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Happy New Year!
It’s tough to narrow down a whole year into the 10 most memorable moments, but that’s what I decided to do (it felt like a fitting thing to spend a quiet New Years Eve doing). Here are some of my best memories from the past year (at least those that were captured on “film”).
MAY: Meeting Jimmy Kimmel and sitting at his desk (I like to pretend that I was actually a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and I’ve totally made people believe it with this picture as “proof.”
JULY: Driving more than 3000 miles across the country to take my oldest daughter to college. Seven people. Lots of luggage. One van.
JULY: Riding horseback through the mountains near Jackson, Wyoming with my daughter, Necco. Epic.
SUMMER: Learning to love camping. Never thought I’d enjoy it so much!
AUGUST: Dropping my daughter off at college, 3000 miles away!
FALL: Discovering essential oils. Life changing.
SEPTEMBER: Meeting Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner. Mind blown.
SEPTEMBER: Going to Disneyland at Halloweeen time. Something I’ve always wanted to do!
OCTOBER: Turning 40. We’ll pretend that these were my birthday cupcakes…
DECEMBER: Celebrating my oldest daughter’s 18th birthday. I’m the mother of an adult!
If you were to make a top 10 moments or memories from the past year, what would you include in your list?


To play Give Me Your Best Photo Story Friday, check this. Copy this code into your post and sign the link list:
© 2015, Food Fun Family. All rights reserved.
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One of the Christmas memories from my childhood that shines the brightest, despite the years since I’ve experienced it, is the yearly drive on Christmas Eve from my grandparents’ house in San Leandro to my home in San Jose.
Every Christmas Eve, we gathered the baked goodies for our big family dinner, the wrapped presents for our cousin gift exchange and the adult white elephant exchange, piled in our mini van, and drove to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. We spent the evening eating (a lot of the dishes from those Christmas Eve celebrations are the same dishes I make for my family each year), singing carols together while Grandma or one of my aunts or uncles played the piano, playing with cousins we only saw occasionally and opening gifts.
Christmas Eve was the happiest day of the whole year – even better than Christmas day. The time we spent celebrating with extended family trumped any highly anticipated Santa wish-list gift that I found under the Christmas tree.
But it was the drive home from Grandma and Grandpa’s house late on Christmas Eve night that stands out in my mind in such a profound way. Before leaving the party, all five siblings opened our traditional Christmas Eve pajamas and changed into them for the ride home. I remember sitting in the back seat every year as we took the hour-long ride back home. My younger siblings almost always fell asleep, and everything was peaceful – not common with our big family. Mom and Dad turned Christmas music on the radio and I spent the ride looking out the window at the stars in the sky. The stars always seemed brighter on the night of Christmas Eve, as if the entire expanse of the California sky was covered in sparkling while Christmas lights.
That ride home was magical. I was full of good food, baked lovingly by all of my favorite people – my Grandma, my mom and my aunts. My smile lingered from Grandma’s house to my own doorstep remembering the fun I’d had with my cousins. The carols we sang together played in my head. And I was full of anticipation and hope. Anticipation for all of the Christmas morning excitement of presents and candy and surprises. And hope that I might catch a glimpse of Santa flying across the sparkling night sky.
The Christmases of my childhood were magical, but nothing was more magical than the drive home on Christmas Eve.
© 2014, Food Fun Family. All rights reserved.
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This post is sponsored by Konica Minolta. All opinions and childhood stories are my own.
The story went something like this: Eight siblings asked their mom if they could go on a walk together. They walked far away from home and came to a bridge. When all 8 brothers and sisters were on the bridge, the bridge started to shake and eventually broke. There was an alligator living under the bridge who was very hungry. Let’s just say that the story ended with a burping alligator.
What a story for a sweet 8 year old girl, right?
At 10, I wrote my first story that won an award. This time, my book was realistic fiction, based loosely on the friendship between me and my best friend, Elizabeth. I was sent to a writers workshop at a local college and felt like I was on top of the world. I couldn’t imagine anything I wanted to be when I grew up more than a writer…except maybe a mom.
As much as I loved the idea of writing my own stories for the rest of my life, I wanted to be a mom even more.
