Nicholas TURNED ONE!!!!!!!

Nicholas turned ONE on December 7th! Can you believe it??? I sure can't.. I know it's going to sound redundant but boy has the last year gone by fast! I'm looking at Nicholas now and wonder how could he already be crawling, talking, cruising, smiling, laughing, clapping, waving, eating everything, and being the cutest little boy?!

We had 2 parties for him this year. One was with a circle of very close friends. We had a delicious turkey dinner, a yummy cake, and lots of fun with friends. Nicholas enjoyed "playing" with his little girlfriends.
Nicholas got many cute gifts.

I made actually Alex's favorite honey-lemon-greek yogurt cake. Nicholas enjoyed trying it.
Happy little 1 year old.
His first bite of the cake :)
The next day Nicholas had his grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles over for yet another delicious dinner (thank you Nana and the Sullengers), 2 more amazing cakes (thanks to Mama :), and even more fun!

The funny thing is that Nicholas didn't really care for unwrapping the presents, but thankfully he was very interested in the presents themselves once bigger kids helped him unwrap them :)
Cousins had lots of fun downstairs playing whatever it is that kids like to play these days...
Именинник и бабуля.
Nicholas and his closest cousin Brennan are 3 months apart.
Happy little boy showing off his teeth :)

I AM ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 19: Halloween

This Halloween we've done more activities than ever before. It is a little ironic since Halloween is my least favorite holiday. We practically had something every day for almost a week prior to Halloween itself. At the beginning of the week Alex was a spiderman (just like the past 2 years).We went to Red Butte Garden After Dark with our friends Irina, Mike and Zoya. It was a fun evening. The fall colors were still in full swing.

Alex made a candle and put it in the pond to float. He made a wish :)

Nicholas is just so cute crawling that I just had to fit him in here.
A sunday morning ritual: all the boys watching football in our bed.
Nicholas demonstrating his first 2 teeth.

Trying out big brother's 2nd Halloween costume: Man in Black.
One of the days we went to Dave's work Halloween party.
Alex was in Heaven as the candy was never-ending.
A family photo.


Babulya just barely came back from San Francisco so she was able to join us at the work party.
The next day we went to Gallivan Plaza and watched firemen drop pumpkins. We had lots of fun and even got splashed by the pumpkins' guts as we sat on the front row.


Alex invited his friend Ava to play at our house.
That evening we went to Pei Wei before the kids went out trick or treating. It was a cold, rainy day.
Alex and Ava went out to treat or trick on our street and the neighboring street. Nicholas stayed home because it was cold, rainy, and dark.
The next day (Halloween) we went up to Park City with our friends Carine, Randall, Ava, and Alina to the Main Street event. The whole main street was filled with people of all ages trick or treating and having fun. This is the second year that we went up there and we really liked it both times!



The girl in the white costume (in the middle) had the best costume by far.


As much as I don't like Halloween, I actually had lots of fun this year!

Day 18: plans/dreams/goals

This is a very private topic, I think.

Plans:

I believe the cat is pretty much out of the bag by now that I'm... starting a new job in short 3 weeks. More of a career than a job. I accepted an offer from the University's Cardiology department, the Atrial Fibrillation program. This is exactly what I wanted to do at this point of my career and I couldn't be more excited!

Goals:

My goal is to learn how to balance the work/life situation, as this will be my first ever (yes, you read it right) full-time job. I've always worked since I was 19 but they always were either part-time or per diem jobs. I'm extremely anxious to see how that will go.

Dreams:

My biggest dream is to travel the world with my family, kids and all. I absolutely love traveling and seeing different parts of the world, learning new cultures, and sampling new foods. This is my most desired dream. I also realize that I love traveling with not only my husband but my kids also. I want them to experience all the new things with us, I want to be to grow up to be well-educated, well-rounded, and also well-traveled.

I believe that if we work hard now and do the best we can to further ourselves in our education and careers, we'll get the chance to experience the world unlimitedly later on.

I guess I can say this is my plan, dream, and a goal :) Ha ha ha!

Day 17: someone I want to switch my life with for 1 day

This will come as no surprise (or a complete shock?) to people who know me well, I would love to switch my life for 1 day with.... MaryJane Butters.

Don't know who she is? She is not a celebrity, not a singer, not an actress, and not a political figure. She is an organic farmer who also publishes a magazine.

Are you laughing yet? Well, it is my life-long dream and a secret wish one day to own a small organic farm. Yes, you read it right. You can stop rubbing your eyes in disbelief. It is true.

I read her articles in a sunday newspaper every week and I'm just amazed at her life. She often describes her day at a farm and I want more than anything to experience that for myself. She also gives lots of practical advice on how to make our lives simpler, more natural, healthier, and free of chemicals/additives/colorings/crap that our life is filled with. I SO want to be her some days!

In our modern world where organic is glorified, put on a pedestal, and made (financially) unavailable to most average families, MaryJane puts it all in perspective and makes suggestions on how to improve the world we live in, a small change at a time. I'm not a granola type or an organic junky. But I do want my kids to grow in a chemical-free (or minimized) environment. I want them to enjoy the simple tastes and flavors of real food that I know origins of and can actually identify the ingredients. I also want to be able to make life simpler. I believe myself to be a minimalist avoiding clutter and unnecessary "decorations". I also want our diet to become sort of "minimalist", with the minimal processing and ingredients required to make food taste delicious.

This is why I would love to live 1 day of my life in MaryJane's shoes, so I could learn how to make all these things possible, without compromising certain comforts and especially flavors of food we eat.

Call me crazy but this is what I would like, if the opportunity came along :)

http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/SimpleSolutions/

Day 16: some more random pictures

Today was supposed to be "another picture of yourself". Well, it's boring. I have more pictures to post on here that are more interesting to look at :)

I'm very pleased how Alex and Nicholas play together in peace now. Alex even lets his brother play with most of his cars!
Nicholas found a new favorite activity... And Alex is happy to play it with him :)
Last week our neighbors were making their world famous spider web in the front yard and Alex and his best friend Nick went to help out.
Nicholas couldn't participate yet. Next year, buddy!
I love it how our neighbors go all out for every holiday!

Alex got caught in the web somewhere...
Alex and Nick played football all day. I think that despite my protest, I have a budding football player :)

Ok, here is a picture of me. Our "weed" leaves are changing colors and they are gorgeous!
The game of football continued beyond imaginable...
When the referee joined them it became more heated :)
Nicholas must have been tired, he's usually very smiley.
We've started to put Nicholas on the toilet every time before his bath. He's had lots of success!!!
Alex is wearing Dave's referee socks for his "crazy socks" day at school during the Red Ribbon week.
Nicholas is so smart, he figured out how his toys work and he's very content to play by himself.
Calling mama at work :)
Walking everywhere!
Last friday we went to Red Butte Garden's "Garden after dark" event with some friends, it was fun for the kids!
Spooky alley.
Our friends Irina, Mike, and Zoya. And my mom with Nicholas :)
Alex made one of those candles, made a wish, and put it in the pond to float!
It got pretty cold toward the end.
Nicholas is the king of crawling. The funny thing is that Alex never learned the proper crawl: he did the military crawl. Nicholas is a true pro!
My boys watching a soccer game on a sunday morning. Ahhhhhhh :))))