Welcome Collin Parr!

Congrats to Sara and Jeff who welcomed a new member to their family on November 26th. Collin Parker Parr is just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. And his mom looks like a natural! He weighed in at 7 lbs and 1 oz and is 21 inches long. I can't wait to meet him in January!

Recipe share

Can't wait to try this one!

Hey Rach -

Here's my mom's Chocolate Chocolate Chip Pound Cake recipe. It's so easy and equally delicious!

1 package Duncan Hines yellow cake
1 package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 tbsp vanilla
4 eggs
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup canola oil
1 cup sour cream
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. In large mixer, begin mixing dry ingredients. One at a time, add the ingredients (in the order listed above) until fully mixed together. Fold in semi-sweet chocolate chips at the end. Batter should be a creamy chocolate mix. Two baking options: 1) Pour batter into a bundt cake tin and cook for 1 hour 2) Pour batter into 3 loaf tins and cook for 50 minutes

I prefer the 3 loaf pans because you can keep one and share the other two! My mom wraps these cakes in Christmas saran wrap and gives them away to everyone for Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone a very happy Thanksgiving full of wonderful meals and lots of family time. In the spirit of celebrating from abroad, I wanted to share one of my favorite recipes. If you have yummy recipes to share, please email them to me and I'll post them on the blog. Amanda - your squash casserole sounded quite good!



Sweet potato casserole (from my Aunt Barb):

3 lbs sweet potatoes
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs, well beaten

Topping, mix:
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 nuts (pecans)
1/3 cup flour

Cook sweet potatoes until soft. Mash and add all of the above. Add topping. Put in a baking dish (butter or spray with Pam). Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Tee hee

Ok, now that I've communicated the emotional rollercoaster that is moving, I thought I would share something a little lighter. Funny pie chart passed on from my brother:

Our House...is a very very very fine house

The next three weeks are going to be a little difficult for me... I'm a creature of habit and change doesn't come easily, so moving out of our house is almost too hard to contemplate. I know we'll be happy in the new place. The playroom for James will be great. And the new neighborhood is wonderful (and only a 10 minute walk from the current neighborhood). But I'm really going to miss this house. It's been our home in a foreign country... always warm, cozy and welcoming. And it's where we had our first baby. I'm trying not to get too emotional, but I may not be able to hold back as I pack up boxes and watch strangers walk around inspecting the rooms and closets. I just want to scream - YOU'LL LOVE THE HOUSE! BELIEVE ME! YOU'D BE LUCKY TO HAVE IT!

Well, I'm not going to say goodbye just yet...

We're moving!

Down the street! I know it's not as far as moving back to the US, but it's a pretty big deal for us. If you've been to visit our house, you'll understand what a special place it is and why we felt so settled here, after 3 1/2 years. But the little man is taking up an increasing amount of space and we're just bursting at the seams. There was also the chance that we wouldn't be able to renew our lease when it comes up again in May, and rather than waiting until then to determine our fate, we decided to go ahead and commit to a change.

Luckily, we didn't have to leave the neighborhood that we love... we're just heading down the hill to South End Green (a different part of Hampstead). It's about a 10 minute walk from where we are now, but even closer to the Heath, which is great!

The new place is not a stand alone house... it's the second and third floors of a terraced house (British for "row house," as I was told today). There are three bedrooms and a nice patio area outside. James will have his own playroom, which we're all excited about... especially Ana! I've included some pics of the outside and the street below. We move in on December 9th - please come and visit soon!

Ouchie

James had another shot today - the third, and final Hep B vaccine. Now that he's bigger, more aware of what's going on, and stronger (!), it's a much more difficult process. He was very brave, though, and after some pretty serious tears he recovered quite quickly. This time he sat in my lap facing me while the doc jabbed one of his legs, so I was a lot closer to the action than before... that certainly made it harder as well!

He's got two more at 12 months, two at 13 months, and then a chicken pox vaccine. After that we're done until he's 4. Poor little guy! I'm sure he knows it's for his own good, though :) We also found out today that we can start transitioning him off formula onto "real" milk around 12 months. We stop sterilizing bottles then too. It will make things much easier!

We've posted a couple new videos on Flickr of him laughing hysterically... only Ana can get him to laugh like that. Ric and I get a few chuckles, but she gets these huge belly laughs. It's really amazing!!