A fun new toy!

I've just dicovered this fun new online photo tool called Picnik. Its like photoshop for dummies and its great!*

Check out what you can do in less than 5 minutes:

Have fun!!

*I have no affiliation with picnik, I just stumbled upon it and love it!

Baby, its COLD outside!

Last night was the coldest night of the year, and holy cow was it cold! I was so bundled up for the train this morning that I looked like the kid from "A Christmas Story," but at least I was warm. Dr. F and I were also very good and worked out before the Little Man woke up this morning. I swear, that is the only time of day I might possibly get a work out in, it just sucks that its at 5:30am. Moving on...we had such a wonderful weekend, complete with hanging at Aidan's favorite place, the children's museum, with our neighbors and an old school date night like we used to do in our apartment: put little man to bed, wear favorite sweat pants, snuggle on the couch with some mango and wine and watch a movie. We watched Inception and I only have one way to describe it: "mind fuck" WOW, it was AMAZING. We haven't been able to stop talking about it since the second it ended. Go see it if you haven't. Seriously. Happy Monday!

This kid loooves the carousel...and always names his horse "Peanut"

Aidan and his second cousins on my side. I love how close in age they are!

Can you tell we're related? Me and my cousin Pam

I love this picture. I love this man.

Yay cousins!

Back to Basics

As the mommy-cook extraordinaire at our house, I'm very focused on making sure my family eats home cooked, balanced, healthy meals. This means meal planning and making as many things as I can from scratch, as well as figuring out substitutes for different ingredients (however...I will use real whipping cream and full fat butter on Thanksgiving etc...splurges are def OK!). This also means that I've begun to read more and more about harmful hidden things in food and packaging (no BPA in our water bottles or coffee mugs!).

Well, last night I came across this article in Prevention Magazine, which is a pretty legit source. Its all about 7 foods you should never eat; some if it is common knowledge (ie avoiding farm raised fish) and some of it was novel (to me, at least) ie microwave popcorn?!  Additionally, I often cook with canned tomato products to make my homemade pasta sauce and chili...but now I'm thinking about learning how to can my own. Anyone out there do any canning? I'm thinking it might be a good project for next summer when I can actually have a small garden in my backyard...but I am a total novice, so any tips or ideas are appreciated. It also doesn't hurt that this idea appeals to the cheapskate budget conscious side of me :)

Christmas into the New Year

I've loved reading about everyone's Christmases and New Years so here's a bit of our own.

We traveled to VA where we visited both Dr. F's family and mine (so convenient that they live in the same town...usually, but that is a topic for another day). The Little Man was also sick and woke up at 2:30am on Christmas morning with a fever and refused to go back to sleep...he didnt sleep through the night the whole time we were in VA...sweeet!

 What was sweet was the romantic night away Dr. F and I got to enjoy. When we had our marriage blessing this spring several cards were stollen off of the gift table as well as or video camera...that had all manner of things on it like Aidan's birth (the pg version), his baptism, our ceremony, Aidan's first Christmas...you know, nothing major. Well, nothing was ever recovered so the hotel gave us a complimentary night. They even gave us a discount for their restaurant and a bottle of wine with glasses from the vineyard where we got engaged! Nothing makes up for loosing the camera with all of those videos, but we sure enjoyed a romantic night out and ordering room service for the first time!



The night we were engaged. It was perfect!

 We also celebrated a 30th wedding anniversary of some of our best family friends. It also happened to be in the same ballroom we had our reception in! Of course, Little Man was looking studly in his bow tie and argyle sweater.

Little Man was only so happy in his bow tie.

We also visited with my grandparents and finally headed back to Philly. It was SUCH a welcome change to come home that we didn't even mind having to shovel out a parking spot. We had a nice visit, but we were all so happy to sleep in our own beds. I even had to wake Aidan up each day last week because he wanted to stay asleep when it was time to go to school. Dr. F also hit the ground running by reporting to the hospital at 6am each day through yesterday (including New Years Eve). We did manage to stay awake *barely* till midnight: just long enough to drink some delicious champagne (thank you MF!!)



Yes, I am indeed in my pj's. We are wild and crazy!

Finally, we capped off 2 weeks of family with a visit from my cousin and her kids. What a blast! Our boys are so close in age and it was awesome to see them playing together. We are so bummed they live in Boston and we don't get to see them very often.
                                     

2010 was a good year for us despite the loss of my grandfather in June. We had so much to celebrate and be thankful for. I'm looking forward to no less excitement in 2011.

Christmas Cards

First and foremost, I want to send a special thank you to all of you who have sent us the most adorable Christmas cards...and I'm going to apologize in the same breath for not sending out our own. Truthfully, I grew up in a house that never sent them out so I've never done them myself, but boy do I love getting them! I'm thinking next year might be the year I actually do them...until then, consider this a special Christmas greeting from us at With Wiz. Wishes for a blessed and merry Christmas, lots of love and joy in the new year and peace in your lives!

Dr. F looks like a creepster, I'm having an awesome hair day and LM, well his face says it all. PS. nice jeans, Santa...

S.A.D

This time of year usually feel a little bipolar...I love love love Christmas, the traditions, the food, the snuggly, sitting by the fire, heart full of love feelings I get when I think back to my childhood Christmases, but I also have this sad, depressed feeling around the holidays too. As intense as my joy is, my sadness at the knowlege of what other people, especially children, will not have is just as intense. I make sure to participate in the food drives and angel trees, but my heart breaks each year at Christmas as the weather turns colder and I know there are kids all over the world who have so much less, who need so much more, and I feel helpless to make a difference. If left to my own devises, I'm afraid we'd have a house full of abanonded kids and animails.

The last few years this has only intensified as I've watched my own child grow. I see how small and innocent and completely dependent he is upon his daddy and I. I am also plagued by the feeling that we aren't doing enough to make a change, but will it ever be enough?

This isnt uplifting or fun, but its been rolling around in my head for awhile now and I'm just not sure what to do with it.

Basketball, Babies & the Godfather

Before I get into today's post, I want to revisit my Thanksgiving post complaining about feeling large in my sweater dress. I loved the comfort the dress provided as I consumed mass quantities of food and will totally wear it and feel good in it again. Also, I can't wait to look preggers again, when I'm actually pregnant. I loved loved loved having a big belly and feeling all mother earth/fertility goddess... I guess I just still feel self-conscious about my weight now, even though Aidan is 2 yrs old already! Oh well....

This past weekend was busy and we like it that way. On Saturday we caught up with some friends in the city whose baby girl is almost 3 months old. Aidan was utterly fascinated by the baby and was totally fine with me holding her. YESSS! I am convinced that letting him play with a baby doll at home has helped. Dr. F and I even got to go on a date to watch an NBA game. I am not a big basket ball fan, but Dr. F is....so it was fun to have him teach me about the game and the stadium was pretty empty so we got AWESOME seats (like 4th row) for cheap!

It is so odd to be the more experienced mom of the group. I feel like I still have a "baby"!

And the highlight of the weekend was Dr. F's cousin's baptism. He was asked to be the Godfather. He was incredibly honored... and I was subjected to weeks of bad Godfather movie impressions...

Aidan with some of his cousins. He looooves them so much!