Happy New Year!

I don't even know where to begin it has been so long since I have posted. Yeah, sorry about that. In a paragraph or less, here is what happened in teh last half of the year ... We had a our kitchen remodeled (it took forever, but turned out fabulous), Mallory turned 2, we traveled to Chicago to see Kendall on her first birthday and had lots of fun, we had my family in for Thanksgiving which was a lot of fun and a lot of cooking :), we traveled to Indy the weekend before Christmas to see Wade's family and the kids got to play with their cousins, they went as a Fairy Princess and a Lady Bug for Halloween, made lots of christmas cookies, and I am sure lots of other stuff that I can't remember ... I'll try to post pictures to catch you all up!

On to the resolutions, in no particular order ... try one new recipe a week, keep up with the running (I am up to about 5 miles/day, 5 times a week). and post to this blog at least once a week. I know, I am not shooting for the stars here, but I am trying to be realistic.

The good news is, I have already tried the new recipe this week! We had minestrone soup tonight for dinner - I've never made it before, I have always been a fan of Olive Garden's version. I am not trying to brag here, but I really think what I made was better! Here is the link for the recipe.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/jamies-minestrone/detail.aspx

I made very few changes - only had 2 zuccinis, so that is all I used. I used dry spices instead of fresh. Left out the water, instead just used chicken broth. Fresh green beans instead of canned. It was really really good.

So, what's up with the rest of the family:

Keira: She is racing through kindergarten and learning more than I ever imagined. She is a great reader, seriously blowing me away with the books she can already read. She really loves the Magic Tree House books, we are reading those aloud at bedtime and she can't get enough, think she will love reading like I do. She has what she terms "a boyfriend" at school. His name is Charlie and he sends home little pictures with hearts on in for Keira. Very cute. She has decided to switch from Ballet to Gymnastics.

Mallory: She is my little spit fire. She is full of energy and runs around showing it off every day. She took at tumbling class at the gym and did pretty well, though staying on tasks is going to be difficult for this child. Despite her looking for trouble ALL THE TIME, she really is pretty sweet and still loves to snuggle up at bedtime. She is really into singing Happy Birthday right now, I'll have to post a video, it is hilarious.

Wade: Wade was off for 11 straight days the end of this month and it was wonderful (at least I thought so, he is probably ready to get out of this nut house and back to work ;). He accomplished a lot of projects, the biggest of which was paiting the ceiling. He has also taken up running and provides me with someone I try to beat everytime I run. Sadly, this is a losing battle for me as I will never be as fast as him.

Here is to a great 2012!!!