could we let some extra free time pass without checking another project off our list.

Take a look at how we did our snow day right!

Um, a giant hole in the mudroom wall on the snowiest day of the year?

Nope! A doggie door!


A paint fight on our freshly painted living room walls?
Yep....sort of. I hate it, so I'm repainting it a cool white/gray instead of the too yellow white.
(And that's our new desk turned faux built-in that was delivered Sunday)


A personal chef in our very own kitchen?
I wish! Instead I made the most delicious tomato bisque soup ever.

(Thanks to The Brasserie Fireside Restaurant Jean!)

Here's to hoping there will be a Snow Day Part II!