Last of the 7 Days Run

I just realized that I never posted my day 7 of 7 Days picture. Probably because it wasn't blog worthy or all that creative. :) But here is my shot:


Waving goodbye to my fellow 7 Dayers.- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Fun With Good Friends

Yesterday we got to spend some time with our good friends Joe and Kassie! They were in town for Christmas and we were able to see them. And we had a great time- as always!We take lots of photos.


And chat and laugh! And maybe scare our guests a little with our rats. All in good fun though! I promise!


We may have even tried to do some magic...I don't think either Kassie or I will become magicians any time soon.


(psssst! Hey Joe- is this picture better? Can I continue to blog again? ;) ) Joe gave me some awesome and helpful advice on picture posting. I really do appreciate it. I just like giving him a hard time. Both Joe and Kassie have done 7 Days in the past. So I was excited to have them be in my 7 Days: Day 6 shot. Here is what I got:


That's talent right there folks! 7 people in one picture that I took holding my camera! Booya!!They are great friends and we can't wait until we are able to get together again! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Double- No Triple-Duty

I am participating in both 7 Days and a Reverb Broads daily blogging. They overlapped and I didn't want to both at the same time. That was overwhelming to me. But Christmas Day they kind of overlapped so this is a double blog! Wait! I am going to change it to a TRIPLE blog because I wanted to blog about our Christmas anyway. Plus things in threes are really the best! ;)Here is my 7 days: Day 5 shot. The theme was vanilla and that was a hard one. So it was overlooked a little. The ebleskiver looks vanillaish right?


This is our traditional Christmas breakfast. So yummy!The reverb broads prompt was a wordless Christmas. We were to post a picture that represents your day. Here's the picture that represented our Christmas day:


For me, it's all about my kids! This year the excitement was like no other! Alex was up at 5am. He came into our room and just stood at the edge of our bed and stared at us. That is a REALLY creepy way to wake up! Matt had the boys go sort presents so we could sleep a tad longer. And then at about 6:30 Alex told us "Mom, Dad, the presents are all sorted. You have 4 minutes to get down here!". It was hilarious! We quickly went downstairs! We didn't want to miss anything! The boys ripped through their gifts. They were very excited about them all! Then we played with them rest of the day. We also lazed around and watched movies, and ate and ate and ate. I love these types of days! I also want to note that the weather was sunny and warm! So odd but at the same time so great! We had our windows open part of the day! It was fantastic! Merry Christmas!!- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Santa's Coming!

Santa is coming tonight so we needed to get ready for him! How? By making him cookies, of course!


We got out my grandma L's spritz recipe and got at it!


We ate almost as much cookie dough as we made actual cookies. But it's so yummy! Who can make cookies without eating the dough? Not me! Or my family!


Here is my 7 Days shot for the day:


Come on over Santa! We got delicious cookies for you! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

It's All About the Prep Today

Today is all about the prep for the holidays. Cleaning, cooking, wrapping, etc. Getting ready for the fun get togethers and the eating and the present openings!! One of the things I did was I took my boys to get their hairs done. I needed to get them all gussied up for the holidays, of course. Here is my day 3 shot:

Did Someone Say Chocolate?!?!

Today's theme is chocolate for my 7 days run. Could that be any more fun? Or delicious?!? Mmmmmmm chocolate!

Here is my day 2 shot:



There is nothing better than a mixture of peanut butter and chocolate! That is my idea of heaven. I may get a little crazy when I am around it...,



But they are so yummy! Ahhhhh..



Chocolate! How I love thee! Now I'm off to go eat some!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

7 Days Time!

It's that time of year again! 7 days begins today! I skipped last time. Just didn't feel creative. But I think I am ready to go this time. Get ready to be bombarded with daily posts- or just delete when you get them. :)

Here is my day 1 shot:


I love these hand ornaments! Look at how small Josh's hand was! These are my favorite ornaments! I make them every year. Matt's grandma made them for all her grandkids when Matt was little. It's fun to compare the size of his hand to the boys hands.

So that's what I got for Day 1.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My Love of Dance

Today's prompt is: Life is a work of art, or so they say. What beauty do you regularly appreciate/revere in your life? by Neha

Honestly, I was thinking of skipping the prompt again today. Life has been busy (DUH!! Who isn't?!?) But unfortunately things like this are what's getting neglected. I wasn't sure what I was going to write about until I read a couple of fellow Reverb Broads posts. Now I am completely inspired and going to be a TOTAL copy cat!

