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.

Spring time!!!

Spring is here! Sun, rain, sun, rain...and we love it! We've been busy around here doing yard work, planting flowers, spending Saturday mornings at the baseball fields and just being outside as much as possible. We've also had a few bbq's already and our first fire of the season where we made smores too...so much fun!

Duane had the lawn aerated a couple weeks ago and has been busy fertilizing, sanding and seeding the lawn. I think growing up in Lynden has rubbed off on him more than he realizes :) We WILL have the most beautiful lawn in the neighborhood according to him! I love it! He's also been coaching his nephew's baseball team when he can make it, so the past couple of Saturdays we've been out there. Abbey loves going and seeing everyone.

While he's been busy with the lawn, I've been busy in the flower beds...one of my favorite things! I spent $70 more dollars at VanWingerdens the other day on flowers and bushes and got them all planted. We also planted a bunch of Dahlia bulbs (from Trisha) and a tomato plant (from Tammy and Zach), which are new this year. We'll see how they do :)

Abbey got a new watering can and has been my BIG helper planting and watering all of the new flowers. She loves it and it gives her something constructive to do. She's also been enjoying her big girl bike...she's pretty good on it! She is outside whenever she can!

Ella cut her two top teeth this past week or so, so that is new and she is also a HUGE outdoor lover! Anytime the garage door opens she crawls to the door (like a puppy) and waits for someone to open it. She kicks her legs and smiles when we take her out...SO happy! She wasn't sure about the grass at first, and would shudder when she touched it, but now she is crawling all over it, and getting dirty! We also put the baby swing up on the swing set, so she's been loving swinging with her sister! They laugh at each other and scream...lot's of fun!

Well, that's the update on us! Wishing you all a HAPPY SPRING too!