The Fabulous Life of Stefanie

I wish I could say that I was ending the year on a bang, but really I am ending it on my sick bed (er, at my desk at work being sick). For the second time this pregnancy I have bronchitis, which is just as fun as it sounds. Luckily, I seem to be slowly getting better and not progressing towards pneumonia like had happened in September. It has definitely been the pits feeling crummy over the holidays and I feel sad that I haven't been able to play with Maddie and her new Christmas toys as much as she wants me to, but here is hoping I will be on the mend soon. 2014 was a pretty huge year for our family and I just wanted to do a little end of the year recap to say goodbye to a wonderful year and hello to another exciting one! The Big News This year we became homeowners! This was a goal that had been HUGE for us and while the process was anything but awesome, the day that we closed and opened the door to OUR home was amazing and (almost) worth all the chaos leading up to it. Then, ...

Even though this Christmas seemed to come and go at lightning speed, it was a really, really awesome one. At one point I was washing dishes and I thought to myself how awesome it was to be in our OWN home that we own forever and ever, celebrating Christmas with our little family. It was so comforting to know that next year we would be in this same home and have another little person to share in the magic of Christmas with! We didn't do anything over the top and the focus was more on Maddie than anything else, and it was perfect. She got lots of presents from all of our wonderful family and friends and seemed so truly thankful as she opened each one up. All she asked Santa for was a giraffe that was big enough to ride one, and when she walked into the living room Christmas morning to see just that I think her little heart soared right out of her chest. She turned to me and said "Mama, is that a giraffe? For me?"; it made my heart melt as I watched her hop on with her swe...

I can hardly believe that Christmas is just a week away! Life has been so very busy with the day-to-day but we are really trying to take some time everyday to enjoy the season and see the magic of it all through Maddie's eyes. It was a lot of fun to deck the halls of our new home and I am already excited to hit some of those post-Christmas sales to add to our arsenal for next year. Having such festive walls makes it pretty hard to forget that Christmas is coming, even when we are swimming in work, school and new baby preparations. I just wanted to pop in and share some pictures that I took the other night and wish you all a happy one week until Christmas! Our Christmas tree! We love getting Christmas cards! This year our hallways is a great place to display them.  The tattooed Nutcracker got extra tough with a Maker's Mark scarf this year.  Another gift from Maker's Mark; oh how I miss thee in my eggnog.  Maddie has her own tree in her room w...

It is pretty appropriate that I am sitting down to write this as snow flurries and super-cold temperatures are going on outside, with some sort of Nor'easter/winter storm headed our way, but it is very much winter, and Christmas is definitely on the way! I love this time of year and all of the beauty, magic and joy it can bring, and experiencing it with Maddie is like getting to see it through new, wondrous eyes, which is just so awesome. Pretty much from the weekend after Thanksgiving until Christmas we have at least one festive commitment each weekend with another option or two if we are feeling up to it. Here are some of the fun things we have been doing to celebrate the season so far: The weekend after Thanksgiving the Mayor and Santa rode around in a trolley making stops at different parks in the neighborhood to light trees; by some awesome coincidence the tiny little playground on our corner was one of them, so after dinner we walked on over to take part in the lighting. I...

Happy Thanksgiving! I feel like this year, as with all the recent years, I have a lot to be thankful for. Between the awesome fella that I married and this little lady we are raising, there is so much joy, love and laughter in our lives; even if there are tears, stresses and worries in between, the balance is definitely in our favor. Last year I managed to blog every single day in November about what I was thankful for and it made for an awesome perspective that entire month. I loved looking over the old posts and seeing that I remain thankful for so many of those things that are still a part of my life, and thinking about all the good stuff that has happened this year to add to my list! Without further ado, the top five things I am thankful for this year. 1. Our new house:  Buying a home to call our own has been a goal of ours for many years and this is the year that we made it a reality. It was an awful, stressful, nearly financially crippling experience but we made it out ...

On Saturday we hosted Maddie and a group of her friends (and parents!) for a day at the Boston Children's Museum. Winter birthdays can be tricky and being 5 months pregnant with a city-sized dwelling meant that it was better to outsource, and the Children's Museum was the perfect venue! Everyone got full-day admission and we had a party room for crafts, cake and presents; we were there a little over four hours and I am still recovering from all the fun. I was so thankful for the party-planner and other staff who ran around like crazy to make sure everything was perfect. It was really fun to see Maddie and all her little friends running around the museum and enjoying the exhibits together; there is so much to do and we didn't even see everything. It was my first visit (Maddie's third) and now I am definitely going to be asking for a membership from Santa so that we can go back a bunch this winter! The theme of this year's party was dinosaurs, as you will see in ...

