2014

getting a start on this new year by watching lots of knitting videos on youtube. and visited purl's website and ordered myself a learn to knit kit.
still haven't made it to the gym or managed to slide on my running shoes (it's been an entire week and a half since my last workout) but i did make a healthy quinoa salad to keep in the fridge for the week, and roasted some detoxifying cauliflower. AND i juiced! now i just need to start on all of my other "resolutions" for the year.
we've reached a point that i think two kids might be enough for us so i'm starting to think about MY life and who I want to be beyond my kids and my husband. like knitting! i've always wanted to learn and have made measly efforts in the past to get started but i've never actually made anything. which leads me to another resolution: following through. doing things that i say i'm going to do. making more time for friends and DOING more for them. and FAMILY. i need to DO more for them too, not just hang around all the time. i want to LISTEN better and talk better too. talk about things with real substance….like those long talks you used to have in college that made you feel like you were really making or going to make a difference. i need more of those. and i just need to be productive. quit cleaning and "straightening up" and just PLAY with my kiddos. and read books!!! when did i quit reading? i can barely get through a page a night in my latest novel…need to work on that.
and although there were some really REALLY great things that happened in 2013, like, hello! amadeus was born!!! i can't say that i'm not happy to see it go and start with a new one. and since amadeus' birth was by far the highlight of my year, that's the picture we're saying goodbye with.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

XO

adventures in candy making.

the other day, i set out to make some classic caramels. i was pretty excited given that i had a brand new candy thermometer in hand and a full on sweet tooth ( so much for all that thanksgiving pie ).

i faired pretty well. although i may have let the candy get past the desired 248〫mark. according to me, and the rest of my family who can't seem to get enough of these sweet treats, this is definitely a recipe for the keeps.

next up: salted caramels!

it's.

oh so quiet over here on the blog front. i wish i could say the same for our days and nights but that just isn't the case. it seems that the holidays have already started to hit us pretty hard which means we've had somewhere to be and some place to go nearly every day/weekend for the past few weeks ( although last weekend was a quiet few days of rest ). so here a few photos to fill you in on what the gignac family has been up to.

plus a quick trip to houston to visit this guy ( which we'll be having down here in a couple weeks to honor in a mini furniture showcase, email me for the info! ). and my runaway sous chef.

and OH YEAH! happy november!!

a lot of time.

spent in and around the water. from an early morning fishing trip last friday to celebrating the fourth of july at our beach house. it was a lot of sun. a lot of pruney fingers. and a lot of fun. so glad that our good friends could join us!

happy monday.

easter celebrations.

outside.

some time with friends // mila's {and MY} new bff

with a little mimosas added to the mix {gotta love brunch time}.

hope every one had a HOPPY {never gets old} easter.

even though.

two-thirds of the gignac house is still nursing a flu {cough-cough}, we weren't going to let that get in the way of some valentine's celebrations. the husband and i started the holiday a little early by going on a mini-date for some wine {still waiting for those anti-oxidants to start attacking this darn sickness} and picked up pizza on our way home. but todayyyy, mila is joining in on the fun and it's all valentine's gifts, lunches, and bowling balls from here!

:: happy valentine's day to all ::

2012.

has a lot to live up to.

we finally started to make this house a home. we met our future daughter for the very first time. nick and i hosted our first get together at this house. we met our state's governor {still not sure if this is something i REALLY want to remember from 2011}. i actually won something! we celebrated our first year of marriage together. i had a lot of fun playing with mila's first room. we celebrated an almost mothers' day. i impatiently waited for moo's arrival.

this kiddo finally decided to make her debut. the husband celebrated his first fathers' day. mila made her first of twenty-eight {yeah, we counted} plane rides

....and, appropriately, it was to see the aggies play. we returned to one of my favorite cities. i had some breastfeeding troubles but finally worked through them. we saw some friends get married and mila got to meet miss erika's little boy. my brother had a really great show in london. mila made a journey to the homeland.

and we polished it all off with a wonderful christmas and trip to the bahamas.

