My 30 Before Thirty List

Update: I had to change one of my 30 because #10 the exhibit at the DeYoung sold out before Matt and I could see it. I changed it to taking an art class which coincides with me signing up for a Calligraphy class that I'm taking in March.

As anyone will tell ya (especially Ashley) I am turning the big 3-0 this year. Wow, it's semi-depressing to write that out. Anywho, I wanted to do a "30 before thirty" list to accomplish some things before I hit that milestone. I took inspiration from people like Gabby who are doing the 101 in 1001 list but frankly I had trouble thinking of 30 things so there was no way I could come up with 101 items. Now these aren't bucket list items like skydiving or sailing around the world. These are just some simple goals. I decided to put them up here on the old blog so I can have some accountability and can share my progress. So without further ado here is my list:

30 Before Thirty List

1. Write each of the bunnies (my east coast ladies) a letter once a month.
2. Cook 2-3 recipes a month from the Pioneer Woman Cookbook.
3. Organize the hall closet.
4. Organize my home office desk.
5. Decorate my home office walls.
6. Put pictures in my jewelry box frames.
7. Hang up all our artwork.
8. Decorate/organize our floating shelves in the living room.
9. Start a gratitude journal and write down 5 things I'm grateful for every night.
10. See the second half of the Impressionist exhibit at the DeYoung Museum. Take an art or crafting class.
    
11. Find a neutral eyeshadow for everyday wear.
12. Save money towards my Nikon D3000 DSLR Camera.
13. Utilize all the frames I have at home before buying others.
14. Buy fresh flowers at least once a month.
15. Start a Blurb album of wedding photos.
16. Make an album of all my past stationery projects
17. Call my dad (on his cell phone so he feels special) twice a month.
18. Find a lipstick/lipgloss color I enjoy and wear it a couple times a week.
19. Drink 6-8 glasses of water a day.
20. Build or buy a bookcase for the living room to store additional books or dvds.
21. Visit Lily Kate over the summer.
22. Take my parents to visit Napa.
23. Make curtains for our bedroom.
24. Make a pillow for our couch.
25. Teach Emerson to "drop it" while playing fetch.
26. Visit SF Moma.
27. Take pictures at a gathering and actually distribute pics afterward.
28. Dine at 2 new restaurants in SF.
29. See a performance of the SF Ballet.
30. Make a handmade gift for Matty's 30th Birthday.

I hope to take pictures of each of these goals as I complete them. And God willing put them on the blog too. The first one off the list will be #10 because I am going to the DeYoung on Sunday to see the exhibit. Wish me luck!

Christmas Craft Day

Last weekend we had our annual day of crafts!! The day was spent trying to be like Martha Stewart, watching Christmas movies, and cooking A LOT!! Although we all tapped into our little Martha, the day was spent mostly cursing at her (probably something she does not do). Debbi, Matt, and Tweedy spent the day in the kitchen (thankfully Tweedy spent her time in the kitchen cooking us breakfast---YAY for Tweedy!!!) The rest of us spent our time doing our little projects. Sam made a snowflake light out of rope lights, I gave up on that one after the first round.  Tori spent her day sewing. Kim spent the day making a cupcake liner tree, which turned out a lot cuter than it sounds. Mike spent the day making a penguin wreath (made for ages 6 and up). Dayton and Mike did a side project of making root beer, which unfortunately will not be ready until New Years... that was disappointing to find out because we were all ready for root beer that day! Here is Tori's insane project... from the looks of it in this picture it looks very basic, but wait till its done... that will require a whole post in itself.  Also lets take notice of the fabulous bangs!!! I love it!! Then there is good old beeze... crafts are not her forte and apparently neither is grating cheese.  Deb definitely recruited the wrong girl for the job...lol.  The picture of Sam is with her final project... she made four of them!! Major kudos to that, because they may look easy, but let me tell you... zip ties are not your friends!!  As for me the picture below explains most of the day for me... I mostly watched the movies and then when  I did decide to get ambitious I tried to finish Kim's craft from last year.  Advice number one... never make a pom pom wreath.  They may look cute and seem like a really great idea but its not.  Here we are a year later and the dang thing is still not done!! As usual Jaybee and I were the least productive of the day ;0)

Oh, A Tree Hunting We Will Go!!!

You may be wondering why we skipped such a major holiday, going from November to December without so much as a mention of Thanksgiving.  Well I had to work... so I left it up to Kim to document all the Thanksgiving festivities that happened... well guess what?!?! Kim not only did not blog, but did not take any pictures!! Kim I believe you just got herbed!!!