I remember the time when I was a young teen when my teacher at church asked everyone in the class to come up to the chalkboard and write down what we wanted to be when we grew up. I confidently took the chalk and wrote down two words:
Mom-writer
I love that I am fulfilling my childhood dreams every time I write on my blog (and I’m really wondering if I should start telling stories like the ones I wrote when I was a kid….Might be fun!).
What if children could portray their dreams clearly, and always remember those dreams? Wouldn’t it be a great first step to make their dreams come true? With the slogan “Giving Shape to Ideas,” Konica Minolta has been giving shape to many people’s ideas.
Konica Minolta created the dream printer and held an event to give shape to children’s ideas in New York City on November 2, 2013.
This video seriously makes me teary every time I watch it.
What did you dream of becoming when you were a child?
© 2013, Food Fun Family. All rights reserved.
]]>Today is a snow day. With all 5 kids and both parents home, you’d think that my house would be chaotic, but – incredibly – it’s fairly tame.
Now, don’t ask me if my house is CLEAN. Tame, we can handle. Clean? Not so much.
And how often does the cleanliness of the house factor into the quality of the memories you make together?
Honestly, you don’t have to have a clean house or go on fancy trips to create meaningful, lasting memories with your kids. Those memories you create together will go a long way towards creating family unity…and that’s way more important than a clean house, right? Here are a few tips for turning everyday, ordinary moments into wonderful family memories.

Some of the things that we love doing together:
How do you turn everyday moments into lasting memories?
PS – In re-reading the beginning of this post, I’m beginning to wonder if I have a little issue with keeping my house clean…
Note: I am a YesVideo Ambassador and receive compensation for my time, but all opinions expressed within this post are my own. Like I’ve said many times before, I highly recommend using YesVideo to transfer your video memories onto long-lasting digital format. All opinions remain my own.
© 2013, Food Fun Family. All rights reserved.
]]>In the last 17 1/2 years since I got married and had kids, I’ve gathered up quite an extensive collection of home movies. I started out using one of those enormous camcorders recording on VHS, then moved to a smaller camcorder using smaller tapes. Eventually, we bought a video recorder that used mini DVDs, and it wasn’t very long afterwards that I got a Flip camera. I thought the Flip camera was so fancy…until all of my digital cameras (and even my phone) could take videos, too.
Every once in a while, the kids would want to watch videos of past concerts – or the day they took their first steps – and it was always a hassle to pull out the appropriate outdated recording device to play back the video.
I knew that I needed to figure out how to put everything in order so that we could enjoy, standardize and preserve our home movies. Luckily, over a year ago, I discovered YesVideo and have since accrued a much more manageable home movie collection. I’ve been asked a few time about the process of preparing and sending your original movies off to YesVideo, and so I wrote up a step-by-step process to show everyone how easy it really is to convert your old photographs and home movies into DVDs.
See how easy that is? It’s so easy that I’ve converted DOZENS of home movies and old photos, and the result is more than I could have dreamed of. The kids pull the home movie DVDs off the shelf and watch them regularly. Reliving our past memories together strengthens our bonds and brings us closer together. We laugh together about how silly we used to be, and get nostalgic as we watch Great Grandma play the piano.
What old memories would you like to preserve onto digital media? Start here!
Note: I am a YesVideo Ambassador and receive compensation for my time, but all opinions expressed within this post are my own. Like I’ve said many times before, I highly recommend using their services!
© 2013, Food Fun Family. All rights reserved.
]]>One of the greatest things about writing so frequently on my blog is that I can look back on the year and reminisce about all of the best moments. 2012 was full of travel (something I love!), great opportunities, and tremendous growth from my kids.
I can’t wait to see what 2013 has in store.
In January, I found myself the owner of both an iPad and an Android tablet, where just a month and a half earlier, I had neither. This post may not seem extremely profound, the fact is…my iPad changed my life. I’ve never been a laptop person, but with all of the travel I’ve been doing, as well as the fact that the ipad allows me to check my social networks anywhere in the house, I am hooked. Here’s what I had to say about Android Tablets versus the iPad.
In February, I took a huge risk and bared my belly for the internets. It was not a pretty picture, but the love and support I received from my online friends was incredible. I also shared the answers to 10 random questions about myself and posted some tips for enjoying a family trip to New York City on a budget.
