Happy Birthday, Ellie!

 My goodness gracious, this little Tinkerbell...

well, just got this.

Yeah, I finally gave in after two years of begging. Is it my favorite thing in the world? Um, no. But hey, it is what it is. (Deep breath.) 

Ellie decided that, in addition to the oh-so-appropriate-for-a-15-year-old navel piercing, she wanted to have her friends over for a Charcuterie board party and then sleepover. They brought all sorts of cool boards, from cookies to sushi to wings, and having 14 girls sleeping in our basement actually wasn't as chaotic as we thought it'd be.

Well, except for this. Not sure how exactly that happened.

Happy birthday, Ellie!

My Favorite Ski Bunny

 Jared and Jack have gone skiing a bit this winter, but Ellie hasn't really been up for it...until her girlfriends decided to go skiing. Then our girl was all about the slopes. So Jared offered to drive some of the girls up there, and he and Jack skied on their own while the cute little ski bunnies did their thing. Not sure how much Ellie enjoyed the actual skiing part, but she sure looks cute!

The Holy Grail .... of Empanadas

 As you know, we've been on the neverending search for the very best empanada. And I think we've found it! They're Puerto Rican style, and made by a grandma whose grandson delivers them. And oh my, they're exquisite. Just delicious. Finally, we've found them!!

We're So Fancy

 OK, so maybe not fancy fancy, but we finally got around to painting the main floor, and Mama be so very happy about it!

In-progress! The crew that did the painting was really awesome

All done! So pretty!

They added some pretty shadow boxes in the living room

My phone camera is not great, so you'll just have to take my word for it - pretty

Loving it!

Bad Mom Alert

 Bad Mom Alert:

I just realized I didn't even bother to post anything about Christmas. Christmas, for goodness sake! Honestly, it's just embarrassing. But I promise we DID have a Christmas. And it was really lovely.

Here's our pretty tree. We picked it out at a local nursery, and it managed to stay pretty nice all through the holidays. 

And of course our stockings were hung by the chimney with care.

I'm going to 'get real,' as the kids would say. Sometimes our dear Ellie is, uh, less than grateful on Christmas mornings. But she was great this year, and very happy with what Santa brought her. 

Jack got some fun stuff too. 

And Oliver, well, he didn't know it was Christmas, but he liked hanging out with the whole family.

And of course Christmas morning wouldn't be the same without Dad's snowman pancakes!