Merlot and a Masterpiece

At the beginning of the month a group of our friends got together to do Merlot and a Masterpiece...or drunk drawing as my dad likes to call it. It was so much fun! If you have something like this near you, you should get a group of your friends or family together and take advantage. And you need NO artistic skills to create your masterpiece. You just need some fun people, a good instructor, and wine, of course!

The instructor's work

My masterpiece!

Bryan's masterpiece - notice the extra flair of the baby tree in the middle.

Voila! 

Best Friends (In 10 years)

These two pictures were featured on a previous blog post from last year titled Busy Weekend. 

It's been very clear since day 1 that Aaron is not ready to be besties with his awesome cousin, Jackson.

So Kristen and I gave it a couple months and tried again. 

Nope, still not ready. Jackson is just so happy to be near his big cousin, and my rude child is not going to hold back his true feelings. They were even matching! Perfect picture opportunity (again). We'll try again in another couple months. 

Stay tuned, avid readers. We will capture precious moments between these two if it's the last thing we do!

Selfies with Aaron

So my kid likes to take pictures of himself...

Date Night!

Today I did something I haven't done in a long, long time. I asked my husband out on a date. To which he responded, "How does that work?" Clearly we don't go on dates much. I had to remind him that first ...I ask him on a date, second...we see if his parents are available to watch the baby, third...I tell him that Baxters is having 1/2 priced appetizers, and fourth....we go on a date. So we went! And it was delish!

We split some sticky ribs - dry rubbed then tossed with a tangy mustard BBQ sauce, corn fritters - with a sweet & spicy zucchini & grape tomato salsa, finished with a duo of red & green chili oil, and I had the steak tartare - a tender cut filet mignon with baby arugula, creamy horseradish and creme fraiche. Bryan has an aversion to raw meat. I really don't understand why, but more for me! It was the most delicious loaf of raw meat I've ever had. A big reason we went to Baxters was for the 1/2 price apps, and my 2 glasses of wine ended up costing more than our appetizers and Bryan's 3 beers...whoopsiedoodles! Have any of you ever tried the Tinto Negro Malbec? It was the smoothest red wine I've ever had. Worth the $12 a glass.

It was a nice, random date night on a Wednesday evening. You have to remind yourself how important it is to make time for your spouse after you have a kid. It's a good chance to actually talk and eat a meal in peace. I'm glad I asked him out.


I know many of you are like yeah, yeah, yeah....what's going on with Aaron, he's the whole reason we read this thing. Here you go...

It turns out Aaron is allergic to eggs in their regular state. He seems to be ok eating products with eggs cooked in, but scrambled eggs or omelets are not ok. He broke out in hives last week after taking some bites of my omelet. The DR wasn't too concerned, especially since it went down so quickly, and he doesn't seem to have any reactions to foods with eggs mixed in. He doesn't have to have an allergy test currently, and hopefully this will be something he grows out of. Grandpa Bosch will be pretty bummed if he can't take Aaron to Mary Ann's Diner for an omelet during Illini football season.

Aaron really likes to look at himself on the camera and wave. He also likes looking at his reflection in any mirror and saying "HI!" My kid's vain, alright!

We took Aaron to watch Coach Bosch's basketball game last Saturday. Aaron made it approximately 2 minutes before he was ready to go play with the basketballs and brooms. So he's either going to be a ball player or a janitor. I didn't get any pictures of him with the broom as I was too busy trying to corral him to one area to prevent him from running onto the court during the game. 

I got to spend some quality time with this little cutie, too! 

Hold up, what play did my daddy, errr Coach Bosch just call? 

Phew, it was a play I taught him. We're all good.

Yous guys ain't got nothing on Coach Bosch and STM!

We had a lot of fun! Aaron made it until halftime, and then we decided it was time for Bryan to take him home as he refused to let go of the brooms, and I was sweating profusely trying to keep him from rushing the court. Maybe he'll have a longer attention span next year. Or he'll at least sweep areas where people aren't playing ball.

Christmas

I can't believe Christmas has already come and gone. It goes by so fast. Aaron was such a good boy the whole time. He was even really good at Church even though it was during his bedtime. He loved dancing to the choir.


We did Christmas Eve at my parents' house. I love how my mom hung her stockings this year.

For the first time we did Christmas morning at our house, just the 3 of us. It was very relaxing and nice. Different, but nice. Santa brought Aaron a kitchen, a vacuum, and lots of kitchen supplies. He got lots of fun things. And out of all of those fun things he got from Santa and from mommy and daddy, his favorite thing was his yogurt melts. He didn't let them go until they were almost all gone. And he still prefers mommy's kitchen and vacuum. I should have known. 

