Year in Review - 2007

Rather than write a really long letter in our Christmas cards, we decided to give the whole year in review here. (That way you only have to read it if you really want to.)

And rather than post the whole thing in the blog here, we created pages for each month. Just click the links below to read about each month (and see the pictures). Comments are welcome!

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September (coming soon)
October (coming soon)
November (coming soon)
December (coming soon)

Christmas treats

We followed our custom of making Christmas treats to share with friends. (We did try something new - toffee - this year. It was a complete disaster though, so we didn't share it, or post the recipe here.) Some have asked for the recipes. We decided the best way to do that was to post them here. Enjoy them!

Chocolate Oat Bars
Fantasy Fudge
Rocky Road Fudge
Almond Joys / Mounds
Peppermint Bark
Keep Forever Gingerbread Cookies
Buckeyes (coming soon)
Cranberry Orange bread (coming soon)

Dinner, ogre style

For dinner we took a trip to the swamp and had a "Shrek" dinner. This included:

• lily-pads (spinach tortillas)
• swamp water with tadpoles (sugar-free green jello with shredded apples)
• rocks (rolls)
• frog eggs (peas)
• mealy worms (brown rice)
• fried frog legs (strips of chicken, marinated with green food coloring, oil, vinegar, garlic and basil)

The kids weren't completely sure at first, but eventually decided it tasted pretty good. Katelyn even wanted leftovers the next morning! See more pictures of the food here.

An open challenge

Over the last 18 months, David has been involved with fitness challenges at work. The results is being in much better shape, and having caught the running / racing bug again. I will be starting the new year by running a race on New Year's Day. Then I will try to race at least once a month. This is an open invitation to all to join in the racing. Almost every city has a race on New Year's Eve or Day -- so sign up!

I will post the results of my races here -- please feel free to comment with your results!

Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone had a great Christmas! We are enjoying the time together as a family. We are also happy with the chance to see and visit with other family members. Have a great new year! (Year in review posts will be available shortly!)

Another first -- not a hit

Maya had her first non-milk food tonight -- some very thin rice cereal. She was not a fan. She pretty much cried and choked on it the whole time. She did finish what we had made though. So, hopefully it will get better!

Nativity with kids

We have been getting out all the Christmas decorations. Jacob especially loves the "Little People" nativity set we got for them last year.

Of course, having a nativity set that they can play with has led to some new versions of the story. Jacob thinks that instead of going to Bethlehem on a donkey, Mary and Joseph got there in Deigo's rescue vehicle.

Katelyn really likes the Rauchermaenner (Smoker men) that we have on the mantel. She has asked many times for us to make them "steam". Jacob doesn't know what that means, but has decided he doesn't like it. So, every time she asks, he says, "Don't make them steam at me; that scares me!"

Photo cards for Christmas

American Greetings recently acquired Webshots. As a result, we are now doing photo greeting cards for Christmas. If you were thinking about doing this kind of card, then you might want to check it out. Use the code IMAGINE15 at checkout to get a 15% "friends and family" discount.

To learn more or try them out, just click here.

Beta testing

Okay, we have played with this on our own for a couple of days. Now we are opening it up to a few more people. Let us know if it worked for you. Any suggestions? Tips from more experienced bloggers on how to make this work? Thoughts on private vs. public blogs? Thanks in advance for your help!

Go Cougars!

Maya experienced her first BYU-Utah game. She is smiling because we had the right results: BYU 17, Utah 10.

First snow!

We had our first real snow on Thanksgiving night. The next morning, our kids were the only one's in the neighborhood that ventured out. Three inches already this season (for those keeping track).

Turkey Trot Race Results

Official results for the Cleveland Turkey Trot are now available (View results here). It was 32 and snowing at race time. Not a great time, but much better than a year ago!