Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy Saint Patrick's Day. Today was a tough day. I took my oral exam for my qualifying exam and it did not go well. Today I really need Shannon's carefree attitude. We walked around the yard and just explored. Oh and yes we got into some shannangans!

Puppet Show and Kids Expo

We took Shannon to her first puppet show and it was as fun for her as I imagined. She danced and laughed and pointed at the "Monkey" who was rocking out with the band on stage.

After the show they came out to show the kids the puppet and let them touch the big chicken. Yeah that is Shannon right up there next to the chicken not flinching, and not afraid. My brave little girl is amazing and every day I see something new come out in here.

I love this picture she gave us a good CHEESE!

First Bike Ride

Just as quickly as that last snow storm in February came so it went and we were then moving on to bike riding. I got out the Radio flyer tricycle that I had purchased on craigslist (I'm an addict) that past fall and alas her little feet could actually reach the peddles.

We strapped on our Dora bike helmet and off we went.

Snow but not much of it

Shannon this winter started out strong and then kind of fell flat. Pretty much everyone (including Georgia) got more snow than we did this past winter. It seemed like every major snow storm stopped short of NYC. I'm not complaining and what we did have we used to the fullest. Shannon was a great sport and would get all geared up and we would go outside and play when we could. Dressing a toddler for the snow by the way is exhausting and by the time we were ready to go outside I was ready for a nap.

I have very few pictures of Shannon being pulled around the yard in your radioflyer sled (mostly because I was the one doing the pulling), but that is how I got my winter workout. She also hated walking around in the snow. Her feet would get stuck, and then she would pull her boot off so there was also lots of carrying her around and no hands left for cameras. Luckily aunt Lauren and uncle Dan came up and I was able to get this shot otherwise it would have gone completely unrecorded.

Happy Valentine's Day

Today Kiki and Shannon and I made Valentines day cutout cookies. We used my mom's famous Christmas cutouts which are also featured on Epicurious (who knew).

4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda, salt, nutmeg
1 cup butter
1 ½ cup sugar
1 egg
½ sour cream
1 tsp vanilla

Mix and break into four sections. Wrap in plastic and allow to chill overnight.

Shannon did such a great job. She really got into rolling, patting and playing with the dough. We had a heart shaped cookie cutter that was perfect. I couldn't believe that we held her attention for so long up on that kitchen stool just like a big girl.

The frosting of the cookies didn't go as well. At one point Shannon had the spoon with a hunk of frosting on the way to her mouth and that's when we decided the grown-ups should take over the frosting.





Finished product were fantastic.

Christmas Morning

So this Christmas morning I manned the camera, I learned my lesson after looking at all of those pictures of me looking like I was dead realizing they will forever be Shannon's first Christmas photos. Shannon got many toys for Christmas this year which helped reinforced my decision not to go overboard for her. We are trying our best to keep it simple for her and not totally overwhelm her but as you can see Grandparents will be grandparents... and that's OK that is their job.

Christmas Day

This year we had the whole Cogan family over to our house for Christmas dinner. I loved having Christmas on a weekend this year I must say even with a whole house full of people it was really relaxing to know that I didn't have to wake up the next morning and go to work.

Shannon got to share in the fun with the rest of her cousins, Nate and Allie, and the four-legged variety Charlie. The rib roast came out great and to accompany the main event I roasted veggies that I picked up at our local farmers market (Butternut squash, beets, and rainbow carrots) which had the most wonderful color. We topped it all off with some green beans that we also quickly roasted on a baking sheet. I have to tell you Olive oil and salt and pepper is all anything needs to roast in.

While I headed to bed early the Cogan siblings kicked it old school and created some ruckas, broke some glasses and may have gotten sick in the snow but no one woke up Shannon so that is a successful Christmas in my book.