 

Anyways Thanksgiving weekend we did our traditional tree hunting with the entire Burkholder family.  Another great year with family, eggnog, saws, and the smell of winter in the air!! We all drove down to Morgan Hill and found our Christmas tree.  Little did we know then that the trees that we picked would cause us so much grief!! Since the lighting and decorating of both trees (one at Debbi's house and one at our house), the Burkholder's tree fell over, and it wasn't even Emerson's fault!! Believe it or not we just picked that crooked of a tree. As for our house... our tree must have had a lady bug nest in it because we have had an infestation of the little red bugs since.  Its been hard to rescue them before the cats get to them.  Talk about peace on earth between all creatures!!

After we chopped down our tree we went home and hung ornaments and listened to Christmas music.  Sam was the honorary guest to put up Christmas Bear on top of the tree... she is officially in the family and there is no escaping us now!!

Funny Pictures

I recently started to notice that when we all take pictures for an event or something that we set aside the "bad ones"... well I decided that some of these "bad ones" are actually the best ones!! The saying is that a picture is worth a thousand words... well these pictures are worth more than a thousand.  I began my search of my library to find a couple of photos...however there is a lot more than a couple.  So on slow blog days I have decided to show you these awesomely hilarious photos... so you have some sort of entertainment at work ;0) We will just start with a few random photos...

Here is Molly and Kim... so hungry for s'mores they can't even put it down for a picture

Okay, now this photo is extremely awkward... but to know Dayton's sense of humor is to love Dayton. Although I do love how terrified both boys look...lol

To justify my face in this picture... I thought sense it was being taken in that sienna or whatever its called... I thought I should embrace my John Wayne side!!

Tweedy's Surprise 25th!!!

So our dear friend Tweedy turned 25 this year in August... you might be asking yourself why the heck did you throw her a birthday party in November then??? Well the answer is two fold... one, she was in Europe for her actual birthday and two, we really wanted to surprise her! We decided to invite all her friends and family to meet us at Roux Louisiana Kitchen in San Jose, off Santana Row. We told Tweedy that we were planning a girls night out, so she would suspect anything.  And it worked!! We got there and her first response was "Why is Dayton here?" (even though that is most peoples response when they see Dayton somewhere...ZING!!! lol) Then we yelled SURPRISE!! And she was still a little slow to understand what was happening...lol.  After she caught on...it turned out to be a great night. We got her these sweet purple heels to add to her collection (not that she needs any). The dinner was great and we all got these drinks called hurricanes, which were super cool cause they put dry ice in them, so it bubbled.  After dinner we went to a bar in Los Gatos (forget the name) but it was really fun!! We had a great time dancing the night away...unfortunately they didn't play our song, The Cupid Shuffle, before we left.  Sam was super disapointed ;0) It was another great night out with friends and family!!

Tweedy with the boys

Oh the birthday girl had a grea night with her date ;0)

All Hallows Eve...

Peanuts style!! This years Halloween we decided to take it a little bit easy on everything, so we only slightly decorated...lol!! The entire group decided to do a theme... and we decided on the Peanuts gang!! It turned out super cute!!The party was a big success because it was the same night as the World Series... and we all know how that turned out.  So needless to say the bay area embraced the black and orange, so it made for a great Halloween. 

Everyone seemed to have a great time and the costumes this year were amazing!!! Jon won best costume.. he was a hillbilly.  Of course I had to leave early cause I had work the next day... but it was a fun day at work!! Gotta love Holloween!!

To the left is Dayton's spider that he worked super hard on... it moves and everything!! Very impressive!!

I told Jaybee to dress as a peanut character... and this is what she interpreted Mr. Peanut!!!

Jon with his hillbilly costume... lol!!

Debbi was a gypsie and baby lucas and the whole Burkholder family were some version of Santa Clause... they looked super cute!

My mom was a biker chick...I think the tatoos were very natural looking ;0)

The most creative costume of the night went to my brother and Dominic. I saw them earlier in the day and they were covered in styrofoam dust... then five hours later they show up at the house like this!!

Mike's Hidden Talent

As most of you know Mike and I are not the most crafty people on the planet.  Its hard to believe that such athleticness cannot translate into sewing, paper cutting, or scrapbooking...but it doesn't.  However, in the recent years we have discovered Mike's hidden talent... pumpkin carving!! He does it all without tracing!! I am very impressed with his craftiness... now if only I could find my crafty side.

This is the barfing pumpkin and the skull pumpkin from last year.

Dwight K Shroot from The Office, from two years ago

This year was Snoopy... the whole gang dressed up as Peanuts characters...so it went with the theme!!