My baby burrito! The first time we met. My smart, hilarious, energetic, snuggly little lady turned three today; happy birthday Madeleine Jane! She has brought her family, friends and every single stranger she encounters such an unbelievable amount of joy and I feel so lucky to have a front row seat to her life. In true Maddie fashion she woke us up at the crack of dawn (like, before 4am) wanting to party, just like she did in those sleepless nights of her first couple of years. Sometimes, you just gotta stretch this birthday girl situation out as long as possible, am I right?  In honor of three years of Maddie, here is a little post on all things Maddie Hammers like I did last year ! Favorite activities: She has become more of a homebody lately and prefers to play with her trains, making huge tracks on the living room floor (with a little help from Daddy) and doing her new favorite thing: "artcrafts". She loves to paint, cut paper into animal shapes (or at ...

This past weekend we made an appointment for a gender determination sonogram at one of those weird "see your baby in 3D and make a pop up video about them" places because my doctor said that she couldn't order another sonogram since I have a healthy, low-risk pregnancy (a lovely problem to have, I know). So, begrudgingly, but really wanting to know whether this is a little brother or little sister, we paid $70 and finally got a good peek at this little baby.  The sonogram tech was super nice and made it really fun by slowly typing out "it's a girl" on the big screen we were all watching and once I saw that "g" I was so excited, but at the same time felt very un-surprised. We are two families that make girls, and I just feel like I am made to be the mama of girls. Boys are awesome, and I like the one that I married an awful lot, but girls are my thing and I am thrilled to be bringing another one into the world along side my little firecracker, Ma...

Last weekend while out running errands we decided to avoid the highway and cut through the Blue Hills to get home, as we often do when we are trying to lull a certain toddler into a weekend car nap. Maddie wasn't really falling for it, and it was super gorgeous outside, so Matty had the great idea to take a spontaneous little hike on one of the easy trails. It turned out to be the best random idea of the day and provided us with a much less cranky toddler after all that fresh air. One of the many things I love about living in Boston is the close proximity to some pretty amazing outdoor spots that always seem to amaze me with the way you feel so out of the city (but really it is just right there!). The Blue Hills is one of those spots; hike to the top of the Great Blue Hill lookout point and you get a great view of Boston and beyond. It is seriously just a few miles outside of city limits, but it feels like you are in the middle of a wonderful, quiet nowhere.  Maddie is in...

Halloween was my niece's 2nd birthday so after a night of trick-or-treating we woke early Saturday to drive to Brooklyn and celebrate. We were supposed to go to a little Halloween parade in her neighborhood but the rain caused it to be cancelled, which turned out to be a good thing since a four hour road trip and a potty training toddler take a lot longer than usual.  Maddie did awesome telling us when she needed to stop and only had one accident after she told us a little too late, but not bad for her first few weeks of no diapers. I am pretty sure she loves this whole stopping at each rest stop situation because it means she gets to chat with strangers and get something to snack on (she sure is her Mama's child!). We made it to Brooklyn with most of the day ahead of us so after a visit with our family we headed off, just the three of us, to get lunch at Momofuku Noodle Bar. I had so cruelly gone without my beloved back in March, so I really wanted to make it up ...

I realize that Halloween was a week ago, but in the grand scheme of how crazy things have been around these parts, I must say I am pretty excited I am getting this post up so soon! We have lots to catch up on (a trip to Brooklyn, baby #2's mystery sonogram) but for now, here is a bit of our Halloween fun! We took Maddie out to IHOP the morning of Halloween; I had not been there in years and was so excited to see the boysenberry syrup still rocking it in the little carafe! They had a free pancake deal for kiddos that came out like a jack-o-lantern and more sugar than any kid needs before 8am :) We all enjoyed and think we might have to make this a silly annual tradition. We went trick-or-treating around my AIL's neighborhood because it is kind of the most awesome place for littles. Most of the houses on the streets participate and there are a lot of young kids out so we just traveled in a big ol' candy hunting pack. There is one house that goes ALL OUT eve...