Easter Eggs

I always think that dying Easter Eggs is so much bigger than it ends up being. We don't eat many hard boiled eggs though I do plan to eat all these -- should be a good before work out snack! This year, I saw a post about using Kool-Aid.

It looked like a good idea -- strong colors and much better smell! We used just 2 tablespoons of water for each packet of Kool-Aid and only the grape was an odd color (more black than purple).

We put eggs in the mix, dribbled the mix on the eggs for a tie-dyed look, and, in Jessie's case, used the spoon as a brush.

It was a lot of fun and the eggs look great. I like the colors much better than the Paas packets. Definitely doing this again!

Thanksgiving, #joydare

Our first Thanksgiving back in South Dakota. The guest list started small, grew, and then ended up very manageable with LOTS of leftovers.

Maggie and I started the day with a 5k with Tammy & her girls. This was a first for both of us. It was a lot of fun and I think will be a good tradition -- especially if we bring the whole family (including Rusty) next year.

I made my usual apple cider brined turkey (actually made 2), mashed potatoes, smashed sweet potatoes, asparagus, green beans and, of course, gravy. The Moms brought dessert (Jessie enjoyed the Cool Whip). 

48. Extended family

49. Football

50. Turkey

51. The smells of the meal cooking

52. Mashed potatoes

53. Sweet potatoes

54. Bacon, bacon, bacon

55. Walking a 5k with Maggie, Tammy, Alyssa, Amy & Taylor

56. Peppermint Hot Chocolate

57. The feeling of being too full, so content

58. Spending the day surrounded by family, even unexpected family

Easter Weekend

For Easter this year, we traveled to Denver for our friend Dave’s 40th birthday party. While there, we enjoyed playing a bit of tourist by visiting both the Downtown Aquarium and the Denver Zoo. The girls had a blast!

Decorating Easter Eggs:

At the Downtown Aquarium. Maggie had a blast taking pictures & making a video tour of her favorite animals at both the Aquarium and Zoo.

The Zoo:

Easter morning! What did the Easter Bunny bring? Where did he hide the eggs?

It was a beautiful, blessed Easter weekend!

Valentine's Day Fun

So my husband is the best gift givers. His gifts are always thoughtful and sometimes something you never knew you wanted. For Valentine's day this year, he brought up going to Canvas Creek as they were having a couple's evening with wine & snacks.

 

And so we started, each putting down a word about what our marriage means or what we like most about our marriage.

 

 

And then we painted.

 

 

And ended up somewhere completely different from where we started and from where we thought we were headed (a couple of times), but really liked where we ended up.

 

 

Which is a lot like our marriage.



