New Years Eve

 

We used to get together with Shannon's family every Christmas holiday.   Then as the kids got older and had more December activities and life got busier, it became harder to fit in this time together.  So the last couple of years we have spent New Years Eve together.

By the time New Years Eve rolls around we (Shannon and I) are inevitably a bit tired of fussing over the holidays.  So our theme is this:

Simple.

Pizza.  Sparkling cider.  Beer for the guys. And chocolate chip pie.  Done.

We watch the ball drop (east coast time), and toast to the new year.

And the last two years we've played a little guitar Hero as well.

Easy peasy.  But really fun and laid back.  Really, it's just nice to spend some relaxed time together.



The kids and the noisemakers eat in the kitchen.  While the adults eat in the dining room.

I really should have taken a photo of us in the dining room.   Poor Shannon and Ryan should come in November when we're fresh and excited about holiday entertaining.  The china is out, flowers are on the table...we hold this standard through Christmas Eve...things become more casual come Christmas day, and New Year's Eve?   Well, we had started taking down Christmas decorations and piling them on the dining room table. We literally shoved them to one side of the table, and the 4 of us ate on the other half.   Thankfully, Shannon and Ryan know that this dismal display of hostessing in no way reflects our feelings for them.  I'm grateful for friends that we can do this with and it's completely fine. It's just what is required in life sometimes!  All that mattered is that we had time together.






Can you not look at this photo and picture Matthew and Hannah as young adults?  My goodness.



Cheers!!



Male bonding.



Shan, I think the picture of You and I is on Hannah's camera...but here are the guys!

It was a fun, relaxed evening with some of our most cherished friends.

Happy 2013!!

New Year's Day, A recipe & Life According to my iphone

I always feel a little "all done" with the blog come January.  The holiday posts sort of take it out of me. I really love doing this blog, but there's a lot that goes on during December that I like to record and so come January I'm just done.

But I need to do a bit wrap up, so this post is it. It's a long one.



We spent New Year's Eve at Shannon's family's house.  We agreed to make it easy, so they ordered pizza, and I brought an icebox cake.  That all worked out great.  Shannon planned some cute things for the kids, and they did balloon volley ball and the "Headbands" game ~ which was funny.



But honestly, my kids were on holiday overload and tired...they were fussy and high maintenance and at one point Andrew decided he was going to walk home so I told him to have a good walk, but it was cold outside. He went out, stood around the van (I watched from the window) then pulled on the door until the alarm went off and he ran in hysterically crying. Don't you love natural consequences? He keeps talking about NOT trying to open the van when it's locked. :)

Love this series of photos...


Mr. Grumpy
(with Dan being the poser)


Miss Fussy


Mr. Pouter.

Happy New Year to us!!!  I'm sure the Sturgis family were SO glad they invited us over!

We actually did end the night on a high note with lots of great dancing.  The kids were so cute and funny.  And we were very appreciative for the effort that went into the evening despite our collective demeanor!  :)

While looking for a dessert recipe I stumbled on this one from Paula Deen. I had all the ingredients and threw it together on New Year's Day morning and it was really good! It's really easy and something that can be put together quickly.



Here it is....

Granite Steps Country Blueberry Coffee Cake
1/2 C. packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 12 oz. can pillsbury Big Country buttermilk biscuits (I used the Grands ~ it worked great)
1/2 Cup (1 stick) butter, melted + 2 T. cut into small pieces (Don't worry, it isn't all used)
1 c. quick cooking rolled oats
1 1/2 c. fresh or frozen blueberries
1/4 c. sugar (this isn't all used either)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Generously grease a 9in square baking dish. (This is important or it will really stick). In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon and mix well with a fork. Separate biscuit dough into 10 biscuits. Cut each biscuit into quarters, and dip each piece in melted butter and coat with brown sugar mixture. Arrange in a single layer in baking dish. Sprinkle with 1/2 c. of the oats. combine blueberries and granulated sugar in a bowl and toss to coat. Spoon over oats and biscuits and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 c. oats. Top with butter pieces. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until cake is golden brown and center is done. Cool for 20 minutes, serve warm.





In the afternoon we headed over to Mike & Michelle's house.

I didn't bring my camera but snapped some photos with my iphone.
I had to take a picture of michelle as she was dicing tomatoes just because she looked so pretty.



She & I make a quick trip to downtown to Pottery Barn. We took Kaitlin who had to wear her New Year's crown and sit on every blessed chair and sofa in the store.



She was "watching a show" here.

She said the ballerinas were so beautiful! She liked the purple one the best. :)

We headed home where the guys were watching football, and Dan was snuggling with his ipad.





We were laughing at the bar behind us ~ usually it's closed, but we're looking like quite the party animals today.

Matthew, 8 going on 38.



