Go Princess!!

Medieval Times was having a buy one get one free deal going on. Renea had wanted to take Matthew and I always love it, so we planned a fun Sunday after-church activity. I love Medieval Times, so I'm always up for it.

This was the first time we took Zoie. She loved it. The funny part is she would cheer for the Princess. The knights would be jousting etc... and she'd put her little fist in the air shouting "princess, princess"...then she'd point up to the princess who was "hosting" the feast.

We got there early so we had fabulous seats. Second row right in the middle. We had a wonderful time.

My French Fry

Amanda is part of an international group at ISU. The other night they were supposed to come to the event representing their country. Amanda and her roommate Bethany decided to go as a hamburger and fries. They made these costumes out of boxes literally hours before the event. Quite impressive if you ask me. What do you think of their representation of the U.S. of A.?

Baby Jesse

Zoie has a new cousin. Earlier this month Brian and Amber and big brother Braden welcome Jesse into their home. Everything went pretty well and he's a cutie. We love him. I was worried Zoie would have jealousy issues but no, she adores him. She thinks he is pretty neat. Here are some pictures so you can see how cute he is.

New Office

One of the perks of a our new basement is my new office, it's working out great. Here are teh pictures. It's not totally done but it's close.

Georgia Trip Entry 1 - Our Little Traveler

Last month we took a belated holiday down to Georgia. These first pictures are of Zoie during our travels. Zoie was a fabulous traveler. She did great on the flights, happy rode in the car, I was so pleased. More about our trip to come later...

Change and my Doll Baby

I haven't blogged much in the past month primarily because we have had a lot going on. My head has been swimming a bit and blogging...well I thought about it many times but with so much happening I almost didn't know what to say. Now that things have slowed down (aka we are snowed in), I thought I'd drop a quick note.

The biggest change that has happened is Mark changed jobs. He left CAT and is now working as an accountant for Hyatt Corporation in downtown Chicago. So he takes the train in every morning, works in a professional office environment, and works in accounting. This job is a great opportunity and thus far has been going really well. Mark enjoys working downtown, the people he works with are very welcoming, and he's really made good use of the train ride.

The commute is long, so someday we may consider moving to a closer location to the city but for now, this is what we're going to do.

Since this update isn't very picture friendly, I thought I'd include some pictures of my doll baby. I like to dress her up and so far she seems to like it too. She asks for a bow every morning when I get her dressed :).

Church Dress (Is this the one you saw Mom Lindberg?)

Wild bed head

Getting ready to go out in the cold

Cool Kid

Cute outfit from Aunt Diana

Cousin Love

With the holidays etc....Zoie has had numerous opportunities to play with her cousins and she loves it. She is forver asking for "Brady (Braden), Emmett, Cara, or Cista (Calista). Here is some fun pictures of Zoie with her cousins.

Snow

Last year I didn't really have Zoie go out in the snow because she was too little, not walking, and generally would consider it an awful idea. The first good snow I did take her out. At first she thought it was great, it was fun to be outside again.

Then she touched it...and it wasn't fun anymore. She wouldn't wear her gloves and the cold snow was something she didn't like. She'd get some on her and she'd say her classic "stuck, stuck" as she'd quickly try to wipe it off. She was content to just run up and down the freshly scooped sidewalk and driveway.

Interestingly enough, she hasn't asked to go outside since.

Zoie and her blocks

Zoie loves her blocks. She loves build towers and plays with these a lot. She also plays with duplos and other blocks.

As you can see, she also likes to knock them down. This has caused a little tension in our house. I let her make quite a mess with blocks and even considered getting more. Mark would like to hide the blocks because they make such a mess. Let's just say since I'm the one picking them up 85% of the time...we still have them.

Baby it's cold outside

But Zoie doesn't care. She still wants to go outside to play. So here is what we do so Zoie can enjoy the outside.

As a note, we even went swinging at the neighbors despite the fact it was 30 degrees and windy.

Visit from Uncle Nicholas and Aunt Diana

A couple of weeks ago my sister and brother-in-law came to visit. Diana had a baby shower for a friend in the city, so Nicholas hung out with us and then they both stayed to watch the Ohio game and have pizza. It was a lot of fun.

I don't get to see my sister nearly as often as I'd like, so I was so glad it worked out.

Zoie was too. When they first walked in the door, Zoie shouted "Nick" and ran to him with arms wide-open. He then carried her around for a while much to her delight

Later when Diana returned from the shower, the same big greeting with a "Da nana."

Come again to visit!

Cutest Giraffe Ever

Here are some pictures from Zoie as a Giraffe this Halloween. She thought this was great. She got to wear a fun costume (which she loved) and she got a fun purple pumpkin that only got cooler when people started putting candy in it.

Just like mommy and daddy

Wearing mommy's shoes

"Helping" push the cart

Dusting
(ok confession, Lorriane was actually the one cleaning)

Wearing mommy's head band

Bee Prepared...coming in March

a new Vercler is on it's way.

Brian, Amber, and Braden had the best shirts on Sunday that showcased their coming arrival.

Let's just say Aunt Laura is really excited.

Joel-love

We have been actively working to teach Zoie the names of her family. She does best with the shorter names. Here is her saying "Joel" with a little treat at the end.

Baking Bread

My friend Kasey M. introduced me to a wonderful book, Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day. It is a great book that shows you how to make bread dough that you store in the fridge and only takes minutes to prepare fresh homemade bread. And it is FABULOUS!! I'm hooked.

I baked my first loaf today. We dipped it in Olive Oil and seasoning (which it hardly needed). Mark and Zoie agree...more tomorrow mom.

You can do all kinds of breads with it and it's so easy. Since you keep the dough in the fridge, it's easy to make it for dinner (not that our loaf made it that long).

My first loaf
Thanks Kasey for the tip...I think I'm the next unofficial member of the marketing team.

Drywall

If you've talked with either Mark or I over the past year, you have undoubtedly heard about two things Zoie and our basement project. Well Zoie is just as cute as ever but the basement project took a massive step forward this week. We hired someone to come put up the drywall and paint our basement (normally we would do the paint ourselves but he offered us a pretty sweet deal, so we took him up on it).

The first picture is the basement living room in the "after state" the next 3 are "before" and the final 3 are "after"

Family room and kitchenette area

Family Room & kitchenette area



Office/bedroom

Bathroom

Family room

Office/bedroom

Bathroom