Happy Birthday Uncle Jared!

For those of you who don't know already today is my brother Jared's 30th birthday. Jared is an amazing guy! I am blessed to have so many good men in my life and he is one of the best. Jared is willing to do anything for anyone. Drop of the hat if you need him he is there, day or night, sunny or rain. He's like the post office but friendlier. Jared is also a great husband and takes excellent care of his family. I hope Emily realizes what an awesome man she has (I'm pretty sure she does). I am so excited for Jared to have his own baby this spring. He is so great with my kids and I know that he will be just as phenomenal with his own children.
I can count on Jared for anything and usually do. Having him live so close to us we often call upon Jared and Emily to help us with babysitting, helping us fix things that break in our house, watching our dogs when we are out of town and most recently fixing my car, I could go on and on. I really appreciate everything Jared does and everything he is. I can honestly say he is one of my best friends (which is actually unusual because if you knew Jared and I when we were younger we did not get along at all.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JARED! You are an amazing brother and I love you!

This Post is for Yesterday....

Car troubles are no fun! On Friday morning when I was driving to work and just as I was leaving my house my car did this weird jerking thing three times. I stopped to consider why it has been doing that and thought maybe I had depressed the clutch and that it would be fine. I was just outside of Monroe getting onto highway 203 when it did it again, although this time it did not jerk or sputter it simply would not accelerate. So on a two lane road where the speed limit is supposed to be 55 I could not get my car to go over 30. I pulled over to the side of the road and called my Dad, he told me to take my car home and that he or Jared would come out and look at it for me. On Friday night Jared came out and hooked up a computer the car. It turns out that the computer that controls the car is sending a faulty signal to my engine. So basically until that component gets fixed I cannot drive my car because it will randomly slow down on me with no warning.

BTW thanks Jared for looking at my car! I appreciate you coming out! Your the best!

a few things....

You may not know about me...

1. My favorite cereal is Honey Bunches of Oat

2. I hate it when people chew their food too loud especially when you are in a public place like a restaurant and cannot move or ask them to be quiet.

3. When I am by myself I love chewing my food loud, it’s about as rebellious as I get.

3. I am paranoid of A LOT of things! Top of my list
• someone in my family getting a terminal illness
• losing things
• being late for anything
• having someone break into my house, I make Terence check all the doors about 3 times before he comes to bed and at least once a week I make him check downstairs when I think I hear something.

4. I am a control freak! I don’t think that is a surprise to anyone. it is the reason I dislike getting on airplanes, roller coasters and going under anesthesia. Those are situations that I am completely giving control to someone else.

5. My favorite color is green. When I was really young I asked my parents what their favorite colors were dad was yellow and mom was green. Green sounded better then yellow so that is what stuck. It has been my favorite color ever since.

6. I would love to open a business of my own, either a restaurant or a bridal shop. I know it would be a lot of hard work and long hours but I also know that I could make it successful.

7. I am a firm believer that you could win on Jeopardy if you memorized the Bathroom Reader books and read Shakespeare

8. I am currently the Beehive advisor in my ward and feel grossly inadequate for my calling

9. I like making lists; it helps me organize my thoughts, makes me feel momentarily organized.

10. I am an all or nothing type of person. I very rarely do things half way. The problem is that if I feel I cannot do something 100% or better it’s not worth doing at all. This is something that I am working on because as I get older I realize that you cannot be all or nothing especially when it comes to things like cleaning the house, folding laundry, paying the bills, etc…

Now tell me something most people don’t know about you.

This...

Is what I would like to be doing right now...



and this is where I would like to be...



Thats all.

Top Ten Observations from Today

I worked from home today because I was not feeling very well. It's interesting being home with my family during the day as I feel I tend to throw off the flow of their day a little bit. Regardless I still enjoy the extra time with my husband and kids. Here are some observations I made from being home today.

