7: Take Family Picture of Duffy Family (All of Us!)

When I was making my 101 in 1001 list, I think I saw on someone else's list that one of their goals was to get a professional picture taken of their whole family.   I started thinking that I don't even have a picture that has everyone in it on my side of the family.  (At the time, I knew I had a picture with everyone in Trevor's side of the family, but now with the addition of Levi, we'll have to get another one!)

While we were at the cabin, we decided to try to get a picture of all of us before church.  We were getting ready to go ask the neighbors in the cabin across from us to take a picture when we heard a knock at the door.  They were coming to ask us to take a picture of all of them!  So after Trevor finished taking their pictures, they kindly took some of us. 

I can't say it's the best picture ever.  The sun was in our eyes, so we're all very squinty and it was hard to get all three (or apparently any) of the little girls to look, but at least we met the requirement of ALL being in the picture.   I do think it's kind of funny that Ryan doesn't really look like he's supposed to be in the picture though! Ha!  Mom's face also makes me laugh every time I look at it.  Oh well, we tried!  It's the memory that counts, right?  Maybe I'll be able to update sometime in the near future with a better picture.

We also took a few other pictures:

The Grandparents with their Grandkids

The Gulbrandsons

The Hinckleys

Trevor and I can never get a good picture.  He's always trying to do something goofy!  I think he was trying to kiss me and I was resisting... :)

That's a little better!

#1: Take a Vacation with Duffy Family

My family has had this trip planned to meet up together at a cabin near Branson for quite some time and we've all been looking forward to it so much!  We had a wonderful time and when the weekend was over, it felt way too short.  I can't wait to see everyone again at Christmas.  I just don't get to see everyone enough (especially Rachel, Ryan, and Caroline!).

Here are tons of pictures of the weekend:

We rode down on Friday afternoon with Mom & Dad.  The rest of the family arrived later that night.  I convinced Mom & Dad to stop at Lambert's, the  "Home of the Throwed Rolls".    Mmmmm!  If you haven't ever been here...you have to go.  It's an experience.  Although the guy throwing the rolls this time was a little off.  For one, he didn't get the rolls right to you.  He also threw one at Dad and when Dad reached for it, he hurt his bad shoulder and pulled his arm and head down quickly because of the pain.  The guy then immediately threw another one when Dad wasn't looking and nailed him in the head.  After we made sure he was ok, we all had a good laugh about it!

Our Cabin

Or should I say our "Cottage"...

Branson was all Christmas-ey already.  Lots of places were decorated, including our cabin!

Our screened-in porch.  We had a great weekend weather-wise...which made it feel even weirder that Christmas decorations were everywhere!

We were all in charge of bringing meals and any snacks we wanted.  Keep in mind that our trip was only from Friday evening until Monday morning.  Can you tell that us Duffy's like to eat?!?

We spent a lot of the weekend loving on my beautiful nieces....This was Alexandra's favorite place in the cabin.  If we couldn't find her she was often in Mom & Dad's room on this rocker.  She would stand up on it and "surf" while it rocked.  Quite a change since the last time I saw her she wasn't even walking!

 This was when we were measuring to see how much taller/longer Alexandra was.  You can't tell in this picture, but she's quite a bit bigger than Caroline and there's only a 3 month difference.  Caroline is just a little peanut!

Here's a funny video of these two interacting.  Caroline is so calm and collected and just keeps taking the book away while Alexandra is about to lose it.  Hopefully they'll think it's funny someday!

We went on walks....

We played some football....

  And, of course, we watched some football!Grandma got Caroline this shirt.  (Her daddy is a big Oklahoma fan, but Rachel has stayed true to her Nebraska roots.  We're hoping Caroline follows in her footsteps!) 

There had been a lot of e-mail trash talking before the NU-OU game, and even though I took part, I really didn't think there was any way Nebraska would pull it out....but we did!  Ryan was a good sport about watching a tough loss with a bunch of Nebraska fans.

We also got to celebrate Caroline's 1st birthday (a little early!).  She'll be one on the 25th.  Trevor and I got her some maracas.

Aunt Kathy...I thought you might want to see Caroline on the horse you gave her.  It looks just the right size for her to ride!

This was such a fun weekend and it makes me appreciate what a great family I have.  Whaddya say family?  Any chance we could make it an annual event!?!

It's the littlest things...

.....that sometimes make the biggest difference.

We ordered some new door handles and hinges online and Trevor's been getting them all installed.  They look great.  I can't wait until we start getting some more finishing touches around here!

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#64: Try 30 New Recipes (11 of 30) - Ooey Gooey Pumpkin Butter Cake

Trevor's Aunt Debby made this cake a few weeks ago and I LOVED it.  She passed on the recipe and I've been tempted to make it since.  After surveying the ingredients (two sticks of butter!), I decided I should wait and make it when I could take it somewhere and not be faced with a whole pan of gooey goodness staring me in the face every night when I get home from work.  I know my limits.

So when we had a treat day this past Friday at work for Halloween, I knew what I was going to make!  It was as good as I remembered....that Paula Deen sure knows what she's doing.

