Christmas excitement

Sampling the cookies!


Abbey's sugar cookies :)

The "shining star" at this program!

My little entertainer!

Getting ready for her church program

Our beautiful new Pottery Barn stockings!

Pretty girls

Reindeer Abbey

Abbey and cousin Koltin at the lighted parade

My family

It was so cold!

Abbey and Daddy found the perfect tree!

Daddy and Ella at the lighted parade.

It's been a while since I have posted, so here are a bunch of pictures of our family and our Christmas festivities so far. Getting our tree, our new stockings, making sugar cookies and Abbey's church Christmas program. It's been busy, and so fun! I love this time of year and am soaking it all in. I'm enjoying Abbey really understanding the meaning of Christmas this year, clelbrating Jesus' birthday and singing her Christmas songs. She is precious...I love hearing her answer first in Sunday School all of the right answers of the Christmas story...she could recite it to you all. Both girls are loving receiving Christmas cards, eating all of the yummy treats, driving around the neighborhood looking at lights, playing with the tree and helping me wrap presents. They are so fun and so often remind me of what life is all about. Thank you Jesus! Merry Christmas to you all!

Viva Las Vegas

World's largest chocolate fountain :)

Our hotel

On the strip

Like my bowling outfit?

All the guys and their buckles....plus Mel :)

Bill and Duane showing off their new belt buckles....such dorks! :

The ladies...me, Melanie and Kim

Us in our Limo ride to dinner one night.

The "self" pic :)

Dinner at Koi - fabulous!

In November, Duane and I had a four day getaway to Vegas and had so much fun! We went with two other couples and had a great few days filled with "adult" time :) We enjoyed fancy dinners, drinks, playing craps and poker, walking the strip, visiting "old town", naps in the middle of the afternoon, golf, shopping, massage, baths in a big soaker tub and alone time. As fun and crazy Vegas can be, I had no trouble relaxing and pampering myself. I came home relaxed and refreshed...Thanks to our parents for watching our girls for us so we could do this. Here are just some of our pictures...

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

On October 26th, Duane and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary! Can you believe it?! I feel like I should be way older than I actually am. At least 30, right??!

Seriously, the time has gone so fast and just continues to go faster every year. This year we celebrated at home because the girls were sick, but I got these flowers delivered to my door at lunch time - aren't they gorgeous?! Duane specified to have a lot of lilies because they're my favorite :)

We are so happy together and are thankful for how God has worked in our lives. He has been faithful to us, and has blessed us beyond what we could have imagined as we started out eight years ago. ( 10, I should say :)) We have our two beautiful daughters, great careers, a nice home, our health, the best family and friends...what more could we ask for? Life is good - we love ours and what we have created together! Looking forward to many, many more years together.....

Falling into Fall

Abbey turns four!

Future Seahawk fans!

Abbey's preschool class

Our family, plus Tori :)

Me and the girls

Ella had so much fun too!

Luce's pumpkin patch

She had to choose just one!

Abbey and Tori waiting for the hay ride

Abbey's first day of preschool :)

Go Seahawks!

Making the applesauce, what a project!

Trish, Tam and me - sister in laws

Just call me Betty Crocker :)

Fall is definitely in the air around here and with it come the fall decorations, pumpkins, pumpkin spice and eggnog lattes, candycorn, apples, football, start of school, and many birthdays for our family. I love it! Summer and Fall are my favorite seasons so I love the transition.

In September my inlaws brought six boxes of apples over from eastern washington, and together with my mother in law and two sister in laws, we made 54 quarts of applesauce! It is the best -nothing beats a bowl of warmed up homemade applesauce any time of the day! We each got 19 jars...we'll see how long they last!

Abbey started her first year of preschool in September. So far she is LOVING it! I have enjoyed seeing her be challenged more and making new friends. Her school is a Christian preschool where they work on different "character traits" each month in addition to the normal academic activites. For example, September was sharing and October is responsibility, etc. They memorize a Bible verse associated with each and we work on the definition at home. It's great, Abbey is doing well with this and is always proud to show us when she has been using her skill...she is always quick to point it out! She has had "pajama" day at school, and today we visited a pumpkin patch. Lot's of fun! I look forward every day to see what new craft or work she will bring home. It is sure exciting to experience with her.

We also celebrated Abbey's 4th birthday on Oct. 3rd. My sweet girl is growing up! Can't believe how fast four years has gone by....She had a fun day (I should say week) spent with family and friends. Thanks to all who celebrated with us! She is still talking about it!

Oh, and what would fall be without football in our house? You will find Duane on the couch with football on Saturday afternoons, ALL day on Sundays and Monday nights until February! Go Seahawks and Huskies!

We are looking forward to pumpkin carving this weekend, Halloween next and enjoying lazy days in between.

HAPPY FALL!

Summer Happenings

Daddy and Abbey swimming

Me and my girls

This was the theme of the week - as little clothes as possible!

Sweet little baby

My pretty Abbey

Sweet sisters - love those little buns!!

Our family

My 4th of July baby

Happy Birthday sweet Ella!

Opening gifts

She loved the cake!

Digging in!

Me, Anya, and Hannah

7 miles later

We did it!! YAY!

My mom, cousin Ana, and Abbey at the fair

Abbey at swim lessons

Us at Ty and Alisha's wedding

Karen and me :)

At Semiahmoo - Duane making fun of my height :)

Naked baby!

Miss Abbey

Loving the water

Tide pools at Clayton Beach

Clayton Beach

Spaghetti Night!

MMMMMMM......

Silly baby!

Lara and me running the Bham 15K in September - what a beautiful day it was!

Okay, I am the WORST blogger ever! I'm such a slacker! Between keeping up my Facebook (priorities :)), and business of life, I have neglected this thing. But, I'm wanting to change that...from now on I vow to post at least once a month, just for the sake of updating. I LOVE reading all of my friends blogs...you all are so talented and creative, I just love catching up on your lives and I want to do the same.


So, our summer was awesome! We had a lot of fun times this year. I love fall, but I am having a hard time letting go of this summer. Besides the AMAZING weather we had this year, we got to enjoy Mariners games, two trips over to my in laws property in Eastern Washington, a week of camping at Lake Chelan, Ella's FIRST birthday, two sessions of swim lessons for Abbey, afternoons of playing in the kiddy pool and sprinkler, the NW fair and just hanging around. I also ran in my first two races and plan to keep on going. I just love it!


What a fun season it has been! As always, I take WAY too many pictures to post, so here are some just quickly highlighting our summer.