11 in 2011 Blog Challenge

I am going to link up with Kit from A Step into my Life and 

MJ from teach in heels for 11 in 2011.  

For the first 11 days of 2011 share a little about yourself, your favorite things, accomplishments in 2010 and exciting plans for 2011.  

First link up is New Year's Day!

Here are the topics, so go ahead and start planning your posts!

Day 1:  New Years Resolutions
Day 2:  Favorite Holiday Memory
Day 3:  Favorite Work-Out Tips
Day 4:  Best Leftover Recipe

Day 5:  Places You Hope to go this Year

Day 6:  Best Organization Tricks

Day 7:  Favorite Memory of 2010

Day 8:  Favorite Healthy Snacks

Day 9:   Favorite Things to Do on a Cold Winter Day

Day 10:  Favorite Girls Night Out Events
Day 11:  What are you Looking Forward to in 2011

 

Make sure to head over to Kit or MJ's blog and link up!

I won!

I finally won a giveaway! I'm so stinkin' excited! Stephanie from Houghton Happenings hosted a ton of giveaways over the last couple of weeks and I won! I won the Cuddles From Home giveaway which I am really excited for KR to get her pillow and blanket! With all the traveling we do I'm sure she is going to love it! Now I just need to pick one pillow/blanket combo that I want for her. My top four as of now are the Pink & Chocolate Daisies, the Pike & Chocolate Zoo, Raspberry Garden, Black & White Silhouette. Thanks to Cuddles From Home and Stephanie!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

I have never linked up with What I'm Loving Wednesday before but I feel like there are so many things I am loving right now that how could I not list them for you all! So here we go...

I'm Loving that Christmas is only three days away! Since Jason and I got married we alternate spending actual Christmas day with his mom and in KS with his dad and my parents. This year is our year to be in KS on Christmas morning! I'm super excited to be at my parents house just like when I was a kid!

I'm Loving my mom got great news yesterday! In her exact words "I got the best Christmas gift I could get today. I got good news from the eye surgeon and my cancer Dr.. Spent most of the day between two offices. Tumor shrunk again this time. Not in diameter but in thickness. Good either way. Cancer seems to be staying in eye, don't see signs of it elsewhere. Merry Christmas to all!!!!" 


I'm Loving this video that Caroline over at Simply Smithwick posted on her WILW list

I'm Loving the family pictures we had taken yesterday! Here is just a sneak peak:

The whole family

Miss Little KR

One quick one with KR and mommy!

Even though KR still is not feeling the best, she did an awesome job! I will post more of the pictures on a later post!


I'm Loving that KR is finally starting to feel a little bit better! I now understand what people mean when they say they wish it was them that was sick instead of their child.

I'm Loving everything right now! Tis the Season to give thanks for the wonderful things in life!

Top 2 Favorite Christmas Memories

Taylor over at The Undomestic Momma is one of my favorite blogs to read.

She is absolutely adorable and so is her sassy little girl!

She is currently undergoing chemo and decided to sell candles to help with the number of medical bills in result of her health issues.

If you are addicted to candles, you should visit her Etsy site.

She is also the host Top 2 Tuesday! 

I try to participate every Tuesday but sometimes I'm a slacker but not this week!

Top 2 Favorite Christmas Memories

1)  At my house everyone has to wait in their bedroom until my parents would come get us and tell us Santa had been there to visit. When I say every year I mean even now when I am 28 and my youngest brother is 21! It is a fun tradition and my parents have video of us coming down our hallway every year so it is kind of cool to go back and look at how we have changed in the last 20 years!

2) One year we saw an actual deer in my grandma's back yard. She lives in the middle of my town so it is really usual for a deer to be that far into town but it was kind of a funny story. We always go to my dad's mom's house on Christmas eve. She lived with my great grandma so my grandma's four siblings and their families would always come over and we would enjoy snacks and open gifts. Well once we had opened gifts one of my great aunts we out to put some stuff in her car when she came back inside exclaiming that there was a deer in the back yard. We all thought she was trying to be funny and didn't really think much about it. Well it turns out she was not being funny and there had actually been a deer in the back yard! We determined there had been a deer due to the tracks that were left in the back yard! From then on the kids wanted to head home because we thought it had been Santa checking on us!

Make sure to head over and link up with Taylor!

