Those Crazy Schuberts

White People Problems on SNL
I’m in love with this magazine and I haven’t even really seen it!
I finally joined Goodreads and now all I want to do is rate books ….
crazy busy at work this week …. so annoying.
sad and amazing story
Um, yea, I don’t have a lot to share this week!
Happy January!

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Lets go back a little bit and look at photos from the holidays!

Christian has family in Santa Clarita, so he and Avalon came down for the holiday and we got to meet them for breakfast! Christmas Eve fell on a Saturday and miraculously both Andrew and I happened to have off work ….

We pretty much haven’t seen C&A more than once a year or so, so seeing them twice in one month just felt luxurious!

Definitely some of our favorite people ever….

We met them at More Than Waffles – one of our favorite breakfast places in the area. If you ever come visit us, we’ll go there!

Daniel also got into town the day before or so, so we invited him as well!

Andrew likes to spend as much time with Daniel as possible when he’s in town ….

The rest of Christmas Eve was incredibly relaxing ….

Andrew and I had errands to run – groceries for the rest of the holiday festivities – and then we were home by noon.

With nothing to do but relax, watch movies, read, sleep, cook ….. Seriously lovely afternoon that we almost NEVER get together ….

We watched The Help and Crazy Stupid Love and Love Actually (and I caught up on the holiday episode of GLEE) …. I made potato soup (yum) …. and we didn’t answer our phone or make any more plans to be social.

LOVE days like that ….

Christmas Day we woke up and went to Andrew’s parents’ house ….

Andrew and I didn’t do gifts for each other this year (you know, the whole HOUSE thing) so we ended up at the Schuberts’ around 10:30a or so …. Just in time for breakfast casserole!

Andrew got the dogs a Christmas present! Femur bones from the butcher …. Yum!

Kaitlin and Joe came up in the afternoon (after being at Joe’s family’s house in the morning) and we all opened gifts!!

We all got Joe and Katie baby stuff …. since little Joey will be here in just a few months …

It was a very merry Christmas …. even if I did have a cold the whole day ….

So, Andrew and I left around 7 or 8 to go home …. so I could rest up and get better from the cold AND because my parents had come into town that night!

View the full galleries here: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

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I released a new ebook over the weekend: SELF LOVE: 22 ways to make your heart happy
Check it out! especially the trailer all the way to the end ….
On depression, anxiety and changing your diet
buying good food on a budget
How to organize and display personal photos
today is my grandmothers 88th birthday – she’s still feisty
best books of 2011
I am now on GoodReads. Andrew talked me into it…. My main goal is to keep up my list of ‘read’ books … . other than that, no promises
Of course, there’s no way I can actually remember ALL the books I’ve read and add them
A Compact Guide to Creating the Fitness Habit
I’m not sure I could do this whole food challenge…. cutting out sugar completely?
I love this new series from Small Notebook: Clear the Clutter … I definitely need the reminder
photo of the week: Christmas Day

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I know that most of you already know this …. but I still wanted to make it blog-official!

Andrew and I are going to have a little nephew in a few months!

I’ve always said I wanted to be an aunt before I became a mom – and luckily Andrew’s sister Kaitlin pulled through for me!

Joe and Kaitlin made these adorable ‘gender-reveal’ cupcakes to tell us all they are having a boy !!

AND he’s already named!

Joseph Paul LaRiccia

(and we’ll call him Joey) … we all had fun buying little boy socks and things for them for Christmas!

Coming May 2012!

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We didn’t get a Christmas tree this year.

Wait, let me explain.

Between not really having the floor space and potentially having to start packing any day to move into our new house, we didn’t really feel up to getting a big ol’ Noble Fir and dragging our boxes of ornaments and lights and tree skirt out of storage.

We DID, however, help Andrew’s mom pick out and take home her Christmas tree, so at least we got that fun experience….

About mid-way through December on a weekday morning, we drove up to Santa Clarita with our truck and met Julie and her mom at the local Home Depot tree lot…..

Grandma Sheila actually ended up picking out the winning tree!

We looked at 4 or 5 or so, but the one on the end that she had pointed to was clearly the best!

Of course, being around all that Christmas, Andrew and I just couldn’t resist.

Instead of a *Christmas tree* …. we ended up getting a little Rosemary “Christmas” tree …. Basically a potted rosemary plant trimmed in the shape of a traditional Christmas tree….

That way we get to be festive without having to get out the ornaments and tree stand

Our house still smells delicious … AND if we can keep it alive, we can plant it at our new house whenever we find it!

Christmas time at Team Schubert Headquarters!

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Andrew made plans to see some of his friends play a concert the first weekend of December.

Of course, this concert was in San Francisco.

Only Andrew would look at the calendar, see he has about 48 hours off of work and turn that into a quick trip to visit friends!

