Dana Burland

Last Saturday we welcomed our sweet, second little boy, Adrian Nick, into the world. I don’t think I’ve ever been so surprised as I was by his birth. He arrived three weeks and five days ahead of his due date. Labor signs started just before 4am on Saturday, by 5:30am we were at the hospital and at 12:41pm that day he was born. Turns out my concerns of fighting traffic and or a blizzard now that we live farther from the hospital were not needed. Luckily we had a good Cam care plan in place which included amazing neighbors who stepped in quickly to help until my family made it across the state. My family was already planning to visit us for Christmas, so the timing was quite perfect. We were suppose to host a Hanukkah party the following night. I sent this message out the morning Adrian was born! Adrian is a sweet, sleepy little boy. Just as his daddy predicted he has a head of brown hair and brown eyes. It’s tough to tell where his personality begins and pre-term tendencies...

Whew, this year's card was a doozy. For starters, I'm very pregnant this year. And tired. And achy. And trying my best to get through each day without the addition of more things on my plate. I really, really still wanted to do a holiday card, though. I had a simple idea that B didn't love, so we scrapped that and went with a plan B that ended up not working out as desired. Our card this year is plan C, and due to the level of effort put in with subsequent plans it was gonna be the card no matter how it turned out. Overall I think it's cute. Again like last year, it captures C's spirit, who is the little light of our family. From a technical stand point, this is probably our worst card. The photo is blurry, the lighting is off and it's weirdly angled incorrectly in a way probably only I am paying attention to. Still, I've taken every holiday card photo of ours myself (with the exception of one). I like it to be a fun and creative project for ...

I don't always have my stuff together, but I do try to get a grip on things enough to toss some little goodies in my neighbor's mailboxes as a holiday treat. It's one of those little traditions we started when we moved in three years ago that I sincerely hope I can stick to. It's just three neighbors who get the goodies--low hurdle and high feel good reward. I haven't gone into detail on the blog about the treat each year, but this year I realized maybe I should! It'll help me remember what I've done in years past and heck it's just kinda fun to talk about, no? In December 2017, our first holiday season in this house, I think I made little jars of whiskey caramel sauce (can't locate the recipe, but it's EASY as long as you babysit the pan)... but I also think I made Christmas popcorn (popcorn with drizzled chocolate and sugar sprinkles). Who can remember? It was two years ago AND we were two months into living here AND we had a 5 month old....

In give or take 30 days my little boy won’t be my littlest boy anymore. He’ll be big. Big brother. “Please show me how you can walk by yourself like a big boy”. The player of big boy games and with big boy toys. The eater of big boy food. He’ll have a clear and new differentiator because suddenly there will be another child in this house to differentiate with. With or without baby coming, C already is a big boy. He runs and plays make believe and tells jokes and knows the best part of helping in the kitchen is stealing chocolate chips out of the cookie dough or shredded cheese from the bag. He knows baby is coming. In mama’s big tummy, he’ll say. We’ll see him in the hospital, he’ll say. He’s coming later, he’ll say. He knows all he can know about the way life is going to flip us all around and knock us upside down. Heck, to be honest, I think he comprehends a new baby is coming soon better than I do. With give or take 30 days to go, I’m not mourning the last moments with m...

In August 2016 I wrote a blog post about Ben’s acceptance, and start, to the MBA program at my alma mater. We had been married for just over a year, were living a simple, quiet life in our first house. There were no pregnancies, babies, house moves, new jobs. It was a good time to kick off a big challenge. Three and a half hard working years later, we have a new MBA graduate! It’s weird to think about life pre-MBA program. It’s been so long it’s impossible to remember nights and weekends he doesn’t have some sort of school related obligation to tend to. Plus our lives have changed so drastically since Fall 2016 there actually is no return to “normalcy” as we once knew it. Now we can “retire” his basement office where he’s spent the majority of weeknights stationed until some odd hour in the morning. Now we can resume watching weird Netflix shows on the couch together after putting C to bed. Now we have forever with this huge accomplishment under our belts and nothing bu...

Late in my pregnancy with C I worked feverishly to stock our freezer with easy pre-made meals. With so much unknown as I waited to become a new parent it felt like one of the few ways I could prepare and gain a small sense of confidence/control. Now that I’ve been through this rodeo once before I know how helpful a stocked freezer is for my peace of mind and ease in fueling once baby arrives. My main priorities stocking my freezer this time were: Meals that freeze nicely Healthy, high protein meals to keep me sustained Meals my family will eat A mix of completely made and dump/cook meals Variety Here’s what I’ve made for this go around: Completely pre-made Beef burritos : ground beef, veggies and cheese wrapped up in a tortilla. These were hugely helpful in consuming fast protein one-handed in the newborn days. Chicken cupcakes : ground chicken, spinach, feta cheese and spices baked in wonton wrappers. These reheat really well and are a huge favorite of the family. ...