2012 in Review

1. What did you do in 2012 that you've never done before? Went ice skating (and didn’t fall down)
2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I did not keep my new year’s resolutions. I haven’t decided if I’m making any this year, though my prayer group is going to start doing a devotional together. In August, I did start my 1000 Thanks list and have been good at keeping up with that.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? No
4. Did anyone close to you die? Grandma Alberta passed away in July. We had a great celebration of her life. Wiconi passed away in September.
5. What places did you visit? We stuck pretty close to home this year. We did drive back to South Dakota for Grandma’s funeral. Otherwise, we went to the Zoo, the water park, the fair.
6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012? I’d really like us to take a family trip to Glacier National Park. We may not live in Montana forever and I’d hate to miss that.
7. What dates from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory and why? Going on the Walk to Emmaus.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Starting, and continuing, my 1000 gifts list
9. What was your biggest failure? Not ready to talk about this yet10. Did you suffer any illness or injury? Poor Maggie spent so much time in the hospital suffering through UTIs and ended up having her appendix out the day before her 7^th birthday!
11. What was the best thing you bought? Rocky’s light saber – he said it was his best birthday ever!
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Maggie & Jessie; Rocky finished his Ed.D!!!!
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Not ready to talk about this yet14. Where did most of your money go? Debt, the house, daycare/afterschool care
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Turning 40. Going to a champagne tasting on New Year’s Eve. Rocky's graduation
16. What song will remind you of 2012? Not Home Yet, by Steve Curtis Chapman
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a. happier or sadder? About the same.
b. thinner or fatter? About the same
c. richer or poorer? Definitely richer. Rocky is now employed full time and recently got a promotion. We are concentrating on getting out of debt!
18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Read my devotional book that Rocky got me for my birthday
19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Spend money
20. How did you spend Christmas in 2012? As we always do, in our home. Grammy Alana came to spend the holiday with us again.
21. Did you fall in love in 2012? Not with anyone new
22. What was your favorite TV program? Old favorites keep coming up: Big Bang Theory, Modern Family
23. What did you do for your birthday? We had a Cupcake Wine party at our house – had to do something “big” for the big 4-0
24. What was the best book you read? One Thousand Gifts
25. What did you want and get? A family photo
26. What did you want and not get? A family vacation
27. What was your favorite film? The Avengers was a great fun film!
28. Did you make some new friends? Our church group family expanded and, after the Walk to Emmaus, both Rocky and I are now part of mostly weekly prayer groups.
29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? If Rocky had found his job earlier in the year, though the timing did work out pretty well.
30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011? Hand-me-down. Some co-workers gave me clothes they were planning to donate, so my wardrobe has expanded!
31. What kept you sane? Wine
32. What celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
33. What political issue stirred you the most? The presidential election!
34. Who do you miss? No one
35. What valuable life lesson did you learn? God’s grace is sufficient

The Many Parties of Halloween 2012

Party #1, Boo at the Zoo with Ellie

Sunday, it was off to the church!  Jessie feel asleep before we left, so just Maggie & Mom went to the church party.

On Monday, we had our Girl Scout party.  Maggie & Tori helped make the punch.

Tonight we went Trick or Treating in the neighborhood.  It didn’t take Jessie long to figure out going to another house meant more “canny.”

 

She spread it out on the window sill as soon as we walked in the door!

 

The Fourth of July

Every year on the 4th of July, one of the local mega churches takes over a park in the Heights. We went last year for the first time and Maggie had a blast.  All of the entertainment is free and the food is cheap, cheap, cheap.  We weren’t sure we were going to go this year.  There are a lot of people there and the thought of chasing Jessie around the park just didn’t sound all that fun, especially the idea of taking probably an hour to get home after the fireworks.  And with the 4th on a Wednesday, it just kind of throws the entire week off.

But, some of our friends had talked about going, so we gave Maggie the choice: we could either go to the water park or to Castle Rock for the celebration.  Maggie choose Castle Rock.  We decided to go early and not stay for fireworks, so Maggie & I met our friends Jeanne & Ellie – Ellie is almost 5 and she and Maggie get along great – around 5 p.m.  The girls had a lot of fun playing on the bouncy slides, houses, obstacle courses.  Jeanne bought both girls a sno-cone, which made her Maggie’s best friend.  We left at 7 and avoided the worst of the ride lines and traffic.

Maggie was a little sad when we did get home that she didn’t get to see the fireworks “in real life,” but did quickly realize that she was tired and had been a tad crabby at the end of our play time at the park.  It was a fun time and a great way to celebrate the 4th of July, even if we didn’t see or hear fireworks “in real life.”  Maybe next year …

Happylujah!

Easter makes me happy.  Easter signifies the renewal of the spring and summer, trees are budding, tulips are blooming (someday I’ll remember to plant them in the garden in the fall when we clean it up).  We had a quiet Easter celebration that started with church on Thursday & Friday, celebrating Rocky’s dissertation completion with friends on Saturday, and, of course, church on Sunday.  While the girls are little [and maybe continue when they are a bit older], the Easter Bunny will continue to hide little outdoor presents and we’ll stuff our own eggs with candy.  I did keep the candy to a minimum this year and that seemed to work out well.

I think the Easter Bunny may have met the Tooth Fairy as they both visited our home the night before :)