And I loved this of the little boys. Classic. Snuggling under a blanket together eating Doritos (though it's hard to tell). One year at Thanksgiving when they were 2 they hung around the Dorito bowl all day. Little has changed. :) In fact, I think they are the sole reason Doritos are served at every holiday. At least in my mind.



We had some delicious tacos & carne asada with a yummy cabbage slaw. And then we headed home with one blissful day left of Christmas vacation. We spent the day playing games and took the kids to see "The Muppets." Which I loved. It was SO cute and just a great kids movie with lots of cheesy humor, silly dance numbers and I don't know how many times Dan and I looked at each other over the kids' heads and smiled. It brought back so many memories and I loved it.

And now, for a lot of randomness wrap up from our holiday vacation and before.

I took some photos of the boys one afternoon as they were working on homework. I love how close these two are.





And if anyone is still reading this, (bless your heart, if you have made it this far!) I know I have a few teacher friends who read along...can you tell me an easier way to do finger spacing for left handed kids? Andrew had a hard enough time writing to then make it into a game of finger twister!





...We're still working hard on those small motor skills. We'll get there!

(On a side note, today Andrew cut something out, and Matthew ~ who is not long on compliments, and has recently been the recipient of some conversations about being encouraging ~ remarked that it was "perfect." You should have seen Andrew. I think that was worth about 100 compliments coming from me. Truly. So great).



The Bug's sweet hands with her sparkly New Year's Day manicure from Mommy.

And now for the latest installment of "Life According to my iphone."

I love doing this because it's really just the minutia of our life that we'd otherwise never remember.


It's all about capturing important memories like this. Seeing the Weinermobile at the grocery store!!! Andrew wasn't nearly as excited and was having a pout about me making him pose in front of it. Honey, some day you'll thank me for this. Truly.

:)



We took hot chocolate to the Salvation Army workers. They were a lot happier about it than they look in this photo.



the kids had fun taping quarters to a ride they loved when they were little. And on gumball machines...



Then had to pretend to ride the ride.



We had a play date with very sweet friends from pre-school that we don't get to see often enough anymore.  I love their mom ~ she always greets me wtih a warm hug and says things like "My house isn't clean but it's picked up."  I love when people have you over even when there are crumbs on their floor, because then you feel like you can have them over when there are crumbs on your floor!  She's an amazing mom and I always enjoy our chats.



We made a few stops at this house that has lights that dance to music. Katie loved it, Matthew liked it, and Andrew kept asking when we could leave.



Christmas Eve church.

I have a problem.



I can't help myself!

Katie went to her very first birthday party without me. I had the boys and so I left her with a group of moms that I know and love and trust and headed to the mall to run a quick errand. Andrew recruited Matthew for his favorite mall past time.



Posing as a mannequin.



We visited the pet store. (What is it about boys and reptiles. Really? Ick.)



And enjoyed lunch.



I so enjoyed the time with them. It's so different without Katie! She's usually always along ~ it's so rare I'm just with my boys and really had fun just enjoying them.






I texted pictures of the kids to Dan at work while we waited for Andrew at OT.





I documented some sweet snuggle time with Katie when I normally would be rushing out to pick up the boys. Savoring the quietness and ease of the day.



The bug crafting on the floor in her costume and crown from the birthday party. Notice the mess around her? My house looks like a complete tornado because I've been cleaning out drawers, toys, cupboards, etc. instead of working on everything else. And at the speed around out house, whatever I'm not focusing on, falls apart.

But I'm sure my friends are thrilled that I can now text them as I'm organizing things...





I don't know what I ever did before texting! :)



I mean, who isn't interested in my spice drawer?



I scored this pillow for my entry bench at Target for $5 and that was text worthy!

Whew! If you made it to the end, I'm impressed. Thank you for loving us enough to sit through all that!

Simplifying ~ 2011

Be forewarned, this is a really long post.  The content is probably boring, but I've written mostly for myself to refer back to and I do have about 3 friends that I know would enjoy reading this.  :)

I haven't posted much this last week because I've been enjoying our lack of school schedule.  Spending time with the kids, and cleaning out the house.  It's been heaven.  I was dreading our return to early mornings, school schedules, and the general return to "real life."  It's been such a nice break.

It's not completely ending though.  This January we're doing something a little different.  You might remember this post.  It starts now!  And I'm really looking forward to this time.  I probably won't be posting as much during the month.  But will post on my other blog...which I'll do a separate post about.

There have been some habits I've wanted to integrate into my life for quite a while now, but it's been hard to do with everything else going on.  So the plan for the month of January is to get rid of all the extra commitments so we can focus on those new habits ~ setting up the basic structure of our days in a way that reflects our values/priorities ~ and then put everything else in around it. Instead of vice versa.  

