A new year, a new beginning

After a rough 2010, we are optimistic and looking forward to a new year. We dont have much planned yet for the year but we our primary focus will be on starting a family. Some of my New Years resolutions included becoming more organized, live a healthier lifestyle, and to be more positive and understanding of how this crazy world works; I believe that everything happens for a reason.

We are trying to plan a mini-trip over Nick's spring break to allow us a little getaway time. We are going to the Trailblazer/Thunder basketball game in April (the first day of his break) and hope to take off from there and enjoy Cannon Beach for a few days. We will see where our trip planning takes us. Seems like Hawaii is the place to be this year...the Pratt family went last week, Bridget is going next week, and then they are all going back together over Christmas! Wow how lucky! Maybe I can convince Nick to go there instead... :)

We have been pretty busy so far this year...we celebrated with Jamie and Chris on New Years in Coupeville, Nick had an amazing birthday weekend with his friends in Portland, I went to Dylan's FIRST birthday (cant believe it!), and just this last weekend I helped Megan, Amy and Teresa make lefse! We had a great time making these yummy treats!

A season of...birthdays!

Christmas time is quite busy around here and not just because of the holidays. We have a few birthdays to celebrate as well! Mom and Jen's birthdays are just a few days before Christmas so this year we all went to our favorite restaurant in Seattle, Palisade. We had a delicious meal, as always!


Jen with her birthday dessert


Mom enjoying her birthday dinner with dad :)


Me, grandma and Jen


Nick and I


The traditional pic at Palisade, in front of the tree!

Crafting Weekend

A few girlfriends and I went to Reardan (Spokane area) for a fun filled weekend of crafting! It was such a nice and relaxing getaway and it gave us all time to work on any projects that we had. I worked on scrapbooking, Christmas ornaments, needlepoint, and punch needle!


We rented the most adorable house which was built strictly for retreats and crafting parties!


The crafting room downstairs. It had 10 tables with lamps and plug-ins, sewing machines, copiers, craft supplies and much more to accommodate our needs!


A picture out a book! So beautiful!


Me, Jen and Jill at the Buggy Barn (the local, and quite famous, quilt shop)


Jill with her completed quilt...what an amazing project!


All of Jen's beautiful things!

Thanksgiving

Keeping up with a tradition we have had for many years now, we went over to have dinner with Megan and Amy the night before Thanksgiving. We used to have dinner at their parents house but this year we tried something new and went to Amy and Ben's house! Megan made a yummy taco soup, Amy made cornbread, and I brought dessert.

We had a great time and ended up playing a rousing game of girl vs. guy Catch Phrase...the girls won of course :) We also got to spend some time with adorable Mr. Dylan before he went off to bed! What a handsome guy!


All decked out in his Coug gear!

We had a nice and quiet Thanksgiving dinner at mom and dads house. Jen and I hosted and were in charge of all the fixin's :) We had grandma and Nan over and we had a good time eating, chatting and playing cards.


Best ever pumpkin pie!


Chloe was trying to get in on the card action with her poker face

Fall updates

Boy things have quickly spiraled out of control these past few months. We have had to deal with some pretty heavy issues in the family and are looking for some much needed "happy times."

Some good things have happened, however. My mom and I took a great trip down to Arizona to visit family and soak up some sun. We stayed a few days in a hotel and a couple days at my cousin Cathy's house. We had such a great time and both mom and I truly LOVE Arizona. It is such a beautiful place, in such a different regard than Washington.

Nick has been busy working on his Master's degree and school has kept him busy with meetings, report cards and committees. He loves his job but it takes a mighty toll on him!

For the Children's Hospital Guild I am in, we held our annual shopping bus trip (going to Molbak's and Bellevue Square) and had a great time. I ended up working on the bus serving drinks, selling raffle tickets, and preparing food. It was actually a lot of fun but I am so sore from trying to balance myself on a bus all day! Overall the three buses were able to pull together $12,000 to send down to Seattle Children's! We were so happy and grateful that everyone helped us out!

Well, its Thanksgiving week. I will try to get better about posting more updated blogs and I will hopefully have some pictures of the festivities coming up. Happy Thanksgiving all!

Girls Weekend in Winthrop

I was scheduled to go out of town on Friday, about an hour after I learned of my poor Maude. I was set to stay in town to help out with arrangements but my family told me to go as there wasnt any reason to sit at home and sulk. So....Bridget, Heather, Angela and I went over to Winthrop for the weekend to have our girls weekend. We had a blast shopping, laughing, eating, lounging and hot tubbing! I was glad that I ended up going, it really helped take my mind off of things.


Our awesome resort right on the river, the River Run Inn


The river running right on the back of the property


Bridget and I having fun shopping!


Angela, Heather and I having fun in the room



Thanks for a great weekend girls, it really helped get my mind off things and I appreciated all of your loving support! :)

Rest in Peace

Sad news to report today. I lost my grandmother this morning. After much suffering the last few months she finally passed and I know that she is now in heaven looking down on us. We love you Maude, you gave us many happy memories and we will always keep you in our prayers. We appreciate all that you have given and shared with us. You will live in my heart forever. We all love you and miss you very much.