1. Terence will sleep in as long as you let him. I think his philosophy is sleep first ask questions later.
2. My kids tend to get whinier when Terence and I are both home. When it's just me or just him they seem to be more cooperative. Interesting.
3. Connor loves to dance. His favorite songs are Crazy Frog and I love to Dance by the Yo Gabba Gabba characters
4. If you want Connor to sleep at all at night do NOT let him take a nap during the day
5. No nap Connor = Super cranky Connor when 5:00pm rolls around
6. My kitchen stays much cleaner when I am home
7. Corey loves to cuddle and be where Terence and I are. If we are on the couch he wants to be there, in the kitchen he’s right next to you, on the computer he’s on your lap
8. I get an extra two hours of work done working from home. Commute time turns into work time
9. Daytime TV, especially kids shows awful! My top three least favorite kid shows Fresh Beat Band, Max and Ruby and Ni Hao Kai Lan.
10. Working from home is a lot more fun than working in the office. It’s like getting two for one. I get my work done but also get to spend time with my kids. Best of both worlds, I wish I could do it more often.

Pedal to the Metal

Today when I got home from work Terence told me that Connor had learned how to pedal his tricycle that we gave him for his 2nd birthday. This was pretty exciting for me to hear as he has been trying to hear for a while. I asked Connor to show me and sure enough he was able to pedal from the kitchen to the living room. We thought it would be fun to take him outside and see how he did on the sidewalk. We put Corey in our Little Tykes car and had Daddy push him. We have a little park in our neighborhood right down the street so we went down there and let the boys play on the equipment for a while. It was one of those sweet moments where everything else melts away and you remember the things that are really important. It was a fun afternoon.

Today...

Was a pretty normal day.  Being a full time working mother of 2 children my days are absolutely jam packed but when I look back at them to see what I have accomplished the to do list has grown and three times as long as the completed list.  My day typical starts with me waking up around 5:00am,I take a shower, brush my teeth, do my hair and am out the door by 5:45.  I drive to work which usually takes me 45 minutes to an hour depending on traffic.  Once I get to work I have meetings to attend, emails to tend to, copies to make, irate co-workers to placate.  That’s all pretty par for the course when you are an administrative assistant (that’s the fancy work for a secretary).  I cannot complain though I really do enjoy my job.  Microsoft is one of the best companies in the world to work for and I am blessed everyday by the opportunities Microsoft has provided for our family.  After I full day I leave the office by 3:30 (3:45 at the latest).  On my way home I usually have at least one or two errands to run, these usually consist of grabbing groceries for dinner, picking up a prescription, returning an item or in today’s case buying a new keyboard for our computer.  Then its 45 minutes to an hour going back to Sultan, I can’t complain about the drive as it gives me time to catch up on my gossip with whoever will answer my call (usually Heather, Linda, my Mom or Terence).  Once home I say hi to my boys put my stuff down and get dinner cooking, while that is happening I usually load the dishwasher, clean up some toys or wipe down the table that has inexplicably gotten sticky throughout the day.  Once dinner is done it’s time to clean the kitchen, spend some quality time with my boys (my favorite part of the day.  I wish I had more time for this!), then baths, jammies, prayer, scripture reading and bed time for the boys.  After they are settled in I run upstairs change and head to the pool for some cardio.  I try to swim at least three times a week.  Once I get back from the pool I have just enough time to spend an hour or so with Terence then it’s off to bed to get ready to do it all over again.  Of course this list does not include the time that I spend doing my calling or anything extra I have going on.  This is pretty standard day to day .

There are times when I sit back and think what the heck did I get done today?  But I feel truly blessed to have the life that I have and I would not trade it for anything!

The Met

Quite a few months ago my Mom was given some gift certificates to The Metropolitan Grill in Seattle. We saved them until we had an occasion to use them. Then a few days ago when we were at Costco we saw that they had a deal where you could buy two $50 dollar gift certificates for $80 we thought that was a great idea as we could buy some to go along with the ones we already had and we could save some money on our meal. We invited our good friends Scott and Melissa to go with us. Being Seattle Terence and I dressed in jeans and nice shirts (there was no indication of any kind of dress code on their website). When we got to Scott and Melissa's house they were both dressed up, oh crap! We proceeded to push back our reservation and run down to the local Ross to see if we could find something suitable to wear. Terence found a pair of khakis that was a little too tight and a pair of black dress shoes that looked like orthopedic shoes. It's hard to find size 13 shoes anywhere, anytime let alone when you are under a time crunch. I was able to find a reasonable dress (for only 12 dollars) and a really cute pair of black heals. Wardrobe crisis averted.

