We're baaaack.

I'm sure this is old news to most of you, but we're back from Costa Rica and it was amazing. I cannot even put into words how amazing the people were from Costa Rica. For the most part, I understood the Spanish and felt comfortable speaking... I have already started the begging of Craig to scrap the idea of a mountain home in Whistler for an empty lot in Costa Rica. It'd be much cheaper and adventurous! Feel free to help me out.

Craig is working on putting together a wedding video for our friends: Tasha & Steve. Congrats to the newlyweds! Such an amazing wedding: saltwater, seashells, waves crashing, amazing foods, weather, and even a few tears. So much fun. I assume Craig's video will take a few months, so no holding of breath. However, he did put one together - I think you'll see exactly why I was so happy, happy, happy in the waves and playing with all my stray dogs. Holy perfection in a spanish-speaking not-over populated or developed beach location! Sighhhhhh.

(The next post will be about Amelie's week with the grandparents - she was a rockstar and did awesome! I'm simply taking a break from finishing up my last law paper, which means I only have ONE FINAL LEFT! Hallelujah!)

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica in Two Minutes from H-Dub on Vimeo.

cookies, candy, and lots of hugs!

I get my first real vacation from my Daddy & Mommy next week! They are taking a whole week off to go help their friends get married in Costa Rica. I plan on spending the first 3.5 days with Granny & Papa B-Dub. The latter half, including Thanksgiving, will be with Grandma Cyn & Papa Mark. I'm so excited and ready to eat chocolate in many varieties, every day, all week! I really hope my Mommy gets me something neat, maybe a doll that looks like Dora, from Costa Rica?!

I'll be sure to bring my new little point & shoot that Daddy gave me to document my stay at the grandparents house & Thanksgiving! Also, I bet my Daddy & Mommy will have some photos of their trip to post when they return.

xoxo.

P.S. My Mommy is almost done with law school (just one final exam and a 30-page paper away)! She promises me that she'll kiss & tickle me for 3 months straight! I'm pretty excited.

Late Update

This is from a few weeks ago. The family took a walk to the park, super fun & perfect Fall day. Yay!

October 3, 2010 from H-Dub on Vimeo.

The Handiest Man

Just a short note to show what the last few days weeks have been like in the H-Dub household (bathroom). I will post a lovely before & after shot (when it's actually done) but I really think this summarizes it. By the way, Amelie now knows how to install a toilet. Feel free to contact me if you need any plumbing work.

Long Weekend + Great Friends = Perfection!

I anticipated posting a few messy eating photos from the state fair last week. However, the little gal was under the weather when we dragged her out there. We ended up chugging down a milkshake and took her on a few rides with her best buddy Matea, but went home early. Although, Amelie did find time to sweet talk her mom & grandma into getting her a Dora balloon that she had to have ($8, ouch)!

Then over Labor day weekend we visited our favorite friends in Madison. What an awesome weekend! Amelie has a fondness for tickling Oscar's cheeks and patting his head like a puppy. This means true friendship in my book! If only these friends would move back to us in the TC! Just a warning, we did help convince friends to move from NYC to MPLS recently, so the odds MUST be in our favor. ;)

Finally, our long weekend ended with a Twins game thanks to the newly arrived friends from NYC: Flavio & Ana! Yay, what a great game in such fancy-pants seats. We couldn't have had a better time!


Amelie, Mom, Dad, Ana, Flavio, Robin (Ana's bro)

Thanks for such a fun weekend friends!

I Got my Mama's Singing Voice

Months of the Year (on high speed)

The summer has gone by much too fast. Amelie is smarter than ever. She knows her days of the week, months of the year, counts to ten in Spanish, and up to 50 (maybe more?) in English. Her experience in Montessori seems to be really amazing. She'll start in the full-time preschool program when she turns three, we're very excited for her! She tells us, "when I get taller, I will be in the big kids room." She doesn't quite understand that getting older usually means getting taller.

For me, I'll be graduated from law school in December so this semester doesn't feel as bad. Yes, it's started already (two weeks ago actually) so I have only 11 weeks left! See, I'm still positive! I cannot wait to be done. I don't plan on practicing law right out of school but it'll be a good "skill" to have under my belt. I have been lucky enough to get a great position at Lawson (Business Development Mgr) that I am really liking, so I plan to stay there for a while.

I expect to update soon with State Fair photos! Craig & I are making it out there two times this weekend. My diet officially starts the minute I walk off the fairgrounds on Sunday evening. I gotta get in shape for the trip to Costa Rica in November (for a friends wedding), ya know!?

Happy Four Years!

I feel like the luckiest girl ever born (you like short & simple, right?)!

1-2-3... Blast Off!

Craig & I finally bought new patio furniture for our patio that we built the end of last summer. It was very exciting for us, but even more exciting for Amélie...

