A Few Photos that NohNoh Took

Jose visited for a couple of days, giving Adrian and me an opportunity to go out to a fancy dinner thanks to our Christmas gift from Jose and Erik (thanks, guys!).
Here are a few photos from his visit. "Ninong" is godfather in Tagalog, but Veronica prefers to say "NohNoh".

January 2011 Photos

Just a few photos I took this past month.

We got about 2 feet of snow this past week, as you can see in these next few photos. Poor Adrian did a lot of shoveling and there is still barely room for the car on the driveway. I love her little boots and hat (thanks to Uncle Erik for the hat!):

I am totally in love with her Hello Kitty puffer coat. So cute!

We took her for another winter hike in the Fells this weekend. It really is so beautiful with the snow contrasting the trees. What's funny is that we spent most of the time trying to convince her she was having a good time. She DID NOT like to be put down in the snow. What she did enjoy on the hike were all the dogs. Woof woof!

And a nice big smile to end the hike!

More photos from January 2011 can be found by clicking here.

CBT Holiday Party at the Modern Theatre

In the first week of January, Adrian's firm, CBT Architects, had their holiday party at the Modern Theatre (the theater that Adrian designed, see this blog post for the Grand Opening party we went to back in November 2010). This was the first time in the 45-year history of the firm that they had a party in a building they designed. (Quite a distinction!) We were all set to bring Veronica with us to the party but were lucky enough to have a friend babysit so we could enjoy ourselves (Thanks, Jen!). 

Of course, Adrian was the star of the party. His boss, one of the principals of the firm, made a little speech about the project and how awesome Adrian is, how he was probably getting all the facts wrong he was telling them so they had better ask Adrian themselves if they had any questions. Needless to say I was SUPER SUPER proud of him. It was amazing and so much fun to be at a party in a building my husband designed. Here are a few photos of the inside of the theater:

During the party a slideshow of photos taken during the construction of the building was playing both inside the theater as well as in the lobby. Here is a photo of the slideshow being projected on the screen inside the theater: Adrian in action!

All of the construction photos can be seen by clicking on this link. There are 120 photos total in this set and Adrian is in the following photos: 45, 47, 48, 97, 100, 101. Another set of photos can be seen by clicking this link. No photos in this smaller set of Adrian, per se, but still very interesting to look at.

This photo shows Adrian explaining something to one of his colleagues. Check out the view through the window. Awesome, isn't it? That wall is almost entirely glass and it shows the fabulous arch.

And lastly, this photo shows Adrian on the balcony inside the theater:

If you would like to see all of the photos from that evening, click here (there are also a few of the construction photos that Adrian was able to upload.)

New Year's Eve: Veronica says "Schnoooo!"

On New Year's Eve we took Veronica outside to play in the snow. Here she is all geared up with her snow bib and winter boots on.

Adrian put her down on the snow and she was not very happy. She was quite skeptical of all the white stuff. Note that Adrian's feet are IN the snow and Veronica's feet are ON TOP of the snow:

Since she wasn't up for any actual playing (Adrian even showed her how to make a snow angel, she was not interested at all), we decided to go for a little winter walk. She was much happier trundling along on the sidewalk:

 Much happier:

 We even went into the Fells, which is right across the street from us. It was a lovely hike.

 Veronica had a great time, particularly since there were a few dogs to say hello to.

 Here is a close-up:

Even though she was not a fan of being put INTO the snow, she really loves to say "snow", except her version really sounds like "schnoooo".
This last photo is a picture of us at a New Year's Eve party that evening:

Click here for the rest of the photos from that day.

