Cousins

When I was growing up, I never had a lot of friends because, to be quite frank, I didn't really need any friends. I had 3 sisters, and if that wasn't enough, I had great cousins, lots of them. On the Mitzel side, I have 11 cousins. On the Geha side, I have 7 cousins. And that's just first cousins. I won't even get started on the second cousins, through-marriage and twice removed business. Isla currently has 7 cousins (first cousins that is): Bella, Ashley, Brooke, Timmy, Elijah, Vivian and Jenna. They are all really close in age, so they love being together.


We went to Grand Rapids a few weeks ago to see Jenna and Brookie. Isla LOVED playing with the girls. Matt was even gracious enough to babysit one night so me, Dana and my mom could all go out. We stayed out till 1:00 a.m...at Meijer. Man, we are crazy.

Baby Jenna

Uncle Matt reading to the girls

Couldn't resist the bath time photos

Notice how Isla is sitting.

We're praying she's double jointed because that's the only way she knows how to sit.

Isla and Timmy

Dave made the custom hats

(known to others as building blocks)

...and that Duvet on the ground, well that's our "area rug"

Isla still has some catching up to do to compare to all my cousins, so thank goodness she has some great friends too!

Hail to the King

My Aunt Andrea is one of the most thoughtful people I know. Second only to her Savior, she loves her children more than anything in the whole world. Greg has always claimed to be her favorite. Although she denies, it is clear that he certainly holds a special place in her heart.

Yesterday Greg OFFICIALLY turned 30. Since we had already had his big shindig back in November, his mom wanted to throw him another small surprise party on his actual birthday. As many of you know, Greg is kind of tough to buy presents for. But there is one present that never fails, Costco Gift Cards. His sweet mother, knowing his love of Costco, thought it to be the most appropriate venue for his 30th Birthday party.

The big surprise!

(Please note the look on the lady's face in the checkout lane)

The Queen Mother with the Costco King

(she made the crown herself)

Appetizers and Party Favors

The manager who documented the whole occasion

(please watch for it in the upcoming Costco Newsletter. Apparently, its their first birthday party). Oddly, the manager did not want to be in any of the photos.

The Cake

The best birthday song ever

and Isla even hit a milestone by getting to have her first ride in the shopping cart.

Happy Birthday Uncle Greg. Your the best friend, cousin, uncle and roommate anyone could ever ask for. Hail to the King.

The Best New Year's Eve Ever

I don't know how most people feel about New Year's Eve, but my opinion of it is rather low. There is this huge gear up to find some fancy schmancy "event" to go to with friends. Then you go shopping for some outfit to wear to said fancy schmancy event. And, if you're anything like me, you look back at the pictures of the outfit and think "Why did I buy that again? Did I really think head to toe sequence was the way to go?" You end up paying way too much for the special New Year's Eve "package" which includes nothing more than a plastic headband, a noise maker, some bad champagne and a terrible cover band. Other than the kiss from my honey at midnight, I could scrap the whole thing.

This year, we did things a bit differently. While most of the family went to South of the border, we decided to go Up North with some of our favorite people, The Fezzeys. Quite possibly some of the nicest people anyone could ever meet. We were up at their cottage for four glorious, snowy days. The highlights included going to the Social Security office in Petoskey (where I legally changed my name to Borowicz after being married for 3 and 1/2 years), shopping at a grocery store that had a whole freezer full of fresh buffalo meat and, of course, a trip to Walmart to buy some random items. On New Year's Eve, we stayed in and made dinner. We all struggled to stay up till midnight (with a few snoozes here and there) and watched the ball drop on the Home Shopping Network. It was FANTASTIC! Thanks to the Fezzey's for being such great hosts and especially to Peter for twisting our arm to ditch our big plans to stay home and do nothing :)

Yep, her eyes are really that blue.

While we were up north, Isla took a bath for the first time without the baby tub. She thought it was the greatest! Have you ever seen cuter buns?

Isla also made a new best friend up north, Nilla.

They played together and shared food & toys.

Huge thanks to Uncle Mike, Aunt Suzy and Peter for giving us a great time of relaxation with great friends. We love you.

Happy New Year!

Although its been said

Many times

Many ways

Merry Christmas, to you.

Henna is spending her first Christmas with Jesus. Howl with the Angels sweet puppy. The mantle just isn't the same without your stocking, but you're celebrating with the King.

