Pinstripes Tradition

The past, now, 4 years we've made it a tradition of going to Pinstripes 2 days before Christmas. By this point Maggie and Joe have made it in town from Boston and we're ready to kick off the Christmas "craziness"!! We do 2 games of bowling and enjoy it on the leather couches with drinks, appetizers and dinner. I'm telling you - bowling at Pinstripes is the way every bowling ally should be, haha - so classy!! This year Kailey was not in the car seat like last year, she was up and very mobile! It was so fun to watch her bowl for the first time. Since we're many states apart, we miss out on most of Kailey's "1st's" but to be there for one of her "1st's" was very special and fun for Jack and me!! She's such a delight, always smiling, loves to dip her food in sauces (which is hilariously cute to watch), has a new dance move she only does really well for Uncle Jack, and she is just at such a fun age!!

We loved our time with Kailey and wish the times together didn't have to end so quickly!

Sadie's 2nd Birthday

Happy Birthday Sadie!!!

This December we celebrated Sadie's 2nd Birthday! She is the sweetest, funniest, most loving little joy we could have asked for! She's brought so much love and fun to our lives and holy cow has she taught us A LOT!! I truly believe having a dog before kids is one of the best things a couple can do, especially a young couple who went from their parent's homes to a home of their own. I mean, within the first hour of having her we cleaned up more puke than we thought was possible to come out of such a tiny little thing! Over our time with her we've cleaned up more poop, pee and puke, but what she's really taught us is how to work together as a couple on a totally different level that we couldn't have prepared ourselves for without having a dog. It's great practice, we didn't screw up with her, but we learned a lot about each other and us as a family so we feel much more prepared to one day have kids.

ANYWAYS...Sadie's Birthday was of course done-up special just for her! We, of course, took out her birthday hat and toy (we only let her play with it on her b-day) and we made her special dog-peanut butter flavored-cupcakes. I tried to create a paw, but the mini-cup cakes just made it a little more difficult. We sang and gave gifts and she shared it for the 2nd time with both her grandparents and her "Uncle" Spenser - Jack's parent's Lab.

3rd Annual November Wine Trail

This November we went on our 3rd annual November wine trail - a blast, as usual! We have been on a total of 5 wine trials, but 3 years ago we started the tradition of going in November to the Michigan wineries. We LOVE Michigan wineries, and really we just love Michigan in general (at least Jack and I do...we've actually both grown up with different, special connections and reasons to love Michigan, so the wine trailing memories we're making make it even more special!) Our 1st year we stayed mainly on the west side of Michigan by the lake, last year we went all the way up to the peninsula (which was my favorite....so beautiful, and soo many great wineries!), and this year we stayed closer to where we were our 1st year. The good thing about this year was we really knew a lot of the wineries and knew which ones we "needed" to return to, as well as which ones we'd never been to that we wanted to add in. We also added in a few breweries this year, which we'd never really done before and it was equally as great! Another addition to this year's trail was the addition of about 10 more people...which brought us to just about 20 people. Yes, close your mouth, I know your jaw dropped like mine when I found this out for the first time! While there were so many people, which brought it's ups & downs, it was an overall great time!!! I do have to boast, but by the last few wineries we did not have the amount of bodies we started with...not everyone can handle 10+ wineries in 2 days like us "Pro's" can!! (Which is actually less than we've done in the past 2 years)

Here's a little re-cap of the fun times we had!

And in case you're interested in some great wineries that we went to in 2011:

Day 1
Tabor Hill
Round Barn
White Pine Winery / Lunch
McIntosh Orchard
Fenn Valley
Sagatuck Brewing
Cascade Winery / Brewery
Dinner at www.twentyfivegr.com/

Day 2
Cody Kresta
Warner
St. Julian
Karma Vista
Contessa or The Livery Brewing Co.
Founders Wine Celler
Greenbush Brewing

365: November (most of it)

Nov 7 - Found this cute little guy @ Yankee Candle...my weakness!

Nov 8 - Candle shade/one of the only Thanksgiving decorations I had out this year.

Nov 9 - Arugula raviolis, seafood blend mix, & spinach sauteed in olive oil! MMmmm!!

Nov 10 - Chex Mix time at our house!! Secret recipe for the best chex mix around!!
(as I write this we are already out of it...time to make batch #2!!)

Nov 11 - I just love my new district!!

Nov 12 - Crate and Barrel Christmas shopping - Yes, Please!!!!

Nov 13 - Annual holiday mug set I buy each year from Crate and Barrel

Nov 14 - Ribs cookin' away in the crock pot for 10 hours = AMAZING!! Literally fell right off the bone!

Nov 15 - Sick day from school also meant opportunity to grade the 133 pillowcases that were turned in!! (this is just a small representation)

Nov 16 - Roses from Jack :)

Nov 17 - Hot chocolate & jingles cookies = one of my favorite things about Christmas-time!!

Nov 18 - Today we met Ivy (our friends Courtney & Andrew's new puppy)!! She's adorable! We got her this antler you see in the picture and she loved it! Sadie on the other hand was not too fond of Ivy and her "puppy ways" haha, but it was cute to watch!

Nov 19 - 3rd Annual November Wine Trail - this time the group doubled in size!

Nov 20 - My wine trail favorites!! :)

Nov 21 - Pillowcases I lined the hallway with outside my room. There are SO many more I wasn't able to hang, but I wanted the kids to be able to take them home to show their families over break. (not the best quality of pic, but take my word for it...it looked awesome in person!)

Nov 22 - Sadie girl!!

Nov 23 - Pasta, seafood blend, spinach and curry sauce

Nov 24 - Dessert wine we drank this Thanksgiving. Story behind it is that 3 years ago Jack was working for a different company and was out in San Diego for the month of November. I was student teaching but had that week off so I flew out and stayed with him for Thanksgiving break. We went to Disney, the San Diego Zoo, this winery, La Jolla, and downtown San Diego. We ate our Thanksgiving FISH that year on a pier over the Pacific Ocean...which I always remind him was my favorite Thanksgiving ever! We didn't really plan it out special to bring this bottle for this years Thanksgiving, it just worked out that way and when we were about to open it we remembered how special it really was!! :)

Nov 25 - Black Friday deals at Loft - I'm there!!

Nov 26 - Sadie's new sock monkey toy that she is obsessed with! Her parents sure do take good care of her! :)

Nov 27 - New tree (2nd in our house) that I'm in love with. It's my "pretty tree" because we have our huge "family tree" and I wanted one in the main room we're in a lot.

Nov 28 - Wine bottle decor for the holidays - snowman topper and scarf