"Reading"

I am LOVING how much Brie loves to "read".  Here are a couple of recent videos of story time with Brie :).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIJiXKwid-8&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mK5-U6pH5M

Favorite Part of My Job. Ever.

If you've been friends with me or followed my blog for awhile, you will know that the most favorite part of my job is coaching TSD's academic bowl team.  I've been coaching the team for eight years now, and I still love it just as much as that first exciting year when I was still learning all the academic bowl ropes.  This year we had sort of a re-building team, with three new members, but we knew they were pretty good for rookies.  We weren't sure how good, but we were fairly confident.  Here's a little breakdown of the TSD history these awesome kiddos of mine made this past weekend:

• Remained undefeated in preliminary play, ending with a 7-0 record.
• Clinched first in their pool to move onto the semifinals (before we'd always been second, if we made it into semifinals)
• Won their semifinals game (up to now, we've always lost this game and had to play in the 3rd/4th place game)
• Brought home the 2nd place trophy (the first time we've brought home a bowl!)

It was so much fun to watch this team gel and really come together and do so wonderful.  I am so beyond proud of them!!

Alexandria, Trevor, Trevor, and Amanda--the TSD History Making 12-13 Team!

18 Months of Cuteness!

Our little lady will be 18 months old on Saturday.  So hard to believe we're half a year away from her 2nd birthday!  She is just jabbering away more and more each day and I've lost track of the many words in her ever expanding vocabulary.  My latest attempt has been teaching her to say "I Love You!" so she can tell grandma, grandpa and aunt Anna "I Love You!' when we Skype with them.  Yesterday it came out, "I wuuuuuuv BRIE!"  Well, we're getting there...at least she has the first two words down.
She also loves to say, "Ummmmm, OK!" and "Alright!"  You really start to figure out what little phrases you repeat over and over when your toddler starts saying them :).
Here are a few pictures showing how much our little gal has changed over the last 18 months...it really is amazing how fast the time goes by!

7 Weeks

 9 Months Old

 1 Year Old

Almost 18 Months

GO BIG RED!!!

Love our little Husker in training :)!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndWr6968NTM

Happy New Year!

Another new year has begun, and I had just gotten used to writing 2012 on things :).  2012 was a wonderful year for the Halvorsen family as we watched Brie learn and grow each day.  In an effort to keep myself a little bit accountable, here are a few of my resolutions/goals for this year:

1) Get to the gym at least 3 days a week (this is so sad because I used to have no problem going 6 days a week...but having a toddler changes things and I just have to be OK with that).  My weekday options are 3:30am on Tues-Thurs or 7:00pm on Tues-Thurs...since one of my other goals is to spend more time with my sweet hubby, I'm aiming for 3:30am...yep, call me crazy.

2) Spend more intentional time with my wonderful hubby.  We've decided to make Wednesdays "card night" and I've taught Justin how to play Nerts.  It's great fun, and very humbling for his competitive spirit since I played this game (ALOT) in high school and right now I'm much better at it than him.  He's still waiting to win his first hand :). 

3) Spend less time with my iPad and MacBookPro.  I've realized I waste too much time doing nonsense things on the Internet, so I'm aiming to curb my tech time this year.

4) Plan our meals each week and pick one new recipe to try at least once every two weeks.  We got into a a food rut towards the end of the year and I want us to climb out of it, especially with Brie eating most of what we're eating these days. 

There you have it.  I am pretty confident I can accomplish these goals and I'm excited to see what this year has in store for the Halvorsen family :)!  Happy New Year to you all!!