Little girl in big old bed

She takes up approximately 1/20th of this big girl bed. But she's got about a million elephants, zebras, babies and teddies to keep her cozy.

Happy (Chinese) New Year

During one of Ken's recent trips to Asia, he acquired a bunch of very cool chopsticks, a love for sticky buns, and the idea to host a Chinese New Year's Party.

We decorated the house (thank you, World Market, for having such great stuff and I curse you for going out of business now that I've just found you . . . ).
We ate a ton of great food.
We admired the Margetts' concoction for cooking sticky rice (I've got to get one of these).
Taryn won best of show for her great cooking (and great serving dish).
Baby Gabriel and a I modeled our Chinese silks.
We enjoyed great food and great conversation. Looking forward to a yearly tradition!

the Projects

We've had a bunch of projects on our plate recently (which would explain the reason why nothing else seems to be getting done. Blogging, laundry, actually cooking meals, etc, etc).

Here's what we've been up to (in no particular order):

1.  Valentines.  Luke and I made 'em together.  Not the cutest things I've ever created (don't look, please, Stacey) but Luke was proud of them.  And I like how he wrote his name on every single one.

2.  Evie's Big Girl Room

Evie decided that it was finally time to learn to jump out of her crib.  So we decided to get rid of the red wall, change it all into a nice, neutral cream, and bring on the girly.   
Note the high-class art work on the wall (done by yours truly with scrapbooking paint to match the quilt, which I absolutely adore).
We decided to be neutral because of our next (and biggest) project.

3.  Selling our house

We're planning on staying in the south metro, hopefully in Eagan/Rosemount.  We're hoping to take advantage of the market and so, as of today, our house is officially on the market.  Which means we've done a ton of painting, organizing, cleaning closets and throwing stuff away.  We'll see how it goes - but let me know if anyone you know needs a house!  

Activity

What do you do when it's cold outside?***

***Yes, I let him do this. And I might have given him
the bag because he "wasn't going fast enough"

Rome: Recap, last few days

Some last few pictures from our trip. Ken had the last day free so we finished up the touristy sights. We took a guided tour of the Vatican which was really, really interesting. We saw the Sistine Chapel (amazing. absolutely amazing) and St. Peter's Basilica.

Ken and I at St. Peter's. The entire church (artwork and all) is done in mosaic, so it would last forever. They also have engraved in the floor the length of all other basilicas/cathedrals just so they have proof that St. Peter's is the largest.

The view up at the dome - incredible.
A few shots in doors at the Vatican. They had some of the most beautiful mosaics patterned after persian rugs.
There is so much art collected by the various popes that it was literally stacked on top of each other for halls and halls and halls. I especially loved the roman statues.

We took another quick walk so I could show Ken the Roman Forum and then we wandered aroiund the Colosseum. Another simply incredible structure. It used to be covered with marble, but the marble was "recycled" and turned into much of the marble at St. Peter's.

Ken cheering on the gladiators at the Colosseum:


Ken and I at the Roman Forum
Then we finished off the day with dinner (more gnocchi for me!) at a great restaurant just around the corner from our hotel and a stop and our favorite gelato place. We literally went there every day. Note my Italian souvenier - black leather boots.

We then got back on a plane and headed home to our happy and tired children.

Happy Birthday, my still-pretty-little-Peanut

You know you're a princess when you have, not one, but 3 birthday celebrations. We had cake with Grandma B before she left, cake at Stacey's yesterday, and our family party tonight (I was feeling a little guilty about not actually making a cake or doing much. And I think birthdays should be a big deal).

I made this devil's food cake which was really quite good. I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of buttercream frosting. But it sure looked fluffy and pretty.

Evie attempted to blow the candles out (but still needed a little help from her big bro):

"What? They're really going to let me keep sticking my finger in it? Can this really be happening?"

"I can shovel more in with the fork . . ."

"Goodness gracious! I will not let you eat my cake!"

Things I love about my Evie:
- I love how much she talks now. She proudly announces herself as "Ebbie!!" She speaks in full paragraphs (though most of it is Evie-speak but every now and again you'll catch a word you recognize -- like "cake!" today).
- When I rock her before bed (she points at the chair now demanding "cudd-ew") she sings with me. Very loud. And (sometimes) on tune. Her current favorites are iddy-diddy-di-dew (itsy bitsy spider) and "too-ah ooh-ah" (tura lura, a lullaby my mom used to sing to me.)
- She spent the majority of her 2 year check up today dancing around the doctor's office, wearing nothing but her diaper, her shoes (which she proudly put on herself) and her two little pigtails.
- She is strong-willed. Her current favorite word is "NOOOOOO!" Yelled at the top of her lungs, sometimes for no apparent reason. Hopefully, she will use this for good.
- She loves. Everyone. Her family. Our friends. Her puppy. She loves.

Rome: Kelly Tourista

Our hotel is amazing. It's right downtown, about 50 yards from the best gelato place as well as this:
I've spent the last 2 mornings in by bright white running shoes with my camera+huge lens slung over my shoulder (absolutely screaming "American!" I realize). But my feet hurt! I don't know how these women walk around on cobblestone in spiky high-heeled boots all day.

Yesterday I did some shopping (well, drooling, really. There is a whole street lined with Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Missoni, you name it. . .), visited the piazza Popola and Spanish steps, and walked around about a million piazzas and churches.

Today was gorgeous:

I wandered through the Campo di'Fiori (one of the many markets). I want a market sells fresh pasta and artichokes the size of my head.

This is the road I ran on this morning for my morning run:

It's a little tough to run on the cobblestone, but I'm really not complaining. . .


I walked through the Roman Forum, which is one of the coolest places I have ever seen.


All of the oldest ruins (ie 60+ years BC) are made with this very thin brick. You can see it all over Rome, with new buildings built on top. It's amazing to see the beautiful buildings they were able to create. I can only imagine how impressive it would have been then.
I took a walking tour (thanks for the guide book suggestion, Kim) of all of the arches built by early Roman leaders. The sculpture on the inside of this one is incredible.
Throughout the ruins, there are these intricate marble pieces, just dotting the ground.
Next on the agenda: museums and then the Vatican and Colosseum.