We left L.A. early early Saturday morning for the drive up the middle of California … We listened to the second half of Tina Fey’s Bossypants audio book, some podcasts and a couple CDs… and reached C&A’s apartment in Oakland just about lunch time!

Which, really, is just a perfect excuse for Andrew to get to try yet another Mexican restaurant.

He’s pretty easy to please

With a free Saturday afternoon, we actually went into San Francisco-proper to visit the Bazaar Bizarre - a holiday craft fair with booths full of handmade jewelry, homegoods and more.

Andrew and I had already finished the bulk of our Christmas shopping so we didn’t end up picking anything up, but Avalon found earrings for herself

After the Bazaar, it was off to Trader Joe’s to pick up dinner ….

I love visiting Christian and Avalon because they are just so easy. They cook for us in their home (yum!) and we play video games or cards and just talk.

So easy and relaxing and just like being at home ….

except someone else is cooking and cleaning…

After dinner (and Shang-hai), Andrew left to go to the concert …. I stayed home w/ C&A and got badly beaten at Tetris ….

Also, realized my eyes are getting BAD and I need glasses, but I can only *partly* blame my poor playing on my eyesight …

Sunday morning and it was time to go home!

Christian was finishing up his semester and had a group-project-meeting around noon, so we had time to go out to breakfast early before we headed out of town ….

I love the way C&A decorate…. I need to find big mirrors like this for our home….

Another long drive home filled with podcasts and music ….. But we got home early enough to have dinner together at home and just relax the rest of the night….

Traveling with Andrew is one of my favorite things ever – no matter where we’re going ….

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From the archives: One of the things I miss about living in Arizona
haha! I love the internet : Handmade Ryan Gosling
The first new trailer for The Hobbit!! I.Can’t.WAIT for next December!
One teacher’s response to gender bullying
new Hobbit production diary – love love!

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(Psst! Merry Christmas Sunday! I still intend to blog my stories in order, though …. sorry but we’re going back to Thanksgiving weekend! )

Once we had decided we would be heading to Phoenix for Thanksgiving weekend, I was able to book a portrait session with this sweet family ….

I photographed Zach and Hannah’s wedding in January 2008, and now I got to meet their little 4 month old son and shoot some family photos!

Super fun!

Eli was great! A little weirded out when I had the camera in front of my face, but for the most part easy to photograph …

Unfortunately, I had to go straight from Zach and Hannah’s to a funeral service for my great aunt.

So sad …

But, on the plus side, we got to see a lot of family we wouldn’t have otherwise had time to see … After the funeral, we went over to my dad’s cousin’s house for a get-together …..

(and this was their backyard)

But then we all had to leave the get-together early to head back to my parents’ house because my mom’s family was on their way over there!

Yes, we had our Saturday pretty booked solid!

Thanksgiving with my mom’s family ….

(I love Thanksgiving food!)

(my grandma is so cute)

After dinner we played Traveling Pictionary! Best game ever

And then, surprisingly, everyone had left by 630p or so ….

Thank goodness, because I still had a big project to finish AND Andrew and I were both exhausted! AND we had made plans for breakfast Sunday morning before we drove back to SoCal!

There were still a lot of people we would have liked to see while we were in town and it just didn’t happen …. but we managed to finagle a breakfast date with the while Haugen family (mostly so Andrew and I could see Jay and Sharon)….

SO much fun with them !

They told us all about their family home that *may* be haunted; we told Jay all about Andrew’s new record label …

I love that family

Eventually, we got on the road…. A little later than we had wanted to, but still early enough to get home by 5 or so.

Except that we got stuck in SERIOUS traffic. Serious as in a flipped car blocking both lanes and we were basically at a total stop and even turned the car off for awhile.

Annoying, but a holiday weekend so I suppose we should have expected it ….

Anyway …. We really enjoyed our weekend together, seeing some of our favorite people! Great holiday weekend!

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We’re busy doing family-Christmas-get-togethers!

Hopefully you’re enjoying your holiday weekend and an extra day or 2 off….

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The Friday after Thanksgiving, Andrew and I got SO early to drive all the way to Phoenix!

We had a full weekend planned and wanted to be able to see as many friends as we could while we were in town …

Once we were in town, the first stop was to visit our friend Michael at his apartment…. Just for a little visit. Andrew was super excited about trying Michael’s homemade pumpkin beer!

And now Andrew wants to try his hand at brewing beer himself!

This is totally silly, but while we were there we also played this game – Fruit Ninja – on Michael’s Xbox Kinect 360. The game senses where we are, and we use our hands (basically) to karate chop the fruit as it flies across the screen….

It’s ridiculous and super fun

(Kaitlin: you and Joe need to get this game!)