In March, I traveled to Santa Monica, California, watched Wicked on Broadway with my blogging friend, Sue from New Zealand, and made Armie Hammer speechless during an interview.

April was incredible. I spent an exhilarating week in Orlando with two dozen bloggers. I met Jane Goodall, went on a safari, and celebrated my 17th anniversary.
In May, I went on another trip to California for YesVideo (it was so much fun going back to near my childhood hometown). Later, I shared 10 tips for travel photography.
June was pretty incredible. I went back to California for a 3rd time this year for the world premiere of Disney/Pixar’s BRAVE and met Kevin McKidd (a great story!). I also went to breakfast with Michelle Obama, so that was kind of cool, too.
In July, I got to treat my boys to two days in New York City (just two days before heading to BlogHer back in NYC). Not only did they get the star treatment in a fancy hotel, but they got to meet the author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and the two main actors in the Wimpy Kid films. Amazing! I also spent the month baking when I was hired by WhoNu? Cookies to create recipes using their products. Yum!
In August, I was traveling more than I was home, and I actually started missing my normal sit-at-the-desk routine. I traveled back to New York for BlogHer, then spent a relaxing week at my mom’s house (my annual trip), and then explored Park City with the new Hyundai Santa Fe. I came back home just in time for the kids to start school again.
Something crazy happened in September. No, I didn’t travel anywhere. I shared a bunch of recipes and….my oldest daughter started driving. How did that happen?!
In October, I celebrated my birthday, filmed my kids dancing in giant pajama pants, and moved my blog’s feed from Feedburner to Feedblitz.
By the time November rolled around, my travel itch was getting pretty intense (I hadn’t traveled anywhere since late August!) so I was thrilled to be able to take my whole family to Orlando for a Thanksgiving to remember. The best part of our week in Florida? Butterbeer at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
That brings us to December – the last month of the year. December was definitely ALL about getting ready for the holidays, though I ending up spending half of the month sick with two separate illnesses. I scaled back on everything else, focusing only on shopping and baking and getting more sleep, and ended up having a wonderful holiday. My oldest daughter turned 16 and I held up the yearly tradition of snapping a picture of all 5 of my kids wearing Santa hats together.
Have you written a 2012 Year in Review post? Share yours below!
© 2012, Food Fun Family. All rights reserved.
]]>Christmas is approaching faster than I would like to admit. I’ve done a fair amount of shopping but I’m FAR from being finished. I don’t know where the month has gone!
I was thinking about my mom all last week as I lay in my sick bed for days (isn’t it funny how we still long for mom’s special touch, no matter how old we get?). The other thing that doesn’t get easier with age? — Spending the holidays without her (and the rest of the family).
It’s times like these, when I get nostalgic and a little homesick, that I pull out my YesVideo DVD marked Christmas. Thanks to my mom and dad’s clunky old camcorder, a VHS tape – copy of a copy – that managed to survive 5 baby’s first Christmases, and a YesVideo DVD transfer, I can pop a disk in the DVD player and relive the best memories from Christmas – the way it was when I was a kid.
My husband and kids don’t get into singing Christmas carols around the piano in the living room. It’s not as fun when it’s just the 7 of us. But I have all of our favorite carols on video, with Mom, Dad, brothers and sisters, Aunts and Uncles, cousins, and even neighbors joining in the festive fun at my parent’s house. I cry every single time I hear them sing our family’s favorite, somewhat unique Christmas song, Star Bright. I can’t hear the song without thinking about Grandpa.
Those are the best memories…and yet someday, I’ll look back and remember these years, replay the videos that we’re taking right now with our own kids, and realize that these are the best memories. The memories we’re making right now.
Ready to relive some of YOUR best memories?
Simple. YesVideo is a service that takes your Videotapes (Camcorder Tapes & VHS), Movie Film Reels, 35mm Slides, Photo Prints, Digital Videos & Photos and converts them to DVD.
You can order directly from the website and mail your photos or videos to YesVideo (you can see the entire DVD-creating process from my tour of the YesVideo headquarters earlier this year).
Or you can drop off your media at one of YesVideo’s 34,000 local media partners like CVS, Walmart, Costco, RiteAid, and more. In approximately 3-4 weeks after sending in your transfer materials, your new DVDs will arrive back to you (along with the originals, of course!).