Christmas Season 2010

Last December was crazy busy for us, as it is for most everyone. We started off the Christmas season with the tree lighting in Winchester. It was really quite an event. The event was held in the town common and it was filled with families and strollers. The evening began with a few carols from the local 6th graders. Then the Winchester fire trucks came roaring in with their lights on and sirens going, and Santa waving from the back of the last truck. As Santa's firetruck made the loop around the town common, the trees lit up one-by-one as he passed by. Adrian and I just looked at each other--we had totally moved to Beaver Cleaver Land. After all the trees were lit, Santa parked his firetruck and stuck around to hear what all the kiddies wanted for Christmas. Since Veronica is too young to be waiting in line for Santa outside in the cold, we headed for Starbucks! (Sorry, no good photos of the tree lighting in the town common. Maybe next year!)

The following day we went shopping for our Christmas tree. Here is a photo of Veronica and Adrian looking for a good tree, followed by a photo of the decorated tree in our living room:

 

Here is a photo of us in front of our house with the icicle lights put up:

A friend of ours (who had been campaigning for us to move to Winchester for the past several years) had a Santa party one weekend in early December. One of her co-workers works as Santa on the side and he agreed to come to her house so that her son and her friends' kids could have some Santa time without all that craziness at the mall. Needless to say, we were very relieved. We had already decided that Veronica is too young so we were not doing the mall thing this year, but this little party was a nice alternative. I am hoping that our friend Jen does this every year. This photo shows me (and Santa) trying to warm Veronica up to the whole idea. You can see she is not amused. Not at all. I was hoping proximity to Santa for about an hour, as well as seeing all the older kids' excitement would convince her he wasn't so scary.

 And then we finally tried to actually put her on Santa's lap. She was having none of it:

Luckily, Jen's basement has a huge playroom filled with toys so Veronica recovered pretty quickly:

 This is a photo we took with the host, Jen:

We drove down to NYC to spend Christmas with my father, stepmother, brother, and his boyfriend Erik. Here is a photo of us at dinner. Jose really outdid himself with dinner, it was delicious!

 The first gift that Veronica opened was a toy laptop from her Ninong (godfather). She loved it. Look at that concentration!

She had way too many gifts to open before bedtime so we saved most of them for the following day. She had a great time opening gifts.

Click here for more photos from December 2010.

Thanksgiving 2010

The week before Thanksgiving we had some friends visit, the Rhodes. They used to live in the Boston area but moved back to the Midwest to start a family. We walked around downtown before the tree lighting at Faneuil Hall (previous post). Here is a photo of us:

What strikes me about this photo is how different we are from when we first met. We used to have to some pretty awesome parties with these guys and now we're all stroller-pushers. We still have some pretty good parties, but usually a few of us have a baby monitor nearby. So very different.

This Thanksgiving was the first in our new house in Winchester. Unfortunately, we didn't have family over like we have had the last 7 years due to vacation and work plans. Luckily, the Rhodes were here and we had a grand time, despite the renovations going on in the kitchen. Adrian cooked the turkey in his new Big Green Egg, which meant the oven was completely free for the pies, dressing, and green bean casserole. Veronica loved having Evan(5) and Amelia(3) to look up to and follow around. Here is a photo of her from Thanksgiving, and another photo of her enjoying a football game with Adrian. She totally works that Red Sox hat and she LOVES guacamole (and avocado). Yes, that's a beer.

Veronica and Samuel

A photo of Veronica and her friend Samuel in a big hug. So cute!
Veronica gives THE BEST hugs. They usually include a few pats on the
shoulders just in case you need a bit of consoling. Such a sweet and
thoughtful girl.

Daycare Pictures 12/30/10: Wintery Art Project!

I love the look on Veronica's and Lucas' faces. I think they're more
irritated with the glue on their hands than interested in the art
project.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Infant Teachers
Date: Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 3:34 PM
Subject: Fwd: Pictures 12/30/10
To:

Here are pictures of today's art project. We used cotton balls,
construction paper, and glue to make a snowy, winter picture. All of
our friends felt and pulled apart the cotton balls and felt the sticky
glue. It was a very fun and interesting art project!

Have a great day!!

Your Infant Teachers,
Lauren and Jonathan