I've been thinking a little about what I'd like to accomplish in 2011 as well.   I love the "fresh start" that January brings.  I find that if I don't set goals I'm not as intentional with my time.

Some of my goals for 2011 are to....

~Read the whole Bible this year.  Our church did a study together that was "read the bible in 90 days"  I wanted to do it SO badly, but my Dad was dying at the time and I just couldn't manage it.   Ever since then I've really wanted to read the bible in it's entirety, but it just hasn't felt doable.  But I think I can do this now.  I found a reading plan, and I've already started it.  It's going well and seems manageable.

~Exercise regularly.  I started last May and was really good about it but my elliptical broke and we had to get it fixed, and then the holidays started...and I haven't started up again.  This requires me getting to bed at a decent hour.  Which proves to be the hardest part of the equation.

~ I want to try to continue to minimize how much "stuff" we have.  Have less, experience more.  This was a goal for last year too.  I made some progress, but still need to do better.

~  I'd like to learn how to do shoot in RAW and do photo editing.

~ I want to start reading more again. 

~ Minimize my time on the computer.  It's so easy for me to stay up too late being on the computer.  It's a bad habit I've been working on for a while...I still need to do better here too.

~ Finish cleaning out/organizing my house. This is a constant process, but I'm taking the "Clean out" to a whole new level. I'm tired of "stuff." And I hate drawers and shelves that are too full.  It makes me crazy.

Get ready house.  As Dan would say, "It's on."  :) 

The truth is, I could write about 50 things I'd like to learn/do and improve on this year.  But at this time in my life the majority of my time and energy is committed simply to caring for my family/home.  But these are just some small, basic things that I'd like to do to make life more purposeful, healthier, enjoyable and more manageable.

 And just a little update from this last week.  We had a wonderful week with the kids.  Friday night I sank into bed with a sigh and told Dan, "It's been a glorious week."   I have loved having the kids home with no schedule.  We did have one hairy morning when the kids were driving me crazy and I shooed everyone outside.  Thankfully it snowed the night before and they had a great time.  But apart from that, it has been wonderful.  I have spent the time playing games, cleaning up from Christmas, organizing the house, and just being together as a family.  One morning this week Matthew, Andrew, Kaitlin and I were all snuggled under a blanket on the sofa and it was just so nice.  No rushing off to get to school....just being together.  We'd often stay in our PJs until 3pm.  One day, Dan got home from work when I was drying my hair. :)

Here are the photos from the kids time out in the snow....

This next series cracks me up.  

Do you see that be snow ball Andrew is carrying and the unsuspecting Matthew with his back turned?

You see where this is going, don't you?

Got him!  :)

This is Kaitlin's little "No Man."  :)

Soooooo happy to be in the snow!

 

A monkey escaped from the zoo and came to build a snowman!

Oh!  It's my Monkey!

A "cheese"y Matthew and his "melting" snowman.

Notice I'm putting my captions under the photo now?  Dan gently suggested that it might make more sense.

I've also gotten a great start cleaning out the house over the week.  We cleaned out all of the kids' toys, put all the pieces back wherever they belong...It was a CHORE!  But it was actually fun, and the kids enjoyed having me parked it the middle of the floor with them sorting toys.  Matthew helped me figure out where all those little things went ("Star Wars, Playmobile or minifigure, Matthew?") while Andrew and the Bug just played around us. The kids went through the process of editing their toys to make room for their new ones and so we donated & shared quite a few.  And now it's easy for the kids to play with things and clean up is easier too.

Here's one of my little projects.  I put our Christmas DVDs into this little organizer and it's really a space saver! 

See all the DVDs on the left?  That's how many fit in that case!

This is what it looks like inside.

I'm hoping to get a few more and store them by genre.  I found this one at The Container Store it's by Case Logic, but I'm hoping to see if they carry them anywhere else.

I've been reorganizing my kitchen too, now that we finally have room to breathe thanks to this beautiful new piece of furniture!

I'm so grateful for this because we received a lot of beautiful crystal, china and silver as gifts when we were married (and through the years since).  We also inherited some pieces/sets after the passing of my Aunt and Grandmother.  We have been bursting at the gills trying to store all of it.  Getting out the china for dinners was a real chore, but not anymore!!  It's SO easy and it freed up a whole large cupboard in our kitchen and space in our linen closet too. 

This has nothing to do with this post, but another holiday tradition is the "Yule Log." Mom brings this from our favorite bakery in Richland. We actually didn't eat it on Christmas because we were SO full from dinner I didn't have the heart to make people eat cake too! But we enjoyed it the next day. It was delicious.  I forgot to include this photo in our Christmas post so I'm putting it in here.  :)

I hope you all have a wonderful 2011!!