As you can see, the boxes that our chairs & table came in made the perfect "rocketship!"



BLAST OFF!

Happy Easter!

Here is a little proof of a beautiful April Easter day in Minnesota. I swear I usually pay attention to my kid. I guess I was a little "involved" in my kite-flying skills.

spring is here... sort of?!

As I dream of tank tops and sundresses, my "weatherbug" tells me that snow is on the way today. Instead of dwelling on such depressing topics, I will post some adorable Amélie pictures that we took in the sunny house yesterday.

Here is an action shot of our new game, jumping on the sofa:


Another photo of the beautiful girl who holds our heart:

is it spring yet?

After a trip to our coffee shop for breakfast, the local zoo (which was closed-thank goodness Amélie wasn't too disappointed), the humane society, a toy store visit, and then the Mexican grocery store... we decided a rousing bath in bubbles was in order! Yesterday was a fun-filled day, which also included a visit from her buddy Luca (those sweet pics are to come later).

Here Amélie tries to give the bubble a kissy:


I was totally light-headed after filling the room with all of these bubbles!

One of My Favorites...

Could she be any sweeter?



For those of you who are wondering, Amélie is now officially "in-training" for her tennis career. We took out the Dora racket last night and she has been sticking her fingers through the strings, smushing it against her face, and jumping on it. We know the killer forehand is just around the corner...

Little A has rhythm...

Thanks to the Dad, we can assume that Amélie is judging her parents poor singing and dance skills due to her innate sense of rhythm. I think an investment in turn tables & microphones might be in order.

This study suggests that newborns can sense a rhythm and know when to expect the next beat.



“I saw this first hand last night with Amélie while she watched the Boss throw down during the [super-bowl] half-time show. The kid has rhythm but still doesn't know how to count to four,” said the Dad. Perhaps, said Dad should make a video of Amélie dancing?

Go Wild!

So, the family went to their first hockey game together last week. All thanks to Uncle Mike & Uncle Matt for the tickets! It was mega-awesome fun... no worries, we didn't let Amélie drive home.

Experiment Day #4

The only reason I ran today was because my coworker Kristen convinced me. Thank you Kk.

Today's run:
2.79 miles / 24:36 minutes

The song today was by Cursive: Some Red Handed Sleight of Hand

Experiment Day #3

I promise I haven't fallen off the wagon, I've had a J-term class the last five days. It sucked and now I've got to write two papers. However, it'll be worth the two credits. I start normal classes on Jan 17th sadly enough... only 1.5 weeks of freedom. Sniff-sniff.

Today: 4.2 miles / 38:50 minutes
Thank goodness at about mile three for:

Of Montreal
We Were Born the Mutants Again with Leafling

My Little Experiment

So, feel free to follow me on this experiment or not... but I've noticed a trend to my workout habits and I'm going to try to keep track of which song gives me strength to finish my workout and on what day; I feel a pattern of slower songs on Monday & Tuesdays and more dancey-dance songs towards the end of the week. Very odd.

Today: Monday (3.5 miles / approx 38 minutes)

This is the song that pulled me through - thank you to Peter, Bjorn & John:



Oooh, and the last few weeks have been major fun! Amélie turned into a mature one-year old who knows how to mimic a horse neigh pretty darn well, if I do say so... and last week was Christmas. What a Christmas it was, Amélie is a lucky, lucky little girl. Check it out:

Happy Mother's Day!

Yahoo. I literally JUST walked in the door from taking my last law exam, thank God. Not only do I feel A-W-E-S-O-M-E after being done with my first year in law school with a much better feeling that I'll pass this semester... I had a house full of family (the awesome g-parents), yummy candy, a brand new compact camera (I only have a big SLR that sucked to carry around), and a beautiful card signed from the 5 month old genius waiting for me.

Ummm, I would like any one out there in internet-land to try top my man. Seriously, try to top him. I dare you.

Let the countdown begin.

I'm almost free; almost free. My last classes were this past weekend, I turned in my final paper for writing and now I have to outline and start cramming for exams. One down, three to go.

Oh, and Amélie eats rice cereal now.

You can tell that daddy-o did this video since the editing is smoother.

'Nother hat

I'm insanely busy with classes and quarter-end at work. However, after Granny dropped by today with a new hat - I just haaaaaad to find time to post a pic of Amélie sporting it. Oh, and a few new milestones that cause excitement in our house include a deep-hearted chuckle (happy just like the daddy) and a fondness for brightly colored books (almost just like the mommy, except the mommy doesn't read books with color anymore - bummer).

Am I the only one that hears an old woman from Jersey coming out of the mouth of this child? What are we going to do with her?!



Btw, if you click on the picture it takes you to our Flickr site so you can see the really awesome pics that Craig took today. Seriously, do it!