2011 was so good to us that i just can't imagine anything topping it. our little moo has brought so much joy to our lives every day and it just keeps getting better.

a little trip.

to central america.

now to finish some christmas shopping. followed by the inevitable wrapping. a ridiculous amount of time going to different family members' houses {we really do love every minute of this though. promise.}. one more trip. and then finally FINALLY a return to normalcy.

gotta love the holidays.

when i look back on it.

last week was a pretty busy week indeed.

from finally purchasing our christmas tree on wednesday and actually decorating it on saturday {thank you mila for the two-hour nap you took, it really helped out your mom and dad!}.

buying a classic seasonal treat for me to enjoy with my afternoon tea that i have been routinely drinking and LOVING lately.

then working off those christmas-shaped delights by running half of a half marathon...not quite my goal of a "half-marathon post-baby before the end of 2011", but close!

introduced mila to mr. claus. she didn't mind the red-suited man at first but quickly saw through the synthetic beard and decided she'd had enough. it was pretty obvious when she broke into a bloody murder scream. seriously, blue in the face shrieks. and i'm very sorry to the woman in line behind me, she told me to leave mila on the fake santa's lap because those pictures are "the best". i'm all about capturing the moment but i just couldn't sit there and not do anything, so i immediately saved her. mila, you'll thank me later.

and we even made a little update to m's room. an early sorta christmas present but at least now some of her books have a place to call home. and a pretty cute place at that.

a little thank you.

to all of my very supportive friends who shared so many stories of struggles and uphill battles as well as successes and accomplishments throughout breastfeeding. thank you thank you thank you.

and also to a kind woman from barnes and noble yesterday. nearly every sunday morning, my mom, mila and i {a formerly very pregnant jessica} go to the bookstore for bagels and coffee. and nearly every sunday, a quiet elderly couple sits next to our table. they mostly keep to themselves, she reading countless crafting magazines while he sips his peppermint tea and looks around at all of the people {although they sometimes tote their young grandchildren with them and spend their hour entertaining the kids as much as they can}. my mom and i have barely spoken ten words to either the man or woman but yesterday she approached me with a very fine surprise.

she handed me a shopping bag and said that she made a quilt for my little girl! i couldn't believe it. i was honestly speechless. we've barely had any type of real interaction with these people, and while i'm sure she took a bit of pity on my large pregnant belly months back, watching me grow and grow and grow and now watching mila grow and grow and grow, i would have never in my wildest dreams thought to receive something so thoughtful.

yes, yesterday was definitely a good one. and i see today turning out to be quite the same. full of cold crisp air. maybe a little time in the kitchen with these. and {hopefully} some at-home yoga or a run around the park {seriously! what do you active, working out women do when you have to workout but don't have a babysitter??? i NEEEEED some options!!!}.

on her first thanksgiving.

mila discovered a few new things that she now loves.

her uncle justin.

{who lives way too far away}

her red clip-on "high chair" at little mommy's house.

{maybe because she finally fits in it without being

propped up by copious amounts of pillows}

her cousins. even though they might stress her out sometimes {despite how many times taylor thinks mila wants to hear being called "baby", she does occasionally like to be referred to by her first name}.

{i kind of love the blurriness of this photograph,

it almost perfectly depicts the scenario}

and balloons!

{who knew!?}

these new *loves* may also be what m is thankful for. but i know that nick and i fit in there somewhere too. hope everyone had a thankFULL thanksgiving!

most of the time.

i love making my own cards to give to people. but sometimes, i just can't pass up the impossibly perfect illustrations from my friends at rifle paper company.

valentime's day.

while i may not have had time to make this sweet little gem two years in a row.

we did continue the second year of our valentine's day bowling tradition. let me say, for the record, we NEVER bowl. as pathetic as it is to admit it, i'm really horrible at bowling and so i don't enjoy it much. yes, that IS the reason i don't like it, as bad as that may be. but once a year, with my love, we tear up the lanes.

oh yeah. and i ALMOST beat my husband at bowling {is that how you say it?} which has NEVER happened. and i must ALSO say, sorry husband, that he scored a 78. yeah, a 78. he's not going to be happy about this one buttttt....the truth hurts. then we headed over to a really great corpus landmark, the astor. this place has been in corpus forEVER. my grandmother actually worked at the restaurant as a waitress for over forty years. lots of my after-school days were spent folding napkins at their tables while waiting for my little mamaw to finish her shift.

got tired of nick saying i looked like a 'pink lady' so i had to pin back the bangs. since it was just me and the husband, we didn't get any photographs of the two of us together, so i thought i'd include this oldie but goodie of him and i in panama two years ago.

**please excuse the bad quality of the images...the husband forgot to put our sim card back in the camera so had to resort to the iphone.**