My favorite things 2011 Edition

My Favorite Things #1

I know this is a long time in the waiting, but we are back online so here it is...my favorite thing #1 for 2011 is my family. 

Once again, it may seem lame, but it is true. I am so very blessed to have a wonderful and supportive husband. He is my best friend and I know he thinks I'm okay too. He is a wonderful father. Speaking of children, I think all the time about how lucky I am to be able to have these four special boys in my life, and how great they are. I love each one of them for very different reasons. They all bless my life and make me happy everyday. I feel like they are all in our family for a purpose, and I love finding out what those purposes are. 

Ben and my parents and siblings all teach me something different and I love them all for their individual lives, goals, and true concern for us. I enjoy living life with all of the people in my family. 

2011 was a great year for our family, and I can't wait to find out what is in store for us in 2012!

Comcast and I are in a fight

I know you are all waiting for my favorite thing #1, but due to Comcast being idiots we are without Internet until January 26th. I am posting from Ben's phone. It is annoying, but it is what it is. Hear from me again in a couple of weeks. "SIGH!"

My favorite things 2011 Edition

My Favorite Thing #2 is my amazing home and neighborhood!

We have lived here for just over a year and I fall more and more in love with my house everyday. If I wasn't already married to Ben I'd marry my house. It has been fun to update it as much as we have been able to. It has been fun to make memories, spend holidays, have the room to have family over, and just enjoy the space. So great!

I swear that we live in the best area ever. We are very blessed to live in an amazing ward and neighborhood. There are so many good families and kids for our boys to play with. Our neighbors take good care of us and we feel very loved and safe here. It is a great feeling to know that we are putting down roots and raising our family in the right place. 

My favorite things 2011 Edition

My favorite thing #3 is COUPONS!!

I have to say I am a bit of an addict! I love to save money and get a good deal. I am not an extreme couponer by any means, but I save a good bit of money, and use that money to build up a good storage of food. It is really exciting to be able to save 20%, or 30% off my bill. That is where most of my trips to the store were at because Utah doesn't double coupons. It is hard to save much more than that, but I will take what I can get. My goal for 2011 was to save 50% at the store. I did it once, and only once. I have big plans for 2012, and hopefully I can keep progressing in this hobby because I love it!

Hello all my adoring fans

Guest blogger Josh here. It is good to be with you this evening. I am finishing up my 1st birthday and I wanted to tell you all how the day went. My mom was so nice to me today. Everyone else was unusually nice today too. I guess this birthday thing is a big deal. Everywhere we went people kept smiling and getting in my face to say, "Happy Birthday!" Or, "you are so big, cute, smiley, etc." you get the picture. I still don't get it.

This morning I got to sleep in until after 10. Mom says I am lucky because no one bothers me when I sleep. They just let me sleep. I had my favorite breakfast of milk, bananas, and Chex. Then I talked with my mom about what I wanted to do today to celebrate. I told her that I didn't really care as long as I got to be with her, because she is my favorite person. (At least for now, maybe not in a few years) She said that if it were her birthday she would want to stay in her pajamas all day. So, I went with it and that's what I did. I didn't get dressed all day. It was awesome because I don't like to change my clothes. I cry and wiggle a lot. Maybe that's why mom left me in my pajamas...hmmm.
Anyway, I really didn't want to go to any stores today, they make me cranky so mom took me to eat french fries and play at Carls Jr. It was the first time my mom let me actually go in the playland. So, much fun. If you haven't tried it before I think you should. I laughed and laughed at nothing, and enjoyed myself a lot.

We came home and took a nap after lunch. It was so great. I took a long nap and no one bothered  me. When I got up we did some everyday boring things like pick up the bros. from school, homework, and chores. I didn't help much with that because it's my special day. Come to think of it, I never help much anyway. 

Then mom started dinner and she let me help. We ate homemade chicken noodle soup. I love chicken, carrots, peas, and noodles. They were all in the soup. Oh yeah, and crackers! Can you say Heaven?! Then for dessert because I already ate my cake on Sunday with the family I got a handful of M&M's. All I have to say is you have all been holding out on me...chocolate is awesome! 

Then of course I had to take a long bath because I was covered in chocolate. I love the bath and I got to play with my new bath toys. Thanks Aunt Mel!

Lastly, we watched a movie and ate popcorn. I love popcorn, hey, does anyone else notice that I am happiest when I am eating or sleeping? I had a great birthday! I am so happy to be with my family because they love me so much. My dad always tells me that I am the cutest of all his babies. I'd have to agree. Thanks for reading my post. I just had to share how special I felt today. BEST DAY EVER!!! On to the next year!

My favorite things 2011 Edition

Wow! I am not doing so well at posting every day for this top 10 list. It's taking more like 15 days than 10. So...I am posting my favorite thing #5 and #4 in the same post to get this done!

