New Year's Eve Fondue

We really know how to "do fun" on New Year's Eve.....or should I say "fondue"!!! It is one of our family traditions to have chocolate fondue on New Year's Eve. You haven't lived until you've had a chocolate dipped snickers bar...or twinkie! Don't worry Janeen....we had plenty of fruit too (bananas, apples and pears). Since we've moved to Oklahoma, we miss our friends "The Todd Squad" on this evening, since they were our partners in all things fondue!!!

So, our fondue pot has welcomed in yet another year....and has once again been stashed away to emerge when it's almost 2010! Yikes.....2010??? Oh well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there....until then....Happy 2009 everyone!



And here's a flashback of us and the Todd's. I'm guessing this was 2001?? Reese looks about 2 years old here (perhaps he's 3).

Crafty

I have been too busy to be crafty lately, so I broke out the beads today and worked on a necklace. I'm real pleased with how it turned out....even if the pictures don't do it any justice! The necklace is a combination of shells, pearls and glass beads.


And mostly since I am playing with my camera to try and figure out how the different settings work.....here is a photo of some ornaments Reese and I painted earlier this month.

Happy Anniversary...

...to us!!! Mike and I have been married for 17 years as of today! It makes me feel old just thinking of it :-) Hard to believe that 1991 was so long ago!

We spent the evening at a Tulsa Oilers game. Our friends invited us to join them in their club box at the BOK Center. Couldn't pass up an offer like that!

Hmmm.....I can never seem to keep my eyes open with the flash! But, check out that great hair color! :-)


And, check out these cute boys!!!


And now for a trip down memory lane.....

The Cutest Blog on the Block

I found the coolest website this morning. It's called the Cutest Blog on the Block and it lets you put new backgrounds on your website. Enjoy my New Year's fireworks!

http://thecutestblogontheblock.com

Scenes from Christmas

Twas the Night Before Christmas....

And all through the house....


All the creatures were stirring.....






And wishing everyone a happy and safe holiday season! Merry Christmas!

Nothing Much!

Well, we are officially into our Christmas break!! (Picture is of me as a little child) No work or school for the next two weeks!!! Haven't done too much yet for our vacation, but it's only Sunday. Reese will probably be bored with us by noon today :-)

Spent most of Saturday making cake balls (Yes, Tommi.....we will bring some to you!). I have strawberry ones dipped in milk chocolate and spice cake dipped in white chocolate!

We tried a new (to us) restaurant in Pawhuska, OK. It's called "Bad Brad's" and on Saturdays, they will grill big rib-eye steaks outside on their grill. Very yummy. Worth the 30 minute drive.

It's 9 degrees this morning. Brrr.....will have to find indoor activities to keep us busy! The news just announced that today is the first day of winter. Happy Winter!!!

And for my public service announcement. Please, always wear your seatbelt! We went to a memorial service for a 15 year old boy yesterday. I don't know if the outcome may have been different, but he and his friend might not have been ejected from the vehicle. Too sad that things like this happen. One of the things about living in a small town.....when bad things happen, you invariably have some sort of connection to the families or people involved. We're keeping his family in our thoughts this holiday season and hugging Reese just a little bit tighter.

Cold Feet

Mike and Reese had a contest tonight to see who could last the longest outside playing football with bare feet. They lasted less than a minute! Reese won! By the way, this was enough snow to shut down the public schools today! "Toto, we're not in Denver anymore!!" Reese is wearing his new Jacksonville Jaguars jersey he got from his Aunt Kelly. I don't think we're going to ever get it off of him :-)

Tennessee Christmas

Yeah....I know....we're in Oklahoma! But, we all went to a performance tonight called "Lee Greenwood - A Tennessee Christmas" for my work Christmas event. None of us (Mike, Reese or I) were familiar with Lee Greenwood (or so we thought). He's one of those artists that pretty much everyone knows, but not everyone is aware of it.

About halfway through the performance he broke into the song "God Bless the USA". You know....probably one of the top patriotic songs these days!!! It turns out...he wrote the song! Pretty cool, huh?

