Thanksgiving 5K

We are visiting Utah this year for Thanksgiving. If anyone wants to run/walk a 5K with us, sign up here: http://www.utahhumanrace.com/

HOSS

My adorable brother Hoss passed away from health complications related to old age on
October 29, 2009. Hoss was the most beautiful brindle English Bulldog around Salt Lake City. He was the best brother a girl could ask for. He was always the favorite child, probably because he was cuter and a little less maintenance. However, he was always the louder sleeper and I definitely got the better looking teeth! Hoss was a brother I always had fun with. When I lived with my father before I got married, my dad would go to bed at 10 p.m. every night. That is when Hoss would head downstairs to have some fun with his favorite sister. He would jump up on my futon bed and we would wrestle around. I would throw a blanket over him and tease him as he would try to bite/mutilate my hand. This guy had a powerful jaw so I had to be very careful. When I was moving out of my dad's house, as I was taking out the futon mattress, ran and jumped on the mattress and refused to get off. It was so sad to know that he realized his sister was moving out and there would be no more fun times at night. Hoss was very bright, when my dad would tell him his sister was coming over, he would sit and the back door and wait for me to show up.
Hoss was a daddy's boy. He loved his dad so much, when my dad would go out of town he would pout around the house and sit by the door each night around the time my dad would normally get home from work and wait for him.

Hoss did get to meet little Berkeley in February and was very proud to be an uncle as you can see below.

He was also very good at sharing with his little nephew McDuff the one time they were able to meet.

This is a family photo of all the siblings. Adorable family aren't we?

Hossy, you will be greatly missed by all those who had the chance to know you. You were such a wonderful member of our family and I cant imaging what it will be like without you.
God be with you till we meet again!
Love you!

All Hallows Eve

I do love me some fun holidays! I truly have been waiting my entire adult life of like 11 years to have a kid to dress up and show off. Holidays are super fun if, 1) you are a kid and 2) if you have a kid. It is great to finally be able to share all these fun family traditions with little Berke man. He was the cutest monkey in all of Somerville/Cambridge this year; this mom could not have been more proud! While I was beyond thrilled to show Berke off in his cute costume, the neighbors seems slightly more entertained by McDuff's costume.

I love Halloween, but I usually lack the creativity to come up with a good costume or else the ability to execute a clever idea. I end up going as something lame like a witch or a devil and call it good. This year however, we really tired to be creative and come up with some fun ideas.

Berkeley and Christian were Curious George and The Man in the Yellow Hat.

I went as Octomom. Here is our family picture! Cute eh?

Some friends of ours the Wangsgards and the Donigans threw their 2nd annual Halloween Party this year. To say it was a Fabulous party would be an understatement! These folks went to town!! The decorations, fog machine, lighting, haunted house cut out, the spider webs, on and on. GREAT JOB guys! I am not sure anyone can top your Halloween shin dig.

Some of my favorite costumes at the party were:
Lisa and Dan as Polygamist Sister Wives (Dan's bangs were awesome!)

Peter and Eunice as Richie and Margot Tenenbaum

Marci and Adam. This terrorist won "Scariest Costume"

I didn't get a group shot of the ghostbuster clan, but here is little Slimer. Adorable!

Here is Egon Spangler's ghost bustin' pack, which Kate made (HELLO!!!)

Patrick and Bonnie as Beaker and Juno

Andrew and Gwen as the Angel of Death and Life
They get the sexiest Angel award if you ask me! I hope all angels are that awesome.

ET and Elliot arrived as well. The creativity among my friends is always a
bit shocking to me.

I was proud of my costume this year. I was lucky enough to come in Runner Up for
"Best in Show," the Ghostbuster clan beat me out. However, if they are unable to preform their duties as "Best in Show" I can and WILL step up for them.

It was a great night, full of laughs and memories.

In other news, we had a spooky Halloween Party at work on Friday. I went as Octomom and was successful in bringing home "Best in Show" for this costume contest; winning a $50 gift card to a fancy pants restaurant in the area. Having a creative and fun costume pretty much rocks way more than being a dumb costume.

Oh yeah, did I mention that I ate way too much bad for me, but delicious food this weekend.

HaPpY HaLloWeEn!

Love, Curious George
Berkeley's 1st Halloween

Fall Festivities

New England Falls are always beautiful and my 2nd favorite time of year on the East coast. We've been enjoying our fall.
We got a special visit from Christian's cousin Paul and his wife. We had not seen them for 7 years so it was fun to reconnect. It is nice that Boston is a city where so many people come for work or pleasure so we get to see friends and family. We have another one of Christian's cousins coming to spend the weekend with us which should be fun.

I have always wanted to see a cranberry bog, so earlier this month we went to Edaville with some friends to check out the bogs.

The bogs were really pretty, and was interesting to see how things were done. However, I have to tell my fellow Bostonians this is probably an activity I would pass on (at this location anyhow.) It was advertised on the web as "The Annual Cranberry Festival" sponsored by Ocean Spray. We paid $12 a piece to this children's amusement park and saw this bog. There was nobody to explain about the bogging process; but luckily our friend Stuart had seen an episode on Dirty Jobs and was able to explain the process to us. We thought there would be cranberry products to purchase; nope there wasn't.The only thing Ocean Spray had to do with it was giving out free samples of cranberry juice. For me, it was a big of a let down. I do, however, know what a bog looks like before and after it is flooded. They really are a beautiful sight, just not worth the money or the drive.

Christian found a big ole caterpillar in the cranberries and Berkeley wanted to play with it.

We did take a train ride around the park. I thought they might explain the bogging process during the ride, but no, they just played children's songs instead.

Also this fall, we got our first snow storm. On October 16th to be exact. WHAT THE?????

In October we love all things pumpkin. Dressin' the kids up like one....

making my favorite cookies of all time; pumpkin chocolate chip....

and of coarse carving them.

Family Pictures

Our talented friend Terese took our pictures last week at hte Boston Public Garden. They turned out wonderful. Take a look!

Ellen or Bust

When I am with Julia, I seem to have the most fun. We can be spontaneous and crazy, and just let our hair down. We decided we would make a video during my trip out to Seattle; the purpose of the video is to get on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. We love Ellen and want to see her show LIVE more than anything, so we made her a little video letting her know this. We bought the Ellen eye masks (the ones she uses when her guest play games) and we wore them all over the city and even got natives to wear them doing special tricks. Check out the video and let me know what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7phaf1AxdFU