The retaurant itself is very nice, classic fancy style. We had a very good meal. Terence ordered the biggest steak I have ever seen in my life! It was a 38 ounce porterhouse! He said it was some of the best steak he has ever eaten. All the rest of us got smaller more manageable steaks.

By the time we were done with our food we were STUFFED but of course when you go out to a nice dinner you have to have dessert. I had the burnt cream which is by far my favorite fancy restaurant dessert. Terence had a peach cobbler and Melissa had this amazing looking molten chocolate brownie most of which I think she took home with her. After dinner we were so stuffed all we could do was go back to Scott and Melissa's house and crash on the couch. After about an hour of that Terence and I were able to waddle out to the car and drive home.

We had Olga (Jared and Emily's exchange student aka their 17 year old daughter) babysit for us while we were gone. That girl is AMAZING! She had both of the kids asleep in bed, the kitchen was cleaned, she unloaded my dishwasher, loaded it back up, swept the floor, put all the toys away, organized the shoes by the front door and folded all the blankets. My house was clean when I got home! I was sure to give her an extra tip for her extra efforts.

It was such a fun evening and I would love to say we will be doing it again soon but you only have a dinner like that once every 5 years or so. The calories alone were enough to last a lifetime!

Called to Serve

Today my cousin Jacob recieved his mission call.  He will be going to the Mozambique Maputo Mission.  What an amazing place to be called!  I am so proud of Jacob and of my other cousin Elder Daniel Walsh who is currenlty in the MTC getting ready to go to Argentina.  They are such great examples to me and I admire their dedication in being willing to server where ever they are called.

Broken Keyboard

Tonights I was rough housing with Corey and knocked a candle off of our computer desk onto our keyboard.  As a result the letter "N" is very hard to use.  Looks like one of the things on our "to do" list for tomorrow will be getting a new keyboad.  Until then my blogging will be limited.

Terence's New Blog

I mentioned this the other night at the end of one of my posts but I don't think I gave it the attention it deserved.  So here it is...

TERENCE HAS HIS OWN BLOG!

I personally think Terence is one of the funniest people I know and his blog does not disappoint.  Add it to your blog list tdkeenan.blogspot.com. and as always leave your comments and let him know you were there. 

Power of Prayer

I have a firm testimony of the power of prayer; I learned this lesson at a young age. I was in fourth grade and had an appliance cemented in my mouth to prevent me from sucking my thumb (yes I sucked my thumb in fourth grade, that’s not the point of this story). This appliance was pretty expensive from what I remember. One day it fell out of my mouth at school, I remember bringing it home and telling my Mom about it. She told me to put it someplace safe until we could get to the dentist to have it put back in. Long story short I misplaced it. I remember looking for it all over the house, my bedroom, the bathroom, living room, dining room, EVERYWHERE with no luck. I remember going to my mom and telling her I had lost it thinking she would be mad. My Mom taught me a lesson that day that I have carried with me throughout my life. Her simple response was to pray about where I had left it. I went to my room kneeled down and said a simple prayer that Heavenly Father would please help me find my appliance. After my prayer was over I sat for a second and thought about where it could be. Then I walked out into the dining room lifted up a pile of jackets that was sitting on the table and there underneath them was my lost dental apparatus. It was a very early lesson for me in how powerful a humble prayer offered in faith can be.
Part of the reason I am telling you this now is because Terence has a job interview tomorrow that could be a potentially good lead. I ask anyone who reads this blog to please keep our family in your prayers. Please pray that Terence will not only find a job but one that will be suitable for him to support our growing family. I know that through the power of prayers miracles can happen and I have faith that a miracle for our family is coming soon.