Here's a link to his website in case anyone wants to learn more!

http://www.leegreenwood.com/index2.php?p=348

Cake

Tonight was the cub scout cake bake. Mike and Reese made a truly frightening cake for the contest. It's so realistic, I honestly can't make myself eat any of it! He named the cake "99.9% wrong", but I think it's 100% wrong :-)



On the other hand, I spent the evening making these deadly little treats called "cake balls". I almost wish I'd never heard of them. I'm plotting my next batch already.

Flag Football and more

Reese played in his Flag Football championship game today. His team lost, which means they came in second for the league. Not too bad, considering the team they played against today had a bunch of 5th graders!


He came home after the game and wasn't feeling well. Temperature was 101. Poor guy. So, we decided not to let him ride on the cub scout float in the Christmas parade tonight. We're just hanging out watching the OU game (about to watch the movie Meet Dave!). It's 35 degrees out right now....I didn't feel that he should hang out in cold weather for two hours while he's feeling bad.

Gas Prices....WOW!

You know....I really wouldn't mind if those prices started heading back up again.

Why Mike Never Has Nice Clothes

I swear.....he ruins more clothes this way!!!

Salad Dressing

So really......how much salad dressing does one family need? I opened the cupboard today and found out that we have become a wholesale distributor for Paul Newman Balsamic Vinagrette dressing. At least that's the best reason I have for the fact that we have 19 bottles of the stuff (20...if you include the bottle I brought to work this morning!) Must have been a great sale :-)

The Birthday Party

Reese had his birthday party today (after just a week-long delay). It was a blast. We woke up this morning and made his birthday cake. In keeping with the military theme he wanted, it was a camouflage cake with a battle on top. It was pretty entertaining to get all the frosting colors to work out right....but I think it looks pretty good!



It had to have been the hardest cake to photograph....none of the detail for the little army men wanted to show up. Mike says that is because they were camouflaged so well! Here is a little detail pic of the guys....look close, there are a lot of them!




And to top it all off.....I made the cake itself camouflage! Cool, huh?


So, the party was a lot of fun....but fourteen 9-year old boys is too many for me!! :-) Glad we didn't have the party at the house. They ran around the gymnastics center and hopefully wore themselves out. It was hard getting them all to sit still for a group photo, but here is the best one! You can't see one of the kids because he is underneath the kid in the striped shirt!


Man...I have really eaten too much cake this month (if there is such a thing as too much cake!) :-)

Happy Birthday to me!!!!

Masters Runner

Well, I am officially a Masters Runner now! For those of you that don't follow the running world.....that means I am 40!!! Hmmm....maybe I can win some more medals this year...no longer trying to chase down those 35 year olds! ;-) Although, I've noticed that the masters crowd is pretty darn fast! So, here's to many more years of running (albeit with the old crowd now!) and hoping that some of you can join me for a race some time!

Newspaper Photo

Reese's scout troup went on a tour of the local newspaper back in October. His troop was featured in a photo in the newspaper a while back. That is Reese right in the front....we asked him what he was doing....apparently they told him to take a football stance!

Thanksgiving

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I would have had these pictures up sooner, but I spent the day trying to compete with all of the Black Friday shoppers! :-) We had several friends join us for dinner yesterday. We all had a lot of fun (I hope!)

Lewis & Clark

Apparently, Lewis & Clark came through Lynch, Nebraska! So did we!!!

Wild Turkeys

These guys were cool!!!

Football Team

Reese's flag football team won their playoff game tonight, so they will play in the finals next week!

I didn't bring my camera tonight....but I do have pics of the boys playing football in the dirt lot outside of our hotel in Nebraska last weekend.

Gas Prices

Wow....gas prices have gone down! Never thought I would see these prices again.

Nebraska

The services for Grandma Ann were held in O'Neill, Nebraska on Monday morning. She was interred in the town of Monowi, NE at the Alford Cemetary. Monowi is an interesting town...there is only one person who lives there. It is one of the few American cities with a population of one.

We went up to the cemetary on Sunday to take a look around...here are some photos. The cemetary is located on a hilltop in the middle of farmland. Very pretty.