We headed over to grandma and grandpa Nickel's house Christmas afternoon. 

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. Aaron is one spoiled and lucky little boy. We are all lucky to have such great family and friends.  May your New Year be very blessed!

STL Weekend

Last weekend we headed down to STL with some of my cousins to watch the Illinois-Mizzou basketball game. Lots of fun stories to share for years to come. Well, maybe to just share amongst ourselves. And I was definitely THAT girl who pulled out my 20 questions and investigated everyone's lives. Sorry family! I just really love questions. We all had a great time.

Before the game we went to the Broadway Oyster Bar. It was amazing. I highly recommend it. I had oysters and a lobster po' boy, and some bites of jambalaya, and some bites of muffaletta. This place has a very interesting motif and clientele, but was still very good. I wish I would have taken a picture of the bathrooms. Very random and neat. Good pick, Sarah. 

After we ate lunch and had hilarious conversation for a couple of hours (sorry neighboring table), we hitched a ride to the game. I was too busy chit chatting to tell you if it was a good game or not, but according to my dad it wasn't. But it was a great finish to maybe a not so good game. Illinois won by 1 in the final seconds. Bring on the high fives. 

After the game we took a shuttle to The Landing. And let me say, Mizzou fans DO NOT like my jokes. They especially don't like my jokes after they just lost. I thought I was pretty funny. But according to everyone else, I was not. I will work on my material for our next trip. 

After some more interrogating fun family conversation at Morgan Street, we headed to the casino. We thought it would be a good idea to get sushi at 11pm. It was not. I'm too old to be staying out that late and eating casino sushi. Blech. 

We got back to our hotel which was having a debutante ball. Yes, those still go on, I guess. Needless to say I didn't sleep all night as there was some new form of drama happening outside my door every hour. I was wide awake by 6am. Nobody wanted to sing Christmas carols with me at this time. So I went and got some coffee and chatted with 2 ladies I knew would be awake...my momma, and my Aunt Donna. A perfect opportunity for me to sleep in, and I can't. I guess I was just ready to get back to my baby!

So there you have it...a quick recap of our cousin weekend in STL. Can't wait until next year. 

'Tis The Season

'Tis the Season for family, friends, Christmas cheer, and germs, and runny noses, and fevers, oh my! Winter is my favorite time of year! Insert sarcasm here. Yes, I do love how pretty the first snowfall looks, and love decorating my house for Christmas, and baking holiday treats, and spending time with family and friends, and starting new Christmas traditions with Aaron. What I don't like is the inevitable sickness that will be floating around all season.

Aaron was sick last week. He ran a fever, didn't sleep well, and just needed mommy and daddy's (but mostly mommy's) comfort. I took him into the doctor on Friday just to make sure it was nothing more, and it wasn't, thank goodness. Just a virus and sore throat. It's been going around. As a parent you're happy to hear your child doesn't have strep or an ear infection, but then you're secretly a little bummed to hear you won't be getting this magic elixir called an antibiotic. There's no magic potion for viruses. They just get to hang out for however long they see fit.

So what do you do when you're cooped up with a sick child for an entire week/weekend? Well, pretty much anything they want to do in order to keep them happy, and preferably distract them for a bit so they don't make you hold them the entire day. I wouldn't mind holding Aaron if we could just sit and cuddle. But he wants me to hold him so he can lead me in different directions in order to point at things. It is cute, and he is learning lots of words, but he's 26 pounds now. When was the last time you went from a full squat to standing position while holding 26 pounds? Or were forced to vacuum while holding 26 pounds. Yes, he really did make me vacuum. You do what you got to do. And my carpets can always use a vacuum.

So this past week we...

sat on the furniture however we wanted, 

decorated family members' Christmas cards with french fries,

did dishes,

organized the silverware drawer, 

and then the lazy susan, 

made ornaments (and hated every minute of the handprint part), 

ate our dinner out of whatever dishes we wanted while sitting on the counter wearing no pants - comfort first, 

and even got to eat our yogurt with our hands!



I think it's safe to say that our little buddy is on the road to feeling better, though. We took him back to the sitter's house today, and he was very happy to see his friends. His friends were very happy to see him, too. I'm sure we'll get blessed with another germy sickness before Winter is over, but I'll be prepared with plenty of Tylenol, Motrin, fluids, bleach, thermometers, wet rags, jammies, and fun things to do!

Hope you all are enjoying this time of year, and are blessed with good health! I really enjoyed catching some of your snowy, wonderland pictures on FB over the weekend. Can't wait to get Aaron out in the snow to play!

Have a great week!