Swimming, Swimming in the Swimming Hole

For anyone who knows me you know that I love swimming. When I was a little kid I would swim all day everyday in the summer. I swam on a swimteam my sophomor and junior year of highschool but stopped after that.  Now I try to exercise everyday and lately my workout of choice has been swimming. I have realized a couple of things since I began doing this again.


1. Swimming is really good exercise
2. Swimming is a lot harder then I remember
3. 20 laps nonstop is a lot harder than it sounds
4. Olga is much faster then I am
4. Chlorine really dries out your skin
5. You can get sore from swimming
6. My best stroke is no longer the butterfly
7. A kickboard is my lifesaver!
8. I have a new appreciation for Dori in Finding Nemo "just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming...
9. McCord is a lot more fun to swim at then the YMCA in Monroe
10. I LOVE it! I hope I can keep it up since it's great exercise while you are pregnant.

Also as a side note, Terence has started his own blog (ad fanfare here!).  Add him to your blog list.  He's tdkeenan.blogspot.com

LOL!

This picture makes me laugh!  The end.

Pink Pancakes

If there is one thing in the world that I hate it's figuring out what’s for dinner. Sunday nights are always hard because we usually have a big lunch when we get home from church and are not super hungry for dinner. I do have to cook something though because I don't want to send my kids to bed hungry. Tonight I decided it would be easy to make pancakes for dinner. I have been trying really hard to involve the kids with the cooking so they can learn how. I let them pull up their chairs as usually and stir the batter. As I was opening the cupboard to put something away I saw the food coloring. I asked Connor if he would like to make the pancakes a special color and of all the colors he could have picked he chose pink. So tonight for dinner we had pink pancake. They turned out pretty good and it was fun!

Saturday is a special day...

Today was a very low key day. Our stake is having a volleyball tournament and Terence went and played with our ward, they won all four games! I stayed home with the boys which was really nice since I don’t get to just hang out with them very often. It has also been a while since I have had time to cook something really good. One of my all time favorite comfort foods is spaghetti. Terence does not particularly care for it so I don’t make it a lot but a rainy Saturday afternoon with the boys sounded like the perfect time. Corey was down for his nap so I let Connor help me cook. He watched me chop the onions, helped me stir the sauce and even put in the spices.

There were only a couple of minor spills and it was really fun to spend some quality time with Connor. Other than making spaghetti I ran laundry, cleaned the kitchen, changed the sheets on both boys’ beds, gave the boys a shower after they ate dinner (spaghetti is pretty messy) watched Keeping up with the Kardashians and Phineas and Ferb and relaxed.

By the way after I spent all that time makings spaghetti, I went to eat it and the idea of it sounded terrible. Ugh!  Oh and this picture of Corey is just cause I think it's funny.  He was mad at me after his bath, LOL!

Nate McMillan

Terence and I have a ridiculous Nate McMillan piggy bank that Terence got as a door prize at a Sonics game years ago.  This has been a fixture in our house for as long as I can remember and for some reason my children are terrified of it.  It sits on the top shelf of our computer desk and for the most part is completely ignored.  This however is what happens when Nate comes down.  (sorry the sound is a little hard to hear).

It Starts...

I am a firm believer in pregnancy brain. When I get pregnant my brain turns completely to mush! I don't know what the scientific explanation is but I do know it happens. I just did not realize it happens so soon! Today I had to pick up three things from the drug store on the way home. Deodorant for Terence, a prescription for Corey and...and...blank. I cannot remember for the life of me what the third thing was. I was walking around the aisles of the store for 20 minutes trying to remember what it was. Nothing.

Here is the really ironic part. As I was writing this blog I remembered what item number three on my list was. Prenatal vitamins. This is going to be a long 9 months.

By Popular Demand

OK it's not really popular demand, Heather just thinks this story is funny so she asked me to tell it. 

