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Eskesen Family Photo Fun!

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Rachel has returned to the US of A! We celebrated, drank coffee, enjoyed a trip to IKEA and took family photos to commemorate the occasion. Here are some photos for your enjoyment. What a bunch of lookers, eh?

family (b/w)

The whole family! Rachel, Erik, Mom, Dad, Jonathan, Beatrice, Kelly

just the ladies

Rachel, Mom, Kelly

men

Erik, Dad, Jonathan

And some outtakes. We’re still winners!

lookin' good!

Beatrice is done with photo fun. Kelly and Erik decide to spice things up a bit!

ummm...

Classy!

just the men

Cuddles

The rest of the collection can be found by clicking here. Jonathan is a photo genius! Thanks for capturing such a fun time!

South 47 Farm

Sunday, July 11th, 2010

There is a farm pretty close to us called the South 47 Farm. Last summer, it was a CSA that also had a farmstand where one could purchase veggies, but we haven’t seen any action there this year. We thought it was perhaps the weather that kept them closed. When I saw an add for a little festival there this weekend, we decided we’d go! Turned out to be not so much a festival as a tent with some stuff to buy, a few crafts and kettle corn sales, but we did get some cute photos.

Here is Beatrice as a scarecrow:

Afterward, we went to Theno’s Dairy where we enjoyed some delicious ice cream and Beatrice fell asleep in her car seat.

South Carolina 2010 Highlight Reel

Monday, May 24th, 2010

When we went to visit my parents in South Carolina this year, we brought a little video camera with us and took some footage of our adventures. Enjoy!

South Carolina 2010 Highlight Reel from Jonathan on Vimeo.

(Music: Your Hand in Mine by Explosions in the Sky.)

For my husband and my mom, two of the biggest coffee lovers I know

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

I saw this today and thought of you, Jonathan and Mom. I thought you’d enjoy it. I know you’ll enjoy it even more if you’re drinking a nice, hot cup of black coffee while you read it. Okay, click here for the list.

Any other coffee lovers out there? How do you take your coffee? Me, I enjoy a little milk and some sugar in the raw. So far, I have not been able to drink black coffee and enjoy it.

Excitement! Disappointment!

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

One of my favorite times of the year is the week leading up to the Super Bowl. Not because I follow football, though I do enjoy viewing a game or two. It is the fact that this is one time of year I can count on Tostidos brand Salsa con Queso to be on sale for around $2. Imagine my joy last night as Jonathan brought in the weekly circulars! I was preparing supper, so I had him go through the adverts to see who “won” with the lowest price for queso and then I would plan our weekly menu/grocery shopping around this location. You know what happened?  Nobody wins. Everyone loses this week because queso is not less than $3 anywhere. It was all very disappointing. Some people want chocolate or decadent foods that can only be acquired by artisans who hand craft their specialty in a specific location. I’m a simple girl. I just want the queso and a good, crispy tortilla chip that can hold an adequate amount of said queso. Oh and a coca-cola classic (Mexican please, it tastes so much better). If there happens to be a bag of jelly bellies involved, you won’t find me complaining. Rereading this, I sound like I have the snacking habits of a first grader. Excellent! First graders always have energy! Also, please note, were there not a baby currently enjoying the warmth of my womb, I would include red wine and sushi to this list.

How about you? Do you have a favorite snack to enjoy while watching the big game? Any alternatives to queso that I should try? (Please do not suggest a store brand queso. I might cry.)

Baby shower for Champ

Friday, December 18th, 2009

While my sister was here, she and my mom hosted a most lovely baby shower for me and little Champ. It was especially nice for me because of the people who were there: Rachel was home and many of my aunts and cousins came too as well as the family like friends that we’ve known for ages. Here are some photos:

Mom, Kelly (Champ), and Rachel

Mom, Kelly (Champ), and Rachel

Me and Mel (one of the “downthestreets”). Her baby is due the week after Champ. Crazy times! Tim’s baby is just a food baby. Lucky Tim!

Mel & Kel
Mel & Kel

Mom made delicious cupcakes and we had other wonderful foods and tea on proper tea cups!

These are my favorite!

These are my favorite!

And this is my favorite photo of the three of us (especially Rachel’s expression) from that day!
Hold on! Whats this?!?!? Theres a baby in there!

Hold on! What's this?!?!? There's a baby in there!

Regrettably, I did not think to take a photo of the whole group and most of the photos of me opening gifts don’t have me actually holding up the items so you can see how cute it is. Thank you to everyone who came! We have so many lovely things now and we’re beginning to feel more prepared for little Champ’s arrival in March. It was great to see everyone and I’m thankful that folks were able to make time during the craziness between Thanksgiving and Christmas to spend time with us.

Lightroom

Friday, December 18th, 2009

MckMama is giving away a copy of lightroom today and you can enter the contest here. If you’re not interested in Lightroom, you’ll still find her website fun and funny. Check it out! And no, I have no idea what I’d do with a copy of Lightroom except give it to Jonathan and then leave the house so he can play around with it for a few hours.

