siblings

this makes me happy. 

meal planning

it's my new thing! 

well not really new, i've dabbled with it seriously a few times before but now i'm really trying to incorporate it into our lives! It is so difficult for us to all be together at home in the summer due to various sporting activities but i'm hoping that we can at least manage three meals this week. 

to include: 

Pizza! My favorite 'take and bake' has to be California Pizza Kitchen and pretty much any toppings they offer. Runner up would be Papa Murphy's Artichoke & Bacon. yummm. 

Turkey burgers with gruyere cheese and a few other sides. I'm thinking salad with pecans and cranberries or a fresh fruit bowl. 

I bought some super-rich whole grain pasta at Trader Joes awhile back and i'm hoping that when I add yummy pasta sauce and turkey meatballs Justin & Koren wont know it's good for them. For desert is a scoop (or two) of Blood Orange gelato...i've actually already had a few scoops of this and it's pretty tasty. I really just liked the packaging and I think next time i'll go for a flavor that's not quite so sweet like maybe a pistachio or mint. 

Well wish me luck with feeding this family because more often than not I put my menu aside for a chicken soft taco at Taco Time and call it good :) 

Just wanted to wish everyone a fantastic weekend! 

ten.

1. Last week was a bit insane and I seemed to be all across the state. I was fortunate enough to spend time with two great friends all in one week! Thanks Aliya & Ashley for being such wonderful friends even through we are miles apart. 
2. Thursday was the Green Bluff Cherry Trot & Pit Spit. Koren took part with Holland in the Tot Trot and had a wonderful time although he was even more concerned with losing his firefighter hat. 
3. here's a pic

4. I, thanks to Ash, completed the 4 mile run! It was such a great, great feeling to cross that finish line 40 minutes after starting. I was very much unaware of the fact that the last mile was all up hill!! In 3 weeks i'm off to Seattle for the Children's Hospital 10k. 

5. After the race. 
6. I received my birthday present this morning and man was it a good one! I had my house deep cleaned by Faith Steps cleaning service and let's just say there is no way I could have ever done what they did! My bathtub is so sparkly cleaned that I almost don't want to use it. Thanks again babe you are the best! 

7. Does anyone else realize that I use a LOT of exclamation points!!!!! 

8. Yesterday Justin & I spent the afternoon waterskiing, playing softball, going for a run, and learning how to use our new Wii Fit. We both can barley move this morning. I just have to give props to the the Nintendo people for coming up with a video games that actually gets kids (and us parents) off our butts! Koren busted out some mad moves with the balance game and J & I got a big kick out of watching him ski the slalom course. 

9. I have been taking a lot of photos of Teagan lately because I'm afraid any day Teags is going to get up and start moving right out of the shot. So i'm not favoring her over Koren, i'm just enjoying looking into those big blue eyes while I can. Like this. 

10. 

It works!

So I was surfing another blog this morning (thanks Julie H.) and noticed she made a comment about Blogger making some improvements and that the video feature was now working. So I went through my archives of post and picked this one out just to "test" the system. The results: IT WORKS! YAY that makes me happy :) The video is almost a year old but none the less it's a video on my blog and that's what matters! Have a great weekend everyone. 

Something seems to have happened...she is no longer that teeny tiny little baby who loved to be swaddled and held. Suddenly she is an almost-toddler. She is crawling, and climbing up, and babbling, and screeching, and trying to chase after her brother. Her hair is even blonder and her eyes are even more blue. My sweet sweet baby. 

I just wanted to give a shout out to my brother Donnie & sister-in-law Hilari! It really is fun having you back in the state! I look forward to spending more time with the both of you.

what to do when it's 94 degrees out

toss on a couple of cute bathers and head to the nearest body of water! 

10:30pm

1. With Koren going to Seeds now Teags and I are left with 4 hours each morning to clean, edit recent photo sessions, work on upcoming "projects", but what me mostly end up doing is blog-surfing, shopping, watching reality tv re-runs, and having impromptu photo shoots. 

2. I've got my running gear on as I sit here and type and i'm thinking that as soon as I'm finished with this I'll get my butt out the door and go for a jog so that T-Bear will actually snooze a little. 

3. After picking up K from school we'll be heading to the Hunter's for a little baby shower planning meeting for you-know-who...I love parties! I love even more planning parties! As K would say, "that makes me soo soo happy!" 

4. I think Justin & I have finally come to the conclusion on a new car. Most likely J will spend the next 2 months trying to get the BEST deal...if it were me we would have driven over yesterday and handed off the keys to the Jetta and been done with it. That's why him and I are  a great pair, i'm not sure we would have a roof over our heads if everything was up to me :) 

5. I must, must, must get my house organized. It's driving me crazy that everything around seems to be so misplaced. You would think with all this kid-free (well K at least) time that I would have it done by now....oh why am I such a procrastinator. 

Alright, Teagan is now officially screaming her head off. I guess nap-time is just not happening today. 

Happy Tuesday everyone! 

The less routine, the more life.

 ~amos bronson alcott

rolls for sale

and will require a LOT of butter. 

JUST IN: Teagan has figured out the crawl. Well sorta. She does it the "t" way, as in backwards until she gets to where she wants to go then she'll put her legs up in the air and spin around on her belly like an upside down turtle until she has anchored in what she was going for. Pretty much anything her brother is playing with, like the puzzle above.