Yesterday was the day I found out I was pregnant.  I had the gut feeling I was but had taken three test last week and all three were negative.  Tthat nagging feeling was there, so I went to Safeway at 6:00am yesterday morning to buy a pregnancy test. I decided to grab some other things I really needed namely 4 oversize pickles, and a stick of deodorant. The cashier gave me a funny look when I placed my eclectic selection of items on the counter and then wisely chose to coment on the pickles asking me if they were any good. I adamently told him yes or I would not be buying 4 of them (Terence says here's your sign).  I looked awkwardly back at the stranger behind me in the checkout line only to realize that the stranger was actually strangely familiar. Upon leaving the store, I realized he was the second counselor in the bishopric from when Terence and I were in the Singles Ward. I wonder if he recognized me?

Altered Top 10 List

#11 - enough said...

and yes we are extremely grateful and excited!!!

The Terence Blog

So tonight I (Terence) asked if I could blog for Jacki.  To be honest, I have never done this before and had to get some help even signing in.  So without further adieu, I present The Terence Blog.

One of my favorite things in life is to be inspired by greatness.  Lucky for me I am married to Jacki and can be inspired almost every day.  One of Jacki's favorite things to do is to make a top 10 list and tonight I think my blog will be on the top 10 things that have happened so far in 2010.  In no particular order:

#10 - Celebrating the new years with our good friends Scott and Melissa.  I have known Scott since I was five and Melissa has been one of our best friends for almost 10 years now.

#9 - Going to the Blazers game with my sister.  I found Talia almost 2 years ago and have a special bond with her.  She is one of my best friends and for Christmas this year, I went to a Blazer game with her.

#8 - Corey's 2nd birthday.  Yesterday we had 13 of our family over to celebrate the little guy's birthday.

#7 - Filling my days with the constant joy of staying home with my kids and watching them learn, grow and play...seriously!

#6 - Re-connecting with relatives.  Facebook is a great invention.  I have been very fortunate to talk to my family who lives in NY who I haven't seen in over 15 years.  It is a nice feeling to know that no matter how much time has passed, we are still family and care for each other.

#5 - Good health - Thankfully we have all been very healthy this holiday season.  It is so hard to see our kids feeling sick and we have been very fortunate.

#4 - Family prayer - Every night Jacki and I take turns saying a prayer and then listening to Connor and Corey say theirs.  Connor says a prayer all by himself and Jacki helps Corey.  The best part is Corey picks out the words he knows and says them (daddy, mommy, Connor & amen).

#3 - My mom and dad.  Hands down the nicest people in the world.  They have taught me so much and I am very grateful for the lessons I have learned from them. 

#2 - Date night - Even if we can only get away for a little bit, it is nice to spend some time with just Jacki.

#1 - Jacki - what can I say about her?  She makes me the luckiest man in the world.  She is a great wife, mother and friend.  She takes wonderful care of me and our boys.  She makes me a better person and knows exactly what to do and say in any situation.  She is an inspiration to me and I strive to be more like her and better for her.  I love the fact that I am married to my best friend.  She is truly the love of my life.

Party! Party!

Today was such a fun day.  We spent the morning getting ready for people to come over for Corey's birthday party.  We just had a small get together with Terence's Mom and Dad, my Parents, Jared, Emily, Olga and Brian.  We started off the night with dinner and then opened presents.  Connor had a really hard time with the fact that these were Corey's presents and not his.  My parents brought one that was wrapped in Spongebob paper that Connor was particularly eyeing.  By the tim Corey got around to opening his presents Connor was in full breakdown mode.  He did settle down after a while and realized that he would still get to play with the presents even if they were not especially for him. 

Corey's favorite present ended up being a little red remote control car.  Terence goe one very similar to this for Christmad and Corey loves playing with it.  He was super excited to have one of his own.

After presents we had cake.  Olga tried her hand at making a cake for the first time.  It turned out really good!  Thanks for making a great cake Olga!  Corey also blew out his candles on the second try. Not bad.