Thank you to our Heavenly Father for sending us the gift of Jesus. Thank you Jesus for the gifts you give us. We are truly blessed.

Straight out of Syria

I like a little spice in my life, and even more spice in my cooking. Since Isla has been eating solid food, I can't help but feel bad for feeding her stuff that is totally bland. Don't get me wrong, I love my vegetables. But come on, who eats oatmeal without a few raisins or some brown sugar? So I finally threw in the towel on the whole feeding her one food at a time for 4 days to see if she has an allergic reaction and just trusted that she has my good genes. I made some hummus and fancy rice (basically just rice with a bunch of meat, mushrooms and spices) the other day and decided to give her that for dinner. She loved it. It totally gives me hope that there may be an ethnic bone in her body even if she does have light skin and blue eyes.

She's still trying to figure out that nothing

comes out of the bottom of the cup

We had a date night on Friday night. We went to Mexicantown for dinner and then went to the casino. Dave had me playing video roulette after I lost my first $20 at Wheel of Fortune. I promptly cashed out of roulette once I won my $20 back and earned $3 more. We walked away winners. Conservative winners, but winners nonetheless. On Saturday we both used gift certificates from last Christmas to get massages. They were amazing. We ate pizza for lunch then headed to my nephew's first birthday party. I think we sang him the "Happy, Happy Birthday" song at least five times. Isla cried each time. I'm hoping she gets used to it by the time her birthday comes along.

Cold Turkey

Dave and I have both been on a bit of a workout kick lately. For sustained motivation, THE Dorm crew decided that we would run in the Annual Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day. It was a 10k and there were 14,000 people in the race. Some ran. Some walked. Some with dogs. Some with double strollers. Some with iPhones. And some with barely any clothes. In order to run in the race, we had to be in Detroit by 7 a.m. After somewhat of a sleepless night, we were up at 5 a.m. and out of the house by 6:30 a.m. For anyone who knows my struggle with getting out of the house in a timely manner, it was somewhat of a Thanksgiving miracle. Dave and Greg were nice enough to pace with me during our run (despite the fact that their legs are nearly twice as long as mine), and we all crossed the finish line together. My running friends tell me that our time of 1 hour and 1 minute was "respectable," especially considering the crowd.

The brining of the Turkey on Thanksgiving Eve

Pre-Race

Mid-Race

Post-Race

The Trotters

After the big race, we headed to Dave's parents house, showered and started cooking. I made pumpkin cakes (recipe courtesy of the Great Baker, Heidi DeKorne) and butternut squash risotto (recipe courtesy of Megan Clark via her personal chef, Jens Shroyer). They were both a huge hit. The meal was so good that everyone promptly passed out afterwards. We went to bed as soon as we got home. I was at my sister Melanie's house by 10:00 a.m. the next morning to have brunch with our dear friends, Marie and Monty. After we cleaned up brunch, we started making dinner for the Arabs. We ate around 5, cleaned up, grabbed some quick dessert and headed home totally exhausted.

Food coma

Although he didn't know it at the time, Saturday evening was Greg's 30th Surprise Party. For those of you who missed it, we had the best raffle prizes in true Dorm fashion including a gallon of Tabasco, the Snuggie, a mini-keg of Heineken (oddly enough won by my mom), a bottle of Dom Perignon and Keurig Coffee maker...just to name a few. Greg was thankfully surprised despite his sneakiness. Although his birthday isn't until 2010, we partied like it was 1999. If you missed the momentous occasion, you still have a little over a month to find the perfect gift.

He borrowed the hat

Took him about 30 times to blow out

all 30 candles

The hat owner and lucky winners of the Dom

The weekend concluded with yet another Thanksgiving celebration with the Mitzel family. I was able to hold sweet new baby Carson and eat my Aunt Linda's famous smokey links wrapped in bacon. After the 3rd Thanksgiving, I headed to my niece Logan's birthday party. I'm still tired just thinking about the whole weekend.

Isla has been crawling for a couple weeks, but she really kicked it into high gear over the weekend. After nearly climbing out of her crib on Friday night, we had to drop her mattress all the way down. She now begins each nap with ripping the bumpers off the sides of the crib and launching her binky through the slats. After she completes her destruction, she passes out. She also babbles "da da" and what seems like "hi." Maybe "Your Baby Can Read" is paying off after all.