	___________________________________________ Paula Deen's Ooey Gooey Pumpkin Butter Cake
	Ingredients: Cake:
	-1 (18 1/4 oz.) package yellow cake mix
	-1 egg
	-8 tablespoons butter, melted Filling:
	-1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
	-1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin
	-3 eggs
	-1 tsp. vanilla
	- 8 T. butter, melted
	-1 (16 oz.) box powdered sugar
	-1 tsp. cinnamon
	-1 tsp. nutmeg
1	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2	Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.
3	To make the filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter, and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mix well. Spread pumpkin mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to overbake as the center should be a little gooey. ___________________________________________

#59: Lose 15 Pounds

I don't know why, but I've just not wanted to write about the completion of this goal.  I actually hit a 15 pound loss back sometime earlier this summer.   I think I worried that if I put it out there that I lost weight than I'll feel like I'm being looked at and scrutinized more! :)   I think I also had the fear that if I were to say "Look at me...I lost weight!" and then the weight came back on I would feel like I had failed and that people would be thinking, "Hmmmm...she's sure putting back on the weight."

I realized that line of thinking was ridiculous and since I have kept the weight off (and continued to lose), I now feel comfortable letting the world know. :)

I had lost about 5 pounds from the time I started this list to this past April.  I was just trying to watch my weight and exercise some and it was working, just slowly.  In April though, I finally decided that I needed to kick it into gear and I joined Weight Watchers.  I had seen my sister, Kim, have great results with the program after she had Alexandra, so I thought I would give it a try. 

The program WORKS.  At least it works if you DO the program.  I think the meetings are a little cheesy, but there is something about having someone weigh you in every week that is very motivating.  

So as of today, I have lost 17.2 pounds with Weight Watchers.  When that's added to the 5 pounds I lost pre-Weight Watchers, I have actually lost about 22 pounds since I started my list.   I struggled along the way with feeling like I was losing weight so slowly, but it all adds up after awhile!  I figure it's better that I didn't lose quickly because now I have learned how to be healthy as a lifestyle instead of just as a quick-fix.

This actually completes the last of my "Health" goals.  Who would have thought that I would finish the Health section first!?

#60: Run a 5k

The 5k Saturday morning went really well!  The past few years I had seen the signs up for the Jared Coones Memorial Pumpkin Run in our neighborhood, but it wasn't until last year that I had been going somewhere Saturday morning and realized that the route runs right in front of our house!  I told myself then that if I ever got in shape enough to do a 5k, that I would run this one.  The run raises money for cancer research in honor of Jared, a 10-year old boy who died of Leukemia 11 years ago.  His mom, Jayne, also lost her fight to breast cancer 3 years ago. 

Jared attended the elementary school right by our house and the course runs in front of his house.  It was neat to know that we were running the race for such a good cause.

One of the things that I also really liked about this race is that out of the 3,200 participants, 1,500 of them were elementary school students.  Over the past 11 years, more and more schools have started running clubs to train for the 5k.  It provided a lot of entertainment during the race! 

Trevor was nice and ran with me.  I'm sure it killed him to run slowly with me and to be doing such a piddly run....a 5k is only 1/10th of his race in July!  I really appreciated him doing it with me though!

Mom & Dad decided to come visit us this past weekend, so it worked out well that they could take some pictures for us during the race.  Mom was at the start/finish and Dad took a picture as we ran by the house.

Trying to stay warm before the race.  It was 37 degrees!

The start.  It was total craziness with 3,200 people on the narrow streets.  We were somewhere near the back and it didn't thin out hardly at all until we finished the first mile.   We were trying our best to dodge kids and strollers everywhere, but we felt like we were barely moving.  It took us 12 and a half minutes to run the first mile because of this!  I'm slow....but I'm not that slow!

Dad's picture of us running in front of the house.  I actually was excited at this point, we were only about a 1/4 mile from the end and it was all flat!

Crossing the finish line.

It cracked me up when I zoomed in on the picture above.  Trevor is smiling and looks like he's out for a stroll in the park and I look like I might die!

Done!

We had a really good weekend in general.  We had a nice visit with Mom and Dad.  They took us out to dinner for Trevor's birthday Friday (He's 27 now!).  We ran the race Saturday morning and spent the rest of the day shopping and relaxing.  Then Sunday after church, Trevor's parents came over for some birthday cake and after they left we went out for dinner with his Uncle Dave and Aunt Debby.  What a fun weekend!

#63: Exercise at Least 3 Days a Week for 2 Months

Well, I'm off in about an hour to run the Jared Coones Pumpkin Run.  I've been training for a 5k for the past 9 weeks, so I just realized I'd completed the exercise 3 days a week goal without even thinking about it!  I followed the Couch to 5k plan here.  I started at week 2 since I knew I wasn't that out of shape and then I added on a week at the end.  The program worked out perfectly for this goal because it requires you to get about 30 minutes of exercise three times a week.   I would really suggest this program to anyone that would like to try a 5k.   It progresses really slowly and nothing ever felt too incredibly hard. 

Let's hope this training pays off....today is making me think I may be crazy.  I just looked at the weather here and it's 37 degrees outside!  Yikes!  I don't think we've run in anything under 50 degrees while we were training.  Perfect timing for a cold front to come through, huh?

Wish me luck! :)