After dinner and cake things went downhill pretty quickly (what else is new).  One of the presents we got Corey was a nerf gun with replacement darts.  As everyone was sitting around talking Jared and Terence started thowing the darts at eachother.  That turned into them throwing darts at everyone else and before we knew it we were in a full on dart war.  I told Jared if he threw one more dart at me I was going to jump tackle him.  He threw the dart and I ran accross the room and knocked him over.  He said he was laughing so hard he could not defend himself but we all know I really just took him out.  That was Terence's Mom and Dad's cue to leave along with my parents.  They thanked us for dinner and left.  That is when things really got crazy.  We went for a full on old fashioned nerf war, girls against guys.  We moved the couches into the middle of the living divided into teams turned off all the lights and shut all the blinds.  For the next three hours we threw darts at eachother and had a great time doing it. 

I love having family close by and being able to spend time with them.  Thanks everyone for coming!  It was a super fun day.  And of course Happy Birthday Corey.

One more side note, one of my very good friends from my ward called me this morning to tell me she was in labor.  Exactly 2 years to the day after Corey was born she had her little boy.  9.9 lbs 20.5 inches, no name yet.  Congratulations Krista!

Corinthal James, Core-Bore, CEKers, Silent Tornado, Little Terrorist...

If you have not guessed by the title of this blog it is about one of my favorite people, Corey Elliott Keenan. Tomorrow (or today depending on when you read this) is Corey's second birthday. I really cannot believe how quickly the time has gone. He went from being a tiny little baby to a terrible two year old in the blink of an eye. Ok he's not really terrible (all the time).

Corey is such an amazing kid, smart, funny, loving, kind, energetic, basically everything I want to be. We are so blessed to have him in our home. Since I am the kind of person who loves making list I decided I am going to write a top ten list for Corey.

10. Corey is a Mama's boy. Every day when I get home from work he is waiting by the door for me to get home. It's sweet to know that he misses me when I am gone

9. Corey is a good brother. He and Connor are best friends and it's so fun to see the two of them interact.

8. He is a great cuddler. Don't even try to cuddle with him during the day but at night when he's tired he always game

7. He is always up for a good time. Corey is game for anything

6. He is fearless. This can be a good and a bad thing; it helps with number 7 however it terrifies me. Corey likes to jump off of couches, chairs, counters you name it. He also will climb out of his crib.

5. Corey is very kind. He is the first to give someone a hug when they are hurt or sad.

4. The way he talks. Since he is just learning to talk most of what he says comes out a little off. For example instead of saying stinky feet he says dinky beat. I guess you have to be there but we think it's pretty cute.

3. Corey loves to Vacuum. What Mother wouldn’t love that

2. His laugh, it's infectious.

1. He is smart!!! We call him our little engineer/problem solver. If something is out of his reach he finds a way to get it (usually by moving a chair). He loves to look at things and figure out how they work

As for the title of my blog, those are all nick names that we have for Corey.

Corinthal James- Something that Uncle Jared came up with and he's really the only one who calls him that
Core-Bore-This is what I call him
CEKers- These are his initials and it’s the name that Terence calls him most of the time
Silent Tornado- Given to Corey by Grandma (my mom). It's pretty applicable since he's quiet and pretty much gets into everything
Little Terrorist- Also a name given to Corey by my mom

Happy 2nd Birthday my Core-Bore! I am so excited to see you continue to grow and change! You are amazing and such a blessing in our life!

 

Aunt Heather Double Dips!

Today was a pretty laid back day. I woke up late this morning and contemplated the idea of driving into work. My boss and the rest of my team was at an offsite meeting so after very little consideration I decided today would be an awesome day to work from home. I love working from home and am so grateful for a job that provides me the opportunity to do so. Our day consisted of watching Up, Ratatouille and Bugs Life. There was also a lot watching the boy "shoot bad guys" with their guns. This has become one of their regular pass times and my mom assures me that it's normal for little boys to be obsessed with shooting things. We do tell them that they can only shoot bad guys and not each other or anyone else in the house (including the dogs).  Connor has turned his gun into a laser beam by adding a flashlight to the end.  Quite the little engineer.

