12M ~ September 2022

 Pre-gaming before Rock of Ages at the @palacetheatrenh tonight!

12M ~ June 2022

This is the life, bo-bo, bo-bo-bo
This is the life, bo-bo, bo-bo-bo.

Little brothers making breakfast for the big brothers and their friends.

While this mom sits on the porch a drinks coffee!

This is the life, bo-bo, bo-bo-bo
This is the life, bo-bo, bo-bo-bo 😁

12M ~ December 2021

When you have to take your kid to an early morning appointment in your old stomping grounds, you take him to one of your old favorites for breakfast! 😋

Came back from Evan's appointment to this!  #itsfineimfineeverythingsfine 😆

New oven and dishwasher installation - excited to have the oven before hosting Christmas. Less excited about the fact that I can't use this space right now and I'm way behind on a bunch of stuff. 🤷🏻‍♀️

My kitchen on Christmas Eve Eve! 🤷🏻‍♀️🤪

Demo Day 2:

Flooring all ripped up. And the addition of 6 more fans! 🤪😆

They'll be back after Christmas to begin the upper floor and I'm beyond thankful that I get to have my kitchen intact for now! 😬

12M ~ February 2021

Homemade fettuccine!🍝

No big party for the Superbowl this year made me sad so I'm eating my feelings with an Italian feast of eggplant and chicken parm!

I'll need to work out extra hard at the gym tomorrow. 😂

This cat is crazy! 😹

12M ~ February 2021

David and I made homemade pappardelle pasta and served it with with a beef short rib ragu. It was delicious! Next he wants to make fettuccine alfredo! 😋

12M ~ January 2021

I love that he wants to learn to cook our favorite recipes! Tonight we have homemade meatballs and marinara sauce compliments of @davidwicks1206!  🍝

12M ~ November 2020

 Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃

It was a quiet holiday this year due to COVID, but we still had to make sure to have some turkey!

Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃 Missing all of our family today. My annual picture is looking a lot different this year. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Mom. I can haz turkey too? 🦃😹

I am the only pie person in the house, so I made dark chocolate bourbon bundt cake with a chocolate bourbon glaze for dessert instead. 🥃

12M ~ September 2020

David said that one of the best things when he was at RMS were the soups for hot lunch! I can only hope my homemade French onion is as good! I even offered free delivery. 😆

First XC meet today. 🏃🏻

He finished with a time of 26:45. He said it was hard and hilly, but he did better than his Dad did in his first XC race, so he was happy! 😂 And now he has his time to beat.

12M ~ June 2020

Baseball is BACK!  And I have one happy kid!  He was so excited to play in his first travel game of the adjusted COVID season.  There are new procedures in place to keep players and coaches safe but he was willing to do whatever he needed to do to be back on the diamond!

In Game 1 David played RF for the entire game and went 2 for 3 with an RBI.  They won that game 12 to 1.  In Game 2 he came in the game at the end and played CF and LF and went 1 for 1 at the plate with an RBI.  They won that game 13 to 7.  Not a bad start to his season! 

Post game wrap up!

Post game dinner at Wild Willy's Burgers!

Tatonka Burger!

12M ~ May 2020

More quarantine baking.  Homemade hot dog rolls and potato hamburger rolls.

12M ~ May 2020

Day 19: A song that makes you think about life!

The Doc: How to Save a Life - The Fray
Me: Seasons of Love from Rent
David: Graduation - Benny Blanco ft. Juice WRLD
Shaun: I Lived - OneRepublic
Evan:  Let It Grow from The Lorax

This song always gets me in the feels, it's one of my all time favorite musicals.  Measure your life in love.  Speaks for itself.

Homeschooling Day 27: He's officially taken over the house office as his space. 😂 Whatever. 🤷‍♀️ No one else was using it.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  Carne Asada, with homemade salsa, pico de gallo and guacamole and margaritas!

12M ~ May 2020

Day 18: A song from the year you were born:

The Doc: 1979 - Highway to Hell - AC/DC
Me: 1979 - Chiquitita - ABBA
David: 2006 - Bad Day - Daniel Powter (technically this song has 2005 as the release date, but it didn't hit the US charts until 2006 so I allowed it! 😂)
Shaun: 2008 - Viva La Vida - Coldplay
Evan: 2010 - Forget You - Cee Lo Green

There were lots of good choices for 1979, but I really love the harmonies in this song and fell in love with it when I saw Mamma Mia a few years ago.  I didn't really have a huge interest in seeing that show, even though I enjoy ABBA, but it's my MIL's favorite and so when it came to Boston I had to get us tickets.  It was such a fun surprise and I especially loved the encore at the end because everyone in the audience was on their feet dancing and singing along to Waterloo!

Homeschooling Day 26: Serving up some quality hot lunch - chicken nachos!

It was nice enough to grill outside so we did chicken shawarma kabobs with homemade wraps!  YUM!