I love watching people dance. LOVE!! Especially when the dance tells a story. My favorite show is So You Think You Can Dance. If you haven't seen it- CHECK IT OUT!! So amazing!! There have been so many dances that have either made me cry- like the one Kent and Neal did- or super happy- like the one Twitch and Alex did. (Oh and then later that season Ellen got in on it!!) So awesome!

I have to say I am a HUGE fan of Travis Wall. He is amazing. One of my favorite routines he did was this one which he choreographed about his sick mother. It is really no surprise that he was nominated for an Emmy. He is also an amazing dancer- as seen here. Which was choreographed by Mia Michales- who is also AMAZING!!

I could go on and on...but I am having too much fun watching video clip after video clip of my favorite dances!! :)

Christmas in Iowa

Yesterday was our first Christmas celebration and it was awesome as always! Matt's aunt and uncle are nice enough to host all of us every year. This year everyone couldn't make it but I think the other 25 of us still had a fabulous time.

The weather cooperated for those of us needing to travel. And we were all thankful for that! Plus, we were able to play outside and take tractor rides. That's always a plus. And the food was delicious! All of us stuffing ourselves silly.

But one of the best parts of the day for me was meeting my new nephew (and birthday buddy) Jack!



Isn't he the cutest? I think he was the highlight of the day for most of us, as everyone wanted to hold him.



He is a really great baby!





Other than all the baby holding the rest of the day was great to just catch up with everyone.



And of course the 2 Zachs loved playing together!



Thanks again for hosting Cal and Rose! You did it again! It was a great start to our Christmas celebrations! Can't wait to see everyone again!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Ick!

Today's prompt is to make a list of you least favorite things. By Amy

Ok here goes-

1. Onions. Gross and ick! My grandma would put them in the blender so I wouldn't notice. But I always did.

2. Puke. Can't handle it. But I think I already blogged about that earlier. ((Shiver!))

3. Heights. Used to be fine with them. Not anymore. Ferris wheels now scare the sh*t out of me. Death traps are all I see.

4. Kids yelling in the car. Which is happening now. Sigh.

5. Kids asking "are we there yet?" or "how much time is left?" every 3 minutes. Again happening now. Sigh.

6. Being disloyal, betrayal, stealing and lying. Those are all big dislikes for me.

What else?

7. The song Gin and Juice done country style. We are listening to the podcast Coverville in the car and it's driving me crazy! It's not right! However, Baby Got Back by Jonathan Colton pretty much rocks.

8. The book Hick by who cares! It's bad. Don't read it.

9. Not being able to read in the car. I get car sick. And I'm starting to feel that way a little now. So I'm going to end my list before I puke. Cause I really dislike that! :)




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

New Flavors

Today's prompt is: Did you taste any new flavors this year? Did you love or hate them or something in between? Will you incorporate these new flavors into your life? by Bethany

Yes....we absolutely tried new flavors this year. We joined a CSA for the first time. I felt we were stuck in a rut with food choices and wanted to try something new. And a great bonus was that it supported local farmers!! YEA!

Every week we got a bag of groceries and either a cheese or farm fresh eggs. We were all excited about it!! I should clarify I am not a cook. I do not enjoy anything about cooking. I have been a out of a box or restaurant type of person my whole life. So I was excited to try new things and hopefully eat healthier.

We tried things like kohlrabi and beets and kale and squash and eggplant. And this:

This happens to be garlic scrapes. And no I would not recommend it! Scratch that- I would not recommend me cooking it for you.

Did I like all these new flavors? Hmmmm....hard to say. Some YES!! and some OH HELL NO!! Over the summer I posted a lot of pictures of food on Facebook asking what I got and what do I do with it. :) And some weeks I was excited to try something new and others ....well the food just went to waste or to other people.

Will I do the CSA next year? No, probably not. Mostly because we are a family of 5 and some weeks we would get 1 beet or 2 potatoes. Well what doesn't feed a family of 5. Also, there wasn't enough of what I consider normal vegetables. My plan for next year is to just go to the farmer markets. With all that said I am still definitely glad I did it. As I got to try new things and that was fun.