Favorite thing #5 is Plants vs. Zombies.
I know that seems lame, but have you ever played this game? Highly addicting. I think that it is something that I love because I hate the idea of zombies, and in every movie you watch there is no hope of survival. But, in this game you can beat the zombies. You can use the power of the sun and plants to stop the zombies from eating your brains. It's awesome! Download it and play it today.

My favorite thing #4 is.....ibuprofen. Once again, it may sound lame, but between having a baby in January, breaking my foot in June, and all the recovery, pain, and headaches in between; ibuprofen has been one of my best friends this year. It isn't something new that I discovered, but it is a favorite.

Thank you to that wonderful pink pill.

My favorite things 2011 Edition

My Favorite thing #6 is Chris Rice.

I found him through Pandora, and he's my new favorite. He has a lot of music, but my favorite album that he has is his Living Room Sessions. It is piano solo music of Hymns. I just love piano music and his is great. Some of it soothing and inspiring, and other songs are upbeat and fun. He also sings more pop like Christian music as well, that I enjoy but I truly love the piano solos. Among them are Be Still my Soul, Come Thou Fount, and How Great Thou Art. Check him out at Chrisrice.com. 

 

I added one of his songs to my playlist so you can enjoy a sample of his music here.

My favorite things 2011 Edition - Day 4

My favorite things #7 is...

 

The Hunger Games trilogy is by far my favorite series of the year. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't like to read at all, but I read all three of these books, and I loved them all.  They are exciting, eerie, suspenseful, and intriguing. while reading books like this I can't help but say to myself...who thinks up stuff like this? I am just not that creative to think of and develop even a simple plot let alone one like this. They are kind of graphic, but if you can handle it you should read them. When I was in about chapter 3 of the first book I remember saying to Ben, "this would make a great movie!"I am apparently very psychic because they are coming, and I can't wait for March. I am going to read them again before the movies. They are my favorite books for the year 2011.

My favorite things 2011 Edition - Day 3

My favorite things #8 theme is life's simple pleasures!  

Some days I am running around so much and I feel so used and abused by all the boys, chores, driving, homework, play dates, diapers, naps, and sheer chaos that all I need is a simple pleasure.

My favorite simple pleasures for 2011 is none other than...

 and...

 These two small delights keep me ticking if I need a little love in a can or package. I love vanilla coke, but can't bring myself to drink my calories. So I started drinking coke zero because it tasted less harsh than diet coke. Then they brought out coke zero vanilla, and it was true love. I am not a huge peanut butter in my candy fan, but these little gems cannot be denied. They are delicious!  They have truly been my life line some days. It brings me pure and simple joy to hear that tab pop open, or that bag rip. It's simple, and it is my favorite!

My favorite things 2011 Edition - Day 2

One of my all time favorite things to do is to eat out. Ever since I got my first job at McDonalds, I not only loved to eat there on my break, but anywhere I could go to try something new. It's hard with kids to eat anywhere but McDonalds, but I try my hardest. Eating out has it's own category in my budget, and I always include it on date night.

My Favorite thing # 9
Restaurants, Restaurants, Restaurants!

I want to express appreciation for my long time favorite and my new favorite of 2011. 
My long time favorite is Corbins Grill. They have delicious steak and seafood! I also love their mushroom risotto, it is a creamy delicious sin that will leave you feeling guilty for eating the whole plate. They offer cooking classes that I hope to someday take part in. So great!

My new favorite place is Cantina Southwestern Grill. There is only one location and there defiantly should be more locations. I love cheap Mexican food, but I feel that in the last 10 years or so all the places that I used to love are not so great anymore. This place is awesome! It has meat that doesn't taste like it has last weeks leftovers that have been reheated 7 times. It has wonderful customer service. My very favorite thing about it is the chips and salsa bar. WHAT? That's right they have 9 different home made salsas, my favorite being the avocado cilantro, and a chip warmer full of warm chips that you can help yourself to as many as you want. It is wonderful! If anyone wants to try it I will be happy to go with you!

My Favorite Things 2011 Edition

I know I am late, but since it is the official first day of the year according to the feds I can start my top 10 favorite things list for 2011 today. I wasn't on top of it enough to do this at the end of the year so I am doing it now. So, without further ado, here it is...

Heidi's Favorite things: #10

Pandora baby! As all of you know I am not very technically savvy. I am sure that I am a few years behind discovering Pandora, but 2011 is the year. I have discovered it, and I love it. It is amazing to me that an internet radio station can recognize what I like to listen to and give me other songs that I may enjoy. I have discovered a lot of songs that I love and may otherwise never have heard. It is a great discovery for me, and I love it!