You can enjoy your videos on DVD and on YesVideo’s online viewing and storage site. You can also order their convenient EasyShip Kit (which, by the way, would make the perfect holiday gift) to make the process even easier.
As a YesVideo Ambassador, I am excited to give away a $65 credit for YesVideo transfer service (to be used for online orders). Enter on the Rafflecopter form below. This giveaway will end on Friday, December 21, 2012 and a winner will be notified by email.
YesVideo website
YesVideo on Facebook
YesVideo on Pinterest
@YesVideo on Twitter
Disclosure: I receive compensation for my work as a YesVideo ambassador. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Christmas gift photo from rgbstock.com
© 2012, Food Fun Family. All rights reserved.
]]>Home again! Home Again! I don’t know if I’m quite ready for a jiggety-jig….but I’m happy to be back in my own bed!
Our week in Kissimmee has finally come to a close, and I’m ready to buckle down and get back to work in the morning. Although I am always sad to see a vacation end, I will forever be grateful for the memories that we made during our Thanksgiving-week getaway.
As we loaded the kids up in the van to make the 14-hour drive back home, I reminisced about all of the things we were able to do while we were in Kissimmee. Our days were full, and instead of trying to search for things to do to stay busy, we had to pick and chose from a long list of things that we could do together.
Typically, the kids get bored when we go on vacation together. Not so this time! They were having so much fun together that they didn’t even have time left over to fight.
…as long as you don’t count fighting over the turkey’s wish bone!
Just before we left for our family vacation, my second term as a YesVideo Ambassador began, and so I had FAMILY MEMORIES on my mind all week.
I had a camera of one sort or another on me at all times to capture the memories. I wore my phone’s batteries out daily from sharing so many photos on Instagram (check them out…I love how Instagram tells such a perfect story of our lives).
From letting my teenage daughter drive our family mini van packed full with suitcases and kids for part of the drive South….to watching my kids belly-laugh together when my youngest son’s shorts were filled up with wind from the airboat ride….to sharing cup after cup of butterbeer with the extended family at Universal’s Islands of Adventure….this past week was simply priceless. I can’t get over how nearly perfect everything was.
I spent last week blogging the entire journey on the i.SeeKissimmee blog (as of this posting, not all of my posts have been published quite yet) and could hardly keep my eyes open to post once each night.
So tomorrow, I will start my journey of documenting all of our activities here for you guys. I just barely transfered all of my photos from all of my cameras onto my computer this evening. Tomorrow begins the process of editing the photos and writing it all down. And maybe if I’m feeling adventurous, I’ll grab some of the video that Candyman took of the adventures, too.
I think the best part of this trip for me, even better than a week full of theme parks and Thanksgiving leftovers (I dare you to come up with a better combination than that!), was the time that we were able to spend together each morning. Rather than rush off to the parks at opening time, we slept in, ate breakfast together, and often caught a morning swim before heading out for the day. At night, while I blogged for Kissimmee, the kids would pull out games to play with their uncles and aunt.
Oh! The memories we made! Stay tuned as I share them here throughout the next week.
And while you’re here, check out YesVideo, a brand that I love and am looking forward to working with again.
Note: I am a YesVideo Ambassador and receive compensation for my involvement. All thoughts and opinions (and amazing family memories) are my own.
© 2012, Food Fun Family. All rights reserved.
]]>I’m sitting here in my parents’ kitchen, getting ready for two weeks of rest with my family (disclosure – I left four of my kids and my husband at home, hence the “rest” part…..as much as I miss them terribly already, this time with my “original” family is the time I look forward to every year to rejuvenate my mind and spirit).
Last night, after arriving, we sat down to watch some of the Olympics together, and I was mourning the fact that I haven’t had a chance to watch more of them. Could they really be coming to a close so soon?
Some of my favorite memories from this year’s Olympic Games include sharing excitement with my boys as we watched Gymnastics in our hotel room in New York City. This was the first Olympics that they really had a chance to enjoy, and I loved watching their faces glued to the TV, cheering for the athletes as they did something amazing.
I love that I happened to be watching, purely by accident, when Michael Phelps swam in his last event, and watching the US swimmers pull so far ahead and win Gold…again.
