Baby Jack Campo!

My cousin Chrissy had a baby boy this week! Jack Michael Campo was born Tuesday and my mom and I decided to drive to Tampa yesterday and see him! I was so excited to hold Jack - he is truly a miracle! And absolutely adorable. Here are a couple of pictures I took...

Christmas pictures!

I'm finally posting pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas day. We flew home from Chicago Thursday night and spent Friday (Christmas Eve) wrapping all of our gifts that we'd had sent here! Friday night we celebrated with Matt's family at Shelia's house.

With Aunt Lulu

He is now a little musician!

Trying out his new tool set with She-she!

You can't forget the safety goggles!

Christmas morning started out with our favorite egg casserole…gluten-free! This dish has become a tradition in our family on Christmas morning, and I was so glad my mom could make it gluten free - we couldn't even tell the difference!

Will loved his new basketball goal!

Trying out his new chair, just his size!

Elmo!

Blocks!

We went to Matt's mom's for a great lunch.

Will and Cousin Otto!

Jessica painted this for Will…it was one of Mr. Dart's famous lines to his kids growing up!

We came back over to my parent's house for dinner (we do move around a lot on holidays, but at least our families are about 3 minutes apart!)

Will gave us a lovely after-dinner piano recital!

I made my mom and mother-in-law canvases of pictures I'd taken - I think they both liked them!

We had such a wonderful Christmas…I hope yours was just as great!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Darts!

pictures to come soon...

Our weekend and pasta!

This weekend we did a service project with our small group, helping to fill boxes of necessities and goodies to be given out to people who need it.

Will tried to help out!

My friend Courtney with Noah on her back!

We chased Will around the entire time...he loved being around so many people!

Also, I wanted to share this pasta dish Matt made this weekend. He's made it several times and I always request this when he offers to cook...it is my favorite pasta dish EVER!

Pasta with Sausage, Edamame, and Fennel

1 lb. fettucine (we use Tinkyada gluten-free pasta)
1 T butter
2 shallots (or 1 small onion) finely chopped
1 bunch fennel (use bottom only, not stalks), cut into strips in the direction of the stalks
2 t sage
3/4 to 1 lb fresh italian sausage, casings removed and broken into small pieces
1 c frozen shelled edamame
3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan
fresh parsley for garnishing

Make pasta as directed, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Cook shallots in butter over medium to low heat until translucent but not browned, 3-5 minutes. Add fennel and sage and saute until tender, 5-10 minutes. Add sausage and stir. Add 1/2 cup water and cover and let simmer. When sausage is cooked, add edamame. Take off heat and stir in parmesan. Mix with pasta and thin with reserved cooking water if needed. Garnish with parsley and serve!

17 months

Will is 17 months!

Will,

• You are talking so much now! You call me "mama" throughout the day and I love it! You also say dada, ball, book, Elmo, "more" (for Cheerios), Coco, bye-bye, milk, baby, boy, night-night, and hi.
• Right now your favorite toys are balls (you like us to throw them and then you go get them and bring them back to us!), books, your shape-sorter elephant toy, and anything in the kitchen!
• You are generally in a good mood and spend most of the day smiling, squealing, and laughing! We also think you are an extrovert…you seem to get really happy around a big group of people, you walk up to strangers and talk to them, and you are sometimes VERY vocal in public, like you were today at the library:)
• You eat a big bowl of oatmeal and applesauce for breakfast every morning, which seems to keep you full most of the day. You also love bananas, grapes, sweet potatoes, and turkey. And Cheerios of course!
• You are still taking two naps a day. We tried one nap today and it didn't go over so well.
• You have started walking around the house so fast that you're practically running. You stumble a lot less now and never crawl anymore. 
• You sit calmly in my lap when you get up from your naps while you drink milk, and this is definitely the highlight of my day! I often think that I wish I could freeze time so that you would stay like this forever! I love you!!  

You often speak gibberish really fast and animated and then turn your hands out like this as if to say "Well, mom, what do you think?" So cute!

Chicken curry and an early Christmas gift!

Will's cousin Otto sent him an early gift yesterday...

A Christmas shirt with his name on it!

How cute!! Will says THANK YOU Cousin Otto!

My sister-in-law Casey also sent this ornament with a yellow jacket and Will's initial's on it!

I love it!! I let Will help me put it on the tree.

Also, I wanted to share this really simple, delicious dish I made last night. It is a chicken curry dish from Mark Bittman's The Minimalist Cooks at Home. I decided to make it at the last minute because I already had all of the ingredients, and it only took 30 minutes to cook! I will definitely make it again.

Chicken Curry in a Hurry

1 T canola oil
1 onion, sliced
1.5 t curry powder
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup sour cream or yogurt
minced cilantro or parsley for garnish

Heat oil in large skillet on medium-high. A minute later, add the onion. Add salt and pepper and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Turn heat to medium, add half of the curry powder, and cook an additional minute or two.

Meanwhile, season chicken with salt and pepper and remaining curry powder. Move onions to the side and cook chicken for about 2 minutes per side; remove to a plate.

Add sour cream or yogurt (if you use yogurt, make sure it does not boil; it will curdle) over medium-low heat until the mixture is thick. Add chicken back in and cook 2 more minutes, turning once. Garnish and serve with rice.

Optional: you can add nuts (I added slivered almonds), red pepper flakes (I added a little), raisins, or dried coconut to onion as it cooks.

Time to party

We went to a kid's Christmas party at Matt's office today...

Will had such a good time! He usually hangs around Matt and I when we are around a lot of "strangers", but today he was fearless...

He walked around the entire time and was interested in all the other kids!

He even took himself on a little tour of the office, stopping to wave to people along the way...

Santa came and gave the kids gifts...

But Will wasn't too sure he liked Santa...

He did, however, decide that he liked his gift (legos)!