A little too far

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

Being the readers and researchers we are, Jonathan and I not only have several pregnancy and parenting books that we’re reading but we receive anywhere between seven and ten emails a day from places like babycenter.com, whattoexpect.com, babyfit.com, naturalmothering.com, healthymom.com, etc. Sometimes they have great info, sometimes it’s an advert, but often they’re helpful. Today, there was an email about maternity clothing and working out. Basically, I was encouraged to wear proper maternity clothes, not just big sweats (yeah right). The best part was the suggestion to get a maternity unitard! UNITARD! If you know anything about a unitard, you know this is a bad idea. I have to go to the bathroom up to ten times a day. A unitard would not be helpful in my pursuit of an empty bladder. Or would it be worth it? Here’s a photo:

What do you think? Sassy and pregnant? Or weird. I say weird….

The Big D

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
Carrie and I headed down to Dallas, Texas a couple of weeks ago to visit our friend April who is well, stinking fantastic. We flew down Thursday night, arrived around 11:45pm, then stayed up talking until around 3am. Regrettably, this meant we didn’t actually have brunch on Friday, more like we got up in time for lunch. But hey, it was vacation and I almost never sleep in so it was GLORIOUS. Also, April had little dishes of candy set up for us so I was a little hyped up on sugar all weekend long.

We got up Friday morning, picked up Jojo and headed to the historic downtown trolley:

A & K on the trolley

A & K on the trolley

C & J on the trolley

C & J on the trolley

 We had some delicious lunch, then wandered around and looked at little things in shops. Because I was (and still am) a little freaked out about the idea of wearing maternity clothes, we all went together to try them on. Here we are (just to clarify, I’m the only one who needs them, but who wouldn’t want to try on a fake prego belly with your friends?)

Joanna=not pregnant

Joanna=not pregnant

Carrie=not pregnant

Carrie=not pregnant

 

April = not pregnant

April = not pregnant

me in three months time!

me in three months time!

We didn’t buy any of the clothes, but we had fun! THEN we went to Chuy’s for dinner!

Queso bar in the back of a cadillac? YES PLEASE!

Queso bar in the back of a cadillac? YES PLEASE!

Mmm. Queso!

Mmm. Queso!

Thanks for dinner!

Thanks for dinner!

We went back to Toby and Joanna’s that night where I saw one of the creepiest sculptures ever:

But more importantly, I FINALLY learned how to play thumper! YAY!
Saturday we went to a pretty sweet coffee shop to start out the day and then to HOBBY LOBBY where I found some great new autumn decorations (I LOVE autumn decorations!). All this fun was followed up with a delicious trip to Chik-fil-A. Oh Chik-fil-A how I wish you didn’t hate the great northwest and put in a restaurant in Redmond. We went back to April’s and watched a movie and she made us bars! Glorious bars! (I got to take some home and Jonathan agreed they were fantastic).
Saturday night we went to Plano and partook in the hot air balloon festival. It was great AND I tried fried pickles! They were excellent. Nice and salty and delicious.
Sunday we went to church with April and Toby and Joanna and then got to go to the mall and see the miniature basketball player!
and the ducks and turtles with the volcano style fountain:
We rounded out the afternoon with a trip to Red, Hot & Blue where we had barbecue and our own pitchers of sweet tea (everything’s bigger in Texas!)
We had a great trip to visit some wonderful friends! Thanks for hosting us April and Toby and Joanna I’m super glad we got to hang out with you too!

Julia and Julia-the movie (not the book, because I’m number 164 on the hold list at the library)

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
Meryl Streep as Julia Child

Meryl Streep as Julia Child

If you are like me and grew up watching such memorable programs as Great Chefs of the West, Yan Can Cook and The French Chef on the weekends,  then you will understand my enthusiasm for the release of Julie and Julia. I LOVE cooking shows. If, perhaps, you’ve been living under a rock and are unaware of the release of the movie Julie and Julia, it is based on the book of the same name in which the main character, Julie Powell, decides to cook all 594 recipes in Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” in one year and blog about each recipe.
Okay, I admit, Amy Adams does have a terrible haircut, but it’s easily forgotten among the strands of pearls, large amounts of butter consumed, the humor of a modern “servantless American cook” shown alongside the story of Julia Child’s life in Paris, her struggle to even be admitted to cooking school and further trials as she works to have her first cookbook published. The marriages are real in their portrayal of times of happiness and sadness, but steadfast determination to stick by each other no matter what happens.

I’ll admit a large part of me identified with Julie’s job in the movie as it strongly resembled jobs I’ve had myself (handling phone calls from people who mostly wanted to complain), but I think Julie’s desire to do something right at the end of the day: cook a beautiful meal, resonates in many of us. And cook she does. Everything in delicious butter and for the most part, perfectly lovely. Overall, this was a highly entertaining film. It’s a little over two hours long and I worried that I’d get bored, but no, I can watch people cook for ages. If you don’t enjoy watching people cook, this probably won’t be your favorite way to spend an evening. I appreciated that while Julie Powell makes every recipe to the letter but sometimes things just don’t work out. It made me feel a little better about my abilities as a cook. Would I ever try to cook through this entire book? No. I like to have the ability to skip over something that seems gross.

And OH THE COPPER POTS! It made me want to go buy copper pots immediately and have them all over the place. So beautiful and shiny and I’m sure useful. If nothing else, it made me want to go see this.
Bon Appetit!