My Guilty Pleasure

Today's prompt is: Name and explain the one guilty pleasure you can't live without. ie: that cupcake shop you visit weekly, a book you repeatedly read to find solace in, etc). Then explore the idea of how you would feel if you gave that thing up for a year. By: Neha

My first thought was Chi Tea Lattes from Starbucks. I have always loved them but I think I have taken it to a new level this year. I seem to visit Starbucks a whole lot more than I ever have before. But then when I thought about giving it up for a whole year....eh. I can totally drink hot tea from home. No biggie. So that must not be it.

Then I thought TV. I am a TV addict. I LOVE me some TV shows. I watch WAY too much. And reality shows have been a favorite of mine for a while. And I am talking ALL types of reality shows- from the ones that I should be VERY embarrassed to admit watching (Rock of Love, Real Housewives, Ice Loves Coco) to the normal ones (Survivor, Real World, Biggest Loser) My all time favorite is So You Think You Can Dance. Wait, is that reality TV or a contest show. Hmmm....Anyway I also like the dramas (Parenthood) and the comedies (Modern Family). Like I said WAY too much TV. Could I give it up for a year? Makes me a little uncomfortable- but I think I could do it. So is this my guilty pleasure? Don't know.

I think the thing that I could absolutely NOT give up- although I don't think I would call it a guilty pleasure cause I have never felt guilty doing it- is listening to music. I listen to music all the time. And if I had to give that up- I would just get REALLY FAT! Yep, you read that right. REALLY FAT! Have you ever tried working out without music? It's horrible! I would also probably go into a depression. Music can totally lift your mood!! So I am going to count listening to music the thing I can't live without. And my TV (ohhh and my iphone- that is definitely a guilty pleasure- not giving that up- no way- no how!) as my guilty pleasure.

My Favorite Kids Book

Today's prompt is:

What was your favorite children's book? by Niki

I LOVE LOVE LOVE children's books. Which is probably why I became an elementary school teacher with my masters in reading. :) But that is besides the point. I could list lots of children's books that I love. But I have to say my most favorite children's book when I was a kid was/is:

I LOVED this book!! I would make my mom read it over and over and over and over!! And then over some more. Sometimes I would even make her read it backwards to me. Why I am not sure...it probably had something to do with delaying my bedtime.

Anyway...I loved this book because I was obsessed with Sesame Street. It was my favorite TV show for years. And if I am honest- I still love that show. I was always a little sad that when I had kids they didn't have the same love for it as I did. Oh well. I also love this book because the voice in it is FANTASTIC!! You can't help but yell when reading certain pages!

The whole book is about not turning pages because there is a monster at the end of the book. And of course you don't want to get to the end because monsters are scary. So Grover does all these crazy things to keep you from turning pages.

It's a great kids book!! SO MUCH FUN to read!! And what makes me love it even more is that my boys love this book too!! I would say it is one of their favorites!! There is even an ap for the ipad that will read this story to you. I would highly recommend checking out this awesome kids book!!

Why Blog?

Today's prompt is: Why Blog? by the lovely Kristen

First, I think I need to give credit to my two friends Kassie and Bethany for getting me into blogging in the first place. They introduced me to it and I thought I would give it a try.

I blog as a way to document my life. It is my version of scrap booking. It's really as simple as that.

Who Do I Think is Funny?

Today's prompt is: Who or what makes you laugh so hard that milk shoots out of your nose and why? Slapstick, dry witty comedy, your kids, Monty Python? Courtesy of the lovely Kassie

My first thought was my kids.

They make me laugh every day!!

They are so goofy! And they make me say things that I NEVER thought would come out of my mouth! Like "Get that lawn mower out of the Christmas tree!" or "New Family Rule! No letting the rats jump on our head!" or "Stop throwing baby Jesus!"
They bring laughter to my days!

Besides my kids....Daniel Tosh cracks me up. He is COMPLETELY inappropriate but I find him SO funny!! I find really inappropriate things hilarious.

(Picture copied from the interweb)

Funny Video posted HERE

Matt and I saw him live earlier this year.
And he was everything I wanted him to be. Gross, rude, inappropriate and flat out funny!! My sides hurt from laughing so hard. And I am sure if I would have been drinking milk at that time it would have shot out my nose.
I took the above picture!! :) As I was in the same room as he was!! WOOT! :)