5QF

1. Did you have a favorite blanket or toy as a kid? If so, do you still have it?

I have absolutely no recollection of anything. Maybe my parents could tell me otherwise. :)

2. Do you dream in color?

I think so, but I seldom remember my dreams.

3. How tall are you? Do you wish you were shorter or taller?

I think in high school I was 5'10 3/8" or something, so I guess I'll round it up to 5'11". Nope! I like exactly where I am. The only time I falter (slightly) is when I'm shopping for pants! I don't want to be made fun of and be accused of waiting for a flood! :)

4. If you could have anyone's (celeb or other) voice as the guide on your GPS, who would it be?

Matthew McConaughey. He does those commercials on the radio for beef/steak and I think, I could listen to this commercial over and over.

5. Do you return your shopping cart to the corral or leave it wherever in the parking lot?

YES! YES! And YES! This is very high on my list of pet peeves. I don't think it takes that much effort to put your cart back. If I have the kids I always try to park as close to one as possible. If I see a cart hanging out in the parking lot I'm about 95% likely to put it away because I'd always feel bad if it hit somebody's vehicle.

Tumbling (or bouncing around)

Jenna just finished up a 4-day class of tumbling over in Marshalltown. This gym has been the state champs since 2004. The best way to describe what they do in their advanced classes is-- it is like watching one run of the floor excercise in regular gymnastics. They do some trampoline stuff too but mostly this is a strength and conditioning thing using tumbling.

Anyway, Jenna got to bounce around on these long trampolines (you will see in the video). She had a lot of fun and Aaron says he would rather have her do this than go to dance! I know it sounds bad but I was suprised at how well she did. You hope your child might have some athletic ability, but when you see she actually does, it's kind of exciting! :) Anyway, they learned some stretches and then worked on balance through jumping. Here is a video of her in action (if she stays with it she could be doing some flipping around -- no she isn't going to a gymnast Aunt Jill, but she might be able to do some stuff, right?)

Watch as Jenna works on keeping her arms tight to her ears and also keeping her feet together. Listen to the instructors comments after, Jenna was just "all smiles!"

Two and Four Year Outtakes

It's no secret I'm a picture fanatic! I don't care if it's me taking the pictures or Greg up at the studio, but I love capturing moments and facial expressions.

We (not very recently) had the kids' two and four year pictures taken. Oh boy! They are at quite the age right now! Getting both of them to look at the camera is a challenge. Here are my favorite outtakes from our session:

This is what you get when you tell a 2-year old to say cheese:


Jenna was all about giving herself hugs that day (no idea where that came from).


My favorite!


Love the painful look on Brody's face!

Brody was all about his pockets!

And the winner... :)

*Family: If you haven't gotten your pictures yet, you will soon. I promise!

The way I see it...

Sit Down Meals

I got to thinking (scary, I know!) about something the other day and wanted to run this question past you readers out there. Here’s my question to you: Do people make it a priority nowadays to have sit-down meals together?

I remember growing up we did MOST of the time, but as I’ve mentioned before, I had two head coaches as parents, so life was a little crazy at times. I remember Sundays were a must though. It might have included grandma and grandpa, aunts and uncles and a slew of cousins, but having a meal together was something special (especially if grandma was cooking, which she usually was).

I remember when my husband and I got married. We didn’t use our wedding gift kitchen tables and chairs unless we had company. I know, that’s terrible. Even when we had our daughter, we seldom sat at the table and instead just ate in the living room (again, terrible, I know).

Both of our kiddos eat at the table now with us, but the tricky part is that it’s adjacent to the living room. You see where I’m going with this? Living room = television. From my seat, I can’t see it and neither can my son, but my husband and daughter can. And, it’s on about 95% of the time during supper. I know, I know, that’s a really bad thing!

I’m hoping some of you out there can relate. Do you all have meals around the table? If so, do you have a t.v. on throughout? What’s so bad about actually taking time to eat together and actually have a conversation with each other? Find out what happened that day? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

I think I may have just talked myself into writing a “no t.v. during mealtime” policy for the Burdorf household. I’m sure I will be met with opposition, but they’ll get over it! I think this is one of those important things/values/experiences I want to pass along to my kids, but that’s just the way I see it.

One of my summer loves...

One of my new favorite loves of the summertime season is zuchinni. I had never eaten it before in my life, but a couple of years ago I found a recipe for zuchinni bread and I thought I'd give it a try. SO GOOD!! Ever since then, I have to make bread and muffins during the summer.

The State Center Farmer's Market is small (7-10 vendors), but I've gotten to know the gal who sells zuchinni and she knows I love to make bread, so she always saves me the biggest one that she has.

She completely outdid herself last Friday! The second she saw me, her eyes lit up and she pulled out from under her table this...

...it is GINORMOUS! I think it looks like a caveman's club or something. Keep in mind I only need two cups of zuchinni for my bread, which leaves me wondering: A. How much bread I'll be making or B. How much zuchinni I'll be freezing.

Fast forward to Brody and I making chocolate-zuchinni muffins. The kid is crazy in the kitchen and always loves to help and have his hands in everything, literally....

Doesn't he look surprised that I caught him "taste-testing" the batter?


He's giving me the, "what are you gonna do now, mom?" look. :)

Bible School

Jenna had Vacation Bible School last week and she LOVED it! She also really loved that mommy was there all week too! I volunteered to help prepare snacks every nite, so Jenna was estatic that she got to come for snacks and see her mom.

She had a great time and got to do a ton of fun stuff - outdoor play, music, video, snack time and craft. I was really impressed with everything!

The last nite they had a 15 minute concert of the songs they learned and also did a slide show of pictures from the week.

Catching up...

I think I did well with the blog for a week, maybe two, but here I am again finding myself two weeks behind on what's been happening in our lives.

Two weeks ago our friends, Scott and Lisa, road-tripped to Iowa. They were actually on their way to Lake Panorama, but made a side-trip to State Center to stay with us on Saturday nite.

We didn't do anything too exciting, but since we hardly ever see each other it was a great time. The kids (as you can see below) LOVE Scott and Lisa. I think they've officially adopted them as an aunt and uncle! For more on their trip head over to the Nelsen Blog. By the way, those two are celebrating their 2nd anniversary today, so Happy Anniversary to them!


Jenna and Brody thought Scott was a jungle gym or liked to wrestle or something. Let's just say Scott got beat up on pretty good. :)


Posing with Lisa! What a cute group!