ho ho ho!

We met my sister and her husband (I LOVE saying that!!) at our moms house for the Friedman holiday festivities. Sadly this is the only photo I took. I think its a great photo, but really I wish I had taken more. It was a great sleepover, and SO nice to see them. The last time we were all together was their amazing wedding in July. Pedja made a Phyllo feast for lunch, and we had a massive taco bar for dinner. Then a big pancake breakfast in the morning before all heading our separate ways.

best gift

We celebrate the holidays on NYE. 1) we are a blended religious family and 2) it was my first date with Pedja (10 years ago this year!) so its just a special night. Pedja got the family an easel! It took him 2 days to set it up, but in the end he conquered it. I have wanted one for years even though I can barely draw a stcik figure. Luka is a super artist, so I know he will get some use out of it, and Maya LOVES painting. She has used it every day since.

happy birthday part III

Maya had been contemplating her birthday cake flavor for months (literally), and the night before the big day, she decided on lemon. I was happy with that since I was hearing all sorts of nutty cake creations, and began to worry about what I was getting myself into. I whipped up a batch of vegan lemon cupcakes, and she says "I wanted a cake mommy not cupcakes" I thought it would be nice for her to have her own little cake. Not so much. After we sing happy birthday, we all dig in and after 1 bite she says "I dont like it" Of course. Mia devoured hers, and I devoured mine, so all was not lost. I didnt feel so bad because shes really not a sweets person honestly.

happy birthday part II

Well Maya is officially 3. I feel old. It feels like yesterday I was in labor for 4 days. I will never let her live that one down. We worked in the morning, and in every store we went to she got stickers (YAY!) Mia and Jack came for a quick visit and had some birthday cake (well cupcakes), and we went to Veggie Grill for dinner (her choice) The big activity for the day was Maya got her ears pierced! She chose pink sparkly hearts. She didnt flinch or make a peep. My hero.

happy birthday part I

The top photo is Mayas last day being 2. The bottom photo is her first day being 3. I see a huge change, dont you?

Old friends new generation

My friends from college Stephanie and Dadali and their girls Malia(7) and Acacia (4) were in town for the holidays and we were able to meet up for a couple of hours. Maya had a great time. The girls were great examples using manners and sharing all of their toys with Maya (Maya still has a hard time sharing). They also gave her a TON of stickers to go home with. The way into Mayas heart is stickers. In the bottom photo they are having a snack of croissants and grapes and drinking their juice through silly straws.

something's fishy

Luka stayed at my dads house after the holiday party for another week. Among other fun things, he got in a GREAT day of fishing as you can see.

2012 Horwitz Holiday

We had a holiday party at my dads house with my family that I dont get to see very often, including twins Savannah and Kaitlyn, and baby sister (who we met just that night) MacKenzie. Maya had a great time decorating the gingerbread house with them. My cousin Matt has a BAD ASS beard (Im a HUGE facial hair fan) Yummy latkes topped off a wonderful evening.

Holiday Party at School

There was a chaotic holiday party with ALL the kids from Mayas school and not enough pizza before the winter break. It was a potluck and I decided to bring my tried and true vegan banana bread. There it is on the left in the sliver pan. Since there were a ton of people I doubled the recipe, EXCEPT the - you guessed it BANANAS! (total accident) So it was dry and not as awesome as it usually is. After consulting with my boss, I decided to bring it anyway with my head held high and not say a word. (re making wasnt an option and I couldnt bring myself to buy something being the only professional chef mom in the school) No one knew the difference and Maya and I didnt eat any :) Maya enjoyed this large sticker project, but notice she is straddling a tricycle? A natural multi-tasker. 2 seconds later she lost her balance bending over the handlebars to stick stickers, and faceplanted into the mud. After that no more sticker project, but oddly lots of biking.

MEOW!

Out of nowhere I asked Maya if she wanted her face painted like a cat and shockingly she said yes. (normally she wants NOTHING to do with face painting)

I used black eyeliner, and a pink highlighter I use on my eyes for her nose. SO CUTE! However, this is like the best eyeliner EVER and wouldnt come off her face before bed. I scrubbed with soap and water and a washcloth with no luck, and finally had to pull out the big guns and use oily make up remover.

Happy 2013!

Happy New Year to everyone! Ive slacked quite a bit this year with the blog, and my New Years Resolution is to be much better about it. I gave myself the special gift of my first gel manicure yesterday, the last day of 2012. Navy blue with silver sparkles on the ring fingers. Seriously its crazy how HAPPY this made me.