Miscellany Monday

OnE We are celebrating Christmas number 2 today! We celebrated at our house the Sunday before we left and now today we are celebrating in Reno with Jason's mom, Garth and his sister.

TwO Kinley did GREAT on our two flights to Reno! She didn't sleep a lick because there were so many people giving her attention but she wasn't fussy either.

ThReE I am loving the weather right now in Reno. It is cold for everyone who lives here but for us it is 40 degrees warmer than it is at home in Iowa right now!

FoUr My mom goes back to the doctor tomorrow for her regular three month check up so please send up an extra prayer tonight that we get good results. The last two check ups we have got good news/resutls in that the tumor had shrunk and there was no cancer anywhere else. These appointment alwasy make me a little nervous but once we get good news it is such a relief.

FiVe Only five more days until actual Christmas day and 10 more days until K-State plays in their bowl game!

SiX I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE VACATION! 13 days until I have to go back to work! Yeah!

I Hope everyone has a wonderful last five days before the BIG Holiday!

Top 2 Favorite games!

This week at Taylor blog The Undomestic Momma it is time once again for Top 2 Tuesday!

This weeks topic is Top Two Favorite Games

Number one: 10 point Pitch

I learned to play pitch when I stated dating my now husband. His family is crazy about pitch and it is always a huge competition in his family.

Number two: Mexican Train Dominoes

Jason and I just learned this game last year at Thanksgiving from some of our friends and we have been introducing it to everyone we know since then. It is a lot of fun but can be very frustrating also!

Miscellany Monday

OnE. HAPPY MONDAY!! Today is actually my Thursday...hurray! I am working today and tomorrow then having a "pamper me" day on Wednesday before our big holiday travel begins on Thursday. We will be driving to KS on Thursday to fly to Reno on Friday!

tWo. Excited, nervous, scared, worried...basically you name it I'm feeling it about flying with KR on Friday! I have been fretting for a couple of weeks now about what to bring, how much to bring, what can I take in my carry on, etc for KR. Jason and I fly all the time, we are good at it, we have it down to a science but now add a six month old....yeah I have no clue what I'm doing!

ThReE.We celebrated Christmas at our house yesterday since we will be gone for the next three weeks and it was wonderful! Jason and I decided that we would pretend that yesterday was Christmas morning so when we woke up we got KR up and headed downstairs. We then opened our gifts, had chocolate chip pancakes and spent the morning playing with all the sweet thing we opened!

fOuR.My wonderful husband is the best gift buyer ever! He totally surprised me with a new flat screen TV for my closet and an iPod touch! I had mentioned a while ago that I would like to have both but didn't need them right now well anyway, I had totally forgot I had said anything until I opened my gifts! AMAZING!

FiVe. Have I told you yet how excited I am to have 13 days off work?!? I am so ready for a break and ready to be rejuvenated before beginning the spring semester!

Have a wonderful Monday!

On the fourteenth day of Christmas

I can't believe today is already day 14 of the Christmas Blog Challenge! Which also means:
7 more days of work before we leave for our holiday travle
11 days until we are in Reno
17 days until we are in Kansas
19 days unitil Christmas
24 days until K-State plays in their Bowl game!

Seriously what a great month!

Oprah's Favorite Things: What item(s) would you want if you were in the audience?

*iPad from Apple

*Le Creuset Cookware

*Miraclebody Jeans by Miraclesuit

*Baker's Edge Baking Pans and Ghiradelli Brownie Mix

*Breville Panini Press

*Elfa Customizable Closet System from Conainer Store

But most of all.....


*Nikon D31-- Digital SLR Camera!!

On the thirteenth day of Christmas

Favorite Cookie Recipe

My favorite cookie recipe comes from my great grandma  Petersen. She use to make these peanut butter balls covered in chocolate...OMGoodness were they yummy! I swear I would eat a million of them if I could. Well I have tried to make the recipe a few different times and no go. They aren't the right size or the peanut butter doesn't stick together or the chocolate doesn't set up right...bottom line, they never turn out as good as her peanut butter balls!

Seriously...how yummy do these look!