In the image below you can see the silhouette of the 2 players on the screen…

(We looked like robots dancing, basically)

We left Michael’s around 430 or 5 or so, and headed back to my parents’ house …

We had a little bit of stuff to do (um, nap) and I needed to work on a Christmas gift on my computer ….

But later that evening we had more plans to see more friends!

Kim and Jed Gray were hosting a get-together for all the church-friends that were in town for the holiday weekend! They’re renting a cute little home in Scottsdale and had plenty of room for 15 or 20 people or so!

Kim made chili, we all ate outside, and sat around to catch up …

Some of those people I haven’t seen since we moved to CA in 2008!

P.S. I found this OLD photo of Mat from 2004 … He’s such a cutie So glad we’re friends with him…

(loved seeing Jamie and Zack…. There’s really no reason we don’t see them more often since they live in San Diego, but it’s always nice to see them)

Related: Jamie and Zack have been brewing their own beer too, so Andrew got to try THEIR pumpkin beer!

Those church friends are so awesome …. Glad that we got to see them, glad that we are still welcome nearly 4 years later….We basically gave all of them a standing invitation to come visit in SoCal when we get our house (and guest room)….

But this Friday was a LONG day. We stayed far longer than we intended …. especially considering we were up early Friday and needed to be up early Saturday …

But still a great day

How did you celebrate Thanksgiving weekend?

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Um …. does it seem like this post is a little late-ish? I guess we’ve just had a TON of stuff going on!

Thanksgiving this year we spent with Andrew’s family in Santa Clarita ….

Julie – bless her heart – planned our Thanksgiving dinner for early in the afternoon so we could go see The Muppets that night! The first Muppet movie in years and years – of COURSE I want to see it opening weekend!

We got to the Schuberts’ around noon or so ….

Guests include Andrew’s parents, grandma Sheila, Katie and Joe, Joe’s dad Paul, Andrew’s cousin Chris and his girlfriend Kahla …

full house!

… and I was immediately assigned to making mashed potatoes!

I am always assigned to mashed potatoes…. Obviously I’m awesome at it

But this year, I got Andrew to help peel the potatoes …

Apple cider. Obviously

I guess the backyard *needed* to be mowed on Thanksgiving … (Andy likes to avoid the crowd)

After dinner: We played Taboo …. Andrew and my team won because we are awesome!

Or, you know, because we know each other SO well and have a bunch of inside jokes….

Turns out only Andrew and I went to see The Muppets …. Why all those jokers didn’t want to see the best movie of the center is beyond me….

I cried 3x. LOVED it …. Then home so we can get up early and leave for Phoenix!

How was YOUR Thanksgiving?

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I would really love this cookbook – Well Fed ….. I may buy it for myself
is it too soon to start packing? I have no idea …
I think Andrew and I need this ebook
I’ve been re-watching GLEE season 1 and I SO have a crush on Finn Hudson
turn of the century NYC in the snow
YOU GUYS! Christmas is this weekend! Isn’t it crazy how quickly it comes up?
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I genuinely ALWAYS crave french fries….. Always.
2011 in LEGOs
Any plans for New Year’s Eve?
spent Saturday being unproductive and relaxing at home. … It was lovely ….
L&R blog party 2012 coming January 1!!
photo of the week (our little rosemary christmas tree):

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So after weeks of wondering and looking at other listings and trying to manufacture the interest and enthusiasm to go look at other houses, on Monday morning (December 5) we woke up to find that Home A had been added BACK to the active listings!

Which means the first offer dropped out!!!

Which maybe means there’s something seriously wrong with the house that you can’t see?

So Andrew IMMEDIATELY sent an email to our Realtor (it was a bit early to call ) …. What does this mean? What happened to our offer? Why did the first people back out? What do we do now?

So many questions and excitement and worry about what could be wrong with the house and trying to figure out how much we want to deal with to get it.

We ended up re-putting in our offer on the house the next day …. And was accepted by the seller later that week!

Which means!! That once (if) the bank accepts our offer …. then we go into escrow…. or something like that….

Here are some more photos of what it currently looks like:

living room viewed from the entrance way:

kitchen viewed from the family room:

master bedroom:

living room viewed from the kitchen. That window is the front of the house:

As you can see the place needs some work…

We actually took a contractor over there to get a preliminary quote on all the work that needs to be done. And it is A LOT.

But, honestly, at this price in this neighborhood at this size, it’s still an amazing house…

and we’re excited!

I finally gave in to Pinterest to start collecting decor ideas! Plus, you know, we’ll be replacing everything in the kitchen, pretty much and all ….

BUT … Because it could be months before we hear anything from the bank AND because once we do the inspection we could find out there is SERIOUS structural issues, we’re still looking at other houses ….

So, at the moment it’s just a waiting game!