A few weeks ago, I asked several of my friends to share some of their best Olympics memories from years’ past. Here’s what they had to say:
You know, one of my fondest memories of my daughter’s father was in 1996 when we would literally watch the Olympics together with my family, every single day. There’s something about the Olympics that brings out the patriotism in everyone and they are something that an entire family can enjoy together. –Jennifer from The Rebel Chick
I was OBSESSED with Nadia Comaneci. I had never even heard of Romania, but I watched her soar over that vault and glide around the uneven bars like a graceful but powerful bird. I was mesmerized by her. I watched every performance, and begged my mom to find a white bodysuit with striped along the sides that I could wear to my own gymnastics classes. I clipped articles and pictures and hung them up in my room. Seeing her perfect 10s was an experience I’ll never forget. –Hillary from HacScrap
The races, events, and venues blend in my memories, but the opening ceremonies are always memorable. 96 Atlanta had Muhammad Ali shooting a burning arrow into the cauldron at the top of the stadium. Two of the archers who also shot arrows were disabled. It was a touching moment since Ali is a sports legend and quite disabled by Parkinson’s.
When my girls were 4 and 2 both took gymnastics classes at the Maryland gym where Dominique Dawes trained. A gymnast — Elise Ray — for the US 2000 Olympic team also trained at the gym. On the day we were there for classes, Elise Ray was practicing for the Olympics. In the time we were there she only did 2 vaults. It was interesting to see how much prep work she did between vaults…powdering hands, stretching, etc.
–Jill from Musings from Me
I know I am not alone in having had the biggest crush on Olympic Diver Greg Louganis. I also love the ‘how they got there’ stories. Most recently, as a mom, I watched the pure pride & joy on the face of the mom of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps as she saw him break record after record. As a Coloradan, I can’t deny I am looking forward to sharing some feel-good stories and national pride as we cheer on Team USA. –Rajean from Rajean Blomquist
I was a swimmer so I was always fascinated by the swimming events. I watched every year, and was thrilled that I once got an autograph of Janet Evans in the mail! As a high school swimmer I got to train at a pool many Olympians trained it-it was like a dream come true! I know faithfully followed along as Dara Torres just missed making her 6th Olympic team-she inspired me to take up swimming again. –Kelly from The Centsible Life
In 1984 my family went on a month-long summer vacation in New England during the Olympics. That year, McDonalds was giving away free food for every Gold Medal won by USA (which was something like 83 gold medals). Let’s just say we ate a LOT of McDonalds!! –Andrea from Lil Kid Things
What have been your best Olympics memories over the years?
Note: All images except for the Instagram photo of my sons are from Wikimedia Commons – ie, the public domain. This is not a compensated post.
© 2012, Food Fun Family. All rights reserved.
]]>I finally did something interesting enough to blog about!! As much as I have been enjoying the start of the school year, and sharing my day times with AJ, we haven’t been doing things that were too exciting. Today, though, we met some friends at the Orchard for raspberry picking. AJ was a picking champ! He got tons (and most of them were even ripe!!)
The weather cooled off for us today. So nice out!
Believe it or not, this is AJ’s “posed” smile. I told him to stand still for a picture, and he squinted his eyes and bent his mouth in a silly smile. At least he cooperated!
I could have stayed out there all day with a beach chair and a book. It was so peaceful!
Here are the friends that joined us on our berry trip: Madi, who was obsessed with eating all the berries she could find. Her mom, Anie, could hardly keep the bowl filled! It was so funny!
Brooklyn, who didn’t mind getting poked by the thorns. She wanted to help!
Kate, who melted AJ’s heart by calling out, “AJ, where are you!” An hour later, after leaving the car to walk into Sams Club, AJ was humming the song “I’ve got a brand new girlfriend!” I asked him who his brand new girlfriend was….and he answered, “Kate!”

Lexi, who has grown up SO much in the last several weeks since we saw her last. She gave me the biggest smile that I almost thought she’d missed me! I love her!
Madi and Lexi happened to be wearing the same shirt today! So cute!

And now I get to snack on yummy, yummy raspberries all day….
© 2008 – 2013, Food Fun Family. All rights reserved.
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