Getting a little excited...

So as my lovely roommate pointed out this evening in a text, (while my favorite movie was playing on ABC family), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is coming to video April 20th!!!! That news got me extra excited about the last movie coming out this July.  I decided to try and get a sneak peak at part II, and I found this... so I decided to share it with you all.  It looks amazing!!! Can't wait!!! Now I just need to figure out who I should dress up as at the midnight showing...

Weekend in Monterey

This past weekend I actually went on another vacation, believe it or not!! This time Mike and I went to Monterey for the weekend and stayed at this awesome hotel, thanks to Deb and Papa.  The weekend was super relaxing, we just hung out on the beach and went antiquing (yes we are 80 years old).  We also had some great dinners at the Charthouse and the Rio Grill. The weather was amazing... I actually got to wear a skirt!! Every morning we woke up to seals barking, otters swimming, and dolphins.  I am not even exaggerating...it was amazing!!To the right is a picture of our view from our room!! Take that in Dayton cause I want those windows in my imaginary house...lol.  Minus the fact that seagulls were constantly trying to get into our room... it was pretty unbelievable.    During our three hour trip to the antique store we came across the strangest thing we have ever seen!!  Of course we all know how creepy old time dolls are... but Mike and I found the creepiest thing in the world.

 Take a look to your left... it could be yours for a measly $85.00!! We told Matt and Kim since we haven't bought them a wedding gift yet, that we will buy them this... Matt's response was " You have held off for almost two years, another week wouldn't hurt." LOL priceless.  Needless to say it was a great weekend... now its time to go back to reality.  But in one month we are going to NYC!!! Can't wait!!

Finally a blog/life update....

I really don't have much of an excuse for not blogging in months... but I am gonna come up with one anyways.  I have been traveling like a maniac lately (well since the first of the year really).  We have done a lot of trips with the girls... so the start of the year has been really good for all of us.  If the first three months of the year are any indicator for whats to come, 2011 is going to be quite the year!! I am looking forward to it.  Instead of explaining each trip individually, I thought I would just do a one post recap of the last three months... so here it goes.

Tahoe was our first trip of the year... all the girls got together and we drank wine, went sledding, and made giant snowwomen.  We figured out this year that it helps to have a genuine east coast person helping with the snowfriends (Sorry Kimmy you don't count... no snow in Florida, therefore not east coast...lol) But Sara not only decreased our time of making a snow man by at least 5 hours... we also increased our number of snowfriends by 3!!! We made a snow Gabby, Tweedy, and Jaybee.  All of which were accurately portrayed of the real person.  Sledding was a blast!!! We went to Granlibakken (Swedish, therefore incorrect spelling) and we did all kinds of crazy stunts down the hill.  It was like we were all ten years old again... one word AWESOME!!!

Next trip... almost exactly one month to the date... we went to Disney land, another all girls trip.  (As I am writing this blog I have realized that we don't like to invite boys very often...hmmm.. but we have more trips planned this year that are coed.)  Disneyland was a blast!! We spent three wonderful days at the Happiest Place on Earth!! I don't think we stopped laughing the entire time.  One day we all wore matching seven dwarf shirts... each girl was a different dwarf that represented their personality.  I was sleepy cause I sleep about 12 hours a night, Tweedy was Doc cause she always talks medical stuff and she's the smartest ;0) lol, Sam was happy cause she wanted to be (lol!!!... just kidding she is always happy) Tori was Sneezy cause... if you ever heard her sneeze you would feel bad for her cause she doesn't let it out.  Kimmy was bashful cause lets face it she is embarrassed by us a lot, and Jaybee was Grumpy just cause we thought it would be really funny to see her reaction... and it was! We didn't have a Dopey cause we were hoping we would find him there...but we didn't.  Anyways it was tons of fun!!  We have many more trips planned this year... New York is one of them and Vegas is another!!! YAY!!!

This photo may look awkward at first glance, but there is an explanation.  Jaybee said give me your best scary face (cause we were standing in line for Tower of Terror) I heard "best scary face", Tweedy Sam and Tori heard "best scared face," and judging by this picture Kimmy was not paying attention.

Getting ready to go on the best ride in California Adventure!!! Toy Story!!! So much fun!!

We tried to do a jumping picture... which actually turned out alright!! Go Team!!!

TAKE THAT TOR!!! I ACTUALLY BLOGGED!!!

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!!