she sings. she smiles.

I love her and her silly self.

5 no more

6 years old...it's hard to believe and hard to swallow...sigh...  Last year he put in a request for a cake with a blue eyed dinosaur with big teeth.  This year he asked for a cake with a football helmet.  Well actually, if I'm being honest, he asked for a cake with a tiger on it.  But, the store was all out of black decorative icing so I asked him what his second choice would be.  He took off running to his room yelling, "I know!!" and came back carrying his Seahawks helmet.  Awesome.

I know, I really need to invest in some new cake pans.

Since it's his birthday, and since the dad isn't home, Jonah is having a slumber party in my bed.

Happy Birthday, Jonah!

I like you a whole bunch.

she's got a tender heart

On Tuesday I had put a note in Stella's lunch without her knowing.  It went a little something like this...

Hi Stella!

I hope you're having a great day!

I love you sooooooooooo (I put lots of o's because I knew she'd like that) much!

*insert big heart here*

Mom

When she hopped into the car after school the first thing she said was...

Stella:  "mom, I loooooooved the note!  Thank you so much!"

me: (big smile) "Oh good, I'm glad you got it."

Stella: (getting a little teary eyed) "I bumped my head SUPER hard on the monkey bars at recess.  It hurt sooooo bad.  I was really wishing that I just had the note you wrote me in my hand so I could look at it."

me:(getting teary eyed) "sorry, bub."

Stella: "My teacher finished reading Marley and Me."  (looks at me with tears in her eyes) "It was soooooo sad.  Me and Chiara were totally crying and mom, I almost got the loud cry.  It was awful." (looks over at me, crying and laughing a little)

me: (laughing and officially teary eyed)  "Oh, Stella I love you."

I am so thankful for this girl and her tender little heart.

xo

pretty, oh so pretty

I looooove my pretty things.  Love them.  I can't even believe that I won.  What a treat.  Thank you, Krysta for having such a fantastic giveaway.  I will treasure these beauties always.

xo

ps. the paperclip is holding the paint swatch of what I used in my bathroom (and soon to be bedroom).  I'm waiting for THIS, in ivory, to come before I show photos.  I'll keep you posted.

big news

I just said YES to photographing my first wedding.  I think I might be sick.  Sick in the head that is.  The wedding is in May.  That gives me 3 good months to study up, and you better believe I'll be studying up.  I'm dedicating this spring/summer to the *summer of weddings* because I might possibly have 3 more weddings to do after my first one.  I know.  I KNOW!!!  Encouraging words please.  I already know I'm crazy...

in other big news...

I received a package on Friday.  I could smell it before I even opened it.  It smelled goooood.  It was the giveaway prize I won from Krysta Manthe!!!  I can't wait to show you what I got.  It's all soooo pretty!

Annnnd since it's hard for me to do a post without a picture, and because I miss them, I thought I'd share this photo of me and my friends from Lake Chelan 2010.

Happy Sunday

xo

today

She calls them *fire chips*

annnnnd she ate the whole bag.

 Ava picked fire chips from the hardware store and I picked paint.  The goal is to get the project done before the husband gets home.   I got money on him not even noticing the change.  Here goes nothing.

a little looksie into our Christmas break

I didn't take a ton of photos over the break.  I took a little *break from the camera and just enjoyed my children, family, cleaning up just a little bit of throw up thanks to Jonah and Ava, sleeping in until 8:30am, reading the first 3 Harry Potter books, playing Super Mario Bros with my boy, and I might have even enjoyed a little food here and there...maybe just a little...OK a lot and now I'm looking to do a little Lean in 13, if you know what I'm saying.  It was a good break, minus the sickness.

So anyway, in other news our tree is still up and I probably should take it down.  We bought a new mattress and it will be arriving in a mere 11 days.  It's going to be like a whole new world for me during my slumbering hours.  I cannot wait.  Annnnnddd... it's 10:30pm right now and I still hear a little 3 year old girl singing "jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg..." from her bed.   It's been her favorite carol over the break.  When Stella was 3 she was singing Hawk the Hawold (hark the harold) but no, not Ava, she likes the fun rendition of Jingle Bells.  Lucky us.  

I hope you all had a blessed Christmas season with your friends and family remembering our dear Savior's birth.

xo

it's that time of year...

...for not just one December birthday, but two!

Stella turned 8!  I honestly can't believe it...sigh...  She wanted peace signs on her cupcakes.  Peace out.

...for making gingerbread houses!

I ordered 6 of these gingerbread houses from amazon for Stella's birthday party; thinking they could make them for a fun little activity.  Welllll... I felt how heavy each box was and I decided against it and sent each sweet girl home with one instead.  I was expecting them to be hard but they ended up being very easy, just big and a little messy.  They smell real good, though.  Every time I walk by them I smell them and want to take a bite out of it.  I have a feeling that they might smell better than they taste. 

...for my house to smell like baked goods

My winter *coat* is getting pretty thick.  I'm guessing it would be better for my thighs if my house smelled more like vegetables rather than cinnamon rolls.  But good golly those cinnamon rolls are gooood.

...for the Fed-ex man and UPS man to become my good friends.

Nobody mailed me diet coke (if you noticed the diet coke box on the bottom left) but if someone did, I'd drink them all and be so thankful.  It's that time of year for diet coke, too I guess. :)

...for being excited to check the mail!

It really is one of my favorite things about this time of year.  I love, love, love getting Christmas cards.  They bring a smile to my face.  Maybe one year I'll get smart and buy one of those cute Christmas card hangers during the after Christmas sales... maybe.

Merry Christmas!

xo

(update... found a card holder and it was on sale!  word.)

Christmas card outtakes

Saturday was the day; the day to take a photo for our Christmas card.  Since it gets dark here at like 1pm (maybe a little sarcastic...maybe) and Sean leaves every other weekend to go down to Seattle for school, this Saturday was truly the only day that worked for us to get a family photo.  Welllllll, Saturday decided to be a cold rainy day.  Dumb la nina, or whatever they are calling this crazy wet weather.  I said goodbye to the vision of hazey sun, blankets and playing in the grass and said hello to frizzy hair, pink runny noses and cold hands.  Sweet.

We started out on the south end of the island.  Keep in mind it's raining, and then add a little wind to that rain.  You got that in your mind?  We get out of the car.  I set up the tripod and Sean tried to get the kids in line.  Oh man, it was so funny.  The weather made Jonah a little crazy, as you can see in the picture above.  Ava kept saying "it's freeeeeeezing.  I'm freeeeeeeeeeezing!..." and Stella started to get watery eyes, the tearish kind of watery eyes.  It. Was. So. Cold.  We got one photo that worked.  It's the one that is actually on the card.  It's nothing to brag about, but it works.

Then we headed out to the red barn.  The rain started to lighten up and, while in the car, our hands started to unthaw.  We were ready for some more picture fun -Woo!  I wanted to capture a few fun shots of the family.  I had bought some fake mustaches at the toy store here in town and the kids were dying to wear them... well, Stella and Jonah were, Ava was like -whateves, I don't do mustaches - but she wore it, because she's cool like that.

If you look close you can see the rain in this one of Jonah.  Annnnd, Jonah and I were having about the same kind of hair day.  Awesome.

Even though things didn't go exactly as I had planned, I mean really when does that ever happen, I am so glad we still went out.  Rain or shine, I love my family.  A lot.

oh baby

She kinda likes babies... or so it seems.