12M ~ May 2020

Day 17: A song you'd sing a duet with someone on karaoke:

The Doc: He said pass. 🙄 There is no song that he would ever want to sing karaoke, let alone a duet. 🤦‍♀️😆 Also he knows I would want him to learn it so we could preform it together, even though I promised him he wouldn't ever have to again! 🤣
Me: Come What May - Nicole Kidman & Ewan McGregor from Moulin Rouge
David: One Last Time - Christopher Jackson & Lin-Manuel Miranda from Hamilton
Shaun: Don't Go Breaking My Heart - Elton John & Kiki Dee
Evan: Bumper Cars - Alex & Sierra

First of all, I would never turn down the opportunity to sing a duet at karaoke, no matter the song choice.  Evan's song is a new one we found that I love because their harmonies are so beautiful.  But this one is a favorite.  This song was the song that was our "last dance" at our wedding and one time on a car ride he humored me and sang Ewan's part, while I sang Nicole's.  He made sure it was very clear that it was a ONE and ONLY.  I love him for it and have honored his wishes to this day.  He hasn't had to sing with me again! 
😂😂😂

Boot camp is back - although it's virtual - it's still better than nothing.  After working out on my porch I made pancakes for the boys using sourdough starter.  The batter sits overnight and gets all bubbly in the morning!  YUM!  I added blueberries to mine so they were "healthy".  Ha!

Bootcamp on my porch!

Mum! We haz pick tings up and put dem down. 💪🏻🏋️‍♂️

Bubbly pancake batter goodness!🥞 

Blueberry sourdough pancakes!

It was so great to finally have such a nice day!  The kids swam a bit and I spent a good portion of the day sitting on my porch.  Evan the cat was living his best life "outside".  Our favorite local ice cream place opened up for the weekend for call ahead orders of ice cream so I placed my order in the morning and we picked it up after dinner.  

Auggie loving the nice weather!

Chocolate covered cherry flurry! 🍦

12M ~ April 2020

Day 13: A song you'd love to be played at your wedding!

The Doc: I Will Not Take These Things For Granted - Toad the Wet Sprocket (He said we already had our wedding so...he chose our actual wedding song 🙄)

Me: Brighter than Sunshine - Aqualung
David: Don't Stop Believin' - Journey
Shaun: Celebration  - Kool & The Gang
Evan: Your Song - Elton John

Don't get me wrong, I love our wedding song, it has very special meaning to us, but this song came out after we got married and I would have seriously campaigned for this to be our song choice!  I love, love, love this song.  I first heard it when I watched what has become one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies - A Lot Like Love, and I have been obsessed ever since.

April Homecation: 

30 squats a day for 30 days! We did it! 💪🏻🥊

Outsourced dinner duty to the 13 year old!

Homemade meatballs

I ordered myself a new bread baker (Happy early Mother's Day to me!) and made some homemade French bread!

12M ~ April 2020

Day 12: A song from your preteen years!

The Doc: Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
Me: Vogue - Madonna
David: Pop Out - Polo G Feat. Lil Tjay
Shaun: Old Town Road - Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus
Evan: Bad Guy - Billie Eilish

Greta Garbo and Monroe; Bette Davis we love you!  When I think of "preteen years", I think of being 11 and 12 years old and so for us, that means songs from 1990 and 1991, for the older two boys I told them to search for songs when they were that age and for Evan (who isn't even 10 yet - he turns 10 on Friday!), I told him to choose a song that came in the last year. As I thought about songs from those years, I had to choose Vogue by Madonna.  I was obsessed.  Like A Prayer is still one of my all time favorite albums (start to finish), but that album was released in 1989 and did not fit the criteria I set.  Vogue is still classic though, I mean who doesn't like to strike a pose?

April Homecation:

Cruising down the main drag getting a treat from Dunkin Donuts!

Still cloudy and cool, but no rain means momma got some alone time with her favorite podcast guys (Jon, Jon, Tommy and Dan @crookedmedia @podsaveamerica).

Had some fun with my sourdough starter and made some sourdough bagels (started the process the night before) and some homemade sourdough tortillas.

Sourdough bagels!

Sourdough tortillas

12M ~ April 2020

Day 10: A song that makes you sad!

The Doc: Black - Pearl Jam
Me: I Think it's Going to Rain Today - Bette Midler
David: All Girls Are The Same - Juice WRLD
Shaun: Every Rose Has Its Thorn - Poison
Evan: Happier - Marshmello ft. Bastille

I went way back for this one and it wasn't a cut and dry choice, I went back and forth on this one.  I ended up choosing this song because Beaches was the first movie I remember ugly crying to and then playing the movie soundtrack on repeat singing all the songs.  And I realize that Wing Beneath My Wings, would have been the more obvious choice, but I don't love that song as much as I love this one and it's the only song I from this soundtrack that I still have on replay today because I love singing it so much.  My other song was Words Fail from Dear Evan Hansen, that song is a gut punch especially if you have been able to see that show live.  I also considered How to Save a Life by The Fray and Winter by Joshua Radin because those were some rare sad moments on Scrubs (and yes I bawled my eyes out!).


Having lots of fun with A Starter Has No Name and tried out another waffle recipe for breakfast and made sourdough pretzels!

Finished Product

12M ~ April 2020

Homeschooling Day 19: Shaun wasn't exactly thrilled to learn that he would be "stuck" with another quarter of Art (he was supposed to have Health but the school opted not to change schedules while at home). I was just happy that he managed to get his assignment done without too much of a fight. I think it helped that he was able to do the assignment digitally and he didn't have to draw or use clay. 😂😂😂

Homemade garlic knots!  SO GOOD!

Thirsty Thursday!