Cookbook

Wow!  I found a great website for a great gift!  Think perfect wedding gift.  This is it.  It is www.tastebook.com and you can make a personalized cookbook!  (I so wish I was in the stage of life right now where all of my friends are getting married.)

No, I'm not getting married.  And in some cases, you reading this may not even be a close friend (or I may not even know you).  But I want to do a personalized cookbook for myself.  I need help.  I'm not a great cook. . . mostly because the thought of cooking each evening overwhelms me!  So, please help me.  EACH ONE OF YOU:  HELP!

Here is how you can help me make a cookbook so that Braner Party of 7 doesn't have to eat Sam's heat and serve meals (hello perservatives) and so my kids don't have to eat Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese multiple times a week.  It is fun and easy:

1. Go to www.tastebook.com
2. Click "login" in the top right corner
3. Sign in as me with jamiejo@campkivu.com
4. Password: cookbook
5. Under "collections" to the left, click on "Feeding the Fam"
6. Click on "studio" at the top
7. Click "add recipe" and follow the instructions

This will be SO MUCH FUN!  Just send me your favorite family recipe (nothing where I have to go to a gourmet food store or soak anything overnight).  This can be a meal or a side dish or a dessert or anything.  And then either put a picture of the meal cooked or a family picture of you.  Then I will be a wiz in the kitchen and my family will have you to thank!

www.ihategreenbeans.com

Oh my goodness!  I just read the BEST BLOG EVER!  (I apologize ahead of time that it probably isn't your blog.)  It is www.ihategreenbeans.com.  I laughed out loud and I am still laughing out loud!  She is hysterical (and come to find out, I met her in Junior High and we were both Pi Phi's at Baylor.  Small world!)

She blogs about many different things, but here recaps of "The Bachelor" are priceless!  Confession:  "The Bachelor" is one of my guilty pleasures.  And, while I'm confessing, I was SO MAD that Jennifer didn't get a rose. . .I'm thinking that maybe Ben thought she was too good for him after his late night ocean romp with Courtney.  Just saying.

Back to I Hate Green Beans. . .go read it!  You'll laugh!  Enjoy the blog!  Oh my!  I cannot wait to read it tomorrow!

Durango

I love living in Durango.  Did you know that in 2011, Durango was voted:

+ Best Places to Live 2011 (Men's Journal)
+ Best Place to Put Your Outdoor Life First (Men's Journal)
+ Top Micropolitan Area in the US (Politicom)
+ Top Ten Western Towns (True West Magazine)
+ Top 200 Town in the US (Outdoor Life Magazine)
+ Top 10 "Life is Better Here" Town (Outside Magazine)
+ "Next Big Thing" (Outside Magazine)
+ Colorado's Secret Stash (Ski Magazine)


Even if Durango hadn't won all of those awards last year, I would still love this place!  The people are friendly and non-judgemental.  I love the outdoor lifestyle:  the camping and biking and rafting and climbing and boarding that you do with your family every weekend.  I love the weather.  I love the mountains.  I love that dogs are welcome in the stores!  I love the schools!  I love it!

I'm so thankful that I get to call Durango home!

Naleigh Moon Video

This is the music video that Josh Kelly wrote about his daughter with Katherine Heigl.  They adopted her from Korea a few years ago.  It is such a precious song and video!  Enjoy!

An Ode To Jake

What a dog!  Whenever I tell people about Jake, I tell them that he is the dog I always dreamed of having!  So true!  In high school I heard a song called, "Feed Jake."  The chorus went:

Now I lay me down to sleep

I pray the Lord my soul to keep

If I die before I wake

Feed Jake

He's been a good dog

My best friend right through it all

If I die before I wake

Feed Jake

The first time I heard that song, I knew that some day I would have a big yellow lab named Jake.  And for the past 12 years I have.

He was the best!  He was so loyal and so dear to me.  His big ole tale would just wag and his eyes would light up whenever we would come out the door or down the driveway.  When he was happy his ears would perk up and kind of fold back. . . that was my favorite!  Jake was best known in the summer for rolling over onto his back the second anyone walked up to him so that he could get a good belly rub.

Jake was the best!  He was our "fat ole man."  That's what we called him.  He didn't get around very well and he slept a lot, but no matter how he was feeling, if he heard me say his name, he would give a little wag of his tale.  He was the stinkiest dog ever (and maybe the fattest)!  But he was the sweetest!

It is so amazing to me how happy a dog can make you.  There is just something about them.  Jake made me so happy for so long. . . .

And now I'm so sad.  He died today and I am heart broken.  I hurt deep inside.  I've known for a while that this day was right around the corner, but that doesn't stop the hurt.  He was family for 12 years.  We got him when Hays was one and Carolin was living with us.  He's been around as Braner Party of three became four and five and six and then seven.  We have so many memories with Jake.  He was family and now it is so hard that our family doesn't have him anymore.  I know this wound will heal, but for today I'm just going to let myself be sad (and maybe tomorrow and maybe for a few mornings when I wake up and he isn't lying by the door and a few afternoons when I drive into the driveway and I don't have to go uber slow because it would take him so long to get up and get out of the way).