The one really funny thing that happened today was while we were eating dinner Connor made the observation that "Aunt Heather double dips". We are not sure where he came up with this observation but I'm pretty sure it's accurate.

I am going to finish out the day by putting the kids to bed and going swimming with Olga. We went last night and for the first time since high school I swam over 500 meters. Olga and I were both totally exhausted when we were done but it was such a good workout we decided we were going to go back for more tonight. Hopefully we can make a habit of it. It is always easier when you have a workout buddy.

Terence will probably finish the day by playing Forza 3 with the boys. 

Happy Friday everyone!

Super Excited!

Jared and Emily found out what gender their baby is today!  I am not at liberty to say what it is but I can tell you I am super excited for them.  I'm also excited for my boys to have another cousin.  Especially one who lives so close to us!  I am sure they will be great friends. 

Congratulations Jared and Emily we can't wait to meet your little one!

Just to update everyone you can linke to Jared and Emily's blog here to find out what they are having.

This Guy!

Tonight I was looking through my pictures for inspiration on what to write about and I came accross this picture. 

So I thought "use it".  This is my oldest brother Brian.  He is one of my favorite people on the planet and literally one of the nicest people you will ever meet.  Brian would give you the shirt off his back without even blinking an eye. 

I decided I would write a top ten list of my favorite things about Brian.

10.  Brian is a passionate person.  Whether it's his hobbies, his work, his car, his family, his callings.  He puts his heart and soul into everything he does

9.  Brian is honest to a fault.  I have never heard Brian lie about something (except when he is telling me that something never happened when I know for a fact it did)

8.  He is hard working

7.  He is a great uncle (not great as in old, great as is awesome, cool, far out...).  He likes to call himself mean uncle Brian but I know deep down he is a big softy

6.  He is incredibly smart!  If I can't figure out the answer to a question I ask Brian

5.  He is a great friend and extremely loyal

4.  Brian is super fun to hang out with and is always up for a good time

3.  Brian has always been a great older brother, protective, caring, kind (did I mention he is kind?)

2.  HILARIOUS!  Brian is one of the funniest people I know.  He has this dry sense of humor that catches you off guard.  If you don't believe me go read his blog

1.  I know I mentioned it above but it is my favorite thing about Brian.  He is the nicest person you will ever meet. 

So there is my top ten list of my favorite things about Brian.  By the way all you ladies out there he's SINGLE.  Just saying...

Thanks for being such an awesome brother Brian!  I love you!

They Say Over a Million People are Born on Your Birthday...

Today I called my doctors office to ask them a question.  The women on the phone said she needed to look up my chart and asked me for my birthday.  When I told her 11/24/1981 she said "thats my birthday!  Another Thanksgiving baby."  I have never met another person with my exact same birthday so I got a kick out of it.  It made me start wondering what else has happened on November 24th:

1963-New American President Lyndon Johnson confirms that he will continue the policy of his predecessor in Vietnam, by continuing to provide military and economic support to South Vietnam.

1944-World War II: America launches its first bombing raid over Tokyo.

1642-Dutch explorer Abel Tasman becomes the first European to sight Tasmania, which at the time Tasman named, Van Diemen’s Land.

1871-The National Rifle Association was incorporated.

1963-Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald, JFK's accused assassin, in the garage of Dallas police headquarters.

1971-D. B. Cooper parachuted from a Northwest Airlines flight with $200,000.

People Who Share My Birthday:

1968 – Todd Beamer, American, acclaimed hero of United Airlines Flight 93 (d. 2001)

1977 – Colin Hanks, American actor


1978 – Katherine Heigl, American actress
 
Who or what has happened on your birthday?

This Weekend

For a Christmas gift this year Terence's sister Talia gave him tickets to a Portland Trailblazers Game. Since the game was on a saturday night, Terence drove down that morning and spent the night.  Terence found his sister a year and a half ago and the two of them are so much alike.  They even look alike!

They had a super fun time at the game.  Talia had never been to a basketball game before so Terence had a lot of fun teaching her all the different rules and strategies of basketball.  By the end of the game she was even getting into it and yelling at the refs.

