Category: things to do

Categories
play things to do

Photo Friday #2


Because I usually have my camera whenever I go somewhere for more than a few hours (besides work of course) I have the opportunity to take pictures of random things in life. These pictures tend to get lost in the rest because they are all by themselves but I recently came across this gem and felt like I needed to share it with you. We were headed up to Julian for a nice day (the day before the fires started there actually) and saw this sign driving by. We immediately stopped, turned around and took a picture. 

QUESTION: How in the world does someone lose their wheelchair?

Categories
celebrate play reminisce things to do

Holiday Highlights

We stayed around this year for Christmas and New Year’s Day and December was full of fun!! Here are some highlights of the season for us: 

My Opa (grandpa) turned 80 December 14th but he’s going to get his very own post after this one with more pictures and a video/slide show = yippee!!

 

I turned 27 on December 16th. I’m not old, but I’m getting close to being able to say things like “when I was your age…” or “things just aren’t made the way they used to be…” 🙂 Well, this is the second birthday I’ve been able to enjoy with my husband and he really gave me a great birthday! Here are some pretty flowers in an awesome vase!!!

 

We stayed home with dinner and a movie (He made me a wonderful dinner). Then we decided to finally put together the gingerbread house. It’s the first one I can remember making. I guess my mom can correct me if I made one when I was a kid. But at least I know I haven’t made one in a LONG time! AND IT SHOWS! They are harder to make than they look. I guess the nice thing when making these is when you get “glue” on your hands, you get to lick it off 🙂
Christmas was nice and a lot more normal than usual. For the first time in a few years, all 5 of my immediate family were here! No one was traveling or anything! See, last year we had to use a photo of my brother for the family photo, but not this year 🙂

Christmas ’07

Christmas ’08
Christmas ’08 – all 7 of us 🙂

 

We also all got matching pajamas from the Z family modeled so beautifully here:

 

 

The gentleman and I worked on some photography projects which I will start blogging about very soon.

 

 

New Year’s Eve is always fun but we didn’t bring a camera, so no pictures 🙂

 

And as far as “photo a day” well…I’ve changed that to Photo Fridays. That’s right, I can’t handle the commitment of one a day so I’ve decided once a week will be better. A photo and a question or story. I think it will be fun. So I’m starting…NOW!

 

This is a photo of a clock I made. For Christmas I made people in my families clocks out of plates! I think they turned out pretty fun. So, what’s your favorite thing you’ve ever made anyone?

 

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year’s Day!
2009, what will be in store?
Categories
nest play things to do

2008 Video Christmas Card

So we have our very own tradition of video Christmas cards. If you did not know us last year or didn’t see it, you can click here to watch last year’s!

 

Here’s this year’s!

ENJOY!

Categories
celebrate nest play things to do

Christmas Preparations

So finally {2 days before Christmas} I feel prepared for Christmas. This season has been quite busy but over the course of a few weeks we finally got our tree/decorations up, baked a bunch of goodies, and got all the shopping/wrapping done! yippee! 

So here’s our lovely tree from Home Depot. We have quite an eclectic mix of ornaments, each with their own story 🙂

 

And we weren’t too thrilled with the tree toppers last year so we went with this guy, our penguin in a reindeer hoodie! We like him 🙂

 

And I can’t go long before having a blog post about food can I?? Well, these goodies are long gone already. I made them for a couple parties and work friends. Peanut blossoms, peanut butter bars, peanut brittle, sugar cookies, rum balls and snickerdoodles = YUM. I’ll gladly share any recipes if you’re interested, just leave me a comment. (I also made stroepwafels with my mom today but they will get their very own post)

And here is my Tante (aunt) Dicky! She lives in Holland and was out for my Opa’s (grandpa’s) birthday (which I will also post about later) She’s a pretty cool lady…I like her. We are going to plan a trip to visit her ASAP!!!!

Categories
reminisce things to do

Advent Part 2

Here’s our part 2 of Advent. The theme for the week is Bethlehem. Here are the pictures we put up along with the text. We tried to make all these pictures look simple since Jesus came to Earth in a simple way. The next two themes are Praise and Jesus. I’ll post them soon 🙂
“And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah; For out of you shall come forth A RULER who will shepherd my people Israel.
When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.”
Tell me what you think about this project so far…I would love some constructive criticism.
Categories
eat things to do

Thanksgiving…

Well, I’ve been busy so when that happens, the blog suffers. So I might post a lot this week to catch up…
But to back up…I put a “Thanksgiving” post on the SidebySide Video blog that you can check out here.And I realize that we did not take any pictures at Thanksgiving this year! BUT, I did take pictures of the pies I made. I love making pies!!! Well, I love baking anything and I’m sure you can tell based on how many posts with recipes I have 🙂

The first is a favorite and one I have made many times, crumble crust apple pie. I haven’t always used the same recipe because I like to change it up sometimes so I’m not posting a recipe for this one. What bums me out though is that these days it is quite cheaper to buy a pie already made than to make one yourself. Even though the ingredients are a bit more and it’s quite time consuming, apple pies are one of my favorite things to make! (following stroep wafels at Christmas and banana bread anytime!)
This was a new one this year. I figured other people would bring pies even though I was in charge of making them and I figured those pies would be pumpkin (I was right) so I made a variation of pumpkin. This is a turtle pumpkin pie. Rena gave me the recipe and I think it turned out pretty good! The recipe is below.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
  • 1 (6 ounce) HONEY MAID Graham Pie Crust
  • 1/2 cup PLANTERS Pecan Pieces
  • 1 cup cold milk
  • 2 pkg. (4 serving size) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling
  • 1 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 (8 ounce) tub COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed, divided
  • 2 tablespoons caramel ice cream topping
  • 2 tablespoons PLANTERS Pecan Pieces

DIRECTIONS

  1. Pour 1/4 cup caramel topping into crust; sprinkle with 1/2 cup pecans.
  2. Beat milk, dry pudding mixes, pumpkin and spices with whisk until blended. Stir in 1-1/2 cups whipped topping. Spread into crust.
  3. Refrigerate 1 hour. Top with remaining whipped topping, caramel topping and pecans just before serving. Store leftovers in refrigerator.
There was a lot to be thankful for this year: God’s providence, husband, family, friends, health, jobs, happiness… I feel like a pretty blessed person 🙂
What are you most thankful for in this crazy life??