My other favorite holiday recipe is candy cane cookies. A very simple sugar cookie recipe but you divide the dough into two then add red food coloring to half (some people also add peppermint flavor to the red half) then you  twist 2 strips (one of each color - red and plain) together like a candy cane. Hook over one edge and place on an ungreased cookie sheet bake for 9 minutes...AH Mazing!

I am so ready for all the yummy food this holiday season...my waist is not so we will have to exercise self control and not over indulge!

I can't wait to read about all the other wonderful holiday recipes!

On the twelfth day of Christmas

Show us your decorations (indoor/outdoor)

Christmas is the only holiday I decorate our house for and trust me I go all out. I don't like a lot of little things that look like clutter but I do love trees! My husband feels like one big nice tree in the living room is the only tree you need, well you see I disagree. I feel every room in the house needs a tree.*insert: we are a fake tree family so you can have lots of trees* I grew up in a house where we had our family tree in the living room but then each of us had our own tree in our bedroom and this is a tradition I fully intend of continuing as KR grows up.

Here are pictures of the big decoration I have up so far: 

Living room tree

(minus the decoration, I have been waiting for
the hubs to get home so we could do it as a family)

Hubs K-State wreath I made him

The K-State tree

The stocking are hung...

KR's tree

(we plan to buy her an ordainment each year to put on her tree)

Willow Tree Nativity set

I would love to put up decoration outside but it always seems to get too cold before we get the up so we will just have to go with the inside decoration again this year!

Arbonne's Pampermint Gift Set

Amy over at Life Follows Faith is having her first giveaway  and the best part...it is just in time for Christmas!

Amy is giving away Arbonne's Pampermint Gift Set!  What better way to treat yourself after hours of shopping for everyone else than to come home & pamper your feet!  This stuff is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

Nourishing cream and gentle scrub pamper your soles and your soul — a gift of cozy comfort right down to the tips of your plushy socks. Set includes FootWork Foot Scrub (Net wt. 12 oz.), SoleMate Foot Cream (Net wt. 9 oz.) and Signature Socks in a holiday gift box.

Now what are you waiting for...head over to Life Follows Faith and enter Amy's giveaway!

On the eleventh day of Christmas and a sweet giveaway!

New Year Resolutions

I don't think I have ever made a "New Years Resolution" par say but each year around the holiday season I start thinking about about things I would like to do better or ways to make me a better person. Here is my list for this year:

*Be a better wife, mother, daughter, and friend

Not that I am necessarily doing a bad job now but I know I could be doing better 

*Grow my faith
We have found a church that we love and now I would like us to

become more involved in the church fellowship

*Learn to say NO

I have a really hard time with this so I am going to work on it if it kills me!

*Be healther

In food, life and exercise

*Wish everyone of my friends Happy Birthday on Facebook

Ok, yes I know this sounds silly but this is going to be my way of narrowing down my friends on Facebook. Seriously, I almost 900 "friends" on Facebook, I think it is high time to cut some strings! If I feel like I can't wish you a Happy Birthday because I don't know you well enough or we haven't spoken to each other in the last year...your getting the ax!

*Enjoy life

I have a very hard time relaxing enough to enjoy life sometimes. I'm always worried about he details and making sure everything is just right, well if I would give that up sometimes then I think I would be a happier, healthier and more fun person to be around!

 **********************************************************************************

Also, I found this awesome giveaway today! I have been a follower of Design Dazzle for awhile now, I love, love, love all their super cute things they have and the great ideas they blog about! Well....today they posted a giveaway like none that I have seen before, get this...The Design Dazzle giveaway is for 3 miche purses, yes that's correct 3 miche purses!!! The winner can choose the bag set option #1 or option #2.

Option #1 - retail value $170.00

Option #2 - retail value $116.00

 

I think if I win...which I never win anything but a girl can hope right?!?, I will choose option 2! Make sure to head over to enter this fabulous giveaway!

On the tenth day of Christmas

Favorite Christmas Songs/Caroles

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE all Christmas music! However, I am a strong believer that you are not allowed to play Christmas music until 12:01am the day after Thanksgiving!

Happy Thursday everyone!

On the ninth day of Christmas

Favorite Holiday recipe

I don't have one favorite Holiday recipe that is my favorite. I would say my favorite thing to eat is white chocolate covered Ritz crackers! Very taking simple! Take two Ritz crackers then put peanut butter in the middle then dip them in white chocolate...yummy!!!