Lots to be thankful for

Guess who just turned two? Our little wild man is 2! We can hardly believe how fast the time has flown. Grandma made Warren a cute little pillow where the fingers fold down with velcro to make the "2" shape. And how much does a kid like to play with velcro.....A LOT! 

I attempted my first "fun" cake and all I can say is that it was a LOT of work. It was fun, but good luck trying to find a Twinkie the day after they announce on the news that Hostess is going into bankrupcy. And those cute little chocolate covered donuts for the wheels- it was a miracle that I found a package of those. (And yes, there was only one, and who knows how old they were). My sister is the cake master in our family and I did my best to make her proud. I've got a long way to go, but this was a great first experiment in cake design.

Warren managed to get a good 'blow' attempt, but Daddy helped him succeed!

Warren dove right in and made all the gumdrops quickly disappear. I think he got a bit of a surprise when one of the red ones turned out to be cinnamon flavored and not cherry like the others!

And we had a beautiful Thanksgiving as well. We had good friends join us and food and festivities were bountiful. We had a grand time playing games, watching football and sharing special Thanksgiving memories. It's amazing how connected a special dish can make you feel to those cherished childhood thoughts, or recent holidays with loved ones. Now that we're parents we think a lot about creating that environment that will hopefully spark a warm spot in the hearts of our kid(s). What amazing things we have to be grateful for, the memories we have and the ones we are creating. May all of you be blessed with a happy, healthy, and HEARTy holiday season!

hmmmmmmm

A couple of posts ago I wrote a little something that went like this...

"I've had this really strong positive gut feeling lately....this hopeful energy that has just overcome me. I'm feeling it in my art and my life at it's wonderful."

Okay, so it turns out this "positive gut feeling" might be something else.....

Yep....Warren is going to be a big brother this summer. And I just love that this pregnancy began with such strong positive feelings, a good omen for this baby's energy, right?! We'll be expecting our new little one around June 18th, which is Brandon's dad's birthday. What a wonderful coincidence! We have lots to be thankful for this holiday..... 

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of family, friends and fun!

Post Sandy

Here I am, finally back on-line and getting back to normal after all of the craziness surrounding Hurricane Sandy. Fortunately we didn't have any building/car damage, we just went without power for 5 days. It was an interesting 5 days though. Warren was an absolute trooper and had fun playing in the candlelight in the evenings. It was a challenge being home-bound however, we attempted to get out at least once a day for a walk and some fresh air. Traveling by car was extremely difficult because lights were out and it wasn't always clear who had power at what point. We also had to be careful with how much gas we used, as we weren't sure how long it might take to get back to normal (turns out the odd/even rationing ended yesterday). The amount of huge downed trees everywhere we looked indicated this was bound to be an enormous clean-up effort.

Warren still loved story time, even by flashlight!

We had stocked up with huge bags of ice in the freezer and so we were able to keep food cold for the majority of the time. We warmed and cooked food on our camp stove until we ran out of propane. We then realized that we had a gas stove, which we felt really silly about. But to be honest the 'camping taste' that comes from cooking on that stove made the adventure a little bit more fun. We tossed all of our remaining food on Friday right before heading up to New York for the Marathon. It felt funny that we had to head up there to get power. We had to drive through Hoboken which had huge flooding problems from the storm. Every street we drove down was obviously dirty from the water that had previously washed through. The curbs were just littered with matresses, furniture and all the ruined items from the basement apartments and businesses. It was very sad, and they clearly still had no power at that time either.

I must say that our hotel, The Conrad, down in Battery Park was a welcomed reprieve from our week without power. We all enjoyed a hot shower and a little luxury after feeling like we'd been tucked in a hole for so long. 

We were at the Expo getting Brandon checked in for the Marathon when we saw the breaking news over on the screens that the race had been canceled. To be honest, we were in shock, and I think the thousands of other people there were too. The excitement and smiles on everyone's faces quickly turned to disbelief. The amount of runners who had traveled LONG distances (I'm talking South Africa and Germany distances) was amazing and those are just the few people we ran into. We just knew that they had to be crushed after working so hard to make it into New York in the first place.

Our hotel was down near the new One World Trade Center going up

We decided to head back home the next day, but we got out, explored and walked a bit that next morning. We had a beautiful view of the Statue of Liberty and Hoboken across the water. Warren managed to find a great park to play in before it got too cold for us to be out much longer.

Luckily we came home and had power, a massive sigh of relief was cast by all when we realized we could start getting back to normal. Our hearts go out to all of those who still have no power or have a big clean-up ahead of them. It's going to be a long road, but we are encouraged by communities and how they are coming together for each other. 

Meanwhile.....back in the studio, I've been working on a lot of miscellaneous projects lately. I've been a bit scattered (as evidenced by my workspace pic below) and have taken a break from painting to continue making progress on an ABC book idea that has been taking shape over this past year. I think it is at a good point so I'm looking into possible agents and publishers. Cross your fingers for me! :-)

I'm feeling the painting itch though....I've gotta get some things off my plate so I can get back to my brushes!