This was the view from their seets. I think they were something like 12 rows back on the home team side.

While Terence was out of town I enjoyed spending some time at home with the boys.  When we were growing up I remember my brothers always making forts out of the cushions from the couch, blankets and whatever else they could find.  I thought it would be something fun to do with my boys.

Corey did not like going in the fort much, instead he liked climbing on top of it.  Shocking that once again Corey wanted to do things his own way instead of the way they were intended ot be done.  I'm starting to notice that this is a trend with him.  I wonder where he gets that from?

As much fun as it was to spend some time alone with the boys and have Terence spend some time with his sister it was nice to have him home. 

New Years Eve

For the last seven years we have had a tradition of spending New Years Eve with our very good friends Scott and Melissa.  The tradition started back in 2003 when Terence had moved into his first apartment.  Going out on New Years has never really appealed to us.  Instead we stayed in and played Mexican Train Dominos.  It was super fun!

This is all of us at midnight 1/1/2004.  We drank sparkling apple cider, blew noise makers and popped those poppers that have all the streamers in them.  Scott and Terence have also made a tradition of trying to drink an entire bottle of Mountain Dew.   Over the years we have continued our tradion.  A couple of years we had to have"fake New Years Eve" as one of us would have to work the actual night or was out of town for work or school. 

We also have changed our games that we play over the years.  New Years of 2006 we played blackjack and the last two years we have played Pinochle.  The Mountain Dew drinking has also slowed down considerably.  I hope that it's a tradition we continue for years to come.  It's a fun, safe way to ring in the New Year with people we love!

Here are some pictures from this year:

The only group picture we have is the one from our kiss at midnight.  Sorry if you think it's cheesy! 

This is the picture of my table scape. I was pretty proud of it.

I reached another milestone in my life on New Years.  It was the first time I have ever had my own "kids table"

For some reason every year we end up wearing all the streamers.

Awesome Recipe

Most everyone I know starts some kind of diet in the New Year. Having been on a million different diets myself I am always looking for fast easy recipes. This is literally a 3 minute recipe that I love and is really good for you.

1 can corn
1 can diced tomatoes with jalapenos
1 can diced green chilies
One medium onion diced
1 can black beans
1 can tomato sauce
1 can of diced chicken breast (I get mine from Costco)
1 can chicken stock
1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning (this is something I add for more spice it can be left out)
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a pot and let simmer for anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour.
Serve with a little bit of shredded cheese and sour cream on top. I also sometimes add 1/3 of a cup of rice to this recipe to give it a little more bulk. If I do that I add 1/2 a cup of water and let it cook a little longer.

Try this recipe out. It's easy, fast and good for you

Welcome 2010! Time for Resolutions!

Well it's officially 2010.  Where has the time gone?  I have spent a lot of time today reflecting on the milestones in my life that made up not only the last year but the last decade.  I have been incredibly blessed by my Heavenly Father, I have EVERYTHING I could ever ask for. As I write this the words to a Michael McClean song keep going through my head, the words are;

All I ever wanted
all I ever dreamed of
everything I hoped,
and all the things I prayed for
couldn't hold a candle to what I've been given,
I've been given what I need

So this year instead of focusing so much on the temporal things (lose weight, make more money...) my resolutions are going to focus on giving thanks to my Father in Heaven and recognizing his hand in my life.  I am going to pray more, study the scriptures (all of them), give more to my calling, give more time and attention to my family and last but not least keep a daily journal.  I was inspired by a someone from my ward growing up who as a resolution last year decided she was going to blog every day.  Her blog has been amazing inspirational for me.   She is genuine and honest in what she writes and how she expresses herself.  I have decided to follow suit, my goal is to write something on my blog every day. What I write about may not always be super exciting to read but my hope is that at the end of the year I will be able to have a record to look back on.  I am reminded of a quote that I love that says "enjoy the little things in life, for one day you will look back and realize they were the big things."  This is my effort to stop, take a step back and enjoy the "little things"

I want to wish all of you a happy and healthy New Year!