It was terrible watching the kids say goodbye.  Maggie and Dax just loved on him and took a zillion pictures of him and then they curled up in my arms in Dax's bed and we all cried.   Dax said, "he was the highlight of my life."  I didn't think it would be as hard to watch them as it was.  Tiki asked if there was any sad music he could listen to on his iPod.  Jake has been around since before they were even born.  It is going to be a hard adjustment.  My little dears.  Gosh, saying good-bye was the worst!

We love you Jake!  You were the best dog ever!

 

Jake 

2000-2012

Sign Up For Kivu!

KIVU Commercial from Andrew Braner on Vimeo.

Another W For Miller

 

Well, the Miller Angels won again yesterday afternoon. . .against some GIANT boys from Cortez.  It was a close and rough game. . .and so fun to watch!  20-19.  Hays played great!

Yesterday

Well, we had big plans for MLK day and NONE of them happened.  We woke up to 8 inches of snow and there was no sign of it stopping.  So, for most of the day we watched my new AppleTV.  What did we watch? you ask.  We watched all of our photos scroll across the TV to all of our favorite music.  I think we did that for six hours.  It was so much fun!  The kids went sledding for a bit.  And then I had big plans for a fun dinner and a moving in the living room.  The dinner was all of the appetizer size food I could find at City Market and the movie was Peter Pan (with the real people).  And, of course, IBC Cream Sodas!  It turned out to be an okay evening, but not the big bang of a hit that I had imagined.  Oh well.  We made memories!  ("I do believe in fairies!  I do!  I do!")

This is how a little boy raised in Africa watches his iPod.  :)

Braner boys love their electronics!

This is the snow we woke up to and I think we got a little over a foot total.  Beautiful!

Movie night on the living room floor. . . .

Hays's First Basketball Game

Go Miller Angels!  (Yes, they are the angels. . .right before they become the Durango High School Demons. . .seriously!)

Hays played super!  It was so much fun to watch!  He missed six days of practice because we were in Cabo, so he walked out onto the court very nervous looking and seemed very unsure of himself but by the end of the game he was rockin' it!  I'm so proud of him!

Here is my play by play I was texting Andy during the game:

Hays started the game.

He scored the first 2 points.

He stole the ball. . .and then traveled.

Now he is on the bench huffing and puffing like he has been at sea level for 2 weeks.

Miller wins! 18-6

Oops. . .half time. . .

GREAT steal. . .then turnover

Big rebound.

Steal-ish.

Can you get a steal assist?

Another steal assist.

Fourth quarter. . .

3 point AIR BALL.

Foul. . .hometown ref

26-7.

That was my play by play.  Hays's play by play was drastically different!  It was hysterical!  He was so hyped up!  I love boys!

He had a blast and played well and was for sure the cutest boy on the court!  I took a ton of great pics.  I had the camera set on action and everything.  They are almost all blurry.  I am SO SUPER frustrated.  Dang it!  Oh well, here are a couple that aren't too bad:

At The Airport

My kids are like super hero travelers!  They're great!  The flight attendants always compliment them, TSA compliments them. . . they know how to get their shoes off and electronics and liquids out; they get their own bins and fly through security like seasoned business men!  I love to watch it!  They're old pros and I love traveling with them. . . seriously, I would pick traveling with my kids over going to get ice cream any day!  They are my little troopers! 

This trip home from Cabo was no different.  The trip was CHAOTIC!  The airlines messed our tickets up, so we were rerouted which caused chaos on our multiple multiple layovers!  We had 20 minutes between landing and boarding at one point. . . we had to get through immigration, pick up our luggage, get through customs, recheck our luggage, go through security (with a knee brace and crutches) and make our plane. . .yes, in twenty minutes.  We did it!  (They did it!)  And then we had a six hour layover at another point.  They were perfect!

Enjoy the photo documentation from the big layover:

This was my favorite.  Tiki is sleeping under the chairs (under Dax's MeMo) and Gabby was "sleeping" on the chairs.  That is the position she chose to fake sleep.  Hysterical!

Gotta find an outlet!

This is my teenage 4-year old jamming to a little Justin Bieber!

Nearly midnight. . .thirteen hours after we left our hotel. . .we are almost home!  Traveling 14 hours isn't bad if you wind up in Southeast Asia or Australia, but 14 hours when it could have been 4. . .that's another story!

Cabo Recap

We had a wonderful time in Cabo again this year!  Time with Braner Party of 7 was super.  Time with my parents is irreplaceable!  Lesley got to come.  Brady and Jen were there for a few days.  Cooper and Missy were there with their three kids for a week.  It was super!  I think watching the cousins play was one of my highlights!  Enjoy the MANY pictures!

Pops & GoGo

This family pic was not only the best of everyone, but with the pelican that almost hit our photographer, Lesley, it is priceless!

 

I think this was the best picture of the vacation!  I love this pic!

Dax getting up on the surf board for the first time!

Tiki getting up on the surf board for the first time!

Hays getting up on the surf board for the first time!

Proof that I actually was on the vacation!

My favorite family picture of the trip!