31.395 getting rid of toys

This is just a part of the pile of toys I gathered to sell at Divine Consign.

30.365 CHEESE!

Jonathan saying "CHEESE!" cause I have a camera in my hands!

29.365 new hair

Sorry for the blurry pic, but I had to turn the flash off since the pic was taken in the bathroom mirror. I was trying to show my new haircut and that I went back to being *very* blonde. No lowlights this time!

28.395

Another ice day - no school. Kaylin wanted to go outside and throw the leftover ice at the side of the house. Sure kid, go for it! It was needed after being cooped up for 2 days!

27.365 - Ice Day

This is our Crepe Myrtle right outside our front door. Today was an ice day, no school for the kids, and I imagine with the sleet that is coming down now, tomorrow will either be cancelled or a delayed start.

26.365 - chai latte

mmmmmm, nothing like a chai latte on a cold night! Or, you know, whenever it sounds good!

24.365 - cupcakes!

Kaylin and I made cupcakes tonight.

With our favorite icing...Rainbow Chip!

23.365 - cute lunch bag

This is my lunch bag that I take on days I sub. Isn't it cute?!

22.365 - Taco night leftovers

It was taco night at our house! These were the leftovers, so yeah, they don't look as tasty as they would have if I'd remembered to take the picture when they were first ready.

21.365 - Yummy in a jar

Mmmmmmmm! I have a jar of Trader Joe's Spicy Black Bean Dip!!! We don't have a Trader Joe's here, so this is a special occassion. My dad drove to VA to visit family and he stopped in Nashville as the half-way point and stayed over night. There was a TJ's 10 minutes from his hotel, so I had to make him bring some home for me! I cannot wait until we head to Nashville this summer, to visit the in-laws, because that means I'll get to stop at Trader Joe's and stock up before heading back home!

20.365

Like every other American, this is what I did today. Watched the Inauguration. Apparently, they even watched it or talked about it at school, because Kaylin came home, saw the parade on TV and asked, "Oh, is that Obama?" And apparently, I cannot take a straight on picture of the TV, sorry for cutting off the right side.

19.365

This is a picture Kaylin drew and we now have hanging on the fridge. That's an apple tree, with a a heckuva lotta apples!

18.365 - Playmates

I just took this picture of the dogs wrestling on the couch next to me. Not even 1 minute later they are just laying here, lounging with their eyes closed, which they open if I look at them. I guess it wore them out!

17.365

This is how I found Kaylin watching TV last night. I guess she's not superstitious!

Sweet Niblets!

Sweet niblets, I think Kaylin may watch Hannah Montana a little too much. When I tucked her in tonight, I told her Jeremy was off tomorrow (it's a rare occassion when he gets a Saturday off) AND Sunday and she said, "crazy mommy say what?!" Which, you should only understand if you've ever seen Hannah Montana, or at the very least, a promo for it. Anyway, it gave me a chuckle since it's the first time I've heard her say it and I totally wasn't expecting it, but it was very fitting.

16.365 - baths for everyone!

Okay, Jonathan may be the in 15% for weight, but he is not so skinny that his ribs show. He stuck his hands in the water before it got warm and it shocked him, so he took a quick breath which made his ribs show.

And the extras -

Jonathan wasn't the only one who got a bath tonight! Awwww look at those puppy dog eyes! "Please get me outta here!"

I had to include a pic of this. This was my deal of the day. Shoes for the kids. Both of Jonathan's were $3.74 each and Kaylin's were $4.48. Select shoes are 75% off at Target - along with clothes, toys, baby items...lots, go check out your local Target!

15.365 - almost forgot!

Bella nice and comfy between my leg & a blanket on the couch.

Got breakfast going in the crockpot and it'll be ready for us to eat in the morning. It's supposed to be 22 degrees in the morning when we're headed out to work & school! I figured a nice bowl of stick-to-your-ribs steel cut oats should help keep us warm & fill us up!

And last, but not least, finishing up the "chores" of the night. The crockpot was in the empty spot in the bottom left. It gets lots of use in our house, since I have a little boy who likes to attach himself to my leg and demand, "hold, mommy. mommy hold!" while I'm trying to cook or wash dishes.

14.365 - Mount Laundry

Jonathan laying his laundry flat in a pile for me. It's a team effort in this house!

And Mount Laundry has been conquered!! Now, who is putting all this away?

Loki keeping an eye and cracking the whip when I need it.

13.365 - CEO of the Leuwerke Household

I had to snap this shot of Jonathan taking care of important business with daddy's bluetooth. He's so silly!

12.365 - how I spend my nights

This is what I do each night before bed. Catch up on blogs. Or at least try. I probably shouldn't read so many blogs...I'm never caught up!

11.365 - Sassypants Kaylin

Kaylin browsing the James Avery catalog and letting me know the things she wants. I'm in trouble!

