Heaven's newest angel

My dear friend Hope lost her courageous battle with cancer this morning at 10:15am est.

I have no words to share my grief with you here tonight as I can hardly type through the tears. I knew this was coming for weeks now but that doesn't make it any easier.


I love you and miss you already my dear friend...and I will see you again.

Her friend Jen put a lovely tribute together...you can check it out here by clicking HERE.

Bob

Cooper is loving having Uncle Bobby and Auntie D here :) He is walking around saying Bob and was thrilled to find company in his new little house!

Yesteday, all Cooper wanted to do was sit on Pop Pop's lap..too cute.

Happy New Year!

We are about to crash and hit the hay before the clock strike's midnight but I wanted to share pics from tonight's great dinner with Cheryl and her daughter Olivia. We ate AWESOME sushi and now are home in our jammies ready to say goodnight to 2008.

2009...here we come!

Friends

Cooper had a great visit last night with the Radlien family. He loved the attention from all the kids, especially Jenna! Justin is 15 and going to get his learners permit this year, I can't believe they are getting so big. I told Jenna I was her age when I met her mommy and she said "that was a LONG time ago Ann-Marie!" Yeah...thanks...I know!

Here's a little video of Cooper dancing with some new Christmas toys. I love having all this time off work to visit, take pics and blog! This is the life :)

Also...more pics from our day at the beach this week.

Can't wait to celebrate New Years Eve tonight! Cooper in bed by 8:30pm, Rob and I on the couch catching up on TV shows we've missed and eating snacks all night until we fall asleep before midnight. There is no where else in the world I'd rather be ;)

Sea World!

We had a great day with Meredith, Danny and Brody at Sea World! We love our new yearly passes Grammie!

Sausage Bread Recipe

I have promised you all the recipe for my family's sausage bread and with New Years right around the corner...there's still time for some holiday bread making!

I have no idea why we eat this at Christmas/New Years but...here you go. (PS- I have no real recipe but I am sure you can follow along- also, obviously you can vary what you put in it and just make pepperoni bread or sausage bread, or whatever you like)

First piece of advice: feed your "supervisor" cheerios and keep him busy so he lets you bake!

Buy ready made bread, let it rise per the directions. With this Bridgeford Bread, it has 3 pre-cut loafs and I separate that again to get 6 loafs of bread.

Cook Italian mild or sweet sausage. (1 package either of the big links and cut up or if you can find the package of the ground sausage that works too)

Cut up pepperoni in to small pieces to add into the bread.

Roll out dough and combine with cheddar cheese. Pack it up good but no so good the dough rips.

Wrap it up and tuck in the edges!

Cover with egg wash and sprinkle with poppy seeds. Bake on greased sheet (anything you can find as you can see below!) for around 1/2 hour or until brown.

Cut in slices, serve and enjoy! (I just ripped into this one and ate it but...you can get all fancy too you know!)

Footprints

(click photo to enlarge)

Christmas Pictures