10.395 - Birthday Parties

We had 2 birthday parties today. This was at the first one. Kaylin and Jonathan are in the middle - Kaylin is in green and Jonathan is in red and not looking at my phone, "the camera."

9.365 - lazy pup

Just a lazy Friday night lounging on the couch.

8.365 - visiting Daddy at work

Playing in the car while Daddy rotates our tires.

7.365 - Kindergarten kicks booty!

This is Kaylin after school on days she has speech. Going to speech with Miss Gracie means she misses "read/write/rest" and even though it's only for 30 minutes, I guess her little body really needs that resting time each day. It's hard work being in Kindergarten!

Oh, and notice her short sleeve shirt? That's right, it was 70 today, after having ice on Monday!

6.365 - birthday crown

Jonathan wearing his birthday crown that he got at school (MDO) today! He only goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so they celebrated today.

5.365 - reading on your birthday

Jonathan reading a book on his birthday. I probably should have taken a picture of our weather - icy!

4.365 - Cake!

Jonathan blowing out the candle on his cake today. We celebrated on Sunday, because Jeremy has to work tomorrow, and Jonathan will likely go to bed right after Jeremy gets home. So, we had a small family party.

3.365 - Kaylin

2.365 - bye bye directv

On January 5th we're having Verizon FiOs tv installed, so we're on a mission to watch all our shows that are on Tivo before we disconnect DirecTV.

1.365 - Happy New Year

We played Rockband 2, with Matt & Chera, in the garage, to ring in the new year.

Project 365

So, my friend Jenna tried to do this last year and only missed 1 day. I've seen several other people attempt to do this project at the start of a new year. I figure I'll give it a shot myself this year because I'm bad about actually pulling the pics off the camera. Hopefully this will help me with that, as well as getting more pictures of Jonathan. I know we have at least three times as many pics of Kaylin when she was younger than we do of Jonathan. Of course, she also wasn't as rambunctious as he is either!

Here's the info I pulled from the Project 365 website:

WHY DO IT?
Taking a photo a day is a big undertaking with big payoffs. Here are just a few reasons why you should consider doing it:

Imagine being able to look back at any day of your year and recall what you did, who you met, what you learned… (Often we find it hard to remember what we did just yesterday or even last night, let alone a whole year ago!)


Your year-long photo album will be an amazing way to document your travels and accomplishments, your haircuts and relationships. Time moves surprisingly fast.

Taking a photo a day will make you a better photographer. Using your camera every day will help you learn its limits. You will get better at composing your shots, you’ll start to care about lighting, and you’ll become more creative with your photography when you’re forced to come up with something new every single day.

TIPS ON HOW TO DO IT

6 Tips on How to Do It....

1. Bring Your Camera Everywhere
Yes, everywhere. Get in the habit. Grocery stores, restaurants, parties, work, and school. Going to a movie theatre? Snap a pic of the flick with your phone–there are photo-ops everywhere. If you have one of those tiny tiny cameras, you have no excuse not to have it in your pocket all the time. And if you don’t? Camera phones are a great substitute.


2. Make Posting Easy
You can install blog software like Movable Type or Wordpress on your own site and create an entry for each photo, but for true ease of use, try a photo sharing site. Flickr will let you post a week’s worth of photos in 2 minutes flat, and fotolog and Photoblog are geared toward a photo-a-day workflow. Making it fast and easy means you’re much more likely to do it.

3. Vary Your Themes
Try to capture the day’s events in a single photo. Perform photographic experiments. Take a photo of someone new you meet, something you ate for the first time, or something you just learned how to do. Take a photo of something that made you smile. And don’t forget to take a photo of yourself at least once a month so you can remember how you’ve changed, too.

4. Tell a Story
Use your blog entry, or your photo description, to explain what’s going on in each day’s photograph. How good did that dinner taste? What made you want to take a photo of that stranger? It’ll help you remember down the road, and it gives friends following along a better appreciation of why you took the photo you did. You don’t need to write a lot, just enough to add some color.

5. Don’t Stop, No Matter What
This is perhaps the most important tip of all. You will get tired of taking a photo every single day. Some days, you will consider giving up. Don’t. The end result is worth the effort. Remind yourself why you wanted to do it in first place.

There will be times you’ll think there’s nothing interesting left to take a photo of, and times you’ll think you didn’t do anything exciting enough to take a photo of. There’s always a great photo to be made.

Get out of the house and take a walk. Or stay inside and look around. Take a photo of something important to you. Take a photo of the inside of your house so you can see how your taste has changed over the years. Take a photo of anything, just don’t stop.

N.b. It helps if you’ve told your friends about the project and asked them to follow along. Their encouragement will keep you going!

6. Post early, post often
Plan on going through and posting your photos at least once a week so you don’t get backlogged and feel overwhelmed. Ideally, post every day or two. Again, spend the time up front to make sure it’s quick and easy to post. It’ll make all the difference.